Osman Reborn; The Survival of Ottoman Democracy [An Ottoman TL set in the 1900s]
- Thread starter Sarthak
- Start date
its possible indeed. Its not a famine really though, more like less consumption than normal levels more than anything
Aww, poor Umberto; There are two Savoy family Member in the Army thought, Adalberto of Savoy-Genova, who is a great general, and the Duke of Abruzzi of the Aosta btanch who was a naval commander; I nbelieve thatthey could at least declare a Kingdom of Italy resurgent in the islands, were the Royal Navy would probably protect them.
The two are still a part of the military so its possible I guess but remember that the monarchy in Italy has been severely discredited.
That's assuming the communists/socialists don't attract followers. This Italian Communist state is still semi-democratic with free and fair elections between candidates and isn't anti-democratic like the USSR.
I see you finally mention Nepal in this tl. Wonder how current circumstances will affect it probably nothing significant for now. With China now flex it muscle a bit in Himalayas wonder if thing will change because of it.
Speaking of China, I assume while the balance of power now lay in the hand of Central Government some warlords or de facto independent groups may still hold some power especially in periphery area or area far from Beijing such as Xinjiang, Gansu, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Southern Province. While Tibetan have separatist tendency some ethnic minorities and group still hold some loyalty to China. I hope central government recognise this and can come up with some power sharing arrangement or at least not to become too much Han centered entity. After all China is still bit unstable and must be careful not to bite more than it can chew.
To Russia, while they are the winner of Great War in this tl, Nicholas II is not exactly the brightest to say the least, combine this with the unpopularity of Polish devolution among Russian, other people inside the empire become more agitated for self rule, British wariness of Russia, Political extremist, Not to mention Rasputin and Alexandra unpopularity will make thing interesting. When/if Alexei finally take the throne, judging from his health, there'll be series of regents that will rule in his name. It can potentially led to tense political bickering if thing go wrong way.
To Italy, well the place seem destined to become hotbed of series of extremes if thing not change quickly. Since only one party is allowed, I'm afraid other groups that excluded by this will resort to extreme measure and in turn led to series of brutal crackdown and this cycle will continue for a while. How is the Roman Catholic Church fare in this environment?
Speaking of China, I assume while the balance of power now lay in the hand of Central Government some warlords or de facto independent groups may still hold some power especially in periphery area or area far from Beijing such as Xinjiang, Gansu, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Southern Province. While Tibetan have separatist tendency some ethnic minorities and group still hold some loyalty to China. I hope central government recognise this and can come up with some power sharing arrangement or at least not to become too much Han centered entity. After all China is still bit unstable and must be careful not to bite more than it can chew.
To Russia, while they are the winner of Great War in this tl, Nicholas II is not exactly the brightest to say the least, combine this with the unpopularity of Polish devolution among Russian, other people inside the empire become more agitated for self rule, British wariness of Russia, Political extremist, Not to mention Rasputin and Alexandra unpopularity will make thing interesting. When/if Alexei finally take the throne, judging from his health, there'll be series of regents that will rule in his name. It can potentially led to tense political bickering if thing go wrong way.
To Italy, well the place seem destined to become hotbed of series of extremes if thing not change quickly. Since only one party is allowed, I'm afraid other groups that excluded by this will resort to extreme measure and in turn led to series of brutal crackdown and this cycle will continue for a while. How is the Roman Catholic Church fare in this environment?
How so? I said that Northern Italy would support the Socialists/Communists.
Chapter 35: The Tumult of Eurasia
Chapter 35: The Tumult of Eurasia
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“Tsar Nicholas II was getting extremely restless in the middle of 1918 over the growing power of the Duma and the stubbornness of Sergey Muromtsev, the Prime Minister of Russia, who was insistent on keeping the democratic union of the country. By this point, Tsar Nicholas II was angered by what he perceived as the Duma encroaching on Royal Prerogatives, as the Duma started to expand suffrage slowly but surely, in the same manner as Danubia, the Ottomans and the UK. The quasi-democratic electorate of 1907 was slowly being upturned, with the nobility’s and landowner’s power in the State Duma being repealed slowly as the huge amount of deaths of nobles in the Great War gave the seats many nobles held in the Duma to commoners, overpowering the noble faction in the Duma.
Tsar Nicholas II
Due to this, Tsar Nicholas II began looking for a new coup to consolidate his power in the country. The desired pretext came, once again when the government became aware of pro-revolutionary agitation with Tsarist soldiers on the frontier, carried out by members of the exiled Communists. On July 17, the Imperial government demanded that the Duma hand over around 30 members of the Leftist parties participating in the Duma and democratic assemblies, who had all been guaranteed parliamentary immunity by the Russian Constitution. The Duma dithered on what to do, with the Noble faction, who held around 45% of the seats, agreeing to the move, whilst the commoner faction was split among anti-communists, who wanted to hand over the communists and the pro-communist who didn’t want to follow the order. Eventually the overall numerical superiority of the anti-communist and pro-Noble faction in the Duma won out, and the 30 members were given to the Imperial government who arrested them.
However this created a constitutional crisis as many disputed the arrest on the basis of Article 37 of the Russian Fundamental Law Section in the Russian Constitution, which granted immunity to the Parliamentary deputies unless the Imperial Corruption Community with proper investigation implicated them. Many parties were divided among factions regarding the issue, and no party had a clear answer to the constitutional crisis that was developing in the Russian Duma. As a result, taking advantage of the constitutional crisis that he had aided in bringing about, Tsar Nicholas II used the mandate of Article 8 of the Fundamental Law which allowed him to dissolve parliament if the Duma was unable to pass proper legislation. The Duma was dissolved and Tsar Nicholas II took temporary absolute power until new elections, which were slated for August could take place.
Nicholas II dissolving the Duma.
During the time in between, the Tsarist government purposefully altered the voting system for elections so as to create a more pro-Tsarist Duma. Landowners were restored to their high amount of voting power, and voting power of the peasants and workers were restricted again and the number of representatives from ethnic minority regions were lowered to the bare minimum. Suffrage was returned to 1912 levels, with only 66% of the able population being able to vote. The voting system in the Duma can thus be represented aptly in this table below:-
The Landowners and Wealthy Business class of Russian society only made up around a tenth of the total population of Russia, which meant that the voting rights to around 60% of the Duma laid in the hands of only 10% of the entire population.
Every party barring the Leftist Coalition had a strong noble backing, and as such they weren’t too affected by these anti-democratic quasi-reforms. Sergey Muromstev was personally extremely angered by these developments, however he could not go against his own backers. The Constitutional Democratic Party which was led by him continued to campaign for the elections on the basis of increasing suffrage, which was a powerful message to many as they were disenfranchised. The Union of October 17, led by new leader Mikhail Rodzianko too campaigned on the basis of a proper democratic reforms in the country and to remove the current barriers being made in the empire. The Left parties all formed a coalition with one another running in the empire in alliance with one another, and supporting land reform, agrarian reforms and worker reforms throughout the empire. The Trudoviks and the Progressives ran on a similar platform as that of the Union and Constitutional Democrats, the only exception being that the Trudoviks were allied with the Constitutional Democrats whilst the Progressives were allied with the Union. By the end of the election, Sergey Muromstev’s Constitutional Democrats had won plurality in the Duma. With confidence and supply from the Trudoviks, Sergey Muromstev then formed a new government once again, retaining his position as Prime Minister, whilst a member of his party, Pavel Milyukov continued to retain his position as Chairman of the State Duma.
This quasi system of democracy was not sustainable at all, and the Left had been robbed of several million votes. The Progressives who had fared so well in the 1912 Election were robbed of several million votes as well, and several ‘independents’ who were in fact Nobles were elected to the Duma as a show of power of the Tsar. Voter fraud in the country allowed these Nobles to be elected to power. Democracy may have been a thing in Russia, but don’t let that fool you. Power was still very much in the hands of the Tsar after this election.” A History of Russian Politics: Tumultuous Times © 1988.
***
“In January 12, 1915, Habibullah Khan, the Emir of Afghanistan died leaving behind an unstable, feudal and tribal realm. He was then succeeded by Nasrullah Khan as Amir of Afghanistan. Throughout his early life, Nasrullah Khan had strongly advocated an Afghan policy strongly aligned with Islamic Policies and Principles. Recognizing his brother as a potential candidate to the throne, Habibullah went to great lengths to gain the support of Nasrullah, by giving him the title of Commander In Chief of the Afghan Army, and also gave him the title of President of the State Council. The level of influence Nasrullah enjoyed even during the reign of his brother led Angus Hamilton his 1910 book Afghanistan to proclaim Habibullah as a weak willed ruler and a puppet of Nasrullah.
Nasrullah thus, wasn’t a man who was not used to power. He had basically been running it since 1907. However the preference of his succession over the sons of Habibullah led to resentment against him from his nephew Amanullah Khan. Amanullah Khan then staged a coup against his uncle on February 23, 1915 seizing control of Kabul and the central government, declaring war against Nasrullah Khan. Nasrullah did not want any bloodshed in order to become King, as a man of Islamic principles. He told Amanullah that he could take the kingdom if he wanted it so badly and that he would go into religious exile to Hejaz in the Ottoman Empire. Amanullah Khan swore upon the Quran that no harm would come to Nasrullah if he returned to Kabul and did as he pleased as long as he did not make an attempt on the throne.
Nasrullah Khan was escorted out of the state and he took a train into British Balochistan, where a ship was awaiting him in the Gulf of Persia. From there he was transported to Hejaz, where he lived the rest of his life in religious exile from homeland inflicted by his own nephew.
Amanullah Khan enjoyed a lot of popularity in Afghanistan during the Great and his early reign, and he used his influence to modernize the country. Amanullah created new cosmopolitan schools for both boys and girls in the region and overturned centuries old traditions such as strict dress codes for women. He increased trade with the British and managed to incorporate equal rights and individual freedoms into the Charter of 1916 which was basically a new constitution for the Afghan Kingdom. He was heavily influenced by Mahmud Tarzi and his Queen, Soraya Tarzi in modernizing the kingdom. This rapid modernization had underlying problems however.
In early 1917, a code named Nizamnma was promulgated by Amanullah which granted Women more freedom and allowed the government to regulate other issues seen as family problems which were previously handled by religious authorities. A new law which restricted passage for the eastern tribes across the Durand Line, the abolition of polygamy and child marriage and the imposition of Property Taxes by the central Afghan government, who were trying to imitate Persian and Ottoman modernist reforms led to a massive backlash from the dominantly tribal and conservative Afghan society.
In July 13, in the city of Khost, where protests had been ongoing ever since 1916 against the reforms, rebellion broke out against the government led by conservative religious figure Mulla Abd Allah. With appeals to Pashtun Honor, incitements and promises for paradise for true believing Muslims, Mulla succeeded in raising all the tribes of the southern provinces against the central Afghan government. Initially the government did not take the uprising seriously but by the end of July, they were taking into account the seriousness of the situation. By mid-August, 1918, the entire Southern Province had begun to participate in the rebellion. That same month, forces loyal to King Amanullah managed to defeat the rebels, however did not have the capacity or capability to rout them. The rebels were then soon joined by the Alikhel and Sulaimankhel Tribes. On the 22nd of August, 1918, the rebels successfully managed to ambush several governmental regiments throughout the country dealing a heavy blow against the central government. As resistance increased in the rebellion, the government sent a delegation to the rebels, arguing that the King’s reforms had not be in conflict with the Sharia Law but these negotiations proved fruitless and empty. Further fighting took place, and the country was starting to devolve into outright civil war.
Afghan Rebels
Meanwhile as the fighting spread across the Durand Line, the British government took notice, and they weren’t happy at all.” The Afghan Civil War © the Post War Era of Tumultuous Politics.
***
“The Chelmsford-Peel Reforms are a major highlight of Indian history, made on the behalf of Prime Minister Austen Chamberlain, Governor-General Lord Chelmsford, and the Viscount Peel, the Secretary of State of India.
Frederic Thesiger, the Lord Chelmsford, the Viceroy of British India.
During the Great War, around 1.8 million Indians had volunteered for the Royal Indian Army and had formed the largest volunteer force in the world without need of conscription. This was driven by the promise of the British Government that they would be giving India a semblance of autonomy after the was a reward to India for its contribution to the war effort. As such many Indian nationalists, and indeed a vast majority of them supported the British war effort, with the motto of the time being ‘We will not be independent over the ashes of a destroyed Britain’. British Indian troops played a massive role in the East African Front, the Somali Front and the British Colonial Fronts of the Great War, freeing up several British regiments to fight in Europe against their German counterparts. 1.8 million British Indian troops crashing down on German East Africa had been quite a shocker for the German colonial administration, who were known to be quite racist, even for their time.
As the war, and its economic aftermath dwindled down, the Indian nationalists finally turned to London and asked that they get what had been promised to them. Britain was receptive of some semblance of self-rule in India, Austen Chamberlain personally deemed them deserving of it, however they did not wish to give India full Dominion status, as doing as such would have been damaging to the might of the Empire, and the positions of the Indian Princely States, who were British allies. If Britain left their princely allies to rot, it would send a very bad message to every British ally out there. Also increasing worry about Russia had made it clear to the British government that they needed to keep direct control of India to maintain the Central Asian frontier with the Russians.
In April, 1918, Viscount Peel, as the Secretary of State for India was dispatched to India by the British government. Peel put forward his intentions of the gradual development of free institutions in India with a view of ultimate self-government. Lord Curzon thought that believed that giving implicit views of a pro-Dominion system in India was a dangerous line of thought and the cabinet, agreeing to Lord Curzon’s view amended the document Peel made to remove ideas of dominionship, while retaining ideas of self-government and responsible government. After a month of fast naval travel, Peel arrived in India and met with Lord Chelmsford, the Viceroy of India and Leaders of the Indian Community to discuss the introduction of limited self-rule in India, and the protection of the rights of the minority communities in the country.
The Viscount Peel, the Secretary of State for India.
However a problem arose, which Lord Chelmsford told Peel later on. Communalism in India was growing. Caste distinctions and religious divisions between the Muslim and Hindu Regiments in the Royal Indian Army had spilled over into the populace, and major religious riots had broken out in numerous cities. The Indian Police reported to Delhi that around 183 major riots had broken out regarding religion in early 1918 alone in northern India, with an unknown number in the south. This was leading to a severe division between the two major nationalistic groups in India, the All-India Muslim League and the Indian National Congress. In fact Muslim participation in the Congress sharply declined, declining from 11% to 3% by the time Peel arrived in India [1], and the calls for a two dominion system in India to be implemented on the basis of religion were starting to grow in the muslim community of the nation.
Chelmsford was largely a well-respected British Viceroy even among Indian nationalists, however he wanted to do nothing in regards to Indian partisanship, and told Peel that a middle ground would have to be found unless India exploded into a myriad of religious tension that would destroy the Jewel of the Empire forever. For London, who was finally wizening up to this problem, this was extremely bad news. What was worse, was the rise of charismatic leaders in the Muslim movement. Muhammad Ali Jinnah had been a moderate Muslim Indian Nationalist, however his position in the Indian National Congress was undermined by the deaths of Mehta and Gokhale in 1915. Rapidly losing influence in the Indian National Congress, and being disillusioned of Hindu-Muslim Rapprochement, in late 1915, Jinnah had resigned from the Indian National Congress.
Jinnah went to Britain where he funded the Muslim effort for the British War effort and returned in early 1917, when he joined the Muslim League, becoming its President. He joined the Kolkata Pact with the Indian National Congress presenting reformist demands to the British government. Somewhat ironically despite the wish of many in India to gain dominion status, their demands in the Kolkata Pact [2] also stopped short of demanding dominionship, which only strengthened the views of many in Britain that Dominionship was not feasible for India. It was the last time that the INC and the AIML would cooperate with one another. The outbreak of communal violence forced the two parties to stray onto to opposite terms from one another, and openly become opposed to one another. Jinnah, who was described by Chelmsford to be a ‘young, perfectly mannered, impressive looking, armed to the teeth with dialectics, and insistent on democratic determination’ took up the budding Two Nation Theory in India, and deposing Aga Khan III from the headship of the party, Jinnah greatly increased the popularity of the Muslim League by abolishing the elitist membership of the party and opening it to the general public.
The Anglo-Indian Conference of 1918.
This situation made the political situation in India extremely volatile, and Peel held a small conference with Chelmsford and the INC and AIML leaders, and told them that in the current volatile situation Britain could not give India dominionship, as it would not solve the matter of stability. It helped that Britain had another historical example, South Africa to draw upon, which had not received dominionship until the violence of the Boers had been dealt with, strengthening this argument. As such, Peel put forward a plan that would be a responsible government system in the British Raj instead.
In late September, he unveiled the full amount of his planned reforms to the Indians. The provisions of his planned reforms consisted of:-
***
“The Ottoman Empire’s political reforms were modeled after the United Kingdom. Therefore it is not exactly a big surprise that the Ottomans took after the multi member plurality first past the post electoral system that the UK used during this time. However the First Past the Post Electoral System had a lot of things not going for it, and by the middle of 1918, the Ottoman Empire was in a slight political crisis over voting issues.
The FPTP system was criticized for its failure to reflect the popular vote in a number of parliamentary seats awarded to competing parties. It created false majorities in multiple constituencies throughout the empire, and have seats to parties where they did not gain the majority at all. Several times during the 1918 General Election in several constituencies throughout the empire, the runner up in popular vote gained the seat rather than the party which gained the most votes. There was also the general geographic favoritism of the FPTP system. Generally, the system favored parties who were able to concentrate their vote into certain voting districts. This is because in doing so they were able to win many seats and aren’t able to ‘waste’ any votes in other areas. The Ottoman Democratic Party and their base in Albania is a highlight of this issue. On the other hand, minor parties that could not concentrate their vote usually ended up getting a much lower proportional amount of seats than votes, as they managed to lose most of the seats they contested and waste their votes.
The problems of the FPTP system.
All of these points were raised in the Chamber of Deputies, and electoral reform was needed, the parties, led by the Liberal Union and the Socialist Party, members argued that a new electoral system was needed in the country. Finally after a whole year of arguing over the system and one senatorial and general election later, Ahmet Riza gave the Ottoman Electoral Commission the green light it needed to delve into research for a new reformed electoral system to be implemented in the country by the next general election in early 1918. By August 1918, the research had given its files to the Chamber of Deputies, with all that it recommended.
The Electoral Report, named the Andonov Report, named after the head of the Ottoman Electoral Commission, Stephan Andonov, sought inspiration from the Danish and Norwegian Electoral system to create a more proportional electoral system without disrupting the current electoral system too much. It coined the new system it created as ‘Added Mixed Representation System’ which was a mixed electoral system with one tier of single member district representatives and another tier of added members elected to make the overall election results more proportional. For this type of elections, the report concluded that each voter would cast two votes, one of a candidate standing within their constituency, and a vote for a party list standing in a wider region made up of multiple constituencies. The constituency vote would then be used to elect a single representative in the voter’s constituency using the traditional first past the post system, the candidate with the most votes would then win. The regional vote would then be used to elect representatives from the party lists to stand in regional seats taking into account how many seats were gained by that party in the constituency vote, using a system of proportional representation, with the number of seats a party receiving being dependent on their total percentage of the vote. It would allow the government to keep the system mostly intact and also increase the proportional representation of the total electorate of the country.
On August 27, 1918, the Ottoman government, in accordance with the report passed the 1918 Act of Electoral Systems in which the following provisions were adopted by the Ottoman government:-
The Ottoman Chamber of Deputies.
Led by the Liberal Union, Socialist Party and the Armenakan Party, the act passed the Chamber of Deputies. The Senatorial Elections of 1919 would therefore take place under this new electoral system. [3]” The Ottoman Electoral System: An Introduction
***
“The Ottoman Empire was perhaps the last Great Power to start industrializing itself, and as a result, the Ottomans had a lot of catching up to do. The Industrial and Economic Reforms of 1913 and 1917 had done a great deal to increase the economic productivity of the nation, however these reforms would mean squat if the Ottomans did not take advantage of these reforms to pass more industrializing measures. In early 1918, the Ottoman Economy was still divided with 26% of the economy being run by the manufacturing sector, 40% of the economy being run by the agricultural sector, and 24% of the economy being run by the service sector in the Ottoman Empire. The Balkan War had shown the Ottomans that the Ottomans would have to make sure their own industrial base was strong enough to deal with other foreign powers.
The Ottomans were behind the other powers in one main area, and by a big mile – Electrification. Electrification had become a large developmental project ever since 1882 starting in the United Kingdom before spreading throughout the entire globe. The Ottomans only had proper electricity running in Constantinople, Sinope, Angora, Smyrna, Jerusalem, Baghdad, Salonika and Tirana with around 32 electrical plants, when at the same time, the UK itself, discounting their entire empire, had around 3,620 electrical plants itself. The Ottomans were lagging behind by a massive amount and the Minister of Finance and Economics, Avraam Benaroya (Socialist – Mersin), recognized this fact. He began a massive pro-electrification campaign with aid from the Ministry of Economics and Finance, and the First Electrification Plan was initiated and supervised by Benaroya. The Ottoman Imperial Electrification Committee (OIEC) was formed under his jurisdiction on September 7, 1918 and a quick resolution to create a total electrification of the country was developed by the OIEC. Led by Benaroya, around 200 scientists from around the empire were gathered for the plan, and its basic plan was detailed as ‘The organization of the industries of the state on the basis of modern advanced technology, on electrification which will provide a link between town and country, will put an end to the division between town and country and will make it possible to raise the level of culture in the countryside and to overcome backwardness and illiteracy in the country with the aid of electricity and communications.’
The subsequent electrification plan was implemented under the name of the Ottoman Electrification Act of 1918 set a total time period of 12 years, by the end of 1930, to provide full electrification of the country. The plan included the construction of 30 regional powerplants, ten large hydroelectric power plants throughout the empire, and the construction of around 100 miscellaneous electric powered large industrial enterprises. It was intended to increase the total national power output per year to a stable level that would make the empire capable of providing electricity to every household in the empire.
Construction workers raising Power lines in Van, Ottoman Empire circa 1919.
Industrialization was also given key importance by the ottoman economic policy makers as well. In 1918 the New Industrial Plan For North Africa was passed by the Ottoman Government which established the Benghazi Industrial Estate in Benghazi, Ottoman Libya as a major industrial plant in the region and the Al-Khums Industrial Estate as well. This was done due to the general oversight of Ottoman planners in regards to North Africa, and provided employment for many in the region. The Ottomans nationalized these two estates at first, however gradually gave the industries to private owners and entrepreneurs by the end of 1921. The Ottomans also adopted a Community Based Management System for their new economic industrial planning system. Communist based management system is a bottom up approach of organization which can be facilitated with the aim of local stakeholder participation in planning, research, development, management and policy making for a community as a whole. This created a situation in which the Ottoman economy could develop from a grassroots level.” The Ottoman Economy.
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[1] – This is true OTL as well
[2] – An alt Lucknow Pact.
[3] – The Norwegian and Danish electoral systems of the time were basically proto modern Mixed Member Electoral Systems, or as they are called in the UK, Added member Electoral System. So, yes the Ottomans are taking inspiration from the Nordic model of elections to make their politics more fair for all involved.
***
“Tsar Nicholas II was getting extremely restless in the middle of 1918 over the growing power of the Duma and the stubbornness of Sergey Muromtsev, the Prime Minister of Russia, who was insistent on keeping the democratic union of the country. By this point, Tsar Nicholas II was angered by what he perceived as the Duma encroaching on Royal Prerogatives, as the Duma started to expand suffrage slowly but surely, in the same manner as Danubia, the Ottomans and the UK. The quasi-democratic electorate of 1907 was slowly being upturned, with the nobility’s and landowner’s power in the State Duma being repealed slowly as the huge amount of deaths of nobles in the Great War gave the seats many nobles held in the Duma to commoners, overpowering the noble faction in the Duma.
Tsar Nicholas II
Due to this, Tsar Nicholas II began looking for a new coup to consolidate his power in the country. The desired pretext came, once again when the government became aware of pro-revolutionary agitation with Tsarist soldiers on the frontier, carried out by members of the exiled Communists. On July 17, the Imperial government demanded that the Duma hand over around 30 members of the Leftist parties participating in the Duma and democratic assemblies, who had all been guaranteed parliamentary immunity by the Russian Constitution. The Duma dithered on what to do, with the Noble faction, who held around 45% of the seats, agreeing to the move, whilst the commoner faction was split among anti-communists, who wanted to hand over the communists and the pro-communist who didn’t want to follow the order. Eventually the overall numerical superiority of the anti-communist and pro-Noble faction in the Duma won out, and the 30 members were given to the Imperial government who arrested them.
However this created a constitutional crisis as many disputed the arrest on the basis of Article 37 of the Russian Fundamental Law Section in the Russian Constitution, which granted immunity to the Parliamentary deputies unless the Imperial Corruption Community with proper investigation implicated them. Many parties were divided among factions regarding the issue, and no party had a clear answer to the constitutional crisis that was developing in the Russian Duma. As a result, taking advantage of the constitutional crisis that he had aided in bringing about, Tsar Nicholas II used the mandate of Article 8 of the Fundamental Law which allowed him to dissolve parliament if the Duma was unable to pass proper legislation. The Duma was dissolved and Tsar Nicholas II took temporary absolute power until new elections, which were slated for August could take place.
Nicholas II dissolving the Duma.
During the time in between, the Tsarist government purposefully altered the voting system for elections so as to create a more pro-Tsarist Duma. Landowners were restored to their high amount of voting power, and voting power of the peasants and workers were restricted again and the number of representatives from ethnic minority regions were lowered to the bare minimum. Suffrage was returned to 1912 levels, with only 66% of the able population being able to vote. The voting system in the Duma can thus be represented aptly in this table below:-
| Class of Electors | Average Needed Votes to Elect on Representative |
| Landowners | 230 |
| Wealthy Businessmen | 1,000 |
| Lower Middleclass | 15,000 |
| Peasants | 60,000 |
| Workers | 125,000 |
The Landowners and Wealthy Business class of Russian society only made up around a tenth of the total population of Russia, which meant that the voting rights to around 60% of the Duma laid in the hands of only 10% of the entire population.
Every party barring the Leftist Coalition had a strong noble backing, and as such they weren’t too affected by these anti-democratic quasi-reforms. Sergey Muromstev was personally extremely angered by these developments, however he could not go against his own backers. The Constitutional Democratic Party which was led by him continued to campaign for the elections on the basis of increasing suffrage, which was a powerful message to many as they were disenfranchised. The Union of October 17, led by new leader Mikhail Rodzianko too campaigned on the basis of a proper democratic reforms in the country and to remove the current barriers being made in the empire. The Left parties all formed a coalition with one another running in the empire in alliance with one another, and supporting land reform, agrarian reforms and worker reforms throughout the empire. The Trudoviks and the Progressives ran on a similar platform as that of the Union and Constitutional Democrats, the only exception being that the Trudoviks were allied with the Constitutional Democrats whilst the Progressives were allied with the Union. By the end of the election, Sergey Muromstev’s Constitutional Democrats had won plurality in the Duma. With confidence and supply from the Trudoviks, Sergey Muromstev then formed a new government once again, retaining his position as Prime Minister, whilst a member of his party, Pavel Milyukov continued to retain his position as Chairman of the State Duma.
This quasi system of democracy was not sustainable at all, and the Left had been robbed of several million votes. The Progressives who had fared so well in the 1912 Election were robbed of several million votes as well, and several ‘independents’ who were in fact Nobles were elected to the Duma as a show of power of the Tsar. Voter fraud in the country allowed these Nobles to be elected to power. Democracy may have been a thing in Russia, but don’t let that fool you. Power was still very much in the hands of the Tsar after this election.” A History of Russian Politics: Tumultuous Times © 1988.
***
“In January 12, 1915, Habibullah Khan, the Emir of Afghanistan died leaving behind an unstable, feudal and tribal realm. He was then succeeded by Nasrullah Khan as Amir of Afghanistan. Throughout his early life, Nasrullah Khan had strongly advocated an Afghan policy strongly aligned with Islamic Policies and Principles. Recognizing his brother as a potential candidate to the throne, Habibullah went to great lengths to gain the support of Nasrullah, by giving him the title of Commander In Chief of the Afghan Army, and also gave him the title of President of the State Council. The level of influence Nasrullah enjoyed even during the reign of his brother led Angus Hamilton his 1910 book Afghanistan to proclaim Habibullah as a weak willed ruler and a puppet of Nasrullah.
Nasrullah thus, wasn’t a man who was not used to power. He had basically been running it since 1907. However the preference of his succession over the sons of Habibullah led to resentment against him from his nephew Amanullah Khan. Amanullah Khan then staged a coup against his uncle on February 23, 1915 seizing control of Kabul and the central government, declaring war against Nasrullah Khan. Nasrullah did not want any bloodshed in order to become King, as a man of Islamic principles. He told Amanullah that he could take the kingdom if he wanted it so badly and that he would go into religious exile to Hejaz in the Ottoman Empire. Amanullah Khan swore upon the Quran that no harm would come to Nasrullah if he returned to Kabul and did as he pleased as long as he did not make an attempt on the throne.
Nasrullah Khan was escorted out of the state and he took a train into British Balochistan, where a ship was awaiting him in the Gulf of Persia. From there he was transported to Hejaz, where he lived the rest of his life in religious exile from homeland inflicted by his own nephew.
Amanullah Khan enjoyed a lot of popularity in Afghanistan during the Great and his early reign, and he used his influence to modernize the country. Amanullah created new cosmopolitan schools for both boys and girls in the region and overturned centuries old traditions such as strict dress codes for women. He increased trade with the British and managed to incorporate equal rights and individual freedoms into the Charter of 1916 which was basically a new constitution for the Afghan Kingdom. He was heavily influenced by Mahmud Tarzi and his Queen, Soraya Tarzi in modernizing the kingdom. This rapid modernization had underlying problems however.
In early 1917, a code named Nizamnma was promulgated by Amanullah which granted Women more freedom and allowed the government to regulate other issues seen as family problems which were previously handled by religious authorities. A new law which restricted passage for the eastern tribes across the Durand Line, the abolition of polygamy and child marriage and the imposition of Property Taxes by the central Afghan government, who were trying to imitate Persian and Ottoman modernist reforms led to a massive backlash from the dominantly tribal and conservative Afghan society.
In July 13, in the city of Khost, where protests had been ongoing ever since 1916 against the reforms, rebellion broke out against the government led by conservative religious figure Mulla Abd Allah. With appeals to Pashtun Honor, incitements and promises for paradise for true believing Muslims, Mulla succeeded in raising all the tribes of the southern provinces against the central Afghan government. Initially the government did not take the uprising seriously but by the end of July, they were taking into account the seriousness of the situation. By mid-August, 1918, the entire Southern Province had begun to participate in the rebellion. That same month, forces loyal to King Amanullah managed to defeat the rebels, however did not have the capacity or capability to rout them. The rebels were then soon joined by the Alikhel and Sulaimankhel Tribes. On the 22nd of August, 1918, the rebels successfully managed to ambush several governmental regiments throughout the country dealing a heavy blow against the central government. As resistance increased in the rebellion, the government sent a delegation to the rebels, arguing that the King’s reforms had not be in conflict with the Sharia Law but these negotiations proved fruitless and empty. Further fighting took place, and the country was starting to devolve into outright civil war.
Afghan Rebels
Meanwhile as the fighting spread across the Durand Line, the British government took notice, and they weren’t happy at all.” The Afghan Civil War © the Post War Era of Tumultuous Politics.
***
“The Chelmsford-Peel Reforms are a major highlight of Indian history, made on the behalf of Prime Minister Austen Chamberlain, Governor-General Lord Chelmsford, and the Viscount Peel, the Secretary of State of India.
Frederic Thesiger, the Lord Chelmsford, the Viceroy of British India.
During the Great War, around 1.8 million Indians had volunteered for the Royal Indian Army and had formed the largest volunteer force in the world without need of conscription. This was driven by the promise of the British Government that they would be giving India a semblance of autonomy after the was a reward to India for its contribution to the war effort. As such many Indian nationalists, and indeed a vast majority of them supported the British war effort, with the motto of the time being ‘We will not be independent over the ashes of a destroyed Britain’. British Indian troops played a massive role in the East African Front, the Somali Front and the British Colonial Fronts of the Great War, freeing up several British regiments to fight in Europe against their German counterparts. 1.8 million British Indian troops crashing down on German East Africa had been quite a shocker for the German colonial administration, who were known to be quite racist, even for their time.
As the war, and its economic aftermath dwindled down, the Indian nationalists finally turned to London and asked that they get what had been promised to them. Britain was receptive of some semblance of self-rule in India, Austen Chamberlain personally deemed them deserving of it, however they did not wish to give India full Dominion status, as doing as such would have been damaging to the might of the Empire, and the positions of the Indian Princely States, who were British allies. If Britain left their princely allies to rot, it would send a very bad message to every British ally out there. Also increasing worry about Russia had made it clear to the British government that they needed to keep direct control of India to maintain the Central Asian frontier with the Russians.
In April, 1918, Viscount Peel, as the Secretary of State for India was dispatched to India by the British government. Peel put forward his intentions of the gradual development of free institutions in India with a view of ultimate self-government. Lord Curzon thought that believed that giving implicit views of a pro-Dominion system in India was a dangerous line of thought and the cabinet, agreeing to Lord Curzon’s view amended the document Peel made to remove ideas of dominionship, while retaining ideas of self-government and responsible government. After a month of fast naval travel, Peel arrived in India and met with Lord Chelmsford, the Viceroy of India and Leaders of the Indian Community to discuss the introduction of limited self-rule in India, and the protection of the rights of the minority communities in the country.
The Viscount Peel, the Secretary of State for India.
However a problem arose, which Lord Chelmsford told Peel later on. Communalism in India was growing. Caste distinctions and religious divisions between the Muslim and Hindu Regiments in the Royal Indian Army had spilled over into the populace, and major religious riots had broken out in numerous cities. The Indian Police reported to Delhi that around 183 major riots had broken out regarding religion in early 1918 alone in northern India, with an unknown number in the south. This was leading to a severe division between the two major nationalistic groups in India, the All-India Muslim League and the Indian National Congress. In fact Muslim participation in the Congress sharply declined, declining from 11% to 3% by the time Peel arrived in India [1], and the calls for a two dominion system in India to be implemented on the basis of religion were starting to grow in the muslim community of the nation.
Chelmsford was largely a well-respected British Viceroy even among Indian nationalists, however he wanted to do nothing in regards to Indian partisanship, and told Peel that a middle ground would have to be found unless India exploded into a myriad of religious tension that would destroy the Jewel of the Empire forever. For London, who was finally wizening up to this problem, this was extremely bad news. What was worse, was the rise of charismatic leaders in the Muslim movement. Muhammad Ali Jinnah had been a moderate Muslim Indian Nationalist, however his position in the Indian National Congress was undermined by the deaths of Mehta and Gokhale in 1915. Rapidly losing influence in the Indian National Congress, and being disillusioned of Hindu-Muslim Rapprochement, in late 1915, Jinnah had resigned from the Indian National Congress.
Jinnah went to Britain where he funded the Muslim effort for the British War effort and returned in early 1917, when he joined the Muslim League, becoming its President. He joined the Kolkata Pact with the Indian National Congress presenting reformist demands to the British government. Somewhat ironically despite the wish of many in India to gain dominion status, their demands in the Kolkata Pact [2] also stopped short of demanding dominionship, which only strengthened the views of many in Britain that Dominionship was not feasible for India. It was the last time that the INC and the AIML would cooperate with one another. The outbreak of communal violence forced the two parties to stray onto to opposite terms from one another, and openly become opposed to one another. Jinnah, who was described by Chelmsford to be a ‘young, perfectly mannered, impressive looking, armed to the teeth with dialectics, and insistent on democratic determination’ took up the budding Two Nation Theory in India, and deposing Aga Khan III from the headship of the party, Jinnah greatly increased the popularity of the Muslim League by abolishing the elitist membership of the party and opening it to the general public.
The Anglo-Indian Conference of 1918.
This situation made the political situation in India extremely volatile, and Peel held a small conference with Chelmsford and the INC and AIML leaders, and told them that in the current volatile situation Britain could not give India dominionship, as it would not solve the matter of stability. It helped that Britain had another historical example, South Africa to draw upon, which had not received dominionship until the violence of the Boers had been dealt with, strengthening this argument. As such, Peel put forward a plan that would be a responsible government system in the British Raj instead.
In late September, he unveiled the full amount of his planned reforms to the Indians. The provisions of his planned reforms consisted of:-
- An Imperial Legislative Council of India to be established consisting of two chambers – an Appointed Higher Chamber known as the Council of the State and an elected Lower Chamber known as the Central Legislative Assembly of India.
- The Imperial Legislative Council was to be empowered to deal with and enact any law on any matter barring foreign policy regarding India.
- The Governor-General and Viceroy of India to summon, prorogue, and dissolve the Chambers, and to promulgate legal ordinances.
- The number of Indians in the Viceroy’s Executive Council would be 6 out of 15 members, 1 Buddhist, 2 Muslim and 3 Hindus.
- There would be direct legislative elections with an extension of franchise based on the electoral laws of the British Commonwealth i.e. Britain.
- The Central Legislative Assembly to consist of 400 seats elected from the provinces of the British Raj, and 108 seats from the Princely States for a total of 508 seats
- Direct participation of Indians in Indian politics, the enfranchisement of all political groups within the Raj.
***
“The Ottoman Empire’s political reforms were modeled after the United Kingdom. Therefore it is not exactly a big surprise that the Ottomans took after the multi member plurality first past the post electoral system that the UK used during this time. However the First Past the Post Electoral System had a lot of things not going for it, and by the middle of 1918, the Ottoman Empire was in a slight political crisis over voting issues.
The FPTP system was criticized for its failure to reflect the popular vote in a number of parliamentary seats awarded to competing parties. It created false majorities in multiple constituencies throughout the empire, and have seats to parties where they did not gain the majority at all. Several times during the 1918 General Election in several constituencies throughout the empire, the runner up in popular vote gained the seat rather than the party which gained the most votes. There was also the general geographic favoritism of the FPTP system. Generally, the system favored parties who were able to concentrate their vote into certain voting districts. This is because in doing so they were able to win many seats and aren’t able to ‘waste’ any votes in other areas. The Ottoman Democratic Party and their base in Albania is a highlight of this issue. On the other hand, minor parties that could not concentrate their vote usually ended up getting a much lower proportional amount of seats than votes, as they managed to lose most of the seats they contested and waste their votes.
The problems of the FPTP system.
All of these points were raised in the Chamber of Deputies, and electoral reform was needed, the parties, led by the Liberal Union and the Socialist Party, members argued that a new electoral system was needed in the country. Finally after a whole year of arguing over the system and one senatorial and general election later, Ahmet Riza gave the Ottoman Electoral Commission the green light it needed to delve into research for a new reformed electoral system to be implemented in the country by the next general election in early 1918. By August 1918, the research had given its files to the Chamber of Deputies, with all that it recommended.
The Electoral Report, named the Andonov Report, named after the head of the Ottoman Electoral Commission, Stephan Andonov, sought inspiration from the Danish and Norwegian Electoral system to create a more proportional electoral system without disrupting the current electoral system too much. It coined the new system it created as ‘Added Mixed Representation System’ which was a mixed electoral system with one tier of single member district representatives and another tier of added members elected to make the overall election results more proportional. For this type of elections, the report concluded that each voter would cast two votes, one of a candidate standing within their constituency, and a vote for a party list standing in a wider region made up of multiple constituencies. The constituency vote would then be used to elect a single representative in the voter’s constituency using the traditional first past the post system, the candidate with the most votes would then win. The regional vote would then be used to elect representatives from the party lists to stand in regional seats taking into account how many seats were gained by that party in the constituency vote, using a system of proportional representation, with the number of seats a party receiving being dependent on their total percentage of the vote. It would allow the government to keep the system mostly intact and also increase the proportional representation of the total electorate of the country.
On August 27, 1918, the Ottoman government, in accordance with the report passed the 1918 Act of Electoral Systems in which the following provisions were adopted by the Ottoman government:-
- The adoption of the Added Mixed Representation System
- A total of 30% of the seats in the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies and Senate would be elected on the basis of the regional list system.
- The Senate and Chamber of Deputies would have their total number of seats expanded to 359 from 288 and 119 from 100.
- The Regional Lists would consist of the regions of: Anatolia, Constantinople, Syria, Mesopotamia, Najd, Levant, Hejaz, Yemen, Albania, Macedonia, Thrace, Epirus, Northern Thessaly and North Africa.
- A new Electoral Commission would be established to deal with the issues of corruption and electoral thresholds in the new system of elections within the Ottoman Empire.
The Ottoman Chamber of Deputies.
Led by the Liberal Union, Socialist Party and the Armenakan Party, the act passed the Chamber of Deputies. The Senatorial Elections of 1919 would therefore take place under this new electoral system. [3]” The Ottoman Electoral System: An Introduction
***
“The Ottoman Empire was perhaps the last Great Power to start industrializing itself, and as a result, the Ottomans had a lot of catching up to do. The Industrial and Economic Reforms of 1913 and 1917 had done a great deal to increase the economic productivity of the nation, however these reforms would mean squat if the Ottomans did not take advantage of these reforms to pass more industrializing measures. In early 1918, the Ottoman Economy was still divided with 26% of the economy being run by the manufacturing sector, 40% of the economy being run by the agricultural sector, and 24% of the economy being run by the service sector in the Ottoman Empire. The Balkan War had shown the Ottomans that the Ottomans would have to make sure their own industrial base was strong enough to deal with other foreign powers.
The Ottomans were behind the other powers in one main area, and by a big mile – Electrification. Electrification had become a large developmental project ever since 1882 starting in the United Kingdom before spreading throughout the entire globe. The Ottomans only had proper electricity running in Constantinople, Sinope, Angora, Smyrna, Jerusalem, Baghdad, Salonika and Tirana with around 32 electrical plants, when at the same time, the UK itself, discounting their entire empire, had around 3,620 electrical plants itself. The Ottomans were lagging behind by a massive amount and the Minister of Finance and Economics, Avraam Benaroya (Socialist – Mersin), recognized this fact. He began a massive pro-electrification campaign with aid from the Ministry of Economics and Finance, and the First Electrification Plan was initiated and supervised by Benaroya. The Ottoman Imperial Electrification Committee (OIEC) was formed under his jurisdiction on September 7, 1918 and a quick resolution to create a total electrification of the country was developed by the OIEC. Led by Benaroya, around 200 scientists from around the empire were gathered for the plan, and its basic plan was detailed as ‘The organization of the industries of the state on the basis of modern advanced technology, on electrification which will provide a link between town and country, will put an end to the division between town and country and will make it possible to raise the level of culture in the countryside and to overcome backwardness and illiteracy in the country with the aid of electricity and communications.’
The subsequent electrification plan was implemented under the name of the Ottoman Electrification Act of 1918 set a total time period of 12 years, by the end of 1930, to provide full electrification of the country. The plan included the construction of 30 regional powerplants, ten large hydroelectric power plants throughout the empire, and the construction of around 100 miscellaneous electric powered large industrial enterprises. It was intended to increase the total national power output per year to a stable level that would make the empire capable of providing electricity to every household in the empire.
Construction workers raising Power lines in Van, Ottoman Empire circa 1919.
Industrialization was also given key importance by the ottoman economic policy makers as well. In 1918 the New Industrial Plan For North Africa was passed by the Ottoman Government which established the Benghazi Industrial Estate in Benghazi, Ottoman Libya as a major industrial plant in the region and the Al-Khums Industrial Estate as well. This was done due to the general oversight of Ottoman planners in regards to North Africa, and provided employment for many in the region. The Ottomans nationalized these two estates at first, however gradually gave the industries to private owners and entrepreneurs by the end of 1921. The Ottomans also adopted a Community Based Management System for their new economic industrial planning system. Communist based management system is a bottom up approach of organization which can be facilitated with the aim of local stakeholder participation in planning, research, development, management and policy making for a community as a whole. This created a situation in which the Ottoman economy could develop from a grassroots level.” The Ottoman Economy.
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[1] – This is true OTL as well
[2] – An alt Lucknow Pact.
[3] – The Norwegian and Danish electoral systems of the time were basically proto modern Mixed Member Electoral Systems, or as they are called in the UK, Added member Electoral System. So, yes the Ottomans are taking inspiration from the Nordic model of elections to make their politics more fair for all involved.
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Well Nicholas II did just do something stupid in the new chapter, so yeah, Russia is in for some political intrigues......................
How did the death of Russian nobles reduce noble seats in the Duma. Surely they had heirs. In extremis titles could be granted to Female heirs. Not traditional but power is power and if needs must...
Nicholas once again reminding us why he was shot in OTL, though with the war won the chance of revolution is almost non existant.
Civil war in afghanistan? Since you mentioned British concerns over 'the great game' I assume this is going to escalate into a proxy war of sorts.
India looks a long way off from a one state solution but with these british amendments it at least seems like something of a possibility. Though if sectarianism gets significantly out of hand then a certain Muslim power with significant financial leverage over britain might take an interest...
Ottoman progress seems to be going steadily along, strange how the once epitome of the phrase "oriental despotism" now has democracy on par with France and Britain while Russia slinks back into autocracy.
Civil war in afghanistan? Since you mentioned British concerns over 'the great game' I assume this is going to escalate into a proxy war of sorts.
India looks a long way off from a one state solution but with these british amendments it at least seems like something of a possibility. Though if sectarianism gets significantly out of hand then a certain Muslim power with significant financial leverage over britain might take an interest...
Ottoman progress seems to be going steadily along, strange how the once epitome of the phrase "oriental despotism" now has democracy on par with France and Britain while Russia slinks back into autocracy.
It is Russia. As the great philosopher Susan Ivanova put it, "No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There is always a boom tomorrow."
its kind of what happened otl as well. With the death of nobles, their seats were passed to commoners. The Duma seats were not hereditary after all
kind off. Civil strife is going to happen though
it is indeed very possible
Indeed they might........
Well not total autocracy. Russia is still what according to modern definitions would be a hybrid regime instead of a total autocracy