Timeline The Fall of the Ottoman Empire

The Fall of the Ottoman Empire 14

• 1908 – 1913 CUP consolidates power -- counter-coup and reaction After the Young Turk Revolution (July 1908), the CUP manipulates elections and outmanoeuvres its rivals. Abdülhamid II's counter-coup attempt (31 March Incident, April 1909) is suppressed; Abdülhamid is deposed and exiled to Thessaloniki, replaced by the compliant Mehmed V. The CUP operates through puppet sultans until 1913, when the Balkan War disaster and the 'Raid on the Sublime Porte' (January 1913) -- a CUP coup during which the grand vizier is shot dead -- brings the triumvirate of Enver, Talaat and Cemal Pashas to direct power. They govern as a military dictatorship until the empire's defeat in 1918.
• 1908 – 1922 The Fall of the Ottoman Empire (1908–1922) The final 14 years of the Ottoman Empire are the most catastrophic in its history -- a period of almost continuous warfare, genocide and territorial collapse that destroys the empire and kills millions of its subjects. The Young Turk government (dominated by the CUP triumvirate of Enver, Talaat and Cemal Pashas) navigates the Balkan Wars (1912-1913), which strip the empire of nearly all its European territory in eight months, then makes the fateful decision to ally with Germany in World War I (August 1914). The war brings catastrophe: the Armenian Genocide (1915-1923), defeat on multiple fronts, Arab revolt, Allied occupation of Istanbul and dismemberment of the empire at Sèvres (1920). Mustafa Kemal's War of Independence (1919-1922) saves Anatolia -- and ends the empire.
• 1911 – 1912 Italo-Turkish War -- Libya lost Italy invades Libya (then the Ottoman provinces of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica) in September 1911, seeking a colonial empire in North Africa. The Ottoman Empire, fighting its first major war since 1878, resists more effectively than expected -- Mustafa Kemal serves here as a young officer -- but cannot reinforce Libya across the Mediterranean. The Treaty of Lausanne (October 1912) cedes Libya and the Dodecanese islands to Italy. The loss of Libya is the last Ottoman territory in Africa. The war also demonstrates Ottoman military weakness to its Balkan neighbours, who immediately form the Balkan League and attack.
• 1912 – 1913 First Balkan War -- Europe lost in eight weeks The First Balkan War (October 1912 - May 1913) is the most catastrophic Ottoman military defeat since Ankara (1402). The Balkan League (Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro) attacks simultaneously on all fronts. Within eight weeks the Ottoman army is routed: Bulgaria advances to within 45km of Istanbul; Serbia takes Macedonia; Greece takes Thessaloniki (one day before Bulgaria); Montenegro besieges Shkodër. The empire loses 83% of its remaining European territory and 69% of its European population in eight weeks. The Ottoman army, despite recent modernisation under German advisors, proves unable to fight on multiple fronts against coordinated enemies. It is the definitive end of European Ottoman power.
• 1913 Second Balkan War and recovery of Edirne The Second Balkan War (June-August 1913) breaks out when the Balkan allies fight each other over the spoils of the First Balkan War. Bulgaria attacks Serbia and Greece; Romania and the Ottomans take advantage. The Ottoman army, under Enver Pasha, recaptures Edirne (Adrianople) -- the former Ottoman capital, lost in the First Balkan War. The recovery of Edirne is celebrated as a triumph, and Enver becomes a hero. The Treaty of Bucharest (August 1913) establishes the post-Balkan War borders. The Ottomans retain only eastern Thrace (with Edirne) in Europe -- a strip of territory they hold to this day.
• 1914 Ottoman entry into WWI -- the German alliance The Ottoman decision to ally with Germany (secret treaty of 2 August 1914, active belligerency from 29 October 1914) is the most consequential and most debated decision in Ottoman history. Enver Pasha drives the decision, believing that only a German victory can reverse the Balkan Wars' territorial losses and restore Ottoman power. The CUP government harbours German warships (Goeben and Breslau) in Istanbul and allows them to bombard Russian Black Sea ports -- forcing Russia, Britain and France to declare war. The decision proves catastrophic: the empire fights simultaneously against Russia, Britain, France and (later) Arab revolt, and loses.
• 1915 – 1916 Gallipoli -- the campaign that makes Ataturk The Gallipoli campaign (February 1915 - January 1916) is the largest Allied amphibious operation of WWI and its most famous failure. Britain and France attempt to knock the Ottomans out of the war, open a supply route to Russia and capture Istanbul by landing at Gallipoli. The Ottomans, commanded by the German general Liman von Sanders and the Ottoman colonel Mustafa Kemal, hold the heights. Kemal's defence of Chunuk Bair (August 1915) -- 'I am not ordering you to attack, I am ordering you to die' -- becomes legendary. The Allies withdraw in January 1916 having suffered 250,000 casualties. Gallipoli creates Kemal's reputation and becomes the founding myth of both Australia/New Zealand (ANZAC) and modern Turkey.
• 1915 – 1923 The Armenian Genocide The Armenian Genocide is the systematic mass murder and deportation of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire by the CUP government. Beginning in April 1915 with the arrest and execution of Armenian community leaders in Istanbul, it proceeds through mass deportations to the Syrian desert, massacres by Special Organisation (Teşkilât-ı Mahsusa) forces and Kurdish irregulars, and deliberate starvation. Between 600,000 and 1.5 million Armenians die. The genocide is facilitated by WWI's cover and the prior removal of Armenian men in labour battalions. The three CUP leaders responsible (Enver, Talaat and Cemal) are assassinated by Armenian avengers in Operation Nemesis (1920-1922). Turkey officially denies the genocide.
• 1916 – 1918 The Arab Revolt -- Lawrence of Arabia and the Hashemites The Arab Revolt (June 1916 - October 1918) is organised by Britain and led by Sharif Hussein of Mecca, who is promised an independent Arab kingdom in return for rebelling against the Ottomans. T.E. Lawrence ('Lawrence of Arabia') serves as British liaison, coordinating Bedouin raids on the Hejaz Railway. The revolt ties down Ottoman forces in Arabia and the Levant, supports Allenby's advance through Palestine, and captures Damascus (October 1918). Britain's simultaneous promises to the Arabs (Hussein-McMahon correspondence), the Zionists (Balfour Declaration, 1917) and the French (Sykes-Picot Agreement, 1916) create contradictions that shape the modern Middle East's conflicts.
• 1917 – 1918 Allenbys Palestine campaign -- Jerusalem falls General Edmund Allenby's Palestine campaign (1917-1918) drives the Ottomans out of the Levant. He captures Gaza (October-November 1917), enters Jerusalem on foot on 11 December 1917 (deliberately humble, in contrast to Kaiser Wilhelm's theatrical entry in 1898), and in his final offensive (Battle of Megiddo, September 1918) destroys two Ottoman armies in 12 days -- one of the most complete cavalry victories of WWI. Damascus falls on 1 October 1918; Aleppo on 25 October. The Armistice of Mudros (30 October 1918) ends Ottoman participation in WWI. The collapse of the Levantine front is as rapid as the Balkan front in 1912.
• 1918 – 1920 Allied occupation of Istanbul -- the empire dismembered Allied forces occupy Istanbul on 13 November 1918 -- three days after the Armistice of Mudros. British, French, Italian and Greek troops patrol the city; Allied warships anchor in the Bosphorus. The Paris Peace Conference produces the Treaty of Sèvres (10 August 1920), which dismembers the empire: Greece receives Thrace and the Smyrna region (with a plebiscite after five years); Armenia becomes independent; Kurdistan receives autonomy; Britain and France retain their League of Nations mandates in the Middle East. The sultan (Mehmed VI) signs the treaty, discrediting the sultanate. Mustafa Kemal, operating from Ankara, refuses to recognise it.
• 1919 – 1922 Turkish War of Independence -- Ataturk saves Anatolia Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) organises the Turkish National Movement from Ankara (1919), refusing to accept the Allied partition of Anatolia. He defeats the Armenian forces in the east (1920), the French in Cilicia (1920-1921), and the Greek army -- which lands at Smyrna (May 1919) under Allied licence -- in a decisive campaign culminating in the Battle of Dumlupınar (26-30 August 1922) and the Great Fire of Smyrna (September 1922). The Treaty of Lausanne (July 1923) replaces Sèvres and recognises the Republic of Turkey's sovereignty over Anatolia and eastern Thrace. The Greek-Turkish population exchange (1923) -- 1.2 million Greeks from Turkey, 400,000 Muslims from Greece -- reshapes both nations.
• 1922 Legacy -- the Ottoman world remapped The Ottoman Empire's collapse creates the modern Middle East. The League of Nations mandates assigned to Britain (Iraq, Palestine, Transjordan) and France (Syria, Lebanon) draw borders that cut across ethnic, religious and tribal realities -- creating the fault lines of virtually every subsequent Middle Eastern conflict. The promise of an Arab kingdom (Hussein-McMahon) contradicts the Balfour Declaration's promise to the Zionists, creating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Kurdish people, promised autonomy at Sèvres, receive nothing at Lausanne -- beginning a century of Kurdish statelessness. The Ottoman legacy is not merely historical: it shapes the present day in Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Greece.
• 1922 – 1924 Abolition of the Sultanate and Caliphate The Grand National Assembly abolishes the Ottoman Sultanate on 1 November 1922; Mehmed VI flees on a British warship on 17 November. His cousin Abdülmecid II becomes the last Caliph -- a purely religious role -- until the caliphate too is abolished on 3 March 1924. The Republic of Turkey is proclaimed on 29 October 1923 with Mustafa Kemal as its first president and Ankara as its capital. The abolition of the caliphate shocks the Muslim world; proposals for a new caliphate (in Egypt, India, Arabia) come to nothing. The 623-year Ottoman dynasty and the 1,300-year institution of the caliphate both end within 16 months.