Good graphic. If you don’t mind me asking how did you make it?
Osman Reborn; The Survival of Ottoman Democracy [An Ottoman TL set in the 1900s]
- Thread starter Sarthak
- Start date
I... I would be very careful about a World War II analogue where there's a Jewish dictator massacring people.
Pretty much. It's pretty much a civil war of radical and moderate Jews with the moderates backed by Egypt, UK and the Ottomans whilst the radicals are backed by the Germans. A deadly version of the troubles more than a 'war'.
during decolonisation will the ottomans back muslims trying to break away from the colonial powers, if so would they arm them?
As @SenatorChickpea said earlier in this thread, decolonization is not going to be as onesided or easy as the Ottomans hope it will be
A proxy war between those nations, huh.
I can't help but marvel at the irony of Germany backing radical Jews compared to what happened OTL tbh. Though, tbh I did think that the "Butcher of the Middle East" title was gotten from the atrocities committed towards the local Arabs.
The Berlin Concorde sounds like a revised version of the League of Three Emperors, just with probably more members.
Well, if Jabotinsky is killing Jews whose relatives in New York and London are able to make a stink about it, he'll get a must worse reputation in the West than if he was say, the Shah of Iran killing ten times as many Iranians.
In July. The Islamic calendar has different new years than the Christian calendar.
Ottoman Empire should be using the Rumi calendar though. AFAIK that one has the same New Years, since it is still the Julian (if the switch happened on schedule, by 1918, Gregorian) calendar, just offset to start counting the years from the Hijra, and thus is 622 years behind the Western calendar.
Chapter 67: cultural update – The Top 3 Sports in the Ottoman Empire
Chapter 67: cultural update – The Top 3 Sports in the Ottoman Empire
Football in 1926 is the most popular sport in the Ottoman Empire. It was introduced into the Ottoman Empire by Englishmen and Frenchmen living in the Empire during the 1860s, and it was quickly adopted throughout the Ottoman Empire as a popular sport. It was adopted by all ethnic groups throughout the Empire and enjoys a high level of popularity unmatched by most other sports in the Empire. Ottoman Football is officially regulated by the Ministry of the Interior, however the Sports Department within the Ministry is regarded as a highly autonomous part of the Interior Ministry.
The Ottoman National Football Team in the 1926 FIFA World Cup
Up until 1916, the only real domestic league for Ottoman Football was the Constantinople Football League, which whilst highly competitive was extremely restrictive to the point that foreign footballers called it an exclusively Turkish Football league. While members of other ethnicities did play in the CFL, it was true that the vast majority of players were Turkish in origin, and many other football clubs, known for employing other ethnicities were not allowed to play for the cup. However, in 1916, Ahmet Riza’s government overturned this one-and-a-half-decade long trend, and instead of being limited to Anatolia and Thrace, the Constantinople Football League was opened to all football clubs throughout the Ottoman Empire, with the government intending to make it the premier football league in the Ottoman Empire, following the models of England, France, Germany etc. The Top 7 clubs of the previous Constantinople Football Leagues – Fenerbahce SK, Galatasaray SK, Besiktas JK, Altinordu Idman Yurdu, Cadi-Keuy FC, HMS Imogene FC and Gunes SK – were chosen to be retained within the CFL, whilst another batch of 13 pre-existing football clubs in the Ottoman Empire outside of Anatolia and Thrace were entered into the CFL as competitive teams – Baghdad FC, Damascus FC, Jerusalem FC, Jeddah FC, Tripoli FC, Sana’a FC, Kirkuk FC, Skopje FC, Vllaznia, Yanya FC, Salonika FC, Prishtina and Kavala. These 20 teams have remained static since 1916 as the only 20 football clubs in the Ottoman Empire allowed to play for the CFL, which became the Ottoman Empire’s equivalent of the English Premier League and French Ligue 1. The only additions to the CFL came after the Second Great War when 3 teams from annexed territories were included. Since 1983, Montenegro also takes part in the CFL by sending two teams from their country, and thereby bringing the modern CFL tally of 25 football clubs and teams.
James Lafontaine and Henry Pears
the Founders of the CFL in 1904
But while the CFL became the highest of the high for football professionalism in the Ottoman Empire, second level and third level leagues were also being introduced on a slow basis to build up a sporting proficiency. This culminated in the creation of the Ottoman Balkan League, with clubs from the Ottoman Balkans competition against one another since 1921, and the Ottoman Asia Minor League, with clubs from Anatolia and Ottoman Arabia (including Libya) competition with one another since 1925. These two second level leagues were and are considered to be the stepping stones into the Constantinople Football League, which is the gold standard of football in the Ottoman Empire, and of course, for good reason.
Domestically, these developments were allowing the Ottomans to make an appearance in football sporting internationally as well. The first set of organized international football games took place in Constantinople in 1918, when the Ottoman National Football Team competed with Greece in a three match series (Which they lost 2-1). From the Ottoman re-entry into the Olympics from 1920, the Ottoman Football team participated in the Olympics against other international teams as well. Though the Ottomans were not successful to challenge top tier football teams that countries like England, France, Spain and Sweden put forward, the Ottomans established themselves as a solid secondary tier international football nation during these Olympic football matches by pulling an upset win over Portugal in 1924 Olympics. With sports seen as a viable alternative to international political battles after the First Great War, under the authority of President Jules Rimet, the Federation Internationale de Football Association or FIFA began to drive ahead for creating their own independent football tournament between nations. This culminated in the 1926 FIFA Football World Cup, which became the first of its kind. With Uruguay as sitting champions, having won two Olympic Football Tournaments previously, it had originally been decided that Uruguay would host the inaugural FIFA World Cup, but political difficulties due to the Brazilian Invasion of Uruguay made hosting the cup in Uruguay a non-starter. Instead it was hosted by Sweden in 1926. With a total of 20 international teams’ (Argentina, Chile, France, Mexico, Brazil, Bolivia, Serbia, Uruguay, Romania, Peru, United States, Paraguay, Belgium, Britain, France, Ottoman Empire, Egypt, Danubia, Sweden, Switzerland as competitors) competing in the 1926 World Cup, FIFA’s gamble by making a non-profit international football league succeeded splendidly. The Ottomans finished 11th in the 1926 FIFA World Cup.
The 1926 FIFA World Cup
At home, this popularity of Football created a Football culture in the Ottoman Empire so to speak, especially in urban areas, and more and more Football clubs began to crop up in the Empire. One of the chronic problems that the Ottomans faced was that with the exception of Constantinople and Smyrna, the Ottomans had no football grounds that we up to international standards. This was changed under Mustafa Kemal Pasha’s cultural initiatives, which led to the construction of new international standard grounds in Salonika, Angora, Baghdad, Damascus and Skopje. These grounds soon became the hosts of fierce international rivalries within the sport. In 1926, negotiations between the Ottomans, Greeks, Bulgarians and Romanians for the creation of the Balkan Football League also started, which would eventually be established in 1934. With the Ottomans, Bulgarians, Romanians and Greeks (joined later by the Serbs and Montenegrins after the 2nd Great War) playing against each other in a league of multiple matches on a 3-year gap basis. Alongside the CFL, the Balkan Football League remains the most popular football league in the Ottoman Empire.
From 1911, the sport of Cricket experienced a meteoric rise in the Ottoman Empire, and by 1926 it had quickly become the 2nd most played and 2nd most popular sport in the Ottoman Empire. Introduced by Englishmen in the 19th century and almost exclusively played by the higher class until 1908, the sport gained notoriety in the Ottoman Empire after Ottoman soldiers picked the sport up from British military attaches during the Italo-Ottoman War of 1911. During the Great War, the sport expanded in its popularity and by the time the Great War ended, the Ottomans were making slow steps forward in favor of the sport. With the establishment of the Ottoman Cricket Board (OBC) in 1918, the Ottoman Vilayet League was established as well, which became the Ottoman Empire’s first class cricket league, with each vilayet having their own team, competing for the auspiciously named Osman Cup.
Ottoman Vilayet Teams playing against each other
This ground level development of Cricket in the Ottoman Empire managed to make the sport grow even more popular, and also honed the skills of the players. In 1922, the Ottomans finally managed to win a cricket series against Canada, thus cementing the Ottoman Empire as a cricketing nation. This, coupled with victories against Ireland, South Africa and New Zealand from 1922-25 in on and off series and matches allowed the Ottoman Empire to become the first non-British Empire nation to join the Imperial Cricket Conference (ICC) in 1925 alongside the West Indies. The President of the ICC, Lionel Tennyson, who was also key in his support for non-British Empire nations to join the ICC, was also a good friend of Rimet, and like his footballing counterpart, he pushed for a non-profit competition between the playing test teams. This culminated, alongside the FIFA World Cup in the 1926 ICC Cricket World Cup, which was hosted in Britain. This proved to be a game changer for all cricketing nations out there. The British united the raga band Scottish Cricket Team with the English one to form the British Cricket Team, and advertisements for the Cup allowed for a brief revival of the cricketing sport in the United States of America as well.
The 1926 Cricket World Cup
With West Indies, Australia, New Zealand, Britain, South Africa, Canada, the Ottoman Empire and Ireland participating in the Cup, it proved to be a success, commercially less so than its Footballing counterpart, but from a cricketing point of view, the crowd and monetary profits were large and indicative of success. The 1926 World Cup also gave rise to modern day One Day Match (ODM), which was played for a total of 60 overs per innings. The ODM is still to this day the most widely played version of Cricket. The Ottomans finished ahead of Canada, New Zealand and Ireland, but behind the other teams, with Australia playing to lift the first Cricket World Cup trophy. Though the Ottomans hadn’t come in the top 3 as had been expected by over-zealous Ottoman fans during the competition, they had acquitted themselves well, and this only managed to heighten the popularity of the sport even further within the Ottoman Empire.
From an ethnic point of view, Football remained king in the Ottoman Empire, due to its overwhelming popularity among the Turkish, Greek, Slavic and Albanian population of the Ottoman Empire, but the Ottoman Arabs, Armenians and Jews picked up Cricket like a fish to water, and though all ethnic groups played Ottoman cricket, Armenians, Jews and Arabs quickly became the pioneers of Ottoman cricket. Armenian athlete, Migir Migiryan, who was also known for his bronze medal in the 1912 Olympics in Handed Shot Put, became the first Captain of the Ottoman Cricket Team during the 1926 World Cup, and Armenians in particular have led cricket in the Ottoman Empire, with several captains and vice-captains of the Ottoman team coming from Armenian origins.
Migir Migiryan, the 1st Professional Captain of the Ottoman National Cricket Team
1926 would also see the beginning of the Remnants Cricketing Rivalry with the 1926 Irish Tour of the Ottoman Empire resulting in said rivalry. Cricket and Football would eventually become equally popular in the Ottoman Empire by the 1950s, and still enjoys that status to this very day.
The National Sport of the Ottoman Empire, Oil Wrestling is arguably the second or third most popular sport in the Ottoman Empire. Whilst the Greco-Romans also practiced a form of oil wrestling for sport since Roman times, the modern version of oil wrestling was brought by the Turkic speakers of Central Asia, who migrated into Anatolia during the Seljuk Empire, and thus forming the basis of the modern Turkish ethnic group. In particular, the type of oil wrestling popularized by the Ottomans is a type of wrestling that was mostly found in the Old Oghuz Turkic tribes. The Ottomans, whilst never acknowledging a national sport until 1909, de-facto recognized Oil Wrestling as the national pastime since 1360, with the conception of the Kirkpinar Wrestling Competition in Adrianople, which is held every year for the title ‘Chief Wrestler’ of the Ottoman Empire.
Initially regarded as a Turkish only sport, the final restrictions were lifted in 1914, and everyone in the Empire was able to enjoy the sport which had become their national activity. Each ethnic group arguably had their own special techniques for the sport of oil wrestling, and this showed in the multiple competitions that were held for the sport every year. The Ottomans would quickly become known in the international arena as the World Champions of wrestling, and this showed. With powerful names such as Kizilcikh Mahmut and Kurtdereli Mehmet under the belt for the Ottomans, the Ottomans lifted the Wrestling championship in both the 1920 and 1924 Olympic Games, gaining notoriety in the world for its keen wrestling culture.
Kizilcikh Mahmut
The victory at the 1920 Olympic Games for the Ottomans in Wrestling also initiated the 2nd Ottoman Invasion of America, which is a colloquial name for the sudden tours of Ottoman professional wrestlers in the United States of America from 1920 – 1940, in the same style as the 1st Ottoman Invasion from 1870 – 1890, with Ottoman wrestling champions quickly becoming masters in professional wrestling leagues all throughout the world.
Football
Football in 1926 is the most popular sport in the Ottoman Empire. It was introduced into the Ottoman Empire by Englishmen and Frenchmen living in the Empire during the 1860s, and it was quickly adopted throughout the Ottoman Empire as a popular sport. It was adopted by all ethnic groups throughout the Empire and enjoys a high level of popularity unmatched by most other sports in the Empire. Ottoman Football is officially regulated by the Ministry of the Interior, however the Sports Department within the Ministry is regarded as a highly autonomous part of the Interior Ministry.
The Ottoman National Football Team in the 1926 FIFA World Cup
Up until 1916, the only real domestic league for Ottoman Football was the Constantinople Football League, which whilst highly competitive was extremely restrictive to the point that foreign footballers called it an exclusively Turkish Football league. While members of other ethnicities did play in the CFL, it was true that the vast majority of players were Turkish in origin, and many other football clubs, known for employing other ethnicities were not allowed to play for the cup. However, in 1916, Ahmet Riza’s government overturned this one-and-a-half-decade long trend, and instead of being limited to Anatolia and Thrace, the Constantinople Football League was opened to all football clubs throughout the Ottoman Empire, with the government intending to make it the premier football league in the Ottoman Empire, following the models of England, France, Germany etc. The Top 7 clubs of the previous Constantinople Football Leagues – Fenerbahce SK, Galatasaray SK, Besiktas JK, Altinordu Idman Yurdu, Cadi-Keuy FC, HMS Imogene FC and Gunes SK – were chosen to be retained within the CFL, whilst another batch of 13 pre-existing football clubs in the Ottoman Empire outside of Anatolia and Thrace were entered into the CFL as competitive teams – Baghdad FC, Damascus FC, Jerusalem FC, Jeddah FC, Tripoli FC, Sana’a FC, Kirkuk FC, Skopje FC, Vllaznia, Yanya FC, Salonika FC, Prishtina and Kavala. These 20 teams have remained static since 1916 as the only 20 football clubs in the Ottoman Empire allowed to play for the CFL, which became the Ottoman Empire’s equivalent of the English Premier League and French Ligue 1. The only additions to the CFL came after the Second Great War when 3 teams from annexed territories were included. Since 1983, Montenegro also takes part in the CFL by sending two teams from their country, and thereby bringing the modern CFL tally of 25 football clubs and teams.
James Lafontaine and Henry Pears
the Founders of the CFL in 1904
But while the CFL became the highest of the high for football professionalism in the Ottoman Empire, second level and third level leagues were also being introduced on a slow basis to build up a sporting proficiency. This culminated in the creation of the Ottoman Balkan League, with clubs from the Ottoman Balkans competition against one another since 1921, and the Ottoman Asia Minor League, with clubs from Anatolia and Ottoman Arabia (including Libya) competition with one another since 1925. These two second level leagues were and are considered to be the stepping stones into the Constantinople Football League, which is the gold standard of football in the Ottoman Empire, and of course, for good reason.
Domestically, these developments were allowing the Ottomans to make an appearance in football sporting internationally as well. The first set of organized international football games took place in Constantinople in 1918, when the Ottoman National Football Team competed with Greece in a three match series (Which they lost 2-1). From the Ottoman re-entry into the Olympics from 1920, the Ottoman Football team participated in the Olympics against other international teams as well. Though the Ottomans were not successful to challenge top tier football teams that countries like England, France, Spain and Sweden put forward, the Ottomans established themselves as a solid secondary tier international football nation during these Olympic football matches by pulling an upset win over Portugal in 1924 Olympics. With sports seen as a viable alternative to international political battles after the First Great War, under the authority of President Jules Rimet, the Federation Internationale de Football Association or FIFA began to drive ahead for creating their own independent football tournament between nations. This culminated in the 1926 FIFA Football World Cup, which became the first of its kind. With Uruguay as sitting champions, having won two Olympic Football Tournaments previously, it had originally been decided that Uruguay would host the inaugural FIFA World Cup, but political difficulties due to the Brazilian Invasion of Uruguay made hosting the cup in Uruguay a non-starter. Instead it was hosted by Sweden in 1926. With a total of 20 international teams’ (Argentina, Chile, France, Mexico, Brazil, Bolivia, Serbia, Uruguay, Romania, Peru, United States, Paraguay, Belgium, Britain, France, Ottoman Empire, Egypt, Danubia, Sweden, Switzerland as competitors) competing in the 1926 World Cup, FIFA’s gamble by making a non-profit international football league succeeded splendidly. The Ottomans finished 11th in the 1926 FIFA World Cup.
The 1926 FIFA World Cup
At home, this popularity of Football created a Football culture in the Ottoman Empire so to speak, especially in urban areas, and more and more Football clubs began to crop up in the Empire. One of the chronic problems that the Ottomans faced was that with the exception of Constantinople and Smyrna, the Ottomans had no football grounds that we up to international standards. This was changed under Mustafa Kemal Pasha’s cultural initiatives, which led to the construction of new international standard grounds in Salonika, Angora, Baghdad, Damascus and Skopje. These grounds soon became the hosts of fierce international rivalries within the sport. In 1926, negotiations between the Ottomans, Greeks, Bulgarians and Romanians for the creation of the Balkan Football League also started, which would eventually be established in 1934. With the Ottomans, Bulgarians, Romanians and Greeks (joined later by the Serbs and Montenegrins after the 2nd Great War) playing against each other in a league of multiple matches on a 3-year gap basis. Alongside the CFL, the Balkan Football League remains the most popular football league in the Ottoman Empire.
Cricket
From 1911, the sport of Cricket experienced a meteoric rise in the Ottoman Empire, and by 1926 it had quickly become the 2nd most played and 2nd most popular sport in the Ottoman Empire. Introduced by Englishmen in the 19th century and almost exclusively played by the higher class until 1908, the sport gained notoriety in the Ottoman Empire after Ottoman soldiers picked the sport up from British military attaches during the Italo-Ottoman War of 1911. During the Great War, the sport expanded in its popularity and by the time the Great War ended, the Ottomans were making slow steps forward in favor of the sport. With the establishment of the Ottoman Cricket Board (OBC) in 1918, the Ottoman Vilayet League was established as well, which became the Ottoman Empire’s first class cricket league, with each vilayet having their own team, competing for the auspiciously named Osman Cup.
Ottoman Vilayet Teams playing against each other
This ground level development of Cricket in the Ottoman Empire managed to make the sport grow even more popular, and also honed the skills of the players. In 1922, the Ottomans finally managed to win a cricket series against Canada, thus cementing the Ottoman Empire as a cricketing nation. This, coupled with victories against Ireland, South Africa and New Zealand from 1922-25 in on and off series and matches allowed the Ottoman Empire to become the first non-British Empire nation to join the Imperial Cricket Conference (ICC) in 1925 alongside the West Indies. The President of the ICC, Lionel Tennyson, who was also key in his support for non-British Empire nations to join the ICC, was also a good friend of Rimet, and like his footballing counterpart, he pushed for a non-profit competition between the playing test teams. This culminated, alongside the FIFA World Cup in the 1926 ICC Cricket World Cup, which was hosted in Britain. This proved to be a game changer for all cricketing nations out there. The British united the raga band Scottish Cricket Team with the English one to form the British Cricket Team, and advertisements for the Cup allowed for a brief revival of the cricketing sport in the United States of America as well.
The 1926 Cricket World Cup
With West Indies, Australia, New Zealand, Britain, South Africa, Canada, the Ottoman Empire and Ireland participating in the Cup, it proved to be a success, commercially less so than its Footballing counterpart, but from a cricketing point of view, the crowd and monetary profits were large and indicative of success. The 1926 World Cup also gave rise to modern day One Day Match (ODM), which was played for a total of 60 overs per innings. The ODM is still to this day the most widely played version of Cricket. The Ottomans finished ahead of Canada, New Zealand and Ireland, but behind the other teams, with Australia playing to lift the first Cricket World Cup trophy. Though the Ottomans hadn’t come in the top 3 as had been expected by over-zealous Ottoman fans during the competition, they had acquitted themselves well, and this only managed to heighten the popularity of the sport even further within the Ottoman Empire.
From an ethnic point of view, Football remained king in the Ottoman Empire, due to its overwhelming popularity among the Turkish, Greek, Slavic and Albanian population of the Ottoman Empire, but the Ottoman Arabs, Armenians and Jews picked up Cricket like a fish to water, and though all ethnic groups played Ottoman cricket, Armenians, Jews and Arabs quickly became the pioneers of Ottoman cricket. Armenian athlete, Migir Migiryan, who was also known for his bronze medal in the 1912 Olympics in Handed Shot Put, became the first Captain of the Ottoman Cricket Team during the 1926 World Cup, and Armenians in particular have led cricket in the Ottoman Empire, with several captains and vice-captains of the Ottoman team coming from Armenian origins.
Migir Migiryan, the 1st Professional Captain of the Ottoman National Cricket Team
1926 would also see the beginning of the Remnants Cricketing Rivalry with the 1926 Irish Tour of the Ottoman Empire resulting in said rivalry. Cricket and Football would eventually become equally popular in the Ottoman Empire by the 1950s, and still enjoys that status to this very day.
Oil Wrestling
The National Sport of the Ottoman Empire, Oil Wrestling is arguably the second or third most popular sport in the Ottoman Empire. Whilst the Greco-Romans also practiced a form of oil wrestling for sport since Roman times, the modern version of oil wrestling was brought by the Turkic speakers of Central Asia, who migrated into Anatolia during the Seljuk Empire, and thus forming the basis of the modern Turkish ethnic group. In particular, the type of oil wrestling popularized by the Ottomans is a type of wrestling that was mostly found in the Old Oghuz Turkic tribes. The Ottomans, whilst never acknowledging a national sport until 1909, de-facto recognized Oil Wrestling as the national pastime since 1360, with the conception of the Kirkpinar Wrestling Competition in Adrianople, which is held every year for the title ‘Chief Wrestler’ of the Ottoman Empire.
Initially regarded as a Turkish only sport, the final restrictions were lifted in 1914, and everyone in the Empire was able to enjoy the sport which had become their national activity. Each ethnic group arguably had their own special techniques for the sport of oil wrestling, and this showed in the multiple competitions that were held for the sport every year. The Ottomans would quickly become known in the international arena as the World Champions of wrestling, and this showed. With powerful names such as Kizilcikh Mahmut and Kurtdereli Mehmet under the belt for the Ottomans, the Ottomans lifted the Wrestling championship in both the 1920 and 1924 Olympic Games, gaining notoriety in the world for its keen wrestling culture.
Kizilcikh Mahmut
The victory at the 1920 Olympic Games for the Ottomans in Wrestling also initiated the 2nd Ottoman Invasion of America, which is a colloquial name for the sudden tours of Ottoman professional wrestlers in the United States of America from 1920 – 1940, in the same style as the 1st Ottoman Invasion from 1870 – 1890, with Ottoman wrestling champions quickly becoming masters in professional wrestling leagues all throughout the world.