ahmedali
Banned
I believe that a fascist rebellion led to the secession of Hungary, since the union still left people with bitterness in their mouths.
I think so, but the Muslims may be the dominant ones
Osman Reborn; The Survival of Ottoman Democracy [An Ottoman TL set in the 1900s]
- Thread starter Sarthak
- Start date
I think so, but the Muslims may be the dominant ones
Societal Clips: Ottoman Sports Rivalries
Societal Clips: Ottoman Sports Rivalries
1. 'Enemies We Were Once, Friends We Are Today, Rivals We Still Are'.
The Greco-Ottoman Football Rivalry
The Greco-Ottoman Football Rivalry
Considered to be one of the most heated football rivalries of all time, the football rivalry between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Greece started in 1928 when a small friendly was arranged between the two countries in Nicosia, which ended in a Greek victory. Since then, both teams from both nations have fought against one another in a number of friendlies and tournaments culminating in a fierce sporting rivalry with one another. The climax for this rivalry came during the 1990 Football World Cup when Turkey & Greece decided to lift the World Cup Trophy together after drawing with one another in the climactic finals - the 1990 World Cup Finals is still this day considered to be one of the greatest final matches in history. To this day, the two sides have fought against one another for a grand total of 97 times, with 41 victories under the Ottoman belt, 39 victories under the Greek belt, and the rest being either drawn or disrupted games.
2. The Remnants Cricket Series
The Ottoman-Irish Cricket Rivalry
In 1926, when Ireland became a formal team in the ICC board, their first tour was that of the Ottoman Empire, a country which had a lesser history with Cricket than Ireland, but a nation that had a more professional cricket history than Ireland. The Irish Tour to the Ottoman Empire 1926 was a stunner of a series, with the Irish winning the 5 match series 4-1 under the captaincy of Kevin MacCallan. Jokingly, a commentator during the last match at Istanbul called the series the Remnants of Ottoman Cricket. Since then, a fierce cricketing rivalry has grown between the two sides, and both sides have fought against one another in the famed 'Remnant' series, which is considered to be a fierce cricketing series like the (in)famous Ashes. The two sides have played 230 Test Matches (46 series) against one another, with 95 matches in favor of Ireland, 76 matches in favor of the Ottomans, and 59 matches ending in draws. Of the 42 series that have not ended in a draw, Ireland currently holds the lead with a small 22-20 margin. The Ottoman-Irish Cricket Rivalry
3. The Lords of the Eastern Mediterannean & the Lords of Oceania
The Australian-Ottoman Basketball Rivalry
Both sides debuted against one another in 1952 during the Olympics. Since then, both sides have not stopped and have continued to fight against one another in several heated basketball matches - through friendlies, through the Olympics, and through the Basketball World Cup. To this day, the Ottomans and Australians have a clean record of 30-30, with them tied with one another in this fierce rivalry of skills.The Australian-Ottoman Basketball Rivalry
Nice post. I wonder what the Ottomans would think of Australian Rules Football compared to Rugby or Association Football?
I intend to do something different ittl - which means that there is one single British (England+wales+Scotland) football team and premier league
Funny, I have plans to do a UK football team TL with a POD from 1950. Interesting to see what you have in mind here.
Halrin16
Banned
Reading this comment, i'm a bit glad ottoman and greece a enemy, but hetalia fandom would always get its way to ship anyone. They ship The fourth reich and the freaking soviet. THE FREAKING SOVIET. That's why i prefer Polandball/Countryball more. They are consistent,actually funny, teach fact, and most importantly the fan base is not problematic. nevertheless, OTTOMAN STRONK.
Chapter 63: End of 1925
Chapter 63: End of 1925
Excerpts from History of Ottoman Yemen by Abdul Al-Kerim
“……The drums of war began to wind down in Yemen as the months turned cold in 1925. The Ottoman Armed Forces had managed to defeat several incursions and attempts by the Zaidi forces to defeat Ottoman columns marching into Yemen for over a year by that point, but the Yemeni rebellion was slowly petering out. The systematic destruction of enemy tribes, and the total upheaval – both economic and social – created by the entire rebellion was forcing more and more Yemenis to turn to the Ottomans for compromise. Imam Yahya I, who was leading the revolt clearly disagreed however, and made public declarations calling for continued war, whilst also denouncing any outcry for negotiated peace settlements, despite the popular urge of the people to do as such.
Selahattin Adil Pasha,
The Commander of the Ottoman Forces in Yemen in 1925
But Constantinople was smelling blood in the water. Mustafa Kemal Pasha was a veteran commander, and could see that the people of Yemen were quickly becoming disillusioned with the Zaidi Rebellion, and that the rebel forces themselves were slowly starting to fall apart. He called for a last offensive into Yemen that would systematically destroy the last rebel remnants into Yemen. Under the overall command of Selahattin Adil Pasha, three entire corps were merged into a single offensive machine to use against the rebel forces. With aerial forces, and intelligence officers laying the groundwork for the ground troops, on the 17th of October, 1925, Operation Himyar began as Selahattin Adil began to push deep into Yemen with his 40,000 men, dispersing the rebels and guerillas whenever he found them. His men, pulled from the experienced mountaineering corps from the Caucasian and Macedonian military districts and war veterans from the Balkan War showed themselves to be extremely capable in destroying guerilla camps in the high mountains quite systematically. Selahattin Adil also used the intelligence aid received from pro-Ottoman Sunnis in Yemen to further his intel network in the region, therefore knowing what to expect at almost every turn of the way.
After the October portion of the offensive, the only real area of Yemen where the Rebels remained supreme after a year and a half worth of beating down was in the mountains surrounding Taizz, which was still under siege, with its 800 Ottoman Garrison under the command of Fahreddin Pasha still going strong even after a yearlong siege deep within enemy lines. Selahattin Adil decided that Taizz was going to be the last goal for the Ottoman military and on November 4, he received confirmation from Constantinople to push for the city. An outer fort commanded by the Haysan tribe – Ibb – fell to the Ottoman force on the 9th, and soon the Ottomans were at the gates of Al-Qa’idah, whose garrison was commanded by Shakib Al-Qa’ida, a prominent Zaidi rebel after Imam Yahya himself. The city was defended by around 7,000 tribesmen, and the fighting that ensued was brutal. But old and nearly obsolete weapons carried by the Yemenis fared badly against the modern machine guns and artillery that the Ottomans had with them and after four days of continued siege and battle, the city fell to the Ottomans on the 18th of November. Imam Yahya knew what fate awaited him if he surrendered Taizz, his last stronghold without a proper fight, and as such decided to fight till the end.
Ottoman Troops Enter Taizz
The Battle for Taizz (November 19 – 24, 1925) was brutal. The Ottomans entered from the east and west and started to clash with the remaining desperate tribesmen. Desperation gave way to fighting fanaticism and the Ottomans began to take heavy casualties. Holed up in Cairo Castle, Fahreddin Pasha was observing the battle with his eye glasses and ordered a single column of 100 Ottoman soldiers from his total of 800 to sally out to distract the Yemeni rebels and to give room for Selahattin Adil Pasha’s men to maneuver around the rebels. The fighting destroyed several sections of the city as the civilians cowered underneath whatever shelter they were able to find. Mudhaffar Mosque was obliterated under the command of Abdul Al-Radman who used the destroyed husk of the 13th century mosque to block key roads into the inner city. The destruction of the priceless Mosque sparked controversy among the troops however, and many ardent Muslims defected over to the Ottomans as a result of the destruction. Al-Radman was a non-confessionary Muslim Yemeni Nationalist and he had no qualms about destroying such an old and respected mosque of the city for pragmatic reasons, but he had overplayed his hand in front of his troops and he – and Yahya too – began to pay for the destruction of the mosque as thousands defected due to anger towards the Mosque’s destruction.
After heavy fighting, on the fifth day, Taizz fell completely and Yahya was captured by the Ottoman forces, trying to flee the city into the wilderness south of the city. The Zaidi Revolt had come to an end after 18 months of brutal fighting in the mountains of Yemen. Small guerilla and banditry continued in the isolated and rural areas of Yemen for another few months, but for all intents and purposes, the revolt was over. Imam Yahya was brought to Constantinople, where he faced charges of treason, and rebellion, both of which were punishable by death. His lead conspirators were brought to the Ottoman capital as well to answer for their crimes against the nation.
Imam Yahya did not plead not guilty and took his charges with a straight face. The Ottomans, in light of the importance of the Zaidi Imamate to the social and religious order of Yemen did not authorize the capital punishment against him. Instead, he was forced to abdicate his position as Imam of the Zaidi sect and spend the rest of his life (another decade) in house arrest in Constantinople under heavy guard. His seventeen-year-old son, Hassan Hamid Al-Din ibn Yahya became the new Ottoman appointed Imam of Yemen. Hassan had been previously pro-Ottoman in his outlook, envisioning a Pan-Arabian sphere within the Ottoman Empire, and his youth made him easily molded, and as such was the prime candidate for the position. His appointment as the Imam skipped over three of his brothers, all of whom were implicated in the revolt fully and faced the same charges as that of their father. This started the trend of the Ottoman Caliph (mostly symbolically but sometimes seriously) appointing the successor Zaidi Imams of Yemen, a key religious event in Islamic history.
Hassan Hamid Al-Din ibn Yahya,
The New Imam of Yemen
The Ottoman victory in the rebellion came at a crucial juncture. The Ottomans had been unable to use their decade long influence built up after the Balkan War due to the internal instability created by the Zaidi Revolt, but with the end of the revolt, and with the rise of the Ostrobothnian Crisis in Northern Europe, the British, who was trying to mediate a proper solution in Russia due to fears of the Baltic trade collapsing as a result of the revolt of the Swedish Finns, could now have Ottoman diplomatic support behind them fully. The French of course did not wish to alienate either of their allies and sought to remain reconciliatory with both, and was trying to enlist the aid of the Ottomans for this endeavor as well. The Russians under the premiership of Vladimir Purishkevich was trying to feebly attempt a reconciliatory movement between Constantinople and St. Petersburg, and they too were vying for Ottoman neutrality within the crisis brewing in Northern Europe as the small, yet well led Swedish militias in Ostrobothnia under the command of Mannerheim continued to defeat the small Russian incursions into the region. The majority of Russia’s battle hardened veterans were in Central Asia, stamping down on dissent in the region, and Russia could not afford to send more experienced troops away from Central Asia – and their performance in Ostrobothnia suffered as a result.
The State Visit of George II of Greece to Smyrna 1925.
Diplomatically, the end of the revolt had consequences for Greco-Ottoman relations as well. The Greeks had been wary of a diplomatic meeting being conducted in an unstable Ottoman Empire, but with the end of the revolt, such fears were made for naught, and King George II of Hellenes visited Smyrna where he was greeted by members of the Ottoman Army and Navy, where he oversaw several Ottoman naval drills in the Aegean alongside the cooperation of the Greek Navy as well. At this critical time in Ottoman and Interwar history, the Ottoman Grand Vizier, Mustafa Kemal Pasha sought to distance the Ottomans from any foreign entanglements, besides Britain in the case of war, and seek internal recovery instead. Kemal believed that the best way to do this was through more cooperation with the Greeks, who had become the Ottoman Empire’s commercial hub in the past decade and a half of cooperation with one another…….”
Excerpts from The Dictatorship in Rio: The Long Five Decades by Jose Luis de Castro
“……. Marshal Hermes da Fonseca’s established dictatorship in Brazil came to a rather large hurdle in 1925 when the old fiery Marshal, and the Dictator of Brazil himself died at the age of 70 on January 14, 1925. The cabinet of Brazil, composed of key military and pro-military figures immediately declared a shared system of ruling from the cabinet until a new President was ‘elected’, however said shared system of ruling immediately began to fall apart at the seams as the cabinet members began to compete for the presidency and thus the entire dictatorship. The key contender for the post of the Presidency came to be Cesar Augusto Parga Rodriguez, a Brazilian Major General who also worked as the Defense Minister of Brazil at the time of the old Marshal’s death. On the 17th of March, 1925, he led the 1st Infantry Division into the cabinet building of Brazil, and the coup saw him install himself as President of Brazil – and thus the Second Dictator of Brazil was installed into power.
Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss
Parga Rodriguez
The New Dictator of Brazil
However, Rodriguez’s regime was not stable, and the sudden coup saw instability brought back into Brazil as Socialists, Communists, Guildists, Monarchists and Pro-Democratic groups began to utilize the opening that had been given to them to organize major rallies and major attacks on the government. The military cracked down on these activities and suppressed them brutally, but the writing was on the wall for many to see and many Brazilians began to use the disruption of the succession in the dictatorship to try and restore democracy in the nation. The Minas Geras Oligarchs in particular – who had their power curtailed by the military dictatorship contrary to the military’s promises – supported the democratic movements. Rodriguez knew that he would have to move hard and fast against any sort of internal dissent, lest it grew out of control. But he was faced with another problem. Due to the increasing static nature of the dictatorship’s economic policy, the Brazilian economy was becoming extremely unwell to the point that most protestors couldn’t care less about their system of governance but had more economic grievances instead. The price of food and daily appliances sky rocketed as the Brazilian military dictatorship was unable to find suitable economic policies for the ever changing international market.
Protestors Rallying in Brazil against the Military Dictatorship
The situation turned turbulent when the Portuguese government was temporarily implicated in a scheme to restore the Brazilian monarchy, which was anathema to the military dictatorship. After this event – called the June 25 Event – the Brazilian government declared martial law, suspended the remnants of their remaining local elections and nearly declared war on Portugal. It was the interference of Manuel II which prevented war – as he overrode the pride of the Lisbon government to prove through the Portuguese archives that Portugal had no involvement in whatever plot intrigue was going on in Brazil. Brazil backed down from a pro-War policy with Portugal, but the state of martial law continued, and the country’s stability declined further.
At this point, the newly appointed Rodriguez government decided that they needed to divert the attention of the people from the internal problems of the country and they began to seek external opponents to purposefully bring back internal stability. And this came in the form of Uruguay, which had long standing territorial and maritime disputes with Brazil.
President Jose Serrato of Uruguay had inherited a country which was stifling underneath the post-war economic order. Furthermore, politically, the system created by Baltasar Blum about distributing the ministries to governors and other important political figures within the Uruguayan legislature to prevent Presidential Dictatorships had created a political problem and crisis in the country as the cabinet and President and legislature rarely got along with one another, leading to stifled growth in Uruguay. This led to the Batllista, Colorados and Riverista factions in Uruguay to start openly warring against one another in the political faction, which led to rather large amounts of instability in the river Plate nation. Reform had been tried in Uruguay for the past decade through the creation of the Frigorifico Nacional and the Administracion Nacional de Combustibles (ANC) which led to some economic easing, but did not alleviate the political and societal troubles that Uruguay continued to face. Uruguay’s key position as an immigration hub for European immigrants into Argentina and into Chile from the Atlantic side was also adding to the tensions that were rising in Uruguay. Having an excess of around ~100,000 immigrants coming to the nation every year from around the globe led to a severe amount of societal upheaval that was not conductive to an unstable nation as that of Uruguay. Britain’s stifling economic domination of the nation did not help matters either, which severely limited the amount of economic reform they could conduct.
To the Rodriguez regime, the Uruguayans were the prime target for their ‘external activities’. Furthermore, ending the nationalistic territorial and maritime disputes that Brazil had with the small South American nation would appeal to the nationalistic senses of the Brazilian masses easily, whilst making the economy going on war footing would ease some of the unemployment problems as well. On the 12th of October, 1925, Brazilian troops under the command of Stephen Leitao de Carvalho crossed the Uruguayan border and managed to capture Rivera from the small Uruguayan military garrison in the city, shocking most of the South American countries, barring those who had anticipated it (Chile & Columbia). Jose Serrato knew that Uruguay was not ready for a proper war – in comparison to the well trained and well equipped Brazilian Army, the Uruguayan military was a paltry force. Serrato attempted to start negotiations with Rodriguez in private through the British Consulate in Montevideo, however Rodriguez would not back down, he had too much riding on his foreign ‘adventure’ to back down. The Uruguayan President reluctantly went to Parliament and secured a declaration of war against the Brazilian Republic. He did so, knowing that aid was forthcoming from another nation.
Tensions between Brazil and Argentina had been high ever since the new dictatorship continued the South American Naval Race between Argentina and Brazil. This blatant attempt to conquer parts of Uruguay into Brazil was deemed as unforgivable by the Argentines and they knew that after the disputes along the Uruguay border were sealed in favor of Brazil, Rodriguez’s militaristic and expansionistic regime would then turn its eyes towards Argentina and the ‘hated’ Argentinian corridor. When President Marcelo Tocuato de Alvear went to the Argentinian deputies to ask for a declaration of war against Brazil in alliance with Uruguay, he received said declaration of war almost unanimously. The Argentinian military was mobilized for war.
The problem however was that even with the Uruguayan and Argentinian militaries combined, the Brazilians held a competitive numerical advantage over their enemies. Brazil being a nation of 31 million against Argentina (8.8 million) & Uruguay (3.5 million) held a natural advantage in that regard. As Argentina mobilized, so did Brazil, and quickly enough, the Brazilians began to deploy guarding garrisons towards the Brazilian-Argentine border, much faster than what the Argentine military had thought possible. The military problems of the Alliance as it became known, was made worse by the fact that the Brazilians won the Battle of Fialho on the disputed Brazilian Triangle on the Uruguayan-Brazilian border, which occupied key strategic marshlands to the Uruguayan north, giving up the strategic imperative to the Brazilians.
The Argentines and Brazilians clashed for the first time at sea with the Brazilian fleet under the command of Admiral Luis Klinger trying to bombard Montevideo Harbor on the 29th of October, 1925, with the Brazilian Battleship Minas Geraes leading the way. An Argentinian Fleet under the command of Admiral Jose de Parana, commanding the pride of the Argentine fleet, the ARA Rivadavia defeated this bombardment attempt and pushed the Brazilian navy out of the mouth of the Rio de la Plata region. The naval battle, which was called the Battle of Flores, ended in decisive Argentine-Uruguayan victory and cemented Allied naval dominance for the rest of the brief conflict. The Argentines lost no vessels whilst the Brazilians had to contend with a lost cruiser and a partially destroyed destroyer.
ARA Rivadavia
The Ship that beat the Brazilians back. It packs a punch to say the least.
Despite the success at sea, the Alliance fared poorly at land. In Central Uruguay, the Brazilians pushed all the way towards Buena Union. The Brazilians defeated a Uruguayan attempt to capture Chuy at the border, and the Brazilians managed to seize the important northern town of Artigas as well, fundamentally capturing all important logistical centers of Northern Uruguay. With the Argentines, the Brazilians managed to capture Puerto Iguazu in the north, and managed to capture the key Argentine air fields in the region, thereby handing aerial supremacy in the region firmly in the hands of Brazil.
As expected, internal dissent to the Rodriguez regime nearly collapsed overnight as Rodriguez began to move towards Brazilian irredentism as his means of suppressing dissent. Nationalists who supported radical guildism suddenly turned pro-Rodriguez, and even the day to day protests started to fumble and slow down. The rise of the wartime economy meant that people could get better employment, which resulted in a more stable salary for many people. To those people unaffected by the war in Northern Brazil, the war was fundamentally a ‘jolly little war’ for them. However, by this point, foreign powers began to meddle into the regional conflict as the month turned into November.
Britain, who virtually controlled the economic flow of money from Argentina and Uruguay predictably took a pro-Alliance stance and demanded that the war end. The naval wartime activity in the Rio De Plata region was severely hampering the ability of both Spanish speaking nations to export meat to Britain and several meat shortage crunches were already being experienced in London and other urban centers in Britain. The United States of America, which had a large share of interest invested into the Pampas of Argentina, also sided with their Anglo-Saxon brethren and took a pro-Alliance stance, demanding a quick end to the war and also promoting itself as a mediator in the conflict. The Russian Empire, which was a key economic partner of Brazil, and relied on Brazil for rubber and coffee imports – vital trading items in the Russian economy – took a pro-Brazilian approach, whilst Danubia, which had invested a lot into Brazil’s economy, also began to make pro-Brazilian noises. The Ottoman Empire, which was a key investor into both Argentina and Brazil, had a more ambiguous role to play in the conflict, as the Ottomans tried to mediate the conflict as well. There are rumors however that the Ottomans supplied and played both sides during the conflict, but no verification of this rumor has ever been found.
November was a month of great military success for the Brazilians. They occupied key positions in Northern Uruguay and managed to penetrate deep into the region without fusses. By the end of the month, on average the Brazilians were at least ~35 kilometers into Uruguay’s northern frontiers. The scarce population of the region also made it impossible for a proper guerilla response to be managed whilst a third of the occupied population being Portuguese speaking also allowed Brazil to manage their occupation in a smooth and non-neglected manner. Brazil’s small but effective air force also effectively bombed as they pleased over the northern Uruguayan airspace, with little to no opposition as Uruguay had no aerial force, and the Argentines had lost their air fields to the north to Brazilian occupation and attack.
At this point it was clear to everyone in the world that without foreign intervention, Brazil was going to take what it wanted without any repercussions at all. William Lygon, 7th Earl Beauchamp, and the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom convened cabinet on the 28th of November, 1925 to seek the aid of cabinet in pushing an interventionist agenda in the British Parliament. Prime Minister McKenna who did not wish to be seen as weak, and Chancellor Adamson also were in favor of intervention due to the disruption of the economy in the region. On the 2nd of December, 1925, the British Parliament voted in favor of intervening diplomatically, and if needed in a limited military show of force against Brazil.
Admiral Watson
Admiral Sir Hugh Dudley Richards Watson, commanding 2 Squadrons of the Royal Navy’s Southern Atlantic Fleet set sail for Brazilian shores and instigated a virtual blockade of all military trade to and fro from Brazil by blockading all major ports of Brazil, and declaring an exclusion zone around Brazilian waters. This intimidation stunt, which was clearly aimed at forcing Rodriguez to the negotiating table worked, and Rodriguez opened negotiations with Argentina and Uruguay through Bolivia. The Bolivian Government hosted a peace conference in La Paz on the 18th of December, 1925 and the Alliance reluctantly agreed to the following terms: -
The Lands given to Brazil for 'indefinite occupation' in orange as shown in the above map.
On the 25th, Argentina and Uruguay ratified the Agreement of La Paz, whilst Brazil did the same on the 27th, ending the brief 1925 Border War in territorial Brazilian victory, yet Economic-Diplomatic Alliance victory. The 1925 Border War would lay down the foundations of the Great South American War – the South American front of the Second Great War…….”
Excerpts from History of Ottoman Yemen by Abdul Al-Kerim
“……The drums of war began to wind down in Yemen as the months turned cold in 1925. The Ottoman Armed Forces had managed to defeat several incursions and attempts by the Zaidi forces to defeat Ottoman columns marching into Yemen for over a year by that point, but the Yemeni rebellion was slowly petering out. The systematic destruction of enemy tribes, and the total upheaval – both economic and social – created by the entire rebellion was forcing more and more Yemenis to turn to the Ottomans for compromise. Imam Yahya I, who was leading the revolt clearly disagreed however, and made public declarations calling for continued war, whilst also denouncing any outcry for negotiated peace settlements, despite the popular urge of the people to do as such.
Selahattin Adil Pasha,
The Commander of the Ottoman Forces in Yemen in 1925
But Constantinople was smelling blood in the water. Mustafa Kemal Pasha was a veteran commander, and could see that the people of Yemen were quickly becoming disillusioned with the Zaidi Rebellion, and that the rebel forces themselves were slowly starting to fall apart. He called for a last offensive into Yemen that would systematically destroy the last rebel remnants into Yemen. Under the overall command of Selahattin Adil Pasha, three entire corps were merged into a single offensive machine to use against the rebel forces. With aerial forces, and intelligence officers laying the groundwork for the ground troops, on the 17th of October, 1925, Operation Himyar began as Selahattin Adil began to push deep into Yemen with his 40,000 men, dispersing the rebels and guerillas whenever he found them. His men, pulled from the experienced mountaineering corps from the Caucasian and Macedonian military districts and war veterans from the Balkan War showed themselves to be extremely capable in destroying guerilla camps in the high mountains quite systematically. Selahattin Adil also used the intelligence aid received from pro-Ottoman Sunnis in Yemen to further his intel network in the region, therefore knowing what to expect at almost every turn of the way.
After the October portion of the offensive, the only real area of Yemen where the Rebels remained supreme after a year and a half worth of beating down was in the mountains surrounding Taizz, which was still under siege, with its 800 Ottoman Garrison under the command of Fahreddin Pasha still going strong even after a yearlong siege deep within enemy lines. Selahattin Adil decided that Taizz was going to be the last goal for the Ottoman military and on November 4, he received confirmation from Constantinople to push for the city. An outer fort commanded by the Haysan tribe – Ibb – fell to the Ottoman force on the 9th, and soon the Ottomans were at the gates of Al-Qa’idah, whose garrison was commanded by Shakib Al-Qa’ida, a prominent Zaidi rebel after Imam Yahya himself. The city was defended by around 7,000 tribesmen, and the fighting that ensued was brutal. But old and nearly obsolete weapons carried by the Yemenis fared badly against the modern machine guns and artillery that the Ottomans had with them and after four days of continued siege and battle, the city fell to the Ottomans on the 18th of November. Imam Yahya knew what fate awaited him if he surrendered Taizz, his last stronghold without a proper fight, and as such decided to fight till the end.
Ottoman Troops Enter Taizz
The Battle for Taizz (November 19 – 24, 1925) was brutal. The Ottomans entered from the east and west and started to clash with the remaining desperate tribesmen. Desperation gave way to fighting fanaticism and the Ottomans began to take heavy casualties. Holed up in Cairo Castle, Fahreddin Pasha was observing the battle with his eye glasses and ordered a single column of 100 Ottoman soldiers from his total of 800 to sally out to distract the Yemeni rebels and to give room for Selahattin Adil Pasha’s men to maneuver around the rebels. The fighting destroyed several sections of the city as the civilians cowered underneath whatever shelter they were able to find. Mudhaffar Mosque was obliterated under the command of Abdul Al-Radman who used the destroyed husk of the 13th century mosque to block key roads into the inner city. The destruction of the priceless Mosque sparked controversy among the troops however, and many ardent Muslims defected over to the Ottomans as a result of the destruction. Al-Radman was a non-confessionary Muslim Yemeni Nationalist and he had no qualms about destroying such an old and respected mosque of the city for pragmatic reasons, but he had overplayed his hand in front of his troops and he – and Yahya too – began to pay for the destruction of the mosque as thousands defected due to anger towards the Mosque’s destruction.
After heavy fighting, on the fifth day, Taizz fell completely and Yahya was captured by the Ottoman forces, trying to flee the city into the wilderness south of the city. The Zaidi Revolt had come to an end after 18 months of brutal fighting in the mountains of Yemen. Small guerilla and banditry continued in the isolated and rural areas of Yemen for another few months, but for all intents and purposes, the revolt was over. Imam Yahya was brought to Constantinople, where he faced charges of treason, and rebellion, both of which were punishable by death. His lead conspirators were brought to the Ottoman capital as well to answer for their crimes against the nation.
Imam Yahya did not plead not guilty and took his charges with a straight face. The Ottomans, in light of the importance of the Zaidi Imamate to the social and religious order of Yemen did not authorize the capital punishment against him. Instead, he was forced to abdicate his position as Imam of the Zaidi sect and spend the rest of his life (another decade) in house arrest in Constantinople under heavy guard. His seventeen-year-old son, Hassan Hamid Al-Din ibn Yahya became the new Ottoman appointed Imam of Yemen. Hassan had been previously pro-Ottoman in his outlook, envisioning a Pan-Arabian sphere within the Ottoman Empire, and his youth made him easily molded, and as such was the prime candidate for the position. His appointment as the Imam skipped over three of his brothers, all of whom were implicated in the revolt fully and faced the same charges as that of their father. This started the trend of the Ottoman Caliph (mostly symbolically but sometimes seriously) appointing the successor Zaidi Imams of Yemen, a key religious event in Islamic history.
Hassan Hamid Al-Din ibn Yahya,
The New Imam of Yemen
The Ottoman victory in the rebellion came at a crucial juncture. The Ottomans had been unable to use their decade long influence built up after the Balkan War due to the internal instability created by the Zaidi Revolt, but with the end of the revolt, and with the rise of the Ostrobothnian Crisis in Northern Europe, the British, who was trying to mediate a proper solution in Russia due to fears of the Baltic trade collapsing as a result of the revolt of the Swedish Finns, could now have Ottoman diplomatic support behind them fully. The French of course did not wish to alienate either of their allies and sought to remain reconciliatory with both, and was trying to enlist the aid of the Ottomans for this endeavor as well. The Russians under the premiership of Vladimir Purishkevich was trying to feebly attempt a reconciliatory movement between Constantinople and St. Petersburg, and they too were vying for Ottoman neutrality within the crisis brewing in Northern Europe as the small, yet well led Swedish militias in Ostrobothnia under the command of Mannerheim continued to defeat the small Russian incursions into the region. The majority of Russia’s battle hardened veterans were in Central Asia, stamping down on dissent in the region, and Russia could not afford to send more experienced troops away from Central Asia – and their performance in Ostrobothnia suffered as a result.
The State Visit of George II of Greece to Smyrna 1925.
Diplomatically, the end of the revolt had consequences for Greco-Ottoman relations as well. The Greeks had been wary of a diplomatic meeting being conducted in an unstable Ottoman Empire, but with the end of the revolt, such fears were made for naught, and King George II of Hellenes visited Smyrna where he was greeted by members of the Ottoman Army and Navy, where he oversaw several Ottoman naval drills in the Aegean alongside the cooperation of the Greek Navy as well. At this critical time in Ottoman and Interwar history, the Ottoman Grand Vizier, Mustafa Kemal Pasha sought to distance the Ottomans from any foreign entanglements, besides Britain in the case of war, and seek internal recovery instead. Kemal believed that the best way to do this was through more cooperation with the Greeks, who had become the Ottoman Empire’s commercial hub in the past decade and a half of cooperation with one another…….”
Excerpts from The Dictatorship in Rio: The Long Five Decades by Jose Luis de Castro
“……. Marshal Hermes da Fonseca’s established dictatorship in Brazil came to a rather large hurdle in 1925 when the old fiery Marshal, and the Dictator of Brazil himself died at the age of 70 on January 14, 1925. The cabinet of Brazil, composed of key military and pro-military figures immediately declared a shared system of ruling from the cabinet until a new President was ‘elected’, however said shared system of ruling immediately began to fall apart at the seams as the cabinet members began to compete for the presidency and thus the entire dictatorship. The key contender for the post of the Presidency came to be Cesar Augusto Parga Rodriguez, a Brazilian Major General who also worked as the Defense Minister of Brazil at the time of the old Marshal’s death. On the 17th of March, 1925, he led the 1st Infantry Division into the cabinet building of Brazil, and the coup saw him install himself as President of Brazil – and thus the Second Dictator of Brazil was installed into power.
Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss
Parga Rodriguez
The New Dictator of Brazil
However, Rodriguez’s regime was not stable, and the sudden coup saw instability brought back into Brazil as Socialists, Communists, Guildists, Monarchists and Pro-Democratic groups began to utilize the opening that had been given to them to organize major rallies and major attacks on the government. The military cracked down on these activities and suppressed them brutally, but the writing was on the wall for many to see and many Brazilians began to use the disruption of the succession in the dictatorship to try and restore democracy in the nation. The Minas Geras Oligarchs in particular – who had their power curtailed by the military dictatorship contrary to the military’s promises – supported the democratic movements. Rodriguez knew that he would have to move hard and fast against any sort of internal dissent, lest it grew out of control. But he was faced with another problem. Due to the increasing static nature of the dictatorship’s economic policy, the Brazilian economy was becoming extremely unwell to the point that most protestors couldn’t care less about their system of governance but had more economic grievances instead. The price of food and daily appliances sky rocketed as the Brazilian military dictatorship was unable to find suitable economic policies for the ever changing international market.
Protestors Rallying in Brazil against the Military Dictatorship
The situation turned turbulent when the Portuguese government was temporarily implicated in a scheme to restore the Brazilian monarchy, which was anathema to the military dictatorship. After this event – called the June 25 Event – the Brazilian government declared martial law, suspended the remnants of their remaining local elections and nearly declared war on Portugal. It was the interference of Manuel II which prevented war – as he overrode the pride of the Lisbon government to prove through the Portuguese archives that Portugal had no involvement in whatever plot intrigue was going on in Brazil. Brazil backed down from a pro-War policy with Portugal, but the state of martial law continued, and the country’s stability declined further.
At this point, the newly appointed Rodriguez government decided that they needed to divert the attention of the people from the internal problems of the country and they began to seek external opponents to purposefully bring back internal stability. And this came in the form of Uruguay, which had long standing territorial and maritime disputes with Brazil.
President Jose Serrato of Uruguay had inherited a country which was stifling underneath the post-war economic order. Furthermore, politically, the system created by Baltasar Blum about distributing the ministries to governors and other important political figures within the Uruguayan legislature to prevent Presidential Dictatorships had created a political problem and crisis in the country as the cabinet and President and legislature rarely got along with one another, leading to stifled growth in Uruguay. This led to the Batllista, Colorados and Riverista factions in Uruguay to start openly warring against one another in the political faction, which led to rather large amounts of instability in the river Plate nation. Reform had been tried in Uruguay for the past decade through the creation of the Frigorifico Nacional and the Administracion Nacional de Combustibles (ANC) which led to some economic easing, but did not alleviate the political and societal troubles that Uruguay continued to face. Uruguay’s key position as an immigration hub for European immigrants into Argentina and into Chile from the Atlantic side was also adding to the tensions that were rising in Uruguay. Having an excess of around ~100,000 immigrants coming to the nation every year from around the globe led to a severe amount of societal upheaval that was not conductive to an unstable nation as that of Uruguay. Britain’s stifling economic domination of the nation did not help matters either, which severely limited the amount of economic reform they could conduct.
To the Rodriguez regime, the Uruguayans were the prime target for their ‘external activities’. Furthermore, ending the nationalistic territorial and maritime disputes that Brazil had with the small South American nation would appeal to the nationalistic senses of the Brazilian masses easily, whilst making the economy going on war footing would ease some of the unemployment problems as well. On the 12th of October, 1925, Brazilian troops under the command of Stephen Leitao de Carvalho crossed the Uruguayan border and managed to capture Rivera from the small Uruguayan military garrison in the city, shocking most of the South American countries, barring those who had anticipated it (Chile & Columbia). Jose Serrato knew that Uruguay was not ready for a proper war – in comparison to the well trained and well equipped Brazilian Army, the Uruguayan military was a paltry force. Serrato attempted to start negotiations with Rodriguez in private through the British Consulate in Montevideo, however Rodriguez would not back down, he had too much riding on his foreign ‘adventure’ to back down. The Uruguayan President reluctantly went to Parliament and secured a declaration of war against the Brazilian Republic. He did so, knowing that aid was forthcoming from another nation.
Tensions between Brazil and Argentina had been high ever since the new dictatorship continued the South American Naval Race between Argentina and Brazil. This blatant attempt to conquer parts of Uruguay into Brazil was deemed as unforgivable by the Argentines and they knew that after the disputes along the Uruguay border were sealed in favor of Brazil, Rodriguez’s militaristic and expansionistic regime would then turn its eyes towards Argentina and the ‘hated’ Argentinian corridor. When President Marcelo Tocuato de Alvear went to the Argentinian deputies to ask for a declaration of war against Brazil in alliance with Uruguay, he received said declaration of war almost unanimously. The Argentinian military was mobilized for war.
The problem however was that even with the Uruguayan and Argentinian militaries combined, the Brazilians held a competitive numerical advantage over their enemies. Brazil being a nation of 31 million against Argentina (8.8 million) & Uruguay (3.5 million) held a natural advantage in that regard. As Argentina mobilized, so did Brazil, and quickly enough, the Brazilians began to deploy guarding garrisons towards the Brazilian-Argentine border, much faster than what the Argentine military had thought possible. The military problems of the Alliance as it became known, was made worse by the fact that the Brazilians won the Battle of Fialho on the disputed Brazilian Triangle on the Uruguayan-Brazilian border, which occupied key strategic marshlands to the Uruguayan north, giving up the strategic imperative to the Brazilians.
The Argentines and Brazilians clashed for the first time at sea with the Brazilian fleet under the command of Admiral Luis Klinger trying to bombard Montevideo Harbor on the 29th of October, 1925, with the Brazilian Battleship Minas Geraes leading the way. An Argentinian Fleet under the command of Admiral Jose de Parana, commanding the pride of the Argentine fleet, the ARA Rivadavia defeated this bombardment attempt and pushed the Brazilian navy out of the mouth of the Rio de la Plata region. The naval battle, which was called the Battle of Flores, ended in decisive Argentine-Uruguayan victory and cemented Allied naval dominance for the rest of the brief conflict. The Argentines lost no vessels whilst the Brazilians had to contend with a lost cruiser and a partially destroyed destroyer.
ARA Rivadavia
The Ship that beat the Brazilians back. It packs a punch to say the least.
Despite the success at sea, the Alliance fared poorly at land. In Central Uruguay, the Brazilians pushed all the way towards Buena Union. The Brazilians defeated a Uruguayan attempt to capture Chuy at the border, and the Brazilians managed to seize the important northern town of Artigas as well, fundamentally capturing all important logistical centers of Northern Uruguay. With the Argentines, the Brazilians managed to capture Puerto Iguazu in the north, and managed to capture the key Argentine air fields in the region, thereby handing aerial supremacy in the region firmly in the hands of Brazil.
As expected, internal dissent to the Rodriguez regime nearly collapsed overnight as Rodriguez began to move towards Brazilian irredentism as his means of suppressing dissent. Nationalists who supported radical guildism suddenly turned pro-Rodriguez, and even the day to day protests started to fumble and slow down. The rise of the wartime economy meant that people could get better employment, which resulted in a more stable salary for many people. To those people unaffected by the war in Northern Brazil, the war was fundamentally a ‘jolly little war’ for them. However, by this point, foreign powers began to meddle into the regional conflict as the month turned into November.
Britain, who virtually controlled the economic flow of money from Argentina and Uruguay predictably took a pro-Alliance stance and demanded that the war end. The naval wartime activity in the Rio De Plata region was severely hampering the ability of both Spanish speaking nations to export meat to Britain and several meat shortage crunches were already being experienced in London and other urban centers in Britain. The United States of America, which had a large share of interest invested into the Pampas of Argentina, also sided with their Anglo-Saxon brethren and took a pro-Alliance stance, demanding a quick end to the war and also promoting itself as a mediator in the conflict. The Russian Empire, which was a key economic partner of Brazil, and relied on Brazil for rubber and coffee imports – vital trading items in the Russian economy – took a pro-Brazilian approach, whilst Danubia, which had invested a lot into Brazil’s economy, also began to make pro-Brazilian noises. The Ottoman Empire, which was a key investor into both Argentina and Brazil, had a more ambiguous role to play in the conflict, as the Ottomans tried to mediate the conflict as well. There are rumors however that the Ottomans supplied and played both sides during the conflict, but no verification of this rumor has ever been found.
November was a month of great military success for the Brazilians. They occupied key positions in Northern Uruguay and managed to penetrate deep into the region without fusses. By the end of the month, on average the Brazilians were at least ~35 kilometers into Uruguay’s northern frontiers. The scarce population of the region also made it impossible for a proper guerilla response to be managed whilst a third of the occupied population being Portuguese speaking also allowed Brazil to manage their occupation in a smooth and non-neglected manner. Brazil’s small but effective air force also effectively bombed as they pleased over the northern Uruguayan airspace, with little to no opposition as Uruguay had no aerial force, and the Argentines had lost their air fields to the north to Brazilian occupation and attack.
At this point it was clear to everyone in the world that without foreign intervention, Brazil was going to take what it wanted without any repercussions at all. William Lygon, 7th Earl Beauchamp, and the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom convened cabinet on the 28th of November, 1925 to seek the aid of cabinet in pushing an interventionist agenda in the British Parliament. Prime Minister McKenna who did not wish to be seen as weak, and Chancellor Adamson also were in favor of intervention due to the disruption of the economy in the region. On the 2nd of December, 1925, the British Parliament voted in favor of intervening diplomatically, and if needed in a limited military show of force against Brazil.
Admiral Watson
Admiral Sir Hugh Dudley Richards Watson, commanding 2 Squadrons of the Royal Navy’s Southern Atlantic Fleet set sail for Brazilian shores and instigated a virtual blockade of all military trade to and fro from Brazil by blockading all major ports of Brazil, and declaring an exclusion zone around Brazilian waters. This intimidation stunt, which was clearly aimed at forcing Rodriguez to the negotiating table worked, and Rodriguez opened negotiations with Argentina and Uruguay through Bolivia. The Bolivian Government hosted a peace conference in La Paz on the 18th of December, 1925 and the Alliance reluctantly agreed to the following terms: -
- The Brazilian ‘occupation’ for an indefinite period of the occupied territories in Uruguay.
- Brazil to withdraw from occupied border regions in Argentina.
- Brazil to pay reparations for destroyed infrastructure in Uruguay and Argentina.
The Lands given to Brazil for 'indefinite occupation' in orange as shown in the above map.
On the 25th, Argentina and Uruguay ratified the Agreement of La Paz, whilst Brazil did the same on the 27th, ending the brief 1925 Border War in territorial Brazilian victory, yet Economic-Diplomatic Alliance victory. The 1925 Border War would lay down the foundations of the Great South American War – the South American front of the Second Great War…….”
Hello,
Incidentally, how are these developments in South America affecting public opinion and federal government reactions in the US?