The dissolution of the Ottoman Empire (1908–1922) was a period of history of the Ottoman Empire beginning with the Young Turk Revolution and ultimately ending with the empire's dissolution and the founding of the modern state of Turkey.
The Young Turk Revolution restored the constitution of 1876 and brought in multi-party politics with a two-stage electoral system for the Ottoman Parliament. At the same time, a nascent movement called Ottomanism was promoted in an attempt to maintain the unity of the Empire, emphasising a collective Ottoman nationalism regardless of religion or ethnicity. Within the empire, the new constitution was initially seen positively, as an opportunity to modernize state institutions and resolve inter-communal tensions between different ethnic groups.
Additionally, this period was characterised by continuing military failures by the empire. Despite military reforms, the Ottoman Army met with disastrous defeat in the Italo-Turkish War (1911–1912) and the Balkan Wars (1912–1913), resulting in the Ottomans being driven out of North Africa and nearly out of Europe. Continuous unrest leading up to World War I resulted in the 31 March Incident, the 1912 Ottoman coup d'état and the 1913 Ottoman coup d'état. The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) government became increasingly radicalised during this period, and conducted ethnic cleansing and genocide against the empire's Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek citizens, events collectively referred to as the Late Ottoman genocides. Ottoman participation in World War I ended with defeat and the partition of the empire's remaining territories under the terms of the Treaty of Sèvres. The treaty, formulated at the conference of London, allocated nominal land to the Ottoman state and allowed it to retain the designation of "Ottoman Caliphate" (similar to the Vatican, a sacerdotal-monarchical state ruled by the Catholic Pope), leaving it severely weakened. One factor behind this arrangement was Britain's desire to thwart the Khilafat Movement.
The occupation of Constantinople (Istanbul), along with the occupation of Smyrna (modern-day İzmir), mobilized the Turkish national movement, which ultimately won the Turkish War of Independence. The formal abolition of the Ottoman Sultanate was performed by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey on 1 November 1922. The Sultan was declared persona non grata from the lands the Ottoman Dynasty had ruled since 1299.
Background
Europe became dominated by nation states with the rise of nationalism in Europe. The 19th century saw the rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire which resulted in the establishment of an independent Greece in 1821, Serbia in 1835, and Bulgaria in 1877–1878. Unlike the European nations, the Ottoman Empire made little attempt to integrate conquered peoples through cultural assimilation. Instead, Ottoman policy was to rule through the millet system, consisting of confessional communities for each religion.
The Empire never fully integrated its conquests economically and therefore never established a binding link with its subjects. Between 1828 and 1908, the Empire tried to catch up with industrialization and a rapidly emerging world market by reforming state and society. The Treaty of Balta Liman (1838) with Great Britain "will abolish all monopolies, allow British merchants and their collaborators to have full access to all Ottoman markets and will be taxed equally to local merchants". Thus English manufacturers could sell their products cheaply in the Ottoman Empire, and "the Ottomans were unable to ... raise revenues for investments in development projects", which undermined Ottoman efforts to industrialize. The Ottoman state did try to industrialize. For example, in 1840s, it built a complex of industries west of Istanbul including spinning and weaving mills, a foundry, steam-operated machine works, and a boatyard for small steamships. In the words of Edward Clark: "In variety as well as in number, in planning, in investment, and in attention given to internal sources of raw materials these manufacturing enterprises far surpassed the scope of all previous efforts and mark this period as unique in Ottoman history."
Inspired by the French Revolution social contract theorists Montesquieu and Rousseau, the Young Ottomans society started the movement Ottomanism for accepting all ethnicities and religions in the empire, for equality among millets and equality of subjects before the law. Proponents believed that this could solve social issues. The structure of the Empire was greatly changed by the Tanzimat reforms: the millet system remained in essence, but secular organizations and policies were established; and primary education and conscription were to be applied to non-Muslims and Muslims alike. Michael Hechter argues that the rise of nationalism in the Ottoman Empire was the result of a backlash against Ottoman attempts to institute more direct and central forms of rule over populations which had previously had greater autonomy. The dissolution of the Ottoman Empire has been described by some scholars as a variant of decolonization.
Economic issues
The Capitulations were the main discussion of economic policy during the period. It used to be believed incoming foreign assistance with capitulation could benefit the Empire. Ottoman officials, representing different jurisdictions, sought bribes at every opportunity and withheld the proceeds of a vicious and discriminatory tax system. This ruined every struggling industry by the graft, and fought against every show of independence on the part of Empire's many subject peoples.
The Ottoman public debt was part of a larger scheme of control by the European powers, through which the commercial interests of the world had sought to gain advantages that may not have been of the Empire's interest. The debt was administered by the Ottoman Public Debt Administration and its power was extended to the Imperial Ottoman Bank (or Central bank). The total pre-World War debt of Empire was $716,000,000. France had 60 percent of the total. Germany had 20 percent. The United Kingdom owned 15 percent. The Ottoman Debt Administration controlled many of the important revenues of the Empire. The council had power over financial affairs; its control even extended to determine the tax on livestock in the districts.
Young Turk Revolution
In July 1908, the Young Turk Revolution changed the political structure of the Empire. The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) rebelled against the absolute rule of Sultan Abdul Hamid II to establish the Second Constitutional Era. On 24 July 1908, Abdul Hamid II capitulated and restored the Ottoman constitution of 1876.
The revolution created multi-party democracy. Once underground, the Young Turk movement declared its parties. Among them was "Committee of Union and Progress" (CUP), and the "Liberty Party."
There were smaller parties such as Ottoman Socialist Party and ethnic parties which included People's Federative Party (Bulgarian Section), Bulgarian Constitutional Clubs, Jewish Social Democratic Labour Party in Palestine (Poale Zion), Al-Fatat (also known as the Young Arab Society; Jam’iyat al-'Arabiya al-Fatat), Ottoman Party for Administrative Decentralization, and Armenians were organized under the Armenakan, Hunchakian and Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF/Dashnak).
At the onset, there was a desire to remain unified, and the competing groups wished to maintain a common country. The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation (IMRO) collaborated with the members of the CUP, and Greeks and Bulgarians joined under the second biggest party, the Liberty Party. The Bulgarian federalist wing welcomed the revolution, and they later joined mainstream politics as the People's Federative Party. The former centralists of the IMRO formed the Bulgarian Constitutional Clubs, and, like the PFP, they participated in 1908 Ottoman general election.
Further disintegration
The de jure Bulgarian Declaration of Independence on 5 October [O.S. 22 September] 1908 from the Empire was proclaimed in the old capital of Tarnovo by Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria, who afterwards took the title "Tsar".
The Bosnian crisis on 6 October 1908 erupted when Austria-Hungary announced the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, territories formally within the sovereignty of the Empire. This unilateral action was timed to coincide with Bulgaria's declaration of independence (5 October) from the Empire. The Ottoman Empire protested Bulgaria's declaration with more vigour than the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which it had no practical prospects of governing. A boycott of Austro-Hungarian goods and shops occurred, inflicting commercial losses of over 100,000,000 kronen on Austria-Hungary. Austria-Hungary agreed to pay the Ottomans ₤2.2 million for the public land in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Bulgarian independence could not be reversed.
Just after the revolution in 1908, the Cretan deputies declared union with Greece, taking advantage of the revolution as well as the timing of Zaimis's vacation away from the island. 1908 ended with the issue still unresolved between the Empire and the Cretans. In 1909, after the parliament elected its governing structure (first cabinet), the CUP majority decided that if order was maintained and the rights of Muslims were respected, the issue would be solved with negotiations.
The Second Constitutional Era (1908–1920)
New Parliament
The 1908 Ottoman general election was preceded by political campaigns. In the summer of 1908, a variety of political proposals were put forward by the CUP. The CUP stated in its election manifesto that it sought to modernize the state by reforming finance and education, promoting public works and agriculture, and the principles of equality and justice. Regarding nationalism, (Armenian, Kurd, Turkic..) the CUP identified the Turks as the "dominant nation" around which the empire should be organized, not unlike the position of Germans in Austria-Hungary. According to Reynolds, only a small minority in the Empire occupied themselves with Pan-Turkism, at least in 1908.
The election was held in October and November 1908. CUP-sponsored candidates were opposed by the Liberals. The latter became a centre for those opposing the CUP. Mehmed Sabahaddin, who returned from his long exile, believed that in non-homogeneous provinces a decentralized government was best. The Liberals were poorly organized in the provinces, and failed to convince minority candidates to contest the election under the Liberty Party banner; it also failed to tap into the continuing support for the old regime in less developed areas.
During September 1908, the important Hejaz Railway opened, construction of which had started in 1900. Ottoman rule was firmly re-established in Hejaz and Yemen with the railroad from Damascus to Medina. Historically, Arabia's interior was mostly controlled by playing one tribal group off against another. As the railroad finished, opposing Wahhabi Islamic fundamentalists reasserted themselves under the political leadership of Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud.
Christian communities of the Balkans felt that the CUP no longer represented their aspirations. They had heard the CUP's arguments before, under the Tanzimat reforms:
Those in the vanguard of reform had appropriated the notion of Ottomanism, but the contradictions implicit in the practical realization of this ideology – in persuading Muslims and non-Muslims alike that the achievement of true equality between them entailed the acceptance by both of obligations as well as rights – posed CUP a problem. October 1908 saw the new regime suffer a significant blow with the loss of Bulgaria, Bosnia, and Crete, over which the empire still exercised nominal sovereignty.
The system became multi-headed, with old and new structures coexisting, until the CUP took full control of the government in 1913 and, under the chaos of change, power was exercised without accountability.
The Senate of the Ottoman Empire was opened by the Sultan on 17 December 1908. The new year brought the results of 1908 elections. Chamber of Deputies gathered on 30 January 1909. The CUP needed a strategy to realize their Ottomanist ideals.
In 1909, public order laws and police were unable to maintain order; protesters were prepared to risk reprisals to express their grievances. In the three months following the inauguration of the new regime there were more than 100 strikes, constituting three-quarters of the labor force of the Empire, mainly in Constantinople and Salonika (Thessaloniki). During previous strikes (Anatolian tax revolts in 1905–1907) the Sultan remained above criticism and bureaucrats and administrators were deemed corrupt; this time CUP took the blame. In the parliament the Liberty Party accused the CUP of authoritarianism. Abdul Hamid's Grand Viziers Said and Kâmil Pasha and his Foreign Minister Tevfik Pasha continued in the office. They were now independent of the Sultan and were taking measures to strengthen the Porte against the encroachments of both the Palace and the CUP. Said and Kâmil were nevertheless men of the old regime.