DBWI: The Ottoman Empire joined the Great War

yourworstnightmare

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The Ottomans were in no way prepared for war. They'd suffer some humiliating defeats against the British, and it would probably leade to the collapse of the Junta a little bit earlier than OTL.
 
Perhaps the Ottomans fall into Civil War and becomes partitioned into several statelets like the Central Powers and Russia did?

On which side would the Ottomans enter, though?
 
Remember that Russia imported an awful lot of war materiel, and most of it went through the Dardenelles. How long could the Ottomans have reasonably held the straits against the Royal Navy, and what impact would that have had on Russia's ability to stay in the war as long as they did?
 
Remember that Russia imported an awful lot of war materiel, and most of it went through the Dardanelles. How long could the Ottomans have reasonably held the straits against the Royal Navy, and what impact would that have had on Russia's ability to stay in the war as long as they did?

I wouldn't expect it to be long but if the Ottomans did manage to hold it Russia could be looking at some pretty serious shortages. The only alternative routes would be around Norway to Murmansk and through Persia and the Caucasus but neither seem like they would be able to carry the same volume as the Dardanelles.

Also, how many troops would Britain be willing to redirect from the Western Front to deal with the Ottomans. Off the top of my head I can think of Palestine and the Dardanelles as fronts with Mesopotamia a definite possibility. Would the absence of those soldiers have a significant impact on the Western Front?
 

NothingNow

Banned
The Ottoman Empire came close to joining the Great War in 1914. So what would happen if they did?

They would have immediately repudiated their foreign debts, instead of using them as a bargaining chip, cutting their pre-war public debts by half for allowing Entante warships free travel through the Bosporus. Depending on how things went, that could pay off, or end up with it being considered a default by the victorious powers.

Incidentally, if the Sultan Osman I and Reshadieh had been a bit slower to finish their trials, and thus be subject to seizure by the Royal Navy, it might have seriously set the Ottomans against the entante, but as it was, that didn't happen.

However, given that the Ottomans had also spent those four years rebuilding their army to a very professional standard, so when the Russians finally went and fell into revolution, they could make a line drive for Baku.
 
I'm highly skeptical of the chances of the Ottomans being able to last into 1916. The Western Allies would likely try to attack the Ottoman Empire as part of a "soft underbelly" of the Central Powers. Quite frankly, I do not see how the Ottoman Empire could last more than a couple of years. Although their army would likely perform much better than it had done in the Balkan wars (the army's reorganization would be complete, the command structure was more unified, and they would not be suffering from the element of surprise), the Ottoman's pre-modern economy would simply not be able to handle the stresses of a modern war. The Ottomans had more or less no arms industry to speak of, her transportation system (and thus, her ability to supply her troops) was relatively undeveloped. Unless she could receive significant logistical help from an ally (unlikely, considering the needs of Germany's own army and the distances between the two) then her forces could be rolled up in a year or two.
 
Whcih revolution do you mean - the 1919 or 1925 Russian revolution?

I am wondeing if an OE entry on teh CPs side had any impact on Bulgaria and Italy - both joining the Entente in early 1915 - after both were promised large gains. and the men an d materiel drawn to the new fronts have considerably contirbutred to the 1916 armistice.

An ottoman entry would probably have tilted the balance in Italy and Bulgaria would have stayed neutral (or even joined teh CPs) - an armitice in 1916/1916 but with changed victors is likely then. maybe even an earlier Russian revolution...
 
The Ottoman Empire barely stumbled along in the post war era long enough to exploit European desire for its strategic resources, the nation's stability at the time was less than that of house of cards with it's successive governments standing on shaky popularity at best. One more firm kick from any major conflict and id say the whole state comes crashing down, though I doubt the ensuing balkanization would be as bad as it was for the CP and certainly would not be to the extent of Russia's misfortune.
 
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NothingNow

Banned
Whcih revolution do you mean - the 1919 or 1925 Russian revolution?

1919. They rolled up the Workers Transcaucasian Republic from 1919 to 1921, remember? Not that anyone really cared, since Ataturk was much nicer to the people of the region than the White Russians were.

The fighting in Northern Dagestan and around Stavropol was infamously brutal during the civil war, and when you're the guy with the well paid, professional army that isn't massacring civilians, it's hard not to be seen as anything but the good guy. Never mind that you're only there for the oil.
 
1919. They rolled up the Workers Transcaucasian Republic from 1919 to 1921, remember? Not that anyone really cared, since Kemal was much nicer to the people of the region than the White Russians were.

The fighting in Northern Dagestan and around Stavropol was infamously brutal during the civil war, and when you're the guy with the well paid, professional army that isn't massacring civilians, it's hard not to be seen as anything but the good guy. Never mind that you're only there for the oil.

The Ottomans occupied the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic shortly after it was formed - they wanted a buffer state between them and Russia. Kemal and some of the Ottoman Third Army were sent up to Tbilisi to train the soldiers of the Transcaucasian Republic. Of course, the whole thing fell apart after Georgia declared independence. Armenia was annexed by the Ottomans, while Azerbaijan became an Ottoman client state. Georgia...well, let's just say that the Whites were not too nice when they marched back into Tbilisi. :(

(OOC: I doubt Kemal would be granted the honorific surname "Father of the Turks," ITTL. Besides, he didn't receive it until 1934 - you might want to change that. Also, since the Ottomans never joined WWI, the Armenian Genocide never took place - in its place, a Georgian Genocide took place when the whites Re-Occupied Georgia.)
 

yourworstnightmare

Banned
Donor
1919. They rolled up the Workers Transcaucasian Republic from 1919 to 1921, remember? Not that anyone really cared, since Ataturk was much nicer to the people of the region than the White Russians were.

The fighting in Northern Dagestan and around Stavropol was infamously brutal during the civil war, and when you're the guy with the well paid, professional army that isn't massacring civilians, it's hard not to be seen as anything but the good guy. Never mind that you're only there for the oil.
Who is Ataturk? To the Google machine!! Oh, so that what happened to Grand Vizier Mustafa Kemal Pascha after he was ousted. Went mad and tried to establish a Republic in the Caucasus. Who knew...
 
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