Fall of Ottoman Empire

Fall of Ottoman Empire

Introduction

The Ottoman Empire is known to be a huge multinational empire which has been witnessed to be involved in the affairs of the great powers of Europe for a time span of almost six hundred years. The empire is known to have a rich history of almost six centuries so it is of no surprise that in the year of 1914 it plunged into world war which also involved some of the other great powers of Europe.

The empire had also suffered from a prolonged period of the cultural and economic decline, and also encountered some of the serious political unrest. Even in these conditions the Ottoman Empire controlled the present day Turkey and almost a huge area of the Middle East.

The “Young Turk” revolutionary movement started in the 1908 and put in all the efforts to bring about the economic and social reforms with all the mixed success. There were some members of the movement such as the great Enver Pasha who was the minister of war highly supported the idea of the pan Turkic nationalism and also dreamed of modernizing the ethnic Turk regions which came in the Central Asia from the Russian rule (The Guardian, 2008). In accomplishing this particular agenda he championed the entry in the Ottoman Empire in the world war one and parted with Austria and Germany in the November 1914.

This dream turned out to be disastrous and after a fight of more than four years the war ended in a complete defeat with almost 700,000 soldiers of Ottoman dead. This disaster resulted in the collapse of the empire.

Discussion

Rise of the Arab Nationalism

The historians write that the Ottoman Empire is known to have exercised formal and complete sovereignty on the lands of the Arab since the time period of the start of the 16th century. For a long time the Ottoman Empire had ruled following the comparatively moderate and light touch, garrisoning the important trading hubs and also maintaining the official presence in almost all the holy cities of Islam such as Medina and Mecca. The empire did not concentrate much on the other regions of its rule and the nomadic tribe's clans to have their own device.

Comparing the rural Arab population of the Palestine, Syria, Egypt and Ira were highly and well settled than the other counter parts of the Arabia and were also subjected to the direct control by the Ottoman Empire's imperial administration. The dwellers of all these regions highly accepted this type of arrangement, but the Arab (Sunni) who were also Muslims faced some discrimination for the most of the empire's history.

Even through all these of the different approaches the Turks of the Ottoman maintained their loyalty with the Muslims of the Arab.

But the disastrous idea of the Ottoman Empire entering the First World War in the year of 1914 this particular loyalty shown by the Turks to the Arab people could no longer be taken for granted for two particular reasons ...