So, I am in the early stages of working on the next chapter of my WTLB TL. Basically, the premise of this chapter is that, as a result of a more humiliating defeat in TTL's Russo-Turkish War, the Ottoman Empire breaks up about 40 years early into various states based (loosely, in some instances) around a rise of nationalism amongst various ethnic groups within the former empire.
Cliffnotes context: Egypt wins the Egyptian-Ethiopian War, absorbing Ethiopia into its empire. Britain is, at this time, under the control of a Liberal government under Gladstone (Disraeli is a backbencher after suffering embarrassment in his early political career). The Ottomans brutally put down rebellion and independence movements in the Balkans, particularly Bulgaria, leading to the Balkans declaring independence and breaking away from the Ottomans. Russia and Britain (along with TTL's Austria-Hungary-Bohemia union offering financial support) prop up the Balkans (and Egypt, which decides to break away completely) and defeat the Ottomans. Over the next several years, other ethnic groups within the Ottoman Empire start to realize they can do the same thing.
The Ottomans attempt to reform into a constitutional monarchy and a quasi-federalist system to boot, but Sultan Abdul Hamid II is overthrown by a reactionary political operative (no idea who yet) who feels that a strong totalitarian hand is what's needed to keep control over the empire. This leads to the complete breakdown of the Ottoman Empire, causing its territory to fracture. Assyrians, Kurds, and Palestinians declare their own nations. The reactionary sultan holds onto the Turkish peninsula and turns it into a totalitarian dictatorship, with liberal Turks fighting an insurgency. Persia and Egypt take advantage of the situation, nabbing territory on the eastern and western portions of the Arabian Peninsula respectively (Crete also joins up with Egypt). I don't yet know what's going on in the rest of the Arabian Peninsula. I'd imagine it's fairly disorganized at the moment, but will become fertile fighting ground throughout the rest of the 19th century.
I am very very very open to changing things; this is just a preliminary sketch so that I can get ideas down, then I will tinker with them later for added plausibility. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
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