“Population Politics” at the End of Empire: Migration and Sovereignty in Ottoman Eastern Rumelia, 1877–1886

2013 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 955-985
Author(s):  
Anna M. Mirkova
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
State Building ◽  
Peace Treaty ◽  
World War ◽  
Political Autonomy ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Population Politics

AbstractThis article explores the migrations of Turkish Muslims after the 1878 Peace Treaty of Berlin, which severed much of the Balkans from the Ottoman Empire as fully independent nation-states or as nominally dependent polities in the borderlands of the empire. I focus on one such polity—the administratively autonomous Ottoman province of Eastern Rumelia—which, in wrestling to reconcile liberal principles of equality and political representation understood in ethno-religious terms, prompted emigration of Turkish Muslims while enabling Bulgarian Christian hegemony. Scholars have studied Muslim emigration from the Balkans as the Ottoman Empire gradually lost hold of the region, emphasizing deleterious effects of nationalism and aggressive state-building in the region. Here I look at migration at empire's end, and more specifically at the management of migration as constitutive of sovereignty. The Ottoman government asserted its suzerainty by claiming to protect the rights of Eastern Rumelia's Muslims. The Bulgarian dominated administration of Eastern Rumelia claimed not only administrative but also political autonomy by trying to contain the grievances of Turkish Muslims as a domestic issue abused by ill-meaning outsiders, all the while insisting that the province protected the rights of all subjects. Ultimately, a “corporatist” model of subjecthood obtained in Eastern Rumelia, which fused the traditional religious categorization of Ottoman subjects with an ethnic one under the umbrella of representative government. The tension between group belonging and individual politicization that began unfolding in Eastern Rumelia became a major dilemma of the post-Ottoman world and other post-imperial societies after World War I.

French Direct Investments in the Ottoman Empire Before World War I

2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 525-561 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Necla Geyikdagi
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Direct Investment ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
World War ◽  
Foreign Service ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Service Companies ◽  
Manufactured Products

Foreign direct investment entered into the Ottoman Empire to support and develop foreign trade. Europeans who wanted to sell their manufactured products and acquire raw materials were instrumental in the construction of trade-related infrastructure in this country. Therefore, the first French investments, like those of other countries, were made for constructing railways and ports. The growth of raw material production in primary commodities, finally led to an increase in the number of foreign service companies such as banks and insurance providers that served these transport and production facilities. The initial motivations of French investors were mainly economic as they tried to find new markets and secure a viable share in these markets before their international competitors. Motives gradually became political as the opinion about the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire got stronger by the end of the nineteenth century. The French government assisted its investors in obtaining important concessions for investments in Anatolia, the Balkans, and the Arab provinces of the Empire.

“NATIONALISM” AND KURDISH NOTABLES IN THE LATE OTTOMAN–EARLY REPUBLICAN ERA

2001 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 383-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hakan Özoğlu
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
World War I ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
World War ◽  
Arab Nationalism ◽  
Hard Data ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Early Republican ◽  
Late Ottoman

The era culminating in World War I saw a transition from multinational empires to nation-states. Large empires such as the Austro-Hungarian and the Ottoman searched for ways to cope with the decline of their political control, while peoples in these empires shifted their political loyalties to nation-states. The Ottoman Empire offers a favorable canvas for studying new nationalisms that resulted in many successful and unsuccessful attempts to form nation-states. As an example of successful attempts, Arab nationalism has received the attention that it deserves in the field of Middle Eastern studies.1 Students have engaged in many complex debates on different aspects of Arab nationalism, enjoying a wealth of hard data. Studies on Kurdish nationalism, however, are still in their infancy. Only a very few scholars have addressed the issue in a scholarly manner.2 We still have an inadequate understanding of the nature of early Kurdish nationalism and its consequences for the Middle East in general and Turkish studies in particular. Partly because of the subject's political sensitivity, many scholars shy away from it. However, a consideration of Kurdish nationalism as an example of unsuccessful attempts to form a nation-state can contribute greatly to the study of nationalism in the Middle East.

scholarly journals Reluctant Nationalists, Imperial Nation-State, and Neo-Ottomanism: Turks, Albanians, and the Antinomies of the End of Empire

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 835-870 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nader Sohrabi
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
State Building ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Causal Connection ◽  
World War ◽  
Balkan Wars ◽  
North And South

Nationalism's role in the breakdown of the Ottoman Empire is re-examined. Traditionalists blamed the breakdown on the extreme nationalism of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) while today's orthodoxy attributes it to the external contingency of the Balkan Wars and World War I instead. This article looks at the onerous state-building and mild nation-building demands put forth by the CUP toward the Albanians. The Albanian resistance created unstable coalitions that broadened to include north and south, and tempered religion in favor of ethnicity, but fell short of demanding independence. The First Balkan War forced a vulnerable Albania to reluctantly declare independence for which it had made contingent plans. The Ottoman center refused to change course and its pursuit of an imperial nation-state prompted other populations to think and act more ethnically than ever before and draw up their own contingent plans. The concept of ethnicity without groups (Brubaker) and the causal connection between state-building and nationalism (Hechter) are critically assessed in the Ottoman context.

scholarly journals THE LESSONS OF MIDDLE EAST INVOLVEMENT

1969 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark A. Larson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Middle East ◽  
World War I ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
The United States ◽  
World War ◽  
Western Power ◽  
Nation States

Despite the oft- used phrase, history does not repeat itself. What history does do, however, is offer us lessons. If we do not learn history’s lessons, we will repeat the mistakes of history thereby making it appear that history is indeed repeating itself. Nowhere is this more clear than in the Middle East. To find historical lessons in the Middle East, one should begin by studying the events of World War I. It was during World War I that the composition of the Middle East changed from the indirectly ruled Ottoman Empire, to the collection of nation states that we know today. It is quite fashionable to blame Britain for the outcome of, and all future problems with, this new Middle East. It has become more fashionable to transform the blame in the present age to the United States. In this paper, I will analyze British involvement in the Middle East; beginning with the contradictory wartime agreements that Britain made which would eventually change the shape of the Middle East. I will argue that the problems in the Middle East cannot be blamed solely, or even mostly, on the British or on the Western power who had inherited this blame, the United States. In conclusion, I will develop lessons of history from this period of British involvement in the Middle East; lessons that the United States has yet to learn.

scholarly journals The Entry of the Ottoman Empire into World War I

Belleten ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 68 (253) ◽  
pp. 687-734
Author(s):  
Kemal H. Karpat
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Bolshevik Revolution ◽  
Careful Preparation ◽  
The First World War ◽  
First World

This article clarifies several points related to the Ottoman entry into the First World War. First, the Young Turk leaders mistrusted deeply Great Britain which had occupied Egypt in 1882, and appeared disposed to satisfy French and Italian ambitions at the Ottoman expense. Yet, most of the Unionists, not to speak of the public and Parliament, were opposed to war. Indeed, the British and French tacitly agreed to divide the Ottoman state. For this reason, Cemal paşa, a friend of the French, even tried to conclude an alliance with Paris but was unsuccesful. Second, the decision to enter the war came as the consequence of stiff German pressure upon the Unionists leadership and became immediately a fact after the fleet under admiral Souchon's command bombarded the Russian ports. Only four Unionist leaders at most were informed about the German plans to attack Russia. Leading Ottoman officials such as Kazım Karabekir, Hafız Hakkı and many others were against early Ottoman entry into the war. Most of them wanted to wait until spring so as to have time to complete the necessary preparations for the battlefield. Probably, if the Ottoman entry into the war had been postponed for six months or so, Istanbul would have not entered the war at all since by then the hopes for a quick German victory would have vanished. Indeed, after the German offensive in France was stalled at Marne the Unionists seemed to develop second thoughts about the wisdom of fighting on Berlin's side. Consequently, the German diplomatic mission in İstanbul increased its pressures on Enver paşa, who acceded to Kaiser's war demands, still under the illusion that a German victory was imminent. In sum, the Ottoman entry into the war was not the consequence of careful preparation and long debate in the Parliament (which was recessed) and press. It was the result of a hasty decision by a handful of elitist leaders who disregarded democratic procedures and lacked long range political vision and fell easy victim to German machinations and their own utopian expectations of recovering the lost territories in the Balkans. The Ottoman entry into war prolonged it for two years and allowed the Bolshevik revolution to incubate and then explode in 1917 which in turn impacted profoundly the twentieth century world history and the Republican Turkey.

The Great War of the Postcards

2021 ◽  
Vol 88 (3) ◽  
pp. 525-568
Author(s):  
Johann Strauss
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
World War I ◽  
Great War ◽  
World War ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Book Illustrations ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Great War

This article examines the functions and the significance of picture postcards during World War I, with particular reference to the war in the Ottoman Lands and the Balkans, or involving the Turkish Army in Galicia. After the principal types of Kriegspostkarten – sentimental, humorous, propaganda, and artistic postcards (Künstlerpostkarten) – have been presented, the different theatres of war (Balkans, Galicia, Middle East) and their characteristic features as they are reflected on postcards are dealt with. The piece also includes aspects such as the influence of Orientalism, the problem of fake views, and the significance and the impact of photographic postcards, portraits, and photo cards. The role of postcards in book illustrations is demonstrated using a typical example (F. C. Endres, Die Türkei (1916)). The specific features of a collection of postcards left by a German soldier who served in Turkey, Syria, and Iraq during World War I will be presented at the end of this article.

Ukraine and the Challenges of Post-Totalitarian Transit (1990-2019)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Volodymyr Holovko ◽  
◽  
Larysa Yakubova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Essential Feature ◽  
State Building ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
World War ◽  
Successful Completion ◽  
Wide Audience ◽  
The Third ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

The key problems of nation- and state-building are revealed in the concept of the chronotope of the Ukrainian “long twentieth century,” which is a hybrid projection of the “long nineteenth century.” An essential feature of this stage in the history of Ukraine and Ukrainians is the realization of the intentions of socioeconomic, ethnocultural and political emancipation: in fact, the end of the Ukrainian revolution, which began in the context of World War I and the destruction of the colonial system. The third book tells about the contradictions of post-Soviet transit. The three modern revolutions, the development of “oligarchic republics,” the subjectivization of Ukraine in the world through self-awareness of the European choice are visible manifestations of the final stage of the century-old Ukrainian revolution and anti-colonial liberation war. The essential transformations of the Ukrainian project are understood in the broad optics of post-totalitarian transit, the successful completion of which now rules for the national idea of Ukraine. For a wide audience.

THE BRITISH MANDATE AND THE UPRISING OF 1920 IN IRAQ

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (73) (1) ◽  
pp. 140-153
Author(s):  
S. S. Shchevelev
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Middle East ◽  
World War I ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Initial Period ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
British Mandate ◽  
The First World War ◽  
First World

The article examines the initial period of the mandate administration of Iraq by Great Britain, the anti-British uprising of 1920. The chronological framework covers the period from May 1916 to October 1921 and includes an analysis of events in the Middle East from May 1916, when the secret agreement on the division of the territories of the Ottoman Empire after the end of World War I (the Sykes-Picot agreement) was concluded before the proclamation of Faisal as king of Iraq and from the formation of the country՚s government. This period is a key one in the Iraqi-British relations at the turn of the 10-20s of the ХХ century. The author focuses on the Anglo-French negotiations during the First World War, on the eve and during the Paris Peace Conference on the division of the territory of the Ottoman Empire and the ownership of the territories in the Arab zone. During these negotiations, it was decided to transfer the mandates for Syria (with Lebanon) to the France, and Palestine and Mesopotamia (Iraq) to Great Britain. The British in Iraq immediately faced strong opposition from both Sunnis and Shiites, resulting in an anti-English uprising in 1920. The author describes the causes, course and consequences of this uprising.

The Ottoman Empire

2021 ◽  
pp. 729-750
Author(s):  
Dariusz Kołodziejczyk
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
State Building ◽  
Religious Tolerance ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Warrior Ethos ◽  
Bureaucratic Institutions

The Ottoman rulers masterfully combined military prowess with state-building skills. Having adopted Persian bureaucratic institutions, at the same time they maintained such typical Turkic traits as the nomadic warrior ethos, religious tolerance, and the institution of slave soldiers. To their Greek and Slavic subjects in the Balkans, the Ottoman sultans appealed as a viable (and more successful) alternative to the Roman/Byzantine emperors; to Arab subjects in the Middle East, they were the legitimate successors of the first caliphs. Yet in the long run, keeping such distinct traits proved difficult: the more rigid the Ottoman rulers were in their confessional policy in order to consolidate the Sunni Muslim core of the empire’s population, the more they alienated those who did not belong to this core. The empire’s final decades were characterized by the rising nationalisms and ethnic cleansings whose effects were further deepened by the humanitarian catastrophe related to the wars fought incessantly in the years 1911–1922.

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