The Ottoman Road to War in 1914: The Ottoman Empire and the First World War (Cambridge Military Histories)

The Ottoman Road to War in 1914: The Ottoman Empire and the First World War (Cambridge Military Histories)

Mustafa Aksakal

Language: English

Pages: 234

ISBN: 0521175259

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


Why did the Ottoman Empire enter the First World War in late October 1914, months after the war's devastations had become clear? Were its leaders 'simple-minded,' 'below-average' individuals, as the doyen of Turkish diplomatic history has argued? Or, as others have claimed, did the Ottomans enter the war because War Minister Enver Pasha, dictating Ottoman decisions, was in thrall to the Germans and to his own expansionist dreams? Based on previously untapped Ottoman and European sources, Mustafa Aksakal's dramatic study challenges this consensus. It demonstrates that responsibility went far beyond Enver, that the road to war was paved by the demands of a politically interested public, and that the Ottoman leadership sought the German alliance as the only way out of a web of international threats and domestic insecurities, opting for an escape whose catastrophic consequences for the empire and seismic impact on the Middle East are felt even today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

McKitrick, Annika Mombauer, Wolfgang Mueller, Dean Owens, Katherine Parkin, Michael Provence, Michael Reynolds, Dominic Sachsenmaier, Joshua Sanborn, Saliba Sarsar, James Sheehan, Peter Sieger, Kenneth Stunkel, Ronald Suny, viii Acknowledgments ix Haydar Tas¸, Baki Tezcan, Mesut Uyar, Eric Weitz, Friedrich Wesche, and I˙ pek Yosmaog˘lu. Since arriving at the Ottoman archives in 1999 with only a faint idea of what direction my research would take, I have benefited from the financial support of

and that for this purpose the population had to be equipped appropriately – mentally and physically – formed the central theme in the period’s political literature. This import is also found in Cami’s work: “There can be no doubt that our homeland’s survival and well-being depends on the raising of our defensive strength, and this [strengthening] can only be accomplished if the people’s power to resist and their power to fight in the general struggle is increased.” This goal could only be

Die Internationalen Beziehungen im Zeitalter des Imperialismus Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amts, Political Archives of the Foreign Office, Berlin Reichsmarine, German Imperial Navy Türk Tarih Kurumu Ars¸ivi, Archives of the Turkish Historical Society, Ankara Glossary Names in parentheses indicate the individual’s full name, even though it was not commonly used. Surnames were introduced in Turkey in 1934. Auswärtiges Amt, the German Foreign Office, located in Berlin Bey, title

much-needed French loan to be paid out in two installments.118 Back in Istanbul, Enver, too, worked towards alliance with AustriaHungary and Germany in the spring of 1914. Meeting with Wangenheim in early April, he falsely claimed that his government had received a Romanian offer for alliance, an alliance that would include Greece and that would be protected by the Triple Entente. The Romanian proposal, said Enver, provided for the return of the disputed Aegean islands, Chios and Mitylene.

Temmuz 1330 (August 4, 1914), and ATASE, BDH, Klasör 87, Yeni Dosya 450, Fihrist 2–2, 21 Temmuz 1330 (August 3, 1914). ATASE, BDH, Klasör 87, Yeni Dosya 450, Fihrist 18–2, S¸evki to Deputy Commanderin-Chief, 21 Temmuz 1330 (August 3, 1914); ibid., BDH, Klasör 87, Yeni Dosya 450, Fihrist 18–7, Cevad to Deputy Commander-in-Chief, 2 Ag˘ustos 1330 (August 15, 1914). The Sublime Porte, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bog˘ azlar Meselesi [The Straits Question] (Istanbul: Matbaa-i Amire, 1334 [1918]),

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