Osman Reborn; The Survival of Ottoman Democracy [An Ottoman TL set in the 1900s]
- Thread starter Sarthak
- Start date
Chapter 29: Peace?
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“On October 27, Archduke Karl of Austria-Este came into contact with his brother in law in Belgium, on orders from Emperor Franz II. Karl asked his brother in law to meet him in Switzerland to discuss peace talks in private regarding the wider European war. Prince Sixtus of Bourbon-Parma was at first reluctant to leave his military position and duties at the Western Front, however the urgency with which Karl had called for him and the seriousness of his proposal was enough to convince the young prince, who wanted peace like any sane man to take up the offer. On November 25, the Brothers (in laws) met each other in Zurich, Switzerland in a private hotel room away from public eyes.
Prince Sixtus of Bourbon-Parma.
There, Prince Sixtus was given a set of letters written personally by Franz II with orders to meet Prime Minister Rene Viviani of France, and if possible to time the meeting with the upcoming meeting between Prime Minister McKenna an Viviani. Meeting both at the same time, would allow negotiations to go on at same pacing between Austria, France and the United Kingdom. Prince Sixtus accepted the task and was told by Karl that Franz II was willing to any peace condition with economic reparations to the Entente, alongside small border concessions to the Russians as well as demilitarization of Galicia-Volhynia if peace was achieved. Karl himself is quoted to have said ‘Peace……Peace at any price other than destruction’.
Meanwhile back in Vienna, the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, Stephan Burian von Rajecz, caught wind that something was going on without the proper permission of the civilian government as Austrian spies, who knew nothing about Archduke Karl’s movements reported that the Archduke had met his brother-in-law in Switzerland. A Brother-In-Law known to be an officer in the Belgian Army. Rajecz decided to find out for himself what was going on and asked for an appointment with their new Emperor. Franz II granted this appointment believing it to be a mere routine explanation of the diplomatic situation of the empire. However much to his surprise, Franz II was asked about the meeting. Rajecz’s rationalization was that Karl wouldn’t do anything as rash as the meeting going on in Switzerland without the support of the Emperor. Franz II threatened Rajecz’s family to swear him into secrecy and told him about the plot for peace. Rajecz was actually in favor of the ongoing plot to get peace for the empire. He had always been in favor of parity between the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and had always been angered by the neo-master to vassal relationship that existed between Berlin and Vienna economically, even though the empire stood on its own firm feet militarily. Rajecz had previously been an ardent supporter of the opinion that Germany and Austria-Hungary were equal in all military, economic and political activism, which had only antagonized the man with his German counterparts.
Stephan Burian von Rajecz.
Rajecz tacitly supported the plan to gain peace and contacted Prince Sixtus through telegraph before the Prince left Switzerland asking him to wait for a new letter, written personally by him. After three days, the letter arrived and on November 29, Prince Sixtus left Switzerland, intent on bringing peace between the vast empires that were fighting with one another during the Great War.
Sixtus knew that the meeting between McKenna and Viviani was to be held on December 10, and asked for an appointment during that time period. As an aristocrat from a French dynasty, his request couldn’t be overlooked and Viviani sent Foreign Minister Doumergue to meet with Sixtus in Lyon on December 3, when Sixtus revealed that he held a message from the Austrian government. During the meeting in Lyon, Sixtus was frustrated by the fact that the French government was not actually taking his need for an appointment seriously and he decided to slip up purposefully in front of Doumergue. Doumergue was at first intrigued by the small hints that Sixtus was giving, before Sixtus revealed that he had a full blown peace deal in his hands, which if the Entente accepted would see Austria-Hungary out of the war. Doumergue was undoubtedly taken by surprise by this admission, however he agreed to allow Sixtus into the meeting between McKenna and Viviani.
Doumergue and Sixtus arrived on Paris on the 8th of December. Sixtus retired into one of his ancestral homes, whilst Doumergue went to the government and told Viviani that the Austrians were scheming for a full peace. It would be best to atleast hear the proposal out, Doumergue told Viviani. Viviani finally agreed to do hear the prince and the Austrian offer out. A formal invitation was sent to Prince Sixtus on the 9th for the meeting on the 10th.
On the 10th, Prince Sixtus met with Prime Minister Viviani and the entire French cabinet, alongside Prime Minister McKenna of Great Britain and Ambassador Alexander Izvolsky, who was the Ambassador of Russia to France.
Rene Viviani.
There, Sixtus revealed the entirety of the concessions prepared by Franz II and Foreign Minister Rajecz as well as Archduke Karl. In it, the men all agreed that a general separate peace between the Entente and the Empire of Austria-Hungary was to be pursued. Franz II was willing to pay around 8 billion pounds in reparations to be divided between the powers of Russia, France and the United Kingdom. The Empire was also willing to give up parts of Galicia-Lodomeria to the Empire of Russia, though not all of it and neither the majority of it. Finally, something that was a very reluctant move on part of the naval-lover Franz II, the Empire offered to halve its fleet for the next one and a half decades, with one third of the fleet being given to France and the UK as reparations.
It was a comprehensive deal. The Austrians had already lost around 320,000 men dead and around 370,000 casualties for a grand total of around 690,000 casualties during the entire war. And they wanted out. The British and French recognized that the loss of the Austrian navy for the Central Powers would also allow the allies to establish total naval hegemony over the Mediterranean. And the territorial concession and monetary reparations that Austria offered intrigued Izvolsky as well. Izvolsky, acting with the autonomy given to him as ambassador, demanded more land in Galicia-Lodomeria, however Sixtus who was still acting as intermediary told him that this was the initial demand, and that he had no right to negotiate other terms. He then asked permission from Viviani to allow Archduke Karl to enter French soil, to act as the official diplomat from Vienna. It was a daring move on part of Franz II, as he was going to let his official heir set foot on (nominal) enemy soil. Sixtus told the French government the only condition was that Karl was kept out of the public eye, and that proper security be given to him, along with two trusted bodyguards to be allowed with him.
Archduke Karl of Austria, the future Karl I of the Empire.
Viviani and the French cabinet debated the issue for the rest of the day before Doumergue managed to tip the scales. The cabinet agreed to allow Karl to enter French soil as long as he brought along papers identifying him as Karl of the Papal States [1], instead of Karl of Austria. As all members of the Habsburg dynasty were close to the Papacy, Karl did have papers and partial citizenship from the Papacy [2], and the conditions of both sides were accepted. On December 29, the Heir of the Austro-Hungarian Empire reached Paris, where he met with the British, French and Russian delegations to begin negotiations.
There, the main point of contention was the scale of the reparations and the border changes in the east. Karl agreed to increase the monetary reparations to a total of 9.6 billion pounds, however refused to go above that, as it would not be financial apt for the dual monarchy to cede too much monetary resources. He agreed readily to the allied demand for half of the Austrian navy to be demobilized as well. It was Galicia-Lodomeria that was the sticking point. The Russians wanted it all. Archduke Karl had to subtly remind the Russians that Austria still occupied Congress Poland and as such the Russian demands were mildly, unreasonable. The French, and more importantly the British, who were desperate for peace, were in agreement to this notion. However still, the French and British maintained the position that some kind of territorial concession would have to be given to ensure that the Russian nationalistic spectrum remained quiet after a final peace could be hammered out.
Retiring for the New Year, Karl contacted Vienna again, and told Franz II and Rajecz about the Russian demand for Galicia-Lodomeria. Franz II and Rajecz debated with one another over the Russian demand for Galicia Lodomeria and in the end agreed to two things. The Austro-Hungarian Empire would be willing to cede Ukrainian Galicia to Russia, and demilitarize the Austrian border with Russia for a decade, but Polish Galicia would be retained by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This was a wily move. The Ukrainians of Galicia, alongside the Romanians were the only real separatist threats of the Empire, despite the multi-ethnic setup of the empire. And such losing one separatist threat for a land that wasn’t worth much economically either, wasn’t a hard thing to give up for the Austrian Emperor.
On January 3, negotiations restarted and Karl relayed the new position of the Austrian government regarding Galicia. The Russians, took it. They would have preferred to gain all of Galicia Lodomeria, however on January 1, the Germans managed to drive a Russian offensive in Eastern Prussia out of the region and defeated the Russians at the Battle of the Vistula, which made the Russian position in the Baltic all the more precarious than before.
The area east of the redline were to be ceded to Russia. The only real loss was the city of Lviv/Lwow.
On January 5, with the final concessions made, the Franz II and Rajecz told the Austrian and Hungarian civil governments about the secret negotiations. Many were not amused and worried about the German response. However the vast majority of the governments were thankful about the end of the war, and agreed to the negotiations wholeheartedly. Karl signed the Armistice of Lyon on January 11, and ended the war between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Entente.
The Italians and Germans were horrified when news of the armistice and negotiations was leaked into the public. Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany telephoned Vienna and personally threatened Franz II with war. However Franz II who knew that Germany could and would not afford a new enemy, rebuffed the Kaiser’s threats and told him politely and I quote ‘This is a war you started, and Austria will not die for German mistakes.’
The quote has been used as a defining quote and phrase in Austrian nationalism that distinguishes the Austrian ethnicity away from the Germans. The Germans could do nothing than watch as the Austro-Hungarian lines in Poland ground to a halt as the Austrians refused to move, as a part of the Armistice.
On February 18, the Treaty of Paris was signed between the Empire of Austria-Hungary, Third French Republic, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Kingdom of Spain, the Empire of China, the Russian Empire and the Japanese Empire. The terms of the treaty were straightforward and simple:-
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“One of the major platforms of the Committee of Union and Progress during the 1914 Ottoman General Elections had been the lack of a proper educational focus on part of former Grand Vizier Ali Kemal. However the Balkan War, and the outbreak of the Great War had hindered the progress of the CUP in regards to education as the country transformed into a true war economy, and had no real chance of focusing on the economy as a result. That was no longer true. After a year of recovery, the CUP and socialist led government was now focusing their polices on education as well.
The reforms of Mahmud II and Abdulmejid I had laid the foundations for schooling the empire during the 30s and 40s, however the continued curriculum of the 1860s was no longer applicable in 1917. Therefore, the Ottoman government had started to compile educational statistics since early 1916 and were beginning to form a new curriculum throughout the year using the aid of scholars, both foreign and indigenous.
On January 8, 1917, the Educational Reform and Curriculum Act of 1917 was presented to the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies, and consisted of the following points:-
On January 20, on the insistence of the Ministry of Education, the Benghazi University was established as the first tertiary education provider in Ottoman Libya. Construction began the next week. The University of Benghazi would later have 3 schools – the School of Management, the School of Engineering and the School of Science, as a part of its education departments.
Jeddah University of the Fine Arts today.
On February 25, as a part of the new educational drive of the empire, the Empire also established the Jeddah University of the Fine Arts. Most of the romantic and art talents of the Empire went to Hejaz to gain religious romanticism in their efforts in the arts, and as such the location of situation a Fine Arts University in Hejaz was a good one, as the receptionists and managers of the new university later complained to the Education ministry that there was just too many applicants.
Coeducation of girls and boys in schools was also legalized by an amendment to the earlier act in February 28. Centuries of sexual segregation had denied girls equal education as with boys. However the rise of the Ottoman Women’s movement and the rising social consciousness of the empire made this situation untenable and impossible. The Minister of Education on March 2, 1917 declared that coeducation was legal throughout the empire. However it was to place in a slow and ordered format, by introducing coeducation in Primary Schools in 1917, introducing it in secondary schools in 1919, and introducing it in tertiary schools by 1920. This was accepted by the representatives of the Ottoman Women’s Association.” A History of Education in the Ottoman Empire.
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“The Ottomans, despite their massive economic reforms during the Second Constitutional Era, still had one intermittent problem. That of land reform. Aghas were tribal chieftains in the empire who still held a good plurality of all the cultivable land in the Ottoman Empire, and made agriculture a mixed bag of success and failure within the empire. It didn’t help that in places like Palestine and Transjordan, many believed that the land belong to God and Sultan only, and that families only had the right to maintain the land but the notion of private property title was completely alien. Despite efforts by the Ottoman governments from 1858 to destroy this notion, it still persisted.
Farmers in the Ottoman Empire.
And massive land reform was needed for the empire, and by the end of 1916 and the starting of 1917, the Ottoman Empire bought around 60% of all the lands held by the Aghas. Then, the Empire’s Financial Ministry gave the bought land to sale for prices 30% lower than market value, with the land loans being payable over a time period of 25 years at very low interest rates. This made it possible for 1.5 million peasant families, mainly in Kurdistan and Palestine, who were little more than slaves before the reforms, to own the land that they had cultivated in the name of their masters before. Given the average size of a peasant family was 5, the land reforms brought economic freedom to over a million people in the Ottoman Empire through the Ottoman Land Reform Act of 1917 passed on January 19, 1917.
Nationalization of Forests and Pasturelands took place as well in the remaining land that was not sold, and a plan of planting 9 million trees in 26 regions and creating 70,000 acres of green belts around cities and borders, to develop the nascent tourism sector of the empire was passed through the act as well. It allowed the creation of Ministry of Natural Affairs, and provided employment to many environmentalists and biologists who had once been neglected by the empire.
The Ottoman Land Reform of 1917 also took a lot of prerogatives and inspirations from the 1887 Dawes Act of the United States of America, and allowed the head of a family to receive a grant of around 80 acres, a single person over the age of maturity to receive 40 acres of land each, and that these allotments would be held in trust by the Ottoman government for 20 years.
The economic Reforms of 1917 also introduced a new set of credit and industrial reforms into the empire. The empire was at first to improve the industrial sector of the empire to adopt ‘Streamlined Production Mode’ which refers to the streamlined production that focuses on the production of raw material like steel, coal, chromium, iron, cotton. Textile production occupied a good portion of the economy, and to stimulate the production, the Ottoman government supported the new recruitment of labour, especially female labour. By enhancing the recruitment of female labour, the government believed it would increase the standard of living throughout the empire. Ahmed Riza also cultivated a policy of Heavy Industrialization. This policy led to a renewal of over-loaning, in which the Ottoman National Bank issued loans to city banks who in turn issued loans of industrial conglomerates. Since there was a smaller amount of capital in the Ottoman Empire in comparison to the great powers of Europe, industrial conglomerates borrowed beyond their capacity to repay, often beyond their net worth, causing city banks in turn to over-borrow from the Ottoman National Bank. This gave the national bank complete control over dependent local banks which allowed a proper supervision and growth of the credit sector in the economy.
The Ottoman government also began to fund heavily into agricultural export sector, with the aim of exporting agricultural goods into the rest of Europe and the entire world. Model farms, which were modern farms integrated with modern equipment were transported from countries like Sweden and Norway and introduced to Ottoman Farmers, who were called into communal model farms, where the productivity of these model farms were shown to the farmers in front of their own eyes. The better model farms were picked up by the farmers of the empire with great enthusiasm as it would ensure higher yields in the agricultural sector and allowed them to sell more agricultural goods, which would make their economic situation better as well. Agriculture was of prime importance to the Ottoman empire as land reform expanded in the empire. The Ottomans already exported scores of wheat and corn, however other agricultural exports were lacking. The expansion of agricultural exports, such as fruits, and other agricultural yields would aid the Ottoman financial situation by a good amount, and as such was targeted by the government with increased ferocity.
An Ottoman Model Farm in Macedonia. The photo was colorized in the 1970s.
The government also went into a series of new fiscal reforms to allow the nation to expand its fiscal and credit sector. The Ottoman currency was connected to the gold standard, however the 1915 Balkan War had shown to the economists in the empire, that the convertible success of the gold standard during times of crisis was not reliable. The financial troubles of Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, France and the UK, all of whom were stuck in a convertible crisis due to their own reliance on the gold standard only added credence to the government that the gold standard was not a reliable way of maintaining the currency of the government. On March 18, 1917, the Ottoman government abandoned the gold standard, and allowed a free convertible system to take place in the Ottoman currency, the Lira, allowing the Lira to float freely in the international market. This allowed the Ottoman government to increase the flow of currency and money in the empire, and increased the overall wealth of the empire, though a small slump on the import sector happened temporarily due to the abandonment of the gold standard.
Overall, the Ottoman Economic Reforms of 1917, combined with the Ottoman Economic Reforms of 1913 are both credited with having laying the foundation of the modern Ottoman economy. Both were radically successful, and allowed the Ottoman economy to transition itself into a modern economy, albeit they still had a lot of catching up to do with other first rate powers such as Britain and France.” An Economic History of the Ottoman Empire.
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“The Ottoman Occupation of Rumelia in Bulgaria and the Ottoman Occupation of Leskovac were both massive nationalistic headaches for the Bulgarian and Serbian leaders, as nationalists in the country advocated for a second war that would drive the so called Turkish oppressors back from whence they came. Both the Serbian and Bulgarian government knew that this was impossible. The Serbian and Bulgarian military and industrial strength to support a new war had waned dangerously and the Ottomans had not so subtly threatened the Serbians and Bulgarians that any breach of the Treaties that ended the Balkan War would see the Ottomans totally deindustrialize the occupied regions, which would be fatal to the respective Bulgarian and Serbian economies.
On this backdrop, the both countries had scheduled legislative and parliamentary elections to take place in early 1917. In Serbia the People’s Radical Party had been discredited due to their actions in the Balkan War, and not many knew what was going to happen during the elections. However many members of the People’s Radical Party left the party and joined the National Party, a nationalistic party that was fervently anti-Ottoman, but more pragmatic in its outlook and promised neutralization of relations with the Ottomans. That was as best as the voters were going to get. During the 1916 Serbian Parliamentary Elections, the National Party polled 39.8% of the total vote, gaining 84 out of the 160 seats in the National Assembly. The People’s Radical Party trailed behind at 24.6% of the electorate gaining 41 seats. Rapprochement parties such as the Progressive Coalition and Social Democratic Party which had been mildly popular before the war were defeated due to nationalist rhetoric and their seats were taken up by the People’s Radical Dissidents and the Independent Radicals. All of Serbia’s national assembly now consisted of nationalists, a dangerous warning for future events, though most of the nationalists for now remained on the moderate side of things. Velmir Vukicevic ascended to the Premiership of Serbia and promised to revive the economy as his main goal.
The new Serb PM, Velmir Vukicevic.
In Bulgaria the situation was different. Having suffered the war in more difficult and desperate ways than their Serbian compatriots, very few in Serbia had to suffer an occupation after all, were now just trying to vote for a party that didn’t drag them into a new war. The socialists and communists, were all hindered by the fact that the Socialist Revolution marred their names. The Bulgarian Agrarian National Union was the only left party, besides the Social Democrats who didn’t have their name thrown into the mud in Bulgaria, and that was due to the fact that the ANU had refused to join the Democratic People’s Republic of Bulgaria, and despite their republican leanings, had remained loyal to Boris III. In their view, a republic would happen only on the mandate of the people and through democratic referendums. Boris III recognized this and outlawed every single leftist party, other than the Social Democrats, and the ANU. The ANU thereafter basically became an ironical far left, but monarchical party in Bulgaria. During the 1916 Bulgarian Parliamentary Election that was held on February 5, 1917, with a turnout of 64%, the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union won 77 seats in the 236 seat Bulgarian National Assembly, forming a plurality of the total seats. The Democratic Party trailed behind with 47 seats and the Bulgarian Social Democrats trailed at third position with 38 seats. In a political feat, the three leading parties as well as the Bulgarian Democratic Party decided to form a coalition to let the nation recover economically until the next elections. This formed an overwhelming majority in the Bulgarian National Assembly and compromise leader, minority party politician and widely respected reformist, Nikola Mushanov was elevated to the position of Prime Minister. Well liked by Boris III himself [4], his position was accepted.
Nikola Mushanov. The new Bulgarian PM.
Perhaps it is the difference in attitudes between the two countries, but the Bulgarian recovery would prove to be much more successful than its Serbian counterpart.” The Post-Balkan War Consensus. Penguin Publishing, 2018.
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[1] – The Vatican until the 1920s was still named as the Papal States in official documents.
[2] – he did otl as well.
[3] – For their roles in making the peace, Karl, Sixtus and Franz II are beatified as Blessed Karl, Blessed Sixtus and Blessed Franz ittl by the Papacy much like otl in regards to Karl.
[4] – true for otl as well.
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“On October 27, Archduke Karl of Austria-Este came into contact with his brother in law in Belgium, on orders from Emperor Franz II. Karl asked his brother in law to meet him in Switzerland to discuss peace talks in private regarding the wider European war. Prince Sixtus of Bourbon-Parma was at first reluctant to leave his military position and duties at the Western Front, however the urgency with which Karl had called for him and the seriousness of his proposal was enough to convince the young prince, who wanted peace like any sane man to take up the offer. On November 25, the Brothers (in laws) met each other in Zurich, Switzerland in a private hotel room away from public eyes.
Prince Sixtus of Bourbon-Parma.
There, Prince Sixtus was given a set of letters written personally by Franz II with orders to meet Prime Minister Rene Viviani of France, and if possible to time the meeting with the upcoming meeting between Prime Minister McKenna an Viviani. Meeting both at the same time, would allow negotiations to go on at same pacing between Austria, France and the United Kingdom. Prince Sixtus accepted the task and was told by Karl that Franz II was willing to any peace condition with economic reparations to the Entente, alongside small border concessions to the Russians as well as demilitarization of Galicia-Volhynia if peace was achieved. Karl himself is quoted to have said ‘Peace……Peace at any price other than destruction’.
Meanwhile back in Vienna, the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, Stephan Burian von Rajecz, caught wind that something was going on without the proper permission of the civilian government as Austrian spies, who knew nothing about Archduke Karl’s movements reported that the Archduke had met his brother-in-law in Switzerland. A Brother-In-Law known to be an officer in the Belgian Army. Rajecz decided to find out for himself what was going on and asked for an appointment with their new Emperor. Franz II granted this appointment believing it to be a mere routine explanation of the diplomatic situation of the empire. However much to his surprise, Franz II was asked about the meeting. Rajecz’s rationalization was that Karl wouldn’t do anything as rash as the meeting going on in Switzerland without the support of the Emperor. Franz II threatened Rajecz’s family to swear him into secrecy and told him about the plot for peace. Rajecz was actually in favor of the ongoing plot to get peace for the empire. He had always been in favor of parity between the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and had always been angered by the neo-master to vassal relationship that existed between Berlin and Vienna economically, even though the empire stood on its own firm feet militarily. Rajecz had previously been an ardent supporter of the opinion that Germany and Austria-Hungary were equal in all military, economic and political activism, which had only antagonized the man with his German counterparts.
Stephan Burian von Rajecz.
Rajecz tacitly supported the plan to gain peace and contacted Prince Sixtus through telegraph before the Prince left Switzerland asking him to wait for a new letter, written personally by him. After three days, the letter arrived and on November 29, Prince Sixtus left Switzerland, intent on bringing peace between the vast empires that were fighting with one another during the Great War.
Sixtus knew that the meeting between McKenna and Viviani was to be held on December 10, and asked for an appointment during that time period. As an aristocrat from a French dynasty, his request couldn’t be overlooked and Viviani sent Foreign Minister Doumergue to meet with Sixtus in Lyon on December 3, when Sixtus revealed that he held a message from the Austrian government. During the meeting in Lyon, Sixtus was frustrated by the fact that the French government was not actually taking his need for an appointment seriously and he decided to slip up purposefully in front of Doumergue. Doumergue was at first intrigued by the small hints that Sixtus was giving, before Sixtus revealed that he had a full blown peace deal in his hands, which if the Entente accepted would see Austria-Hungary out of the war. Doumergue was undoubtedly taken by surprise by this admission, however he agreed to allow Sixtus into the meeting between McKenna and Viviani.
Doumergue and Sixtus arrived on Paris on the 8th of December. Sixtus retired into one of his ancestral homes, whilst Doumergue went to the government and told Viviani that the Austrians were scheming for a full peace. It would be best to atleast hear the proposal out, Doumergue told Viviani. Viviani finally agreed to do hear the prince and the Austrian offer out. A formal invitation was sent to Prince Sixtus on the 9th for the meeting on the 10th.
On the 10th, Prince Sixtus met with Prime Minister Viviani and the entire French cabinet, alongside Prime Minister McKenna of Great Britain and Ambassador Alexander Izvolsky, who was the Ambassador of Russia to France.
Rene Viviani.
There, Sixtus revealed the entirety of the concessions prepared by Franz II and Foreign Minister Rajecz as well as Archduke Karl. In it, the men all agreed that a general separate peace between the Entente and the Empire of Austria-Hungary was to be pursued. Franz II was willing to pay around 8 billion pounds in reparations to be divided between the powers of Russia, France and the United Kingdom. The Empire was also willing to give up parts of Galicia-Lodomeria to the Empire of Russia, though not all of it and neither the majority of it. Finally, something that was a very reluctant move on part of the naval-lover Franz II, the Empire offered to halve its fleet for the next one and a half decades, with one third of the fleet being given to France and the UK as reparations.
It was a comprehensive deal. The Austrians had already lost around 320,000 men dead and around 370,000 casualties for a grand total of around 690,000 casualties during the entire war. And they wanted out. The British and French recognized that the loss of the Austrian navy for the Central Powers would also allow the allies to establish total naval hegemony over the Mediterranean. And the territorial concession and monetary reparations that Austria offered intrigued Izvolsky as well. Izvolsky, acting with the autonomy given to him as ambassador, demanded more land in Galicia-Lodomeria, however Sixtus who was still acting as intermediary told him that this was the initial demand, and that he had no right to negotiate other terms. He then asked permission from Viviani to allow Archduke Karl to enter French soil, to act as the official diplomat from Vienna. It was a daring move on part of Franz II, as he was going to let his official heir set foot on (nominal) enemy soil. Sixtus told the French government the only condition was that Karl was kept out of the public eye, and that proper security be given to him, along with two trusted bodyguards to be allowed with him.
Archduke Karl of Austria, the future Karl I of the Empire.
Viviani and the French cabinet debated the issue for the rest of the day before Doumergue managed to tip the scales. The cabinet agreed to allow Karl to enter French soil as long as he brought along papers identifying him as Karl of the Papal States [1], instead of Karl of Austria. As all members of the Habsburg dynasty were close to the Papacy, Karl did have papers and partial citizenship from the Papacy [2], and the conditions of both sides were accepted. On December 29, the Heir of the Austro-Hungarian Empire reached Paris, where he met with the British, French and Russian delegations to begin negotiations.
There, the main point of contention was the scale of the reparations and the border changes in the east. Karl agreed to increase the monetary reparations to a total of 9.6 billion pounds, however refused to go above that, as it would not be financial apt for the dual monarchy to cede too much monetary resources. He agreed readily to the allied demand for half of the Austrian navy to be demobilized as well. It was Galicia-Lodomeria that was the sticking point. The Russians wanted it all. Archduke Karl had to subtly remind the Russians that Austria still occupied Congress Poland and as such the Russian demands were mildly, unreasonable. The French, and more importantly the British, who were desperate for peace, were in agreement to this notion. However still, the French and British maintained the position that some kind of territorial concession would have to be given to ensure that the Russian nationalistic spectrum remained quiet after a final peace could be hammered out.
Retiring for the New Year, Karl contacted Vienna again, and told Franz II and Rajecz about the Russian demand for Galicia-Lodomeria. Franz II and Rajecz debated with one another over the Russian demand for Galicia Lodomeria and in the end agreed to two things. The Austro-Hungarian Empire would be willing to cede Ukrainian Galicia to Russia, and demilitarize the Austrian border with Russia for a decade, but Polish Galicia would be retained by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This was a wily move. The Ukrainians of Galicia, alongside the Romanians were the only real separatist threats of the Empire, despite the multi-ethnic setup of the empire. And such losing one separatist threat for a land that wasn’t worth much economically either, wasn’t a hard thing to give up for the Austrian Emperor.
On January 3, negotiations restarted and Karl relayed the new position of the Austrian government regarding Galicia. The Russians, took it. They would have preferred to gain all of Galicia Lodomeria, however on January 1, the Germans managed to drive a Russian offensive in Eastern Prussia out of the region and defeated the Russians at the Battle of the Vistula, which made the Russian position in the Baltic all the more precarious than before.
The area east of the redline were to be ceded to Russia. The only real loss was the city of Lviv/Lwow.
On January 5, with the final concessions made, the Franz II and Rajecz told the Austrian and Hungarian civil governments about the secret negotiations. Many were not amused and worried about the German response. However the vast majority of the governments were thankful about the end of the war, and agreed to the negotiations wholeheartedly. Karl signed the Armistice of Lyon on January 11, and ended the war between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Entente.
The Italians and Germans were horrified when news of the armistice and negotiations was leaked into the public. Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany telephoned Vienna and personally threatened Franz II with war. However Franz II who knew that Germany could and would not afford a new enemy, rebuffed the Kaiser’s threats and told him politely and I quote ‘This is a war you started, and Austria will not die for German mistakes.’
The quote has been used as a defining quote and phrase in Austrian nationalism that distinguishes the Austrian ethnicity away from the Germans. The Germans could do nothing than watch as the Austro-Hungarian lines in Poland ground to a halt as the Austrians refused to move, as a part of the Armistice.
On February 18, the Treaty of Paris was signed between the Empire of Austria-Hungary, Third French Republic, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Kingdom of Spain, the Empire of China, the Russian Empire and the Japanese Empire. The terms of the treaty were straightforward and simple:-
- Articles [1 – 5] dealt with the introduction of the war and claimed Austria as a previous German ally, this declaration was to be accepted by Vienna.
- Articles [5-8] dealt with the issue of monetary reparations, and put the total Austrian reparations to stand at 9.6 billion pounds of which, 2.4 billion each would go to the UK and France respectively. 3 billion would go to Russia, whilst the remainder would be divided among the junior partners of the Entente.
- Articles [9-10] dealt with the naval reparations and detailed that the Austrians would give up 20% of their screening fleet and 60% of their capital fleet to the Entente to give up 45% of the empire’s entire fleet as a part of reparations as well.
- Articles [11-14] dealt with Galicia, and confirmed that Ukrainian Galicia would be annexed into the Russian Empire. It also confirmed that for 14 years, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was to demilitarize the border with the Russian Empire.
- Article 15 was regarding the Austrian cessation in China, and the cessation was officially handed over to the government of China.
- Articles [16-18] dealt with the Allies promises to lift the blockade of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to allow it to recover financially.
***
“One of the major platforms of the Committee of Union and Progress during the 1914 Ottoman General Elections had been the lack of a proper educational focus on part of former Grand Vizier Ali Kemal. However the Balkan War, and the outbreak of the Great War had hindered the progress of the CUP in regards to education as the country transformed into a true war economy, and had no real chance of focusing on the economy as a result. That was no longer true. After a year of recovery, the CUP and socialist led government was now focusing their polices on education as well.
The reforms of Mahmud II and Abdulmejid I had laid the foundations for schooling the empire during the 30s and 40s, however the continued curriculum of the 1860s was no longer applicable in 1917. Therefore, the Ottoman government had started to compile educational statistics since early 1916 and were beginning to form a new curriculum throughout the year using the aid of scholars, both foreign and indigenous.
On January 8, 1917, the Educational Reform and Curriculum Act of 1917 was presented to the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies, and consisted of the following points:-
- The Budget of the public schools within the Empire were to be increased by 10%.
- The curriculum of 1st language, Ottoman Turkish, Arithmetic, Religious Studies and Introductory Science to be abolished.
- A new curriculum of the subjects of Ottoman Turkish, 1st Language, Mathematics, Science Studies, History, Social Studies, Practical Science, and Sports to be introduced as the national curriculum of the nation. Religious Studies, and Practical Maths as well as other foreign languages were to be optional subjects.
- The introduction of a new Educational Commission that would investigate into redundant and closed schools which were still receiving state funding.
- School hours to be limited to be within 5 to 7 hours at minimum and maximum.
- All minorities to have the right to have schools in their own tongue as long as Ottoman Turkish is taught as well.
On January 20, on the insistence of the Ministry of Education, the Benghazi University was established as the first tertiary education provider in Ottoman Libya. Construction began the next week. The University of Benghazi would later have 3 schools – the School of Management, the School of Engineering and the School of Science, as a part of its education departments.
Jeddah University of the Fine Arts today.
On February 25, as a part of the new educational drive of the empire, the Empire also established the Jeddah University of the Fine Arts. Most of the romantic and art talents of the Empire went to Hejaz to gain religious romanticism in their efforts in the arts, and as such the location of situation a Fine Arts University in Hejaz was a good one, as the receptionists and managers of the new university later complained to the Education ministry that there was just too many applicants.
Coeducation of girls and boys in schools was also legalized by an amendment to the earlier act in February 28. Centuries of sexual segregation had denied girls equal education as with boys. However the rise of the Ottoman Women’s movement and the rising social consciousness of the empire made this situation untenable and impossible. The Minister of Education on March 2, 1917 declared that coeducation was legal throughout the empire. However it was to place in a slow and ordered format, by introducing coeducation in Primary Schools in 1917, introducing it in secondary schools in 1919, and introducing it in tertiary schools by 1920. This was accepted by the representatives of the Ottoman Women’s Association.” A History of Education in the Ottoman Empire.
***
“The Ottomans, despite their massive economic reforms during the Second Constitutional Era, still had one intermittent problem. That of land reform. Aghas were tribal chieftains in the empire who still held a good plurality of all the cultivable land in the Ottoman Empire, and made agriculture a mixed bag of success and failure within the empire. It didn’t help that in places like Palestine and Transjordan, many believed that the land belong to God and Sultan only, and that families only had the right to maintain the land but the notion of private property title was completely alien. Despite efforts by the Ottoman governments from 1858 to destroy this notion, it still persisted.
Farmers in the Ottoman Empire.
And massive land reform was needed for the empire, and by the end of 1916 and the starting of 1917, the Ottoman Empire bought around 60% of all the lands held by the Aghas. Then, the Empire’s Financial Ministry gave the bought land to sale for prices 30% lower than market value, with the land loans being payable over a time period of 25 years at very low interest rates. This made it possible for 1.5 million peasant families, mainly in Kurdistan and Palestine, who were little more than slaves before the reforms, to own the land that they had cultivated in the name of their masters before. Given the average size of a peasant family was 5, the land reforms brought economic freedom to over a million people in the Ottoman Empire through the Ottoman Land Reform Act of 1917 passed on January 19, 1917.
Nationalization of Forests and Pasturelands took place as well in the remaining land that was not sold, and a plan of planting 9 million trees in 26 regions and creating 70,000 acres of green belts around cities and borders, to develop the nascent tourism sector of the empire was passed through the act as well. It allowed the creation of Ministry of Natural Affairs, and provided employment to many environmentalists and biologists who had once been neglected by the empire.
The Ottoman Land Reform of 1917 also took a lot of prerogatives and inspirations from the 1887 Dawes Act of the United States of America, and allowed the head of a family to receive a grant of around 80 acres, a single person over the age of maturity to receive 40 acres of land each, and that these allotments would be held in trust by the Ottoman government for 20 years.
The economic Reforms of 1917 also introduced a new set of credit and industrial reforms into the empire. The empire was at first to improve the industrial sector of the empire to adopt ‘Streamlined Production Mode’ which refers to the streamlined production that focuses on the production of raw material like steel, coal, chromium, iron, cotton. Textile production occupied a good portion of the economy, and to stimulate the production, the Ottoman government supported the new recruitment of labour, especially female labour. By enhancing the recruitment of female labour, the government believed it would increase the standard of living throughout the empire. Ahmed Riza also cultivated a policy of Heavy Industrialization. This policy led to a renewal of over-loaning, in which the Ottoman National Bank issued loans to city banks who in turn issued loans of industrial conglomerates. Since there was a smaller amount of capital in the Ottoman Empire in comparison to the great powers of Europe, industrial conglomerates borrowed beyond their capacity to repay, often beyond their net worth, causing city banks in turn to over-borrow from the Ottoman National Bank. This gave the national bank complete control over dependent local banks which allowed a proper supervision and growth of the credit sector in the economy.
The Ottoman government also began to fund heavily into agricultural export sector, with the aim of exporting agricultural goods into the rest of Europe and the entire world. Model farms, which were modern farms integrated with modern equipment were transported from countries like Sweden and Norway and introduced to Ottoman Farmers, who were called into communal model farms, where the productivity of these model farms were shown to the farmers in front of their own eyes. The better model farms were picked up by the farmers of the empire with great enthusiasm as it would ensure higher yields in the agricultural sector and allowed them to sell more agricultural goods, which would make their economic situation better as well. Agriculture was of prime importance to the Ottoman empire as land reform expanded in the empire. The Ottomans already exported scores of wheat and corn, however other agricultural exports were lacking. The expansion of agricultural exports, such as fruits, and other agricultural yields would aid the Ottoman financial situation by a good amount, and as such was targeted by the government with increased ferocity.
An Ottoman Model Farm in Macedonia. The photo was colorized in the 1970s.
The government also went into a series of new fiscal reforms to allow the nation to expand its fiscal and credit sector. The Ottoman currency was connected to the gold standard, however the 1915 Balkan War had shown to the economists in the empire, that the convertible success of the gold standard during times of crisis was not reliable. The financial troubles of Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, France and the UK, all of whom were stuck in a convertible crisis due to their own reliance on the gold standard only added credence to the government that the gold standard was not a reliable way of maintaining the currency of the government. On March 18, 1917, the Ottoman government abandoned the gold standard, and allowed a free convertible system to take place in the Ottoman currency, the Lira, allowing the Lira to float freely in the international market. This allowed the Ottoman government to increase the flow of currency and money in the empire, and increased the overall wealth of the empire, though a small slump on the import sector happened temporarily due to the abandonment of the gold standard.
Overall, the Ottoman Economic Reforms of 1917, combined with the Ottoman Economic Reforms of 1913 are both credited with having laying the foundation of the modern Ottoman economy. Both were radically successful, and allowed the Ottoman economy to transition itself into a modern economy, albeit they still had a lot of catching up to do with other first rate powers such as Britain and France.” An Economic History of the Ottoman Empire.
***
“The Ottoman Occupation of Rumelia in Bulgaria and the Ottoman Occupation of Leskovac were both massive nationalistic headaches for the Bulgarian and Serbian leaders, as nationalists in the country advocated for a second war that would drive the so called Turkish oppressors back from whence they came. Both the Serbian and Bulgarian government knew that this was impossible. The Serbian and Bulgarian military and industrial strength to support a new war had waned dangerously and the Ottomans had not so subtly threatened the Serbians and Bulgarians that any breach of the Treaties that ended the Balkan War would see the Ottomans totally deindustrialize the occupied regions, which would be fatal to the respective Bulgarian and Serbian economies.
On this backdrop, the both countries had scheduled legislative and parliamentary elections to take place in early 1917. In Serbia the People’s Radical Party had been discredited due to their actions in the Balkan War, and not many knew what was going to happen during the elections. However many members of the People’s Radical Party left the party and joined the National Party, a nationalistic party that was fervently anti-Ottoman, but more pragmatic in its outlook and promised neutralization of relations with the Ottomans. That was as best as the voters were going to get. During the 1916 Serbian Parliamentary Elections, the National Party polled 39.8% of the total vote, gaining 84 out of the 160 seats in the National Assembly. The People’s Radical Party trailed behind at 24.6% of the electorate gaining 41 seats. Rapprochement parties such as the Progressive Coalition and Social Democratic Party which had been mildly popular before the war were defeated due to nationalist rhetoric and their seats were taken up by the People’s Radical Dissidents and the Independent Radicals. All of Serbia’s national assembly now consisted of nationalists, a dangerous warning for future events, though most of the nationalists for now remained on the moderate side of things. Velmir Vukicevic ascended to the Premiership of Serbia and promised to revive the economy as his main goal.
The new Serb PM, Velmir Vukicevic.
In Bulgaria the situation was different. Having suffered the war in more difficult and desperate ways than their Serbian compatriots, very few in Serbia had to suffer an occupation after all, were now just trying to vote for a party that didn’t drag them into a new war. The socialists and communists, were all hindered by the fact that the Socialist Revolution marred their names. The Bulgarian Agrarian National Union was the only left party, besides the Social Democrats who didn’t have their name thrown into the mud in Bulgaria, and that was due to the fact that the ANU had refused to join the Democratic People’s Republic of Bulgaria, and despite their republican leanings, had remained loyal to Boris III. In their view, a republic would happen only on the mandate of the people and through democratic referendums. Boris III recognized this and outlawed every single leftist party, other than the Social Democrats, and the ANU. The ANU thereafter basically became an ironical far left, but monarchical party in Bulgaria. During the 1916 Bulgarian Parliamentary Election that was held on February 5, 1917, with a turnout of 64%, the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union won 77 seats in the 236 seat Bulgarian National Assembly, forming a plurality of the total seats. The Democratic Party trailed behind with 47 seats and the Bulgarian Social Democrats trailed at third position with 38 seats. In a political feat, the three leading parties as well as the Bulgarian Democratic Party decided to form a coalition to let the nation recover economically until the next elections. This formed an overwhelming majority in the Bulgarian National Assembly and compromise leader, minority party politician and widely respected reformist, Nikola Mushanov was elevated to the position of Prime Minister. Well liked by Boris III himself [4], his position was accepted.
Nikola Mushanov. The new Bulgarian PM.
Perhaps it is the difference in attitudes between the two countries, but the Bulgarian recovery would prove to be much more successful than its Serbian counterpart.” The Post-Balkan War Consensus. Penguin Publishing, 2018.
***
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[1] – The Vatican until the 1920s was still named as the Papal States in official documents.
[2] – he did otl as well.
[3] – For their roles in making the peace, Karl, Sixtus and Franz II are beatified as Blessed Karl, Blessed Sixtus and Blessed Franz ittl by the Papacy much like otl in regards to Karl.
[4] – true for otl as well.
**
Chapter 30: Armistice Of A Few Decades
***
“On March 7, the German Empire had massed around 1.5 million men against the Western Front and the Italians had massed around 600,000 men at the Alpine front against the French lines. The Final Offensive, or as it was known then, the Grand Offensive was about to start. It was Germany’s and Italy’s last bid to end the war on their terms. If the Germans and Italians could knock France out in one massive campaign, then the Germans alone could take care of the Russian colossus. And Italy alone would be able to defend against Spain whilst the United Kingdom wallowed from afar.
The German Army had concentrated many of its best troops into stormtrooper units, trained in infiltration tactics to infiltrate and bypass enemy frontline unites, leaving these strong points to be mopped up by follow up troops. Each major formation gave up its best and fittest troops to these Stormtrooper regiments, and several elite divisions were formed with these elite divisions. This process would give the Germans the initiative of attack, but that also meant that the best formations would suffer disproportionately the heaviest casualties during the battles that were to come.
In return, the Allies had developed defenses in depth, reducing the proportion of troops in their frontline and pulling reserves and supply dumps back beyond German and Italian artillery range. The frontline was made into a forward zone lightly held by snipers, machine gun posts and patrols. Behind out of range from artillery, was the battlezone where the offensive was to be resisted against all odds, and behind that again, was a rearzone where the reserves were to be kept.
British troops preparing for the offensive
On March 7, the Germans began their biggest offensive by attacking the British 2nd Army in the biggest bombardment of the entire war. According to Sergeant Reinhard Schmidt, a German soldier who would write his memoirs of frontline action down into his book All Quiet On the Western Front,
………..The artillery bombardment began on 4:40 am. The bombardment hit targets over an area of around 120 square miles, the biggest barrage of the entire war. According to the officers, 1,100,000 shells were fired within the first few hours alone………
The sheer scale of the bombardment was massive. And the 17th Army, 2nd Army and 18th Army under the command of Otto von Below, Goerg von der Marwitz and Oskar von Hutier were intent on exploiting their advantage and seizing the operational initiative against the opposing Belgian, British and French forces.
The same was happening in the south, in the arid mountains of the Alpine valleys, the French, British, Spanish and Greek troops took up arms against the massive army of Italian troops led by Armando Diaz as the Italians launched a massive volley of artillery barrages after barrages. The Allied troops remained holed up in their trenches, and bunkers, holding out, and gritting their teeth as they resisted the shell shock that would inevitably spread after such a bombardment. The causation of landslides, and rockfalls due to the barrage in the high mountains did not aid the Allies either, as several bunkers were buried in snow, mud and rock. The Italian 5th, 3rd and 9th Armies under the overall command of General Armando Diaz were forming up to attack the allies as well.
German troops in Aalst.
The Germans and Italians advanced rapidly and managed to score great early victories against the forces of the allies arrayed against them. The Germans retook Aalst, and advanced towards Zottegem in Belgium, and the Germans even veered south and forced the Belgian holdouts in the south to be routed, and managed to enter Northern France, provoking a political crisis, as the Germans occupied Sedan as well. The Luxembourg Volunteer Corps fortunately managed to defend Longwy from the Germans preventing the Germans from capturing a key flank of the French frontlines. Down in the south the Italians too had early successes. On many accounts, they were even more successful than the Germans. The Italians only had one front to worry about and unlike the Germans they could throw their entire weight against the Alpine front. The Italian 9th Army marched from Menton and in a whirlwind assault took Nice itself from the French, a hefty blow to the allies, as the Franco-Spanish defenders of the city were encircled with Diaz’s characteristic pincer movement and forced to surrender under the threat of indiscriminate bombardment. The Italians managed to break out into the Southern French Plains and managed to take Cannes and Frejus as well, which was a massive blow within its own right as well. In the Alps, the Italians advanced, and captured Chambery itself, marching across 50 miles of rugged mountainous terrain in a desperate offensive to defeat the French. The Greek and British defenders of the city defended the city fiercely, but the Italians were too powerful numerically and the city was forced to surrender eventually on March 29. The first phase of the Final Offensive had been wildly successful for the Central Powers, or what was left of them anyways. However the Second Battle of Waterloo and the Battle of Nances would end all hope of Central Power victory.
The Second Battle of Waterloo took place on April 9 to 15, 1917 and proved itself to be just as exhilarating as the Battle of Waterloo which took place in 1815 and in a twist of irony, the British were in the second battle, the ones resisting German assaults waiting for French reinforcements to defeat the Germans. From April 6, the British 3rd Army under the command of Sir Alexander Hamilton-Gordon had made defensive parameters in Waterloo with reinforcements from the Belgian X and IX Corps and the British Indian V Corps for a total of 200,000 men. Opposing them was the German army led by General Ludwig von Falkenhausen, who was commanding a behemoth of an army of around 320,000 men. The French commander, Henri Gouraud, the commander of the French 8th Army had promised that his army would reinforce the British when the 8th Army was resupplied and as the Germans seemed to be ready to attack, beseeched Hamilton-Gordon to resist for as long as possible until the French reinforcements could arrive to deliver victory. Convinced that the French were coming, instead of turning and retreating, the Anglo-Belgian force turned to give battle to the incoming Germans. The Germans took the key strategic fortress of Chateau d’Argenteuil early on during the battle, and took the surrounding areas such as Gaillemarde and Ransbeche. The British and Belgian forces were routinely being pushed back by the enemy forces, and on the 11th the Anglo-Belgian army was forced to retreat farther back towards Terkluizen and was forced to seek shelter with the natural defenses of the forest there, with the heavy undergrowth of the region working to the advantage of the Anglo-Belgian force. Nonetheless, the situation remained dire for the Anglo-Belgian forces, and Hamilton-Gordon famously remarked ‘Give me the French or give me death!’.
On April 14, the French reinforcements arrived and flanked the German positions at Maransart and a bloody battle continued throughout the battlefield, and the Germans suffered a catastrophic defeat as they retreated, leaving a gaping hole in the German frontlines.
A painting of the Second Battle of Waterloo.
Similarly down south, the Greek Expeditionary Army, Spanish Alpine Army and French XXI and British X Corps were defending Nances for a total force of around 120,000 men with them. The incoming Italian 3rd Army under the personal command of General Armando Diaz consisted of around 150,000 men. The Italians attacked on April 11 at Saint Aldan de Montbel and forced the Greek 1st Division out of the area, forcing them to retreat to Dullin where they grouped up with the Spanish 59th Infantry Division. Together the Spanish and Greeks retreated to Ayn and managed to create a proper defensive perimeter, where the Spanish and Greeks resisted the Italian offensive with great enthusiasm and successful. The sheer weight of the Spanish and Greek resistance was such that the Italian flanks near Belmont-Tramonet was dangerously stretched thin as Diaz stripped men from the flanks to deal with the resistance at Ayn. However this opened the Italian flanks to attack from Avressieux. The British and the French attacked, and encircled the entire Italian 3rd Army as the French Alpine troops captured Le Lac on the 18th of April. On the 20th the 3rd Army surrendered.
On both fronts, the two defeats were disastrous. The French, Spanish, British and Greeks chased the Italians back to the Italian border, recovering occupied territory in the south and the French Alpine troops entered the Aosta Valley in northern Italy as well. In the north, the British and French managed to liberate Brussels as King Albert I entered the city triumphantly. Luxembourg city was liberated by the French and Luxembourgers and the fronts were rapidly collapsing. At this moment, Anton von Saltza, who was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal of Russia, ordered a massive offensive in the east and on April 30, the Russians captured Konigsberg. This was the last death blow. On May 3 Kaiser Wilhelm II was shot by an anarchist in Berlin angry at the war. Wilhelm II was immediately succeeded by his son, Crown Prince Wilhelm who was proclaimed shortly as Wilhelm III of Germany. Wilhelm III reluctantly told Bethmann-Hollwegg to seek peace, as the war was now by all means over.
Italian Troops retreating.
On May 10, the Italians sued for peace as well. On May 12, the Germans signed the Armistice of Metz, and the Italians signed the Armistice of Nice on May 15. The Great War had ended after 26 months of war.” The Grand Offensive: The Last Bid for Italo-German Dominance in the Great War.
***
“The German diplomats arrived in Paris on the 28th of May, and the countries began to seek a peace treaty once and for all. France had lost around 0.9 million men in the war, and around 50,000 civilians had been attacked and killed in the war. The French, barring the Belgians had taken the blunt of the fighting throughout the war. Viviani wanted to ensure the security of France, by weakening Germany economically, militarily, territorially and by supplanting Germany as the lead producer of Europe. British Prime Minister McKenna aptly stated that France wanted ‘The French want to reverse 1871. Radically.’
When the Spaniards and British protested slightly, the French Foreign Minister Doumergue told them ‘British is protected by the Sea. Spain by the mountains. Not even Napoleon could touch England and neither could he conquer Spain. You both are sheltered from the German threat. France…..is not.’
The French wanted a frontier on the Rhine, to protect the country from a German invasion and to compensate for French demographic inferiority in comparison to the Germans. On June 15, they put forward the most radical plan ever seen. The independence of the Kingdom of Bavaria, the Kingdom of Wurttemburg, the Kingdom of Saxony and the Kingdom of Baden, whilst France would annex Alsace-Lorraine and the Saar Basin. Britain could afford to have France annex the aforementioned areas, however the independence of Wurttemburg, Bavaria, Baden and Saxony would radically shift the balance of power in Central Europe and as such was not a suitable policy for peace. The Russians similarly believed that the newly independent German monarchies would simply fall under Austrian influence, and as such make their independence a threat to Russia.
British aims were more colonial oriented and more moderate. They demanded the partition of the German colonies, as well as return of Alsace-Lorraine to France. They demanded 2/3 of the German Fleet to be handed over to the Allies, and that presented itself as the only real over the top British demand. The Russians were in between the French and British positions. They weren’t as hardline as the French but neither were they as soft as Britain.
To understand the Russian position, we must rewind the clock a bit, and look to the January Conference. During the January Conference, Russian Prime Minister, Sergey Muromstev had understood clearly that the Poles were actually taking up arms with the Germans against Russian liberation of the territory and bluntly told the Tsar that Russian rule of Poland would no longer be possible in the future. Tsar Nicholas II was furious, however the more monarchist and moderate faction of the Duma, as well as the French and British consulates managed to calm the man down, with sweet offers. Trying to influence the man, Muromstev had pointed to the British Dominion system and asked permission to implement something similar to the British Dominion System in Poland. Tsar Nicholas II was loathe to accept such a deal, however the killing of Rasputin, with the Tsar himself implicated had made the prestige of the Russian monarchy fall to an alltime low. He was sure that the Polish members of the Duma would rebel if he said no. He was not far off the mark. As such, in the few moments of clarity in the life of Tsar Nicholas II, Nicholas II signed the January Declaration in which Nicholas II gave his support to a semi-independent Poland under a Russian Realmship. This was a fancy Russian manner of stating a Polish Dominion was going to be established.
The Polish nationalist faction had calmed down after that. The Russians were therefore obliged to ask for the Polish lands in the German Empire. The Russians demanded the handover of Memel, Heydekrug, Tilsit, Niederung, Ragnit, Gumbinnen, Insterburg and Angerburg directly to the Russian Empire, whilst the Russians also demanded Poznan, Danzig, Osterode, Neidenburg, Allenstein, Sensburgm Lyck, Johannisburg and Lotzen to be given to the new Polish state that was being formed.
The Blue zone is the Russian demands, and the Pink zone is the Polish-Russian Demands in East Prussia. The Green is the German Remnant Zone.
The Spanish and Greeks on the other hand had singular goals. The Spanish wanted German Cameroon, and the Greeks wanted excessive monetary reparations. The Belgians wanted Malmedy as a territorial buffer between itself and Germany. Finally on July 29, 1917, the Treaty of Versailles was signed. The treaty consisted of the following points:-
More ominously, British General Smith-Dorrien after reading the treaty, would say “This is not peace. This is an armistice of 2 to 3 decades.”
Treaty of Versailles.
His words would prove to be prophetic.” Versailles: How the Allies Culled Germany.
***
“The Italian diplomats were told to come to Barcelona for the treaty to end the war. Unlike the Germans, where the Aristocrats were directly involved in the war, the Italian nobility had remained aloof in the war, and as such the Italian internal situation was better than that of the Germans. After a few violent riots, the Italian gendarmerie restored order, and the Italian diplomats were dispatched. The Italians were desperate for a normal peace, as that that was given to Austria-Hungary. However that was not to be. On July 27, the Treaty of Barcelona was signed ending the war with Italy as well. The terms of the treaty were:-
***
Map of World after the Treaties of Versailles and Barcelona.
***
“In the decade before 1900, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) of Germany was the leading leftist party in Germany. With 35% of the national votes and 110 seats elected during the 1912 Reichstag Elections in 1912, the Social Democrats were the largest political party in Germany. Formed up of monarchic and republican leftists, the party had managed to retain a balance of republicanism and monarchism in the party. However the growing defeats slowly tilted the favor towards republicanism in the party.
At first, everyone in Germany was happy with the armistice, as it would bring peace. Nationalist egos were hurt, however many believed they would get a Austrian esque fair peace. But that was not to be. When news of the total demands of the Treaty of Versailles became known, the German Army refused to be cut down to size. The German 42nd and 29th Division in Kiel revolted in protest and demanded that the articles regarding the army be repealed by the allies to at least 500,000 active soldiers and 450,000 reservists. Wilhelm III refused to acquiesce with this demand, stating that he would not bow down to such brutish manners and that he would not forsake the last chance for a negotiated peace with the Allies.
The revolt precipitated a nationwide revolution in Germany that would sweep aside the monarchy within a few days. The German 42nd and 29th Divisions took control of Kiel and barricaded the city whilst the German Paramilitaries and loyalist divisions were sent north to deal with the revolt. The Soldiers, now sure that the government was acting not in the benefit of the German populace, met with one another in the Union House of Kiel on August 5. Delegations tied a union between themselves as well as the SPD, and USPD, as they now demanded a regime change. The SPD and USPD, who were not happy with the militaristic demands of the divisions, but happy to collaborate to bring the downfall of the aristocratic and in their view autocratic government, was happy to temporarily ally with them.
Imprisoned mutineers throughout Kiel were released by the members of the two divisions and the SPD and USPD. The Soldiers and Workers of Kiel, now working in tandem, brought the public institutions of the city under their control. When the worker nature of the revolt became known, the country descended into chaos.
On 9 August, deputations of the unionist and workers who were now aligning themselves to the revolutionary soldiers, dispersed all throughout the major cities in Germany. By the 12th of August, the entire country was up in flames as political chaos seized the nation. In Berlin, Prince Maximilian von Hohenzollern experienced a split in the SPD, as some like Friedrich Ebert told the government that a social revolution would need to avoided. However those like Gustav Noske supported the revolution and told that the days of the old Germany were over, and that democracy and not militarism would rule the Reich.
Bethmann-Hollwegg and Maximilian were not lucky however. A SPD convention in Berlin declared Noske as their leader. Noske then went to Wilhelm III’s chambers and demanded his abdication as monarch. Wilhelm III finally, after having tried to play for time, accepted the ultimatum and abdicated the throne, and released the germans from their oath to the Hohenzollern monarch.
However outside of Berlin, the country was now aligning itself between four sides. The Bavarians in the south were aligning themselves with King Rupprecht I of Bavaria. Ludwig III had abdicated the throne in favor of his son, as the Bavarian Landtag advised him to, perhaps saving the Bavarian monarchy. The Bavarian Army declared allegiance to Rupprecht the moment news of Wilhelm III’s departure came and were deployed to secure the borders of Bavaria. Rupprecht I on the other hand adopted a wait and see approach. He would allow Bavaria to remain a part of Germany if the Monarchy survived somehow, but he swore to make Bavaria independent if a German Republic was proclaimed.
Communists started to form under Karl Liebknecht in Saxony and the Rhineland. The people throughout Germany began to demand the abolition of the monarchy itself. Wilhelm III had abdicated the throne, but he had done so in favor of his son, Prince Wilhelm under the regency of his brother Prince Eitel Friedrich. However Noske bypassed this and using the mandate of the massive demonstrations against the monarchy throughout the country, Noske declared the German Republic in Berlin on August 14, 1917.
Proclamation
The German monarchies then found themselves abdicating and fleeing the country left right and center. The only sole exception was Rupprecht I, who still commanded the loyalty of the vast majority of the Bavarians. On August 15, the German Communists and Social Democrats formed a new government with Noske as Chancellor and Rosa Luxembourg as Deputy Chancellor and Liebknecht as President. This collaboration gave Rupprecht I and the abolition of the monarchy to declare the Independence of Bavaria, and declared Otto Rinder von Dandl as the Prime Minister of Bavaria. The vast majority of the Bavarian Army accepted the declaration. [1]. As the situation in the north stabilized, the Bavarians soon found themselves fighting a small scale war as Noske sent an army of 20,000 men to reconquer Bavaria. Noske still believed that the Bavarians would defect towards the Germans, however prompt Bavarian propaganda of making the new government seem like communists had been executed to perfection and even many German nationalist Bavarians refused to defect. [1]
The Bavarian Army defeated the German Expedition to Bavaria in the Battle of Hof and Battle of Coburg. This prompted the Berlin Stock Market, already strained beyond repair to collapse, and the German government soon found that they would be unable to prosecute a new war. They simply didn’t have the money for a new war. The French looked on with glee as the Germans tore each other apart and Bavaria seceded whilst the British were looking on worried for a communist republic. The Russians held ambivalent views and stayed put, as they were more focused with their new Polish client state.
On September 18, 1917 the new German Republic and Kingdom of Bavaria signed the Treaty of Nuremberg where the Germans recognized Bavarian independence. This only came however, despite the economic reality, out of a threat of Austrian invasion. The Austrians wanted a buffer between themselves and the Germans, now that they were afraid of a revanchist power to the north, and took advantage of the fact that the Bavarians had revolted. The threat of 1 million troops crashing into Silesia was enough to force Noske onto the negotiating table. The only concession Rupphrecht gave was that Bavaria would pay for its own debts that were a part of the German Debt.
The German Revolution had ended, and the Germanic World was now fragmented forever.” An Introduction into the German Revolution.
Map of World after the German Revolution of 1917.
***
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[1] – This is actually very interesting, as the Bavarian Army told Rupphrecht and Ludwig otl that they would support Bavarian independence if the Bavarian Royal Family stayed put. OTL that didn’t happen. ITTL it does.
Author's Note: Basically Poland has been resurrected as a semi-independent polity as the Russian government (very reluctantly and grudgingly) remain true to their promises to the Poles. The Russian and Polish armies are combined, and Foreign policy is taken care of by the Russians, but everything else is taken care of the internal government. Will go more into depth in the next chapter regarding Poland, and Russian politics.
***
“On March 7, the German Empire had massed around 1.5 million men against the Western Front and the Italians had massed around 600,000 men at the Alpine front against the French lines. The Final Offensive, or as it was known then, the Grand Offensive was about to start. It was Germany’s and Italy’s last bid to end the war on their terms. If the Germans and Italians could knock France out in one massive campaign, then the Germans alone could take care of the Russian colossus. And Italy alone would be able to defend against Spain whilst the United Kingdom wallowed from afar.
The German Army had concentrated many of its best troops into stormtrooper units, trained in infiltration tactics to infiltrate and bypass enemy frontline unites, leaving these strong points to be mopped up by follow up troops. Each major formation gave up its best and fittest troops to these Stormtrooper regiments, and several elite divisions were formed with these elite divisions. This process would give the Germans the initiative of attack, but that also meant that the best formations would suffer disproportionately the heaviest casualties during the battles that were to come.
In return, the Allies had developed defenses in depth, reducing the proportion of troops in their frontline and pulling reserves and supply dumps back beyond German and Italian artillery range. The frontline was made into a forward zone lightly held by snipers, machine gun posts and patrols. Behind out of range from artillery, was the battlezone where the offensive was to be resisted against all odds, and behind that again, was a rearzone where the reserves were to be kept.
British troops preparing for the offensive
On March 7, the Germans began their biggest offensive by attacking the British 2nd Army in the biggest bombardment of the entire war. According to Sergeant Reinhard Schmidt, a German soldier who would write his memoirs of frontline action down into his book All Quiet On the Western Front,
………..The artillery bombardment began on 4:40 am. The bombardment hit targets over an area of around 120 square miles, the biggest barrage of the entire war. According to the officers, 1,100,000 shells were fired within the first few hours alone………
The sheer scale of the bombardment was massive. And the 17th Army, 2nd Army and 18th Army under the command of Otto von Below, Goerg von der Marwitz and Oskar von Hutier were intent on exploiting their advantage and seizing the operational initiative against the opposing Belgian, British and French forces.
The same was happening in the south, in the arid mountains of the Alpine valleys, the French, British, Spanish and Greek troops took up arms against the massive army of Italian troops led by Armando Diaz as the Italians launched a massive volley of artillery barrages after barrages. The Allied troops remained holed up in their trenches, and bunkers, holding out, and gritting their teeth as they resisted the shell shock that would inevitably spread after such a bombardment. The causation of landslides, and rockfalls due to the barrage in the high mountains did not aid the Allies either, as several bunkers were buried in snow, mud and rock. The Italian 5th, 3rd and 9th Armies under the overall command of General Armando Diaz were forming up to attack the allies as well.
German troops in Aalst.
The Germans and Italians advanced rapidly and managed to score great early victories against the forces of the allies arrayed against them. The Germans retook Aalst, and advanced towards Zottegem in Belgium, and the Germans even veered south and forced the Belgian holdouts in the south to be routed, and managed to enter Northern France, provoking a political crisis, as the Germans occupied Sedan as well. The Luxembourg Volunteer Corps fortunately managed to defend Longwy from the Germans preventing the Germans from capturing a key flank of the French frontlines. Down in the south the Italians too had early successes. On many accounts, they were even more successful than the Germans. The Italians only had one front to worry about and unlike the Germans they could throw their entire weight against the Alpine front. The Italian 9th Army marched from Menton and in a whirlwind assault took Nice itself from the French, a hefty blow to the allies, as the Franco-Spanish defenders of the city were encircled with Diaz’s characteristic pincer movement and forced to surrender under the threat of indiscriminate bombardment. The Italians managed to break out into the Southern French Plains and managed to take Cannes and Frejus as well, which was a massive blow within its own right as well. In the Alps, the Italians advanced, and captured Chambery itself, marching across 50 miles of rugged mountainous terrain in a desperate offensive to defeat the French. The Greek and British defenders of the city defended the city fiercely, but the Italians were too powerful numerically and the city was forced to surrender eventually on March 29. The first phase of the Final Offensive had been wildly successful for the Central Powers, or what was left of them anyways. However the Second Battle of Waterloo and the Battle of Nances would end all hope of Central Power victory.
The Second Battle of Waterloo took place on April 9 to 15, 1917 and proved itself to be just as exhilarating as the Battle of Waterloo which took place in 1815 and in a twist of irony, the British were in the second battle, the ones resisting German assaults waiting for French reinforcements to defeat the Germans. From April 6, the British 3rd Army under the command of Sir Alexander Hamilton-Gordon had made defensive parameters in Waterloo with reinforcements from the Belgian X and IX Corps and the British Indian V Corps for a total of 200,000 men. Opposing them was the German army led by General Ludwig von Falkenhausen, who was commanding a behemoth of an army of around 320,000 men. The French commander, Henri Gouraud, the commander of the French 8th Army had promised that his army would reinforce the British when the 8th Army was resupplied and as the Germans seemed to be ready to attack, beseeched Hamilton-Gordon to resist for as long as possible until the French reinforcements could arrive to deliver victory. Convinced that the French were coming, instead of turning and retreating, the Anglo-Belgian force turned to give battle to the incoming Germans. The Germans took the key strategic fortress of Chateau d’Argenteuil early on during the battle, and took the surrounding areas such as Gaillemarde and Ransbeche. The British and Belgian forces were routinely being pushed back by the enemy forces, and on the 11th the Anglo-Belgian army was forced to retreat farther back towards Terkluizen and was forced to seek shelter with the natural defenses of the forest there, with the heavy undergrowth of the region working to the advantage of the Anglo-Belgian force. Nonetheless, the situation remained dire for the Anglo-Belgian forces, and Hamilton-Gordon famously remarked ‘Give me the French or give me death!’.
On April 14, the French reinforcements arrived and flanked the German positions at Maransart and a bloody battle continued throughout the battlefield, and the Germans suffered a catastrophic defeat as they retreated, leaving a gaping hole in the German frontlines.
A painting of the Second Battle of Waterloo.
Similarly down south, the Greek Expeditionary Army, Spanish Alpine Army and French XXI and British X Corps were defending Nances for a total force of around 120,000 men with them. The incoming Italian 3rd Army under the personal command of General Armando Diaz consisted of around 150,000 men. The Italians attacked on April 11 at Saint Aldan de Montbel and forced the Greek 1st Division out of the area, forcing them to retreat to Dullin where they grouped up with the Spanish 59th Infantry Division. Together the Spanish and Greeks retreated to Ayn and managed to create a proper defensive perimeter, where the Spanish and Greeks resisted the Italian offensive with great enthusiasm and successful. The sheer weight of the Spanish and Greek resistance was such that the Italian flanks near Belmont-Tramonet was dangerously stretched thin as Diaz stripped men from the flanks to deal with the resistance at Ayn. However this opened the Italian flanks to attack from Avressieux. The British and the French attacked, and encircled the entire Italian 3rd Army as the French Alpine troops captured Le Lac on the 18th of April. On the 20th the 3rd Army surrendered.
On both fronts, the two defeats were disastrous. The French, Spanish, British and Greeks chased the Italians back to the Italian border, recovering occupied territory in the south and the French Alpine troops entered the Aosta Valley in northern Italy as well. In the north, the British and French managed to liberate Brussels as King Albert I entered the city triumphantly. Luxembourg city was liberated by the French and Luxembourgers and the fronts were rapidly collapsing. At this moment, Anton von Saltza, who was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal of Russia, ordered a massive offensive in the east and on April 30, the Russians captured Konigsberg. This was the last death blow. On May 3 Kaiser Wilhelm II was shot by an anarchist in Berlin angry at the war. Wilhelm II was immediately succeeded by his son, Crown Prince Wilhelm who was proclaimed shortly as Wilhelm III of Germany. Wilhelm III reluctantly told Bethmann-Hollwegg to seek peace, as the war was now by all means over.
Italian Troops retreating.
On May 10, the Italians sued for peace as well. On May 12, the Germans signed the Armistice of Metz, and the Italians signed the Armistice of Nice on May 15. The Great War had ended after 26 months of war.” The Grand Offensive: The Last Bid for Italo-German Dominance in the Great War.
***
“The German diplomats arrived in Paris on the 28th of May, and the countries began to seek a peace treaty once and for all. France had lost around 0.9 million men in the war, and around 50,000 civilians had been attacked and killed in the war. The French, barring the Belgians had taken the blunt of the fighting throughout the war. Viviani wanted to ensure the security of France, by weakening Germany economically, militarily, territorially and by supplanting Germany as the lead producer of Europe. British Prime Minister McKenna aptly stated that France wanted ‘The French want to reverse 1871. Radically.’
When the Spaniards and British protested slightly, the French Foreign Minister Doumergue told them ‘British is protected by the Sea. Spain by the mountains. Not even Napoleon could touch England and neither could he conquer Spain. You both are sheltered from the German threat. France…..is not.’
The French wanted a frontier on the Rhine, to protect the country from a German invasion and to compensate for French demographic inferiority in comparison to the Germans. On June 15, they put forward the most radical plan ever seen. The independence of the Kingdom of Bavaria, the Kingdom of Wurttemburg, the Kingdom of Saxony and the Kingdom of Baden, whilst France would annex Alsace-Lorraine and the Saar Basin. Britain could afford to have France annex the aforementioned areas, however the independence of Wurttemburg, Bavaria, Baden and Saxony would radically shift the balance of power in Central Europe and as such was not a suitable policy for peace. The Russians similarly believed that the newly independent German monarchies would simply fall under Austrian influence, and as such make their independence a threat to Russia.
British aims were more colonial oriented and more moderate. They demanded the partition of the German colonies, as well as return of Alsace-Lorraine to France. They demanded 2/3 of the German Fleet to be handed over to the Allies, and that presented itself as the only real over the top British demand. The Russians were in between the French and British positions. They weren’t as hardline as the French but neither were they as soft as Britain.
To understand the Russian position, we must rewind the clock a bit, and look to the January Conference. During the January Conference, Russian Prime Minister, Sergey Muromstev had understood clearly that the Poles were actually taking up arms with the Germans against Russian liberation of the territory and bluntly told the Tsar that Russian rule of Poland would no longer be possible in the future. Tsar Nicholas II was furious, however the more monarchist and moderate faction of the Duma, as well as the French and British consulates managed to calm the man down, with sweet offers. Trying to influence the man, Muromstev had pointed to the British Dominion system and asked permission to implement something similar to the British Dominion System in Poland. Tsar Nicholas II was loathe to accept such a deal, however the killing of Rasputin, with the Tsar himself implicated had made the prestige of the Russian monarchy fall to an alltime low. He was sure that the Polish members of the Duma would rebel if he said no. He was not far off the mark. As such, in the few moments of clarity in the life of Tsar Nicholas II, Nicholas II signed the January Declaration in which Nicholas II gave his support to a semi-independent Poland under a Russian Realmship. This was a fancy Russian manner of stating a Polish Dominion was going to be established.
The Polish nationalist faction had calmed down after that. The Russians were therefore obliged to ask for the Polish lands in the German Empire. The Russians demanded the handover of Memel, Heydekrug, Tilsit, Niederung, Ragnit, Gumbinnen, Insterburg and Angerburg directly to the Russian Empire, whilst the Russians also demanded Poznan, Danzig, Osterode, Neidenburg, Allenstein, Sensburgm Lyck, Johannisburg and Lotzen to be given to the new Polish state that was being formed.
The Blue zone is the Russian demands, and the Pink zone is the Polish-Russian Demands in East Prussia. The Green is the German Remnant Zone.
The Spanish and Greeks on the other hand had singular goals. The Spanish wanted German Cameroon, and the Greeks wanted excessive monetary reparations. The Belgians wanted Malmedy as a territorial buffer between itself and Germany. Finally on July 29, 1917, the Treaty of Versailles was signed. The treaty consisted of the following points:-
- Articles [1-3] dealt with the introduction of the war, and designated war guilt solely to the Germans for the war.
- Articles [4-8] dealt with the questions of the German colonies. The Northern Mariana Islands and the Marshall Islands were to be ceded to Japan. The other German Pacific colonies were partitioned between the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Australia got German Papua, New Zealand got Samoa, and Nauru was kept under joint Anglo-Australian-New Zealand Trusteeship. German Micronesia was handed over to Britain as British Micronesia. The German Concessions in China were handed over to China despite Japanese protests in the conference. German Southwest Africa was given to the Dominion of South Africa. The German Colony of East Africa was given to Britain, with German Rwanda given to Belgium. German Togo was given to France. France and Britain annexed the borderlands in German Cameroon whilst Spain annexed the entirety of the rest of German Cameroon.
- Articles [9-12] dealt with European territorial concessions. Memel and Southeastern East Prussia was given to Russia. Southern East Prussia, Upper Silesia and Poznan was given to the new Realm of Poland. Alsace-Lorraine and the Saar Basin was annexed by France whilst Malmedy was annexed by Belgium.
- Articles [13-15] dealt with monetary reparations. It was here that the Allies were most vindictive. The Allies demanded 125 Billion German Marks as reparations to be paid over two decades. Quietly though around 45 billion were mere numbers and the allies secretly told the Germans that the actual amount to be paid was around 80 billion.
- Articles [15-20] dealt with military restrictions. The Germans were only allowed an army of 250,000 activists and 150,000 reservists to be there in the German Army for a period of 25 years. The Germans were not to have an Airforce more than 100 operational warplanes, whilst the German Navy was only allowed to have 6 pre-dreadnought warships, and was limited to six light cruisers, twelve destroyers, and fifteen torpedo boats, whilst the Navy was forbidden from having any submarines. The Rhineland was to be demilitarized as well.
More ominously, British General Smith-Dorrien after reading the treaty, would say “This is not peace. This is an armistice of 2 to 3 decades.”
Treaty of Versailles.
His words would prove to be prophetic.” Versailles: How the Allies Culled Germany.
***
“The Italian diplomats were told to come to Barcelona for the treaty to end the war. Unlike the Germans, where the Aristocrats were directly involved in the war, the Italian nobility had remained aloof in the war, and as such the Italian internal situation was better than that of the Germans. After a few violent riots, the Italian gendarmerie restored order, and the Italian diplomats were dispatched. The Italians were desperate for a normal peace, as that that was given to Austria-Hungary. However that was not to be. On July 27, the Treaty of Barcelona was signed ending the war with Italy as well. The terms of the treaty were:-
- Articles [1-3] dealt with the introduction of the war, and stated that Italy too was partially responsible for the war, due to their belligerent attitude.
- Articles [4-5] dealt with the colonial partition. Italian Eritrea was given to France, whilst Italian Somalia was given to the British Empire.
- Articles [6-8] dealt with European concessions. The French annexed the northern Aosta Valley whilst the British annexed the islands of Lampedusa, Linosa, and Pantelleria into British Malta.
- Articles [9-11] dealt with military restrictions. The Italian Army was only allowed to have 120,000 active troops and 130,000 reservists. The Italian Airforce was to be maintained at 60 operational warplanes and the Italian Navy was reduced to 5 pre-dreadnought warships, 5 light cruisers, 10 destroyers, and 12 torpedo destroyers.
- Articles [12-15] dealt with monetary reparations. The Italians had to pay 75 billion Italian Lira as reparations of war.
***
Map of World after the Treaties of Versailles and Barcelona.
***
“In the decade before 1900, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) of Germany was the leading leftist party in Germany. With 35% of the national votes and 110 seats elected during the 1912 Reichstag Elections in 1912, the Social Democrats were the largest political party in Germany. Formed up of monarchic and republican leftists, the party had managed to retain a balance of republicanism and monarchism in the party. However the growing defeats slowly tilted the favor towards republicanism in the party.
At first, everyone in Germany was happy with the armistice, as it would bring peace. Nationalist egos were hurt, however many believed they would get a Austrian esque fair peace. But that was not to be. When news of the total demands of the Treaty of Versailles became known, the German Army refused to be cut down to size. The German 42nd and 29th Division in Kiel revolted in protest and demanded that the articles regarding the army be repealed by the allies to at least 500,000 active soldiers and 450,000 reservists. Wilhelm III refused to acquiesce with this demand, stating that he would not bow down to such brutish manners and that he would not forsake the last chance for a negotiated peace with the Allies.
The revolt precipitated a nationwide revolution in Germany that would sweep aside the monarchy within a few days. The German 42nd and 29th Divisions took control of Kiel and barricaded the city whilst the German Paramilitaries and loyalist divisions were sent north to deal with the revolt. The Soldiers, now sure that the government was acting not in the benefit of the German populace, met with one another in the Union House of Kiel on August 5. Delegations tied a union between themselves as well as the SPD, and USPD, as they now demanded a regime change. The SPD and USPD, who were not happy with the militaristic demands of the divisions, but happy to collaborate to bring the downfall of the aristocratic and in their view autocratic government, was happy to temporarily ally with them.
Imprisoned mutineers throughout Kiel were released by the members of the two divisions and the SPD and USPD. The Soldiers and Workers of Kiel, now working in tandem, brought the public institutions of the city under their control. When the worker nature of the revolt became known, the country descended into chaos.
On 9 August, deputations of the unionist and workers who were now aligning themselves to the revolutionary soldiers, dispersed all throughout the major cities in Germany. By the 12th of August, the entire country was up in flames as political chaos seized the nation. In Berlin, Prince Maximilian von Hohenzollern experienced a split in the SPD, as some like Friedrich Ebert told the government that a social revolution would need to avoided. However those like Gustav Noske supported the revolution and told that the days of the old Germany were over, and that democracy and not militarism would rule the Reich.
Bethmann-Hollwegg and Maximilian were not lucky however. A SPD convention in Berlin declared Noske as their leader. Noske then went to Wilhelm III’s chambers and demanded his abdication as monarch. Wilhelm III finally, after having tried to play for time, accepted the ultimatum and abdicated the throne, and released the germans from their oath to the Hohenzollern monarch.
However outside of Berlin, the country was now aligning itself between four sides. The Bavarians in the south were aligning themselves with King Rupprecht I of Bavaria. Ludwig III had abdicated the throne in favor of his son, as the Bavarian Landtag advised him to, perhaps saving the Bavarian monarchy. The Bavarian Army declared allegiance to Rupprecht the moment news of Wilhelm III’s departure came and were deployed to secure the borders of Bavaria. Rupprecht I on the other hand adopted a wait and see approach. He would allow Bavaria to remain a part of Germany if the Monarchy survived somehow, but he swore to make Bavaria independent if a German Republic was proclaimed.
Communists started to form under Karl Liebknecht in Saxony and the Rhineland. The people throughout Germany began to demand the abolition of the monarchy itself. Wilhelm III had abdicated the throne, but he had done so in favor of his son, Prince Wilhelm under the regency of his brother Prince Eitel Friedrich. However Noske bypassed this and using the mandate of the massive demonstrations against the monarchy throughout the country, Noske declared the German Republic in Berlin on August 14, 1917.
of the German Republic.
The German monarchies then found themselves abdicating and fleeing the country left right and center. The only sole exception was Rupprecht I, who still commanded the loyalty of the vast majority of the Bavarians. On August 15, the German Communists and Social Democrats formed a new government with Noske as Chancellor and Rosa Luxembourg as Deputy Chancellor and Liebknecht as President. This collaboration gave Rupprecht I and the abolition of the monarchy to declare the Independence of Bavaria, and declared Otto Rinder von Dandl as the Prime Minister of Bavaria. The vast majority of the Bavarian Army accepted the declaration. [1]. As the situation in the north stabilized, the Bavarians soon found themselves fighting a small scale war as Noske sent an army of 20,000 men to reconquer Bavaria. Noske still believed that the Bavarians would defect towards the Germans, however prompt Bavarian propaganda of making the new government seem like communists had been executed to perfection and even many German nationalist Bavarians refused to defect. [1]
The Bavarian Army defeated the German Expedition to Bavaria in the Battle of Hof and Battle of Coburg. This prompted the Berlin Stock Market, already strained beyond repair to collapse, and the German government soon found that they would be unable to prosecute a new war. They simply didn’t have the money for a new war. The French looked on with glee as the Germans tore each other apart and Bavaria seceded whilst the British were looking on worried for a communist republic. The Russians held ambivalent views and stayed put, as they were more focused with their new Polish client state.
On September 18, 1917 the new German Republic and Kingdom of Bavaria signed the Treaty of Nuremberg where the Germans recognized Bavarian independence. This only came however, despite the economic reality, out of a threat of Austrian invasion. The Austrians wanted a buffer between themselves and the Germans, now that they were afraid of a revanchist power to the north, and took advantage of the fact that the Bavarians had revolted. The threat of 1 million troops crashing into Silesia was enough to force Noske onto the negotiating table. The only concession Rupphrecht gave was that Bavaria would pay for its own debts that were a part of the German Debt.
The German Revolution had ended, and the Germanic World was now fragmented forever.” An Introduction into the German Revolution.
Map of World after the German Revolution of 1917.
***
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[1] – This is actually very interesting, as the Bavarian Army told Rupphrecht and Ludwig otl that they would support Bavarian independence if the Bavarian Royal Family stayed put. OTL that didn’t happen. ITTL it does.
Author's Note: Basically Poland has been resurrected as a semi-independent polity as the Russian government (very reluctantly and grudgingly) remain true to their promises to the Poles. The Russian and Polish armies are combined, and Foreign policy is taken care of by the Russians, but everything else is taken care of the internal government. Will go more into depth in the next chapter regarding Poland, and Russian politics.
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Chapter 31: The Drama Known as Peace
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“The war had ended in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but all was not at peace. Franz II was a mixture of democratic and autocratic ideals, and this clash of ideals often led to stalemate in the government, unsure on what they needed to do. However, everyone in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, knew that reform was needed. Franz II knew this. Austrian Minister-President, Heinrich Lammasch knew this, and Hungarian Prime Minister, Sandor Wekerle, also knew this. The days of feudal allegiance were over, and the Hungarians were rioting on the streets asking Budapest for universal male suffrage that was granted in the Austrian half of the empire. In Austria, people were rioting hoping to pass pro-worker laws in the empire. Whilst the House of Habsburg was still widely supported, as many passed the blame onto the politicians rather than the ruling dynasty, there was no telling when that fixture could change.
On April 25, 1917, Franz II called a meeting of the House of Habsburg and the Hungarian and Austrian governments in Kosice, to find a proper solution to the problems plaguing the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Kosice Conference would be a very consequential meeting, one that arguably shaped Europe for the next century. During the conference, Franz II lambasted the Hungarian government, and asked them what they had in mind to end the pro-suffrage riots in Hungary. Wekerle, privately was in favor of expanded suffrage in Hungary, as he was the first and only Hungarian commoner to become Prime Minister, however his backers were all Hungarian magnates and expanding suffrage would end his political career. He would tell the emperor that many in the government was in favor of the universal male suffrage question, however the influence of the magnates made that impossible. A poke and see approach would need to be taken in his opinion.
Franz II was exasperated by this and moved onto the Austrian half of the empire. Austrian Minister-President, Heinrich Lammasch presented the emperor with an entire list of social reforms. Franz II was not a pro-leftist monarch like his successor, however nonetheless, he accepted the laws, and told Lammasch to take them to the Cisleithanian Legislature for passage of the proposal social worker’s bills. The bills included raising the minimum wage, and keeping a total working hours of 8 hours.
Meanwhile the Croatian National Councilors, led by President Dr. Aleksander Horvat, with prominent members of the Dalmatian Parliament and Croatia-Slavonia Parliament such as Ivo Frank, Josip Pazman and prominent generals like Lukas Snjaric, Mihael Mihalijevic and Svetozar Borevic presented the Emperor with the opinion of establishing a third crown in the empire. The Lands of Zvonimir, or an Illyrian Crown, that would encompass Croatia-Slavonia, Dalmatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, for the South Slavs. With plebiscites to take place in Austrian Slovenia regarding the issue of joining the Southern Slav Crown. Franz II was a well known trialism supporter, and he was enthusiastic about the proposal, but many in the Hungarian government protested the move. The Landowners and Magnates present in the meeting were not in favor of such a move.
Franz II argued that the issue of the political status of Bosnia and Herzegovina would be ended by the creation of a third crown, and the simmering discontent against Hungarian rule from the Slavs would be suppressed. The Hungarians vehemently disagreed. Many in the Hungarian cabinet were in fact in favor of such reforms, but they knew that the Magnates would never accept such a radical change, and that the country would be swept into civil war if Franz II used his constitutional powers to bypass the Hungarian Cabinet and pass the laws.
The Hungarian Prime Minister was pressured by Franz II to pass the legislation for a third crown in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Hungarian Cabinet reluctantly signed the legislation in favor of trialism. This was mainly a result of the fact that Wekerle’s cabinet was filled with reformists [1], but the fact remained that everyone knew that the declaration of trialism would be met with anger in the Hungarian nobility, even if the populace supported it, which many of them did.
It was here, that Heinrich Lammasch came in. An old and wily politician with the cunning to back it up [2], he knew what to do. He told Franz II to freeze the monetary bank accounts of the Hungarian Magnates temporarily after the news of the trialism got out. After that, if the Magnates revolted, the accounts could be seized and nationalized. Without money, the Magnate revolt would be penniless and not worth the paper it would be declared on. Franz II liked the idea, and accepted the move.
Heinrich Lammasch.
The final two topics that were discussed between April 26 and 28 were the issues of centralization and ethnic representation. Franz II pushed for a series of United Elections to take place throughout the empire, whilst local diet elections would also take place. He also pushed for a central position of Chancellor and Central Cabinet to be formed as well. He pointed out that the early dysfunction between the Cisleithanian and Transleithanian government came due to the separation of governments. There was no rebuttal to this point. It was true after all.
Ironically the Hungarian Magnates were supporters of unified elections as well, and the Hungarian Cabinet was in favor of unified elections throughout the empire as well. Finally the idea of a National Autonomy Law was floated throughout the meeting. The National Autonomy Law had been introduced to the Austrian Parliament in 1904, but it had been narrowly voted down. Its basic idea was described by Social Democrat Karl Renner as:-
“Every member of a national group to have the right to their own religion and language, both in education and daily use, whilst maintaining the identity of remaining in the Empire.”
For this, the politicians turned to the Ottoman Empire for inspiration. A multiethnic empire, the Ottomans were widely free of ethnic political parties, unlike Austria-Hungary. A lot of ethnic political parties existed in the Ottoman Empire, however few of them actually managed to make gains in national elections and they were only present on the fringes of local level elections. The Greek Nationalist Party (GNP) which had been so strong from 1876 to 1907 was basically dead in the Ottoman Empire, and the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party and Armenakan Parties, which were one separatist parties, in the Ottoman Empire had changed their political focus from separatism to regionalism instead. Archduke Karl, and Franz II supported the implementation of Ottoman like reforms, allowing the nationalities of the empire total freedom, however making them being encompassed under the overall identity of being a citizen of the Habsburg Empire. Karl was even more radical than Franz II and pushed for full federalization of the empire, however that would be too radical a change, and was shot down.
On April 29, the Kosice Conference ended, and the Hungarian and Austrian cabinet got to work. On May 4, the Kingdom of Illyria was proclaimed in Zagreb. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was declared to be the Empire of Danubia, whilst the Empire of Austria, Kingdom of Hungary and Kingdom of Illyria were declared the subnational kingdoms of the empire. Danubia had been a proposed name for the empire since 1881, and Franz II took up the name. [3]
The new Flag of the Empire of Danubia.
Like many had suspected, the Hungarian Magnates revolted immediately. The government froze all of their monetary accounts and nationalized their wealth and took their riches into the Imperial Treasury filling up their coffers by a massive amount. Most of the Hungarian magnates immediately found themselves broke and destitute. Many tried to fight back against this new law, however the reformist train was streaming ahead full steam. On May 5, the government called for new elections for the new empire to take place on May 29, 1915.
The reformist mood of the empire was celebrated throughout the empire. However a good few were not happy. The German nationalists in the empire were far from happy. At the Battle of Aalst, one Adolf Hitler was wounded in the left thigh when a shell exploded in his dugout in the German Army. He was sent to Bavaria for treatment in a hospital. However he only managed to recover after the armistice was signed. At the same time, the general anarchy in Germany forced him to move into his homeland of Austria. A fervent German nationalist, the man was horrified by the fact that the Empire was going to enfranchise the Slavs and Latins of the Empire, a group of people whom according to Hitler’s friends, were found to be distasteful for Hitler and were viewed as subpar humans. He was also angry that the Habsburg Empire had thrown in the towel and blamed the German defeat in the war towards Austria, or more specifically Franz II. He conspired with German Nationalist organizations in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. On May 21, Franz II took a ride out in Vienna with his wife, Sophie Chotek, and was cheered on by the Viennese crowd, Franz II had become incredibly popular for allowing the social laws to pass.
The imperial car stopped, and he stepped out to meet with the common people near Kaisermulhen Square. There, he was giving the public smiles and autographs that monarchs often did during this era, and was shaking hands with prominent commoners, of course with his bodyguards standing tersely behind him. As the meeting ended, he got up and after a small wave entered his car again. But before the car could move, three shots were heard, and the Emperor of Danubia fell down dead. Hitler had been in the crowd, and he shot the Emperor.
Pandemonium ensued. Adolf Hitler tried to escape, however the Austrian bodyguards weren’t trained by the best for nothing and they captured him. But Hitler managed to temporarily escape from his captors, before he was captured by the Viennese crowd. He was disarmed and handed to the Viennese police. The country was extremely angry. Franz II had proven himself to be a very popular monarch and his death was a blow to the empire. Archduke Karl immediately ascended to the throne as Karl I and confirmed that the elections of May 29 were not to be postponed, however the security would be doubled. Hitler was sentenced to death for his assassination and he was killed in a private execution in Vienna Prison.
During the subsequent elections held in the ending days of May, The Christian Social Party under Prince Louis of Lichtenstein managed to gain plurality of the seats in the new Danubian Imperial Diet, and formed a new government as Prince Louis became the first Chancellor of Danubia.”
Excerpts from The Habsburg Empire: How to Run a Modern Empire.
***
“The growth of the Ottoman Industrial capacity allowed the common folk of the country to invest into the growing armament industry of the country. Till now the Ottoman’s armament industries were almost all state owned and nationalized, and without private companies, many feared that the country would have no means of competition in the country in regards to the Armament industry. They needn’t have worried that much. In May 28, 1917, a group of aviation conglomerates in the Ottoman Empire, mainly filled up with Armenian and Greek industrial giants in the empire, formed the Caelum Armament Company. Caelum became one of the first armament company throughout the Ottoman Empire that was privately, and was extremely successful. It would become known as the Vickers Company of the Ottoman Empire.
Meanwhile in the empire, the country continued to slowly develop its aerial industry. The aerial section of warfare and the Ottoman investment in the sector was vindicated by the fact that Aerial warfare had been so useful in the Balkan War, and the fact that it had been overwhelmingly useful in the Great War as well. The Ottomans had around 170 warplanes in service in June 1917, and the 1917 Airforce Act was passed through the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies. The Ottoman Air Corps was de-established and its place, the Ottoman Airforce was formed. The Ottoman Airforce was given its own commission in the Ministry of War, and the Act also envisioned an Ottoman Airforce that was 500 strong in 1925. The act called for a total of 350 fighters and 150 bombers to be a part of the Airforce. It also allocated a good amount of money for the creation and establishment of three new aviation campuses and schools in the country.
The empire also continued to construct new prototypes for aerial construction to meet its own goals of having an airforce that was 500 strong in 1925. The first was fighter development. The Ottomans were in need for a new and more modern fighter rather than the ones they had with them currently. For the fighters, the Ottomans decided to build a two seat fighter biplane A new model called the Aslan Bir (Lion 1) was constructed by the Air Commission and members of the Caelum Aviation Branch. The Aslan Bir was fitted with Hispano-Suiza engines as well as indigenously produced Salonika 150 kW Plants as its main engines. The main characteristics of the Aslan Bir was the fact that it had a crew of 2 and had 2 engines, Its length was around 8.69 meters and the wingspan of the plane was 10.97 meters long. The height of the plane was also 2.92 meters and the wing area was around 30.24 square meters. It had an empty weight of 769 kilograms and gross weight of around 1,216 kilograms. The performance of the plane wasn’t bad either. It had a maximum speed of 183 kilometers per hour and a cruise speed of 153 kilometers per hour. It had an endurance of around 4 hours and 1 7.7 mm Vickers Machine Gun and another 7.7 Caelum Machine Gun as its main armaments. For the time, the Aslan Bir was a formidable fighter plane.
The Aslan Bir.
The second plane design was that of a bomber. The Ottomans were weak in their bomber fleet, and knew about this. They needed to create a strong bomber arm if they wanted to continue to use a combined arms approach to warfare. For this, the government and Caelum Company came up with the idea of the warplane known as Volant I.
Volant I was a long range bomber built by Caelum and the Air Commission. Operational use of the Volant I demonstrated that the incorporation of the fuel tanks into engine nacelles was a mistake in the aerial fuel. In response, the aeronautical engineers produced new housing areas in a plane that housed fuel tanks inside the fuselage. The smaller engine nacelles were mounted on struts above the lower wing. The pilot seat was offset to port, with fuel tanks immediately behind. This blocked the connecting walkway that previously on earlier bombers allowed crew members to move between the three gun stations. All bombs were carried externally in this warplane. It had a total crew of 4, and was 12.36 meters long and its wingspan was 23.7 meters. It had a height of 4.3 meters and had a wing area of 89.5 square meters. It had an empty weight of 2740 kilograms and gross weight of 3975 kilograms. It had two 6 cylinder water cooled in line piston engines which had a total horsepower of 260 hp each. It had a total speed of around 140 kilometers per hour and a range of 840 kilometers. It could carry a total of 14 x 25 kg bombs and held an armament of 3 machine guns as well.
The Volant I.
All in all the Volant I was a powerful bomber for this era. Both the Volant I and Aslan Bir received permission for streamlined production and would form the backbone of the Ottoman Airforce for the first half of the Interwar Era.”
Excerpts from Ottoman Aeronautics: Humble Origins
***
“The Ottoman Empire had ever since 1910 positioned itself as a socially inclusive and tolerant empire, trying to revive the pre-1820 years, when the Ottomans were regarded as a very tolerant empire, unlike the image that followed in the 1830s and 40s until 1909, when the Ottoman Empire became a byword for intolerance. Whilst the Ottomans were largely successful in their tolerant policy, social stigmas started to flare up in the empire as the Jews continued to flee their persecution in Russia, France and Spain into the Ottoman Empire. In the Ottoman Empire, Greeks, Armenian and Christian Syrians were called out as the most anti-semitic ethnic groups in the Ottoman Empire.
The American Presbyterian Missionary H. H. Jessup who stayed in Ottoman Lebanon from for around fifty years, said about the Jews in the Ottoman Empire:
H. H. Jessup.
Ironically tolerance towards Jews in the Ottoman Empire came from the Turkish and Arabic groups, groups that the western world had deemed barbarians against Jews many a times. In 1840, thousands of Damascus Jews were killed by the Greek, Latin and Bulgarian community there, and the survivors of the Damascus Pogrom, were all shielded by the Arabian and Turkish communities of the city.
In the middle of 1917, as around 10,000 Jewish immigrants arrived to the Ottoman Empire as a part of the Ottomans pro-Jewish stance, mainly from France, Spain, Portugal, Russia and Belgium, the Greek and Latin community of Syria rioted and destroyed several Jewish stores in the area. Ahmed Riza sent a declaration the next day on July 27, proclaiming,
Jewish Immigrants coming to the Ottoman Empire.
The Declaration of July 27th, 1917 basically told the empire once again that everyone was equal regardless of faith, and despite the polite and gentle tone of the declaration, everyone smart enough knew that it held a quiet threat. A threat of imprisonment if freedom of religion was not followed. Death, if immigrants were killed without committing any crime. The anti-semite crowds in Syria were soon dispersed.
The Ottomans were by and large conciliatory with its Greek minority, who formed the third largest group in the Ottoman Empire, however much to their headache the Ottomans found that the Greeks were the most anti-Semitic ethnic groups of the Ottoman Empire. [5] In Greek areas of the empire, riots against the Jewish immigration, instigated by religious foundations continued to happen. The leader of the Ashkenazi community in Rhodes, complained to the President of the Ottoman Jewish Front Organization (OJFO), Emmanuel Effendi, who was also a member of the Ottoman Parliament saying,
“The fanatic Greeks of this island, as of other places in Thrace, have the habit of contrary to the real spirit of Christianity, making a replica of Judas Iscariote, and of burning it on the Holy Saturday. They construct a wooden figure, cover it with clothing which they claim is that of ancient jews and they burn it publically in the middle of a multitude of the ignorant and the fanatic. When Turkish or Arab authorities are present, these events are dispersed quickly and many offenders are taken to prison but in the absence of these authorities, Greek authorities are more than willing to turn a blind eye to such events. It often happens that this multitude already excited by tales of the suffering of Christ that has been made to them at Churches, is exulted at the appearance of the execution of he who is supposed to have betrayed Christ, and works up a great anger against Jews. For a long time we have kept our heads down, knowing each year that the Hellenes will cut off the heads and arms of the corpses in our cemetery and will burn them with great solemnity. We have made no complaints to the central government, despite their obvious suspicions, in order to not create differences between the two communities. But this audacious madness of these fanatics have increased with the recent rise of Jewish immigration. We ourselves see the flames and hear the cries of hatred and vengeance against the Jews.” [6]
This situation of affairs simply could not be allowed to stand. On August 26, 1917, the Ottoman government met and the Chamber of Deputies condemned the anti-semitic attacks going on in Damascus and Thrace, as well as Rhodes. The government also passed the Act of the Jews, 1917 which formally made Anti-Semitism a crime. Any acts of Anti-Semitism then became an offense against the state. On august 29 itself, around 400 Anti-Semites were arrested and sentenced to prison by the government, of which 230 were Greeks, 90 were Armenians and the latter were a hodgepodge of other nationalities within the empire.
It was a harsh decision on part of the Ottoman Empire, but the Ottomans were going to stick to their decision about being tolerant. And that meant that through both education, and judicial means, the Ottomans were going to make their populace open minded.”
Excerpts from The Jews of the Ottoman Empire: The Tolerant Sultans.
***
“Immediately post the Great War, the Ottomans were in a powerful position. The British had invested heavily in Ottoman industries to meet their own weapon demands, and Ottoman exports into the British Empire had increased by a total of 40% throughout the Great War. Sweden and the Ottomans became the prime beneficiaries of British investment during the Great War. The French had also invested a good amount in the Ottoman Empire, and now the Ottomans, in an ironic twist held a good amount of debt in their hands that the western powers of Paris and London owed to the Ottoman government.
The Ottomans used this opportunity to open up new debt conferences with Britain and France, negotiating to decrease the amount of debt that the Ottomans owed to the Ottoman Public Debt Administration on part of the British and French. The British and the French refused to subsume the Ottoman debts in return of waiving of British and French debts to the Ottoman Empire, however both sides agreed to amenable reduction of debts with one another. With this done, the Ottomans also turned to other economic matters at hand.
Social Hierarchies of the Ottoman Economic Expansion
During the years of Ottoman economic expansion, the growth of Ottoman economics benefitted four groups in varying degrees. The peasant households who were located near industrial centers were able to organize the production and transportation of their crops without being dependent on third parties. By doing so they managed to take advantage of the favorable conditions in the export markets in the country. The nomadic tribes who owned and operation camel caravans in the country also benefitted from the expansion of production and exports. At the initial stages of the boom, the railroads still hadn’t penetrated into the rural parts of the country, though roads were built, and the camel’s caravans managed to earn good money by transporting goods and acting as agents for the rural villages of the Ottoman Empire. The third group who saw an increase in their income during this time were the workers of the empire. Money wages in the Ottoman Empire increased by about 90% during 1911 – 1917 and the growth was especially intense during the Italo-Ottoman War and the Balkan War. The group that benefitted most however, were the ethnic minorities of the empire, according to data, which show that the ethnic minorities of the empire managed to grow their economic scope within the empire most during the industrial expansion of the Ottoman Empire.
Ottoman Traders in Jeddah.
Excerpts from ‘An Economical History: The Ottomans’
***
“On June 23, Tsar Nicholas II, on the prodding and enforcement of the Duma, declared the Manifesto of the Polish Nation. It was a proclamation that declared the restoration of Congress Poland. The Russian government under Tsar Nicholas II and Sergey Muromtsev had searched for a proper Polish government to be formed among Polish loyalists in the empire, and they managed to take the offer of Premiership to the Russophone Polish Nationalist Roman Dmowski [7]. Dmowski accepted the offer, and agreed to form the first government of the Congress Polish government.
Roman Dmowski
On July 31, a royal procession took place in Warsaw, with Tsar Nicholas II being crowned as Mikolaja II of Poland, (Mikolaja is Nicholas in Polish) and he solemnly swore to uphold the laws and regulations of Poland. Great celebrations broke out throughout Poland as the Russian conservatives and reactionaries, as well as the Germans looked on with alarm at the proceedings.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski
The first polish government was formed, and Roman Dwomski became the first Polish Premier of Congress Poland, whilst Dwomski chose Ignacy Jan Paderewski to be the Vice-Premier of Congress Poland. Whilst handing over power to Poland had been a good idea, and provided rapprochement between the Poles and Russians, many minorities in the Russian Empire, most especially the Finns and Caucasians began to simmer in discontent, wanting the same concessions given to Poland. It would set the stage of the politics of Russia during the interwar era.”
Introduction of ‘Russian Politics in the Interwar Era: A History’.
***
---
[1] – This is otl. Wekerle was a commoner and his entire cabinet was filled with reformists, noble and commoner alike.
[2] – this guy is buried in history, but he really was actually a very wily and cunning politician. He single handedly prevented the annexation of all of Tyrol into Italy otl.
[3] – the name Danubia for the Austrian Empire was proposed first in 1819 actually but it was only seriously proposed first in 1881. Franz Ferdinand otl was a supporter of the name.
[4] – This is a real quote from OTL.
[5] – According to Fall of the Ottomans and the Jews of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic by Stanford Shaw, this is true. The Greeks, with the Armenians trailing behind were the most Anti-Semitic groups of the Ottoman Empire whilst ironically, the Turkish, Arabs and Lebanites were the most tolerant in the empire.
[6] - this is an otl quote as well.
[7] – He was more Russian Friendly than Russophone, but that’s the best you’re going to get in Russian Poland.
***
***
“The war had ended in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but all was not at peace. Franz II was a mixture of democratic and autocratic ideals, and this clash of ideals often led to stalemate in the government, unsure on what they needed to do. However, everyone in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, knew that reform was needed. Franz II knew this. Austrian Minister-President, Heinrich Lammasch knew this, and Hungarian Prime Minister, Sandor Wekerle, also knew this. The days of feudal allegiance were over, and the Hungarians were rioting on the streets asking Budapest for universal male suffrage that was granted in the Austrian half of the empire. In Austria, people were rioting hoping to pass pro-worker laws in the empire. Whilst the House of Habsburg was still widely supported, as many passed the blame onto the politicians rather than the ruling dynasty, there was no telling when that fixture could change.
On April 25, 1917, Franz II called a meeting of the House of Habsburg and the Hungarian and Austrian governments in Kosice, to find a proper solution to the problems plaguing the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Kosice Conference would be a very consequential meeting, one that arguably shaped Europe for the next century. During the conference, Franz II lambasted the Hungarian government, and asked them what they had in mind to end the pro-suffrage riots in Hungary. Wekerle, privately was in favor of expanded suffrage in Hungary, as he was the first and only Hungarian commoner to become Prime Minister, however his backers were all Hungarian magnates and expanding suffrage would end his political career. He would tell the emperor that many in the government was in favor of the universal male suffrage question, however the influence of the magnates made that impossible. A poke and see approach would need to be taken in his opinion.
Franz II was exasperated by this and moved onto the Austrian half of the empire. Austrian Minister-President, Heinrich Lammasch presented the emperor with an entire list of social reforms. Franz II was not a pro-leftist monarch like his successor, however nonetheless, he accepted the laws, and told Lammasch to take them to the Cisleithanian Legislature for passage of the proposal social worker’s bills. The bills included raising the minimum wage, and keeping a total working hours of 8 hours.
Meanwhile the Croatian National Councilors, led by President Dr. Aleksander Horvat, with prominent members of the Dalmatian Parliament and Croatia-Slavonia Parliament such as Ivo Frank, Josip Pazman and prominent generals like Lukas Snjaric, Mihael Mihalijevic and Svetozar Borevic presented the Emperor with the opinion of establishing a third crown in the empire. The Lands of Zvonimir, or an Illyrian Crown, that would encompass Croatia-Slavonia, Dalmatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, for the South Slavs. With plebiscites to take place in Austrian Slovenia regarding the issue of joining the Southern Slav Crown. Franz II was a well known trialism supporter, and he was enthusiastic about the proposal, but many in the Hungarian government protested the move. The Landowners and Magnates present in the meeting were not in favor of such a move.
Franz II argued that the issue of the political status of Bosnia and Herzegovina would be ended by the creation of a third crown, and the simmering discontent against Hungarian rule from the Slavs would be suppressed. The Hungarians vehemently disagreed. Many in the Hungarian cabinet were in fact in favor of such reforms, but they knew that the Magnates would never accept such a radical change, and that the country would be swept into civil war if Franz II used his constitutional powers to bypass the Hungarian Cabinet and pass the laws.
The Hungarian Prime Minister was pressured by Franz II to pass the legislation for a third crown in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Hungarian Cabinet reluctantly signed the legislation in favor of trialism. This was mainly a result of the fact that Wekerle’s cabinet was filled with reformists [1], but the fact remained that everyone knew that the declaration of trialism would be met with anger in the Hungarian nobility, even if the populace supported it, which many of them did.
It was here, that Heinrich Lammasch came in. An old and wily politician with the cunning to back it up [2], he knew what to do. He told Franz II to freeze the monetary bank accounts of the Hungarian Magnates temporarily after the news of the trialism got out. After that, if the Magnates revolted, the accounts could be seized and nationalized. Without money, the Magnate revolt would be penniless and not worth the paper it would be declared on. Franz II liked the idea, and accepted the move.
Heinrich Lammasch.
The final two topics that were discussed between April 26 and 28 were the issues of centralization and ethnic representation. Franz II pushed for a series of United Elections to take place throughout the empire, whilst local diet elections would also take place. He also pushed for a central position of Chancellor and Central Cabinet to be formed as well. He pointed out that the early dysfunction between the Cisleithanian and Transleithanian government came due to the separation of governments. There was no rebuttal to this point. It was true after all.
Ironically the Hungarian Magnates were supporters of unified elections as well, and the Hungarian Cabinet was in favor of unified elections throughout the empire as well. Finally the idea of a National Autonomy Law was floated throughout the meeting. The National Autonomy Law had been introduced to the Austrian Parliament in 1904, but it had been narrowly voted down. Its basic idea was described by Social Democrat Karl Renner as:-
“Every member of a national group to have the right to their own religion and language, both in education and daily use, whilst maintaining the identity of remaining in the Empire.”
For this, the politicians turned to the Ottoman Empire for inspiration. A multiethnic empire, the Ottomans were widely free of ethnic political parties, unlike Austria-Hungary. A lot of ethnic political parties existed in the Ottoman Empire, however few of them actually managed to make gains in national elections and they were only present on the fringes of local level elections. The Greek Nationalist Party (GNP) which had been so strong from 1876 to 1907 was basically dead in the Ottoman Empire, and the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party and Armenakan Parties, which were one separatist parties, in the Ottoman Empire had changed their political focus from separatism to regionalism instead. Archduke Karl, and Franz II supported the implementation of Ottoman like reforms, allowing the nationalities of the empire total freedom, however making them being encompassed under the overall identity of being a citizen of the Habsburg Empire. Karl was even more radical than Franz II and pushed for full federalization of the empire, however that would be too radical a change, and was shot down.
On April 29, the Kosice Conference ended, and the Hungarian and Austrian cabinet got to work. On May 4, the Kingdom of Illyria was proclaimed in Zagreb. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was declared to be the Empire of Danubia, whilst the Empire of Austria, Kingdom of Hungary and Kingdom of Illyria were declared the subnational kingdoms of the empire. Danubia had been a proposed name for the empire since 1881, and Franz II took up the name. [3]
The new Flag of the Empire of Danubia.
Like many had suspected, the Hungarian Magnates revolted immediately. The government froze all of their monetary accounts and nationalized their wealth and took their riches into the Imperial Treasury filling up their coffers by a massive amount. Most of the Hungarian magnates immediately found themselves broke and destitute. Many tried to fight back against this new law, however the reformist train was streaming ahead full steam. On May 5, the government called for new elections for the new empire to take place on May 29, 1915.
The reformist mood of the empire was celebrated throughout the empire. However a good few were not happy. The German nationalists in the empire were far from happy. At the Battle of Aalst, one Adolf Hitler was wounded in the left thigh when a shell exploded in his dugout in the German Army. He was sent to Bavaria for treatment in a hospital. However he only managed to recover after the armistice was signed. At the same time, the general anarchy in Germany forced him to move into his homeland of Austria. A fervent German nationalist, the man was horrified by the fact that the Empire was going to enfranchise the Slavs and Latins of the Empire, a group of people whom according to Hitler’s friends, were found to be distasteful for Hitler and were viewed as subpar humans. He was also angry that the Habsburg Empire had thrown in the towel and blamed the German defeat in the war towards Austria, or more specifically Franz II. He conspired with German Nationalist organizations in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. On May 21, Franz II took a ride out in Vienna with his wife, Sophie Chotek, and was cheered on by the Viennese crowd, Franz II had become incredibly popular for allowing the social laws to pass.
The imperial car stopped, and he stepped out to meet with the common people near Kaisermulhen Square. There, he was giving the public smiles and autographs that monarchs often did during this era, and was shaking hands with prominent commoners, of course with his bodyguards standing tersely behind him. As the meeting ended, he got up and after a small wave entered his car again. But before the car could move, three shots were heard, and the Emperor of Danubia fell down dead. Hitler had been in the crowd, and he shot the Emperor.
Pandemonium ensued. Adolf Hitler tried to escape, however the Austrian bodyguards weren’t trained by the best for nothing and they captured him. But Hitler managed to temporarily escape from his captors, before he was captured by the Viennese crowd. He was disarmed and handed to the Viennese police. The country was extremely angry. Franz II had proven himself to be a very popular monarch and his death was a blow to the empire. Archduke Karl immediately ascended to the throne as Karl I and confirmed that the elections of May 29 were not to be postponed, however the security would be doubled. Hitler was sentenced to death for his assassination and he was killed in a private execution in Vienna Prison.
During the subsequent elections held in the ending days of May, The Christian Social Party under Prince Louis of Lichtenstein managed to gain plurality of the seats in the new Danubian Imperial Diet, and formed a new government as Prince Louis became the first Chancellor of Danubia.”
Excerpts from The Habsburg Empire: How to Run a Modern Empire.
***
“The growth of the Ottoman Industrial capacity allowed the common folk of the country to invest into the growing armament industry of the country. Till now the Ottoman’s armament industries were almost all state owned and nationalized, and without private companies, many feared that the country would have no means of competition in the country in regards to the Armament industry. They needn’t have worried that much. In May 28, 1917, a group of aviation conglomerates in the Ottoman Empire, mainly filled up with Armenian and Greek industrial giants in the empire, formed the Caelum Armament Company. Caelum became one of the first armament company throughout the Ottoman Empire that was privately, and was extremely successful. It would become known as the Vickers Company of the Ottoman Empire.
Meanwhile in the empire, the country continued to slowly develop its aerial industry. The aerial section of warfare and the Ottoman investment in the sector was vindicated by the fact that Aerial warfare had been so useful in the Balkan War, and the fact that it had been overwhelmingly useful in the Great War as well. The Ottomans had around 170 warplanes in service in June 1917, and the 1917 Airforce Act was passed through the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies. The Ottoman Air Corps was de-established and its place, the Ottoman Airforce was formed. The Ottoman Airforce was given its own commission in the Ministry of War, and the Act also envisioned an Ottoman Airforce that was 500 strong in 1925. The act called for a total of 350 fighters and 150 bombers to be a part of the Airforce. It also allocated a good amount of money for the creation and establishment of three new aviation campuses and schools in the country.
The empire also continued to construct new prototypes for aerial construction to meet its own goals of having an airforce that was 500 strong in 1925. The first was fighter development. The Ottomans were in need for a new and more modern fighter rather than the ones they had with them currently. For the fighters, the Ottomans decided to build a two seat fighter biplane A new model called the Aslan Bir (Lion 1) was constructed by the Air Commission and members of the Caelum Aviation Branch. The Aslan Bir was fitted with Hispano-Suiza engines as well as indigenously produced Salonika 150 kW Plants as its main engines. The main characteristics of the Aslan Bir was the fact that it had a crew of 2 and had 2 engines, Its length was around 8.69 meters and the wingspan of the plane was 10.97 meters long. The height of the plane was also 2.92 meters and the wing area was around 30.24 square meters. It had an empty weight of 769 kilograms and gross weight of around 1,216 kilograms. The performance of the plane wasn’t bad either. It had a maximum speed of 183 kilometers per hour and a cruise speed of 153 kilometers per hour. It had an endurance of around 4 hours and 1 7.7 mm Vickers Machine Gun and another 7.7 Caelum Machine Gun as its main armaments. For the time, the Aslan Bir was a formidable fighter plane.
The Aslan Bir.
The second plane design was that of a bomber. The Ottomans were weak in their bomber fleet, and knew about this. They needed to create a strong bomber arm if they wanted to continue to use a combined arms approach to warfare. For this, the government and Caelum Company came up with the idea of the warplane known as Volant I.
Volant I was a long range bomber built by Caelum and the Air Commission. Operational use of the Volant I demonstrated that the incorporation of the fuel tanks into engine nacelles was a mistake in the aerial fuel. In response, the aeronautical engineers produced new housing areas in a plane that housed fuel tanks inside the fuselage. The smaller engine nacelles were mounted on struts above the lower wing. The pilot seat was offset to port, with fuel tanks immediately behind. This blocked the connecting walkway that previously on earlier bombers allowed crew members to move between the three gun stations. All bombs were carried externally in this warplane. It had a total crew of 4, and was 12.36 meters long and its wingspan was 23.7 meters. It had a height of 4.3 meters and had a wing area of 89.5 square meters. It had an empty weight of 2740 kilograms and gross weight of 3975 kilograms. It had two 6 cylinder water cooled in line piston engines which had a total horsepower of 260 hp each. It had a total speed of around 140 kilometers per hour and a range of 840 kilometers. It could carry a total of 14 x 25 kg bombs and held an armament of 3 machine guns as well.
The Volant I.
All in all the Volant I was a powerful bomber for this era. Both the Volant I and Aslan Bir received permission for streamlined production and would form the backbone of the Ottoman Airforce for the first half of the Interwar Era.”
Excerpts from Ottoman Aeronautics: Humble Origins
***
“The Ottoman Empire had ever since 1910 positioned itself as a socially inclusive and tolerant empire, trying to revive the pre-1820 years, when the Ottomans were regarded as a very tolerant empire, unlike the image that followed in the 1830s and 40s until 1909, when the Ottoman Empire became a byword for intolerance. Whilst the Ottomans were largely successful in their tolerant policy, social stigmas started to flare up in the empire as the Jews continued to flee their persecution in Russia, France and Spain into the Ottoman Empire. In the Ottoman Empire, Greeks, Armenian and Christian Syrians were called out as the most anti-semitic ethnic groups in the Ottoman Empire.
The American Presbyterian Missionary H. H. Jessup who stayed in Ottoman Lebanon from for around fifty years, said about the Jews in the Ottoman Empire:
H. H. Jessup.
“They are hated intensely by many sects, though far less than what they faced in Europe. But perhaps the greatest anti-semites of the Empire of Osman were the Greeks and Latins. In the gradations of oriental cursing, it is tolerably reasonable to call a man a donkey, somewhat severe to call him a dog, contemptuous to call him a swine and withering to the last degree I the Latin and Greek communities of the Middle East to call him a Jew. The animosity of the Orthodox Christians and Middle Eastern Christians and the Jews is most relentless and unreasoning. They believe that Jews kill Christian children every year at the Passover and mingle with their blood in the Passover bread. Almost every year in the spring, this senseless charge is brought against the Jews. Despite the best efforts of the central government, Jews of Beirut and Damascus are obliged to sometime pay heavy blackmail every year to the Greek and Latin ‘lewd fellows of the baser sort’ who threaten to raise a mob against them for killing Christian children…….and not only do they regard them as the children of hell, but would rejoice to send them there if they could.” – H. H. Jessup [4]
Ironically tolerance towards Jews in the Ottoman Empire came from the Turkish and Arabic groups, groups that the western world had deemed barbarians against Jews many a times. In 1840, thousands of Damascus Jews were killed by the Greek, Latin and Bulgarian community there, and the survivors of the Damascus Pogrom, were all shielded by the Arabian and Turkish communities of the city.
In the middle of 1917, as around 10,000 Jewish immigrants arrived to the Ottoman Empire as a part of the Ottomans pro-Jewish stance, mainly from France, Spain, Portugal, Russia and Belgium, the Greek and Latin community of Syria rioted and destroyed several Jewish stores in the area. Ahmed Riza sent a declaration the next day on July 27, proclaiming,
“…….The Sultan, our master and father to us all, has come us as in the midst of a family whose joys are his joys and sorrows are his sorrows. He knows all the obligations that divine Providence has imposed on him……you should not doubt for an instance his justice. Muslims, Christians and Jews, you are all subjects of the same Emperor. Children of the same father. If there are oppressed among you, it is the intention of His Majesty that the laws safeguarding life, honor and property of all subjects be strictly observed throughout the empire. Muslims or Christians or Jews, rich or poor, civil, military, or religious officials, all Ottoman subjects should have full confidence in the sovereign of the nation, and know that everyone is equal in the eyes of the Sultan…….”
Jewish Immigrants coming to the Ottoman Empire.
The Declaration of July 27th, 1917 basically told the empire once again that everyone was equal regardless of faith, and despite the polite and gentle tone of the declaration, everyone smart enough knew that it held a quiet threat. A threat of imprisonment if freedom of religion was not followed. Death, if immigrants were killed without committing any crime. The anti-semite crowds in Syria were soon dispersed.
The Ottomans were by and large conciliatory with its Greek minority, who formed the third largest group in the Ottoman Empire, however much to their headache the Ottomans found that the Greeks were the most anti-Semitic ethnic groups of the Ottoman Empire. [5] In Greek areas of the empire, riots against the Jewish immigration, instigated by religious foundations continued to happen. The leader of the Ashkenazi community in Rhodes, complained to the President of the Ottoman Jewish Front Organization (OJFO), Emmanuel Effendi, who was also a member of the Ottoman Parliament saying,
“The fanatic Greeks of this island, as of other places in Thrace, have the habit of contrary to the real spirit of Christianity, making a replica of Judas Iscariote, and of burning it on the Holy Saturday. They construct a wooden figure, cover it with clothing which they claim is that of ancient jews and they burn it publically in the middle of a multitude of the ignorant and the fanatic. When Turkish or Arab authorities are present, these events are dispersed quickly and many offenders are taken to prison but in the absence of these authorities, Greek authorities are more than willing to turn a blind eye to such events. It often happens that this multitude already excited by tales of the suffering of Christ that has been made to them at Churches, is exulted at the appearance of the execution of he who is supposed to have betrayed Christ, and works up a great anger against Jews. For a long time we have kept our heads down, knowing each year that the Hellenes will cut off the heads and arms of the corpses in our cemetery and will burn them with great solemnity. We have made no complaints to the central government, despite their obvious suspicions, in order to not create differences between the two communities. But this audacious madness of these fanatics have increased with the recent rise of Jewish immigration. We ourselves see the flames and hear the cries of hatred and vengeance against the Jews.” [6]
This situation of affairs simply could not be allowed to stand. On August 26, 1917, the Ottoman government met and the Chamber of Deputies condemned the anti-semitic attacks going on in Damascus and Thrace, as well as Rhodes. The government also passed the Act of the Jews, 1917 which formally made Anti-Semitism a crime. Any acts of Anti-Semitism then became an offense against the state. On august 29 itself, around 400 Anti-Semites were arrested and sentenced to prison by the government, of which 230 were Greeks, 90 were Armenians and the latter were a hodgepodge of other nationalities within the empire.
It was a harsh decision on part of the Ottoman Empire, but the Ottomans were going to stick to their decision about being tolerant. And that meant that through both education, and judicial means, the Ottomans were going to make their populace open minded.”
Excerpts from The Jews of the Ottoman Empire: The Tolerant Sultans.
***
“Immediately post the Great War, the Ottomans were in a powerful position. The British had invested heavily in Ottoman industries to meet their own weapon demands, and Ottoman exports into the British Empire had increased by a total of 40% throughout the Great War. Sweden and the Ottomans became the prime beneficiaries of British investment during the Great War. The French had also invested a good amount in the Ottoman Empire, and now the Ottomans, in an ironic twist held a good amount of debt in their hands that the western powers of Paris and London owed to the Ottoman government.
The Ottomans used this opportunity to open up new debt conferences with Britain and France, negotiating to decrease the amount of debt that the Ottomans owed to the Ottoman Public Debt Administration on part of the British and French. The British and the French refused to subsume the Ottoman debts in return of waiving of British and French debts to the Ottoman Empire, however both sides agreed to amenable reduction of debts with one another. With this done, the Ottomans also turned to other economic matters at hand.
Social Hierarchies of the Ottoman Economic Expansion
During the years of Ottoman economic expansion, the growth of Ottoman economics benefitted four groups in varying degrees. The peasant households who were located near industrial centers were able to organize the production and transportation of their crops without being dependent on third parties. By doing so they managed to take advantage of the favorable conditions in the export markets in the country. The nomadic tribes who owned and operation camel caravans in the country also benefitted from the expansion of production and exports. At the initial stages of the boom, the railroads still hadn’t penetrated into the rural parts of the country, though roads were built, and the camel’s caravans managed to earn good money by transporting goods and acting as agents for the rural villages of the Ottoman Empire. The third group who saw an increase in their income during this time were the workers of the empire. Money wages in the Ottoman Empire increased by about 90% during 1911 – 1917 and the growth was especially intense during the Italo-Ottoman War and the Balkan War. The group that benefitted most however, were the ethnic minorities of the empire, according to data, which show that the ethnic minorities of the empire managed to grow their economic scope within the empire most during the industrial expansion of the Ottoman Empire.
Ottoman Traders in Jeddah.
Excerpts from ‘An Economical History: The Ottomans’
***
“On June 23, Tsar Nicholas II, on the prodding and enforcement of the Duma, declared the Manifesto of the Polish Nation. It was a proclamation that declared the restoration of Congress Poland. The Russian government under Tsar Nicholas II and Sergey Muromtsev had searched for a proper Polish government to be formed among Polish loyalists in the empire, and they managed to take the offer of Premiership to the Russophone Polish Nationalist Roman Dmowski [7]. Dmowski accepted the offer, and agreed to form the first government of the Congress Polish government.
Roman Dmowski
On July 31, a royal procession took place in Warsaw, with Tsar Nicholas II being crowned as Mikolaja II of Poland, (Mikolaja is Nicholas in Polish) and he solemnly swore to uphold the laws and regulations of Poland. Great celebrations broke out throughout Poland as the Russian conservatives and reactionaries, as well as the Germans looked on with alarm at the proceedings.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski
The first polish government was formed, and Roman Dwomski became the first Polish Premier of Congress Poland, whilst Dwomski chose Ignacy Jan Paderewski to be the Vice-Premier of Congress Poland. Whilst handing over power to Poland had been a good idea, and provided rapprochement between the Poles and Russians, many minorities in the Russian Empire, most especially the Finns and Caucasians began to simmer in discontent, wanting the same concessions given to Poland. It would set the stage of the politics of Russia during the interwar era.”
Introduction of ‘Russian Politics in the Interwar Era: A History’.
***
---
[1] – This is otl. Wekerle was a commoner and his entire cabinet was filled with reformists, noble and commoner alike.
[2] – this guy is buried in history, but he really was actually a very wily and cunning politician. He single handedly prevented the annexation of all of Tyrol into Italy otl.
[3] – the name Danubia for the Austrian Empire was proposed first in 1819 actually but it was only seriously proposed first in 1881. Franz Ferdinand otl was a supporter of the name.
[4] – This is a real quote from OTL.
[5] – According to Fall of the Ottomans and the Jews of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic by Stanford Shaw, this is true. The Greeks, with the Armenians trailing behind were the most Anti-Semitic groups of the Ottoman Empire whilst ironically, the Turkish, Arabs and Lebanites were the most tolerant in the empire.
[6] - this is an otl quote as well.
[7] – He was more Russian Friendly than Russophone, but that’s the best you’re going to get in Russian Poland.
***
Chapter 32: The Royalists Strike Back!
***
“French politics after the Great War was an amalgam of utter disrepair. Despite the victory, among the western allies, it was none other than France who had borne the great weight of casualties in the Western Front. Not Spain, not Greece, not Britain, not Belgium. In absolute terms, the French took the most casualties during the war in the west. As a result, French politics inevitably turned from polarizing to hostile. French politics after 1871 had never been particularly stable, especially considering the 1877 Crisis and the Boulanger Crisis. However nonetheless, the Third Republic had marched on forward. However the experience of a war of such scales completely destroyed the previous psyche of the political mandate.
Unlike Austria-Hungary or Britain, France did not have a proper welfare state solution to the millions of disaffected peoples within its territory. As a result, without proper care from the state, hundreds of thousands of war veterans and their families dropped into the streets protesting against the lack of governmental aid being given to the veterans and their families to take care of themselves. Viviani himself was sympathetic to the plight of the peoples, however he could do nothing, as his party did not hold a majority in the Chamber of Deputies. However as riots broke out in the nation over the issue, he raised the issue of a Veterans Welfare Bill in the Chamber of Deputies. This was voted down, however the issue was so divisive, that enemy parties like that of the Republican-Socialists and Independent Radicals began to openly call for a motion of no confidence against the French Prime Minister.
And unfortunately for Viviani, his moderate approach of going into things was no longer political sustainable for many, and the vote passed, with many of his former allies now voting in favor of no confidence against him. This precipitated the call for a new election in the country. The economy was in splinters and the nation was dangerously becoming politically polarized and Viviani as a result did not wish to have a new elections come forward under such conditions. As a result he asked the other parties, such as the SFIO and Independent Socialists to form a coalition with the ruling PRRRS party that Viviani had defected to in 1915. However the SFIO and Independent Socialists were against one another and the offer was denied and the elections went through.
Charles Maurras
As a result of the fracture between the dominant left wing political parties in France, the Right was rising among the populace. It was during this fractured time in French politics that Action Francaise, led by one Charles Maurras came to the forefront. Action Francaise had always been a rightist party and had been a militaristic reactionary party. However they had never seriously campaigned during a parliamentary election and had kept to themselves and local level elections. However under the leadership of Maurras, the party was going in different directions. Maurras had a history of being a fervent monarchist as well, which intrigued the people and made him extremely interested in the eyes of the traditional faction of the French populace.
Between 1905 and 1908, he had joined the Camelots du Roi, a monarchist league that was initiated by Orleanist monarchists and Maurras during this time introduced the concept of political activism through extra parliamentary leagues, theorizing the concept of a coup de etat, though he later disavowed this technique during the campaign season for elections. He pledged to lead the party to fight against the republican regime and support the restoration of the monarchy under Prince Philippe, the Duke of Orleans. Action Francaise reached top level during the Great War.
Maurras and Action Francaise supported Viviani and the will to defeat the Germans. France’s victory in the war, and the movement’s anti-German intransigence on peace terms resulted in a peak of success, prestige and influence. The party under Maurras exploited the disquiet aroused on the right by the victory of the left wing parties repeatedly in the past few decades in the Third Republic and their inability to come together to heal the nation as the people wanted. The party managed to depict itself as the true People’s Party, and used populism as a means to get what it wanted first and foremost. Prince Philippe, the Duke of Orleans was himself a mildly popular man, much to the chagrin of many republican politicians in France. He had been denied entry into the French and Belgian Armies during the Great War, however he managed to enlist as an officer in the British Army and fought on the frontlines as a frontline commander himself. The French troops that fought in the frontlines alongside the British eventually came into contact with their royal claimant and got to know him as well, and many found him a down to earth and humble man, which simply increased the party’s popularity, as monarchism enjoyed a small surge during this time.
During the 1917 French Parliamentary Elections, Viviani managed to retain the premiership however the amount of seats he held was considerably lower than before and Clemenceau’s faction in the government increased their share of the seats. Also most surprisingly and ominously, the party Action Francaise, using all of the factors stated above, managed to emerge as the second most popular right party in France after the Independent Radicals, forming the fourth largest political party in the Chamber of Deputies. The defection of many disaffected Radicals to the party also aided in Maurras gaining a large electoral base. Viviani managed to form a coalition with SFIO led by Ludovic-Oscar Frossard and led government once again, for one last time.”
Excerpts from French Politics: The Tumult of Peace
***
“While China had managed to get a new empire and dynasty running, the country was still running under the auspices of the several warlords that called China their home. The Beiyang army was famously divided among several powerful generals who controlled several areas in China as governors, and were defacto rulers of the state. The Hongxian Emperor, despite his reformist ability unleashed on China after the death of Yuan Shikhai in 1916 was unable to stand up against all of the warlords on his own.
Yuan Keding the Hongxian Emperor.
In late 1917, things came to a head. The warlords did not like the reformist government that the Hongxian government was forming under the new emperor, and the warlords were anxious that a reformist government would see their powers culled and destroyed. To be fair, this was exactly what the Hongxian Emperor wanted to do, with the new Chinese Imperial Army being trained by several foreign supervisors were being trained with the implicit idea of dealing with the warlords of the country.
Nonetheless, the warlords were not going to stand for the idea of being suppressed and their powers stripped. One Zhang Xun was such a warlord, and he was dissatisfied with the new government. Although the Qing Dynasty was overthrown in 1912, many, especially in the north wished for its restoration. Ethnic Manchus and Mongolians in the country felt discriminated by the new Han oriented Chinese dynasty and restorationism as a result became a popular following in these ethnic groups. The Qing also enjoyed some level of popularity among the northern Chinese. And then finally, there were the several reactionaries and ex-Qing officials who were not happy with the new dynasty. Yuan Keding, the Hongxian Emperor was a reformist at heart, and he did not like the old reactionary politicians who had hoped to be restored to seats of power after the monarchical restoration. He instead formed a cabinet based on meritocracy and even appointed several well known republicans to the new cabinet, angering many reactionaries. As a result many of the former Qing officials began to call for a Qing restoration.
Zhang Xun.
On October 19, 1917 the Emperor left Beijing for Shanghai to discuss a new financial and budgetary plan to uplift China’s economic situation. However the increased training of the Imperial troops in barracks in the interior of the city left the capital city dangerously weak to stop any attempts to conquer it. Taking advantage of the fact, warlord and pro-Qing warlord, Zhang Xun marched from Inner Mongolia into the capital of China.
He entered Beijing with an army 80,000 strong and declared the restoration of Emperor Puyi as Emperor of China, despite the fact that Puyi was not inclined to be restored to the throne. The boy emperor had even congratulated Yuan Keding and had betrothed his cousin sister to the new Emperor. On October 21, he declared the new Empire of China and the so called new dynasty illegitimate and restored the Qing Dynasty to power. The capital police leaders, who were being charged with corruption charges by the Hongxian Emperor’s new Corruption Control Committee submitted to the restoration as a result. General Xu later published an edict of restoration based on a falsified report of approval from the Beijing City Assembly, who were being held hostage of the general. He was also supported by other warlords such as Jiang Chaozong who marched his own 30,000 strong army to the capital in a move of solidarity. Former Qing and ironically Republican elements of the government such as Wang Zhizhen, Zhu Jiabao and Xie Jieshi supported the restoration as well.
On October 23, the Hongxian Emperor was interrupted during a small speech being given to the public of Shanghai and was told about the restoration attempt in Beijing. The emperor was flabbergasted and surprised that the Qing would even attempt such a thing, as he and the Qing family did have good relations with one another. He was hurriedly informed that the Qing family was being forced to go along. According to rumors, Puyi had even attempted to escape the Forbidden City. The Emperor then rallied the 2nd Imperial Army, the very army that had taken Tsingtao from the Germans in the Great War under the command of Zhang Zuolin, himself a warlord.
On October 28, the 2nd Army arrived on the outskirts of the capital, intent on taking the city away from the Qing restorers. On the same day, Zhang Xun left the capital to meet his enemies, his forces having been further bolstered by Mongolian and Manchu reinforcements. Zhang was faced with overwhelming odds; almost the entirety of the 2nd Imperial Army was 150,000 strong, outnumbering his own 140,000 troops slightly, and had an overwhelming advantage in training and equipment, as well as leadership. As a result of the Qing forces were forced to withdraw after the Chinese troops seized control of the two main railway lines into the capital city. General Duan Qirui ordered an aerial bombardment of the city, and a group of 4 Caudron Type D aircraft was dispatched from Nanyuan Air Base to drop nine bombs over the defensive parameters and lines dug up by the restorationist army.
Imperial forces scaling the city walls.
On October 31, the Imperial forces launched a massive attack, and the Qing forces were entrenched on the wall of the Temple of Heaven. Shortly after fighting began, negotiations resumed with the Qing royalists who found their position untenable, and the Qing royalists gave up their positions in return for amnesty. General Zhang dismayed attempted to flee, however was caught by Imperial patrols around the city and brought before the Hongxian Emperor.
Zhang was unceremoniously stripped of his ranks, and was to be sent to Hainan where he would live in exile under house arrest. He was given this respect only on the basis of his former service to the Chinese nation. Meanwhile Beijing was retaken by the Chinese Imperial Forces. During this time, the Qing royalists implicated the Tibetan government in their attempt to retake power as well. Whilst we will never know if the Tibetan government was actually truly involved in an attempt to undermine Chinese stability, however what we do know is that Tibetan warlords were present in Beijing and some of them did support the Qing restoration. The Hongxian Emperor used the rebellion as a perfect opportunity to purge many warlords from the army and had many known warlords executed on grounds of treason with their links in the restoration being used as evidence. The Qing Royal Dynasty was saved from Zhang Xun and restored to their position as nobles of the realm and the Hongxian Emperor turned his eye towards Tibet.
The Hongxian Emperor sent a delegation to Lhasa, and as virtually every state on the planet other than Mongolia recognized Tibet as de-jure a part of China, asked the Tibetan government for their budget and to return to Chinese rule, albeit with significant autonomy. The Tibetan government refused. As the Hongxian Emperor knew would happen. He rallied the nationalist groups in China in a bid of nationalist frenzy to reintegrate Tibet. Many were already angered by the fact that the Tibetans had been implicated in the Qing Insurrection, and the fact that the Tibetans had snubbed the emperor was enough for many to start a new war in Tibet. The 5th and 6th Imperial Armies were dispatched to Kham with the sole intention of invading and conquering Tibet once again. On December 23, 1917, the Chinese armies crossed the Tibetan frontier beginning the Chinese Reconquest of Tibet.”
Excerpts from The Hongxian Emperor: The Meiji of China
***
“As Congress Poland was revived as a state with the highest autonomy possible, the nationalities within the Russian Empire started to look at with envy, with the possible exception of the Finnish, who had their own substantial amounts of autonomy. In particular, the ethnicities of Crimea, and the Caucasus began to look for a foreign donor who would be willing to fund their movement for either freedom or autonomy.
In particular there were three groups that were forming under the auspices of nationalism that were seeking foreign aid. The Russian Georgians, Russian Armenians and Russian Crimean Tatars. For each we will have to study them one by one.
After 1881, the Russian Empire began to inflict heavy russification on its ethnic minorities throughout the empire. The Russian Armenians were the most heavily hit ethnic groups within this category. The last decades of the 19th century also saw a rise in Russian chauvinism with non-Russians described in increasingly racist terms. Armenians in particular were abused especially after 1884, when Count Loris-Melikov, an Armenian cabinet member was dismissed by Alexander III who called the man a frenzied Asiatic. The Russian authorities also began to be suspicious of the Armenian economic dominance in Transcaucasia. Ironically such suspicions of the Armenians, who were at the time the most Russophile of the Tsar’s subjects as an untrustworthy people prone to revolutionary conspiracy and movements led the Russians to introduce policies which led to the very same thing they aimed to prevent. In 1897 Nicholas II appointed the Armenophobic Grigory Sergeyevich Golitsin as the Governor of Transcaucasia, and Armenian schools, cultural associations and newspapers and libraries as a result were shut down by the government. Armenian nationalism as practiced by the Dashnaks, with their penchant for revolutionary violence had no real appeal for the Armenian populace at first, however Russian cultural repression made a lot of the Armenians turned to violence in the Russian Empire for their answer. The Tsar’s Russification program in Armenia reached a peak when in 1903 the Confiscation of properties of the Armenian Church was ordered by the Russian government. The Catholicos of Armenia begged the Tsar to overturn the decree, but the Tsar and the Russian government refused, and the Armenians turned to the violent Dashnaks as their savior. After the revolution of 1905 however, the Armenians and Russians had a small rapprochement happen between the two parties.
Andranik Ozanian
However after the Ottoman liberalization and empty promises from the Russian government regarding ethnic and cultural rights, the Russian Armenians finally were having enough of Russian rule. They turned to the Armenian Revolutionary Foundation and the Armenakan Party in the Ottoman Empire, both of whom were thriving under Ottoman regionalism. In October 26, 1917, the Russian Armenian Revolutionary Committee for Annexation and/or Sovereignty, which was shortened to simply RARCAS was formed under the command of Andranik Ozanian. Ozanian laid the foundations for RARCAS and called for either of three options that was published in the October Manifesto. The first option was to see an autonomous Armenia to be created within the Russian Empire which would respect the rights of the Armenian populace and their autonomy. The second option was that Russian Armenia would be annexed into the Ottoman Empire and made a part of the Armenian Vilayet so that Armenians could enjoy cultural freedom as subjects of the Sultan. The third and final option was to create an independent Armenia within Russian Armenia under the protection of the Ottoman Empire, with one of the Armenian noble families, many of whom were still active in the Ottoman Empire as successful businessmen to become monarchs of this hypothetical independent Armenia.
The Ottoman government remained neutral in regards to the Russian Armenians, not wishing to jeopardize its own positions and relations with Russia, however many of the Ottoman Armenian population were in favor of option 2. Several Armenians within the Ottoman Empire crossed the border, and entered Russia through the unpatrolled mountains and began to become active in pro-Ottoman Armenian Revolutionary activities in the Russian Empire despite the Ottomans best efforts to not implicate itself in such activities as the Ottomans tried to find a new favorable trade deal with the Russians after the Great War.
Noe Ramishvili.
The History of Georgia under Russian rule was one of that of dissatisfaction after 1881. Similar to the Armenians, the Georgians had suffered massive cultural repression from the Russian government. Similar to their Armenian compatriots, the Georgians under Noe Ramishvili formed the Georgian Independence Committee in Tbilisi. They also sought overt protection from the Ottoman government.”
Excerpts from The Ottoman Relationship with the Caucasus Countries and Nationalities
***
“For many years and centuries even, the north of Portugal has always been the historical setting for revolutions and revolts against the position of the Portuguese government, from the Liberal Revolution of 1820 which went against the absolutist government to the Republican revolt of 1891, which went against the monarchist government. However the northern tracts of Portugal has always been the traditional seat of the Portuguese and Lusitanian nobility as well. When the 1910 Republican Revolution broke out and deposed King Manuel II of Portugal, the Portuguese Monarch which existed since 868 AD, was abolished and supplanted by the Portuguese Republic. King Manuel II and the royal family were banished from Portuguese soil, and they fled to the UK as a result, where their British relatives and allies gave them refuge.
King Manuel II of Portugal.
However there was one problem. The Portuguese Republic hadn’t been installed with popular support. Manuel II himself a democratic man, had stressed to many moderate republicans before that he would have given up the throne if the people had voted in favor of it, however rejected the deposition of his family on grounds that the abolition hadn’t been a democratic one. He also stated in exile that he was ready to reassume his throne on the basis of being diplomatically and electorally restored, not militarily. In 1911, as a response to the 1910 Republican revolution, Paiva Couceiro led a monarchist attack on Chaves, with the intention of restoring the monarchy. Though the first attack on Chaves was lackadaisical and poorly led, the second was a more powerful and well organized, as well as well supported attack on the city. Having unofficial support from both Spain and the UK, both of whom feared the radical republican policies of the Portuguese Republic. Spain due to the uneasy stance of their own monarchy and the British due to the fact that the Portuguese Republic had been made partially due to its anti-British stance. On the 8th of July 1912, around 850 Monarchist rebels entered Chaves. Around 100 members of a company in the Portuguese Army marched on Chaves and attacked the city. Though the monarchists were better armed and had superior numbers, they didn’t have the supplies to sustain themselves for a long siege, and they were defeated in the battle. All they needed now was for more discontent in the country and they knew that they could return.
In August 12, the situation in the Portuguese Republic had degraded by a massive amount. The government led by Bernardino Machado had throughout of the Great War flip flopped on its position to enter the war on the side of their allies the British. Many Portuguese Nationalists hoped to seize German Namibia and Tanganyika for themselves after the skirmishes between the Portuguese and Germans broke out, however the Portuguese Political Crisis’s of the time did not allow for such a thing to happen as the government became increasingly polarized and fractured, and the economy continued to go down the drain as the Spanish stopped their trade with Portugal slowly but surely as France and Britain showed more lucrative markets in order to lure the Spaniards into the fold against the Germans. Using this economic depression and political instability, General Sidonio Pais led a coup on the government on August 12 and managed to become the President of the Republic, forcing the exile of Machado. For the one month that he reigned in Portugal, he was extremely dictatorial figure, foregoing the Portuguese legislature and doing as he pleased, doing what he wanted. So much so that many called him the new King in Portugal. However a left wing anarchist and communist named Jose Julio da Costa shot the man on September 16, 1917 leading to another political crisis in Portugal.
Joao do Canto e Castro
The favorite to succeed Pais had been Joao do Canto e Castro, however Castro, who was seen as too close to the military like Pais was overlooked and Antonio Jose de Almeida was chosen as the new President of the Portuguese Republic. Castro had been popular with the people as well, and the overlooking of Castro angered both the populace and the man himself. During that same time Castro found out that the monarchists were planning to make an attack during this time of instability and restore the monarchy. A monarchist himself though with republican leanings, and embittered by his loss of a chance to come to power, Castro contacted Couceiro and told the man that he would join a monarchist uprising.
Using his influence in the Navy, he could secure several warships that could simply sail to Lisbon and restore the monarchy if it wanted. Several influential figures such Antonio Maria de Sousa Sardinha, and Louis Carlos de Lima e Almeida Braga decided to proceed with the monarchist plan as well. Sardinha and Couceiro entered Porto with a large band of around 2000 monarchist defectors from the Portuguese Army and entered Porto on October 2, 1917. On the next day the blue and white royal flag was hoisted back up and the monarchy was declared to be restored. At the same time, Castro, using his influence in the navy, and the monarchist sympathies in the navy [1] had the entire northern fleet of 2 Cruisers, 2 Destroyers and 1 torpedo boat defect over the monarchist cause. Under the flagship of Dom Carlos I, and their assorted crew and marines, the ships sailed south to Lisbon.
At the same time, Couceiro and Castro began to recruit a proper army and managed to recruit around 6000 men from the northern territories and (re)formed the Royal Portuguese Army. The 8,000 strong force then started to move south. In Lisbon, the ships slipped passed the harbor defenses by hoisting the republican flags and radio messages were sent showing itself as if they escaped from Porto instead of coming down in favor of the monarchists. However the moment the ships docked, Around 200 marines disembarked and pointed their guns at Belem Palace, the presidential palace of the Portuguese President and the navy ships pointed their heavy guns at the Portuguese Assembly building. It was a coup. The President, Almeida surrendered, and handed over power to Castro who had arrived with the navy and Castro took power as the Prime Minister of a Provisional Government as the former government was exiled to the Azores.
All of this happened under a week. Castro declared the Provisional State of Portugal and with the other monarchists of parliament asked Manuel II who was still in London, to come back to be restored to his throne. Manuel II declined, criticizing the military takeover and he reiterated his position that he would only come and retake the throne if a popular vote in favor of the monarchy was held. Castro acquiesced. A referendum was slated to be held on November 27 and 28 with the month between them to have a both yes and no campaign to take place. The Socialists and Republicans denounced the attempt to restore the monarchy, however the people were by and large not willing to listen to them. The socialists and republicans had been the ruling elite in the republic and underneath them the republic’s economy was in tatters, and the economy was lagging behind. My mid-1917 the Ottoman Empire itself had overtaken the Portuguese economy on a per capita basis signaling just how weak and fragile the Portuguese economy was.
Nonetheless, despite this the campaign for the referendum was polarized and fractious. But in the end, around 54.6% of the mandate voted in favor of restoring the monarchy with 45% opposed with an electoral turnout of around 84%. With the mandate that he needed to persuade the former king, Castro asked the former king to return. Manuel II, this time accepted the offer, and on December 20th, 1917 he was reinstated as King of Portugal as the Kingdom of Portugal was restored.
The proclamation of the Restoration of the Monarchy.
However the Socialists and Republicans were not going to take this lying down. The Republican Army of Portugal or the RAP was formed on December 24, and they launched several attacks throughout Portugal to try and depose the monarchy. Thus began the Portuguese Republican Troubles.”
Excerpts from Manuel II: The Kind and Blessed.
***
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[1] – the navy in 1910 was extremely republican, however according to Castro and Pais’s notes otl, the navy had become extremely monarchist by 1916.
***
“French politics after the Great War was an amalgam of utter disrepair. Despite the victory, among the western allies, it was none other than France who had borne the great weight of casualties in the Western Front. Not Spain, not Greece, not Britain, not Belgium. In absolute terms, the French took the most casualties during the war in the west. As a result, French politics inevitably turned from polarizing to hostile. French politics after 1871 had never been particularly stable, especially considering the 1877 Crisis and the Boulanger Crisis. However nonetheless, the Third Republic had marched on forward. However the experience of a war of such scales completely destroyed the previous psyche of the political mandate.
Unlike Austria-Hungary or Britain, France did not have a proper welfare state solution to the millions of disaffected peoples within its territory. As a result, without proper care from the state, hundreds of thousands of war veterans and their families dropped into the streets protesting against the lack of governmental aid being given to the veterans and their families to take care of themselves. Viviani himself was sympathetic to the plight of the peoples, however he could do nothing, as his party did not hold a majority in the Chamber of Deputies. However as riots broke out in the nation over the issue, he raised the issue of a Veterans Welfare Bill in the Chamber of Deputies. This was voted down, however the issue was so divisive, that enemy parties like that of the Republican-Socialists and Independent Radicals began to openly call for a motion of no confidence against the French Prime Minister.
And unfortunately for Viviani, his moderate approach of going into things was no longer political sustainable for many, and the vote passed, with many of his former allies now voting in favor of no confidence against him. This precipitated the call for a new election in the country. The economy was in splinters and the nation was dangerously becoming politically polarized and Viviani as a result did not wish to have a new elections come forward under such conditions. As a result he asked the other parties, such as the SFIO and Independent Socialists to form a coalition with the ruling PRRRS party that Viviani had defected to in 1915. However the SFIO and Independent Socialists were against one another and the offer was denied and the elections went through.
Charles Maurras
As a result of the fracture between the dominant left wing political parties in France, the Right was rising among the populace. It was during this fractured time in French politics that Action Francaise, led by one Charles Maurras came to the forefront. Action Francaise had always been a rightist party and had been a militaristic reactionary party. However they had never seriously campaigned during a parliamentary election and had kept to themselves and local level elections. However under the leadership of Maurras, the party was going in different directions. Maurras had a history of being a fervent monarchist as well, which intrigued the people and made him extremely interested in the eyes of the traditional faction of the French populace.
Between 1905 and 1908, he had joined the Camelots du Roi, a monarchist league that was initiated by Orleanist monarchists and Maurras during this time introduced the concept of political activism through extra parliamentary leagues, theorizing the concept of a coup de etat, though he later disavowed this technique during the campaign season for elections. He pledged to lead the party to fight against the republican regime and support the restoration of the monarchy under Prince Philippe, the Duke of Orleans. Action Francaise reached top level during the Great War.
Maurras and Action Francaise supported Viviani and the will to defeat the Germans. France’s victory in the war, and the movement’s anti-German intransigence on peace terms resulted in a peak of success, prestige and influence. The party under Maurras exploited the disquiet aroused on the right by the victory of the left wing parties repeatedly in the past few decades in the Third Republic and their inability to come together to heal the nation as the people wanted. The party managed to depict itself as the true People’s Party, and used populism as a means to get what it wanted first and foremost. Prince Philippe, the Duke of Orleans was himself a mildly popular man, much to the chagrin of many republican politicians in France. He had been denied entry into the French and Belgian Armies during the Great War, however he managed to enlist as an officer in the British Army and fought on the frontlines as a frontline commander himself. The French troops that fought in the frontlines alongside the British eventually came into contact with their royal claimant and got to know him as well, and many found him a down to earth and humble man, which simply increased the party’s popularity, as monarchism enjoyed a small surge during this time.
During the 1917 French Parliamentary Elections, Viviani managed to retain the premiership however the amount of seats he held was considerably lower than before and Clemenceau’s faction in the government increased their share of the seats. Also most surprisingly and ominously, the party Action Francaise, using all of the factors stated above, managed to emerge as the second most popular right party in France after the Independent Radicals, forming the fourth largest political party in the Chamber of Deputies. The defection of many disaffected Radicals to the party also aided in Maurras gaining a large electoral base. Viviani managed to form a coalition with SFIO led by Ludovic-Oscar Frossard and led government once again, for one last time.”
Excerpts from French Politics: The Tumult of Peace
***
“While China had managed to get a new empire and dynasty running, the country was still running under the auspices of the several warlords that called China their home. The Beiyang army was famously divided among several powerful generals who controlled several areas in China as governors, and were defacto rulers of the state. The Hongxian Emperor, despite his reformist ability unleashed on China after the death of Yuan Shikhai in 1916 was unable to stand up against all of the warlords on his own.
Yuan Keding the Hongxian Emperor.
In late 1917, things came to a head. The warlords did not like the reformist government that the Hongxian government was forming under the new emperor, and the warlords were anxious that a reformist government would see their powers culled and destroyed. To be fair, this was exactly what the Hongxian Emperor wanted to do, with the new Chinese Imperial Army being trained by several foreign supervisors were being trained with the implicit idea of dealing with the warlords of the country.
Nonetheless, the warlords were not going to stand for the idea of being suppressed and their powers stripped. One Zhang Xun was such a warlord, and he was dissatisfied with the new government. Although the Qing Dynasty was overthrown in 1912, many, especially in the north wished for its restoration. Ethnic Manchus and Mongolians in the country felt discriminated by the new Han oriented Chinese dynasty and restorationism as a result became a popular following in these ethnic groups. The Qing also enjoyed some level of popularity among the northern Chinese. And then finally, there were the several reactionaries and ex-Qing officials who were not happy with the new dynasty. Yuan Keding, the Hongxian Emperor was a reformist at heart, and he did not like the old reactionary politicians who had hoped to be restored to seats of power after the monarchical restoration. He instead formed a cabinet based on meritocracy and even appointed several well known republicans to the new cabinet, angering many reactionaries. As a result many of the former Qing officials began to call for a Qing restoration.
Zhang Xun.
On October 19, 1917 the Emperor left Beijing for Shanghai to discuss a new financial and budgetary plan to uplift China’s economic situation. However the increased training of the Imperial troops in barracks in the interior of the city left the capital city dangerously weak to stop any attempts to conquer it. Taking advantage of the fact, warlord and pro-Qing warlord, Zhang Xun marched from Inner Mongolia into the capital of China.
He entered Beijing with an army 80,000 strong and declared the restoration of Emperor Puyi as Emperor of China, despite the fact that Puyi was not inclined to be restored to the throne. The boy emperor had even congratulated Yuan Keding and had betrothed his cousin sister to the new Emperor. On October 21, he declared the new Empire of China and the so called new dynasty illegitimate and restored the Qing Dynasty to power. The capital police leaders, who were being charged with corruption charges by the Hongxian Emperor’s new Corruption Control Committee submitted to the restoration as a result. General Xu later published an edict of restoration based on a falsified report of approval from the Beijing City Assembly, who were being held hostage of the general. He was also supported by other warlords such as Jiang Chaozong who marched his own 30,000 strong army to the capital in a move of solidarity. Former Qing and ironically Republican elements of the government such as Wang Zhizhen, Zhu Jiabao and Xie Jieshi supported the restoration as well.
On October 23, the Hongxian Emperor was interrupted during a small speech being given to the public of Shanghai and was told about the restoration attempt in Beijing. The emperor was flabbergasted and surprised that the Qing would even attempt such a thing, as he and the Qing family did have good relations with one another. He was hurriedly informed that the Qing family was being forced to go along. According to rumors, Puyi had even attempted to escape the Forbidden City. The Emperor then rallied the 2nd Imperial Army, the very army that had taken Tsingtao from the Germans in the Great War under the command of Zhang Zuolin, himself a warlord.
On October 28, the 2nd Army arrived on the outskirts of the capital, intent on taking the city away from the Qing restorers. On the same day, Zhang Xun left the capital to meet his enemies, his forces having been further bolstered by Mongolian and Manchu reinforcements. Zhang was faced with overwhelming odds; almost the entirety of the 2nd Imperial Army was 150,000 strong, outnumbering his own 140,000 troops slightly, and had an overwhelming advantage in training and equipment, as well as leadership. As a result of the Qing forces were forced to withdraw after the Chinese troops seized control of the two main railway lines into the capital city. General Duan Qirui ordered an aerial bombardment of the city, and a group of 4 Caudron Type D aircraft was dispatched from Nanyuan Air Base to drop nine bombs over the defensive parameters and lines dug up by the restorationist army.
Imperial forces scaling the city walls.
On October 31, the Imperial forces launched a massive attack, and the Qing forces were entrenched on the wall of the Temple of Heaven. Shortly after fighting began, negotiations resumed with the Qing royalists who found their position untenable, and the Qing royalists gave up their positions in return for amnesty. General Zhang dismayed attempted to flee, however was caught by Imperial patrols around the city and brought before the Hongxian Emperor.
Zhang was unceremoniously stripped of his ranks, and was to be sent to Hainan where he would live in exile under house arrest. He was given this respect only on the basis of his former service to the Chinese nation. Meanwhile Beijing was retaken by the Chinese Imperial Forces. During this time, the Qing royalists implicated the Tibetan government in their attempt to retake power as well. Whilst we will never know if the Tibetan government was actually truly involved in an attempt to undermine Chinese stability, however what we do know is that Tibetan warlords were present in Beijing and some of them did support the Qing restoration. The Hongxian Emperor used the rebellion as a perfect opportunity to purge many warlords from the army and had many known warlords executed on grounds of treason with their links in the restoration being used as evidence. The Qing Royal Dynasty was saved from Zhang Xun and restored to their position as nobles of the realm and the Hongxian Emperor turned his eye towards Tibet.
The Hongxian Emperor sent a delegation to Lhasa, and as virtually every state on the planet other than Mongolia recognized Tibet as de-jure a part of China, asked the Tibetan government for their budget and to return to Chinese rule, albeit with significant autonomy. The Tibetan government refused. As the Hongxian Emperor knew would happen. He rallied the nationalist groups in China in a bid of nationalist frenzy to reintegrate Tibet. Many were already angered by the fact that the Tibetans had been implicated in the Qing Insurrection, and the fact that the Tibetans had snubbed the emperor was enough for many to start a new war in Tibet. The 5th and 6th Imperial Armies were dispatched to Kham with the sole intention of invading and conquering Tibet once again. On December 23, 1917, the Chinese armies crossed the Tibetan frontier beginning the Chinese Reconquest of Tibet.”
Excerpts from The Hongxian Emperor: The Meiji of China
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“As Congress Poland was revived as a state with the highest autonomy possible, the nationalities within the Russian Empire started to look at with envy, with the possible exception of the Finnish, who had their own substantial amounts of autonomy. In particular, the ethnicities of Crimea, and the Caucasus began to look for a foreign donor who would be willing to fund their movement for either freedom or autonomy.
In particular there were three groups that were forming under the auspices of nationalism that were seeking foreign aid. The Russian Georgians, Russian Armenians and Russian Crimean Tatars. For each we will have to study them one by one.
After 1881, the Russian Empire began to inflict heavy russification on its ethnic minorities throughout the empire. The Russian Armenians were the most heavily hit ethnic groups within this category. The last decades of the 19th century also saw a rise in Russian chauvinism with non-Russians described in increasingly racist terms. Armenians in particular were abused especially after 1884, when Count Loris-Melikov, an Armenian cabinet member was dismissed by Alexander III who called the man a frenzied Asiatic. The Russian authorities also began to be suspicious of the Armenian economic dominance in Transcaucasia. Ironically such suspicions of the Armenians, who were at the time the most Russophile of the Tsar’s subjects as an untrustworthy people prone to revolutionary conspiracy and movements led the Russians to introduce policies which led to the very same thing they aimed to prevent. In 1897 Nicholas II appointed the Armenophobic Grigory Sergeyevich Golitsin as the Governor of Transcaucasia, and Armenian schools, cultural associations and newspapers and libraries as a result were shut down by the government. Armenian nationalism as practiced by the Dashnaks, with their penchant for revolutionary violence had no real appeal for the Armenian populace at first, however Russian cultural repression made a lot of the Armenians turned to violence in the Russian Empire for their answer. The Tsar’s Russification program in Armenia reached a peak when in 1903 the Confiscation of properties of the Armenian Church was ordered by the Russian government. The Catholicos of Armenia begged the Tsar to overturn the decree, but the Tsar and the Russian government refused, and the Armenians turned to the violent Dashnaks as their savior. After the revolution of 1905 however, the Armenians and Russians had a small rapprochement happen between the two parties.
Andranik Ozanian
However after the Ottoman liberalization and empty promises from the Russian government regarding ethnic and cultural rights, the Russian Armenians finally were having enough of Russian rule. They turned to the Armenian Revolutionary Foundation and the Armenakan Party in the Ottoman Empire, both of whom were thriving under Ottoman regionalism. In October 26, 1917, the Russian Armenian Revolutionary Committee for Annexation and/or Sovereignty, which was shortened to simply RARCAS was formed under the command of Andranik Ozanian. Ozanian laid the foundations for RARCAS and called for either of three options that was published in the October Manifesto. The first option was to see an autonomous Armenia to be created within the Russian Empire which would respect the rights of the Armenian populace and their autonomy. The second option was that Russian Armenia would be annexed into the Ottoman Empire and made a part of the Armenian Vilayet so that Armenians could enjoy cultural freedom as subjects of the Sultan. The third and final option was to create an independent Armenia within Russian Armenia under the protection of the Ottoman Empire, with one of the Armenian noble families, many of whom were still active in the Ottoman Empire as successful businessmen to become monarchs of this hypothetical independent Armenia.
The Ottoman government remained neutral in regards to the Russian Armenians, not wishing to jeopardize its own positions and relations with Russia, however many of the Ottoman Armenian population were in favor of option 2. Several Armenians within the Ottoman Empire crossed the border, and entered Russia through the unpatrolled mountains and began to become active in pro-Ottoman Armenian Revolutionary activities in the Russian Empire despite the Ottomans best efforts to not implicate itself in such activities as the Ottomans tried to find a new favorable trade deal with the Russians after the Great War.
Noe Ramishvili.
The History of Georgia under Russian rule was one of that of dissatisfaction after 1881. Similar to the Armenians, the Georgians had suffered massive cultural repression from the Russian government. Similar to their Armenian compatriots, the Georgians under Noe Ramishvili formed the Georgian Independence Committee in Tbilisi. They also sought overt protection from the Ottoman government.”
Excerpts from The Ottoman Relationship with the Caucasus Countries and Nationalities
***
“For many years and centuries even, the north of Portugal has always been the historical setting for revolutions and revolts against the position of the Portuguese government, from the Liberal Revolution of 1820 which went against the absolutist government to the Republican revolt of 1891, which went against the monarchist government. However the northern tracts of Portugal has always been the traditional seat of the Portuguese and Lusitanian nobility as well. When the 1910 Republican Revolution broke out and deposed King Manuel II of Portugal, the Portuguese Monarch which existed since 868 AD, was abolished and supplanted by the Portuguese Republic. King Manuel II and the royal family were banished from Portuguese soil, and they fled to the UK as a result, where their British relatives and allies gave them refuge.
King Manuel II of Portugal.
However there was one problem. The Portuguese Republic hadn’t been installed with popular support. Manuel II himself a democratic man, had stressed to many moderate republicans before that he would have given up the throne if the people had voted in favor of it, however rejected the deposition of his family on grounds that the abolition hadn’t been a democratic one. He also stated in exile that he was ready to reassume his throne on the basis of being diplomatically and electorally restored, not militarily. In 1911, as a response to the 1910 Republican revolution, Paiva Couceiro led a monarchist attack on Chaves, with the intention of restoring the monarchy. Though the first attack on Chaves was lackadaisical and poorly led, the second was a more powerful and well organized, as well as well supported attack on the city. Having unofficial support from both Spain and the UK, both of whom feared the radical republican policies of the Portuguese Republic. Spain due to the uneasy stance of their own monarchy and the British due to the fact that the Portuguese Republic had been made partially due to its anti-British stance. On the 8th of July 1912, around 850 Monarchist rebels entered Chaves. Around 100 members of a company in the Portuguese Army marched on Chaves and attacked the city. Though the monarchists were better armed and had superior numbers, they didn’t have the supplies to sustain themselves for a long siege, and they were defeated in the battle. All they needed now was for more discontent in the country and they knew that they could return.
In August 12, the situation in the Portuguese Republic had degraded by a massive amount. The government led by Bernardino Machado had throughout of the Great War flip flopped on its position to enter the war on the side of their allies the British. Many Portuguese Nationalists hoped to seize German Namibia and Tanganyika for themselves after the skirmishes between the Portuguese and Germans broke out, however the Portuguese Political Crisis’s of the time did not allow for such a thing to happen as the government became increasingly polarized and fractured, and the economy continued to go down the drain as the Spanish stopped their trade with Portugal slowly but surely as France and Britain showed more lucrative markets in order to lure the Spaniards into the fold against the Germans. Using this economic depression and political instability, General Sidonio Pais led a coup on the government on August 12 and managed to become the President of the Republic, forcing the exile of Machado. For the one month that he reigned in Portugal, he was extremely dictatorial figure, foregoing the Portuguese legislature and doing as he pleased, doing what he wanted. So much so that many called him the new King in Portugal. However a left wing anarchist and communist named Jose Julio da Costa shot the man on September 16, 1917 leading to another political crisis in Portugal.
Joao do Canto e Castro
The favorite to succeed Pais had been Joao do Canto e Castro, however Castro, who was seen as too close to the military like Pais was overlooked and Antonio Jose de Almeida was chosen as the new President of the Portuguese Republic. Castro had been popular with the people as well, and the overlooking of Castro angered both the populace and the man himself. During that same time Castro found out that the monarchists were planning to make an attack during this time of instability and restore the monarchy. A monarchist himself though with republican leanings, and embittered by his loss of a chance to come to power, Castro contacted Couceiro and told the man that he would join a monarchist uprising.
Using his influence in the Navy, he could secure several warships that could simply sail to Lisbon and restore the monarchy if it wanted. Several influential figures such Antonio Maria de Sousa Sardinha, and Louis Carlos de Lima e Almeida Braga decided to proceed with the monarchist plan as well. Sardinha and Couceiro entered Porto with a large band of around 2000 monarchist defectors from the Portuguese Army and entered Porto on October 2, 1917. On the next day the blue and white royal flag was hoisted back up and the monarchy was declared to be restored. At the same time, Castro, using his influence in the navy, and the monarchist sympathies in the navy [1] had the entire northern fleet of 2 Cruisers, 2 Destroyers and 1 torpedo boat defect over the monarchist cause. Under the flagship of Dom Carlos I, and their assorted crew and marines, the ships sailed south to Lisbon.
At the same time, Couceiro and Castro began to recruit a proper army and managed to recruit around 6000 men from the northern territories and (re)formed the Royal Portuguese Army. The 8,000 strong force then started to move south. In Lisbon, the ships slipped passed the harbor defenses by hoisting the republican flags and radio messages were sent showing itself as if they escaped from Porto instead of coming down in favor of the monarchists. However the moment the ships docked, Around 200 marines disembarked and pointed their guns at Belem Palace, the presidential palace of the Portuguese President and the navy ships pointed their heavy guns at the Portuguese Assembly building. It was a coup. The President, Almeida surrendered, and handed over power to Castro who had arrived with the navy and Castro took power as the Prime Minister of a Provisional Government as the former government was exiled to the Azores.
All of this happened under a week. Castro declared the Provisional State of Portugal and with the other monarchists of parliament asked Manuel II who was still in London, to come back to be restored to his throne. Manuel II declined, criticizing the military takeover and he reiterated his position that he would only come and retake the throne if a popular vote in favor of the monarchy was held. Castro acquiesced. A referendum was slated to be held on November 27 and 28 with the month between them to have a both yes and no campaign to take place. The Socialists and Republicans denounced the attempt to restore the monarchy, however the people were by and large not willing to listen to them. The socialists and republicans had been the ruling elite in the republic and underneath them the republic’s economy was in tatters, and the economy was lagging behind. My mid-1917 the Ottoman Empire itself had overtaken the Portuguese economy on a per capita basis signaling just how weak and fragile the Portuguese economy was.
Nonetheless, despite this the campaign for the referendum was polarized and fractious. But in the end, around 54.6% of the mandate voted in favor of restoring the monarchy with 45% opposed with an electoral turnout of around 84%. With the mandate that he needed to persuade the former king, Castro asked the former king to return. Manuel II, this time accepted the offer, and on December 20th, 1917 he was reinstated as King of Portugal as the Kingdom of Portugal was restored.
The proclamation of the Restoration of the Monarchy.
However the Socialists and Republicans were not going to take this lying down. The Republican Army of Portugal or the RAP was formed on December 24, and they launched several attacks throughout Portugal to try and depose the monarchy. Thus began the Portuguese Republican Troubles.”
Excerpts from Manuel II: The Kind and Blessed.
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[1] – the navy in 1910 was extremely republican, however according to Castro and Pais’s notes otl, the navy had become extremely monarchist by 1916.
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Chapter 33: The Politics of the Age
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“As per the Ottoman Constitution of 1908, the Ottoman empire would conduct a parliamentary election every four years to determine the legislative makeup of the country. That meant that on December 28, 1917, the Ottoman Election Commission declared that the next Ottoman General Elections would take place on March 29 to March 31 in 1918.
As a result, the political parties all started to campaign once again. Led by Ahmet Riza, the Committee of Union and Progress, or the CUP decided to campaign on the premises of their previous victories during their term in power. They showed the successful Balkan War in which the Ottomans had been successful against the Balkan powers of Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro under the leadership and command of the CUP. Ahmed Riza also had other avenues of gaining votes, such as the passage of the Women’s Rights Bill, and the expansion of the suffrage. He could also point out several economic reforms that gave more credence to his position in the government. On the other hand, the Liberal Union led by Hasan Pristhina were campaigning against the CUP on the basis of liberal nationalism and liberal economics. Prishtina pointed out how the CUP led government had given up Cyprus to Greece without a fight, and that the Ottomans could not be lax in their security. Handing over nominal subjects of the Sultan willy nilly to other powers was something that could not go on any longer, Prishtina pointed out. He also attacked the economic policy of the state and the fiscal conservative traits of the economy. He called for liberal economics, and an end to the protectionist measures being employed by the Ottoman government, stating that protectionism made the standards of living more expensive. He espoused a free trade outlook, similar to the position that was held by the Liberal Party in the United Kingdom.
Hasan Prishtina
The Socialist Party was the most benefitted by the expansion of the suffrage to women. The Socialists under Huseyin Hilmi managed to campaign successful in the country’s growing working class on the basis of their pro-worker laws, and they pointed out towards their successful campaign in favor of Women’s Suffrage which had been successful. They also garnered intellectual votes by pointing out how that Socialist Party had been so consequential in the abolition of the Imperial Harem. Hilmi had also grown to become a mildly charismatic fellow, and he managed to personally garner a lot of sympathy votes as well, as he campaigned throughout the country. In comparison, the Ottoman Democratic Party led by Ibrahim Temo was not having a good time. Temo himself was ill and his leadership during the campaign was compromised. He was not able to come out into the fray and take part in debates to sway the electorate. The presence of Hasan Prishtina, a prominent Albanian as the leader of the Liberal Union also undermined the party’s base in Albania, the party was losing points in the polls.
Similarly, the Ottoman Social Democratic Party led by Ata Atalay was now campaigning with renewed vigor. Whilst it was correctly assumed that most of the increasing suffrage votes would be going to the Socialists from the worker class, the Social Democrats instead campaigned on the premise of increasing the welfare sector of the nation and creating a welfare state within the Ottoman Empire. Similarly, the Armenakan and Armenian Revolutionary Foundation in the Ottoman Empire reconciled with one another, and formed the Armenian Regionalist Party, a party dedicated to preserve the autonomy of Armenia and Armenians within the Ottoman Empire. The merger of the two parties probably saved the regionalist party as it ensured that the two would cross the electoral threshold. Previous polls had shown that the Armenakan would not be able to get any seats in the Chamber of Deputies. Under Armen Garo, the Armenian Regionalist Party led a successful campaign within Armenia as well.
Ottoman Nationalist Party Leader, Enver Pasha.
Finally, the new Ottoman Nationalist Party was able to use the outrage at the anti-discrimination votes and the nationalistic fervor against losing Cyprus to propel itself over the needed threshold. Led by Enver Pasha, it was an explicit nationalistic party, with the party making territorial claims all over Arabia, the Caucasus and the Balkans as well. The party was also against the Armenian Vilayet and made abolishing it one of their main manifesto claims, attracting anti-Armenian votes as well. Meanwhile Poale Zion and their party ran on a platform of maintaining the new pro-Jewish laws within the country and expanding them as well, whilst safeguarding Jewish interests in the state. Their pro-worker policies also garnered a lot of non-Jewish votes as well.
In the end, the CUP-Socialist coalition managed to retain a powerful minority led government in the elections. As a result, Ahmet Riza maintained his position as Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire. He did however make some political changes into the Cabinet of the Ottoman Government. The newly added Ministry of the Army and Airforce was given to Mehmed Essat Pasha whilst Ciballi Bey retired from the Ministry of Naval Affairs. As a result, Mehmet Ihsan Bey was appointed as the Minister of Naval Affairs by Riza. The position of Minister of War, was also vacant after Mahmud Shevket Pasha retired on January 1918, and the position was given to Mustafa Kemal Pasha, who had retired from active service and was enlisted in the reserves. With his new free time Mustafa Kemal had joined the CUP party to be involved in political affairs. Kemal’s appointment to the cabinet was particularly successful, as the man was a widely beloved figure within the Empire due to his status as a successful war hero within the empire.
As such the so called Cabinet of the Wondermen continued after the 1918 Ottoman General Elections.” A History of Ottoman Politics and General Elections, University of Angora © 2018
***
“On April 3, 1918, the Ottoman Sultan the Caliph of Islam, the Khan of Khans, The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and the Kayser-i-Rum died at the age of 73 due to old age and heart disease. He was the son of Sultan Abdulmejid I, and he succeeded his brother Abdul Hamid II after the Young Turk Revolution. His nine year reign was marked with a unique revival of the Ottoman Empire’s economic and military prowess. Mehmed V was a quiet man, more interested in the arts, and the romantic interests of life, however the man had supported the democratic reforms of the empire, and had upon his own initiative taken progressive steps in favor of a modern constitutional monarchy, remaining above partisan politics, and decreeing progressive reforms such as endorsing women’s suffrage and abolishing the Imperial Harem. Beloved throughout the Ottoman Empire, the news of his death was met with grief and disbelief from many sectors of Ottoman society. Despite his old age, the man was active and seen by the city goers of Constantinople. A week was announced as mourning time period throughout the empire as the empire shut down for a whole week.
Emperor Karl I of the Danubian Empire, King George V of the United Kingdom, King Alphonso XIII of Spain, King Manuel II of Portugal, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, Boris III of Bulgaria, George II of Greece, George I of Serbia, Ferdinand of Romania, the Qajars, the Rashidis, and virtually every other Muslim monarchy on the planet sent their condolences to the Ottoman Empire and the Imperial Family. On April 27, 1918 he was buried after a grand procession throughout the capital city and his body was entombed in the city, alongside his predecessors of the Osman Dynasty.
Mehmed VI of the Ottoman Empire.
He was succeeded by his younger brother, who took up the mantle as Mehmed VI of the Ottoman Empire. As such a new era dawned within the Empire of Osman…….” Osman’s Dream: The Empire of the Ottomans. © 2020.
***
“The coalition government formed between the major parties of the United Kingdom was not to last after the war ended. The Conservatives made it clear that during and after the 1918 General Elections, the coalition would be abolished, and that normal partisan democracy and politics would be conducted, as a means of return to normalcy. As such as the year changed, all of the parties began to campaign in favor of their own parties for the upcoming elections.
Sir Austen Chamberlain campaigning during the elections.
The populace were however tired of the same old Liberal Party. The Liberals had led Britain since the 1906 General Election, and whilst a great deal had been achieved under Liberal leadership, much of the domestic sector had stagnated under their command as they gave precedence to foreign affairs rather than domestic affairs. As a result, despite McKenna’s own personal magnetism in the field and during debates and speeches, the Liberal party was starting to slump in the polls. Meanwhile, popular politician, Austen Chamberlain had taken the reigns of the Conservative Party, after Bonar Law had come in sick and unable to lead the party. Chamberlain was relatively well experienced, and for many in the country and the populace, dynamic. Many had thought that Curzon would lead the party after Law, however, while Curzon was quite adept at foreign affairs he was not experienced in domestic affairs and his hardline stances made him an ill-suited choice for the growing reform movement in the United Kingdom. As a result, Chamberlain came to power in the Liberal Unionist and Conservative Parties. Chamberlain to them was the very image of modern conservatism and Chamberlain promised a Britain First strategy to the population of the British Isles. Unlike what many believed in Ireland as well towards the Tories, Chamberlain took a pro-Home Rule stance unlike Bonar Law, and this stance allowed him and his associate party, the Liberal Unionists to make gains in the Irish electorate as well. Chamberlain used his general charismatic personality to attract votes as well, and he promised to no longer neglect the domestic situation. He called for a pullback on liberal free trade, and to create tariffs to protect British industries, and to increase industrial output to meet the demands of wartime debt, in the same manner as that of the United States of America and the Ottoman Empire. Chamberlain also campaigned on a position of cultural unionism, gaining inspiration from the reforms of the Ottoman Empire and Austrian Empires, all of whom had drawn on multiculturalism as their base. As a result Chamberlain based his unionism on multiculturalism between Ireland, Wales, England and Scotland. This unique policy would prove to be wildly successful in the future.
William Adamson.
The industrial expansion of British economics during the Great War vastly aided the Labour Party led by William Adamson. They were able to base their policies in pro-worker policies, and campaigned on the basis of democratic socialism. Adamson used the educational policies that was passed by Arthur Henderson during the Great War as the basis of his campaign as well, and managed to successful garner a lot of sympathetic votes in the government and the country. Meanwhile, John Redmond the First Minister of Ireland had resigned from his leadership of the Irish Parliamentary Party and had stated that he would not run for the premiership in the 1919 Irish Home Rule General Elections either, and as a result, Joseph Devlin was accelerated to the position of leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party. Devlin campaigned in Ireland on the basis of retaining and preserving the Home Rule status that Ireland now found itself within the United Kingdom and he was also supportive of cultural unionism and moderate nationalism within the island. He also raised the issue of the northern boroughs and counties in Ulster who had not joined the Irish Home Rule territories and promised to do something about them, and bringing reform so that all of Ireland would join Home Rule, and according to Devlin himself, as a shining and equal member of the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, a new party was also forming. The Tories were the typical center right nationalist party within the United Kingdom, however the UK had a distinct lack of center-left nationalist parties. However under George Barnes, the National Democratic and Labour Party had managed to mold itself as a center-left nationalist party and used the nationalist zeal during the Great War, and the usage of pro-veteran social works and social policies to gain a lot of electoral popularity within the country, forming the fifth largest party within the United Kingdom by the end of 1917.
By the end of the elections, the Conservatives had managed to gain a slight lead in the polls and gained a 16 seat majority over the Liberals. As a result, Chamberlain formed a new conservative government in the United Kingdom.
With Stanley at the helm, the first british partisan government after the Great War was formed.” British Politics After the Great War: Stumbling Through the Darkness. © 2016.
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“The Tibetan Expeditionary Army (TEA) (西藏遠征軍) was formed by the Hongxian Emperor on December 29th, 1917 under the command of Zhang Zuolin and consisted of around 120,000 men with the 6th and 7th Imperial Armies being a core component of the force. Ever since 1912, all warlords in China, and both the Republican government and the new Imperial government always maintained that Tibet was a part of China. The Hongxian Emperor, who was seen as a reformer by all, also proclaimed an ideological and economical motivation and goal to liberate the Tibetans from a theocratic feudal system that had no place in modern society.
Before the TEA could enter Tibetan territory however, talks between Tibet and China took place through the mediation of the British government in India. On January 7, a Tibetan delegation arrived in Sikkim, British India, to open a dialogue with the Chinese Empire and to secure assurances that the Chinese would respect Tibetan territorial integrity and sovereignty. The onset of talks was debate between the British, Chinese and Tibetan delegations. The Chinese ambassador to British India, The Duke of Confucius, Duke Yansheng (延生公爵) communicated a two point proposal to the Tbetans in which Tibet would be regarded as a part of China and in return China would be responsible for Tibetan foreign trade, relations and defense. Acceptance would lead to peaceful Chinese sovereignty, denial would mean war.
However, the Tibetans under the 13th Dalai Lama continued to try and maintain a priest patron relationship with one another. They reiterated their position that they were under no danger to be protected by China at all. However this position was weakened when tensions between the Kingdom of Nepal and Tibet flared up after a border dispute in Kuti Valley and the Nepalese Army mobilized as a subtle threat to Lhasa. The stalling of negotiations and the refusal of the Tibetan government to confirm whether or not it was linked to the Qing Restoration Attempt, gave the Chinese all the mandate they needed to enter Chinese territory and attack the Tibetans. On January 31, the invasion started as the Chinese entered Tibet from Kham territory despite the protests against the invasion towards the British. The British, whilst sympathetic did not raise issue at all. The Tibetans were recognized by the government in London as a part of China after all.
The Khampa Tibetans who lived in Kham were fiercely independent, and they and Lhasa Tibetans held each other in mutual contempt and dislike, with the Khampas in some cases hating Lhasa rule more than Chinese rule. This was mainly due to financial reasons. No matter how one may deride the Qing government, their taxation policies were fair, and tax was collected on the basis of population. However the independent Tibetan government collected tax on the basis of equal amount in every province, making tax prices hike in Kham, making many in Kham hate Lhasa rule and yearn for the Chinese to come back again. This was mainly why the Khampas did not resist the Chinese invasion at all, and in many cases acted as local advisors to the TEA under Zhang.
On February 18, the TEA reached the outskirts of Chamdo (昌都). The TEA had crossed the Jinsha River, and advanced rapidly with the aid of the Khampa defectors, who showed shortcuts to the invading Chinese army. The Sichuan 8th Division and the 2nd Shanghai Division captured the town of Chamdo and stormed the defenses of the city, levelling the defenses and capturing the city, by which time around 72 Chinese soldiers and 286 Tibetan soldiers had been killed or wounded in the short battle. The governor of Chamdo, Tsakpa Jigme Dorje, surrendered the city with the remainder of his forces, numbering some 3,000.
Chinese Troops in Tibet.
The Chinese continued to march and on March 28, reached the outskirts of the city of Nyingchi. There, the Tibetans had massed around 20,000 men to meet the Chinese invasion and defeat their incoming Chinese overlords. Zhang Zuolin lined his army up for battle in the unfamiliar mountainous terrain and engaged the enemy with an artillery barrage, though he had scant little of this, as the winter mud and snow had forced him to abandon his heavy artillery along the way. The Tibetans fought bravely and inflicted disproportionate losses on the enemy troops, however on March 30, Zhang’s forces encircled the Tibetans using a double envelopment tactic, and by that point all resistance became futile, and the Tibetans surrendered. The Battle of Nyingchi was devastating for the Tibetans as it removed their capability and ability to fight back against China militarily, and the 13th Dalai Lama quickly sued for peace.
A ceasefire was announced before on April 17, the Treaty of Nagqu (那曲條約)was signed which had the following points:
***
“After the Italian capitulation in the Great War, the government collapsed completely. By completely, the entire cabinet resigned and Italy was without a government. Victor Emmanuel III appointed former Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti to form a temporary government within the country as he sorted out affairs of the state, trying to use his blood ties to the House of Habsburg and the Spanish monarchs to seek foreign investment and aid to deliver aid to the broken Italian nation. The humiliation of losing the borderlands to France, the islands to Britain and the colonies to both the Anglo-French was burning through the overly nationalistic populace, and the country was smoldering in anger and dissatisfaction.
The King’s position was in doubt, and the country was demanding his abdication. The people were rioting against him openly in the streets and were demanding his resignation as monarch. In Naples, one Nicola Bombacci of the Italian Socialist Party openly demanded the abolition of the monarchy and with the aid of the other republican parties in Italy, declared himself as the legitimate Prime Minister of Italy, and not Giolitti opening up a political crisis of the highest kind within Italy.
Victor Emmanuel III was amenable to an abdication, with his own son, Umberto ascending to the throne and his wife becoming regent for 4 years until Umberto came to majority. However by January 28, the republican and nationalist fervor continued to grip major cities, and Genoa, Milan, Palermo all fell to nationalistic republican demands and Bombacci’s rival government. On the 7th of February, Giolitti met with other members of the House of Savoy, and discussed a plan to abdicate Victor Emmanuel III from the throne, who had now backtracked from his earlier position and was unwilling to abdicate. On the 10th of February, large crowds gathered in and around of Rome, demanding that the King abdicate, though they did not demand anything of abolishing the monarchy for example. Giolitti with aid from the other Savoyards, unilaterally declared the abdication of King Victor Emmanuel III. The proclamation read:
His Majesty, the King has made the decision to renounce the throne. The Royal Prime Minister will remain in office until all matters related to the abdication is taken care of, and the establishment of a regency is settled.
Even though the abdication of Victor Emmanuel III meant that Umberto was now king, as Umberto II of Italy, the 14 year old teen could not be expected to the rule the country and the government under Giolitti now tried to do damage control over the growing political atmosphere. With the hope of preserving the monarchy in the face of growing revolutionary and republican unrest, Giolitti announced Victor Emmanuel III’s abdication to the public. On 9th of February, Giolitti himself was forced to resign after it became clear that only Bombacii could effectively govern the country and Bombacci entered the capital. Later that evening, he proclaimed Italy to be a Republic.
Nicola Bombacci, the First Prime Minister of the Republic of Italy.
Bombacci immediately formed a government with socialists and communists at the helm. Both France and Danubia mobilized their troops in contemplation, as they hoped to stamp down on a nascent communist state, however Bombacci made no move towards a one party proletarian state, instead maintaining a multi-party democracy for the moment, not giving his enemies the casus belli required to enter Italian territory. Meanwhile Victor Emmanuel III and his wife were forced into exile into France, and then Spain. Umberto II and his personal caretakers were allowed to stay in Italy with a medium sized royal mansion being given to Umberto II and his servants for his caretaking.
The monarchy in Italy had been abolished. This would be merely be the first seed that would be sowed as the Italian Revolution of 1919 seeped closer and closer to the Italian peninsula.” The Italian Revolution of 1919.
***
***
“As per the Ottoman Constitution of 1908, the Ottoman empire would conduct a parliamentary election every four years to determine the legislative makeup of the country. That meant that on December 28, 1917, the Ottoman Election Commission declared that the next Ottoman General Elections would take place on March 29 to March 31 in 1918.
As a result, the political parties all started to campaign once again. Led by Ahmet Riza, the Committee of Union and Progress, or the CUP decided to campaign on the premises of their previous victories during their term in power. They showed the successful Balkan War in which the Ottomans had been successful against the Balkan powers of Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro under the leadership and command of the CUP. Ahmed Riza also had other avenues of gaining votes, such as the passage of the Women’s Rights Bill, and the expansion of the suffrage. He could also point out several economic reforms that gave more credence to his position in the government. On the other hand, the Liberal Union led by Hasan Pristhina were campaigning against the CUP on the basis of liberal nationalism and liberal economics. Prishtina pointed out how the CUP led government had given up Cyprus to Greece without a fight, and that the Ottomans could not be lax in their security. Handing over nominal subjects of the Sultan willy nilly to other powers was something that could not go on any longer, Prishtina pointed out. He also attacked the economic policy of the state and the fiscal conservative traits of the economy. He called for liberal economics, and an end to the protectionist measures being employed by the Ottoman government, stating that protectionism made the standards of living more expensive. He espoused a free trade outlook, similar to the position that was held by the Liberal Party in the United Kingdom.
Hasan Prishtina
The Socialist Party was the most benefitted by the expansion of the suffrage to women. The Socialists under Huseyin Hilmi managed to campaign successful in the country’s growing working class on the basis of their pro-worker laws, and they pointed out towards their successful campaign in favor of Women’s Suffrage which had been successful. They also garnered intellectual votes by pointing out how that Socialist Party had been so consequential in the abolition of the Imperial Harem. Hilmi had also grown to become a mildly charismatic fellow, and he managed to personally garner a lot of sympathy votes as well, as he campaigned throughout the country. In comparison, the Ottoman Democratic Party led by Ibrahim Temo was not having a good time. Temo himself was ill and his leadership during the campaign was compromised. He was not able to come out into the fray and take part in debates to sway the electorate. The presence of Hasan Prishtina, a prominent Albanian as the leader of the Liberal Union also undermined the party’s base in Albania, the party was losing points in the polls.
Similarly, the Ottoman Social Democratic Party led by Ata Atalay was now campaigning with renewed vigor. Whilst it was correctly assumed that most of the increasing suffrage votes would be going to the Socialists from the worker class, the Social Democrats instead campaigned on the premise of increasing the welfare sector of the nation and creating a welfare state within the Ottoman Empire. Similarly, the Armenakan and Armenian Revolutionary Foundation in the Ottoman Empire reconciled with one another, and formed the Armenian Regionalist Party, a party dedicated to preserve the autonomy of Armenia and Armenians within the Ottoman Empire. The merger of the two parties probably saved the regionalist party as it ensured that the two would cross the electoral threshold. Previous polls had shown that the Armenakan would not be able to get any seats in the Chamber of Deputies. Under Armen Garo, the Armenian Regionalist Party led a successful campaign within Armenia as well.
Ottoman Nationalist Party Leader, Enver Pasha.
Finally, the new Ottoman Nationalist Party was able to use the outrage at the anti-discrimination votes and the nationalistic fervor against losing Cyprus to propel itself over the needed threshold. Led by Enver Pasha, it was an explicit nationalistic party, with the party making territorial claims all over Arabia, the Caucasus and the Balkans as well. The party was also against the Armenian Vilayet and made abolishing it one of their main manifesto claims, attracting anti-Armenian votes as well. Meanwhile Poale Zion and their party ran on a platform of maintaining the new pro-Jewish laws within the country and expanding them as well, whilst safeguarding Jewish interests in the state. Their pro-worker policies also garnered a lot of non-Jewish votes as well.
In the end, the CUP-Socialist coalition managed to retain a powerful minority led government in the elections. As a result, Ahmet Riza maintained his position as Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire. He did however make some political changes into the Cabinet of the Ottoman Government. The newly added Ministry of the Army and Airforce was given to Mehmed Essat Pasha whilst Ciballi Bey retired from the Ministry of Naval Affairs. As a result, Mehmet Ihsan Bey was appointed as the Minister of Naval Affairs by Riza. The position of Minister of War, was also vacant after Mahmud Shevket Pasha retired on January 1918, and the position was given to Mustafa Kemal Pasha, who had retired from active service and was enlisted in the reserves. With his new free time Mustafa Kemal had joined the CUP party to be involved in political affairs. Kemal’s appointment to the cabinet was particularly successful, as the man was a widely beloved figure within the Empire due to his status as a successful war hero within the empire.
As such the so called Cabinet of the Wondermen continued after the 1918 Ottoman General Elections.” A History of Ottoman Politics and General Elections, University of Angora © 2018
***
“On April 3, 1918, the Ottoman Sultan the Caliph of Islam, the Khan of Khans, The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and the Kayser-i-Rum died at the age of 73 due to old age and heart disease. He was the son of Sultan Abdulmejid I, and he succeeded his brother Abdul Hamid II after the Young Turk Revolution. His nine year reign was marked with a unique revival of the Ottoman Empire’s economic and military prowess. Mehmed V was a quiet man, more interested in the arts, and the romantic interests of life, however the man had supported the democratic reforms of the empire, and had upon his own initiative taken progressive steps in favor of a modern constitutional monarchy, remaining above partisan politics, and decreeing progressive reforms such as endorsing women’s suffrage and abolishing the Imperial Harem. Beloved throughout the Ottoman Empire, the news of his death was met with grief and disbelief from many sectors of Ottoman society. Despite his old age, the man was active and seen by the city goers of Constantinople. A week was announced as mourning time period throughout the empire as the empire shut down for a whole week.
Emperor Karl I of the Danubian Empire, King George V of the United Kingdom, King Alphonso XIII of Spain, King Manuel II of Portugal, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, Boris III of Bulgaria, George II of Greece, George I of Serbia, Ferdinand of Romania, the Qajars, the Rashidis, and virtually every other Muslim monarchy on the planet sent their condolences to the Ottoman Empire and the Imperial Family. On April 27, 1918 he was buried after a grand procession throughout the capital city and his body was entombed in the city, alongside his predecessors of the Osman Dynasty.
Mehmed VI of the Ottoman Empire.
He was succeeded by his younger brother, who took up the mantle as Mehmed VI of the Ottoman Empire. As such a new era dawned within the Empire of Osman…….” Osman’s Dream: The Empire of the Ottomans. © 2020.
***
“The coalition government formed between the major parties of the United Kingdom was not to last after the war ended. The Conservatives made it clear that during and after the 1918 General Elections, the coalition would be abolished, and that normal partisan democracy and politics would be conducted, as a means of return to normalcy. As such as the year changed, all of the parties began to campaign in favor of their own parties for the upcoming elections.
Sir Austen Chamberlain campaigning during the elections.
The populace were however tired of the same old Liberal Party. The Liberals had led Britain since the 1906 General Election, and whilst a great deal had been achieved under Liberal leadership, much of the domestic sector had stagnated under their command as they gave precedence to foreign affairs rather than domestic affairs. As a result, despite McKenna’s own personal magnetism in the field and during debates and speeches, the Liberal party was starting to slump in the polls. Meanwhile, popular politician, Austen Chamberlain had taken the reigns of the Conservative Party, after Bonar Law had come in sick and unable to lead the party. Chamberlain was relatively well experienced, and for many in the country and the populace, dynamic. Many had thought that Curzon would lead the party after Law, however, while Curzon was quite adept at foreign affairs he was not experienced in domestic affairs and his hardline stances made him an ill-suited choice for the growing reform movement in the United Kingdom. As a result, Chamberlain came to power in the Liberal Unionist and Conservative Parties. Chamberlain to them was the very image of modern conservatism and Chamberlain promised a Britain First strategy to the population of the British Isles. Unlike what many believed in Ireland as well towards the Tories, Chamberlain took a pro-Home Rule stance unlike Bonar Law, and this stance allowed him and his associate party, the Liberal Unionists to make gains in the Irish electorate as well. Chamberlain used his general charismatic personality to attract votes as well, and he promised to no longer neglect the domestic situation. He called for a pullback on liberal free trade, and to create tariffs to protect British industries, and to increase industrial output to meet the demands of wartime debt, in the same manner as that of the United States of America and the Ottoman Empire. Chamberlain also campaigned on a position of cultural unionism, gaining inspiration from the reforms of the Ottoman Empire and Austrian Empires, all of whom had drawn on multiculturalism as their base. As a result Chamberlain based his unionism on multiculturalism between Ireland, Wales, England and Scotland. This unique policy would prove to be wildly successful in the future.
William Adamson.
The industrial expansion of British economics during the Great War vastly aided the Labour Party led by William Adamson. They were able to base their policies in pro-worker policies, and campaigned on the basis of democratic socialism. Adamson used the educational policies that was passed by Arthur Henderson during the Great War as the basis of his campaign as well, and managed to successful garner a lot of sympathetic votes in the government and the country. Meanwhile, John Redmond the First Minister of Ireland had resigned from his leadership of the Irish Parliamentary Party and had stated that he would not run for the premiership in the 1919 Irish Home Rule General Elections either, and as a result, Joseph Devlin was accelerated to the position of leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party. Devlin campaigned in Ireland on the basis of retaining and preserving the Home Rule status that Ireland now found itself within the United Kingdom and he was also supportive of cultural unionism and moderate nationalism within the island. He also raised the issue of the northern boroughs and counties in Ulster who had not joined the Irish Home Rule territories and promised to do something about them, and bringing reform so that all of Ireland would join Home Rule, and according to Devlin himself, as a shining and equal member of the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, a new party was also forming. The Tories were the typical center right nationalist party within the United Kingdom, however the UK had a distinct lack of center-left nationalist parties. However under George Barnes, the National Democratic and Labour Party had managed to mold itself as a center-left nationalist party and used the nationalist zeal during the Great War, and the usage of pro-veteran social works and social policies to gain a lot of electoral popularity within the country, forming the fifth largest party within the United Kingdom by the end of 1917.
By the end of the elections, the Conservatives had managed to gain a slight lead in the polls and gained a 16 seat majority over the Liberals. As a result, Chamberlain formed a new conservative government in the United Kingdom.
| Prime Minister First Lord of the Treasury Leader of the House of Commons | Austen Chamberlain (Conservative + Liberal Unionist) |
| Chancellor of the Exchequer | Stanley Baldwin (Conservative) |
| Lord Chancellor | The Viscount Grave (Conservative) |
| Lord President of the Council | The Marquess of Salisbury (Conservative) |
| Lord Privy Seal | Lord Robert Cecil (Conservative) |
| Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs | Lord Curzon (Conservative) |
| Leader of the House of Lords | Lord Curzon (Conservative) |
| Secretary of State for Home Department | William Bridgeman. (Conservative) |
| First Lord of the Admiralty | Leo Amery (Conservative) |
| Civil Lord of the Admiralty | The Marquess of Linlithgow (Conservative) |
| Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries | Sir Robert Sanders (Conservative) |
| Secretary of State for Air | Sir Samuel Hoare (Conservative) |
| Secretary of State for the Colonies | The Duke of Devonshire (Conservative) |
| President of the Board of Education | Honorable E. F. L. Wood (Conservative) |
| Minister of Health | Neville Chamberlain (Conservative) |
| Secretary of State for India | The Viscount Peel (Conservative) |
| Minister of Labour | Anderson Barlow (Conservative) |
| Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster | J.C.C Davidson (Conservative) |
| Paymaster-General | Sir William Joynson-Hicks (Conservative) |
| Minister of Pensions | George Tryon (Conservative) |
| Postmaster General | Sir Laming Worthington-Evans (Conservative) |
| Secretary of State for Scotland | The Viscount Novar (Conservative) |
| Secretary of State for Ireland | The Earl of Midleton (Liberal Unionist) |
| President of the Board of Trade | Sir Philip Lloyd-Greame (Conservative) |
| Secretary for Overseas Trade | Albert Buckley (Conservative) |
| Secretary for Mines | George Lane-Fox (Conservative) |
| Minister for Transport | Sir John Baird (Conservative) |
| Secretary of State for War | The Earl of Derby (Conservative) |
| Attorney General | Sir Douglas Hogg (Conservative) |
| Master of the Horse | The Marquess of Bath (Conservative) |
With Stanley at the helm, the first british partisan government after the Great War was formed.” British Politics After the Great War: Stumbling Through the Darkness. © 2016.
***
“The Tibetan Expeditionary Army (TEA) (西藏遠征軍) was formed by the Hongxian Emperor on December 29th, 1917 under the command of Zhang Zuolin and consisted of around 120,000 men with the 6th and 7th Imperial Armies being a core component of the force. Ever since 1912, all warlords in China, and both the Republican government and the new Imperial government always maintained that Tibet was a part of China. The Hongxian Emperor, who was seen as a reformer by all, also proclaimed an ideological and economical motivation and goal to liberate the Tibetans from a theocratic feudal system that had no place in modern society.
Before the TEA could enter Tibetan territory however, talks between Tibet and China took place through the mediation of the British government in India. On January 7, a Tibetan delegation arrived in Sikkim, British India, to open a dialogue with the Chinese Empire and to secure assurances that the Chinese would respect Tibetan territorial integrity and sovereignty. The onset of talks was debate between the British, Chinese and Tibetan delegations. The Chinese ambassador to British India, The Duke of Confucius, Duke Yansheng (延生公爵) communicated a two point proposal to the Tbetans in which Tibet would be regarded as a part of China and in return China would be responsible for Tibetan foreign trade, relations and defense. Acceptance would lead to peaceful Chinese sovereignty, denial would mean war.
However, the Tibetans under the 13th Dalai Lama continued to try and maintain a priest patron relationship with one another. They reiterated their position that they were under no danger to be protected by China at all. However this position was weakened when tensions between the Kingdom of Nepal and Tibet flared up after a border dispute in Kuti Valley and the Nepalese Army mobilized as a subtle threat to Lhasa. The stalling of negotiations and the refusal of the Tibetan government to confirm whether or not it was linked to the Qing Restoration Attempt, gave the Chinese all the mandate they needed to enter Chinese territory and attack the Tibetans. On January 31, the invasion started as the Chinese entered Tibet from Kham territory despite the protests against the invasion towards the British. The British, whilst sympathetic did not raise issue at all. The Tibetans were recognized by the government in London as a part of China after all.
The Khampa Tibetans who lived in Kham were fiercely independent, and they and Lhasa Tibetans held each other in mutual contempt and dislike, with the Khampas in some cases hating Lhasa rule more than Chinese rule. This was mainly due to financial reasons. No matter how one may deride the Qing government, their taxation policies were fair, and tax was collected on the basis of population. However the independent Tibetan government collected tax on the basis of equal amount in every province, making tax prices hike in Kham, making many in Kham hate Lhasa rule and yearn for the Chinese to come back again. This was mainly why the Khampas did not resist the Chinese invasion at all, and in many cases acted as local advisors to the TEA under Zhang.
On February 18, the TEA reached the outskirts of Chamdo (昌都). The TEA had crossed the Jinsha River, and advanced rapidly with the aid of the Khampa defectors, who showed shortcuts to the invading Chinese army. The Sichuan 8th Division and the 2nd Shanghai Division captured the town of Chamdo and stormed the defenses of the city, levelling the defenses and capturing the city, by which time around 72 Chinese soldiers and 286 Tibetan soldiers had been killed or wounded in the short battle. The governor of Chamdo, Tsakpa Jigme Dorje, surrendered the city with the remainder of his forces, numbering some 3,000.
Chinese Troops in Tibet.
The Chinese continued to march and on March 28, reached the outskirts of the city of Nyingchi. There, the Tibetans had massed around 20,000 men to meet the Chinese invasion and defeat their incoming Chinese overlords. Zhang Zuolin lined his army up for battle in the unfamiliar mountainous terrain and engaged the enemy with an artillery barrage, though he had scant little of this, as the winter mud and snow had forced him to abandon his heavy artillery along the way. The Tibetans fought bravely and inflicted disproportionate losses on the enemy troops, however on March 30, Zhang’s forces encircled the Tibetans using a double envelopment tactic, and by that point all resistance became futile, and the Tibetans surrendered. The Battle of Nyingchi was devastating for the Tibetans as it removed their capability and ability to fight back against China militarily, and the 13th Dalai Lama quickly sued for peace.
A ceasefire was announced before on April 17, the Treaty of Nagqu (那曲條約)was signed which had the following points:
- The incorporation of the Theocracy of Tibet into the Empire of China
- The recognition of the Hongxian Emperor as the highest authority in Tibet
- The system of the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama to be continued.
- The autonomy of Tibet to be respected and a Tibetan Assembly of 90 members to be formed to observe Tibetan autonomy
- The incorporation of the Tibetan Army into the Imperial Chinese Army.
***
“After the Italian capitulation in the Great War, the government collapsed completely. By completely, the entire cabinet resigned and Italy was without a government. Victor Emmanuel III appointed former Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti to form a temporary government within the country as he sorted out affairs of the state, trying to use his blood ties to the House of Habsburg and the Spanish monarchs to seek foreign investment and aid to deliver aid to the broken Italian nation. The humiliation of losing the borderlands to France, the islands to Britain and the colonies to both the Anglo-French was burning through the overly nationalistic populace, and the country was smoldering in anger and dissatisfaction.
The King’s position was in doubt, and the country was demanding his abdication. The people were rioting against him openly in the streets and were demanding his resignation as monarch. In Naples, one Nicola Bombacci of the Italian Socialist Party openly demanded the abolition of the monarchy and with the aid of the other republican parties in Italy, declared himself as the legitimate Prime Minister of Italy, and not Giolitti opening up a political crisis of the highest kind within Italy.
Victor Emmanuel III was amenable to an abdication, with his own son, Umberto ascending to the throne and his wife becoming regent for 4 years until Umberto came to majority. However by January 28, the republican and nationalist fervor continued to grip major cities, and Genoa, Milan, Palermo all fell to nationalistic republican demands and Bombacci’s rival government. On the 7th of February, Giolitti met with other members of the House of Savoy, and discussed a plan to abdicate Victor Emmanuel III from the throne, who had now backtracked from his earlier position and was unwilling to abdicate. On the 10th of February, large crowds gathered in and around of Rome, demanding that the King abdicate, though they did not demand anything of abolishing the monarchy for example. Giolitti with aid from the other Savoyards, unilaterally declared the abdication of King Victor Emmanuel III. The proclamation read:
His Majesty, the King has made the decision to renounce the throne. The Royal Prime Minister will remain in office until all matters related to the abdication is taken care of, and the establishment of a regency is settled.
Even though the abdication of Victor Emmanuel III meant that Umberto was now king, as Umberto II of Italy, the 14 year old teen could not be expected to the rule the country and the government under Giolitti now tried to do damage control over the growing political atmosphere. With the hope of preserving the monarchy in the face of growing revolutionary and republican unrest, Giolitti announced Victor Emmanuel III’s abdication to the public. On 9th of February, Giolitti himself was forced to resign after it became clear that only Bombacii could effectively govern the country and Bombacci entered the capital. Later that evening, he proclaimed Italy to be a Republic.
Nicola Bombacci, the First Prime Minister of the Republic of Italy.
Bombacci immediately formed a government with socialists and communists at the helm. Both France and Danubia mobilized their troops in contemplation, as they hoped to stamp down on a nascent communist state, however Bombacci made no move towards a one party proletarian state, instead maintaining a multi-party democracy for the moment, not giving his enemies the casus belli required to enter Italian territory. Meanwhile Victor Emmanuel III and his wife were forced into exile into France, and then Spain. Umberto II and his personal caretakers were allowed to stay in Italy with a medium sized royal mansion being given to Umberto II and his servants for his caretaking.
The monarchy in Italy had been abolished. This would be merely be the first seed that would be sowed as the Italian Revolution of 1919 seeped closer and closer to the Italian peninsula.” The Italian Revolution of 1919.
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Chapter 34: You Reap What You Sow.
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“The Ottomans were by the virtue of the many flat lands in their country, interested in the Tank. Ever since 1916, prototypes of all calibers had been tested and made in the Ottoman Empire with the sole intention of creating a viable tank force, like the one present in the armies of the United Kingdom, France, Danubia, Germany and Russia. As a result, many Ottoman arms industries were investing into the idea of a proper tank batch with increasing ferocity. The most enthusiastic of these investors were Caelum Arms Organization and Osman Engineering which had been opened by Sehazade Mehmed Ziyaeddin in honor of the Dynasty and the Imperial family.
Led by Adrastos Baros, a prominent Ottoman Greek engineer from Salonika, and an employee of the Osman Engineering Corps and Company, the Ottoman government and the army finally got the breakthrough that they were after in the field of tank development. In May 2, 1918, Caelum and Osman Engineering unveiled a set of 8 prototypes after more than a year of testing and development. This new tank was called the Anadolu Mk. 1 Tank.
The Anadolu Mk. I
The Mk.1 had a typical high track run and no revolving turret but two sponsons, one on each side of the tank, armed with a 6-pounder (57 mm) gun. It had more rounded and wider tracks than previous Ottoman prototypes and a large superstructure on top directly beneath the front of which the driver was seated. The Mk. 1 was compartmentalized with a separate engine room at the back. This vastly improved fighting conditions as a bulkhead protected the crew against the deafening engine noise, noxious fumes and heat that was so ever present in early tank development.
There were no machine guns in the sponsons, only the 6-pounders each manned by a gunner and loader. The side machine guns were to the rear of the sponsons mounted in the hull doors. Baros had designed the sponsons to be retractable so as to reduce the width of the vehicle if enemy obstacles were encountered. Five more machine guns were in the superstructure: two at the front—left and right next to the driver—and one on each of the other sides. As there was no machine gun position covering the back of the tank there was a dead angle vulnerable to infantry attack. To solve this problem a triangular steel deflector plate was attached. The rear superstructure machine gunner could use it to deflect his fire down into that area behind the tank. The tank carried 208 shells and 13,848 machine gun rounds, mostly in a large ammunition locker in the center which formed a platform on which the commander stood behind the driver observing the battlefield through a cupola with four vision slits.
Internal Fitting of the Anadolu Mk. I Tank
The twelfth crew member was the mechanic, seated next to the 300 hp Caelum 90 petrol engine cooled by a large horizontal radiator. Three armoured fuel tanks at the rear held 900 liters of fuel giving a range of 89 km. The transmission used a planetary gearbox giving two speeds in either forward or reverse. Top speed was 5.25 mph (8 km/h).
The basic characteristics of this tank were:-
The Mk.1 proved to be extremely successful and useful in combat rather than the other Ottoman prototypes of the era. As a result, the Anadolu Mk. 1 was adopted by the Ottoman Army and a plan unveiled by Mustafa Kemal Pasha and Mehmet Essat Pasha envisioned the army having around 90 tanks by 1921. [1]
Furthermore the interest in the military sparked the Mustafa Kemal Reforms in the Ottoman Army. The Ottoman Army had proven itself admirably throughout the Balkan War, however the lack of a professional core in the army had hampered the army a great deal throughout the many battles that the army had to face during this time period. Mustafa Kemal and Mehmet Essat Pasha recognized this growing deficiency in the Army and sought to reform the army as a result. The Ottoman Army during peacetime had an active force of around 400,000 men that could be raised to exactly 1 million men during wartime utilizing the reserves system.
The Mustafa Kemal Reforms were broad, however first and foremost, came the training of leaders. This had previously been a leisurely procedure, when officers were trained and commissioned with ease in Imperial Army Academy in Constantinople. Mustafa Kemal instead now based his training program for officers to be based on the 1906 – 12 British Haldane Reforms, and instead established the Ottoman Officer Training Academy or the OOTA as a direct inspiration from the Officer Training Corps of Britain, so that proper and trained officers could be commissioned into the army. The training of the OOTA follows a syllabus as laid out by the Ottoman Ministry of War. Weekly training nights were introduced to build up theory and basic practical lessons. Training exercises were structured around an academic calendar. The First Year is called Basic Training Syllabus Year, and involves instruction in all basic military techniques, including drill, map reading, camouflage, first aid, weapons training, small units tactics, and fieldcraft. The Second Year is called Leadership Training Syllabus Year, and involves team management teaching. This involved everything from planning an attack to giving effective orders and ensuring that they are carried out and from directing a constructive debrief after an exercise to ensure the welfare of all those under an officer’s command. The Third Year see’s the officers do a combination of second year and first year’s courses in a higher level of difficulty. This rounded up the syllabus created by Mustafa Kemal and Mehmet Essat Pasha and was aided in the creation of the syllabus by the British and French Military Attaché in Constantinople.
The First OOTA Batch in 1922 posing for a photo outside of Constantinople Imperial Military Academy
A vast reorganization campaign was also launched by the new Minister of War, as he intended to go for a quality over quantity approach. The previous routine of having 15,000 men per division in the Ottoman army was abolished, and expanded to have 20,000 men under four brigades, alongside 1 engineer brigade, 2 logistical brigades, and 1 artillery brigade, creating a more centralized division with more logistical support and firepower to tip the scales in a fight. The inclusion of engineering brigades into normal divisions was a radical reform as the Ottomans had relied on Engineering Divisions to take care of engineering needs in warfare. However the addition of engineering brigades allowed the divisions to move independently of large engineering formations, giving them new amounts of large maneuverability. Individual Armored Car Divisions were also constituted as a part of the Army force in Arabia and the Levant, with extra logistical and engineering brigades pushed into these armored car divisions due to the logistical needs of the cumbersome armored cars of these era (Despite their combat capability, their logistical needs were high enough to called cumbersome).
The army also focused on 5 main tactics of warfare. In the case of defensive action, the army focused on Hedgehog Defense and Defense in Depth. Hedgehog defense is a military tactic in which a defending army crates mutually supporting strongpoints in a defense in depth scenario designed to sap the strength and break the momentum of an attacking army. The strongpoints are designed to be expensive for an attacker to assault. Although defending positions can be bypassed, doing so exposes the attacker’s rear echelons and line of communications to counterattack. Defense in Depth meanwhile is a military strategy that seeks to delay rather than prevent the advance of an attacker, buying time and causing casualties before yielding space to an enemy. Once the attacker has lost momentum or is forced to spread out to pacify conquered territories, defensive counterattacks can be mounted on the attacker’s weak points, with the goal of causing attrition or driving the attacker back to its original starting position. Offensively, the Ottoman Army went first and foremost for the tactic of Rapid Deployment, which as its name suggests is basically a doctrine of being able to respond to an attack extremely quickly using a rapid deployment system. To augment this doctrine, the second offensive doctrine the Ottoman Army took was Defeat in Detail. The Ottoman Empire was surrounded by three great powers, Danubia, Russia and Great Britain, all of whom could outnumber the Ottomans due to their population advantages, as such, the Ottomans decided to take an offensive doctrine known for defeating numerically superior foes. Defeat in Detail is a military tactic of bringing a large portion of one’s own force to bear on small enemy units in sequence, rather than engaging the bulk of the enemy force all at once. Finally, the last tactic that was taken by the Ottomans for offensive reasons was the Shock and Awe Tactic, a rather new and niche military tactic during 1918. The Ottomans had seen the advantages of combined arms in the Balkan War, and they intended to use a combination of great airpower, heavy but mobile artillery and stunning infantry attacks alongside powerful armored and cavalry attacks to create a rapid dominance scenario on the battlefield. Mehmet Essat Pasha, the Lion of the Balkans, and the one who created the training manual for it, defined it as ‘To affect the will, perception and understanding of the adversary to fight or respond to our strategic policy ends through imposing a regime of a shock and awe using near total or absolute knowledge and understanding of self, adversary and environment, rapidity and timeliness in application, operational professionalism in execution and near total control and signature management of the entire operational environment.’
Minister of the Army and Airforce, Mehmet Essat Pasha was a major leader of the Army Reforms
In a nutshell the Ottomans were banking on creating a massive professional army, in both the active and reserve forces of the empire. Training hour per year was raised from 98 hours annually to 140 hours annually for the active troops and 4 weeks a year training for reservists was raised to 6 weeks a year. Mustafa Kemal’s reforms would eventually lead to general professionalism of the Ottoman Armed Forces that we all know today.” History of the Ottoman Armed Forces © 1999.
***
“A Common mistake in all of the countries involved in the Great War was to assume that the war would not last long at all. Therefore no government concerned itself with developing realistic plans to feed the army and the civilian population in tandem. In short term, this led to having to reduce the consumption of even basic necessities in many countries involved in the war. For Italy the reductions were particularly painful. Sober by necessity rather than nature, as the liberal theorists wanted to repeat, the majority of the population during the war found themselves basing their diet on carbohydrates such as bread, pasta and polenta only. The situation of food shortage in Italy largely arose due to objective issues, namely the loss of usual channels of supply from Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States after the Italians entered the war, but also largely due to the mismanagement by the government with its uncertain policies. For example, concerning the question of duty on foreign what, the government had driven the private sector to reduce and then abandon imports. These conditions, combined with the refusal to buy from Switzerland as an intermediary, considered too expensive, led, as early as March 1915, to the first wheat shortages and a hike in bread prices, with the risk of serious consequences in maintaining public order. Following the entry into the war, the national production of wheat, together with all other agricultural products in Italy suffered significant deficits nor could it have been done otherwise, considering the manpower inferiority Italy had in comparison to France and even Spain, so as many men had been called to arms, above all from the agricultural sector. Unlike Russia who could rotate troops to go home for the season while bringing in new troops with their massive manpower pool, Italy didn’t have this luxury. The situation was also aggravated in Italy by the lack of work animals, which had been requisitioned for the army, and by serious shortcoming if not total absence of imports of fertilizers and machinery, of which Austria had many to spare, but found no requests from the Italian government.
Food shortage lines in Italy during the Great War.
By the end of the war, Italians were eating around only 900 grams a day, compared to the French 2300 grams and British 2600 grams a day, and the Austrian 1900 calories a day and the German 1000 grams a day. Russian statistics about calories are hard to come by due to regional differences, but even Russia who faced chronic shortages is said to have had a better time in food consumption and situational awareness than Italy. Italy was also hampered primarily due to its mountainous and rugged landscape, unfit for mass agricultural production before the agricultural innovations of the 1950s and 1960s. The Treaty of Barcelona, in blunt terms, wrecked the Kingdom of Italy. Many hoped that in peacetime, the import of Somalian wheat and Eritrean fruits would be able to lighten the food situation in Italy, however the loss of the colonies made that a non-starter and the heavy reparations imposed on Italy, as well as the general large amount of deaths the nation faced, now meant that Italy had neither the sufficient amount of monetary resources or manpower resources to feed its population back to pre-war situations.
This situation of lack of proper food had led to the deposition of King Victor Emmanuel III and had led to the rise of the Italian Republic, however Bombacci, who was from a rightist faction of the Italian Socialist Party was rather unable to deal with the ongoing food crisis. He created new ‘cooking centers’ in May 18, 1918 with the purpose of feeding the population throughout the country until the nation’s monetary resources were filled back up to purchase large quantities of food from the other powers of the world, however this system of cooking centers only really worked in the northern tracts of Italy, where the close industrial coordination of the northern cities allowed a better management of the situation. The food situation in southern Italy remained bad with no prospect of betterment in sight. The Neapolitans and Sicilians as well as Sardinians were openly rioting for food. In Sardinia, the situation was particularly grim. The island had been devastated by the Allied Invasion of Sardinia, and the infrastructure of the island, which was already poor in comparison to the rest of Italy before the war, was now devastated beyond the monetary capabilities of Italy for the time being. As a result, the food distribution program that the Italian government was conducting was a failure in Sicily and Southern Italy whilst it was an abysmal failure in Sardinia.
In this situation the entire crisis was deepened by the fact that Bombacci seemed more interested in political maneuvers rather than actually taking care of the populace and their food needs. In late May, the relative success of the cooking scheme in the north led to a rise in the calorie rate from 2900 to 3200 and considering that a success, and assuming a consistent rate of growth from then on Bombacci turned his eye towards politicking, much to the anger of the southern and central populace of Italy. Amidst this situation, within the All-Italian Worker’s Congress, which was the unified representation of the Italian Socialist and Italian Communist Parties, Giacinto Menotti Serrati was the rising opposition and critique to Bombacci’s rather inept manner of handling things.
Serrati.
Serrati was a follower of the Massimalisti doctrine of Italian Communism which was derived from Maximalism. In fact he was the leader of the Maximalist branch of the Italian Worker’s Congress and was fiercely critical of the management of the food crisis in Italy. As dissent grew throughout the country over the inept handling of the crisis, Serrati, led by a good amount of members of the Italian All-Worker’s Congress, launched a coup against Bombacci on June 17th, 1918 and deposed him from power using red militiamen.
Seratti ascended to power as the Prime Minister of Italy, and immediately began to enact severe crisis notes as measures against hunger. A rapid command center for the economy was deployed and food was requisitioned, collected and then distributed in a haphazard, but organized manner. Seratti was much more successful than his predecessor in lightening the load of the good crisis in Italy. However, Seratii, unlike Bombacci who had maintained the multi-party system was a hardline socialist, and on May 27, he decreed that every party in the country other than the All-Italian Worker’s Congress (AIWC) were banned and illegalized. Instead keeping a modicum of democracy, he did not abandon elections, and though candidates for elections would all have to be members of the AIWC, the elections would be done in a free and fair manner, with candidates being elected for their own non-partisan political views. This left only the AIWC and Independents as legal parties in the Italian Republic.
Luigi Sturzo.
Anti-Communist parties assembled in Palermo Sicily on June 6, led by the Italian Peoples Party whose leader was Luigi Sturzo, and the Liberal Democratic and Radical Party led by Vittorio Emmanuel Orlando refused to accept the illegalization of other political parties, and forming their own militias in Sicily, Sardinia and Neapolitan territories, the Provisional Government of the Republic of Italy was declared by Sturzo and Orlando, with Sturzo as President and Orlando as Prime Minister. They claimed to be the legitimate and democratic government of the Italian peoples, whilst Seratti denounced this action. With the political crisis deepening, the 14 year old Umberto II was found killed in his mansion, with a servant of his, who professed to be a radical left anarchist and republican to have been the one to take the young teen’s life. Before the murder, a negotiation seemed to have a small chance, but possible, but all thoughts of negotiation died after the news of Umberto II’s death became known. Many blamed Victor Emmanuel III, but few blamed his teen son. In fact the death and killing of Umberto II managed to evoke massive monarchist sympathies, and utilizing this to their advantage, Sturzo and Orlando declared that they would depose the new communist government in Rome. Seratti likewise decided to form up for war.
The Italian Civil War was about to start.” The Italian Civil War and Revolution: Seeds of the Proletariat © 2015.
***
“During the Treaty of Versailles, many Polish and Russian diplomats had demanded the entirety of Silesia, which had a large Polish plurality to be given to the Realm of Poland, a pseudo-Dominion that was given to the Polish subjects of the Russian Empire. However the British had stymied that proposal, on the basis of keeping Germany as a viable economic power, the loss of the Silesian mineral resources would have been dreadful for the German economy after all. In the end, some border areas with Polish majority were handed over to the Realm of Poland, however around 92% of Silesia remained in German hands. This situation led to a massive upturn in ethnic tensions between the ethnic Poles and ethnic Germans within Silesia, especially since the conservative Poles in the region had supported the monarchists and the industrial germans of the Silesian region had supported the republican movement. Combining ethnic tensions with political tensions always seemed to have been a surefire way to start conflict in history.
Mining Strikers being arrested by the German police.
On June 15, 1918, German border guards, the Grenzschutz massacred ten Silesian civilians in a labour dispute at the Myslowice mine. The massacre sparked protests from the Polish miners, including a general strike of many thousands of workers. The miners demanded the local government and police become ethnically mixed to include both Germans and Poles to ensure no ethnic group got dominance over the other within the Silesian region.
While Gustav Noske attempted to make the situation better, and sent an ethnic commission into the region, this ethnic commission only ruled in favor of the Germans, and this enflamed tensions even more, and about 21,000 German soldiers of the Provisional National Army with about 40,000 troops held in reserve quickly put down the strikers, and massacred several of them. The army’s reaction was harsh, with 2,500 Poles either hanged or executed by firing squad due to their parts in the violence. Some 19,000 ethnic Poles fled Silesia into Austrian Poland and the Realm of Poland bringing their family members along with them.
Silesian Polish Militia.
This sparked a diplomatic row with the Realm of Poland. The Polish government demanded that the Russians do something about the Silesian Uprising as it became known. The Russians who were not eager for a new War, nonetheless, lodged a complaint with their ambassador in Berlin and asked the German government for a definite answer for their actions in Silesia. Rosa Luxembourg, who was herself quite horrified by the actions, tried to advocate a reconciliatory approach, however the general diplomatic inexperience of herself and the new government meant that they could not provide a good answer to the Russians. The crisis worsened when the Polish National Guard, a home defense militia of the Polish Realm was mobilized by the Poles, however finally the intervention of the British and French governments ensured that a new war would not break out. An international commission which would supervise ethnic rights in Silesia was created with French, British, Russo-Polish and Danubian observers to mitigate further uprisings like that of the Silesian one.” The Germanic-Polish Conflicts of the 20th Century © 2020.
***
“On November 7, 1911, a man named David Ben-Gurion arrived in Salonika to study Turkish law as a part of his law studies. Ben-Gurion was delighted in the city, calling it a Jewish city with no equal in the world, due to the large plurality of Greek and Turkish Jews living in the city. 9 months later, he moved to Constantinople and enrolled in the University of Constantinople to study higher Ottoman Law. During his stay in the Ottoman Empire during this time, the man was offered Ottoman citizenship based on naturalization, due to his immigration status in the Ottoman Empire. Ben-Gurion, along with a good friend and colleague of his, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi were hitting hard times monetarily, due to increased university fees during this time and gaining citizenship would have lowered their personal fees, as a result, the two men accepted citizenship from the Ottoman government and became official Ottoman citizens.
During this time, in 1913, he graduated from the University of Constantinople, and became involved in Jewish efforts in the Ottoman Empire. The opening of the empire due to pro-Jewish views was a godsent to the man, and he became extremely involved into the Ottoman Jewish Front Organization and became the regional head of the OJFO within Salonika by 1914. There, he became involved in maintaining Jewish rights within the Ottoman Empire, and was a fierce critique of anti-semitism and wrote many dialogues and books that criticized anti-semitism to a very large degree. The Ottomans were not worried about such books, however the foreign powers of Russia, Italy and France during that time were increasingly wary of the pro-Jewish books that were pouring out of the Ottoman Balkans, and the Ottomans forced many Jewish writers in the Ottoman Empire to have moderated books published instead of their original versions, to stop a diplomatic incident at the time.
The Imtiyaz Medal of Honor and Bravery. One of the highest military awards in the Ottoman Empire.
In 1915 at the start of the Balkan War, Ben-Gurion joined the Ottoman Army as a part of the Ottoman Jewish Legions, which were two Ottoman Regiments filled with Ottoman Jews. He was enlisted as an officer, and was involved in the Bulgarian front and in the war against the Bulgarians. Taking part in the war, he was commended for his bravery and patriotism for Ottoman Jews, so much so that in late 1915 he won the Imtiyaz Medal, a high military honor within the Ottoman Empire. After the Balkan War, he filed to be handed over to the Reservist Officer List, and after he was successful in this endeavor, he joined the Liberal Union political party. This was how the Ottoman Empire’s first Jewish Grand Vizier finally entered politics.” A Brief History of Ottoman Grand Viziers. © 2014
***
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[1] – The tank is based off on otl Mark VIII ‘International Tank’
***
“The Ottomans were by the virtue of the many flat lands in their country, interested in the Tank. Ever since 1916, prototypes of all calibers had been tested and made in the Ottoman Empire with the sole intention of creating a viable tank force, like the one present in the armies of the United Kingdom, France, Danubia, Germany and Russia. As a result, many Ottoman arms industries were investing into the idea of a proper tank batch with increasing ferocity. The most enthusiastic of these investors were Caelum Arms Organization and Osman Engineering which had been opened by Sehazade Mehmed Ziyaeddin in honor of the Dynasty and the Imperial family.
Led by Adrastos Baros, a prominent Ottoman Greek engineer from Salonika, and an employee of the Osman Engineering Corps and Company, the Ottoman government and the army finally got the breakthrough that they were after in the field of tank development. In May 2, 1918, Caelum and Osman Engineering unveiled a set of 8 prototypes after more than a year of testing and development. This new tank was called the Anadolu Mk. 1 Tank.
The Anadolu Mk. I
The Mk.1 had a typical high track run and no revolving turret but two sponsons, one on each side of the tank, armed with a 6-pounder (57 mm) gun. It had more rounded and wider tracks than previous Ottoman prototypes and a large superstructure on top directly beneath the front of which the driver was seated. The Mk. 1 was compartmentalized with a separate engine room at the back. This vastly improved fighting conditions as a bulkhead protected the crew against the deafening engine noise, noxious fumes and heat that was so ever present in early tank development.
There were no machine guns in the sponsons, only the 6-pounders each manned by a gunner and loader. The side machine guns were to the rear of the sponsons mounted in the hull doors. Baros had designed the sponsons to be retractable so as to reduce the width of the vehicle if enemy obstacles were encountered. Five more machine guns were in the superstructure: two at the front—left and right next to the driver—and one on each of the other sides. As there was no machine gun position covering the back of the tank there was a dead angle vulnerable to infantry attack. To solve this problem a triangular steel deflector plate was attached. The rear superstructure machine gunner could use it to deflect his fire down into that area behind the tank. The tank carried 208 shells and 13,848 machine gun rounds, mostly in a large ammunition locker in the center which formed a platform on which the commander stood behind the driver observing the battlefield through a cupola with four vision slits.
Internal Fitting of the Anadolu Mk. I Tank
The twelfth crew member was the mechanic, seated next to the 300 hp Caelum 90 petrol engine cooled by a large horizontal radiator. Three armoured fuel tanks at the rear held 900 liters of fuel giving a range of 89 km. The transmission used a planetary gearbox giving two speeds in either forward or reverse. Top speed was 5.25 mph (8 km/h).
The basic characteristics of this tank were:-
Mass: 37 Long tons
Length: 34ft 2 inches
Width: 11ft 8 inches
Height: 10ft 3 inches
Crew: 12
Armor: 16 mm maximum
Main Armament: two 6 pounder guns
Secondary armament: seven 8 mm Caelum Machine guns
Power/Weight: 5.79 kW/t
Suspension: Unsprung
Operational range: ~80 kilometers
Maximum Speed: 8.45 km/h – 10.06 km/h
The Mk.1 proved to be extremely successful and useful in combat rather than the other Ottoman prototypes of the era. As a result, the Anadolu Mk. 1 was adopted by the Ottoman Army and a plan unveiled by Mustafa Kemal Pasha and Mehmet Essat Pasha envisioned the army having around 90 tanks by 1921. [1]
Furthermore the interest in the military sparked the Mustafa Kemal Reforms in the Ottoman Army. The Ottoman Army had proven itself admirably throughout the Balkan War, however the lack of a professional core in the army had hampered the army a great deal throughout the many battles that the army had to face during this time period. Mustafa Kemal and Mehmet Essat Pasha recognized this growing deficiency in the Army and sought to reform the army as a result. The Ottoman Army during peacetime had an active force of around 400,000 men that could be raised to exactly 1 million men during wartime utilizing the reserves system.
The Mustafa Kemal Reforms were broad, however first and foremost, came the training of leaders. This had previously been a leisurely procedure, when officers were trained and commissioned with ease in Imperial Army Academy in Constantinople. Mustafa Kemal instead now based his training program for officers to be based on the 1906 – 12 British Haldane Reforms, and instead established the Ottoman Officer Training Academy or the OOTA as a direct inspiration from the Officer Training Corps of Britain, so that proper and trained officers could be commissioned into the army. The training of the OOTA follows a syllabus as laid out by the Ottoman Ministry of War. Weekly training nights were introduced to build up theory and basic practical lessons. Training exercises were structured around an academic calendar. The First Year is called Basic Training Syllabus Year, and involves instruction in all basic military techniques, including drill, map reading, camouflage, first aid, weapons training, small units tactics, and fieldcraft. The Second Year is called Leadership Training Syllabus Year, and involves team management teaching. This involved everything from planning an attack to giving effective orders and ensuring that they are carried out and from directing a constructive debrief after an exercise to ensure the welfare of all those under an officer’s command. The Third Year see’s the officers do a combination of second year and first year’s courses in a higher level of difficulty. This rounded up the syllabus created by Mustafa Kemal and Mehmet Essat Pasha and was aided in the creation of the syllabus by the British and French Military Attaché in Constantinople.
The First OOTA Batch in 1922 posing for a photo outside of Constantinople Imperial Military Academy
A vast reorganization campaign was also launched by the new Minister of War, as he intended to go for a quality over quantity approach. The previous routine of having 15,000 men per division in the Ottoman army was abolished, and expanded to have 20,000 men under four brigades, alongside 1 engineer brigade, 2 logistical brigades, and 1 artillery brigade, creating a more centralized division with more logistical support and firepower to tip the scales in a fight. The inclusion of engineering brigades into normal divisions was a radical reform as the Ottomans had relied on Engineering Divisions to take care of engineering needs in warfare. However the addition of engineering brigades allowed the divisions to move independently of large engineering formations, giving them new amounts of large maneuverability. Individual Armored Car Divisions were also constituted as a part of the Army force in Arabia and the Levant, with extra logistical and engineering brigades pushed into these armored car divisions due to the logistical needs of the cumbersome armored cars of these era (Despite their combat capability, their logistical needs were high enough to called cumbersome).
The army also focused on 5 main tactics of warfare. In the case of defensive action, the army focused on Hedgehog Defense and Defense in Depth. Hedgehog defense is a military tactic in which a defending army crates mutually supporting strongpoints in a defense in depth scenario designed to sap the strength and break the momentum of an attacking army. The strongpoints are designed to be expensive for an attacker to assault. Although defending positions can be bypassed, doing so exposes the attacker’s rear echelons and line of communications to counterattack. Defense in Depth meanwhile is a military strategy that seeks to delay rather than prevent the advance of an attacker, buying time and causing casualties before yielding space to an enemy. Once the attacker has lost momentum or is forced to spread out to pacify conquered territories, defensive counterattacks can be mounted on the attacker’s weak points, with the goal of causing attrition or driving the attacker back to its original starting position. Offensively, the Ottoman Army went first and foremost for the tactic of Rapid Deployment, which as its name suggests is basically a doctrine of being able to respond to an attack extremely quickly using a rapid deployment system. To augment this doctrine, the second offensive doctrine the Ottoman Army took was Defeat in Detail. The Ottoman Empire was surrounded by three great powers, Danubia, Russia and Great Britain, all of whom could outnumber the Ottomans due to their population advantages, as such, the Ottomans decided to take an offensive doctrine known for defeating numerically superior foes. Defeat in Detail is a military tactic of bringing a large portion of one’s own force to bear on small enemy units in sequence, rather than engaging the bulk of the enemy force all at once. Finally, the last tactic that was taken by the Ottomans for offensive reasons was the Shock and Awe Tactic, a rather new and niche military tactic during 1918. The Ottomans had seen the advantages of combined arms in the Balkan War, and they intended to use a combination of great airpower, heavy but mobile artillery and stunning infantry attacks alongside powerful armored and cavalry attacks to create a rapid dominance scenario on the battlefield. Mehmet Essat Pasha, the Lion of the Balkans, and the one who created the training manual for it, defined it as ‘To affect the will, perception and understanding of the adversary to fight or respond to our strategic policy ends through imposing a regime of a shock and awe using near total or absolute knowledge and understanding of self, adversary and environment, rapidity and timeliness in application, operational professionalism in execution and near total control and signature management of the entire operational environment.’
Minister of the Army and Airforce, Mehmet Essat Pasha was a major leader of the Army Reforms
In a nutshell the Ottomans were banking on creating a massive professional army, in both the active and reserve forces of the empire. Training hour per year was raised from 98 hours annually to 140 hours annually for the active troops and 4 weeks a year training for reservists was raised to 6 weeks a year. Mustafa Kemal’s reforms would eventually lead to general professionalism of the Ottoman Armed Forces that we all know today.” History of the Ottoman Armed Forces © 1999.
***
“A Common mistake in all of the countries involved in the Great War was to assume that the war would not last long at all. Therefore no government concerned itself with developing realistic plans to feed the army and the civilian population in tandem. In short term, this led to having to reduce the consumption of even basic necessities in many countries involved in the war. For Italy the reductions were particularly painful. Sober by necessity rather than nature, as the liberal theorists wanted to repeat, the majority of the population during the war found themselves basing their diet on carbohydrates such as bread, pasta and polenta only. The situation of food shortage in Italy largely arose due to objective issues, namely the loss of usual channels of supply from Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States after the Italians entered the war, but also largely due to the mismanagement by the government with its uncertain policies. For example, concerning the question of duty on foreign what, the government had driven the private sector to reduce and then abandon imports. These conditions, combined with the refusal to buy from Switzerland as an intermediary, considered too expensive, led, as early as March 1915, to the first wheat shortages and a hike in bread prices, with the risk of serious consequences in maintaining public order. Following the entry into the war, the national production of wheat, together with all other agricultural products in Italy suffered significant deficits nor could it have been done otherwise, considering the manpower inferiority Italy had in comparison to France and even Spain, so as many men had been called to arms, above all from the agricultural sector. Unlike Russia who could rotate troops to go home for the season while bringing in new troops with their massive manpower pool, Italy didn’t have this luxury. The situation was also aggravated in Italy by the lack of work animals, which had been requisitioned for the army, and by serious shortcoming if not total absence of imports of fertilizers and machinery, of which Austria had many to spare, but found no requests from the Italian government.
Food shortage lines in Italy during the Great War.
By the end of the war, Italians were eating around only 900 grams a day, compared to the French 2300 grams and British 2600 grams a day, and the Austrian 1900 calories a day and the German 1000 grams a day. Russian statistics about calories are hard to come by due to regional differences, but even Russia who faced chronic shortages is said to have had a better time in food consumption and situational awareness than Italy. Italy was also hampered primarily due to its mountainous and rugged landscape, unfit for mass agricultural production before the agricultural innovations of the 1950s and 1960s. The Treaty of Barcelona, in blunt terms, wrecked the Kingdom of Italy. Many hoped that in peacetime, the import of Somalian wheat and Eritrean fruits would be able to lighten the food situation in Italy, however the loss of the colonies made that a non-starter and the heavy reparations imposed on Italy, as well as the general large amount of deaths the nation faced, now meant that Italy had neither the sufficient amount of monetary resources or manpower resources to feed its population back to pre-war situations.
This situation of lack of proper food had led to the deposition of King Victor Emmanuel III and had led to the rise of the Italian Republic, however Bombacci, who was from a rightist faction of the Italian Socialist Party was rather unable to deal with the ongoing food crisis. He created new ‘cooking centers’ in May 18, 1918 with the purpose of feeding the population throughout the country until the nation’s monetary resources were filled back up to purchase large quantities of food from the other powers of the world, however this system of cooking centers only really worked in the northern tracts of Italy, where the close industrial coordination of the northern cities allowed a better management of the situation. The food situation in southern Italy remained bad with no prospect of betterment in sight. The Neapolitans and Sicilians as well as Sardinians were openly rioting for food. In Sardinia, the situation was particularly grim. The island had been devastated by the Allied Invasion of Sardinia, and the infrastructure of the island, which was already poor in comparison to the rest of Italy before the war, was now devastated beyond the monetary capabilities of Italy for the time being. As a result, the food distribution program that the Italian government was conducting was a failure in Sicily and Southern Italy whilst it was an abysmal failure in Sardinia.
In this situation the entire crisis was deepened by the fact that Bombacci seemed more interested in political maneuvers rather than actually taking care of the populace and their food needs. In late May, the relative success of the cooking scheme in the north led to a rise in the calorie rate from 2900 to 3200 and considering that a success, and assuming a consistent rate of growth from then on Bombacci turned his eye towards politicking, much to the anger of the southern and central populace of Italy. Amidst this situation, within the All-Italian Worker’s Congress, which was the unified representation of the Italian Socialist and Italian Communist Parties, Giacinto Menotti Serrati was the rising opposition and critique to Bombacci’s rather inept manner of handling things.
Serrati.
Serrati was a follower of the Massimalisti doctrine of Italian Communism which was derived from Maximalism. In fact he was the leader of the Maximalist branch of the Italian Worker’s Congress and was fiercely critical of the management of the food crisis in Italy. As dissent grew throughout the country over the inept handling of the crisis, Serrati, led by a good amount of members of the Italian All-Worker’s Congress, launched a coup against Bombacci on June 17th, 1918 and deposed him from power using red militiamen.
Seratti ascended to power as the Prime Minister of Italy, and immediately began to enact severe crisis notes as measures against hunger. A rapid command center for the economy was deployed and food was requisitioned, collected and then distributed in a haphazard, but organized manner. Seratti was much more successful than his predecessor in lightening the load of the good crisis in Italy. However, Seratii, unlike Bombacci who had maintained the multi-party system was a hardline socialist, and on May 27, he decreed that every party in the country other than the All-Italian Worker’s Congress (AIWC) were banned and illegalized. Instead keeping a modicum of democracy, he did not abandon elections, and though candidates for elections would all have to be members of the AIWC, the elections would be done in a free and fair manner, with candidates being elected for their own non-partisan political views. This left only the AIWC and Independents as legal parties in the Italian Republic.
Luigi Sturzo.
Anti-Communist parties assembled in Palermo Sicily on June 6, led by the Italian Peoples Party whose leader was Luigi Sturzo, and the Liberal Democratic and Radical Party led by Vittorio Emmanuel Orlando refused to accept the illegalization of other political parties, and forming their own militias in Sicily, Sardinia and Neapolitan territories, the Provisional Government of the Republic of Italy was declared by Sturzo and Orlando, with Sturzo as President and Orlando as Prime Minister. They claimed to be the legitimate and democratic government of the Italian peoples, whilst Seratti denounced this action. With the political crisis deepening, the 14 year old Umberto II was found killed in his mansion, with a servant of his, who professed to be a radical left anarchist and republican to have been the one to take the young teen’s life. Before the murder, a negotiation seemed to have a small chance, but possible, but all thoughts of negotiation died after the news of Umberto II’s death became known. Many blamed Victor Emmanuel III, but few blamed his teen son. In fact the death and killing of Umberto II managed to evoke massive monarchist sympathies, and utilizing this to their advantage, Sturzo and Orlando declared that they would depose the new communist government in Rome. Seratti likewise decided to form up for war.
The Italian Civil War was about to start.” The Italian Civil War and Revolution: Seeds of the Proletariat © 2015.
***
“During the Treaty of Versailles, many Polish and Russian diplomats had demanded the entirety of Silesia, which had a large Polish plurality to be given to the Realm of Poland, a pseudo-Dominion that was given to the Polish subjects of the Russian Empire. However the British had stymied that proposal, on the basis of keeping Germany as a viable economic power, the loss of the Silesian mineral resources would have been dreadful for the German economy after all. In the end, some border areas with Polish majority were handed over to the Realm of Poland, however around 92% of Silesia remained in German hands. This situation led to a massive upturn in ethnic tensions between the ethnic Poles and ethnic Germans within Silesia, especially since the conservative Poles in the region had supported the monarchists and the industrial germans of the Silesian region had supported the republican movement. Combining ethnic tensions with political tensions always seemed to have been a surefire way to start conflict in history.
Mining Strikers being arrested by the German police.
On June 15, 1918, German border guards, the Grenzschutz massacred ten Silesian civilians in a labour dispute at the Myslowice mine. The massacre sparked protests from the Polish miners, including a general strike of many thousands of workers. The miners demanded the local government and police become ethnically mixed to include both Germans and Poles to ensure no ethnic group got dominance over the other within the Silesian region.
While Gustav Noske attempted to make the situation better, and sent an ethnic commission into the region, this ethnic commission only ruled in favor of the Germans, and this enflamed tensions even more, and about 21,000 German soldiers of the Provisional National Army with about 40,000 troops held in reserve quickly put down the strikers, and massacred several of them. The army’s reaction was harsh, with 2,500 Poles either hanged or executed by firing squad due to their parts in the violence. Some 19,000 ethnic Poles fled Silesia into Austrian Poland and the Realm of Poland bringing their family members along with them.
Silesian Polish Militia.
This sparked a diplomatic row with the Realm of Poland. The Polish government demanded that the Russians do something about the Silesian Uprising as it became known. The Russians who were not eager for a new War, nonetheless, lodged a complaint with their ambassador in Berlin and asked the German government for a definite answer for their actions in Silesia. Rosa Luxembourg, who was herself quite horrified by the actions, tried to advocate a reconciliatory approach, however the general diplomatic inexperience of herself and the new government meant that they could not provide a good answer to the Russians. The crisis worsened when the Polish National Guard, a home defense militia of the Polish Realm was mobilized by the Poles, however finally the intervention of the British and French governments ensured that a new war would not break out. An international commission which would supervise ethnic rights in Silesia was created with French, British, Russo-Polish and Danubian observers to mitigate further uprisings like that of the Silesian one.” The Germanic-Polish Conflicts of the 20th Century © 2020.
***
“On November 7, 1911, a man named David Ben-Gurion arrived in Salonika to study Turkish law as a part of his law studies. Ben-Gurion was delighted in the city, calling it a Jewish city with no equal in the world, due to the large plurality of Greek and Turkish Jews living in the city. 9 months later, he moved to Constantinople and enrolled in the University of Constantinople to study higher Ottoman Law. During his stay in the Ottoman Empire during this time, the man was offered Ottoman citizenship based on naturalization, due to his immigration status in the Ottoman Empire. Ben-Gurion, along with a good friend and colleague of his, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi were hitting hard times monetarily, due to increased university fees during this time and gaining citizenship would have lowered their personal fees, as a result, the two men accepted citizenship from the Ottoman government and became official Ottoman citizens.
During this time, in 1913, he graduated from the University of Constantinople, and became involved in Jewish efforts in the Ottoman Empire. The opening of the empire due to pro-Jewish views was a godsent to the man, and he became extremely involved into the Ottoman Jewish Front Organization and became the regional head of the OJFO within Salonika by 1914. There, he became involved in maintaining Jewish rights within the Ottoman Empire, and was a fierce critique of anti-semitism and wrote many dialogues and books that criticized anti-semitism to a very large degree. The Ottomans were not worried about such books, however the foreign powers of Russia, Italy and France during that time were increasingly wary of the pro-Jewish books that were pouring out of the Ottoman Balkans, and the Ottomans forced many Jewish writers in the Ottoman Empire to have moderated books published instead of their original versions, to stop a diplomatic incident at the time.
The Imtiyaz Medal of Honor and Bravery. One of the highest military awards in the Ottoman Empire.
In 1915 at the start of the Balkan War, Ben-Gurion joined the Ottoman Army as a part of the Ottoman Jewish Legions, which were two Ottoman Regiments filled with Ottoman Jews. He was enlisted as an officer, and was involved in the Bulgarian front and in the war against the Bulgarians. Taking part in the war, he was commended for his bravery and patriotism for Ottoman Jews, so much so that in late 1915 he won the Imtiyaz Medal, a high military honor within the Ottoman Empire. After the Balkan War, he filed to be handed over to the Reservist Officer List, and after he was successful in this endeavor, he joined the Liberal Union political party. This was how the Ottoman Empire’s first Jewish Grand Vizier finally entered politics.” A Brief History of Ottoman Grand Viziers. © 2014
***
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[1] – The tank is based off on otl Mark VIII ‘International Tank’
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Chapter 35: The Tumult of Eurasia
***
“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.
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“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.
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“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.
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“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
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“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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Chapter 36: The Troubles
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“The Italian Civil War let out a flurry of activities throughout Europe, and the entire world. Bulgaria had been the only real communist state that had come close to a real communist state, but now based in Rome, a new communist state had risen. The French and Danubians were worried about having a communist great power right on their borders, and the Germans wanted to use the distraction to heckle the allies into lowering the amount of reparations the Germans owed to the western allies and Russia, and try to stamp the Silesians out whilst the others were distracted. Russia was worried about revolutionary activity at home as the Italian Revolution/Civil War started to spread pro-leftist ideals throughout the European continent.
French foreign minister Doumergue called for a general meeting in Paris to discuss the matter of the Roman and Italian Crisis’s to find a manner in which the crisis could be dealt with without a threat of war. British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Lord Curzon agreed to meet his French counterpart, whilst German Foreign Minister Hermann Muller, Danubian Foreign Minister Stephan Burian von Rajecz, and Russian Foreign Minister Mikhail Tereshchenko also agreed to come to the meeting.
The Paris Conference.
It is at this point that Lord Curzon asked the Ottoman Empire to join the meeting as well. The Ottoman Empire had a large Italian minority in Ottoman Libya which was a result of Sicilian immigration since the middle ages, and Tripoli and Tobruk had a large Sicilian quarter. The question of creating anti-Communist camps in Ottoman Libya could not be ruled out. The Ottomans accepted the offer, not because they had any plans as such, however because for them, this was an acknowledgement that they were a Great Power once again in the eyes of the international community. Foreign Minister Curuksulu Mahmud Pasha journeyed to France, where he met with the other diplomats on October 12, 1918 in Paris to discuss the Italian issue.
The Danubian Foreign Minister, von Rajecz wanted to intervene, and at least, create a Venetian buffer state against the Italians if they went communist. The French weren’t in favor of intervening at all, as their manpower was exhausted from the war, and the Italians would not take an outright invasion of their lands kindly. The British held an ambiguous position, as the mildly democratic communist republic hadn’t really upset anyone in the British government. The killing of Umberto II was of course something that could not stand, however that was the work of an individual and not the state itself. Russia, like Danubia was a hardliner, and wanted to intervene, fearful of the uprise in revolutionary thought due to the Italian Revolution. Germany was like the British, in an ambivalent position and weren’t really trying to do anything else other than lowering their reparations.
The Ottomans advocated a wait and see approach. Unlike the Bulgarians, who were a revanchist communist state which was anti-democratic to its core, the Italian Republic did have the support of many in Italy and probably a majority of the peoples in Italy, and the democratic election going on in the Italian Republic, regardless of the fact that other parties were banned, made it clear that the Italian Republic did have the support of many in the populace. Invading and deposing a regime which had major support would only work against their collective interests, Curuksulu Mahmud Pasha warned.
In the end, the Paris Conference achieved nothing, with the great powers devolving into a shouting match with one another over what step they could take against the Italian communists. This was a godsend for the Italian communists, as they managed to retake Naples from the Provisional Government, and declared its liberation at the same time.
The other power that was desperately trying to resolve the situation was also the Vatican under the command of Pope Benedict XV. Benedict XV was well liked by many in Europe for his valiant efforts to create peace during the Great War, and the manner in which his works allowed the well treatment of Prisoners of War. However, Communists were generally associated with anti-religious figures, and the Vatican was frightened of what would happen to them if the communist government won the war against the provisional government. Many wanted to break out, and relocate the Vatican entirely to one of the other catholic countries, and Avignon was also raised as a possibility. However Benedict XV did not wish to hurry into such things and asked for a meeting with Prime Minister Seratti to discuss the future of the Holy See.
Pope Benedict XV.
Seratti himself was however a Christian Communist, and whilst many in the Italian Congress would have liked to see the See abolished in Italy, Seratti didn’t and he himself was an admirer of Benedict XV’s pro-Female Suffrage position [1], which was a position that Seratti himself held. On October 20, the Roman Conference was held in the Vatican, and there Benedict XV asked about the future of the See if the All-Italian Worker’s Council was to win the ongoing civil war. Seratii professed that while many of his colleagues had thought about abolishing the See, he didn’t see it as a pragmatic way of doing things, and that he intended to keep the Holy See. He also raised the issue of signing a treaty to end the Roman Question once and for all. Seratii also stated that the Vatican arrangement of allowing Vatican citizens in running in the local government of Italy would continue, and that those candidates could join the Independent faction of the Congress or the Christian Communist faction of the Congress if they so wished to participate in higher politics. Benedict XV himself was pleased to find out that the Italian Communists were remaining neutral on the See, i.e. keeping the status quo, and he agreed to not speak out against them, and maintained the neutrality of the Holy See during the Italian Civil War.” The Italian Revolution © 2019.
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“The Chelmsford-Peel reforms had been a high watermark for India, however much of its developments were not beneficial to the Indian people, and many were not ready to take the entirety of the reforms without amendment. With this in mind, the annual session of the All-India Muslim League commenced on December 20, 1918 at Delhi. A special feature of his session was that the Ulema participated in its deliberations as well. The Ulema conducted a meeting in the Fatehpuri Mosque a day before the commencement of the League’s session and decided to join their voice with the Muslim League in all matters concerning Islam. Prominent Ulemas included Maulana Abdul Bar, Azad Subhani, Ibrahim Sialkoti, Sanah Ullah Amritsari, Ahmed Saeed Kifiatullah and Abdul Latif.
the flag of the AIML.
Dr. Ansari, who was the chairman of the Reception Committee of the AIML, pointed out to the meeting that the separate electorate system of the Indian Government Act of 1918 was based on governmental promises made in the past and that it confirmed an agreement with the Hindus. As such it could not be touched. However, the AIML criticized the joint communal electorates in Paragraphs 228,229 and 230 of the Joint Report on the Indian Constitutional Reforms led by Viscount Peel. Dr. Ansari said that it had given rise of fears among the Muslims that they would lose their special representation under these articles.
Ansari properly recognized the issue at hand and remarked ‘The Muslim claims for separate electorates were analyzed and recognized by the Imperial Government of India, and it was admitted in the first place that the Muslims were promised electoral equality on the basis of their political importance. Second the Muslim community despite being poor any property qualification common both to the Hindus and Musalmans would reduce the Muslim electorate in proportion to the Muslim census. Thirdly in the census the strength of the Muslim community did not correspond to their political strength, being under represented.’
Jinnah as President of the AIML.
As such Ansari, supported by Jinnah and several members of the AIML, wished to draft a new amendment to the Government of India Act of 1918 so that the Muslims were represented equally with their special autonomous status not being hurt during the elections that would come in the future. Popular Bengali statesman, A. K. Fazlul Huq also played his hand and supported the reforms, and called for a proper consensus regarding the issue of dominionship for India to be called, and condemned the Muslim-Hindu Communal Violence that was erupting across the Indian subcontinent.
Jinnah supported the creation of a final consensus regarding the issue of autonomy and self rule in India from the British Empire. A nationalist who preferred constitutional methods, Jinnah encouraged moderation in politics, and was tactical in his manner of opening the party to the public, rather than sticking to the elites of the Islamic society in India. During the same meeting, Agha Khan III, the founder of the All India Muslim League, congratulated Jinnah for his modernist view of approaching things for Indian Muslims, and reluctantly admitted that Jinnah’s opening of the party had been beneficial, as student activity in favor of the AIML was exploding throughout the British Raj as the party opened up. From a religious and political standpoint Agha Khan III was a modernist and urged his fellow Imams and muslims in the meeting to embrace modernity. Although he stated he was opposed to a wholesale replication of western society by Muslims, he stated that he did believe increased contact with the western world would benefit Muslim society. In this endeavor, he pointed to the looming topic for all of them. The Ottoman Caliphate in 1908 had seemed like a dying power. But in 1918, a decade later, the Ottomans stood proud and tall, conducting several reforms inspired by the west, having won two major wars, yet keeping their own society and culture intact. Agha Khan III stated that like the Ottomans the AIML would have to be open to western philosophy and ideas, and believed engagement with all sides of the global world would lead to a revival and renaissance within Islamic thought. Supported by Jinnah, Agha Khan III then called for a united front between the Shia and Sunnis of India, to make sure that a dominion for the Muslim peoples of India could be achieved.
Agha Khan III
The AIML was also starting to debate issues on women’s rights. The progressive attitude of the Caliphate and the Acts of Women Equality 1917 in the Ottoman Empire had raised several eyebrows from many conservative Islamic philosophers in India. However the progressive faction of the AIML, led by Jinnah, Agha Khan III, and Huq were supportive of a progressive attitude to women to garner the support of the women Islamic population as well. The pro-Women faction endorsed the spiritual equality of men and women in Islamic and called for political equality for women alongside men, including the right to vote, and the right to an education, endorsing compulsory primary education for girls.
It is here that the influence of the Ottoman Empire cannot be understated in the movement for Pakistan. The name for Pakistan is also said to have been laid down during this conference, named after the principle muslim regions of the British Raj - Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir, Indus, Sindh and Balochistan. The name was actually laid down by Persian linguists brought in from Iran and the Ottoman Empire, with the name literally meaning the Land of the Pure in Persian and Urdu. The AIML reached a new consensus that they would support the creation of two Dominions in the Raj – The Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan; a home for both Hindus and Muslims in the subcontinent.
Historians have debated why the Muslim League was so audacious in its move here during this time in history, and many state that Jinnah and Agha Khan III were inspired by the Ottoman Empire to create a muslim state that could be successful in the subcontinent. During his return from Britain in early 1917, Jinnah had made a stop in Beirut, the Ottoman Empire, where he was able to see the economic development and religious development of the empire with his own eyes. As Imam of the Nizari Ismail’s Agha Khan III himself had a lot of contacts within the Ottoman Empire, and Khan III was extremely taken with the modernist approach of the Ottomans to Islamic though, which coincided with his own beliefs. Many prominent Ottoman businessmen and oligarchs were involved in the All India Muslim League as well. The most prominent of them being Abdullah Al-Ansari, an Ottoman Arab businessman from Basra, who was a primary fundraiser for the AIML from Ottoman lands. Many in the Ottoman Empire also saw the attempts of the Indian Muslims to create a separate homeland for themselves with great sympathy, and though the Ottoman government would not intervene in British affairs, many personal Ottoman individuals would take part in the movement with great vigor.
Al-Ansari, a prominent businessman from the Ottoman Empire who supported the Pakistan movement.
The road to the creation of Pakistan was a long one and extremely hard, the Unionist Parties, and the Indian National Congress opposed this Two Dominion Theory with all they had, however the 1918 Meeting certainly consolidated the Muslim League like their INC counterparts, and allowed them to contest Indian politics of the next few decades on an equal setting. The road to independence was not easy, but things such as that was never easy.” The Creation and Foundation of Pakistan © 2019
***
“The beginning of the construction of the Suleiman Class destroyers were a highmark in Ottoman development and the Ottoman Ministry of the Navy was extremely eager to build more indigenous ships on their own, so that they could add ships for the Ottoman navy in a cheaper manner. The Austro-Hungarian submarines of the Ottoman Navy was becoming obsolete as the days passed, and the Ottomans needed a new class of submarines to make up for it.
The Ottomans therefore had already started to make up new submarine designs which would be built in Imperial Arsenal Dockyards in Sinope and Smyrna for the Ottoman Imperial Navy. On November 28, 1918, the Ottoman Ministry of Navy received the design concept for the Fatih Class Submarines, of which ten would be built from a time period of 1918 – 1921, to replace the earlier submarines of the Ottoman Navy. The Ottoman Naval Engineers had been studying submarine engineering for a good six years by this point and with aid from the government, and official support from the Ministry of the Navy, the plan to develop the Fatih Class Submarines had went ahead. The Fatih Class submarine was to have higher endurance than all of the previous Ottoman submarines, and would be able to theoretically be able to dive as far below as 500 feet, though all tests deemed that a depth lower than 350 feet could be hazardous. Armament would consist of 8 twenty one torpedo tubes and one four inch gun. The basic characteristic of the Fatih Class Submarines were:-
The Fatih Class submarine.
The German U-boat threat in the Great War had also led to French physicist Paul Langevin the impetus to develop a piezoelectric hydrophone by increasing the power of the signal of a vacuum tube amplifier; the high acoustic impedance of the piezoelectric materials were able to facilitate their use as underwater transducers. They would be able to use the electrical plat to be vibrated by an oscillator to produce sound pulses. The hydrophone was thus adopted by the French as a means of sinking Italian and German u-boats during the war. Late in the war, the British Admiralty led by Australian and New Zealander Physicists William Henry Bragg and Sir Ernest Rutherford conducted a research establishment in Hawkcraig in the Firth of Forth to conduct research and experiments with the Hydrophones. The Scientists managed to develop a hydrophone which could hear a submarine despite the racket produced by a patrol ship carrying a hydrophone. By the end of the Great War, the British had the most well equipped hydrophone force in the world with 38 hydrophone officers and 200 qualified listeners.
A typical Hydrophone.
The Ottomans were more than well aware that the uboat threat was something that could threaten them as well, and started to develop their own means of creating experimental hydrophones. Machine parts and some of the knowledge were bought from the British for a price, and individual British and French physicists who were not finding work back at home were hired by the Ottoman government to raise the quality of their own research groups. The Ottoman Admiralty was also confident that they would be able to create a team of 10 Hydrophone officers and 100 qualified listeners by 1920.
On December 6, 1918, the Ottoman Ministry of the Navy allowed the construction of 10 Fatih Class Submarines and for the Hydrophone experiment to go on ahead.” A History of the Ottoman Navy: A Tumultuous History © 2016
***
“In 1909, the Vilayet of Yemen erupted into Rebellion within the Ottoman Empire led by the Zaraniq Tribe. The Rebellion was fought for two reasons: The opposition to the extension of the telegraph lines through their territory and the demand that the sons of their leaders held hostage were to be released from prison. The Uprising began in 1909 and after a short while, in early 1910, the Ottomans defeated the Zaraniq near Husayniyah. Their leader, Kaymakam Mahmud Riza was captured and the Ottomans had him imprisoned.
Kaymakam Mahmud Riza in 1908
However in early 1918, Mahmud Riza managed to escape from his imprisonment in Anatolia, and spirited himself away from Anatolia in secret and using some of his secret contacts, he found himself in Ottoman Transjordan before boarding the Hejaz Railway to return to Ottoman Yemen. During his time in jail, Mahmud Riza had become a fierce proponent of an independent republican Yemen, and as the leader of the Zaraniq Tribe, he was bound to get the aid of his own tribe and his allied tribes. In September he reached Yemen and managed to come into contact with his tribe and his allies. The fiercely conservative tribes were extremely angered by the development of the Ottoman Empire, and the progressive laws that the Ottomans had passed, and were implementing. Mahmud Riza took advantage of this, and decided that after gathering his troops, he would rebel against the Ottoman government and declare a Yemeni Republic.
On October 28, 1918, the Zaraniq tribe and its allies captured the small town of Al-Hazm in Yemen and declared the establishment of the Republic of Yemen. This was considered to be a joke by many in Yemen itself, as Yemeni separatism was virtually non-existent in Ottoman Yemen, though it had some adherents in British Yemen. The Ottomans did not even receive news of the rebellion at first as the provincial government believed that they would be able to defeat the rebels easily. Led by Recip Bey, a force of 1000 Ottoman paramilitary troops departed from Sana’a and marched for Al-Hazm and was confronted by an empty village. Mahmud Riza had learned from his previous rebellion and he was now starting to implement a guerilla and scorched earth policy to defeat the Ottoman forces in Ottoman Yemen. Recip Bey captured the empty city and deemed the small rebellion over, and returned back to Sana’a taking the vast majority of the troops with him, leaving some 50 troops in the town of Al-Hazm. Then, the trap was sprung with Mahmud Riza’s tribal troops coming out of the mountains after Recip Bey had left, and with some 3000 troops against 50, the tribal troops overcame the small Ottoman garrison and forced them out, conducting a massive massacre of the garrison even after they had surrendered.
This news spread throughout the empire, and horrified the Ottoman government. The Governor of Yemen, Harik Pasha lost his position and was replaced by Abida Saleh, an Ottoman Yemeni politician from the Ottoman CUP party. Ahmed Riza also dispatched the 42nd Ottoman Infantry Division to Yemen from Jeddah to take care of the uprising. However the next act of the rebels, who had named themselves as the Yemeni Liberation Army would be one that would stun the world.
Mahmud Riza had a third cousin who was working as a guard in Constantinople for the Imperial Family. During an outing of the Imperial Family, Sultan Mehmed VI was giving a small speech in a small pavilion in Constantinople in favor of further economic developments and electrification in the country. We do not know the motives of Abdul Mahmud Riza, the name of Mahmud Riza’s cousin, but it was undoubtedly in favor of his cousin’s work in the south. He was a trusted guard of the Sultan, and used this advantage to raise a gun to the Sultan’s head in public, shouting that unless Yemen was given independence, he would shoot the Ottoman Sultan. If anyone made a move to aid the Sultan, he also warned that he would shoot as well.
Thus began, the Constantinople Theatre Hostage Crisis, as the speech was given in Constantinople Theatre. Sultan Mehmed VI was frozen as he stood in the podium with a gun trained on his back, and the government was informed of the impending hostage crisis. Ahmed Riza sent a message stating that he was willing to speak with Abdul Riza if the man so wished, and that the man would be unharmed if he lowered the gun on the sultan. However the man did not and demanded that the Grand Vizier come to the theatre in person if he wanted anything to progress. The Grand Vizier rushed to the theater and saw the horrific sight with his own eyes. Flanked by the Ottoman Greek bodyguards, who would have no love for an Arabic attempt for independence, Ahmed Riza asked what the man wanted.
Abdul Riza gave his three point ultimatum:-
Abdul Riza was tried in court on November 26 and he was found guilty of national treason and sentenced to death. Due to the nature of the assassination, the Ottoman government began a serious inquiry into the backgrounds of all the bodyguards of the Imperial family as well as that of the government. Meanwhile, the nation went into mourning once again. Sehzade Abdulmejid ascended to the throne as Sultan Abdulmejid II of the Ottoman Empire.
Sultan Abdulmejid II of the Ottoman Empire.
The enraged Ottoman government now turned their eye to the Yemeni troubles. Bitter at the death of the Sultan being linked to the Yemeni Republic, the Ottomans sent the 37th Division and the 35th Division to stamp the rebellion down. With the assassination of the sultan, the proverbial gloves were laid down and released as the Ottomans began a destructive campaign in the south. The December Campaign as it is now known today led by Ferik Pasha is considered to be one of the most destructive campaigns in Ottoman history. The Tribal System, which had been grudgingly allowed to stay was abolished by Imperial decree, and the Yemeni tribes, obviously did not agree to the act. The Ottoman Army burned the tribal settlements to the ground, and acting as if they were fighting a national enemy and army rather than a group of tribal insurgents, the Ottomans began to destroy each and every Tribal stronghold in the Yemeni Vilayet with everything that they had. The Zaraniq tribe was annihilated at the Battle of Dammaj Valley by the 35th Division when they virtually killed every adult male of the tribe in the battle, and encircled the entire tribe. The tribal structure was destroyed and the families of the tribe were relocated to sedentary living.
On December 28, Mahmud Riza was captured, and was shot dead by a zealous Ottoman soldier. His body was dragged throughout the mountain sand all the way to Sana’a as a message to the remainder of the so called Yemeni Liberation Army. The three month long Yemeni Troubles came to an end after the death of Mahmud Riza. The tribal structures of Yemeni society was destroyed, and the tribal autonomy they had enjoyed was repealed. The Ottomans also began a massive corruption and background check which saw around 560 officials in the Ottoman Empire either fired or imprisoned. The rebellion may have been short, however it had lasting consequences.” The Second Zaraniq Rebellion in Yemen © 1988.
***
“The Ottoman electrification program led to a massive growth in the country in demand for rubber and copper. The Ottoman Empire was sufficiently rich in copper, with the multiple copper mines dotting Albania, Thrace, Macedonia and Anatolia. However the Ottoman empire had a rather big lack of rubber resources within the country. On November 28, the Ottoman Scientific Congress was given the permission from the Ottoman government to start the construction of multiple synthetic rubber plants in the country based on the polymer synthesis process made by Russian scientist Sergei Vasilijevich Lebedev in 1910 by synthesizing butadiene.
However synthetic rubber production during this time was still small, and not at all produced in high amounts, and not sufficient for the national demand of the nation.
The Ottomans were instead looking for rubber imports from one of the most rubber rich countries in the world – Siam. In 1917, the price of silver in Siam had rose and exceeded the face value of silver coins. The coins were then melted down and sold. The government of Siam changed this by changing the pure silver coin to an alloy system and King Rama VI forbade the export of Siamese coins. As a result, the Siamese government was starting to undergo a financial crisis, and the Ottoman government intended to make good use of it.
In December 12, 1918 the Ottoman government signed a deal with the Siamese government, giving the Siamese a loan of around 500,000 pounds with only 1.2% interest in return for the Siamese selling rubber to the Ottoman empire at a discounted rate of 8%. This allowed the Siamese a stabilizer in their economic crisis and the Ottomans a suitable and stable source of rubber for its electrification process within the empire.
By the end of 1918, the import and export table of the Ottoman Empire looked something like this:-
As you can see, the Ottomans had a slight deficit against France, the UK and the USA in regards to their trade, and the Ottomans wanted to stabilize their trade with the west on mutually beneficial terms. The Ottomans would continue to develop their industry as a measure for this…….” A History of Ottoman Trade © 2012.
**
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[1] – This is actually true otl.
***
“The Italian Civil War let out a flurry of activities throughout Europe, and the entire world. Bulgaria had been the only real communist state that had come close to a real communist state, but now based in Rome, a new communist state had risen. The French and Danubians were worried about having a communist great power right on their borders, and the Germans wanted to use the distraction to heckle the allies into lowering the amount of reparations the Germans owed to the western allies and Russia, and try to stamp the Silesians out whilst the others were distracted. Russia was worried about revolutionary activity at home as the Italian Revolution/Civil War started to spread pro-leftist ideals throughout the European continent.
French foreign minister Doumergue called for a general meeting in Paris to discuss the matter of the Roman and Italian Crisis’s to find a manner in which the crisis could be dealt with without a threat of war. British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Lord Curzon agreed to meet his French counterpart, whilst German Foreign Minister Hermann Muller, Danubian Foreign Minister Stephan Burian von Rajecz, and Russian Foreign Minister Mikhail Tereshchenko also agreed to come to the meeting.
The Paris Conference.
It is at this point that Lord Curzon asked the Ottoman Empire to join the meeting as well. The Ottoman Empire had a large Italian minority in Ottoman Libya which was a result of Sicilian immigration since the middle ages, and Tripoli and Tobruk had a large Sicilian quarter. The question of creating anti-Communist camps in Ottoman Libya could not be ruled out. The Ottomans accepted the offer, not because they had any plans as such, however because for them, this was an acknowledgement that they were a Great Power once again in the eyes of the international community. Foreign Minister Curuksulu Mahmud Pasha journeyed to France, where he met with the other diplomats on October 12, 1918 in Paris to discuss the Italian issue.
The Danubian Foreign Minister, von Rajecz wanted to intervene, and at least, create a Venetian buffer state against the Italians if they went communist. The French weren’t in favor of intervening at all, as their manpower was exhausted from the war, and the Italians would not take an outright invasion of their lands kindly. The British held an ambiguous position, as the mildly democratic communist republic hadn’t really upset anyone in the British government. The killing of Umberto II was of course something that could not stand, however that was the work of an individual and not the state itself. Russia, like Danubia was a hardliner, and wanted to intervene, fearful of the uprise in revolutionary thought due to the Italian Revolution. Germany was like the British, in an ambivalent position and weren’t really trying to do anything else other than lowering their reparations.
The Ottomans advocated a wait and see approach. Unlike the Bulgarians, who were a revanchist communist state which was anti-democratic to its core, the Italian Republic did have the support of many in Italy and probably a majority of the peoples in Italy, and the democratic election going on in the Italian Republic, regardless of the fact that other parties were banned, made it clear that the Italian Republic did have the support of many in the populace. Invading and deposing a regime which had major support would only work against their collective interests, Curuksulu Mahmud Pasha warned.
In the end, the Paris Conference achieved nothing, with the great powers devolving into a shouting match with one another over what step they could take against the Italian communists. This was a godsend for the Italian communists, as they managed to retake Naples from the Provisional Government, and declared its liberation at the same time.
The other power that was desperately trying to resolve the situation was also the Vatican under the command of Pope Benedict XV. Benedict XV was well liked by many in Europe for his valiant efforts to create peace during the Great War, and the manner in which his works allowed the well treatment of Prisoners of War. However, Communists were generally associated with anti-religious figures, and the Vatican was frightened of what would happen to them if the communist government won the war against the provisional government. Many wanted to break out, and relocate the Vatican entirely to one of the other catholic countries, and Avignon was also raised as a possibility. However Benedict XV did not wish to hurry into such things and asked for a meeting with Prime Minister Seratti to discuss the future of the Holy See.
Pope Benedict XV.
Seratti himself was however a Christian Communist, and whilst many in the Italian Congress would have liked to see the See abolished in Italy, Seratti didn’t and he himself was an admirer of Benedict XV’s pro-Female Suffrage position [1], which was a position that Seratti himself held. On October 20, the Roman Conference was held in the Vatican, and there Benedict XV asked about the future of the See if the All-Italian Worker’s Council was to win the ongoing civil war. Seratii professed that while many of his colleagues had thought about abolishing the See, he didn’t see it as a pragmatic way of doing things, and that he intended to keep the Holy See. He also raised the issue of signing a treaty to end the Roman Question once and for all. Seratii also stated that the Vatican arrangement of allowing Vatican citizens in running in the local government of Italy would continue, and that those candidates could join the Independent faction of the Congress or the Christian Communist faction of the Congress if they so wished to participate in higher politics. Benedict XV himself was pleased to find out that the Italian Communists were remaining neutral on the See, i.e. keeping the status quo, and he agreed to not speak out against them, and maintained the neutrality of the Holy See during the Italian Civil War.” The Italian Revolution © 2019.
***
“The Chelmsford-Peel reforms had been a high watermark for India, however much of its developments were not beneficial to the Indian people, and many were not ready to take the entirety of the reforms without amendment. With this in mind, the annual session of the All-India Muslim League commenced on December 20, 1918 at Delhi. A special feature of his session was that the Ulema participated in its deliberations as well. The Ulema conducted a meeting in the Fatehpuri Mosque a day before the commencement of the League’s session and decided to join their voice with the Muslim League in all matters concerning Islam. Prominent Ulemas included Maulana Abdul Bar, Azad Subhani, Ibrahim Sialkoti, Sanah Ullah Amritsari, Ahmed Saeed Kifiatullah and Abdul Latif.
the flag of the AIML.
Dr. Ansari, who was the chairman of the Reception Committee of the AIML, pointed out to the meeting that the separate electorate system of the Indian Government Act of 1918 was based on governmental promises made in the past and that it confirmed an agreement with the Hindus. As such it could not be touched. However, the AIML criticized the joint communal electorates in Paragraphs 228,229 and 230 of the Joint Report on the Indian Constitutional Reforms led by Viscount Peel. Dr. Ansari said that it had given rise of fears among the Muslims that they would lose their special representation under these articles.
Ansari properly recognized the issue at hand and remarked ‘The Muslim claims for separate electorates were analyzed and recognized by the Imperial Government of India, and it was admitted in the first place that the Muslims were promised electoral equality on the basis of their political importance. Second the Muslim community despite being poor any property qualification common both to the Hindus and Musalmans would reduce the Muslim electorate in proportion to the Muslim census. Thirdly in the census the strength of the Muslim community did not correspond to their political strength, being under represented.’
Jinnah as President of the AIML.
As such Ansari, supported by Jinnah and several members of the AIML, wished to draft a new amendment to the Government of India Act of 1918 so that the Muslims were represented equally with their special autonomous status not being hurt during the elections that would come in the future. Popular Bengali statesman, A. K. Fazlul Huq also played his hand and supported the reforms, and called for a proper consensus regarding the issue of dominionship for India to be called, and condemned the Muslim-Hindu Communal Violence that was erupting across the Indian subcontinent.
Jinnah supported the creation of a final consensus regarding the issue of autonomy and self rule in India from the British Empire. A nationalist who preferred constitutional methods, Jinnah encouraged moderation in politics, and was tactical in his manner of opening the party to the public, rather than sticking to the elites of the Islamic society in India. During the same meeting, Agha Khan III, the founder of the All India Muslim League, congratulated Jinnah for his modernist view of approaching things for Indian Muslims, and reluctantly admitted that Jinnah’s opening of the party had been beneficial, as student activity in favor of the AIML was exploding throughout the British Raj as the party opened up. From a religious and political standpoint Agha Khan III was a modernist and urged his fellow Imams and muslims in the meeting to embrace modernity. Although he stated he was opposed to a wholesale replication of western society by Muslims, he stated that he did believe increased contact with the western world would benefit Muslim society. In this endeavor, he pointed to the looming topic for all of them. The Ottoman Caliphate in 1908 had seemed like a dying power. But in 1918, a decade later, the Ottomans stood proud and tall, conducting several reforms inspired by the west, having won two major wars, yet keeping their own society and culture intact. Agha Khan III stated that like the Ottomans the AIML would have to be open to western philosophy and ideas, and believed engagement with all sides of the global world would lead to a revival and renaissance within Islamic thought. Supported by Jinnah, Agha Khan III then called for a united front between the Shia and Sunnis of India, to make sure that a dominion for the Muslim peoples of India could be achieved.
Agha Khan III
The AIML was also starting to debate issues on women’s rights. The progressive attitude of the Caliphate and the Acts of Women Equality 1917 in the Ottoman Empire had raised several eyebrows from many conservative Islamic philosophers in India. However the progressive faction of the AIML, led by Jinnah, Agha Khan III, and Huq were supportive of a progressive attitude to women to garner the support of the women Islamic population as well. The pro-Women faction endorsed the spiritual equality of men and women in Islamic and called for political equality for women alongside men, including the right to vote, and the right to an education, endorsing compulsory primary education for girls.
It is here that the influence of the Ottoman Empire cannot be understated in the movement for Pakistan. The name for Pakistan is also said to have been laid down during this conference, named after the principle muslim regions of the British Raj - Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir, Indus, Sindh and Balochistan. The name was actually laid down by Persian linguists brought in from Iran and the Ottoman Empire, with the name literally meaning the Land of the Pure in Persian and Urdu. The AIML reached a new consensus that they would support the creation of two Dominions in the Raj – The Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan; a home for both Hindus and Muslims in the subcontinent.
Historians have debated why the Muslim League was so audacious in its move here during this time in history, and many state that Jinnah and Agha Khan III were inspired by the Ottoman Empire to create a muslim state that could be successful in the subcontinent. During his return from Britain in early 1917, Jinnah had made a stop in Beirut, the Ottoman Empire, where he was able to see the economic development and religious development of the empire with his own eyes. As Imam of the Nizari Ismail’s Agha Khan III himself had a lot of contacts within the Ottoman Empire, and Khan III was extremely taken with the modernist approach of the Ottomans to Islamic though, which coincided with his own beliefs. Many prominent Ottoman businessmen and oligarchs were involved in the All India Muslim League as well. The most prominent of them being Abdullah Al-Ansari, an Ottoman Arab businessman from Basra, who was a primary fundraiser for the AIML from Ottoman lands. Many in the Ottoman Empire also saw the attempts of the Indian Muslims to create a separate homeland for themselves with great sympathy, and though the Ottoman government would not intervene in British affairs, many personal Ottoman individuals would take part in the movement with great vigor.
The road to the creation of Pakistan was a long one and extremely hard, the Unionist Parties, and the Indian National Congress opposed this Two Dominion Theory with all they had, however the 1918 Meeting certainly consolidated the Muslim League like their INC counterparts, and allowed them to contest Indian politics of the next few decades on an equal setting. The road to independence was not easy, but things such as that was never easy.” The Creation and Foundation of Pakistan © 2019
***
“The beginning of the construction of the Suleiman Class destroyers were a highmark in Ottoman development and the Ottoman Ministry of the Navy was extremely eager to build more indigenous ships on their own, so that they could add ships for the Ottoman navy in a cheaper manner. The Austro-Hungarian submarines of the Ottoman Navy was becoming obsolete as the days passed, and the Ottomans needed a new class of submarines to make up for it.
The Ottomans therefore had already started to make up new submarine designs which would be built in Imperial Arsenal Dockyards in Sinope and Smyrna for the Ottoman Imperial Navy. On November 28, 1918, the Ottoman Ministry of Navy received the design concept for the Fatih Class Submarines, of which ten would be built from a time period of 1918 – 1921, to replace the earlier submarines of the Ottoman Navy. The Ottoman Naval Engineers had been studying submarine engineering for a good six years by this point and with aid from the government, and official support from the Ministry of the Navy, the plan to develop the Fatih Class Submarines had went ahead. The Fatih Class submarine was to have higher endurance than all of the previous Ottoman submarines, and would be able to theoretically be able to dive as far below as 500 feet, though all tests deemed that a depth lower than 350 feet could be hazardous. Armament would consist of 8 twenty one torpedo tubes and one four inch gun. The basic characteristic of the Fatih Class Submarines were:-
- Displacement: 1,150 long tons
- Length: 230ft 3 inches
- Beam: 23ft 6 inches
- Speed: 17.5 knots surface and 10.5 knots submerged
- Range: 4,800 nautical miles
- Complement: 44
- Armament: 8 x 21 inch torpedo tubes and 1 x 4 inch gun
The Fatih Class submarine.
The German U-boat threat in the Great War had also led to French physicist Paul Langevin the impetus to develop a piezoelectric hydrophone by increasing the power of the signal of a vacuum tube amplifier; the high acoustic impedance of the piezoelectric materials were able to facilitate their use as underwater transducers. They would be able to use the electrical plat to be vibrated by an oscillator to produce sound pulses. The hydrophone was thus adopted by the French as a means of sinking Italian and German u-boats during the war. Late in the war, the British Admiralty led by Australian and New Zealander Physicists William Henry Bragg and Sir Ernest Rutherford conducted a research establishment in Hawkcraig in the Firth of Forth to conduct research and experiments with the Hydrophones. The Scientists managed to develop a hydrophone which could hear a submarine despite the racket produced by a patrol ship carrying a hydrophone. By the end of the Great War, the British had the most well equipped hydrophone force in the world with 38 hydrophone officers and 200 qualified listeners.
A typical Hydrophone.
The Ottomans were more than well aware that the uboat threat was something that could threaten them as well, and started to develop their own means of creating experimental hydrophones. Machine parts and some of the knowledge were bought from the British for a price, and individual British and French physicists who were not finding work back at home were hired by the Ottoman government to raise the quality of their own research groups. The Ottoman Admiralty was also confident that they would be able to create a team of 10 Hydrophone officers and 100 qualified listeners by 1920.
On December 6, 1918, the Ottoman Ministry of the Navy allowed the construction of 10 Fatih Class Submarines and for the Hydrophone experiment to go on ahead.” A History of the Ottoman Navy: A Tumultuous History © 2016
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“In 1909, the Vilayet of Yemen erupted into Rebellion within the Ottoman Empire led by the Zaraniq Tribe. The Rebellion was fought for two reasons: The opposition to the extension of the telegraph lines through their territory and the demand that the sons of their leaders held hostage were to be released from prison. The Uprising began in 1909 and after a short while, in early 1910, the Ottomans defeated the Zaraniq near Husayniyah. Their leader, Kaymakam Mahmud Riza was captured and the Ottomans had him imprisoned.
Kaymakam Mahmud Riza in 1908
However in early 1918, Mahmud Riza managed to escape from his imprisonment in Anatolia, and spirited himself away from Anatolia in secret and using some of his secret contacts, he found himself in Ottoman Transjordan before boarding the Hejaz Railway to return to Ottoman Yemen. During his time in jail, Mahmud Riza had become a fierce proponent of an independent republican Yemen, and as the leader of the Zaraniq Tribe, he was bound to get the aid of his own tribe and his allied tribes. In September he reached Yemen and managed to come into contact with his tribe and his allies. The fiercely conservative tribes were extremely angered by the development of the Ottoman Empire, and the progressive laws that the Ottomans had passed, and were implementing. Mahmud Riza took advantage of this, and decided that after gathering his troops, he would rebel against the Ottoman government and declare a Yemeni Republic.
On October 28, 1918, the Zaraniq tribe and its allies captured the small town of Al-Hazm in Yemen and declared the establishment of the Republic of Yemen. This was considered to be a joke by many in Yemen itself, as Yemeni separatism was virtually non-existent in Ottoman Yemen, though it had some adherents in British Yemen. The Ottomans did not even receive news of the rebellion at first as the provincial government believed that they would be able to defeat the rebels easily. Led by Recip Bey, a force of 1000 Ottoman paramilitary troops departed from Sana’a and marched for Al-Hazm and was confronted by an empty village. Mahmud Riza had learned from his previous rebellion and he was now starting to implement a guerilla and scorched earth policy to defeat the Ottoman forces in Ottoman Yemen. Recip Bey captured the empty city and deemed the small rebellion over, and returned back to Sana’a taking the vast majority of the troops with him, leaving some 50 troops in the town of Al-Hazm. Then, the trap was sprung with Mahmud Riza’s tribal troops coming out of the mountains after Recip Bey had left, and with some 3000 troops against 50, the tribal troops overcame the small Ottoman garrison and forced them out, conducting a massive massacre of the garrison even after they had surrendered.
This news spread throughout the empire, and horrified the Ottoman government. The Governor of Yemen, Harik Pasha lost his position and was replaced by Abida Saleh, an Ottoman Yemeni politician from the Ottoman CUP party. Ahmed Riza also dispatched the 42nd Ottoman Infantry Division to Yemen from Jeddah to take care of the uprising. However the next act of the rebels, who had named themselves as the Yemeni Liberation Army would be one that would stun the world.
Mahmud Riza had a third cousin who was working as a guard in Constantinople for the Imperial Family. During an outing of the Imperial Family, Sultan Mehmed VI was giving a small speech in a small pavilion in Constantinople in favor of further economic developments and electrification in the country. We do not know the motives of Abdul Mahmud Riza, the name of Mahmud Riza’s cousin, but it was undoubtedly in favor of his cousin’s work in the south. He was a trusted guard of the Sultan, and used this advantage to raise a gun to the Sultan’s head in public, shouting that unless Yemen was given independence, he would shoot the Ottoman Sultan. If anyone made a move to aid the Sultan, he also warned that he would shoot as well.
Thus began, the Constantinople Theatre Hostage Crisis, as the speech was given in Constantinople Theatre. Sultan Mehmed VI was frozen as he stood in the podium with a gun trained on his back, and the government was informed of the impending hostage crisis. Ahmed Riza sent a message stating that he was willing to speak with Abdul Riza if the man so wished, and that the man would be unharmed if he lowered the gun on the sultan. However the man did not and demanded that the Grand Vizier come to the theatre in person if he wanted anything to progress. The Grand Vizier rushed to the theater and saw the horrific sight with his own eyes. Flanked by the Ottoman Greek bodyguards, who would have no love for an Arabic attempt for independence, Ahmed Riza asked what the man wanted.
Abdul Riza gave his three point ultimatum:-
- The independence of Ottoman Yemen
- The release of all Yemeni leaders involved in the 1910 Rebellion who were now imprisoned.
- The safe passage of himself to the newly independent Yemen.
Abdul Riza was tried in court on November 26 and he was found guilty of national treason and sentenced to death. Due to the nature of the assassination, the Ottoman government began a serious inquiry into the backgrounds of all the bodyguards of the Imperial family as well as that of the government. Meanwhile, the nation went into mourning once again. Sehzade Abdulmejid ascended to the throne as Sultan Abdulmejid II of the Ottoman Empire.
Sultan Abdulmejid II of the Ottoman Empire.
The enraged Ottoman government now turned their eye to the Yemeni troubles. Bitter at the death of the Sultan being linked to the Yemeni Republic, the Ottomans sent the 37th Division and the 35th Division to stamp the rebellion down. With the assassination of the sultan, the proverbial gloves were laid down and released as the Ottomans began a destructive campaign in the south. The December Campaign as it is now known today led by Ferik Pasha is considered to be one of the most destructive campaigns in Ottoman history. The Tribal System, which had been grudgingly allowed to stay was abolished by Imperial decree, and the Yemeni tribes, obviously did not agree to the act. The Ottoman Army burned the tribal settlements to the ground, and acting as if they were fighting a national enemy and army rather than a group of tribal insurgents, the Ottomans began to destroy each and every Tribal stronghold in the Yemeni Vilayet with everything that they had. The Zaraniq tribe was annihilated at the Battle of Dammaj Valley by the 35th Division when they virtually killed every adult male of the tribe in the battle, and encircled the entire tribe. The tribal structure was destroyed and the families of the tribe were relocated to sedentary living.
On December 28, Mahmud Riza was captured, and was shot dead by a zealous Ottoman soldier. His body was dragged throughout the mountain sand all the way to Sana’a as a message to the remainder of the so called Yemeni Liberation Army. The three month long Yemeni Troubles came to an end after the death of Mahmud Riza. The tribal structures of Yemeni society was destroyed, and the tribal autonomy they had enjoyed was repealed. The Ottomans also began a massive corruption and background check which saw around 560 officials in the Ottoman Empire either fired or imprisoned. The rebellion may have been short, however it had lasting consequences.” The Second Zaraniq Rebellion in Yemen © 1988.
***
“The Ottoman electrification program led to a massive growth in the country in demand for rubber and copper. The Ottoman Empire was sufficiently rich in copper, with the multiple copper mines dotting Albania, Thrace, Macedonia and Anatolia. However the Ottoman empire had a rather big lack of rubber resources within the country. On November 28, the Ottoman Scientific Congress was given the permission from the Ottoman government to start the construction of multiple synthetic rubber plants in the country based on the polymer synthesis process made by Russian scientist Sergei Vasilijevich Lebedev in 1910 by synthesizing butadiene.
However synthetic rubber production during this time was still small, and not at all produced in high amounts, and not sufficient for the national demand of the nation.
The Ottomans were instead looking for rubber imports from one of the most rubber rich countries in the world – Siam. In 1917, the price of silver in Siam had rose and exceeded the face value of silver coins. The coins were then melted down and sold. The government of Siam changed this by changing the pure silver coin to an alloy system and King Rama VI forbade the export of Siamese coins. As a result, the Siamese government was starting to undergo a financial crisis, and the Ottoman government intended to make good use of it.
In December 12, 1918 the Ottoman government signed a deal with the Siamese government, giving the Siamese a loan of around 500,000 pounds with only 1.2% interest in return for the Siamese selling rubber to the Ottoman empire at a discounted rate of 8%. This allowed the Siamese a stabilizer in their economic crisis and the Ottomans a suitable and stable source of rubber for its electrification process within the empire.
By the end of 1918, the import and export table of the Ottoman Empire looked something like this:-
| Top Exports of the Ottoman Empire | Top Imports of the Ottoman Empire |
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As you can see, the Ottomans had a slight deficit against France, the UK and the USA in regards to their trade, and the Ottomans wanted to stabilize their trade with the west on mutually beneficial terms. The Ottomans would continue to develop their industry as a measure for this…….” A History of Ottoman Trade © 2012.
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[1] – This is actually true otl.
Chapter 37: The Civil Politics.
***
“On January 3, 1919, Seratti, the leader of the Italian Communists and Socialists announced in front of the Italian All-Socialist Worker’s Congress that the first elections for the Congress would be taking place in February. This came as a surprise for many as the Italian Civil War was still raging in the south with extreme amounts of violence on both sides of the battlefield, and the northern mountain passes in the Italian Alps was filled to the brim with anti-Socialist guerillas. Many believed that Seratii would not call for an election as long as the northern guerillas weren’t dealt with. However Seratii was extremely worried about a French and Austrian intervention as both sides were filling the border up with troops and war material. Seratii therefore, rightly assessed that if he conducted an election, even if it were during a war, he would gain the legitimacy needed to safeguard the newly dubbed Democratic Italian Worker’s Republic or simply the DIWR.
The Italian All-Socialist Worker’s Congress was officially divided into 7 different factions. The first and most powerful of these factions was the Hard Left Faction. These people and politicians believed that the ideal future lay ahead in full Marxism and the total conversion of the country into a proletariat state. They didn’t control the majority of the congress, however still had a major plurality in place. They also publically called out their distaste for democratic methods of governance but they weren’t above taking part in them. The second most powerful faction was the Moderate Left Faction. These politicians believed that the ideal solution was a Marxist state with democratic system of governance as well as keeping local means of produce in the hands of the private owners, though the vast majority of the economy needed to be centrally planned according to them. The final plural faction in the Congress was the Christian Communist Faction. Christians made up a majority in Italy and even many communists were attached to their faiths. They advocated a measure of leftist conservatism and believed that unlike mainstream communism, religion and communism would be able to exist with one another properly. These three factions together formed the Congress’s ‘Big Three’ as most of the power of the congress was situated in the hands of these three factions within the Italian All-Socialist Worker’s Congress.
Then come the second tier factions in the congress. The first and most powerful among the second tier factions was the Right Leftist Faction. This was more of a cultural communist faction and nationalist communist groups, that believed in Italian cultural hegemony and nationalist irredentism alongside political Marxism and centrally planned economics, along with a hint of fiscal conservatism. Below that were the Social Democrats, who were legalized by Seratti to continue their operations. The Social Democrats were the faction who advocated a Nordic style economic model of mixed economics whilst retaining democratic ideals. After the Social Democrats were the Democratic Socialists, who were not that different from the Social Democrats, however the Democratic Socialists believed that the economy needed to be fully socialist whilst believing in a democratic system of governance. Finally the independents were a hodgepodge of other ideologies ranging from capitalism to monarchism to liberalism etc.
The first election of the Democratic Italian Worker’s Republic took place on February 24 and ended on February 27 when the results were announced. The turnout for the elections was particularly low, especially due to the fact that the northern guerillas made a small habit of blowing up polling stations and attacking official members of the government. Nonetheless, due to the public favor that the Italian Congress had received from the Vatican and the Holy See, many Italians were buoyed into coming to vote for the elections.
The elections ended with the Hard Left Faction being reduced from 33% of the congress to 28% but still holding overall plurality of the congress. Meanwhile, the Moderate and Christian Communist factions finished second and third respectively. At first these two factions raised a lot of oppositions against electing a Chairman from the Hard Left faction as they believed that the anti-democratic ideals of the Hard Left faction would undermine the entire election that was held and give carte blanche to the Danubians and French to invade.
It was agreed that a cross factional member, Antonio Gramsci, though a bit on the young side, would be elevated to the position as Chairman of the Congress. As a cross factional member of both the Hard Left Faction and Moderate Faction, he was acceptable for both sides.
Antonio Gramsci.
Just like Seratii had believed the elections managed to partially legitimize the Democratic Italian Worker’s Republic and many moderates and center-leftists in both Paris and Vienna began to attack the militaristic ambitions of their governments, stating that an invasion of a democratically elected government, no matter how low the turnout had been alongside a civil war, was something that their nations could not and would not undertake. Both Paris and Vienna were also buoyed from invasion and intervention, however both the countries vowed that any hint of ‘exporting the revolution’ as the communists called, would be met with military response. No ifs and no buts, Prince Louis, the Minister-President of Danubia and Viviani both stated this in blunt tones to their populace and political enemies.” The Political History of the Democratic Italian Worker’s Republic. The Socialist Democratic Utopia? © 1988.
***
“The rebellion of Mulla Abd Allah in Afghanistan against King Amanullah Khan was immediately a giant problem for the British government in India as Pashtuns from across the Durand Line began to aid the government of Afghanistan and the rebels, depending upon their allegiances and preferences. This state of affairs escalated to a great amount on December 27, 1918 when British Sikh border guards in the Durand Line were attacked and killed by Pashto Afghan rebels as they perceived that the British were aiding the Afghan government.
Lord Chelmsford, the Governor-General of the British Raj knew that this state of affairs could not continue and that the situation had turned dangerous as cross border warfare continued to escalate between the two parties in the Afghan conflict. As Afghanistan was still a British protectorate, he had the official right to intervene in Afghan politics. On January 6, 1919, he asked permission from Prime Minister Austen Chamberlain, asking him to give the permission to the British Indian Army to invade Afghanistan and quell the rebellion on Khost and Herat. Chamberlain was reluctant to do this. The Afghans already hated their status of protectorate and vassal, even though Britain meddled in their internal affairs very little. Meddling in their affairs so blatantly would make Afghan goodwill to the British melt down to nothingness. However continued raids, such as the burning of Parachinar in British Pashto Lands forced the British government to make a decision. On January 12, the Commons convened to discuss the current Afghan dilemma and voted in favor of intervening in the Afghan Civil War. Later that day the British cabinet called Lord Chelmsford and gave him carte blanche to invade Afghanistan and quell the rebellion that was being fermented in Khost and Herat.
On January 18, the 7th Sikh Division, the 1st Gurkha Rifles, the 20th Indian Infantry Division and 38th Gloucester Infantry Division were gathered up to form a 70,000 strong invasion force in British Balochistan in Quetta. The troops were placed under the overall command of Sir Arthur Barrett. Barrett was told that he was to aid the Afghan government and stamp down on the cross border conflict, whilst capturing Mullah Abd Khan if it was possible. The 30 aircraft positioned from Bombay would act as his aerial recon units as well as bomber units.
Sir Arthur Barrett
On January 30, after one and a half weeks of military preparation, Barrett decided to take the offensive and the 70,000 Anglo-Indian army entered Afghan territory, immediately encountering tribal resistance. However the tribal resistance of Afghanistan was something that the British had experienced first hand in 1840 and 1878, and they by the third attempt knew how to fight back. Counter-insurgency tactics were immediately deployed. Population control was created by Barrett and every captured city and town or village in Afghan territory was subjected to massive checks from the Anglo-Indian Army and hamlets checks and defenses were created by the Anglo-Indians to make sure that tribal units would not be able to infiltrate the captured villages and towns.
Cordon and Search tactics were applied as well, as multiple areas were cordoned off and premises were searched regularly by the troops against insurgents. Barrett implemented the new doctrine that was being called as Cordon and Kick; Stability and Support Operations. The 30 aerial aircraft aiding the British were also used to pinpoint tribal guerillas and rebels and destroy them with the use of combined arms by the old yet wily general.
Barrett also implemented a strict doctrine of public ethics and diplomacy within the troops and any and all acts of violence against the Afghan population was stamped down by Barrett with frightening ferocity making any ideas of committing a warcrime a dubious one among the troops. These tactics were successful and by the time the British captured Kandahar on February 28 and subjugated Khost, the tribal guerilla warfare against Kabul and New Delhi was virtually destroyed by Barrett. After that diplomatic intrigues followed in Kabul as King Amanullah Khan was unwilling to negotiate properly with the hated Britons.
Finally on March 29, 1919, the Kabul Concord was signed between the Emirate of Afghanistan and the United Kingdom, led by Barrett and Amanullah in which Amanullah agreed to turn back some of his reforms to make sure that the population remained amenable to him and general stability returned. He also reaffirmed the Durand line as the border between Afghanistan and the British Raj and agreed to deploy border guards to stop cross border ethnic flareups and tribal conflicts. The British also withheld the right to make sure that the border was secured.
British Troops in Afghanistan.
Despite this victory of sorts for Amanullah Khan, the perceived image that the British needed to aid him was the death knell for his popularity in the country. He would not be trusted by the population again and as British troops left the Afghan nation one by one, the politicians and nationalists as well as Islamic conservatives began to intrigue with one another against the Afghan King, much to his own detriment.” The Graveyard of Empires: Truth or False? A History of the Invasions of Afghanistan. © 2019.
***
“As per the Government of India Act 1918, the Indian portion of the British Empire had the right to hold general elections once every 5 years, and the first of these elections was to take place on February 22, 1919 and end on February 28, 1919. The trio of parties that were taking part in this election were the Indian National Congress, the All India Muslim League and the Nationalist Party led by Motilal Nehru, Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Madan Mohan Malaviya respectively.
Motilal Nehru.
Motilal Nehru had since 1883, earned a name for himself as a popular legal man involved in the legal business in Allahabad. In 1909 he reached the peak of his legal career by attaining the right to appear in the British Privy Council, becoming one of the few Indians to have gained the right to do so. His frequent visits to Europe had angered the Kashmiri Brahmin community as he refused to perform the traditional reformation ceremony that Hindus undertook after crossing the Indian Ocean. He had started on a path of wealthy elites and became involved in the Indian National Congress. In January 3, 1919 upon the endorsement of Mohandas Karmachand Ghandhi, he was elected to become the President of the Indian National Congress, and as such its leader for the upcoming first elections in the British Raj.
Alongside Nehru, the INC ran a platform of secularism during their electoral campaign hoping to gain the Muslim and Buddhist votes of the British Raj. The main platform of the INC during this campaign, and many campaign in the future was to seek Dominion Status for the British Raj within the system of the British Empire, seeking to have a moderate policy so as to not threaten the British who could clamp down on them immediately if they wanted. They also campaigned on a platform of reforming the new electoral law for the Raj General elections to expand suffrage not based on property rights but based on age and citizenship.
On the other side of the spectrum, stood Mohammad Ali Jinnah who led the All India Muslim League. Jinnah endorsed the Two Dominion Theory and he too ran on a platform of making sure that dominion was created within the framework of the British Empire. However he advocated for the creation of two dominions, one Hindu/Buddhist Dominion named Bharat and one Muslim dominion named Pakistan. He also lambasted the special electoral privilege that had been granted to the Hindu electoral regions of the British Raj and made his campaign on creating an equal amount of electoral regional reforms within the system of the new electoral government. Jinnah endorsed a campaign of what we today call secular Islamism, as he advocated for cooperation between the muslim majority and hindu and Buddhist minority of muslim majority provinces and electoral regions in the British Raj, seeking to gain their votes as well. Jinnah failed to do this properly during the 1919 General Elections, however would succeed by the end of his career. Unlike the INC, the All India Muslim League also ran a platform of economics, advocating for neoliberal economic policy to increase productivity in the British Raj to enrich the population whilst at the same time advocating for a greater amount of access to education for all in the Raj.
The third and final party was led by Milaviya was the Nationalist Party. This party took it a step further, and called for the creation of a dominion and within ten years of the establishment of a dominion, the creation of an independent India, whether or not under the British Monarchy or as a republic was left unsaid and was to be discussed in the future. Milaviya was a radical nationalist, and he had alienated a lot of the Muslim and Buddhist population during his campaigns as his speeches and electoral campaign was increasingly only Hindu oriented and Hindu focused, sidelining the other religious minorities of the country.
On February 28, it was declared that the INC had won 209 seats in the Central Legislative Assembly whilst the AIML had won 125 seats in the assembly. The Nationalist Party had won 95 seats in the assembly as well. Independents received a large share of the vote as well, gaining 61 seats. With the aid of the Anglo-Indian community and the Christian population of the British Raj, around 18 seats were gained by European deputies in the British Raj as well. Motilal Nehru, as the leader of the party which held the most seats in the assembly was made the Secretary of the Assembly, a position akin to that of a speaker or chairman of a legislative council.” The British Raj: A History of Colonialism, Brutality, Aid and the Creation of Nations. © 2008.
***
“On January 5, 1919, Ahmet Riza announced that the campaign for the 1919 Ottoman Senatorial Elections had officially started. In this endeavor, there was a lot of enthusiasm for the elections that year, as this election would be the first election in the Ottoman Empire that would take place under the Added Mixed Representation System. For this type of elections, 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. The Electoral Commission of the Ottoman Empire had thus divided the Empire into 14 Regions – Anatolia, Constantinople, Syria, Mesopotamia, Najd, Hejaz, Yemen, Albania, Macedonia, Thrace, Epirus, Northern Thessaly and North Africa.
The Committee of Union and Progress was starting to have some problems with the electorate during the electoral campaign for the elections. Their previous inaction towards the Greeks when they took over Cyprus hadn’t been forgiven and neither had it been forgotten, and many of the nationalist populace of the country began to act against the Committee of Union and Progress, costing the CUP precious votes in the upcoming elections. Ahmet Riza’s own image had taken a hit as many perceived that he had done nothing to save Sultan Mehmed VI who had been killed right in front of his own eyes. His actions against the tribes in Yemen had also sparked fear in many of the tribal constituencies of the Senate that he would eradicate the tribal system completely. The opponents of the Committee of Union and Progress would use all of these factors to ensure that they gained ground in the Senate.
a statue of Hasan Prishtina.
The Liberal Union on the hand had an easier time gaining the upper hand in the elections. They had studied the Regional List system in a more appropriate manner than their opponents and Hasan Prishtina intended to use this to his advantage during the elections. Prishtina managed to use the increasing focus on the economy by the government to look into other neglected matters of the state, such as medical services and firefighting services of the country which had been neglected by the government. He was also inspired by the Nordic social welfare system and to the astonishment of many, kept the system as official policy within the party manifesto. He stated that the party would support unconditional welfare systems in the country to make sure that the people of the country could be uplifted and enriched.
The Ottoman Socialist Party on the other hand simply tried to stay where it was and tried to keep their seats in constituencies where that had standing members. The culling of a few constituencies to create the new regional list system had hurt the Socialists the most, and their leader, Huseyin Hilmi recognized the fact that he would have to maintain electoral leadership and not gain more during this election. He too supported a welfare model for the Ottoman Empire, and was interested in increasing secularism in the country, garnering a good amount of sympathy votes from the Christians, Shias, Ibadis and Jews of the country.
The Ottoman Democrats were placing their platform on a basis on opposition to the current protectionist policies of the government on the economy focusing on neoliberal economic policies as well as fiscal conservatism. They also supported the abolishment of the feudal Beyliks in Ottoman Rumelia. Even though their formal power had been greatly diminished after 1908, these Beyliks still held a lot of influence in the regional areas, and were according to the Ottoman Democrats, a threat to Ottoman democracy. The Ottoman Social Democrats were perhaps the most ardent supporters of a Nordic style welfare system in the country and campaigned their entire electoral campaign based on this idea. Ata Atalay, the leader of the Ottoman Social Democrats was also a doctor and held a doctorate making his position a tad bit stronger to the population as he campaigned in favor of it. The Ottoman Armenian Regionalist Party and the Ottoman Public Administration for Decentralization (OPAD) party led by Armen Gar and Rafiq Bey both had wizened up partially and both only campaigned for the elections based on the regional list rather than the constituencies, and managed to successfully run for the lists through their means of canny electoral campaigns. The Poale Zion largely stayed inactive due to the growing fractionalism inside the party between pro-Zionist and anti-Zionist Jews within the party.
By the end of the elections, Huseyin Hilmi had lost his position as Speaker of the Senate in the Ottoman Senate and a contingent vote allowed Hassan Prishtina, the leader of the Liberal Union to gain that seat instead, as the leader of the largest party within the Ottoman Senate. The Liberal Union’s victory in the 1919 Senatorial Elections would set the stage for the Liberal Union’s victory in the 1922 Ottoman general elections.” Ottoman Politics: An Era of Tumult in the 20th Century. © 2016
***
“On January 18, the Egyptian Minister of the Interior, Mohamed Tawfik Naseem Pasha unilaterally threatened to end the Jewish settlement in the Sinai region after it was leaked through Zionist press that the Arab population of the Sinai Peninsula were being degraded and being harassed, as well as segregated by the Zionist Congress as they set up a local government there. Naseem Pasha warned the leader of the Egyptian Zionist Government in Sinai (EZGS), Max Isidor Bodenheimer that any further continuation of such segregation methods would see the Egyptian army at their front gates.
Max Isidor Bodenheimer
The Zionist Congress had for the past few years becoming increasingly powerful in Egypt, and the Zionists were now not going to play by the Egyptian rules. Having enough of bowing to Egyptian law and order, on January 24, the Egyptian Zionist Congress in New Tiberias declared the Independent Zionist Republic of the Sinai to be independent and sovereign from the Khedivate of Egypt. This immediately led to the trigger of the 1st Sinai Crisis.
The Khedive of Egypt, despite its many claims had a meager standing army and force that was extremely unlikely be of much use against the small, but efficiently armed and veteran members of the so called Zionist Army in New Tiberias. As a result, Abbas II of Egypt turned his attention to the British and as the British were the legal administrators of Egypt, demanded that the British do something about it, or the Egyptians would ask the Ottomans to invade the Sinai and restore Egyptian rule there. The Zionist lobby in London was however too powerful, and Austen Chamberlain worried that if he intervened in the Sinai overtly against the Zionist congress the rupture in relations and economic property and trade would have been too high for the country to bear, and most certainly lead to conservative and liberal unionist defeat against the Liberals and Labour Party in the next General Elections. There was also the fact that the British army had been dangerously underfunded after the end of the Great War, and the British War Ministry was not enthusiastic about a new war and the Royal Treasury was not enthusiastic about a new drain for the budget. There was the growing amount of economic problems in Britain that made the notion of going to another war whilst committing themselves to action in Afghanistan a possibility that was not going to happen at all. A vote in Parliament made that clear when no side got a majority in the votes that followed. As a result, Chamberlain told Abbas II that he could not intervene in what was purely an internal Egyptian affair for the moment until he could get the government and economy in favor of such an intervention whilst getting the economy ready for an intervention in the sinai, so close the Suez Canal as well, however since the Khedive of Egypt was subservient under the Ottoman Sultan, he could ask the Ottomans to restore order; on the condition that they retreated back to their own boundaries after the conflict.
Such was the measure of 8 years of budding renewal of relationships between the London government and Constantinople Government, that the British would allow the Ottomans to do this. They also committed the amount of British troops that they had, around 6,000 in the Suez Canal to aid the Egyptians and Ottomans in a covert manner. On January 29, the Egyptian and British ambassadors to the Ottoman Empire demanded to speak with the Sultan and the Grand Vizier in a joint session. There they conveyed the sensitive topic, and asked the Ottomans to militarily intervene for the British. Sultan Abdulmejid II agreed to speak out against the Zionists in Sinai, however stated that the Ottomans would not intervene, because Egypt, as it were, was administratively British, and the Ottomans would be overstepping their rights in the region if they did so.
The British had also by this point managed to formulate a proper vote in the parliament, and finally on January 31, the parliament voted to act against the budding Zionist republic in the Sinai. At this point, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Louis du Pan Mallet, told the Ottomans that the 18th Nicosia Division from Cyprus was being moved to Egypt and that around 60 warplanes in Alexandria would be aiding the 26,000 British and 10,000 Egyptian troops to recapture the Sinai. The British retook their position of a full Ottoman intervention back, however asked that the Ottomans still stay in solidarity with the Anglo-Egyptian position and if possible, send aid to the Anglo-Egyptians, as a two front attack would make the Zionists collapse faster. The Ottomans decided to settle for a massive bombing campaign, using all of the 120 warplanes that the Ottomans had in the Levant and agreed to stay on side with the British and Egyptians.
Ottoman diplomats during the Concordat of Jerusalem.
For the Zionists this was a disaster. They had believed that the Zionist lobby in Britain would have been too powerful to make Britain intervene, as well as the economic factors of the country. However with Britain intervening, the small Zionist Republic of Sinai, led by its incumbent President, Max Isidor Bodenheimer decided to negotiate. Even before conflict could break out, the 1st Sinai Crisis ended on March 14, when Anglo-Ottoman brokered and backed negotiations forced the Egyptians and Zionist Congress to sign the Concordat of Jerusalem. The major points of the Concordat were:-
Ever since March 1917, the Egyptian nation had been subject to around 6 anti-British uprisings and small scale rebellions already, with boycotting of British goods taking place, and British military personnel being attacked and British civilians being segregated. As a result, the Egyptian Khedivate was turning out to be a massive monetary drain on the British Empire. The anticolonial riots and British suppression of them had led to the deaths of around 800 Egyptian civilians, 12 British civilians and 18 British military deaths. On November 1917, the Milner Commission had been dispatched by the British to attempt to resolve the situation. In early 1918, the commission submitted their report to the government, recommending that the protectorate be replaced by a treaty of alliance and military access. The British government had been undecided about giving full independence to Egypt, and the issue was thrown down the road by kicking the proverbial can. However the 1st Sinai Crisis had given the British government impetus to start to actually seek Egyptian independence. They were collaborating with the Ottomans to end the legality of Ottoman suzerainty over Egypt. The Ottomans in practice agreed to Egyptian independence, which had been the situation for the Ottomans ever since 1882, however they were unwilling to let go of the Sultan’s position as overall Suzerain of Egypt, unless recompense could be made to Constantinople, regarding all of the Ottoman offices, civilian employees and legal judicial officers in Egypt working for the Ottoman Empire as a part of the Ottoman Suzerainty over Egypt.
Finally on March 31, the British government agreed to recompense Ottoman property and employees in Egypt in return for Egyptian independence. That day the Agreement of Smyrna was signed between the Ottomans and the British which paved the way for full Egyptian independence on October 28, 1919 later that year.” The Sinai Crisis’s: The Colonization of the Sinai Peninsula © 2013
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***
“On January 3, 1919, Seratti, the leader of the Italian Communists and Socialists announced in front of the Italian All-Socialist Worker’s Congress that the first elections for the Congress would be taking place in February. This came as a surprise for many as the Italian Civil War was still raging in the south with extreme amounts of violence on both sides of the battlefield, and the northern mountain passes in the Italian Alps was filled to the brim with anti-Socialist guerillas. Many believed that Seratii would not call for an election as long as the northern guerillas weren’t dealt with. However Seratii was extremely worried about a French and Austrian intervention as both sides were filling the border up with troops and war material. Seratii therefore, rightly assessed that if he conducted an election, even if it were during a war, he would gain the legitimacy needed to safeguard the newly dubbed Democratic Italian Worker’s Republic or simply the DIWR.
The Italian All-Socialist Worker’s Congress was officially divided into 7 different factions. The first and most powerful of these factions was the Hard Left Faction. These people and politicians believed that the ideal future lay ahead in full Marxism and the total conversion of the country into a proletariat state. They didn’t control the majority of the congress, however still had a major plurality in place. They also publically called out their distaste for democratic methods of governance but they weren’t above taking part in them. The second most powerful faction was the Moderate Left Faction. These politicians believed that the ideal solution was a Marxist state with democratic system of governance as well as keeping local means of produce in the hands of the private owners, though the vast majority of the economy needed to be centrally planned according to them. The final plural faction in the Congress was the Christian Communist Faction. Christians made up a majority in Italy and even many communists were attached to their faiths. They advocated a measure of leftist conservatism and believed that unlike mainstream communism, religion and communism would be able to exist with one another properly. These three factions together formed the Congress’s ‘Big Three’ as most of the power of the congress was situated in the hands of these three factions within the Italian All-Socialist Worker’s Congress.
Then come the second tier factions in the congress. The first and most powerful among the second tier factions was the Right Leftist Faction. This was more of a cultural communist faction and nationalist communist groups, that believed in Italian cultural hegemony and nationalist irredentism alongside political Marxism and centrally planned economics, along with a hint of fiscal conservatism. Below that were the Social Democrats, who were legalized by Seratti to continue their operations. The Social Democrats were the faction who advocated a Nordic style economic model of mixed economics whilst retaining democratic ideals. After the Social Democrats were the Democratic Socialists, who were not that different from the Social Democrats, however the Democratic Socialists believed that the economy needed to be fully socialist whilst believing in a democratic system of governance. Finally the independents were a hodgepodge of other ideologies ranging from capitalism to monarchism to liberalism etc.
The first election of the Democratic Italian Worker’s Republic took place on February 24 and ended on February 27 when the results were announced. The turnout for the elections was particularly low, especially due to the fact that the northern guerillas made a small habit of blowing up polling stations and attacking official members of the government. Nonetheless, due to the public favor that the Italian Congress had received from the Vatican and the Holy See, many Italians were buoyed into coming to vote for the elections.
The elections ended with the Hard Left Faction being reduced from 33% of the congress to 28% but still holding overall plurality of the congress. Meanwhile, the Moderate and Christian Communist factions finished second and third respectively. At first these two factions raised a lot of oppositions against electing a Chairman from the Hard Left faction as they believed that the anti-democratic ideals of the Hard Left faction would undermine the entire election that was held and give carte blanche to the Danubians and French to invade.
It was agreed that a cross factional member, Antonio Gramsci, though a bit on the young side, would be elevated to the position as Chairman of the Congress. As a cross factional member of both the Hard Left Faction and Moderate Faction, he was acceptable for both sides.
Antonio Gramsci.
Just like Seratii had believed the elections managed to partially legitimize the Democratic Italian Worker’s Republic and many moderates and center-leftists in both Paris and Vienna began to attack the militaristic ambitions of their governments, stating that an invasion of a democratically elected government, no matter how low the turnout had been alongside a civil war, was something that their nations could not and would not undertake. Both Paris and Vienna were also buoyed from invasion and intervention, however both the countries vowed that any hint of ‘exporting the revolution’ as the communists called, would be met with military response. No ifs and no buts, Prince Louis, the Minister-President of Danubia and Viviani both stated this in blunt tones to their populace and political enemies.” The Political History of the Democratic Italian Worker’s Republic. The Socialist Democratic Utopia? © 1988.
***
“The rebellion of Mulla Abd Allah in Afghanistan against King Amanullah Khan was immediately a giant problem for the British government in India as Pashtuns from across the Durand Line began to aid the government of Afghanistan and the rebels, depending upon their allegiances and preferences. This state of affairs escalated to a great amount on December 27, 1918 when British Sikh border guards in the Durand Line were attacked and killed by Pashto Afghan rebels as they perceived that the British were aiding the Afghan government.
Lord Chelmsford, the Governor-General of the British Raj knew that this state of affairs could not continue and that the situation had turned dangerous as cross border warfare continued to escalate between the two parties in the Afghan conflict. As Afghanistan was still a British protectorate, he had the official right to intervene in Afghan politics. On January 6, 1919, he asked permission from Prime Minister Austen Chamberlain, asking him to give the permission to the British Indian Army to invade Afghanistan and quell the rebellion on Khost and Herat. Chamberlain was reluctant to do this. The Afghans already hated their status of protectorate and vassal, even though Britain meddled in their internal affairs very little. Meddling in their affairs so blatantly would make Afghan goodwill to the British melt down to nothingness. However continued raids, such as the burning of Parachinar in British Pashto Lands forced the British government to make a decision. On January 12, the Commons convened to discuss the current Afghan dilemma and voted in favor of intervening in the Afghan Civil War. Later that day the British cabinet called Lord Chelmsford and gave him carte blanche to invade Afghanistan and quell the rebellion that was being fermented in Khost and Herat.
On January 18, the 7th Sikh Division, the 1st Gurkha Rifles, the 20th Indian Infantry Division and 38th Gloucester Infantry Division were gathered up to form a 70,000 strong invasion force in British Balochistan in Quetta. The troops were placed under the overall command of Sir Arthur Barrett. Barrett was told that he was to aid the Afghan government and stamp down on the cross border conflict, whilst capturing Mullah Abd Khan if it was possible. The 30 aircraft positioned from Bombay would act as his aerial recon units as well as bomber units.
Sir Arthur Barrett
On January 30, after one and a half weeks of military preparation, Barrett decided to take the offensive and the 70,000 Anglo-Indian army entered Afghan territory, immediately encountering tribal resistance. However the tribal resistance of Afghanistan was something that the British had experienced first hand in 1840 and 1878, and they by the third attempt knew how to fight back. Counter-insurgency tactics were immediately deployed. Population control was created by Barrett and every captured city and town or village in Afghan territory was subjected to massive checks from the Anglo-Indian Army and hamlets checks and defenses were created by the Anglo-Indians to make sure that tribal units would not be able to infiltrate the captured villages and towns.
Cordon and Search tactics were applied as well, as multiple areas were cordoned off and premises were searched regularly by the troops against insurgents. Barrett implemented the new doctrine that was being called as Cordon and Kick; Stability and Support Operations. The 30 aerial aircraft aiding the British were also used to pinpoint tribal guerillas and rebels and destroy them with the use of combined arms by the old yet wily general.
Barrett also implemented a strict doctrine of public ethics and diplomacy within the troops and any and all acts of violence against the Afghan population was stamped down by Barrett with frightening ferocity making any ideas of committing a warcrime a dubious one among the troops. These tactics were successful and by the time the British captured Kandahar on February 28 and subjugated Khost, the tribal guerilla warfare against Kabul and New Delhi was virtually destroyed by Barrett. After that diplomatic intrigues followed in Kabul as King Amanullah Khan was unwilling to negotiate properly with the hated Britons.
Finally on March 29, 1919, the Kabul Concord was signed between the Emirate of Afghanistan and the United Kingdom, led by Barrett and Amanullah in which Amanullah agreed to turn back some of his reforms to make sure that the population remained amenable to him and general stability returned. He also reaffirmed the Durand line as the border between Afghanistan and the British Raj and agreed to deploy border guards to stop cross border ethnic flareups and tribal conflicts. The British also withheld the right to make sure that the border was secured.
British Troops in Afghanistan.
Despite this victory of sorts for Amanullah Khan, the perceived image that the British needed to aid him was the death knell for his popularity in the country. He would not be trusted by the population again and as British troops left the Afghan nation one by one, the politicians and nationalists as well as Islamic conservatives began to intrigue with one another against the Afghan King, much to his own detriment.” The Graveyard of Empires: Truth or False? A History of the Invasions of Afghanistan. © 2019.
***
“As per the Government of India Act 1918, the Indian portion of the British Empire had the right to hold general elections once every 5 years, and the first of these elections was to take place on February 22, 1919 and end on February 28, 1919. The trio of parties that were taking part in this election were the Indian National Congress, the All India Muslim League and the Nationalist Party led by Motilal Nehru, Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Madan Mohan Malaviya respectively.
Motilal Nehru.
Motilal Nehru had since 1883, earned a name for himself as a popular legal man involved in the legal business in Allahabad. In 1909 he reached the peak of his legal career by attaining the right to appear in the British Privy Council, becoming one of the few Indians to have gained the right to do so. His frequent visits to Europe had angered the Kashmiri Brahmin community as he refused to perform the traditional reformation ceremony that Hindus undertook after crossing the Indian Ocean. He had started on a path of wealthy elites and became involved in the Indian National Congress. In January 3, 1919 upon the endorsement of Mohandas Karmachand Ghandhi, he was elected to become the President of the Indian National Congress, and as such its leader for the upcoming first elections in the British Raj.
Alongside Nehru, the INC ran a platform of secularism during their electoral campaign hoping to gain the Muslim and Buddhist votes of the British Raj. The main platform of the INC during this campaign, and many campaign in the future was to seek Dominion Status for the British Raj within the system of the British Empire, seeking to have a moderate policy so as to not threaten the British who could clamp down on them immediately if they wanted. They also campaigned on a platform of reforming the new electoral law for the Raj General elections to expand suffrage not based on property rights but based on age and citizenship.
On the other side of the spectrum, stood Mohammad Ali Jinnah who led the All India Muslim League. Jinnah endorsed the Two Dominion Theory and he too ran on a platform of making sure that dominion was created within the framework of the British Empire. However he advocated for the creation of two dominions, one Hindu/Buddhist Dominion named Bharat and one Muslim dominion named Pakistan. He also lambasted the special electoral privilege that had been granted to the Hindu electoral regions of the British Raj and made his campaign on creating an equal amount of electoral regional reforms within the system of the new electoral government. Jinnah endorsed a campaign of what we today call secular Islamism, as he advocated for cooperation between the muslim majority and hindu and Buddhist minority of muslim majority provinces and electoral regions in the British Raj, seeking to gain their votes as well. Jinnah failed to do this properly during the 1919 General Elections, however would succeed by the end of his career. Unlike the INC, the All India Muslim League also ran a platform of economics, advocating for neoliberal economic policy to increase productivity in the British Raj to enrich the population whilst at the same time advocating for a greater amount of access to education for all in the Raj.
The third and final party was led by Milaviya was the Nationalist Party. This party took it a step further, and called for the creation of a dominion and within ten years of the establishment of a dominion, the creation of an independent India, whether or not under the British Monarchy or as a republic was left unsaid and was to be discussed in the future. Milaviya was a radical nationalist, and he had alienated a lot of the Muslim and Buddhist population during his campaigns as his speeches and electoral campaign was increasingly only Hindu oriented and Hindu focused, sidelining the other religious minorities of the country.
On February 28, it was declared that the INC had won 209 seats in the Central Legislative Assembly whilst the AIML had won 125 seats in the assembly. The Nationalist Party had won 95 seats in the assembly as well. Independents received a large share of the vote as well, gaining 61 seats. With the aid of the Anglo-Indian community and the Christian population of the British Raj, around 18 seats were gained by European deputies in the British Raj as well. Motilal Nehru, as the leader of the party which held the most seats in the assembly was made the Secretary of the Assembly, a position akin to that of a speaker or chairman of a legislative council.” The British Raj: A History of Colonialism, Brutality, Aid and the Creation of Nations. © 2008.
***
“On January 5, 1919, Ahmet Riza announced that the campaign for the 1919 Ottoman Senatorial Elections had officially started. In this endeavor, there was a lot of enthusiasm for the elections that year, as this election would be the first election in the Ottoman Empire that would take place under the Added Mixed Representation System. For this type of elections, 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. The Electoral Commission of the Ottoman Empire had thus divided the Empire into 14 Regions – Anatolia, Constantinople, Syria, Mesopotamia, Najd, Hejaz, Yemen, Albania, Macedonia, Thrace, Epirus, Northern Thessaly and North Africa.
The Committee of Union and Progress was starting to have some problems with the electorate during the electoral campaign for the elections. Their previous inaction towards the Greeks when they took over Cyprus hadn’t been forgiven and neither had it been forgotten, and many of the nationalist populace of the country began to act against the Committee of Union and Progress, costing the CUP precious votes in the upcoming elections. Ahmet Riza’s own image had taken a hit as many perceived that he had done nothing to save Sultan Mehmed VI who had been killed right in front of his own eyes. His actions against the tribes in Yemen had also sparked fear in many of the tribal constituencies of the Senate that he would eradicate the tribal system completely. The opponents of the Committee of Union and Progress would use all of these factors to ensure that they gained ground in the Senate.
a statue of Hasan Prishtina.
The Liberal Union on the hand had an easier time gaining the upper hand in the elections. They had studied the Regional List system in a more appropriate manner than their opponents and Hasan Prishtina intended to use this to his advantage during the elections. Prishtina managed to use the increasing focus on the economy by the government to look into other neglected matters of the state, such as medical services and firefighting services of the country which had been neglected by the government. He was also inspired by the Nordic social welfare system and to the astonishment of many, kept the system as official policy within the party manifesto. He stated that the party would support unconditional welfare systems in the country to make sure that the people of the country could be uplifted and enriched.
The Ottoman Socialist Party on the other hand simply tried to stay where it was and tried to keep their seats in constituencies where that had standing members. The culling of a few constituencies to create the new regional list system had hurt the Socialists the most, and their leader, Huseyin Hilmi recognized the fact that he would have to maintain electoral leadership and not gain more during this election. He too supported a welfare model for the Ottoman Empire, and was interested in increasing secularism in the country, garnering a good amount of sympathy votes from the Christians, Shias, Ibadis and Jews of the country.
The Ottoman Democrats were placing their platform on a basis on opposition to the current protectionist policies of the government on the economy focusing on neoliberal economic policies as well as fiscal conservatism. They also supported the abolishment of the feudal Beyliks in Ottoman Rumelia. Even though their formal power had been greatly diminished after 1908, these Beyliks still held a lot of influence in the regional areas, and were according to the Ottoman Democrats, a threat to Ottoman democracy. The Ottoman Social Democrats were perhaps the most ardent supporters of a Nordic style welfare system in the country and campaigned their entire electoral campaign based on this idea. Ata Atalay, the leader of the Ottoman Social Democrats was also a doctor and held a doctorate making his position a tad bit stronger to the population as he campaigned in favor of it. The Ottoman Armenian Regionalist Party and the Ottoman Public Administration for Decentralization (OPAD) party led by Armen Gar and Rafiq Bey both had wizened up partially and both only campaigned for the elections based on the regional list rather than the constituencies, and managed to successfully run for the lists through their means of canny electoral campaigns. The Poale Zion largely stayed inactive due to the growing fractionalism inside the party between pro-Zionist and anti-Zionist Jews within the party.
By the end of the elections, Huseyin Hilmi had lost his position as Speaker of the Senate in the Ottoman Senate and a contingent vote allowed Hassan Prishtina, the leader of the Liberal Union to gain that seat instead, as the leader of the largest party within the Ottoman Senate. The Liberal Union’s victory in the 1919 Senatorial Elections would set the stage for the Liberal Union’s victory in the 1922 Ottoman general elections.” Ottoman Politics: An Era of Tumult in the 20th Century. © 2016
***
“On January 18, the Egyptian Minister of the Interior, Mohamed Tawfik Naseem Pasha unilaterally threatened to end the Jewish settlement in the Sinai region after it was leaked through Zionist press that the Arab population of the Sinai Peninsula were being degraded and being harassed, as well as segregated by the Zionist Congress as they set up a local government there. Naseem Pasha warned the leader of the Egyptian Zionist Government in Sinai (EZGS), Max Isidor Bodenheimer that any further continuation of such segregation methods would see the Egyptian army at their front gates.
Max Isidor Bodenheimer
The Zionist Congress had for the past few years becoming increasingly powerful in Egypt, and the Zionists were now not going to play by the Egyptian rules. Having enough of bowing to Egyptian law and order, on January 24, the Egyptian Zionist Congress in New Tiberias declared the Independent Zionist Republic of the Sinai to be independent and sovereign from the Khedivate of Egypt. This immediately led to the trigger of the 1st Sinai Crisis.
The Khedive of Egypt, despite its many claims had a meager standing army and force that was extremely unlikely be of much use against the small, but efficiently armed and veteran members of the so called Zionist Army in New Tiberias. As a result, Abbas II of Egypt turned his attention to the British and as the British were the legal administrators of Egypt, demanded that the British do something about it, or the Egyptians would ask the Ottomans to invade the Sinai and restore Egyptian rule there. The Zionist lobby in London was however too powerful, and Austen Chamberlain worried that if he intervened in the Sinai overtly against the Zionist congress the rupture in relations and economic property and trade would have been too high for the country to bear, and most certainly lead to conservative and liberal unionist defeat against the Liberals and Labour Party in the next General Elections. There was also the fact that the British army had been dangerously underfunded after the end of the Great War, and the British War Ministry was not enthusiastic about a new war and the Royal Treasury was not enthusiastic about a new drain for the budget. There was the growing amount of economic problems in Britain that made the notion of going to another war whilst committing themselves to action in Afghanistan a possibility that was not going to happen at all. A vote in Parliament made that clear when no side got a majority in the votes that followed. As a result, Chamberlain told Abbas II that he could not intervene in what was purely an internal Egyptian affair for the moment until he could get the government and economy in favor of such an intervention whilst getting the economy ready for an intervention in the sinai, so close the Suez Canal as well, however since the Khedive of Egypt was subservient under the Ottoman Sultan, he could ask the Ottomans to restore order; on the condition that they retreated back to their own boundaries after the conflict.
Such was the measure of 8 years of budding renewal of relationships between the London government and Constantinople Government, that the British would allow the Ottomans to do this. They also committed the amount of British troops that they had, around 6,000 in the Suez Canal to aid the Egyptians and Ottomans in a covert manner. On January 29, the Egyptian and British ambassadors to the Ottoman Empire demanded to speak with the Sultan and the Grand Vizier in a joint session. There they conveyed the sensitive topic, and asked the Ottomans to militarily intervene for the British. Sultan Abdulmejid II agreed to speak out against the Zionists in Sinai, however stated that the Ottomans would not intervene, because Egypt, as it were, was administratively British, and the Ottomans would be overstepping their rights in the region if they did so.
The British had also by this point managed to formulate a proper vote in the parliament, and finally on January 31, the parliament voted to act against the budding Zionist republic in the Sinai. At this point, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Louis du Pan Mallet, told the Ottomans that the 18th Nicosia Division from Cyprus was being moved to Egypt and that around 60 warplanes in Alexandria would be aiding the 26,000 British and 10,000 Egyptian troops to recapture the Sinai. The British retook their position of a full Ottoman intervention back, however asked that the Ottomans still stay in solidarity with the Anglo-Egyptian position and if possible, send aid to the Anglo-Egyptians, as a two front attack would make the Zionists collapse faster. The Ottomans decided to settle for a massive bombing campaign, using all of the 120 warplanes that the Ottomans had in the Levant and agreed to stay on side with the British and Egyptians.
Ottoman diplomats during the Concordat of Jerusalem.
For the Zionists this was a disaster. They had believed that the Zionist lobby in Britain would have been too powerful to make Britain intervene, as well as the economic factors of the country. However with Britain intervening, the small Zionist Republic of Sinai, led by its incumbent President, Max Isidor Bodenheimer decided to negotiate. Even before conflict could break out, the 1st Sinai Crisis ended on March 14, when Anglo-Ottoman brokered and backed negotiations forced the Egyptians and Zionist Congress to sign the Concordat of Jerusalem. The major points of the Concordat were:-
- The Egyptian sovereignty over Sinai to be inalienable.
- The Zionists to have an autonomous amount of power within their Sinai settlements
- The Zionists to create a commission of board members from mainland Egypt, the Ottomans and the British to make sure that the rights of the Arab populace were guaranteed and not alienated.
- The resignation of Bodenheimer from the post of Zionist Representative in Sinai.
Ever since March 1917, the Egyptian nation had been subject to around 6 anti-British uprisings and small scale rebellions already, with boycotting of British goods taking place, and British military personnel being attacked and British civilians being segregated. As a result, the Egyptian Khedivate was turning out to be a massive monetary drain on the British Empire. The anticolonial riots and British suppression of them had led to the deaths of around 800 Egyptian civilians, 12 British civilians and 18 British military deaths. On November 1917, the Milner Commission had been dispatched by the British to attempt to resolve the situation. In early 1918, the commission submitted their report to the government, recommending that the protectorate be replaced by a treaty of alliance and military access. The British government had been undecided about giving full independence to Egypt, and the issue was thrown down the road by kicking the proverbial can. However the 1st Sinai Crisis had given the British government impetus to start to actually seek Egyptian independence. They were collaborating with the Ottomans to end the legality of Ottoman suzerainty over Egypt. The Ottomans in practice agreed to Egyptian independence, which had been the situation for the Ottomans ever since 1882, however they were unwilling to let go of the Sultan’s position as overall Suzerain of Egypt, unless recompense could be made to Constantinople, regarding all of the Ottoman offices, civilian employees and legal judicial officers in Egypt working for the Ottoman Empire as a part of the Ottoman Suzerainty over Egypt.
Finally on March 31, the British government agreed to recompense Ottoman property and employees in Egypt in return for Egyptian independence. That day the Agreement of Smyrna was signed between the Ottomans and the British which paved the way for full Egyptian independence on October 28, 1919 later that year.” The Sinai Crisis’s: The Colonization of the Sinai Peninsula © 2013
***
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Attack of the Dead Men
During the September Revolution in 1915, when the Bulgarian Communists tried to set up a communist republic, they weren't above using poison gas against their opponents. Throughout Bulgaria, Royalists took up arms in the name of King Boris III to defeat the Reds temporarily allying themselves with their old Ottoman foe. One such Royalist stronghold was Opaka, in Northcentral Bulgaria. A small fortress manned by 3,000 Royalist militia against an attack by around 10,000 Redshirts. The redshirts unleashed poison gas knowing that the Royalists didn't have any protection against gas attacks. After unleashing the gas they moved in with gas masks to what they presumed to be an easy fight. However much to the horror of many Redshirts, from the mist and gas remnants, they saw the Royalists charging out of the fortress with bayonets and rifles with scarfs over their mouth spitting out blood and parts of their internal organs. The mere sight was so terrifying that the Redshirts abandoned the attack. Ottoman, British and Greek media would later dub the Battle of Opaka the Attack of the Dead Men.
On October 2, 2010, in honor of their sacrifice and duty, King Boris IV of Bulgaria, who is particularly famous in the Balkans for also being a metal rock star, released a song in honor of the Attack of the Dead Men.
Disclaimer: OTL song is obviously Attack of the Dead Men by Sabaton.
During the September Revolution in 1915, when the Bulgarian Communists tried to set up a communist republic, they weren't above using poison gas against their opponents. Throughout Bulgaria, Royalists took up arms in the name of King Boris III to defeat the Reds temporarily allying themselves with their old Ottoman foe. One such Royalist stronghold was Opaka, in Northcentral Bulgaria. A small fortress manned by 3,000 Royalist militia against an attack by around 10,000 Redshirts. The redshirts unleashed poison gas knowing that the Royalists didn't have any protection against gas attacks. After unleashing the gas they moved in with gas masks to what they presumed to be an easy fight. However much to the horror of many Redshirts, from the mist and gas remnants, they saw the Royalists charging out of the fortress with bayonets and rifles with scarfs over their mouth spitting out blood and parts of their internal organs. The mere sight was so terrifying that the Redshirts abandoned the attack. Ottoman, British and Greek media would later dub the Battle of Opaka the Attack of the Dead Men.
On October 2, 2010, in honor of their sacrifice and duty, King Boris IV of Bulgaria, who is particularly famous in the Balkans for also being a metal rock star, released a song in honor of the Attack of the Dead Men.
Turmoil at the front
Blagoev's forces on the hunt
There's thunder in the east
It's an attack of the deceased
They've been facing poison gas
5, 000 charge en masse
Turn the tide of the attack
And force the enemy to turn back
And that's when the dead men are marching again
Opaka then and again
Attack of the dead, hundred men
Facing the lead once again
Hundred men
Charge again
Die again
Opaka then and again
Attack of the dead, hundred men
Facing the lead once again
Hundred men
Charge again
Die again
Two combatants spar
Blagoev against the Tsar
Move-in 6 battalions large
Into a Bulgarian counter-charge
They'll be fighting for their lives
As their enemy revives
Bulgarians won't surrender, no
Striking fear into their foe
And that's when the dead men are marching again…
Disclaimer: OTL song is obviously Attack of the Dead Men by Sabaton.
Chapter 38: The Calm of a Storm.
***
“The Italian Civil War and the Italian Revolution held its breath as General Ottovio Ragni, the commander of the Italian Red Army entered Neapolitan territory on the 16th of April, 1919 to conduct a whirlwind campaign which would end the Italian Civil War once and for all. He had around 60,000 men under him and he aimed to defeat whatever the anti-communists would throw at him and captured Naples which would basically ensure the fall of the mainland to the communists. Meanwhile, communist agents in Sicily and Sardinia were working to make sure that the islands fell under communist rule as well.
Ottovio Ragni
The Red Army moved south and was met by the 3rd Italian Army, under the command of General Emannuele Filiberto, the 2nd Duke of Aosta, who was renowned throughout Italy as the undefeated Duke, since he had led the Italian 3rd Army without a single defeat under his belt. The Duke hadn’t been willing to raise arms against the Socialists and Communists at first, however the dire situation of not having proper commanders for the provisional government, as well as empty promises from Sturzo about restoring the monarchy prompted the 2nd Duke of Aosta to join sides with the Italian Provisional Government.
2nd Duke of Aosta
The two armies met each other during the Battle of Fessani. The Battle of Fessani saw the Duke defeat the Italian Red Army in a whirlwind attack that took the Socialists by surprise and pushed them back, however the Red Army simply withdrew in good order north to Lazio where they met up with reinforcements in San Lorenzo, which endangered the Duke’s position with a flanking attack from the northeast. As a result, despite not having suffered a defeat, the Duke had to retreat from Fessani and he moved to the mountain pass of Cascano. The mountain pass there presented the 3rd army with a great defensive barrier against attacks from the north and flanking maneuvers and the Duke ordered his men to hunker down.
The Battle of Cascano
On April 29, the attack came as the Battle of Cascano began. However unfortunately for the Duke, the concentrated amount of troops in the mountain pass also allowed the enemy to concentrate their artillery fire at his troops and the Provisional troops were mowed down. The personal magnetism of the Duke undimmed he led several speeches and walked among the troops in the front, allowing the men to hold firm in their defensive lines. This melted away when the Duke was struck by fragments of a shell exploding near a trenchline that he was examining. The strike was fatal and the Duke died, in his attempt to raise morale. Their iconic commander dead, the Italian Third Army began to give way to the Red Army and finally on May 3, the Italian Red Army broke through Cascano, and the Italian Third Army virtually ceased to exist as they disintegrated into the countryside.
On May 10, the Italian Red Army entered Naples after a brief firefight with the Provisional garrison troops that proved to be fruitless and raised the socialist republican banner in the ancient city taking Pompei and Salerno alongside the city and its urban parameters. Like Seratti had thought, the resistance against the Socialists and Communists started to crumble in the face of the Red Army’s breakthrough. The country was tired of 4 years of endless war and they wanted peace, at almost any cost. Tired Neapolitan troops began to desert from the Provisional government en masse and the infighting in the Provisional government, with moderate republicans, far right nationalists and monarchists all wasting time arguing with one another and dithering rather than taking active actions against the incoming Red Army. On May 27, the Red Army took Taranto after dealing a final crushing blow at the Battle of Massafra, which ended any and all resistance to socialist rule on the Italian mainland. All that now remained after this would be the islands of Sicily and Sardinia.
Despite the distances involved, Sardinia was actually the easier of the two main Italian islands to retake. The island was devastated by the Allied Invasion two years prior and now they were embroiled in a war they didn’t want and didn’t support. The Provisional government had been cut off from Italian mainland agriculture which was sustaining the island’s population and didn’t have enough money to buy extra agricultural supplies from international benefactors. As a result, many Sardinians had been killed from starvation and many were turning to acts and deeds such as cannibalization to sustain themselves and prevent themselves from dying from hunger. Communist agents thus found it relatively easy to infiltrate Sardinian society and fill them with rage and anger against the Provisional government and had them rioting.
On May 25, a massive amount of Sardinian peasants revolted in Sassari in favor of the Italian Socialists and declared the Provisional government illegitimate. The Italian Provisional Navy based in Cagliari defected over to the Socialists as they deemed continuing the war as a lost cause by all rights and signed over the surrender of the ships to Rome. Accompanied by the defected ships, the Socialists reintegrated Sardinia into the People’s Democratic Republic of Italy, despite a small scale anti-guerilla war going on in the island against communist rule.
Sicily was the harder part, to end the war, as most of the provisional troops were concentrated there, and despite the shorter distance, the sheer volume of artillery and cannon that the provisional government had stored in Sicily gave the Socialists a pause. On May 29, 1919 the government in Rome gave the go to for 100,000 Red troops to invade Sicily through the straits of Messina which would not require a massive ship lift to do so, due to the very short distance between Sicily and Neapolitan territory in Calabria. Red Marines landed ashore to the islands of Vulcano, Lipari and Lafa on May 31 and took the islands without a fight as the prelude to the actual invasion. That night a massive bombardment of Messina from Calabria took place as the Reds started to move troops in order to invade Sicily.
From Reggio Calabria as their base, the Reds launched an amphibious invasion made out of makeshift transport barges and around 8,000 Reds landed in the first wave. The Reds all coalesced into a defensive parameters in their landing grounds fending off attempts to defeat them until the second and third waves provided them with ample men to actually move against the provisional government. On June 12th, 20,000 Reds stormed Messina and took the city and the majority of the members of the provisional government stuck there prisoner. With the government falling in the hands of the Reds, all means of resistance started to effectively crumble in Sicily as well. On June 30, Sturzo signed the Instrument of Surrender therefore handing over power over the island of Sicily to the Reds, ending the Italian Civil War and Italian Revolution once and for all.
3rd Duke of Genoa
Before the Reds could arrive near Palermo, the Sicilian Fleet commanded by Prince Ferdinando of Savoy, the son of the 2nd Duke of Genoa, managed to take command of the fleet stationed there and purged the fleet of suspected communists and left sympathizers. He then organized a withdrawal of ships, taking around 40,000 refugees with him as his fleet sailed to French Tunisia where they would be given refuge. There, he would hand over the fleet he came with to the French. As the main branch of the House of Savoy had collectively been culled due to the revolution and the civil war, including his father, Prince Thomas, Prince Ferdinando, the 3rd Duke of Genoa, officially became the pretender in exile to the Italian throne which by this point was defunct.” The Italian Revolution © 1988.
***
“On April 7, the American 4th Army advanced on the capital of the Philippines after years of fighting in the archipelago. The Philippine revolt against the American government was about to end after 3 years of brutal warfare between the ethnic Filipinos and the American government who sought to retain control over the island statelets in the Philippines. The American 4th Army was commanded by Brigadier General Frederick Abbot and he commanded 40,000 men spread all across the outskirts of Manila. He was ordered by President Hughes to take the city and end the Second American-Filipino War once and for all.
Brigadier General Frederick Abbot
Meanwhile the Filipino defenses were led by Emilio Aguinaldo and President Sergio Osmena who was trying to hurriedly make sure that a proper defense of the capital could be made. The Filipinos had around 50,000 troops with them, however they were far from well trained or well equipped like that of their American counterparts. Chinese and Japanese supervisors could only do so much when the islands were under constant American blockade, so much so that the lucrative Dutch-Filipino and Malaya-Filipino trade had been halted by the entire war as well.
American regiments opened fire at Manila on the 10th of April, 1919 and began to break into the Filipino resistance and defensive parameters in and around of Rosario and Bacoor which allowed the American Regiments to enter Paranaque easily by the end of the day, however were stalled there by heavy Filipino resistance, combined with the aid given by Chinese and Japanese volunteers present in the area who fought alongside the Filipino troops. In the north, led by Brigadier General Irving Hale, led a massive bombardment and attack on the Filipino barrier and defensive parameter in the area of Santa Maria, and the overwhelming amount of American firepower forced the Filipino regiments in the north to fall back to the La Mesa watershed which provided the Filipinos with a strong defensive position to halt the American advance from the north. However the main American breakthrough came at the center. Led by Brigadier General Edward Anderson, the 26th and 17th American Cavalry Regiments broke through the Filipino defenses at the heights of Calawis and pushed into Rodriguez, where the speed of the cavalry did not give the Filipinos enough time to retreat and form a proper defense. Having completely flanked the defenses at La Mesa, the Filipino defenders there were slaughtered, and American troops from the center began to pour into Metropolitan Manila.
American troops in the outskirts off a destroyed Manilla
The next day with no other choice but to surrender, President Osmena signed the decree of surrender. Emilio Aguinaldo, prominent Filipino nationalist and wartime hero of the Philippine population, even committed suicide in anguish of having lost the war with Washington DC once again. Sergio Osmena was captured by American forces, and the entire provisional government of the Philippines was taken by the American government as hostage. President Hughes was then caught in a conundrum. What could he do about the Philippine government without angering the population of the Philippines? Well as the answer had it, anything he did would alienate one facet of Philippine society. On the other hand, Datu Piang continued to conduct a small scale guerilla war in Mindanao against American authority in the islands and the Sultans of Mindanao had also gone into hiding and had started to conduct a massive guerilla war against the American occupation on the island, which caused a massive amount of money going down the proverbial drain.
President Hughes already had massive problems at home, having had to fight against the southern Democrats and reversing some of their more racial policies, which was important considering that the Black population made up a massive share of Republican votes, and the situation in the Philippines promised to make sure that the upcoming Presidential elections next year would be interesting to say the least. Hughes recognized this fact and decided that for the time being he would suspend Philippine autonomy until the House of Representatives and the Senate got their act together so that a proper solution could be made.
Hughes himself preferred to allow Philippines to have gradual independence from the United States of America. Hardline imperialist factions within both the Democrats and Republicans however wanted to keep the Philippines bound to the American nation, whilst the small Socialist and Progressive faction in the government of the United States of America supported Philippine independence from the United States of America with some kind of guarantee against China and Japan and under the sphere of American interests.
Philippine Guerilas
On May 26th, the Emergency Philippine Act of 1919 went into effect and basically suspended any sort of Philippine autonomy for a time duration of five years until when a final decision on the Philippines could be made. The American government basically handed the Philippines over to military occupation for the American army to look after. Brigadier General Frederick Abbot became the new Military Governor of the Philippines and it was made his duty to quell the growing guerilla movement in Luzon and Mindanao. It was often the case that the American government had control of major cities and the transportation centers and links between these cities however had no control of the countryside, where Philippine guerillas ruled supreme. Soon enough warlords started to spring up all over the Philippines archipelago in the rural areas, where these warlords basically enforced their own doctrines and their own rules, bypassing American law. The American government now thus had to focus their attacks on unconventional warfare to make sure that the war ended. But for the most part peace had returned to the Philippine Archipelago and the American government was saddled with many thought to be an ‘Oriental Monetary Sinkhole’.
The situation for America was thus a complicated conundrum. Should Philippine autonomy be restored? But that had led to the declaration of independence. Should Philippine autonomy be abolished entirely? But that would lead to massive spiritual and national resistance against the American occupation and lead to a massive loss of money. The debate would basically consume the rest of Hughes’s Presidency.” The American Filipino Conflicts. © 1989.
***
“The Ottoman government of Ahmet Riza was once again caught up with affairs that were changing in and around of Arabia, as the situation in Arabia soon turned dim. The Rashidi Dynasty had lost the majority of its power within their own population. The Ottomans had invaded the country to install a prince to the throne who would be amenable to their demands, and the country was going through major social upheaval due to it, as many supported the Ottomans and many on the other hand did not support the ottomans. The Ottoman government was largely not paying attention to the Arabians due to the events in Yemen and the various assassinations and this allowed the Arabians to gain a window of opportunity. A particularly anti-Ottoman leader within the Rashidi Dynasty, Saud bin Saud Al-Rashid, began to intrigue against the main Rashidi line in place, and started to intrigue with the tribal groups in the country.
Saud bin Saud
However Saud bin Saud was a fool and an idiot, and was easily flattered into being overtly gullible. As a result, the early republicans of Arabia began to influence the man easily and on April 2, 1919 he began to become influenced by republican ideals. In particular, Abdullah Al-Saeed, a republican in the Arabian peninsula, based in and out of Hail found the Rashidi prince increasingly easy to influence and by the end of the month of April, 1919, the prince was increasingly become the puppet of Al-Saeed. Al-Saeed soon became involved in increasingly anti-established and pro-republican rallies and attacks against the puppet Rashidi government of the Ottoman empire based in Ha’il. The Ottoman government did not look into these matters, deeming them to be Rashidi internal affairs, and the Rashidi government was extremely cocky and proud of itself to really consider that these small scale riots and protests were any threat to them if at all.
King Mut’ib of Rashidi Arabia was also not aware of the developments within his country and the government was wilfully ignorant of the ticking time bomb within their own borders. As anger against the Ottoman government, which basically controlled all facets of governance in the Kingdom of Rashidi Arabia grew, so did anger against the puppet government in Ha’il which bent to every Ottoman demand upon the country. The loyalty of the tribesmen were always fickle, and the charismatic posterity of Al-Saeed allowed the republicans to finally coalesce into the Republican Associations of Arabians with Al-Saeed at its center and Saud bin Saud at its center, with the movement starting to grow more and more on the grassroots level.
Abdullah Al-Saeed
Worrisomely for the Rashidi government, the first elections in the country were slated to start in May 18, 1919, with a limited democratic reform passing through the country intent on creating unicameral National Assembly of Rashidi Arabia, which would have jurisdiction over the national budget and tribal issues of the nation. It was to be King Mut’ib’s great democratic triumph in his own words. However, it would prove to be the king’s Achilles heel.
The three partisan groups that were going to take part in the elections were the ‘Pro-Administration’ group led by Eqab bin Mohaya who was to become a so called ‘establishment party’ which was to become a political party that would basically be a ‘yes-party’ for the King. Against them were the Republicans, who coalesced under the banner of the ‘Anti-Administration Group’ and whilst on paper they weren’t republicans, as republicanism was punishable by death, most of the RAA were politically taking part in the elections under the banner of the Anti-Administration Group. Independents were the last group of political members that were allowed to run in the elections.
The elections were bitter. The issue of the Ottoman empire exercising so much control over the government proved to become a divisive issue and the two debates held by the political groups that were broadcasted through radio (not that that mattered, very few in rashidi Arabia had access to radios other than the rich and the aristocrats) devolved into open argument with one another. There were 67 seats up for grabs in the Rashidi Arabian Assembly, of which the Anti-Administration Group won 35 seats, and the Pro-Administration won 31 seats whilst one independent managed to gain representation in the assembly as well.
However despite the small razor thin majority that Al-Saeed had won, King Mut’ib still appointed Eaqb bin Mohaya as the first Chief Minister of the Rashidi Arabian Kingdom. To the Republican Association this was vindication to their belief that the kingdom wasn’t going anywhere and would remain stuck on the late 19th century as a country and state. As a result, on May 28, Al-Saeed and Saud bin Saud declared that the government in Ha’il had proven itself to be illegitimate due to their ignorance of the wishes of the people, and gathering the so called Republican Guard, (around 8,000 of them), the RAA revolted against the government of Rashidi Arabia, declaring the United Republic of Arabia with their interim provisional capital being located in Al-Dawadimi, which was quickly captured by 800 Republican militants. King Mut’ib reacted violently and then did the very thing that vindicated the Republican’s points even further. He asked the Ottoman government for aid.
Grand Vizier Ahmet Riza was extremely angered by the developments in Rashidi Arabia and he deemed that the Rashidi government was quickly becoming impotent as a proper government. On June 27, 1919 a meeting was held in the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies, and the members of the Ottoman chamber began to debate with one another the pros and cons of intervention in the Kingdom of Rashidi Arabia. Virtually all of the tribes had sided with the Republicans, and central royal authority was only really centered around the Ha’il to Riyadh area and the Republicans had managed to muster a pretty large army for the small population pool of the Arabians. As a result, many in the Ottoman government weren’t eager for intervention. They had also argued that anger at overt Ottoman interference had also led to the civil conflict in Rashidi Arabia, and that going further would only allow more hatred against the Ottoman government to foster.
The Ottoman government in the end declared that they would not intervene for the moment, as they adopted a wait and see approach. But nonetheless, around 80,000 troops were mobilized in the Najd Sanjak, Basra Vilayet and Hejaz Vilayet for the off chance that the government did try to intervene. On July 28, however most of the Royal Guard defected over to the side of the Republicans, and Rashidi Family was exiled into Oman, and the Republic of Arabia was formally proclaimed by the government, with Al-Saeed naming himself President, and forming a Presidential government under his leadership. At first, the Ottoman government wasn’t really sure what to do with this change in power, and the Ottomans didn’t demobilize their troops, thought they did send some diplomatic negotiators. Al-Saeed very much knew that despite his anti-Ottoman rhetoric if the Ottomans wanted they could come down crashing down hard on his country, and the Arabs had nowhere near the proper population for a proper guerilla war, and the entire terrain of the country was ill-suited for an irregular war. As a result, Al-Saeed opened dialogue with the Ottomans and while he abolished the title of the country being subservient to the Ottomans, he remained, nominally at least, allied with the Ottoman Empire.” The Arab Republic: 1919-1942, the Experiment in Futility ©
***
Coming Next:-
The Hughes Presidency
The Iranian Question
The Zionist Question
The Question of British Devolution.
***
“The Italian Civil War and the Italian Revolution held its breath as General Ottovio Ragni, the commander of the Italian Red Army entered Neapolitan territory on the 16th of April, 1919 to conduct a whirlwind campaign which would end the Italian Civil War once and for all. He had around 60,000 men under him and he aimed to defeat whatever the anti-communists would throw at him and captured Naples which would basically ensure the fall of the mainland to the communists. Meanwhile, communist agents in Sicily and Sardinia were working to make sure that the islands fell under communist rule as well.
Ottovio Ragni
The Red Army moved south and was met by the 3rd Italian Army, under the command of General Emannuele Filiberto, the 2nd Duke of Aosta, who was renowned throughout Italy as the undefeated Duke, since he had led the Italian 3rd Army without a single defeat under his belt. The Duke hadn’t been willing to raise arms against the Socialists and Communists at first, however the dire situation of not having proper commanders for the provisional government, as well as empty promises from Sturzo about restoring the monarchy prompted the 2nd Duke of Aosta to join sides with the Italian Provisional Government.
2nd Duke of Aosta
The two armies met each other during the Battle of Fessani. The Battle of Fessani saw the Duke defeat the Italian Red Army in a whirlwind attack that took the Socialists by surprise and pushed them back, however the Red Army simply withdrew in good order north to Lazio where they met up with reinforcements in San Lorenzo, which endangered the Duke’s position with a flanking attack from the northeast. As a result, despite not having suffered a defeat, the Duke had to retreat from Fessani and he moved to the mountain pass of Cascano. The mountain pass there presented the 3rd army with a great defensive barrier against attacks from the north and flanking maneuvers and the Duke ordered his men to hunker down.
The Battle of Cascano
On April 29, the attack came as the Battle of Cascano began. However unfortunately for the Duke, the concentrated amount of troops in the mountain pass also allowed the enemy to concentrate their artillery fire at his troops and the Provisional troops were mowed down. The personal magnetism of the Duke undimmed he led several speeches and walked among the troops in the front, allowing the men to hold firm in their defensive lines. This melted away when the Duke was struck by fragments of a shell exploding near a trenchline that he was examining. The strike was fatal and the Duke died, in his attempt to raise morale. Their iconic commander dead, the Italian Third Army began to give way to the Red Army and finally on May 3, the Italian Red Army broke through Cascano, and the Italian Third Army virtually ceased to exist as they disintegrated into the countryside.
On May 10, the Italian Red Army entered Naples after a brief firefight with the Provisional garrison troops that proved to be fruitless and raised the socialist republican banner in the ancient city taking Pompei and Salerno alongside the city and its urban parameters. Like Seratti had thought, the resistance against the Socialists and Communists started to crumble in the face of the Red Army’s breakthrough. The country was tired of 4 years of endless war and they wanted peace, at almost any cost. Tired Neapolitan troops began to desert from the Provisional government en masse and the infighting in the Provisional government, with moderate republicans, far right nationalists and monarchists all wasting time arguing with one another and dithering rather than taking active actions against the incoming Red Army. On May 27, the Red Army took Taranto after dealing a final crushing blow at the Battle of Massafra, which ended any and all resistance to socialist rule on the Italian mainland. All that now remained after this would be the islands of Sicily and Sardinia.
Despite the distances involved, Sardinia was actually the easier of the two main Italian islands to retake. The island was devastated by the Allied Invasion two years prior and now they were embroiled in a war they didn’t want and didn’t support. The Provisional government had been cut off from Italian mainland agriculture which was sustaining the island’s population and didn’t have enough money to buy extra agricultural supplies from international benefactors. As a result, many Sardinians had been killed from starvation and many were turning to acts and deeds such as cannibalization to sustain themselves and prevent themselves from dying from hunger. Communist agents thus found it relatively easy to infiltrate Sardinian society and fill them with rage and anger against the Provisional government and had them rioting.
On May 25, a massive amount of Sardinian peasants revolted in Sassari in favor of the Italian Socialists and declared the Provisional government illegitimate. The Italian Provisional Navy based in Cagliari defected over to the Socialists as they deemed continuing the war as a lost cause by all rights and signed over the surrender of the ships to Rome. Accompanied by the defected ships, the Socialists reintegrated Sardinia into the People’s Democratic Republic of Italy, despite a small scale anti-guerilla war going on in the island against communist rule.
Sicily was the harder part, to end the war, as most of the provisional troops were concentrated there, and despite the shorter distance, the sheer volume of artillery and cannon that the provisional government had stored in Sicily gave the Socialists a pause. On May 29, 1919 the government in Rome gave the go to for 100,000 Red troops to invade Sicily through the straits of Messina which would not require a massive ship lift to do so, due to the very short distance between Sicily and Neapolitan territory in Calabria. Red Marines landed ashore to the islands of Vulcano, Lipari and Lafa on May 31 and took the islands without a fight as the prelude to the actual invasion. That night a massive bombardment of Messina from Calabria took place as the Reds started to move troops in order to invade Sicily.
From Reggio Calabria as their base, the Reds launched an amphibious invasion made out of makeshift transport barges and around 8,000 Reds landed in the first wave. The Reds all coalesced into a defensive parameters in their landing grounds fending off attempts to defeat them until the second and third waves provided them with ample men to actually move against the provisional government. On June 12th, 20,000 Reds stormed Messina and took the city and the majority of the members of the provisional government stuck there prisoner. With the government falling in the hands of the Reds, all means of resistance started to effectively crumble in Sicily as well. On June 30, Sturzo signed the Instrument of Surrender therefore handing over power over the island of Sicily to the Reds, ending the Italian Civil War and Italian Revolution once and for all.
3rd Duke of Genoa
Before the Reds could arrive near Palermo, the Sicilian Fleet commanded by Prince Ferdinando of Savoy, the son of the 2nd Duke of Genoa, managed to take command of the fleet stationed there and purged the fleet of suspected communists and left sympathizers. He then organized a withdrawal of ships, taking around 40,000 refugees with him as his fleet sailed to French Tunisia where they would be given refuge. There, he would hand over the fleet he came with to the French. As the main branch of the House of Savoy had collectively been culled due to the revolution and the civil war, including his father, Prince Thomas, Prince Ferdinando, the 3rd Duke of Genoa, officially became the pretender in exile to the Italian throne which by this point was defunct.” The Italian Revolution © 1988.
***
“On April 7, the American 4th Army advanced on the capital of the Philippines after years of fighting in the archipelago. The Philippine revolt against the American government was about to end after 3 years of brutal warfare between the ethnic Filipinos and the American government who sought to retain control over the island statelets in the Philippines. The American 4th Army was commanded by Brigadier General Frederick Abbot and he commanded 40,000 men spread all across the outskirts of Manila. He was ordered by President Hughes to take the city and end the Second American-Filipino War once and for all.
Brigadier General Frederick Abbot
Meanwhile the Filipino defenses were led by Emilio Aguinaldo and President Sergio Osmena who was trying to hurriedly make sure that a proper defense of the capital could be made. The Filipinos had around 50,000 troops with them, however they were far from well trained or well equipped like that of their American counterparts. Chinese and Japanese supervisors could only do so much when the islands were under constant American blockade, so much so that the lucrative Dutch-Filipino and Malaya-Filipino trade had been halted by the entire war as well.
American regiments opened fire at Manila on the 10th of April, 1919 and began to break into the Filipino resistance and defensive parameters in and around of Rosario and Bacoor which allowed the American Regiments to enter Paranaque easily by the end of the day, however were stalled there by heavy Filipino resistance, combined with the aid given by Chinese and Japanese volunteers present in the area who fought alongside the Filipino troops. In the north, led by Brigadier General Irving Hale, led a massive bombardment and attack on the Filipino barrier and defensive parameter in the area of Santa Maria, and the overwhelming amount of American firepower forced the Filipino regiments in the north to fall back to the La Mesa watershed which provided the Filipinos with a strong defensive position to halt the American advance from the north. However the main American breakthrough came at the center. Led by Brigadier General Edward Anderson, the 26th and 17th American Cavalry Regiments broke through the Filipino defenses at the heights of Calawis and pushed into Rodriguez, where the speed of the cavalry did not give the Filipinos enough time to retreat and form a proper defense. Having completely flanked the defenses at La Mesa, the Filipino defenders there were slaughtered, and American troops from the center began to pour into Metropolitan Manila.
American troops in the outskirts off a destroyed Manilla
The next day with no other choice but to surrender, President Osmena signed the decree of surrender. Emilio Aguinaldo, prominent Filipino nationalist and wartime hero of the Philippine population, even committed suicide in anguish of having lost the war with Washington DC once again. Sergio Osmena was captured by American forces, and the entire provisional government of the Philippines was taken by the American government as hostage. President Hughes was then caught in a conundrum. What could he do about the Philippine government without angering the population of the Philippines? Well as the answer had it, anything he did would alienate one facet of Philippine society. On the other hand, Datu Piang continued to conduct a small scale guerilla war in Mindanao against American authority in the islands and the Sultans of Mindanao had also gone into hiding and had started to conduct a massive guerilla war against the American occupation on the island, which caused a massive amount of money going down the proverbial drain.
President Hughes already had massive problems at home, having had to fight against the southern Democrats and reversing some of their more racial policies, which was important considering that the Black population made up a massive share of Republican votes, and the situation in the Philippines promised to make sure that the upcoming Presidential elections next year would be interesting to say the least. Hughes recognized this fact and decided that for the time being he would suspend Philippine autonomy until the House of Representatives and the Senate got their act together so that a proper solution could be made.
Hughes himself preferred to allow Philippines to have gradual independence from the United States of America. Hardline imperialist factions within both the Democrats and Republicans however wanted to keep the Philippines bound to the American nation, whilst the small Socialist and Progressive faction in the government of the United States of America supported Philippine independence from the United States of America with some kind of guarantee against China and Japan and under the sphere of American interests.
Philippine Guerilas
On May 26th, the Emergency Philippine Act of 1919 went into effect and basically suspended any sort of Philippine autonomy for a time duration of five years until when a final decision on the Philippines could be made. The American government basically handed the Philippines over to military occupation for the American army to look after. Brigadier General Frederick Abbot became the new Military Governor of the Philippines and it was made his duty to quell the growing guerilla movement in Luzon and Mindanao. It was often the case that the American government had control of major cities and the transportation centers and links between these cities however had no control of the countryside, where Philippine guerillas ruled supreme. Soon enough warlords started to spring up all over the Philippines archipelago in the rural areas, where these warlords basically enforced their own doctrines and their own rules, bypassing American law. The American government now thus had to focus their attacks on unconventional warfare to make sure that the war ended. But for the most part peace had returned to the Philippine Archipelago and the American government was saddled with many thought to be an ‘Oriental Monetary Sinkhole’.
The situation for America was thus a complicated conundrum. Should Philippine autonomy be restored? But that had led to the declaration of independence. Should Philippine autonomy be abolished entirely? But that would lead to massive spiritual and national resistance against the American occupation and lead to a massive loss of money. The debate would basically consume the rest of Hughes’s Presidency.” The American Filipino Conflicts. © 1989.
***
“The Ottoman government of Ahmet Riza was once again caught up with affairs that were changing in and around of Arabia, as the situation in Arabia soon turned dim. The Rashidi Dynasty had lost the majority of its power within their own population. The Ottomans had invaded the country to install a prince to the throne who would be amenable to their demands, and the country was going through major social upheaval due to it, as many supported the Ottomans and many on the other hand did not support the ottomans. The Ottoman government was largely not paying attention to the Arabians due to the events in Yemen and the various assassinations and this allowed the Arabians to gain a window of opportunity. A particularly anti-Ottoman leader within the Rashidi Dynasty, Saud bin Saud Al-Rashid, began to intrigue against the main Rashidi line in place, and started to intrigue with the tribal groups in the country.
Saud bin Saud
However Saud bin Saud was a fool and an idiot, and was easily flattered into being overtly gullible. As a result, the early republicans of Arabia began to influence the man easily and on April 2, 1919 he began to become influenced by republican ideals. In particular, Abdullah Al-Saeed, a republican in the Arabian peninsula, based in and out of Hail found the Rashidi prince increasingly easy to influence and by the end of the month of April, 1919, the prince was increasingly become the puppet of Al-Saeed. Al-Saeed soon became involved in increasingly anti-established and pro-republican rallies and attacks against the puppet Rashidi government of the Ottoman empire based in Ha’il. The Ottoman government did not look into these matters, deeming them to be Rashidi internal affairs, and the Rashidi government was extremely cocky and proud of itself to really consider that these small scale riots and protests were any threat to them if at all.
King Mut’ib of Rashidi Arabia was also not aware of the developments within his country and the government was wilfully ignorant of the ticking time bomb within their own borders. As anger against the Ottoman government, which basically controlled all facets of governance in the Kingdom of Rashidi Arabia grew, so did anger against the puppet government in Ha’il which bent to every Ottoman demand upon the country. The loyalty of the tribesmen were always fickle, and the charismatic posterity of Al-Saeed allowed the republicans to finally coalesce into the Republican Associations of Arabians with Al-Saeed at its center and Saud bin Saud at its center, with the movement starting to grow more and more on the grassroots level.
Abdullah Al-Saeed
Worrisomely for the Rashidi government, the first elections in the country were slated to start in May 18, 1919, with a limited democratic reform passing through the country intent on creating unicameral National Assembly of Rashidi Arabia, which would have jurisdiction over the national budget and tribal issues of the nation. It was to be King Mut’ib’s great democratic triumph in his own words. However, it would prove to be the king’s Achilles heel.
The three partisan groups that were going to take part in the elections were the ‘Pro-Administration’ group led by Eqab bin Mohaya who was to become a so called ‘establishment party’ which was to become a political party that would basically be a ‘yes-party’ for the King. Against them were the Republicans, who coalesced under the banner of the ‘Anti-Administration Group’ and whilst on paper they weren’t republicans, as republicanism was punishable by death, most of the RAA were politically taking part in the elections under the banner of the Anti-Administration Group. Independents were the last group of political members that were allowed to run in the elections.
The elections were bitter. The issue of the Ottoman empire exercising so much control over the government proved to become a divisive issue and the two debates held by the political groups that were broadcasted through radio (not that that mattered, very few in rashidi Arabia had access to radios other than the rich and the aristocrats) devolved into open argument with one another. There were 67 seats up for grabs in the Rashidi Arabian Assembly, of which the Anti-Administration Group won 35 seats, and the Pro-Administration won 31 seats whilst one independent managed to gain representation in the assembly as well.
However despite the small razor thin majority that Al-Saeed had won, King Mut’ib still appointed Eaqb bin Mohaya as the first Chief Minister of the Rashidi Arabian Kingdom. To the Republican Association this was vindication to their belief that the kingdom wasn’t going anywhere and would remain stuck on the late 19th century as a country and state. As a result, on May 28, Al-Saeed and Saud bin Saud declared that the government in Ha’il had proven itself to be illegitimate due to their ignorance of the wishes of the people, and gathering the so called Republican Guard, (around 8,000 of them), the RAA revolted against the government of Rashidi Arabia, declaring the United Republic of Arabia with their interim provisional capital being located in Al-Dawadimi, which was quickly captured by 800 Republican militants. King Mut’ib reacted violently and then did the very thing that vindicated the Republican’s points even further. He asked the Ottoman government for aid.
Grand Vizier Ahmet Riza was extremely angered by the developments in Rashidi Arabia and he deemed that the Rashidi government was quickly becoming impotent as a proper government. On June 27, 1919 a meeting was held in the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies, and the members of the Ottoman chamber began to debate with one another the pros and cons of intervention in the Kingdom of Rashidi Arabia. Virtually all of the tribes had sided with the Republicans, and central royal authority was only really centered around the Ha’il to Riyadh area and the Republicans had managed to muster a pretty large army for the small population pool of the Arabians. As a result, many in the Ottoman government weren’t eager for intervention. They had also argued that anger at overt Ottoman interference had also led to the civil conflict in Rashidi Arabia, and that going further would only allow more hatred against the Ottoman government to foster.
The Ottoman government in the end declared that they would not intervene for the moment, as they adopted a wait and see approach. But nonetheless, around 80,000 troops were mobilized in the Najd Sanjak, Basra Vilayet and Hejaz Vilayet for the off chance that the government did try to intervene. On July 28, however most of the Royal Guard defected over to the side of the Republicans, and Rashidi Family was exiled into Oman, and the Republic of Arabia was formally proclaimed by the government, with Al-Saeed naming himself President, and forming a Presidential government under his leadership. At first, the Ottoman government wasn’t really sure what to do with this change in power, and the Ottomans didn’t demobilize their troops, thought they did send some diplomatic negotiators. Al-Saeed very much knew that despite his anti-Ottoman rhetoric if the Ottomans wanted they could come down crashing down hard on his country, and the Arabs had nowhere near the proper population for a proper guerilla war, and the entire terrain of the country was ill-suited for an irregular war. As a result, Al-Saeed opened dialogue with the Ottomans and while he abolished the title of the country being subservient to the Ottomans, he remained, nominally at least, allied with the Ottoman Empire.” The Arab Republic: 1919-1942, the Experiment in Futility ©
***
Coming Next:-
The Hughes Presidency
The Iranian Question
The Zionist Question
The Question of British Devolution.
Chapter 39: Economic-Political Developments
***
“The presidency of President Hughes was bound to be a hard one. He had inherited a depression, and a country whose segregation had grown threefold in the past presidency. As a result, many were even surprised by the competence that Hughes showed in his capability as president to tackle such problems in the country.
Around 87% of all Blacks in the country had voted in favor of Hughes during the 1916 US Presidential Elections, and Hughes wasn’t going to allow their contribution to his victory go unnoticed. From 1912, under the Wilson Presidency, the Federal Bureaucracy had been segregated to an astonishing degree, with the Navy, Treasury, Commerce and Postal Services of the country, which hadn’t been subject to various segregation laws, now being subjected to said laws. In particular, the Navy and Postal Service had never been segregated before, and the inclusion of segregated sailor bunks, canteens and officers in the Navy had the American Navy up in arms as the costs of segregation clogged up more of the Navy budget and the Postal Service complained about the extra costs of segregating their white and black employees throughout the country.
Despite rather heated debates in Congress with many southern Democrats fighting against Hughes’s pro-Black attitude with fierce resistance, the de-segregation of the Federal Bureaucracy began under Hughes. The Treasury and the Commercial Services of the bureaucracy were de-segregated and the various laws of segregations, such as separate applications, separate office quarters, separate training facilities etc were all abolished. The postal service restored the Blacks the right to be promoted to higher offices in the service, and the Navy had several segregating laws thrown out of the window too. The official quota on Black officers serving in the United States Navy was also abolished under the authority and supervision of Hughes. The severity of the segregation present in the army was also dampened by Hughes, and Black officers, discharged on rather idiotic grounds were re-called back into service. The rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan was also a huge problem for Hughes, which opened up a can of worms that exploded into what is today known as Red 1919 in the United States of America.
Red 1919
With the outbreak of the Great War and the 2nd American Filipino War, the northern industrial cities of the USA began to suffer from severe labor shortages, which were filled by African Americans by and large. By the starting of 1919, around 500,000 African Americans had migrated to the northern United States filling new positions in expanding industries such as the railroad industries and electric industries. These jobs were for the better part of the last century filled in almost exclusively by Whites, and many talented African Americans began to take up spots and jobs that were normally taken in by Whites. This increased resentment against blacks among many working class Whites, and immigrants, as well as many first generation Americans trying to earn a dollar to survive.
Rioters in Chicago
By April, 1919 this situation had been exacerbated to such a large amount that small riots began to erupt throughout the United States. The first violence started in Georgia, in Jenkins County, where several black owned property were destroyed and attacked by arson and deliberate ignorance by the local authorities. The riots from Georgia spread north into South Carolina, and a riot between hundreds of Blacks and Whites in Charleston left 6 Whites and 19 Blacks dead. Soon the entirety of the American south was aflame in a new round of racial tensions as riots broke out in Texas (Longview Massacre), Arizona (Bisbee Riots) and Indianapolis (Garfield Park Riot). Soon enough the riots broke through into Maryland and into Washington DC itself. Hughes managed to break the riots in Washington personally, ordering the police to disperse the crowd using peaceful measures, such as pushing the rioters away and the arresting instigators of the attackers. However in many pro-Segregation states the riots continued, with cognitive and willful ignorance from their pro-Segregation governors. On July 27, 1919 however came the greatest massacre of Red 1919 in the city of Chicago. Chicago’s beaches across the Michigan Lake were segregated by custom by 1919, and when a group of teen Blacks swam into the White side by mistake, longstanding tensions broke out violently and the four Black teens were drowned by some of the White nationalists present on the shore. The Chicago police refused to conduct a survey and investigation, and the blacks, seeing as the law wasn’t on their side, turned to violence as their answer. In particular, African Americans of Liberian origins and Whites of ethnic Irish origin attacked one another with brutal and ruthless ferocity. 48 people were killed in the Chicago Riots, including 27 Blacks and 21 Whites. It left ~650 people injured, of which around 100 would die of their wounds later on, and around ~1200 families, primarily blacks, were left homeless.
This situation was no longer tenable, and Hughes had to use federal authority and superseded the state governments and personally passed several legislations that would see several federal investigations into the matter. Several members of the Chicago police, who had refused to even think about investigating the deaths of the poor Black teens were stripped of their occupations, and the killers were thrown into jail. The federal government also began a massive investigation into the racial tensions of the country. State militias and national guards were then employed to disperse Race riots and instigators, regardless of race were ordered to be arrested. Violence continued sporadically into the late 1919s, however the actions of Hughes in late July and early August largely weathered the storm that was brewing in the United States.
In reaction to the riots and deaths of several blacks however, many Black members of American society were severely radicalized, and this would prove to become a foreshadowing to the Troubles of 1947 – 1965. Led by Cyril Valentine Briggs, several radicalized and maligned African Americans formed the African Liberation Brotherhood on the 28th of September, 1919 with the intent of carving out a separate African American country in the United States, as a measure against the racial tensions in the country. As separatism was quite frankly near-illegal in the United States, the ALB were forced underground, and led by poet Claude McKay, a prominent ally of the ALB, wrote pro-African American radical poems and articles in many underground press’s and papers disguised as simple pamphlets and stories. The ALB also took inspiration from the Italian Socialists and Communists who had embraced the Arab population present in Sicily and Sardinia with equal arms and fervor, and viewed socialism or at least leftism as their basis of a state. As a result, many members of the ALB quickly became associated with the American Socialist Party and American Communist Party in the United States of America.
Hughes’s quick action and his considerable work between 1916 and 1924 allowed the United States of America to stave off a miniature race war, however it was only successful for a time. Red 1919 allowed the southern democrats to gain power again within the Democratic Party, and would prove to be incapable of allowing reform in the south. As a result, many progressive democrats would defect to the Progressive Party, allowing the party to become the permanent third party in US politics that it is recognized as today.” Origins of the African American Troubles © 2003
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“The passage of the Irish Home Rule Bill in 1913 and 1914 had allowed John Redmond to become the First Minister of Ireland, and Ireland was retained in the United Kingdom with significant autonomy. That had led to a damper in separatist ideas in Ireland, and the death of John Redmond, who called Ireland ‘The Emerald Jewel in the British Empire’ in June 1918 was attended by hundreds of thousands of Irishmen. His successor, William O’Brien who had reconciled with the party in 1916 succeeded him in his post as First Minister of Ireland after a contingent election in the Irish Commons before the Irish Elections of 1920. While 5 counties in Ulster had opted out of the Home Rule Bill, and remained out of the Home Rule area in Ireland, the question now arose, with the (near)-successful implementation of Home Rule in Ireland, the issue of Scottish Home Rule and Welsh Home Rule, which had been put on stop due to the Great War arose again in the British Parliament.
A British study determined that only 50.6% of all UK legislation in 1912 had anything to do with the entire country as a whole, and the rest were all pertaining to local affairs that would be better suited for local authorities. The Liberal party had supported the devolution proposals for Wales and Scotland, and to an extent, of England as well. However the new Conservative and Liberal Unionist government of Prime Minister Austen Chamberlain was ardent in their belief that Scotland, Wales and England weren’t going to get home rule. Chamberlain argued that it would fundamentally make the situation in Ulster extremely complicated if England, Wales and Scotland home rule. The people of England, Wales and the Lowlands of Scotland weren’t interested in Home Rule either, and committing themselves to a policy that had no popular support among the population was deemed too risky by the conservative government and against their entire ideology as a whole. Chamberlain also argued that with Ireland now enjoying autonomy and home rule, the clogging up of the UK Parliament was gone, and certainly this was true. A 1920 Governmental investigation found out that by 1920, around 71% of all legislation in the Parliament pertained to the whole country as a whole, and the rest pertained to England, Wales and Scotland.
Nonetheless, the idea of continued devolution in England, Wales and Scotland proved to be popular in the leftist segments of society and the Liberals in particular were supportive of further devolution, though McKenna, the leader of the Liberals personally opposed increased devolution. Labour had no definite proposal on Home Rule, and most in the party adopted a wait and see approach. The IPP supported extra devolution and federalism throughout the United Kingdom, however on a legal and popular basis. Devlin in particular believed that it would be foolish to think that implementing home rule in England, Wales and Scotland, when the people didn’t want it would be idiotic and extremely short-sighted.
Instead Chamberlain opted to compromise a bit, and increased autonomy was handed over to the English, Welsh and Scottish counties and shires so that they could take care of issues that did not need national oversight, many of which were still under the command of the central government during this time. As a result, room for more legislation was opened up for the Parliament as well.
Chamberlain in particular was opposed to federalism due to the fact that the Italian Communists has also implemented a proposal of federalism between the historical regions of Italy, with Piedmont, Lombardy, Venetia, Latium, Naples, Sicily and Sardinia receiving a significant federal amount of autonomy. He believed that it would embolden the leftist factions within the UK’s population which would have a negative effect on the political stability of the country. He already viewed Labour and their hidden socialists with narrowed eyes and he didn’t wish to give them more ammunition against the British government. Despite his opposition to extra federalism, Chamberlain was capable of compromise, and he got along with the Irish devolved government pretty well, and O’Brien was a good acquaintance of Chamberlain [1]. Over 250,000 to 300,000 Irishmen had served in the British Army during the Great War, amounting to nearly 5% to 6% of the total Irish population, purely based on volunteers, and this had increased feelings of slight solidarity in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Arthur Griffith
Of course separatism remained an extremely divisive role in Irish society during this time. The increased solidarity and with mainland Britain and the irish population being more or less placated by Home rule had forced even many nationalists to give towards a moderate proposal. In 1919, Sinn Fein leader, Arthur Griffith proposed that his earlier proposal of a Britannic-Irish Dual Monarchy on the basis of Austria-Hungary be the official policy of the party or forming Ireland into a formal Dominion within the framework of the British Empire. The latter option was taken up by the Sinn Fein during the 1919 Party Convention, mainly due to the fact that the former proposal was too ill-equipped for the Irish situation and no one in either Britain or Ireland were keen on that proposal.” Austen Chamberlain: The Engima © 2018
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“The official declaration of Egyptian independence in October 1919 invoked a variety of emotions in the Ottoman populace. For the government, who had collaborated with the British is setting up the independent Kingdom of Egypt, they weren’t surprised and simply resigned to the fate of Egypt, as a part of the European humiliations of the Ottoman Empire within Egypt since 1796. However in the Ottoman population, there was widespread rioting. Islamic protests in Constantinople and Smyrna broke out in favor of the Sultan retaining his temporal authority in Egypt, and in Hejaz, the Hashemite Custodians of the Holy Mosques professed to have been distressed by the Egyptian breakage from the Sultan’s authority. The Ottoman Nationalist Party led by Enver Pasha tried to capitalize on this situation, however the Ottoman Liberal Union managed to outmaneuver the Ottoman Nationalists, and instead the Liberals managed to capitalized the independence of Egypt, showing themselves as the great party that would deliver the Ottomans out of the humiliations of giving up Cyprus and Egypt respectively.
Abbas II of Egypt, became Abbas I of Egypt, as its new King/Sultan, however despite the removal of the temporal authority of the Ottoman Sultan in Egypt, Abbas I still recognized the title of Caliph, and declared himself loyal to the Caliphate, as he had been since the beginning of his reign in Egypt. That was assuring the Ottoman government that they would still be closely linked with one another despite Egypt’s new independence.
In particular, the new Egyptian Prime Minister, Hussein Roshdy Pasha, knew that despite Egypt’s independence, the country was still de-facto a British puppet state and run by the British. The British naval fleet still based in Alexandria was proof of this fact. As a result, he wished to increase the participation of other countries in the economic development of Egypt, as a small counterweight against the British within Egypt. To this purpose, he demanded an Ottoman supervisor for the issue of the Sinai Peninsula, where the Zionists were based in and the construction of a railway line connecting Ottoman Libya and Ottoman Palestine. The former request of the Egyptians were declined by the British representatives in Egypt, however the latter request was accepted. The Ottoman Railway Commission and the British and Egyptian companies in North Africa became involved in constructing the Tobruk to Jerusalem railway, with the intention of providing a better transportation link for North African muslims to the holy city of Jerusalem. The main stations of this railway was located in Tobruk, Alexandria, Cairo, and finally Jerusalem. Several thousands of pounds was invested into this project by the Egyptians, Ottomans and British.
Perhaps the greatest issue of the Ottoman Empire during this time was however that of the Zionist Question. The Zionists had proven themselves to the Ottomans that they weren’t to be trusted at all, and the attempted declaration of independence had proven to even the pro-Zionist Ottoman jews that the Zionist Congress would not be able to take the mantle of ‘Representative of All Jews’ without being laughed out by the Ottoman government. On October 3, 1919 the Ottoman Government ordered that every representative agency of the Zionist Congress within the Ottoman Empire be dissolved within two weeks, lest they come under direct control from the Ottoman government’s Ministry of the Interior. It was a direct threat to the Zionists, and a direct consequence of the Sinai question as well. All known Jewish militias in the ottoman Empire were raided and destroyed, and the extremist branches of Jewish militias were arrested by the Ottoman police, and their leaders were thrown into jail.
Majority of the Ottoman Jews supported the actions of their government, with Liberal Union politician, David Ben Gurion calling it ‘an apt decision from the government’ and the several Sephardic Jews living in the Ottoman Empire since the expulsion of Jews from Spain in the 1400s, supported the move as well. The Baghdadi and Lebanite jews supported the move as well. In fact several Baghdadi Jews were found lynching pro-Zionist Jews in Baghdad in October, 1919 and the Ottoman police were forced to protect the Zionists of all people. Finally on October 16, 1919 the Ottoman government handed the official ambassador and representative of the Zionist Congress within the Ottoman Empire, a note asking all members of the Zionist Congress to remove themselves from Ottoman soil.
A group of baghdadi Jews.
In Salonika, the Ottoman Jewish Front Organization, declared the Zionist Congress to be misguided, and not representative of the Jewish population of the Ottoman Empire. With royal and governmental assent, the OJFO declared itself the representation of all Jewish peoples within the Ottoman Empire, and that all members OJFO with Zionist links would be evicted from the organization if they didn’t tender their resignation to the Zionist Congress by the end of 1919. This was the final death warrant to the Zionist Congress within the Ottoman Empire and proved to the government and the country that the Jews of the Ottoman Empire, by and large would be loyal to the country, as many higher members of the OJFO were first generation Ottomans, and Jewish immigrants from Spain, Italy, Russia and France.” Zionism in the Ottoman Empire: 1887-1919 © 1993
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“After the passage of several economic reforms in 1917 and social reforms as well, Ahmet Riza went on a final infrastructural and economic campaign that is largely called ‘Riza’s Last Project’. The Ottoman Empire had a semi-vast railway system, however the interior and semi-rural areas of the Ottoman Empire were still rather disconnected with the rest of the Ottoman Empire. In order to make sure that the country could become better organized and better connected, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire presented the ‘New Railway Construction Act of 1919’ into the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies on the 7th of September, 1919. The plan was hefty. It called for the construction of nearly 1000 to 1300 kilometers of new rail in the Ottoman empire. However more significantly, it allocated the construction of these new railway lines all to indigenous companies in the Ottoman empire. Foreign investment in these projects were not present at all, so as to remove foreign, mainly Austrian, and British influence in Ottoman transportation networks.
Within the Ottoman Balkans, the proposed plan would extend several railway lines into the Salonika frontier lands and increase transportation in Macedonia and Albania, including several frontier railway lines leading into the Bulgarian-Ottoman border to increase the infrastructural development of the region. In Anatolia, the plan was mainly focused on connecting interior railway lines with one another passing through un-connected towns and villages. Mainly, this increased the railway coverage into Armenia and the Pontic Region. In Syria, a small plan was implemented of creating a parallel railway line into the deserted interior of the region, to make sure that the isolated tribes within the Ottoman Empire were better connected with the central government of the country. Like in Syria, in Mesopotamia, the railway lines proposed would include a parallel line into the interior deserts of the region to make better connection, and several new lines were proposed on the Ottoman-Persian border to make sure that the border regions were brought into line with the government.
In Hejaz a long railway line parallel to the coastal railway line was proposed as well, and finally in Libya, railway lines extending into the interior of the countryside and the desert was also proposed. After two months of hefty negotiations and debates in the Ottoman chamber of deputies, the Act was passed through the Chamber and several hundreds of thousands of pounds were allocated for the railway scheme. This Act would provide hundreds of thousands of people throughout the Ottoman Empire with much needed employment and would become the backbone of the Booming 20s Economic Boom in the Ottoman Empire.” Ottoman Railways © 2020
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“The first Ottoman exploration to the Mesopotamian oilfields was acquired through the activities of Mr. William Knox D'Arcy, an Australasian who laid the foundations of British oil power in Persia. In I906 Mr. D'Arcy, "with the full support of His Majesty's Ambassador at Constantinople ", petitioned the Sultan for the rights which the Deutsche Bank had permitted to lapse. Negotiations continued throughout 1907 without result and were interrupted by the outbreak of the Young Turk Revolution the following year. In I909 control of the Mesopotamian oilfields was transferred from the Sultan's Civil List to the Ottoman Ministry of Finance, and the question of petroleum concessions became involved in the complicated negotiations of 1910-1912 regarding a loan to the new Ottoman Government, an increase in the customs duties of the Ottoman Empire, and a proposed internationalization of the Bagdad Railway.' Because of what the Ottomans considered the unfriendly policies of Sir Edward Grey during these negotiations no definitive action was taken on Mr. D'Arcy's application of I906, and in I9II his position was not much stronger than it had been before the Young Turk Revolution. In the meantime, however, Mr. D'Arcy had incorporated in I909 the Anglo- Persian Oil Company, to which he assigned all of his oil claims including whatever consideration he deserved in the Mesopotamian fields. The full importance of this step is appreciated only by reference to the fact that in the spring of 1914 the British Government purchased a controlling interest in the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. Between I908 and I9I2 the Royal Dutch-Shell combine appears to have joined the scramble for control of the oil re- sources of Mesopotamia. In some manner, through the good offices of Mr. C. S. Gulbenkian, an Ottoman subject of considerable influence and ability, sometimes called the Talleyrand of oil diplomacy, they secured a claim to consideration in the award of Turkish petroleum concessions. Thus, by I912 there were three groups jostling each other for favorable position in Mesopotamia. At this stage of the proceedings Sir Ernest Cassel, an English banker of German birth, conceived the idea of forming an Anglo-German syndicate under British control for the purpose of reconciling the divergent interests involved. Sir Ernest Cassel enjoyed the confidence of the Ottoman Government and the good-will of the Deutsche Bank, and he had the good fortune to be represented in Constantinople by Sir Henry Babington Smith, president of the National Bank of the Ottoman Empire and former British representative on the Ottoman Public Debt Administration. In I9I2 Sir Ernest Cassel formed an English joint-stock corporation, The Ottoman Petroleum Company, with a capital of 8o,ooo pounds, for the purpose of acquiring all claims to the Mesopotamian oilfields, as well as of prospecting for oil in other parts of the Ottoman Empire. At the outset all shares in the new company remained in the control of the National Bank of Ottoman Empire, presumably for subsequent allocation to the various interests concerned. Sir Ernest Cassel had the cooperation of the Deutsche Bank and appears to have won over the Royal Dutch-Shell interests and he had also won the support of D’Arcy and the Ottoman government. [2]
In November 12, 1919, Gulbenkian and D’Arcy’s groups were in Kirkuk trying to find better positions for oil in the Mesopotamian region when one Ottoman Arab worker in the area cried out ‘Black Water! It’s Black Water!’. Knowing the moment for what it was, the men ran out, and gushing out of the crater of a British oil drill were droplets of oil. It was a moment of great enthusiasm and success for the Ottoman Petroleum Company and for both the Ottomans and the British. The British had managed to make their investment into the possible oilfields in the Ottoman Empire worthwhile whilst the Ottomans had been handed a revenue source of epic proportions.
The Ottoman government, was quick to cash in some of the earlier British promises, and a renegotiation of shares was made with the British and the Ottomans. The Ottomans were not Persia, who could be bullied into submission and the Ottomans wanted to emphasize that. Ahmet Riza bluntly told the D’Arcy that it was 2/3 profits to Constantinople, the rest to Britain and that was the best deal that the Ottomans were willing to give the British government. For the British, it was a small humiliation to bare, as a third was still a considerable amount, and the Treaty of Alexandretta, signed on December 12, 1919 formalized the 2/3 agreement between the Ottoman Empire and the United Kingdom regarding the oil fields in Ottoman Mesopotamia. Regarding probable oil fields in Syria, Anatolia, and the Najd area, the Ottomans had full rights and had no interest in sharing with the British. Gulbenkian was soon transferred to the Najd area, where he would search for more oil in the region.” The Modern Fuel: Oil © 2017
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Ottoman Census Report, December 1919
Total Population: 24,726,958
Ethnic Groups:-
Religious Affiliation:-
From: Ottoman Population Handbook, Ottoman Governmental Records © 2018 Volume.
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[1] – This is otl as well.
[2] – Most information from The Turkish Petroleum Company--A Study in Oleaginous Diplomacy by Edward Mead Earle.
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“The presidency of President Hughes was bound to be a hard one. He had inherited a depression, and a country whose segregation had grown threefold in the past presidency. As a result, many were even surprised by the competence that Hughes showed in his capability as president to tackle such problems in the country.
Around 87% of all Blacks in the country had voted in favor of Hughes during the 1916 US Presidential Elections, and Hughes wasn’t going to allow their contribution to his victory go unnoticed. From 1912, under the Wilson Presidency, the Federal Bureaucracy had been segregated to an astonishing degree, with the Navy, Treasury, Commerce and Postal Services of the country, which hadn’t been subject to various segregation laws, now being subjected to said laws. In particular, the Navy and Postal Service had never been segregated before, and the inclusion of segregated sailor bunks, canteens and officers in the Navy had the American Navy up in arms as the costs of segregation clogged up more of the Navy budget and the Postal Service complained about the extra costs of segregating their white and black employees throughout the country.
Despite rather heated debates in Congress with many southern Democrats fighting against Hughes’s pro-Black attitude with fierce resistance, the de-segregation of the Federal Bureaucracy began under Hughes. The Treasury and the Commercial Services of the bureaucracy were de-segregated and the various laws of segregations, such as separate applications, separate office quarters, separate training facilities etc were all abolished. The postal service restored the Blacks the right to be promoted to higher offices in the service, and the Navy had several segregating laws thrown out of the window too. The official quota on Black officers serving in the United States Navy was also abolished under the authority and supervision of Hughes. The severity of the segregation present in the army was also dampened by Hughes, and Black officers, discharged on rather idiotic grounds were re-called back into service. The rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan was also a huge problem for Hughes, which opened up a can of worms that exploded into what is today known as Red 1919 in the United States of America.
Red 1919
With the outbreak of the Great War and the 2nd American Filipino War, the northern industrial cities of the USA began to suffer from severe labor shortages, which were filled by African Americans by and large. By the starting of 1919, around 500,000 African Americans had migrated to the northern United States filling new positions in expanding industries such as the railroad industries and electric industries. These jobs were for the better part of the last century filled in almost exclusively by Whites, and many talented African Americans began to take up spots and jobs that were normally taken in by Whites. This increased resentment against blacks among many working class Whites, and immigrants, as well as many first generation Americans trying to earn a dollar to survive.
Rioters in Chicago
By April, 1919 this situation had been exacerbated to such a large amount that small riots began to erupt throughout the United States. The first violence started in Georgia, in Jenkins County, where several black owned property were destroyed and attacked by arson and deliberate ignorance by the local authorities. The riots from Georgia spread north into South Carolina, and a riot between hundreds of Blacks and Whites in Charleston left 6 Whites and 19 Blacks dead. Soon the entirety of the American south was aflame in a new round of racial tensions as riots broke out in Texas (Longview Massacre), Arizona (Bisbee Riots) and Indianapolis (Garfield Park Riot). Soon enough the riots broke through into Maryland and into Washington DC itself. Hughes managed to break the riots in Washington personally, ordering the police to disperse the crowd using peaceful measures, such as pushing the rioters away and the arresting instigators of the attackers. However in many pro-Segregation states the riots continued, with cognitive and willful ignorance from their pro-Segregation governors. On July 27, 1919 however came the greatest massacre of Red 1919 in the city of Chicago. Chicago’s beaches across the Michigan Lake were segregated by custom by 1919, and when a group of teen Blacks swam into the White side by mistake, longstanding tensions broke out violently and the four Black teens were drowned by some of the White nationalists present on the shore. The Chicago police refused to conduct a survey and investigation, and the blacks, seeing as the law wasn’t on their side, turned to violence as their answer. In particular, African Americans of Liberian origins and Whites of ethnic Irish origin attacked one another with brutal and ruthless ferocity. 48 people were killed in the Chicago Riots, including 27 Blacks and 21 Whites. It left ~650 people injured, of which around 100 would die of their wounds later on, and around ~1200 families, primarily blacks, were left homeless.
This situation was no longer tenable, and Hughes had to use federal authority and superseded the state governments and personally passed several legislations that would see several federal investigations into the matter. Several members of the Chicago police, who had refused to even think about investigating the deaths of the poor Black teens were stripped of their occupations, and the killers were thrown into jail. The federal government also began a massive investigation into the racial tensions of the country. State militias and national guards were then employed to disperse Race riots and instigators, regardless of race were ordered to be arrested. Violence continued sporadically into the late 1919s, however the actions of Hughes in late July and early August largely weathered the storm that was brewing in the United States.
In reaction to the riots and deaths of several blacks however, many Black members of American society were severely radicalized, and this would prove to become a foreshadowing to the Troubles of 1947 – 1965. Led by Cyril Valentine Briggs, several radicalized and maligned African Americans formed the African Liberation Brotherhood on the 28th of September, 1919 with the intent of carving out a separate African American country in the United States, as a measure against the racial tensions in the country. As separatism was quite frankly near-illegal in the United States, the ALB were forced underground, and led by poet Claude McKay, a prominent ally of the ALB, wrote pro-African American radical poems and articles in many underground press’s and papers disguised as simple pamphlets and stories. The ALB also took inspiration from the Italian Socialists and Communists who had embraced the Arab population present in Sicily and Sardinia with equal arms and fervor, and viewed socialism or at least leftism as their basis of a state. As a result, many members of the ALB quickly became associated with the American Socialist Party and American Communist Party in the United States of America.
Hughes’s quick action and his considerable work between 1916 and 1924 allowed the United States of America to stave off a miniature race war, however it was only successful for a time. Red 1919 allowed the southern democrats to gain power again within the Democratic Party, and would prove to be incapable of allowing reform in the south. As a result, many progressive democrats would defect to the Progressive Party, allowing the party to become the permanent third party in US politics that it is recognized as today.” Origins of the African American Troubles © 2003
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“The passage of the Irish Home Rule Bill in 1913 and 1914 had allowed John Redmond to become the First Minister of Ireland, and Ireland was retained in the United Kingdom with significant autonomy. That had led to a damper in separatist ideas in Ireland, and the death of John Redmond, who called Ireland ‘The Emerald Jewel in the British Empire’ in June 1918 was attended by hundreds of thousands of Irishmen. His successor, William O’Brien who had reconciled with the party in 1916 succeeded him in his post as First Minister of Ireland after a contingent election in the Irish Commons before the Irish Elections of 1920. While 5 counties in Ulster had opted out of the Home Rule Bill, and remained out of the Home Rule area in Ireland, the question now arose, with the (near)-successful implementation of Home Rule in Ireland, the issue of Scottish Home Rule and Welsh Home Rule, which had been put on stop due to the Great War arose again in the British Parliament.
A British study determined that only 50.6% of all UK legislation in 1912 had anything to do with the entire country as a whole, and the rest were all pertaining to local affairs that would be better suited for local authorities. The Liberal party had supported the devolution proposals for Wales and Scotland, and to an extent, of England as well. However the new Conservative and Liberal Unionist government of Prime Minister Austen Chamberlain was ardent in their belief that Scotland, Wales and England weren’t going to get home rule. Chamberlain argued that it would fundamentally make the situation in Ulster extremely complicated if England, Wales and Scotland home rule. The people of England, Wales and the Lowlands of Scotland weren’t interested in Home Rule either, and committing themselves to a policy that had no popular support among the population was deemed too risky by the conservative government and against their entire ideology as a whole. Chamberlain also argued that with Ireland now enjoying autonomy and home rule, the clogging up of the UK Parliament was gone, and certainly this was true. A 1920 Governmental investigation found out that by 1920, around 71% of all legislation in the Parliament pertained to the whole country as a whole, and the rest pertained to England, Wales and Scotland.
Nonetheless, the idea of continued devolution in England, Wales and Scotland proved to be popular in the leftist segments of society and the Liberals in particular were supportive of further devolution, though McKenna, the leader of the Liberals personally opposed increased devolution. Labour had no definite proposal on Home Rule, and most in the party adopted a wait and see approach. The IPP supported extra devolution and federalism throughout the United Kingdom, however on a legal and popular basis. Devlin in particular believed that it would be foolish to think that implementing home rule in England, Wales and Scotland, when the people didn’t want it would be idiotic and extremely short-sighted.
Instead Chamberlain opted to compromise a bit, and increased autonomy was handed over to the English, Welsh and Scottish counties and shires so that they could take care of issues that did not need national oversight, many of which were still under the command of the central government during this time. As a result, room for more legislation was opened up for the Parliament as well.
Chamberlain in particular was opposed to federalism due to the fact that the Italian Communists has also implemented a proposal of federalism between the historical regions of Italy, with Piedmont, Lombardy, Venetia, Latium, Naples, Sicily and Sardinia receiving a significant federal amount of autonomy. He believed that it would embolden the leftist factions within the UK’s population which would have a negative effect on the political stability of the country. He already viewed Labour and their hidden socialists with narrowed eyes and he didn’t wish to give them more ammunition against the British government. Despite his opposition to extra federalism, Chamberlain was capable of compromise, and he got along with the Irish devolved government pretty well, and O’Brien was a good acquaintance of Chamberlain [1]. Over 250,000 to 300,000 Irishmen had served in the British Army during the Great War, amounting to nearly 5% to 6% of the total Irish population, purely based on volunteers, and this had increased feelings of slight solidarity in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Arthur Griffith
Of course separatism remained an extremely divisive role in Irish society during this time. The increased solidarity and with mainland Britain and the irish population being more or less placated by Home rule had forced even many nationalists to give towards a moderate proposal. In 1919, Sinn Fein leader, Arthur Griffith proposed that his earlier proposal of a Britannic-Irish Dual Monarchy on the basis of Austria-Hungary be the official policy of the party or forming Ireland into a formal Dominion within the framework of the British Empire. The latter option was taken up by the Sinn Fein during the 1919 Party Convention, mainly due to the fact that the former proposal was too ill-equipped for the Irish situation and no one in either Britain or Ireland were keen on that proposal.” Austen Chamberlain: The Engima © 2018
***
“The official declaration of Egyptian independence in October 1919 invoked a variety of emotions in the Ottoman populace. For the government, who had collaborated with the British is setting up the independent Kingdom of Egypt, they weren’t surprised and simply resigned to the fate of Egypt, as a part of the European humiliations of the Ottoman Empire within Egypt since 1796. However in the Ottoman population, there was widespread rioting. Islamic protests in Constantinople and Smyrna broke out in favor of the Sultan retaining his temporal authority in Egypt, and in Hejaz, the Hashemite Custodians of the Holy Mosques professed to have been distressed by the Egyptian breakage from the Sultan’s authority. The Ottoman Nationalist Party led by Enver Pasha tried to capitalize on this situation, however the Ottoman Liberal Union managed to outmaneuver the Ottoman Nationalists, and instead the Liberals managed to capitalized the independence of Egypt, showing themselves as the great party that would deliver the Ottomans out of the humiliations of giving up Cyprus and Egypt respectively.
Abbas II of Egypt, became Abbas I of Egypt, as its new King/Sultan, however despite the removal of the temporal authority of the Ottoman Sultan in Egypt, Abbas I still recognized the title of Caliph, and declared himself loyal to the Caliphate, as he had been since the beginning of his reign in Egypt. That was assuring the Ottoman government that they would still be closely linked with one another despite Egypt’s new independence.
In particular, the new Egyptian Prime Minister, Hussein Roshdy Pasha, knew that despite Egypt’s independence, the country was still de-facto a British puppet state and run by the British. The British naval fleet still based in Alexandria was proof of this fact. As a result, he wished to increase the participation of other countries in the economic development of Egypt, as a small counterweight against the British within Egypt. To this purpose, he demanded an Ottoman supervisor for the issue of the Sinai Peninsula, where the Zionists were based in and the construction of a railway line connecting Ottoman Libya and Ottoman Palestine. The former request of the Egyptians were declined by the British representatives in Egypt, however the latter request was accepted. The Ottoman Railway Commission and the British and Egyptian companies in North Africa became involved in constructing the Tobruk to Jerusalem railway, with the intention of providing a better transportation link for North African muslims to the holy city of Jerusalem. The main stations of this railway was located in Tobruk, Alexandria, Cairo, and finally Jerusalem. Several thousands of pounds was invested into this project by the Egyptians, Ottomans and British.
Perhaps the greatest issue of the Ottoman Empire during this time was however that of the Zionist Question. The Zionists had proven themselves to the Ottomans that they weren’t to be trusted at all, and the attempted declaration of independence had proven to even the pro-Zionist Ottoman jews that the Zionist Congress would not be able to take the mantle of ‘Representative of All Jews’ without being laughed out by the Ottoman government. On October 3, 1919 the Ottoman Government ordered that every representative agency of the Zionist Congress within the Ottoman Empire be dissolved within two weeks, lest they come under direct control from the Ottoman government’s Ministry of the Interior. It was a direct threat to the Zionists, and a direct consequence of the Sinai question as well. All known Jewish militias in the ottoman Empire were raided and destroyed, and the extremist branches of Jewish militias were arrested by the Ottoman police, and their leaders were thrown into jail.
Majority of the Ottoman Jews supported the actions of their government, with Liberal Union politician, David Ben Gurion calling it ‘an apt decision from the government’ and the several Sephardic Jews living in the Ottoman Empire since the expulsion of Jews from Spain in the 1400s, supported the move as well. The Baghdadi and Lebanite jews supported the move as well. In fact several Baghdadi Jews were found lynching pro-Zionist Jews in Baghdad in October, 1919 and the Ottoman police were forced to protect the Zionists of all people. Finally on October 16, 1919 the Ottoman government handed the official ambassador and representative of the Zionist Congress within the Ottoman Empire, a note asking all members of the Zionist Congress to remove themselves from Ottoman soil.
A group of baghdadi Jews.
In Salonika, the Ottoman Jewish Front Organization, declared the Zionist Congress to be misguided, and not representative of the Jewish population of the Ottoman Empire. With royal and governmental assent, the OJFO declared itself the representation of all Jewish peoples within the Ottoman Empire, and that all members OJFO with Zionist links would be evicted from the organization if they didn’t tender their resignation to the Zionist Congress by the end of 1919. This was the final death warrant to the Zionist Congress within the Ottoman Empire and proved to the government and the country that the Jews of the Ottoman Empire, by and large would be loyal to the country, as many higher members of the OJFO were first generation Ottomans, and Jewish immigrants from Spain, Italy, Russia and France.” Zionism in the Ottoman Empire: 1887-1919 © 1993
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“After the passage of several economic reforms in 1917 and social reforms as well, Ahmet Riza went on a final infrastructural and economic campaign that is largely called ‘Riza’s Last Project’. The Ottoman Empire had a semi-vast railway system, however the interior and semi-rural areas of the Ottoman Empire were still rather disconnected with the rest of the Ottoman Empire. In order to make sure that the country could become better organized and better connected, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire presented the ‘New Railway Construction Act of 1919’ into the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies on the 7th of September, 1919. The plan was hefty. It called for the construction of nearly 1000 to 1300 kilometers of new rail in the Ottoman empire. However more significantly, it allocated the construction of these new railway lines all to indigenous companies in the Ottoman empire. Foreign investment in these projects were not present at all, so as to remove foreign, mainly Austrian, and British influence in Ottoman transportation networks.
Within the Ottoman Balkans, the proposed plan would extend several railway lines into the Salonika frontier lands and increase transportation in Macedonia and Albania, including several frontier railway lines leading into the Bulgarian-Ottoman border to increase the infrastructural development of the region. In Anatolia, the plan was mainly focused on connecting interior railway lines with one another passing through un-connected towns and villages. Mainly, this increased the railway coverage into Armenia and the Pontic Region. In Syria, a small plan was implemented of creating a parallel railway line into the deserted interior of the region, to make sure that the isolated tribes within the Ottoman Empire were better connected with the central government of the country. Like in Syria, in Mesopotamia, the railway lines proposed would include a parallel line into the interior deserts of the region to make better connection, and several new lines were proposed on the Ottoman-Persian border to make sure that the border regions were brought into line with the government.
| Red lines depict already existing major railway lines whilst the orange lines depict railway lines being constructed according to the 1919 Railway Act Balkans Anatolia Mesopotamia Hejaz and Yemen Libya |
In Hejaz a long railway line parallel to the coastal railway line was proposed as well, and finally in Libya, railway lines extending into the interior of the countryside and the desert was also proposed. After two months of hefty negotiations and debates in the Ottoman chamber of deputies, the Act was passed through the Chamber and several hundreds of thousands of pounds were allocated for the railway scheme. This Act would provide hundreds of thousands of people throughout the Ottoman Empire with much needed employment and would become the backbone of the Booming 20s Economic Boom in the Ottoman Empire.” Ottoman Railways © 2020
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“The first Ottoman exploration to the Mesopotamian oilfields was acquired through the activities of Mr. William Knox D'Arcy, an Australasian who laid the foundations of British oil power in Persia. In I906 Mr. D'Arcy, "with the full support of His Majesty's Ambassador at Constantinople ", petitioned the Sultan for the rights which the Deutsche Bank had permitted to lapse. Negotiations continued throughout 1907 without result and were interrupted by the outbreak of the Young Turk Revolution the following year. In I909 control of the Mesopotamian oilfields was transferred from the Sultan's Civil List to the Ottoman Ministry of Finance, and the question of petroleum concessions became involved in the complicated negotiations of 1910-1912 regarding a loan to the new Ottoman Government, an increase in the customs duties of the Ottoman Empire, and a proposed internationalization of the Bagdad Railway.' Because of what the Ottomans considered the unfriendly policies of Sir Edward Grey during these negotiations no definitive action was taken on Mr. D'Arcy's application of I906, and in I9II his position was not much stronger than it had been before the Young Turk Revolution. In the meantime, however, Mr. D'Arcy had incorporated in I909 the Anglo- Persian Oil Company, to which he assigned all of his oil claims including whatever consideration he deserved in the Mesopotamian fields. The full importance of this step is appreciated only by reference to the fact that in the spring of 1914 the British Government purchased a controlling interest in the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. Between I908 and I9I2 the Royal Dutch-Shell combine appears to have joined the scramble for control of the oil re- sources of Mesopotamia. In some manner, through the good offices of Mr. C. S. Gulbenkian, an Ottoman subject of considerable influence and ability, sometimes called the Talleyrand of oil diplomacy, they secured a claim to consideration in the award of Turkish petroleum concessions. Thus, by I912 there were three groups jostling each other for favorable position in Mesopotamia. At this stage of the proceedings Sir Ernest Cassel, an English banker of German birth, conceived the idea of forming an Anglo-German syndicate under British control for the purpose of reconciling the divergent interests involved. Sir Ernest Cassel enjoyed the confidence of the Ottoman Government and the good-will of the Deutsche Bank, and he had the good fortune to be represented in Constantinople by Sir Henry Babington Smith, president of the National Bank of the Ottoman Empire and former British representative on the Ottoman Public Debt Administration. In I9I2 Sir Ernest Cassel formed an English joint-stock corporation, The Ottoman Petroleum Company, with a capital of 8o,ooo pounds, for the purpose of acquiring all claims to the Mesopotamian oilfields, as well as of prospecting for oil in other parts of the Ottoman Empire. At the outset all shares in the new company remained in the control of the National Bank of Ottoman Empire, presumably for subsequent allocation to the various interests concerned. Sir Ernest Cassel had the cooperation of the Deutsche Bank and appears to have won over the Royal Dutch-Shell interests and he had also won the support of D’Arcy and the Ottoman government. [2]
In November 12, 1919, Gulbenkian and D’Arcy’s groups were in Kirkuk trying to find better positions for oil in the Mesopotamian region when one Ottoman Arab worker in the area cried out ‘Black Water! It’s Black Water!’. Knowing the moment for what it was, the men ran out, and gushing out of the crater of a British oil drill were droplets of oil. It was a moment of great enthusiasm and success for the Ottoman Petroleum Company and for both the Ottomans and the British. The British had managed to make their investment into the possible oilfields in the Ottoman Empire worthwhile whilst the Ottomans had been handed a revenue source of epic proportions.
The Ottoman government, was quick to cash in some of the earlier British promises, and a renegotiation of shares was made with the British and the Ottomans. The Ottomans were not Persia, who could be bullied into submission and the Ottomans wanted to emphasize that. Ahmet Riza bluntly told the D’Arcy that it was 2/3 profits to Constantinople, the rest to Britain and that was the best deal that the Ottomans were willing to give the British government. For the British, it was a small humiliation to bare, as a third was still a considerable amount, and the Treaty of Alexandretta, signed on December 12, 1919 formalized the 2/3 agreement between the Ottoman Empire and the United Kingdom regarding the oil fields in Ottoman Mesopotamia. Regarding probable oil fields in Syria, Anatolia, and the Najd area, the Ottomans had full rights and had no interest in sharing with the British. Gulbenkian was soon transferred to the Najd area, where he would search for more oil in the region.” The Modern Fuel: Oil © 2017
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Ottoman Census Report, December 1919
Total Population: 24,726,958
Ethnic Groups:-
| Name of Ethnicity | Population | % |
| Turks | 9,427,366 | 38.12% |
| Arabs | 7,827,752 | 31.65% |
| Greeks | 3,360,469 | 13.59% |
| Armenians | 1,351,683 | 5.46% |
| Albanians | 1,011,017 | 4.08% |
| Slavs | 892,418 | 3.6% |
| Jews | 383,962 | 1.55% |
| Protestants | 68,471 | 0.27% |
| Caucasus People’s | 210,802 | 0.85% |
| Others | 193,018 | 0.78% |
Religious Affiliation:-
| Religion | Population | Percentile |
| Islam | 18,545,465 | 75.001% |
| Christianity | 5,797,531 | 23.44% |
| Jews | 383,962 | 1.55% |
From: Ottoman Population Handbook, Ottoman Governmental Records © 2018 Volume.
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[1] – This is otl as well.
[2] – Most information from The Turkish Petroleum Company--A Study in Oleaginous Diplomacy by Edward Mead Earle.
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Chapter 40: Germanic and Societal Developments
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“The creation of the German Republic in 1917 was the signal throughout Europe that a new era was beginning. Historically Germany had been the place where a monarch in desperate need of a marriage could get free prince’s and princess’s for basically free, however under the leadership of Gustav Noske, the new Chancellor, the country of Germany was to move past their imperial and monarchical heritage and look forward to becoming a proper social democratic country in Europe. A shining beacon of democracy, and democratic socialism with proper partisan legislation and no power of the military over the legislation.
Well, at least that was the hope. The reality of the situation turned out to be rather different. The country was riddled with economic problems. During the Great War, the Germans had funded the war entirely by borrowing from banks and any lenders, intent on repaying them after winning the war and imposing war reparations on the defeated Entente. Of course, the situation turned out to be rather different, and the country was now in severe debt, with a total war debt of around 98 Billion gold marks. And the situation on the ground deteriorated to such a degree that all of the former Royal families of Germany were allowed to return to Germany, barring the Hohenzollerns, in order to make sure that the vast amount of wealth that the monarchs, grand dukes, and dukes possessed would be able to stymie the economic downfall a bit, and that did work out favorably for the Germans.
Their economic problems however continued, due to the heavy war reparations that was levied on Germany by France and Russia, all of whom wanted to get their ‘fair share’ of the reparations that would arise from the German payments, so that they could pay off their own debts that they owed to private banks and the United Kingdom, both of whom had funded their own war efforts against the Central Powers. Furthermore, the Gold Standard continued to compound economic recovery of the country. Before the Great War, the global monetary system was based on the gold standard with fixed rates of exchange. During the Great War, the Gold Standard was removed to make sure that a constraint against more printing of money was removed, however the cost for removing the Gold Standard was that the cost of living in Germany increased by four times on average, which only compounded the political debate about whether or not the government should or should not re-instate the Gold Standard.
The political situation of the German Republic wasn’t stable either. The so-called Suicide Clause, or Article 48 of the new constitution basically allowed any president to rule by decree in any emergency, (what kind of emergency was left vague and would create a massive amount of problems in the future), and the Proportional Representation system of the new government and country guaranteed by the new constitution ensured that whatever party or government was in power, it would always be weak, and would have to compromise, consuming precious amounts of time that many didn’t believe the government had.
But the greatest problem that the government would have would be the political radicalization. For many in Germany, you were either on the right or on the left, and there was no center, which was a bad thing for the Zentrum Party, as their support base was slowly eroded. Of course, there were moderate leftists, like the SPD, and the hardline Leftists, like the USPD, and then there were moderate and hardline rightists as well. But the center was gradually being eroded due to political polarization. The situation came to a head during the 1918 German Coup.
Noske had ordered the disbandment of around 20 regiments of the German army and paramilitary conforming with the Treaty of Versailles, however several generals in the army hated that idea. Two prominent German Generals of the Great War, Oskar von Hutier and Walther von Luttwitz started to conspire with one another in order to dethrone the new Republic and install a new military regime in Germany, which would openly flout the Treaty of Versailles. Most of the Freikorps, all of whom were involved in the brutal massacres during the Silesian Uprisings, were mostly extremely opposed to the democratic government and this provided Hutier and Luttwitz with the opportunity that they needed.
Von Luttwitz
On the 7th of April, 1918, Luttwitz, who was also the highest military commander in Brandenburg at the time, told Noske that he would not accept the dissolution of 20 elite regiments, which would destroy the offensive capability of the already downtrodden army. This open rejection of governmental orders horrified many moderate officers in the army and they managed to create a meeting between Luttwitz and the right-wing parties and the government.
Noske and President Liebknecht both agreed to meet with Luttwitz so that they could sort out the differences of the military and the government. Luttwitz demanded that the National Assembly be dissolved, and that new elections of the Reichstagg take place under the electoral system of Imperial Germany, and the appointment of technocrats as the Secretaries for Foreign Affairs, Economic Affairs and Finance to make sure that the economic situation of the country improved, and he also demanded that Luttwitz himself be appointed as the Commander of the German Army. Liebknecht was so angered by the demands that he threw Luttwitz out of the presidential mansion (not literally), and demanded his resignation the next day.
Luttwitz returned back to the outskirts of Berlin to the barracks and told Hutier that the coup that they had planned would have to go on ahead. Aided by Waldemar Pabst, Traugott von Jagow, and several other members of the far right militias of the country, the 10,000 men in the barracks began to march to Berlin itself. Luttwitz the next day wasn’t dismissed but he was suspended from his post as commander and Noske ordered three regiments to take up positions in Berlin, but he figured that a coup was unlikely. Nonetheless, commanded by General Hans von Seeckt, the German military that was ordered to stop any coup attempt decided that they wouldn’t fire on any German.
Their reluctance to fire at Germans was one sided. When the 10 or so regiments under the personal command of Luttwitz and Hutier entered Berlin, they opened fire and marched to occupy all major governmental buildings in Berlin. An hour later Noske, Luxemburg and Liebknecht were told of the impending Coup. The three were forced to retreat from the capital, and they made their base at Hanover, whilst the capital city quickly fell under the command of the coup plotters. Noske asked for the troops defending Berlin to fire and shoot, however Seeckt replied back stating, ‘Troops will not fire on troops. We can disapprove of their actions, but we will not fire at them.’ [1]
Supporters of the Coup marching in Bonn in support of the coup.
Brandenburg, Pomerania and Silesia as well as Saxony mostly accepted the new military regime, and Luttwitz’s appointment of himself as President and Hutier as Chancellor was even celebrated in many places, however in the western tracts of Germany they found resistance. Luxemburg, popular among the labourers and working class, and the commoners pleaded through radio asking them to resist the new coup attempt. And they responded. The labourers went on strike, and factory workers refused to work until the government was restored to power. The economic power of the new military regime quickly collapsed as the industrial economy refused to work unless their government was rescinded. The agrarian populace started to riot as well, and finally with the country paralyzed, the sub-commanders of the entire coup attempt started to defect over to Liebknecht and Luxemburg.
On April 15, the military regime was toppled when the commanders took their regiments with them and recaptured Berlin from the would be plotters. Luttwitz was forced into exile into Switzerland and Hutier withdrew to some of his estates in the Netherlands. However the actions of the left wing militias that participated in the liberation of Berlin was horrendous. They massacred several families of right wing politicians, and this only further radicalized the populace of the country. Now, all hopes of conscious debate and conscious rapprochement was dead. Now, only a state of unspoken war existed between the left and right militias of Germany.
As Liebknecht and Noske tried to desperately reform the country, the country was starting to devolve into paramilitary caused ideological warfare. Militias fought with each other on the streets, and they heckled poor old politicians just trying to move from their offices to their homes, intimidating them. Several politicians caught trying to act against them were killed and assassinated, leading to the killings of nearly 300 politicians from 1918-1919. The most prominent killing was that of the Foreign Secretary, Paul Levi when he tried to use British and French intelligence to monitor militia operations in Germany, it backfired on him spectacularly.
Finally it was time for the German nation to go to polls. Noske, humiliated after the 1918 Coup Attempt, had stated that he would resign from the post of chancellor after the elections, regardless of outcome and was succeeded to the post of leader of the SPD by Phillip Scheidemann. Scheidemann was much more wary of the USPD and the hardline leftists that the party held, and the USPD-SPD Coalition that the government had formed was starting to become strained due to the mutual dislike that Luxemburg and Scheidemann had for one another. Meanwhile the right had all coalesced under the pragmatic and well intentioned leadership of Rudolf Heinze, who led the merger of the German Conservative Party, German Fatherland Party, Free Conservative Party and the German People’s Party into the German Nationalist and Social Party, or in German, the Deutschenationale und Soziale Partei or simply the DUSP. The DUSP had several factions within their party, but the most powerful and prominent was that of Heinze himself, which advocated for the return to a Prussian-constitutionalist monarchy, and a more middle rightist government. The DUSP had been discredited by the Coup Attempt of 1918 but not by much and they were a power in German economics to be reckoned with.
Zentrum and the FDP were essentially the only real party that was in the center of all things and moderate and they didn’t manage to campaign all that well, considering everyone was being ensnared by the leftist and rightist propaganda, nonetheless, led by the able leadership of Adolf Grober, Zentrum did manage to conduct some well paced campaign speeches and conventions that probably swayed some of the electorate.
By the end of the elections, the SPD had won 120 seats and the USPD had won 113 seats in the Reichstag, with the SPD-USPD Alliance and Coalition gaining absolute majority of 233 seats out of a chamber with 386 seats. The DUSP succeeded in gaining 90 seats, whilst Zentrum received 58 seats and the FDP won 3 seats. Independents managed to nab 2 seats as well. As per the agreement between the USPD and SPD party, the chancellorship was rotated every federal election, and Rosa Luxemburg was chosen from the USPD to become the Chancellor of Germany whilst Philip Scheidemann became the vice-Chancellor representing the SPD party in the executive branch of the government.
Rosa Luxemburg
The unstable government would move on ahead with their new chancellor, however as 1919 ended, the Germans were going to enter one of their most horrible experience in history. The Great German Panic was about to begin.” Germany in the Interwar Era: Radicalization of All. © 2009
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“The government of Otto Ritter von Dandl in Bavaria was also an unstable one. Whilst Rupprecht I himself was exceedingly popular among the Bavarian population, the government did not afford the same kind of popularity as their sovereign. Otto von Dandl was attacked from all sides for various weakness that sometimes did not even exist and were simply made up. For example in 1918 despite the fact that the yearly budget that was made upon by von Dandl had clear exemptions and tax breaks included to make sure that industrial growth was emphasized by the government, many opponents of his government claimed that the budget held no exemption to make industries grow. These ‘facts’ were blatantly untrue and made up to discredit von Dandl.
Von Dandl responded by making sure that the loose federation of partisan politicians that were allied with him were merged to become the new Bavarian People’s Party, which was a soft Bavarian Nationalist, and pro-protectionist political party within Bavaria. To meet this challenge were mostly the leftists of Bavaria. Officially they were rather like the SPD in Germany, and moderate in their policy outlook, however their leader, Eugene Levine, was a known republican and even though he told Rupprecht I that he would not disavow the monarchy unless the people demanded it through popular referendum, he was still a wily fellow that no one really trusted. And then there were the German nationalists and unionists who believed that independence for Bavaria was a mistake, and that they should rejoin Germany. This party, called the German Nationalist Party In Bavaria was a mixed bag of moderate unionists and radical right unionists who wanted union with Germany at any cost. There was also a faction of people present who wanted to join Austria instead of Germany to retain the monarchy and not join the unstable mess that was Germany during this time period.
Eugene Levine
Where the Left and the Bavarian People’s Party (BPP) disagreed with one another in policy and foreign ideas, the two were united in their hatred and anger at the German Reunification Party. They wanted to stop any idea of reunification and wanted to cherish the independence of Germany and the Lefts and the BPP repeatedly allied with one another to undermine the presence and the influence of the German Reunification Party, which was led by Franz Ritter von Epp, an avowed radical nationalist who believed in the Stab in the Back Myth that was being flowed throughout Germany during this time period.
Whereas the BPP and the Lefts in Bavaria were wary of using violence, and by and large did not use violence to meet their own goals, the violent faction of the German Reunification Party had no such qualms and repeatedly instigated several tension raising events in Germany and Bavaria. In particular, German citizens in Wurzburg were killed by several radical members of the party to incite Germany to invade but Bavaria gave reparations to the killings, and the event blew over. Austria, too exercised heavy influence in Bavaria and was the largest backer of the Bavarian regime, with Austrian troops even occupying the mountain passes as a safeguard against German invasion. Austrian investment poured into Bavaria and many German nationalists bitterly complained that Bavarian was turning into little more than an Austrian puppet state, which to be fair to them, was not that far from the truth.
Led by Otto von Lossow, several Bavarian German Nationalists started to boycott the entire independence process of the nation and demanded that they reintegrate with the German government, however all aspects of the Bavarian government opposed this and the Bavarian Paramilitary pre-empted a military response in early 1919 which saw von Lossow and the would be civil conflict makers killed and or imprisoned for life.
Amidst this backdrop, the Bavarian country went to polls on the 27th of October, 1919. The Bavarian People’s Party won the plurality of the total seats available in the Landtag, taking 84 out of 205 seats whilst the Left Faction trailed behind at 66. The German Nationalists and Reunification members gained 51 seats in the Landtag and 4 independents were elected to the Landtag as well.
This gave a clear mandate to the BPP to continue ruling the nation and Otto von Dandl made a minority government and formed a new cabinet, whilst retaining the position of Minister-President.
Hans Ritter von Seisser became the President of the Bavarian Landtag and became involved in stabilizing the government. He entered talks with the Left and managed to calm them down enough to make sure that a stable bipartisan government could be formed out of the chaos that was Bavarian politics during this time period. As the country entered the new decade, the Bavarian nation, though quite unstable, would manage to flourish and become prosperous, before the downturn of the 30s truly devastated the country. Nonetheless, for the moment, the increased cooperation between the Left and the BPP allowed the country to stabilize its internal politics.” Rupprecht I, the Martyr of Bavaria, A Biography, © 1999.
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“Society in the Ottoman Empire at the end of 1919 and the beginning of the new decade was a totally new one, and one that was full of optimism. Let us begin this small analysis by looking at three major societal factors – women, religion and sports.
Women in 1910 had the right to vote, granted that they had a suitable amount of landed wealth to back their claim to vote up, however universal Women’s votes was not available and certainly old Islamic Law on Women persisted throughout the Ottoman Empire and they had negligible rights, even though the rights of everyone was guaranteed by the 1908 Constitution. However the passage of the Women’s Rights Acts had allowed Women to become involved in all facets of Ottoman society at the time, and ensured that the Women would be able to become proper manpower and economic assets of the Ottoman nation state. The near doubling of the Ottoman electorate from the inclusion of all women over 18 fundamentally shifted the Political sphere of influence of the Ottoman political parties as all of them jockeyed with one another for influence in women’s participation in politics. Women were given property rights, and social rights, and they were also able to inherit land and property from their parents, something which had been kept from them, even in the 1908 Constitution. Polygamy was still prevalent in the Ottoman Empire’s Islamic population during this time period, however the laws passed to protect Women and their fundamental rights allowed the Woman to choose of her own free will to join a polygamous wedding, with the permission of the first wife explicitly required before any such wedding according the Women Rights Act. Women were guaranteed equal pay in the industrial sector and Women became a vital part of the Ottoman industrial working class as the Ottomans, who industrialized late, had no qualms about shoving the Women into industries if it meant better industrial showing. The abolition of the Ottoman Imperial Harem from a total sexual connotation to becoming a singularly educational institution was also a great victory for Ottoman Women.
Halide Edib Adivar
During the 1918 Ottoman General election 13 women deputies were elected, chief among them women like Halide Edib Adivar, and Hayriye Melek Hunc, both of whom had been ardent women right’s leaders in the Ottoman Empire. Both of them had been included in the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies as a part of the Liberal Union political party. Women were allowed to have their own Women Leagues and Women Trade Unions, which only increased the productivity of the nation. One famous catchphrase among Canadian Women’s Suffragettes after 1918 was that ‘Look the Oriental Women in the Ottoman Empire have the vote, but you don’t!’. This catchphrase was shown in several posters in Quebec and throughout Canada during the entirety of the Canadian Women’s Suffrage Movement.
Seniha Sultan, the Ottoman Princess who supported the Women's Movement in the Ottoman Empire.
There was also a growing movement in the Ottoman Empire within the women’s community about installing a permanent absolute primogeniture succession system in which the eldest regardless of gender would become the Ottoman Sultan/Sultana. This was aimed at the Ottoman Empire during the reign of Abdulmejid I because, after the death of Sehzade Ahmed Nihad in the Balkan War, Osman Fuad was the heir apparent to the Ottoman Empire. Abdulmejid II’s eldest son, Sehzade Omer Faruk had renounced all claims to the Ottoman Throne to live a solitary life [2], which would make Abdulmejid II’s second child, Princess Durru Shehvar Durdana Begum Sahiba, popularly known as Durrusehvar Sultan, would become the heir apparent of the Ottoman Imperial Throne if absolute primogeniture was adopted by the Ottoman Imperial household. This movement was supported by prominent Ottoman princesses, such as the kind and gentle Mediha Sultan and the cunning, sly and beautiful Seniha Sultan, who joined forces with the Ottoman Absolute Primogeniture Movement to make sure that the Ottoman Imperial family adopted absolute primogeniture. While they would not succeed in the 1910s or even the 1920s or 1930s, the 1942 Act of the Succession Settlement would allow absolute primogeniture in the Ottoman Empire and allowed Durrusehvar Sultan to succeed Osman IV in 1947 as the first Sultana of the Ottoman Empire.
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Islam and Christianity in the Changing Ottoman Empire
Most members of the Ottoman Islamic community were the followers of the Hanafi school of Islam within the Sunni community. The Hanafi believe that the Quran, Hadith, Ijma (concensus), and Qiyas (legal analogy) alongside Istihsan (Juristic Preference) combined together with Urf (normative customs) formed the basis of the Sharia or Islamic Law within the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans also followed the doctrine of Ahl al-Ray, which is a movement which roughly translates into Common Sense. It advocates the use of reasoning to arrive at legal decisions and proper decisions. Over turn, the al-Ray movement was sidelined during the 16th century, however after the 1908 Revolution, this movement was revived, and the al-Ray movement within Islam, which called for proper reasoning and common sense became an important aspect of Ottoman Sunnism within the empire.
Shias and Ibadis within the Ottoman Empire were also relatively free, and the state was tolerant towards them since time immemorial. The last major attack on the Shia community under Ottoman lands had been in 1632 when the Ottomans and Safavids had gone to war and several Shia Turkmen supported the Safavids. But after that the Shias and Sunnis had lived on in peace. The Ibadis were too small a community within the Ottoman Empire to truly become a large representation of the Ottoman Islamic community. The only Ibadi majority areas on the planet was in Berber lands in Algeria and Oman. Though many Ottoman businessmen and groups did give refuge to many Ibadis fleeing French colonization in Algeria.
The Ottomans, unlike the Egyptians, Maghrebis, Iranians and other Islam majority areas, were also unusually extremely superstitious. All good Ottoman Islamic peoples wear little charms, such as necklaces, and bands across their writs to protect themselves from evil spirits and forces. The greatest of these evils according to Ottoman theology is called the Evil Eye. Funnily enough the Evil Eye is not a specific evil spirit such as the Ghoul or any other spirit that Western media has ripped off of Turko-Arabic Mythology, but it pertains specifically towards envy and jealousy, which the Ottomans considered to be a great evil in its own right.
A typical wrist necklace used to ward off the Evil Eye. Worn by virtually every Ottoman Muslim in the empire even today.
For the first time since the rule of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Christian population were also allowed to mingle with the larger population at large freely. They were allowed to do anything they wished as long as they didn’t breach Ottoman laws and jurisdiction. In fact the Christian community was at times over-represented by the Ottoman government to make up for their past mistakes, and to dampen nationalist feelings. The Patriarchate of Constantinople was strengthened by the Ottomans by giving more money and funding to the Patriarchate, and Mt. Athos had its autonomy re-affirmed, and the governmental bodies in Mt. Athos began to issue Ottoman passports for citizens of their semi-independent realm in recognition of Ottoman efforts in their territories. For the first time in centuries as well, intermarriages between the Islamic and Christian faith was allowed in equal terms. Christian women and men were allowed to marry Islamic men and women on equal grounds. As per Ottoman law, both sides of the families would have the consent and pressing to convert the other spouse was explicitly prohibited by the government due to it being a breach of freedom of religion. Spouses were allowed to keep their faith and in the case of interfaith marriages, marriage ceremonies in both faiths were conducted. Generally the children borne of these interfaith marriages chose to adopt the faith of their father, as was and is typical of all interfaith marriages in the entire world. Some even adopted both, which forced the Ottoman Empire’s census department in 1937 to create a new religious option of ‘Islam-Christian Syncretism’ due to the large amount of interfaith marriages going on after 1908 between the Islamic and Christian community of the country.
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Sports In the Changing Ottoman Empire
Perhaps the greatest and most well popular sport in the Ottoman Empire would be football, followed closely by cricket. Football was played in the Ottoman Empire for the first time in 1853 after some British and French officers in Constantinople during the Crimean War got bored and began to play football with one another in an open field, attracting the local populace to look on at the strange game. By 1898, it was one of the more popular sports of the Ottoman Empire, though repressed under the rule of Sultan Abdul Hamid II.
In 1909, the game was stopped from being oppressed due to the constitutional government taking power, and the game exploded in popularity throughout the Ottoman Empire. Several attempts to create a proper professional league in the Ottoman Empire had taken place in the decade following the official legalization of the game, however it was only in 1918 when these attempts succeeded, and the Ottoman National Football League was founded with 10 major football teams:-
Members of the Baghdad Wizards posing for a photo after winning the 1919 Cup.
Cricket was introduced to the Ottoman Empire by a joint British-Canadian ecological survey group in 1881 when the British Ecological communities were on their frenzy of conducting ecological surveys throughout the Ottoman Empire and Africa at the time. The first Cricket game was played in Erzurum in 1881 after an exhausting journey up the nearby mountains, when the British and Canadians decided to have a small game. The game became immensely popular in eastern Anatolia. However unlike Football, which was repressed, but many still turned a blind eye towards it, Cricket did not afford that same luxury and the sport was brutally suppressed by Abdul Hamid II to the point that revitalizing the sport after 1918 proved to be a massive task. It was only through the efforts of Rupert Hickmott, a member of the New Zealand National Cricket Team and a part of the British Military Attache in Constantinople during the Great War that the game was revived and in the year of 1919 the Ottoman Vilayet Cricket System was implemented, allowing a low level professional league for prospective cricketeers in the Ottoman countryside take place.
Several other sports in the Ottoman Empire such as volleyball and high jumping also became popular in the Ottoman empire during this time period.
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As one might expect, the Ottoman society had been changed radically during the decade of 1910, and the development would continue.” The Evolution of Ottoman Society, © 2018.
***
***
[1] – true quote from OTL during the Kapp Putsch.
[2] – true story from otl.
***
Coming Next
The Bulgarian Recovery
Serbian Revanchism
Russian Politics
The 1920 Regional Ottoman Elections
***
***
“The creation of the German Republic in 1917 was the signal throughout Europe that a new era was beginning. Historically Germany had been the place where a monarch in desperate need of a marriage could get free prince’s and princess’s for basically free, however under the leadership of Gustav Noske, the new Chancellor, the country of Germany was to move past their imperial and monarchical heritage and look forward to becoming a proper social democratic country in Europe. A shining beacon of democracy, and democratic socialism with proper partisan legislation and no power of the military over the legislation.
Well, at least that was the hope. The reality of the situation turned out to be rather different. The country was riddled with economic problems. During the Great War, the Germans had funded the war entirely by borrowing from banks and any lenders, intent on repaying them after winning the war and imposing war reparations on the defeated Entente. Of course, the situation turned out to be rather different, and the country was now in severe debt, with a total war debt of around 98 Billion gold marks. And the situation on the ground deteriorated to such a degree that all of the former Royal families of Germany were allowed to return to Germany, barring the Hohenzollerns, in order to make sure that the vast amount of wealth that the monarchs, grand dukes, and dukes possessed would be able to stymie the economic downfall a bit, and that did work out favorably for the Germans.
Their economic problems however continued, due to the heavy war reparations that was levied on Germany by France and Russia, all of whom wanted to get their ‘fair share’ of the reparations that would arise from the German payments, so that they could pay off their own debts that they owed to private banks and the United Kingdom, both of whom had funded their own war efforts against the Central Powers. Furthermore, the Gold Standard continued to compound economic recovery of the country. Before the Great War, the global monetary system was based on the gold standard with fixed rates of exchange. During the Great War, the Gold Standard was removed to make sure that a constraint against more printing of money was removed, however the cost for removing the Gold Standard was that the cost of living in Germany increased by four times on average, which only compounded the political debate about whether or not the government should or should not re-instate the Gold Standard.
The political situation of the German Republic wasn’t stable either. The so-called Suicide Clause, or Article 48 of the new constitution basically allowed any president to rule by decree in any emergency, (what kind of emergency was left vague and would create a massive amount of problems in the future), and the Proportional Representation system of the new government and country guaranteed by the new constitution ensured that whatever party or government was in power, it would always be weak, and would have to compromise, consuming precious amounts of time that many didn’t believe the government had.
But the greatest problem that the government would have would be the political radicalization. For many in Germany, you were either on the right or on the left, and there was no center, which was a bad thing for the Zentrum Party, as their support base was slowly eroded. Of course, there were moderate leftists, like the SPD, and the hardline Leftists, like the USPD, and then there were moderate and hardline rightists as well. But the center was gradually being eroded due to political polarization. The situation came to a head during the 1918 German Coup.
Noske had ordered the disbandment of around 20 regiments of the German army and paramilitary conforming with the Treaty of Versailles, however several generals in the army hated that idea. Two prominent German Generals of the Great War, Oskar von Hutier and Walther von Luttwitz started to conspire with one another in order to dethrone the new Republic and install a new military regime in Germany, which would openly flout the Treaty of Versailles. Most of the Freikorps, all of whom were involved in the brutal massacres during the Silesian Uprisings, were mostly extremely opposed to the democratic government and this provided Hutier and Luttwitz with the opportunity that they needed.
Von Luttwitz
On the 7th of April, 1918, Luttwitz, who was also the highest military commander in Brandenburg at the time, told Noske that he would not accept the dissolution of 20 elite regiments, which would destroy the offensive capability of the already downtrodden army. This open rejection of governmental orders horrified many moderate officers in the army and they managed to create a meeting between Luttwitz and the right-wing parties and the government.
Noske and President Liebknecht both agreed to meet with Luttwitz so that they could sort out the differences of the military and the government. Luttwitz demanded that the National Assembly be dissolved, and that new elections of the Reichstagg take place under the electoral system of Imperial Germany, and the appointment of technocrats as the Secretaries for Foreign Affairs, Economic Affairs and Finance to make sure that the economic situation of the country improved, and he also demanded that Luttwitz himself be appointed as the Commander of the German Army. Liebknecht was so angered by the demands that he threw Luttwitz out of the presidential mansion (not literally), and demanded his resignation the next day.
Luttwitz returned back to the outskirts of Berlin to the barracks and told Hutier that the coup that they had planned would have to go on ahead. Aided by Waldemar Pabst, Traugott von Jagow, and several other members of the far right militias of the country, the 10,000 men in the barracks began to march to Berlin itself. Luttwitz the next day wasn’t dismissed but he was suspended from his post as commander and Noske ordered three regiments to take up positions in Berlin, but he figured that a coup was unlikely. Nonetheless, commanded by General Hans von Seeckt, the German military that was ordered to stop any coup attempt decided that they wouldn’t fire on any German.
Their reluctance to fire at Germans was one sided. When the 10 or so regiments under the personal command of Luttwitz and Hutier entered Berlin, they opened fire and marched to occupy all major governmental buildings in Berlin. An hour later Noske, Luxemburg and Liebknecht were told of the impending Coup. The three were forced to retreat from the capital, and they made their base at Hanover, whilst the capital city quickly fell under the command of the coup plotters. Noske asked for the troops defending Berlin to fire and shoot, however Seeckt replied back stating, ‘Troops will not fire on troops. We can disapprove of their actions, but we will not fire at them.’ [1]
Supporters of the Coup marching in Bonn in support of the coup.
Brandenburg, Pomerania and Silesia as well as Saxony mostly accepted the new military regime, and Luttwitz’s appointment of himself as President and Hutier as Chancellor was even celebrated in many places, however in the western tracts of Germany they found resistance. Luxemburg, popular among the labourers and working class, and the commoners pleaded through radio asking them to resist the new coup attempt. And they responded. The labourers went on strike, and factory workers refused to work until the government was restored to power. The economic power of the new military regime quickly collapsed as the industrial economy refused to work unless their government was rescinded. The agrarian populace started to riot as well, and finally with the country paralyzed, the sub-commanders of the entire coup attempt started to defect over to Liebknecht and Luxemburg.
On April 15, the military regime was toppled when the commanders took their regiments with them and recaptured Berlin from the would be plotters. Luttwitz was forced into exile into Switzerland and Hutier withdrew to some of his estates in the Netherlands. However the actions of the left wing militias that participated in the liberation of Berlin was horrendous. They massacred several families of right wing politicians, and this only further radicalized the populace of the country. Now, all hopes of conscious debate and conscious rapprochement was dead. Now, only a state of unspoken war existed between the left and right militias of Germany.
As Liebknecht and Noske tried to desperately reform the country, the country was starting to devolve into paramilitary caused ideological warfare. Militias fought with each other on the streets, and they heckled poor old politicians just trying to move from their offices to their homes, intimidating them. Several politicians caught trying to act against them were killed and assassinated, leading to the killings of nearly 300 politicians from 1918-1919. The most prominent killing was that of the Foreign Secretary, Paul Levi when he tried to use British and French intelligence to monitor militia operations in Germany, it backfired on him spectacularly.
Finally it was time for the German nation to go to polls. Noske, humiliated after the 1918 Coup Attempt, had stated that he would resign from the post of chancellor after the elections, regardless of outcome and was succeeded to the post of leader of the SPD by Phillip Scheidemann. Scheidemann was much more wary of the USPD and the hardline leftists that the party held, and the USPD-SPD Coalition that the government had formed was starting to become strained due to the mutual dislike that Luxemburg and Scheidemann had for one another. Meanwhile the right had all coalesced under the pragmatic and well intentioned leadership of Rudolf Heinze, who led the merger of the German Conservative Party, German Fatherland Party, Free Conservative Party and the German People’s Party into the German Nationalist and Social Party, or in German, the Deutschenationale und Soziale Partei or simply the DUSP. The DUSP had several factions within their party, but the most powerful and prominent was that of Heinze himself, which advocated for the return to a Prussian-constitutionalist monarchy, and a more middle rightist government. The DUSP had been discredited by the Coup Attempt of 1918 but not by much and they were a power in German economics to be reckoned with.
Zentrum and the FDP were essentially the only real party that was in the center of all things and moderate and they didn’t manage to campaign all that well, considering everyone was being ensnared by the leftist and rightist propaganda, nonetheless, led by the able leadership of Adolf Grober, Zentrum did manage to conduct some well paced campaign speeches and conventions that probably swayed some of the electorate.
By the end of the elections, the SPD had won 120 seats and the USPD had won 113 seats in the Reichstag, with the SPD-USPD Alliance and Coalition gaining absolute majority of 233 seats out of a chamber with 386 seats. The DUSP succeeded in gaining 90 seats, whilst Zentrum received 58 seats and the FDP won 3 seats. Independents managed to nab 2 seats as well. As per the agreement between the USPD and SPD party, the chancellorship was rotated every federal election, and Rosa Luxemburg was chosen from the USPD to become the Chancellor of Germany whilst Philip Scheidemann became the vice-Chancellor representing the SPD party in the executive branch of the government.
Rosa Luxemburg
The unstable government would move on ahead with their new chancellor, however as 1919 ended, the Germans were going to enter one of their most horrible experience in history. The Great German Panic was about to begin.” Germany in the Interwar Era: Radicalization of All. © 2009
***
“The government of Otto Ritter von Dandl in Bavaria was also an unstable one. Whilst Rupprecht I himself was exceedingly popular among the Bavarian population, the government did not afford the same kind of popularity as their sovereign. Otto von Dandl was attacked from all sides for various weakness that sometimes did not even exist and were simply made up. For example in 1918 despite the fact that the yearly budget that was made upon by von Dandl had clear exemptions and tax breaks included to make sure that industrial growth was emphasized by the government, many opponents of his government claimed that the budget held no exemption to make industries grow. These ‘facts’ were blatantly untrue and made up to discredit von Dandl.
Von Dandl responded by making sure that the loose federation of partisan politicians that were allied with him were merged to become the new Bavarian People’s Party, which was a soft Bavarian Nationalist, and pro-protectionist political party within Bavaria. To meet this challenge were mostly the leftists of Bavaria. Officially they were rather like the SPD in Germany, and moderate in their policy outlook, however their leader, Eugene Levine, was a known republican and even though he told Rupprecht I that he would not disavow the monarchy unless the people demanded it through popular referendum, he was still a wily fellow that no one really trusted. And then there were the German nationalists and unionists who believed that independence for Bavaria was a mistake, and that they should rejoin Germany. This party, called the German Nationalist Party In Bavaria was a mixed bag of moderate unionists and radical right unionists who wanted union with Germany at any cost. There was also a faction of people present who wanted to join Austria instead of Germany to retain the monarchy and not join the unstable mess that was Germany during this time period.
Eugene Levine
Where the Left and the Bavarian People’s Party (BPP) disagreed with one another in policy and foreign ideas, the two were united in their hatred and anger at the German Reunification Party. They wanted to stop any idea of reunification and wanted to cherish the independence of Germany and the Lefts and the BPP repeatedly allied with one another to undermine the presence and the influence of the German Reunification Party, which was led by Franz Ritter von Epp, an avowed radical nationalist who believed in the Stab in the Back Myth that was being flowed throughout Germany during this time period.
Whereas the BPP and the Lefts in Bavaria were wary of using violence, and by and large did not use violence to meet their own goals, the violent faction of the German Reunification Party had no such qualms and repeatedly instigated several tension raising events in Germany and Bavaria. In particular, German citizens in Wurzburg were killed by several radical members of the party to incite Germany to invade but Bavaria gave reparations to the killings, and the event blew over. Austria, too exercised heavy influence in Bavaria and was the largest backer of the Bavarian regime, with Austrian troops even occupying the mountain passes as a safeguard against German invasion. Austrian investment poured into Bavaria and many German nationalists bitterly complained that Bavarian was turning into little more than an Austrian puppet state, which to be fair to them, was not that far from the truth.
Led by Otto von Lossow, several Bavarian German Nationalists started to boycott the entire independence process of the nation and demanded that they reintegrate with the German government, however all aspects of the Bavarian government opposed this and the Bavarian Paramilitary pre-empted a military response in early 1919 which saw von Lossow and the would be civil conflict makers killed and or imprisoned for life.
Amidst this backdrop, the Bavarian country went to polls on the 27th of October, 1919. The Bavarian People’s Party won the plurality of the total seats available in the Landtag, taking 84 out of 205 seats whilst the Left Faction trailed behind at 66. The German Nationalists and Reunification members gained 51 seats in the Landtag and 4 independents were elected to the Landtag as well.
This gave a clear mandate to the BPP to continue ruling the nation and Otto von Dandl made a minority government and formed a new cabinet, whilst retaining the position of Minister-President.
Hans Ritter von Seisser became the President of the Bavarian Landtag and became involved in stabilizing the government. He entered talks with the Left and managed to calm them down enough to make sure that a stable bipartisan government could be formed out of the chaos that was Bavarian politics during this time period. As the country entered the new decade, the Bavarian nation, though quite unstable, would manage to flourish and become prosperous, before the downturn of the 30s truly devastated the country. Nonetheless, for the moment, the increased cooperation between the Left and the BPP allowed the country to stabilize its internal politics.” Rupprecht I, the Martyr of Bavaria, A Biography, © 1999.
***
“Society in the Ottoman Empire at the end of 1919 and the beginning of the new decade was a totally new one, and one that was full of optimism. Let us begin this small analysis by looking at three major societal factors – women, religion and sports.
Women in 1910 had the right to vote, granted that they had a suitable amount of landed wealth to back their claim to vote up, however universal Women’s votes was not available and certainly old Islamic Law on Women persisted throughout the Ottoman Empire and they had negligible rights, even though the rights of everyone was guaranteed by the 1908 Constitution. However the passage of the Women’s Rights Acts had allowed Women to become involved in all facets of Ottoman society at the time, and ensured that the Women would be able to become proper manpower and economic assets of the Ottoman nation state. The near doubling of the Ottoman electorate from the inclusion of all women over 18 fundamentally shifted the Political sphere of influence of the Ottoman political parties as all of them jockeyed with one another for influence in women’s participation in politics. Women were given property rights, and social rights, and they were also able to inherit land and property from their parents, something which had been kept from them, even in the 1908 Constitution. Polygamy was still prevalent in the Ottoman Empire’s Islamic population during this time period, however the laws passed to protect Women and their fundamental rights allowed the Woman to choose of her own free will to join a polygamous wedding, with the permission of the first wife explicitly required before any such wedding according the Women Rights Act. Women were guaranteed equal pay in the industrial sector and Women became a vital part of the Ottoman industrial working class as the Ottomans, who industrialized late, had no qualms about shoving the Women into industries if it meant better industrial showing. The abolition of the Ottoman Imperial Harem from a total sexual connotation to becoming a singularly educational institution was also a great victory for Ottoman Women.
Halide Edib Adivar
During the 1918 Ottoman General election 13 women deputies were elected, chief among them women like Halide Edib Adivar, and Hayriye Melek Hunc, both of whom had been ardent women right’s leaders in the Ottoman Empire. Both of them had been included in the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies as a part of the Liberal Union political party. Women were allowed to have their own Women Leagues and Women Trade Unions, which only increased the productivity of the nation. One famous catchphrase among Canadian Women’s Suffragettes after 1918 was that ‘Look the Oriental Women in the Ottoman Empire have the vote, but you don’t!’. This catchphrase was shown in several posters in Quebec and throughout Canada during the entirety of the Canadian Women’s Suffrage Movement.
Seniha Sultan, the Ottoman Princess who supported the Women's Movement in the Ottoman Empire.
There was also a growing movement in the Ottoman Empire within the women’s community about installing a permanent absolute primogeniture succession system in which the eldest regardless of gender would become the Ottoman Sultan/Sultana. This was aimed at the Ottoman Empire during the reign of Abdulmejid I because, after the death of Sehzade Ahmed Nihad in the Balkan War, Osman Fuad was the heir apparent to the Ottoman Empire. Abdulmejid II’s eldest son, Sehzade Omer Faruk had renounced all claims to the Ottoman Throne to live a solitary life [2], which would make Abdulmejid II’s second child, Princess Durru Shehvar Durdana Begum Sahiba, popularly known as Durrusehvar Sultan, would become the heir apparent of the Ottoman Imperial Throne if absolute primogeniture was adopted by the Ottoman Imperial household. This movement was supported by prominent Ottoman princesses, such as the kind and gentle Mediha Sultan and the cunning, sly and beautiful Seniha Sultan, who joined forces with the Ottoman Absolute Primogeniture Movement to make sure that the Ottoman Imperial family adopted absolute primogeniture. While they would not succeed in the 1910s or even the 1920s or 1930s, the 1942 Act of the Succession Settlement would allow absolute primogeniture in the Ottoman Empire and allowed Durrusehvar Sultan to succeed Osman IV in 1947 as the first Sultana of the Ottoman Empire.
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Islam and Christianity in the Changing Ottoman Empire
Most members of the Ottoman Islamic community were the followers of the Hanafi school of Islam within the Sunni community. The Hanafi believe that the Quran, Hadith, Ijma (concensus), and Qiyas (legal analogy) alongside Istihsan (Juristic Preference) combined together with Urf (normative customs) formed the basis of the Sharia or Islamic Law within the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans also followed the doctrine of Ahl al-Ray, which is a movement which roughly translates into Common Sense. It advocates the use of reasoning to arrive at legal decisions and proper decisions. Over turn, the al-Ray movement was sidelined during the 16th century, however after the 1908 Revolution, this movement was revived, and the al-Ray movement within Islam, which called for proper reasoning and common sense became an important aspect of Ottoman Sunnism within the empire.
Shias and Ibadis within the Ottoman Empire were also relatively free, and the state was tolerant towards them since time immemorial. The last major attack on the Shia community under Ottoman lands had been in 1632 when the Ottomans and Safavids had gone to war and several Shia Turkmen supported the Safavids. But after that the Shias and Sunnis had lived on in peace. The Ibadis were too small a community within the Ottoman Empire to truly become a large representation of the Ottoman Islamic community. The only Ibadi majority areas on the planet was in Berber lands in Algeria and Oman. Though many Ottoman businessmen and groups did give refuge to many Ibadis fleeing French colonization in Algeria.
The Ottomans, unlike the Egyptians, Maghrebis, Iranians and other Islam majority areas, were also unusually extremely superstitious. All good Ottoman Islamic peoples wear little charms, such as necklaces, and bands across their writs to protect themselves from evil spirits and forces. The greatest of these evils according to Ottoman theology is called the Evil Eye. Funnily enough the Evil Eye is not a specific evil spirit such as the Ghoul or any other spirit that Western media has ripped off of Turko-Arabic Mythology, but it pertains specifically towards envy and jealousy, which the Ottomans considered to be a great evil in its own right.
A typical wrist necklace used to ward off the Evil Eye. Worn by virtually every Ottoman Muslim in the empire even today.
For the first time since the rule of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Christian population were also allowed to mingle with the larger population at large freely. They were allowed to do anything they wished as long as they didn’t breach Ottoman laws and jurisdiction. In fact the Christian community was at times over-represented by the Ottoman government to make up for their past mistakes, and to dampen nationalist feelings. The Patriarchate of Constantinople was strengthened by the Ottomans by giving more money and funding to the Patriarchate, and Mt. Athos had its autonomy re-affirmed, and the governmental bodies in Mt. Athos began to issue Ottoman passports for citizens of their semi-independent realm in recognition of Ottoman efforts in their territories. For the first time in centuries as well, intermarriages between the Islamic and Christian faith was allowed in equal terms. Christian women and men were allowed to marry Islamic men and women on equal grounds. As per Ottoman law, both sides of the families would have the consent and pressing to convert the other spouse was explicitly prohibited by the government due to it being a breach of freedom of religion. Spouses were allowed to keep their faith and in the case of interfaith marriages, marriage ceremonies in both faiths were conducted. Generally the children borne of these interfaith marriages chose to adopt the faith of their father, as was and is typical of all interfaith marriages in the entire world. Some even adopted both, which forced the Ottoman Empire’s census department in 1937 to create a new religious option of ‘Islam-Christian Syncretism’ due to the large amount of interfaith marriages going on after 1908 between the Islamic and Christian community of the country.
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Sports In the Changing Ottoman Empire
Perhaps the greatest and most well popular sport in the Ottoman Empire would be football, followed closely by cricket. Football was played in the Ottoman Empire for the first time in 1853 after some British and French officers in Constantinople during the Crimean War got bored and began to play football with one another in an open field, attracting the local populace to look on at the strange game. By 1898, it was one of the more popular sports of the Ottoman Empire, though repressed under the rule of Sultan Abdul Hamid II.
In 1909, the game was stopped from being oppressed due to the constitutional government taking power, and the game exploded in popularity throughout the Ottoman Empire. Several attempts to create a proper professional league in the Ottoman Empire had taken place in the decade following the official legalization of the game, however it was only in 1918 when these attempts succeeded, and the Ottoman National Football League was founded with 10 major football teams:-
- Constantinople Sultans
- Izmir Sailors
- Tirana Foxes
- Salonika Rangers
- Baghdad Wizards
- Jerusalem Monks
- Jeddah Lions
- Tripoli Warriors
- Trabzon Eagles
- Prishtina Serpents
Members of the Baghdad Wizards posing for a photo after winning the 1919 Cup.
Cricket was introduced to the Ottoman Empire by a joint British-Canadian ecological survey group in 1881 when the British Ecological communities were on their frenzy of conducting ecological surveys throughout the Ottoman Empire and Africa at the time. The first Cricket game was played in Erzurum in 1881 after an exhausting journey up the nearby mountains, when the British and Canadians decided to have a small game. The game became immensely popular in eastern Anatolia. However unlike Football, which was repressed, but many still turned a blind eye towards it, Cricket did not afford that same luxury and the sport was brutally suppressed by Abdul Hamid II to the point that revitalizing the sport after 1918 proved to be a massive task. It was only through the efforts of Rupert Hickmott, a member of the New Zealand National Cricket Team and a part of the British Military Attache in Constantinople during the Great War that the game was revived and in the year of 1919 the Ottoman Vilayet Cricket System was implemented, allowing a low level professional league for prospective cricketeers in the Ottoman countryside take place.
Several other sports in the Ottoman Empire such as volleyball and high jumping also became popular in the Ottoman empire during this time period.
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As one might expect, the Ottoman society had been changed radically during the decade of 1910, and the development would continue.” The Evolution of Ottoman Society, © 2018.
***
***
[1] – true quote from OTL during the Kapp Putsch.
[2] – true story from otl.
***
Coming Next
The Bulgarian Recovery
Serbian Revanchism
Russian Politics
The 1920 Regional Ottoman Elections
***
Chapter 41: Politicking is boring.
***
“After 1915, the Kingdom of Bulgaria was left as a shell of what it once was. Once, called the fastest industrializing powerhouse in the Balkans, Bulgaria’s economy was decimated, and the population of the country was culled in a massive war that had seen hundreds of thousands killed, either through Ottoman shells and guns, or due to their own internal civil strife, between communist and royalist sympathizers throughout the Bulgarian state. The Ottoman occupation of Rumelia hadn’t exactly been clean either, and though Riza was keen on making the troops stay in line, a good amount of Ottoman troops, angered by the deaths of their fellow comrades at the hands of Bulgarian guns, committed some atrocities on the Bulgarian civilian authorities. Most of the time, the Ottoman army punished those who had acted in such a manner, but many a times, these cases fell through slippery fingers and never found their way into Ottoman military court, leaving many to remain scot free. The Ottomans stripped Rumelia of all its economic and industrial output until they retreated after the occupation time period was over as per the Treaties that were signed after the end of the Balkan War.
Nikola Mushanov
In this dire situation one will have to say quite frankly that the situation Bulgaria was in was dire. Thankfully political stability, which was much needed was found, and the three biggest Bulgarian political parties – The Bulgarian Agrarian National Union, Bulgarian Democratic Party and the Bulgarian Social Democrats – had banded together in what is called today as the Bulgarian National Recovery Coalition Alliance. From this coalition, Nikola Mushanov of the Democratic Party rose to power as the first post-war Bulgarian Prime Minister with the approval of Tsar Boris III. Born in 1872, he entered Bulgarian politics in 1902 after he became a member of the Bulgarian National Assembly for the constituency of Sabranie. From then on, he had a meteoritic rise to power, and by 1910, he was the leader of the Democratic Party in Bulgaria and despite his economic nationalism and his slight rightist tendencies, he remained a moderate, and he reverently opposed war with the Ottoman Empire, declaring that the Bulgarian nation would be destroyed in such a war. And he was right. To many in the Bulgarian nation, this gave him credence and the right to rise through the ranks, and in 1915 he became Prime Minister of Bulgaria.
Immediately, Mushanov began to normalize relations with the Ottoman Empire, and sent the first post-war military attaché from Bulgaria into the Ottoman Empire the next year in 1916. He wasn’t above from begging when it could be used to aid the nation either, and he virtually begged the Ottoman Ambassador to Bulgaria, Resad Pasha to give Bulgaria interest free loans to startup the Bulgarian economy after the war. The Ottomans, eager to include Bulgaria within its own sphere of influence and out of the Austrian and Russian hands, agreed, and several loans with little to no interest were given to the Bulgarian government. Mushanov used these loans to build up new coal mines, new industrial estates and had the demobilized troops become engaged in these new occupations to meet their demands of a proper job and stabilizing their standard of living.
Mushanov was also brutal, as was typical of nationalists. Mushanov knew acutely that the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), the organization that wanted Macedonia and Thrace to be unified with Bulgaria had been the one to spark the flames of war within the Bulgarian government, by radicalizing its officer class. Mushanov decided that he would deal with this threat in a fast and swift manner. IMRO buildings were shut down throughout Bulgaria, and with the aid of Ottoman intelligence, the Bulgarians began to raid the homes and shelters of major IMRO heads and figures, taking them into custody and exiling them into life imprisonment, or sometimes, even executing them. This culling of the IMRO also included the officer class within the Bulgarian Military, many of whom had links with the IMRO, and this saw pro-IMRO officers slowly and gradually becoming replaced with pro-governmental officers, as the IMRO’s influence continued to wane under the hard and harsh leadership of Mushanov.
This sparked of a wave of fear within the Bulgarian army and many were now even thinking about committing themselves to a coup to get rid of the Bulgarian Prime Minister if he acted without caution and without credence. On the 8th of July 1918, the Bulgarian Prime Minister opened negotiations with the Ottoman Empire about the reconstruction of Burgas, which was still in bad shape after the war, with Ottoman investment thrown in in return for the Ottoman navy gaining a shipping duty in the port and basing rights. This was the last straw, and one man, Ivan Valkov decided to act. Valkov had been a Bulgarian General during the Balkan War and he was extremely patriotic about the Bulgarian nation state and he was angry that the government, in his view was kowtowing the Ottomans. He led a general insurrection with support from some regiments of the military and began to incite major rebellion throughout the Bulgarian Kingdom.
Rebels being arrested at Vratsa
Unfortunately for Valkov, Mushanov acted fast and quick, gaining the support of Boris III and Mushanov had loyalist regiments of the Bulgarian army surround the insurrectionists in and around of Vratsa, where they were massacred by the government. Around 300 insurrectionist soldiers were killed, Valkov among them. This quick and decisive action by Mushanov only increased his popularity throughout the Kingdom, as the insurrection hadn’t been quite popular with the people as it was.
With all of this going on, and as the Bulgarian economy recovered, Bulgaria was going to go to Polls on the 27th of February, 1920. The coalition consisting of the Agrarian National Union, the Democratic Party and the Social Democrats created political pacts with one another, and they managed to stave off a probable discontinuation of the coalition. By the end of the elections, the coalition had managed to win 176 of the 236 seats up for election in the Bulgarian National Assembly, which continued the premiership of Mushanov, who was widely becoming popular. King Boris III renewed his premiership on the 1st of March, and he continued to govern of Bulgaria.
Mushanov immediately began to reopen negotiations with the Ottoman government regarding a new economic trade deal with Constantinople, and after several years of negotiations, and recovery the Bulgarian economy was in a proper state to be able to negotiate on somewhat equal terms. It would be the beginning of the Bulgarian Golden Era.” Boris III and his Political Acumen © 2016.
***
“In 1920, the Irish Home Rule Government would have to go polls again according to the Irish Home Rule Act which guaranteed the right to vote every five years in a general elections and determined the length of government to be 5 years each. In 1918, the death of Redmond had given pause to the Irish government, however the quick ascension of William O’Brien had staved off a possible crisis. The elections of 1920 would prove to be an interesting one.
Ireland was rife with division. One section of Irish society, the society that lived on the eastern coast, and the major cities all didn’t have much separatism present, however the rural society of Irish society were extremely separatist and mostly republican in nature. This all boils down to economics, by and large. Despite the hostility even many ambivalent Irishmen had to the English and Scots, the economic power of the United Kingdom, which was still by far the largest economy on the planet, was just too much to lose for the money minded, and the economic independence that had been given to the Irish after the Home Rule Bill allowed the Irish to benefit their own society allaying some fears in Irish society. A sense of comradely also developed in Ireland over the Great War and Home Rule Passage within the coastal Irishmen and many British men. The idea of being Western British in Ireland was becoming strong, at least within the eastern coast of Ireland. In the rural areas however, Irish separatism remained powerful and a driving force in politics. There, the lack of proper investment naturally made many people look for independence, and the usual catholic and protestant divide only furthered this deep hole further. Soon enough, an urban and rural divide in Ireland would start to form as the urban society of Ireland shunned full independence from Britain whilst the rural society demanded it.
The question of Northern Ireland remained too. The Northern Irish remained out of the Home Rule Area, and they had voted against joining the Home Rule area as well, which made any claims that the Irish had on rejoining Northern Ireland into Ireland an impossibility as they would show their opponents in Westminster that they would flout democracy if needed to meet their own goals, which O’Brien was not willing to do at all. The Ulstermen of the Northern Irish were actively opposing union with the Home Rule area of Ireland and remained under the direct control of Westminster, without any sort of devolution, barring some extra powers given to the counties and shires. Many Irish nationalists saw this as a slight and wanted to reunify Ireland, only to be met with resistance from not only the Ulstermen but also from the government, with O’Brien famously stating in January 3, 1920 that ‘Ulster will join the rest of us of their own free will. If we are to remain a democratic society then their decision to remain out will be respected and adhered to.’
Of course, this sentiment was not shared by many Irish nationalists. Nonetheless, despite this atmosphere, O’Brien had walked forward looking past these, and continued the implement economic reforms, which proved themselves to be popular among the common Irish person. The Cottage Construction Act of 1919 had provided thousands of homeless men and women with homes throughout Ireland, and the railroad and road construction schemes made by O’Brien increased railroad coverage in Ireland and increase transportation links throughout Irish society as new highways were constructed within Ireland. Galway saw a massive upswing in governmental intervention as the city was industrialized to come onto the same level as Cork and Dublin. Veteran’s Welfare Act was also passed by the man which gave a series of health insurances and welfare exemptions to Irish veterans of the Great War. All of these economic policies made O’Brien personally extremely popular within Irish society.
Cottages like these were built under the Cottages Act for the common Irish folk.
Meanwhile the Irish Unionist Party was formed in 1919 as an official party within Ireland rather than the disparate branch of Irish unionists going on the same ticket as the Irish Unionist League. Viscount Midleton, to say the least, was not a charismatic speaker, however the party in and of itself was capable of utilizing and exploiting the increased feeling of solidarity between Ireland and Britain due to the Great War, and it sort of became Ireland’s branch of the Conservative Party from mainland Britain. Irish Unionists scoured the countryside in the runnup to the 1920 Elections, and began to use propaganda reels to increase their attraction and rather than just running on the platform of unionism as was usual for them before 1920, they began to form proper and coherent economic and political policies to increase their political legitimacy in Irish society. These actions would prove to be useful and would increase their share of seats in the Irish Commons. Meanwhile, as the Unionists did their thing, Irish Labour wanted to exploit the increase of the suffrage and targeted Irish Trade Unions and Worker Councils to gain more votes. They wanted to at least gain representation in the irish Commons, and increase their voting share. Cork and Dublin voting largely in favor of the Labourites during the 1918 General Elections had been a good sign for them. Johnson would lead the party through with the 1920 convention on the 7th of January, 1920 which would see the party adopt an official social democratic ideology and policy, in line with the mainland Labour party. The Liberals largely had an ambivalent and centrist policy of campaigning within Ireland and didn’t do much all things considered. However Sinn Fein lead by Arthur Griffith showed itself as the new Irish separatist party and campaigned on a policy of economic nationalism and pro-dominionship, and they advocated that Ireland ought to be a Dominion, with a free legislature and economy free from British control, but still within the British Empire as a whole. This was the moderate position for many nationalists, and it did attract a good amount of votes during the elections.
As the country went to polls on the 8th of February, 1920, the IPP retained their large share of the seats in government, though the Irish Unionists increased their share of the seats in government. Labour made important ground within the Irish trade unions and managed to gain several key votes within Dublin, Cork, Waterford and Galway, which allowed the party to become the third largest party within the Commons. The Liberals gained 10 seats, and Sinn Fein managed to win 8 seats, mostly rural constituencies. 8 independents were elected, out of which 7 were independent nationalists, again, mostly from rural constituencies. O’Brien formed a new minority government and retained the position of First Minister of Ireland within the United Kingdom.
With the mandate that he needed, O’Brien began to conduct several new economic reforms, with the man intent on bringing Ireland on the level of industrialization as that of Northern Ireland, which was at least around 40% more industrialized on a per capita basis than the rest of Ireland. O’Brien’s policy of economic building and increasing the manufacturing capability of Ireland would prove to have dividends down the line, long after he had passed way.” Irish Home Rule: A History 1915 – present. © 2018.
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“The implementation of the Railway Act of 1919 was controversial, as the Russians began to growl from across the border, as the Ottomans started to construct the new railroads planned by the government. The Russians did not like the idea of the Ottomans improving their infrastructure in the eastern tracts of Anatolia, especially as the Turks living within Kars were already restless under Russian rule and were looking back at the Ottoman Empire with what can be categorized as some nostalgia. The Russian Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Alexander Sidorov handed over several letters of protest to the Ottoman government demanding that the ‘provocative’ actions of the Ottoman government cease. The Ottomans, who knew the Russians would not seek war over the construction of a railroad line within their own territory, promptly ignored the small warnings and continued on, laying the foundations of the Trabzon railway, which would increase transportation and movement between inner and outer Anatolia.
Russo-Ottoman relations during this time were complex, and not at all straightforward. With issues such as the above, many come to the silly conclusion that relations between the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire were bad. They would be partially correct and otherwise wrong. Despite several incidents such as the above, the Russians and Ottomans were rather cordial with one another during this time. Nicholas II had revived the policy of friendly relationship with the Ottoman Empire that his father, Alexander III had maintained in the late 19th century. Nicholas II himself had been an adherent of this policy in the early 20th century but had abandoned it after the Russo-Japanese War to compensate losses in the Far East in the Balkans. The Russian government allowed several Ottoman nobility from minor houses to marry into the Central Asian noble houses that had been denied to them since 1828, and the Russians and Ottomans signed several trading agreements with one another. Ottoman gems, and airplanes were increasingly becoming a lucrative industry for the Russians and they wanted in inside of this industrial section of the economy whilst the Ottomans, who before their discovery of the massive amounts of oil and natural gas beneath their territory, was reliant on Russia for oil and natural gas. As such a cordial trading and economic relation between Constantinople and St. Petersburg developed.
The Russian embassy in Constantinople.
At the same time, Ottoman foreign relations became more and friendlier with the Greeks, as the Greco-Ottoman rapprochement continued. Of course, the Ottomans and Greeks still had their fair share of rabid nationalists who would love to attack the other, but the Greeks knew they couldn’t defeat the Ottomans and the Ottomans knew that attacking the Greeks would draw Russia and the British into a fight that they would love to fight. As such a pragmatic relationship between the Ottomans and the Greeks continued to develop. The rights given to Greek merchants on Ottoman soil, within Hejaz and Najd was being used by the Greeks to the best of their ability exploiting it with all they had, to bring in more economic dividends for the Greek state. The Greeks and the Ottomans also began to engage in more and more trade with one another. During the Balkan War, as the Ottomans went on war footing to fight off the Balkan Threat, the Greeks had benefitted immensely as they filled in the hole that the Ottoman industries couldn’t when civilian industries were transferred to become war industries. Civilian goods from the Greek Kingdom flooded into the Ottoman Empire substituting normal Ottoman goods and trade between Greece and the Ottoman Empire continued to prosper as the two entered the ‘Era of Prosperous Relations’. The Era of Prosperous Relations would be the name given to the relationship between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Greece from 1911-1941 before the Second Great War which forced the two to become outright allies with one another.
Turkish Cypriots in the Ottoman Empire.
Nonetheless tensions between the Ottoman Empire and Greece existed. The turnover of Cyprus from Britain to Greece had nearly exploded into a conflict between Greece and the Ottomans and the Ottomans were not amused that a so called ‘friendly power’ had gone behind their backs to negotiate with the British for their nominal territory. Of course the Ottoman Sultan remained Suzerain of Cyprus but that was a small consolation and several thousand Turkish Cypriots flooded into the Ottoman Empire, as they were unwilling to live into a Greek dominated state which would, unconsciously or not, favor Greek Cypriots over Turkish Cypriots. Nonetheless, due to force of necessity of retaining good relations with their neighbor, the Ottomans did not pursue a revanchist policy with Greece and retained their good relations with them.” Osman and the World Around the Empire © 2020
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“The Ottoman Economy beginning in 1920 was extraordinarily different from the economy that the empire had in 1910. In the beginning of 1910, the Ottoman economy was weighed at around $23,794.588 million (inflation added for adjust, 1990 value), whilst by the starting of 1920, the Ottoman economy had grown over two times the size, with a total weightage of around $53,829.455 million (inflation added for adjust, 1990 value). The decade had been an extremely good decade for Ottoman economics and the Ottoman Empire wished to retain that level of growth within the empire. Because despite the astounding growth of the Ottoman economy in the past decade, the Ottoman economy still paled in the face of the economies of perhaps, countries like Great Britain and the United States. The United Kingdom at the beginning of 1920 had an economy the size of $356,073.3336 million (adjusted for inflation, 1990 value) whilst the United States had an economy that weighed in $639,640.788 million (adjusted for inflation, 1990 value). Of course, if we take the British empire into account, the British would have a weighted value of $727,871.692 million, both which are massive amounts of revenue and gross national products. [1]
Ottoman GDP Growth Rate 1890-1919 *
* - OTL growth rate applied here until 1910.
The Ottoman’s economy paled in comparison to the British and the American economy. As you can see, the Ottoman economy represented only 14% of the British economy and 8% of the American economy. Despite the fact that the Ottoman economy had improved and had overtaken several countries such as Italy and Spain in Europe and had become the richest country in Asia barring Japan, the Ottoman economy still had a lot of ways to go. Many of the economic developments during the past decade were long term projects and long term investments and they didn’t show themselves in the numbers in the short term, as the agricultural investments would take generations to truly come out, and the development of the service sector took a lot of time to complete.
In particular, Riza wanted the economy to become more dynamic and more powerful if he wanted to make sure that the economy could grow at a more unprecedented rate of growth. On the 7th of January, 1920, he withdrew the Ottoman Lira from the fixed exchange rate system entirely and allowed the Lira to become a floating currency, to allow true growth to occur in the Ottoman Empire.
Of course, this immediately allowed the Ottomans to print more money, but on a sustainable level to fund more economic projects throughout the empire. To the naked eye however the most striking difference between the Ottomans and the British and American Empires was the fact that despite the treasure trove of minerals and natural resources beneath Ottoman soils, the Ottomans could not exploit them for a quite bit of time, and on the other hand, the vast expanse of North America and the British Empire gave Washington and London the command over vast amounts of natural resources that were easily extractable and exploitable. Though Britain proved to be the exception, at the start of 1920, virtually every European country still had a large portion of their manpower working in the agricultural sector, and the Ottomans were no different. 39% of their entire workforce was involved in agriculture according to the 1919 census with 7.62 million people in the Empire involved in the agrarian sector.
The Ottomans under Ahmet Riza decided that they would focus on food development and agricultural development to make the Ottoman economy far more powerful. Despite the popular myth that agrarian economies present a backward economy, some of the most powerful and strong economies in the planet have always been agrarian economies, due to the powerful independence that having a stable supply of food gave to these countries. Countries such as France, Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark were largely food independent and the Ottomans wished to imitate them.
Despite the rapid progress made by the Ottomans, for all but the privileged class of the Ottoman agricultural society in the rural countryside of the Empire, agrarian life remained hard for many. On peasant farms in particular, extra yields depended on extraordinarily long hours, in excess of 9 to 12 hours at times, and six days per week for the ordinary rural farmer. Farms below 20 hectares were usually always in loss. As such the Ottomans had a dilemma on their hands. What to do? The obvious solution was that the Ottomans conduct a land redistribution program which would incentivize more agricultural yields in the small amount of lands that normal rural peasants had to make the agricultural industry more productive and profiting by granting the massive tracts of untouched arable lands to the needy peasants. However the Ottoman Empire was not going to commit the mistake that the Germans had in the 1880s when they conducted their own redistribution process which saw Germany become agriculturally cramped by the 1920s. A month long survey was conducted throughout the Ottoman Empire, and data was compiled by the empire’s agricultural ministry before being handed over to the cabinet.
In the file, the government was told with the best possible areas of the Ottoman Empire that could be given to farmers in need, whilst it also outlined other arable but untouched lands that would have to be kept by the government as a reserve for further agricultural expansion in the future. As a result, nearly 933,000 hectares of land were distributed by the Ottoman government to private ownership to the peasants for great agricultural use whilst the Ottomans held onto the other territories. Tax exemptions for large quantities of surplus yields were announced as well which encouraged the population to grow more in their new farmlands.
The Ottoman Empire also used the aid of skilled manpower to grow their economic and agricultural output. In particular one Nikolay Stoyanov was crucial in this endeavor. Stoyanov was a Russian born Bulgarian who taught at the University of Sofia from 1913 to 1915 as a professor. During the Balkan War he fled to the Ottoman Empire during the aborted republic, and stayed in the Ottoman Empire after that taking up a residential status. Stoyanov was a well-known botanist, and he was recruited by the government almost immediately. He managed to classify more than 2,936 species of plants and plant organisms within the Ottoman Balkans and these classifications were used to great effect by the Ottomans to choose proper geobotany and paleobotany areas to cultivate within the Empire. His research of acclimation of crops and plants as well as their floristics, and morphology also gave the Ottomans greater insight in proper Crop behavior which allowed them properly coordinate agricultural experiments.
Distribution of Wealth in the Ottoman Empire.
Coupled with these agricultural advancements, one of Riza’s greatest achievements can be stated through the 1920 Debt Reduction Plan. Of course Riza gets most of the credit, but credit largely is deserved by the entire cabinet, all of whom were present and made the act themselves together. The plan proposed that farmers in the Ottoman Empire assume collective responsibility for each other’s debts. The debts of all of the farmers, estimated to be nearly 9 million pounds, were to be transferred to the Smyrna National Bank (SNB), a state owned mortgage bank. The SNB would then repay the original creditors at an interest of around 2 to 4% depended on the security of the original loan granted to them. For their part, each farmer would provide 1.5% of the value of their farm in monetary assets to the Financial Ministry. For their taking on of this debt, most farmers who were saddled with this program would get vouchers that granted tax exemptions in other areas such as electricity and income tax. This was a radical plan, and more importantly of all, it worked. By 1922, the year when Riza was ousted from power during the 1922 Ottoman General Elections, the debt had been halved already with the Farming debt standing at around 4.2 million pounds.
The agricultural developments that were implemented in early 1920 would have a profound effect on Ottoman agriculture throughout the future, and would lay the foundation for future Ottoman food security.” A History of Ottoman Agriculture and Its Economy. © 2009.
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“Literally speaking, Ra’y in Islam means opinion and judgment. But the Arabs had used it for several centuries before Islam itself to denote well-considered opinions and skills in affairs. A person having mental perception and sound knowledge was known as Dhu Al-Ra’y by the Arabians and was adopted by the Turks soon after. The opposite of the given word was Mufannad which was meant to denote a man who was weak in his judgment and unsound in mind. The epithet is reported have been applied to man alone and not to a woman, because according to the Arabs, the woman who was the mother, taught Ra’y to young children and thus could not be devoid of it. Ra’y also implied intellectual perfection and maturity in judgment and has since its creation as a concept been a criterion of greatness. The Quran itself time and again exhorts to deep thinking and meditation over its verses. The Prophet Muhammad himself set examples by accepting the opinion of his companions in matters that he was directed to by his revelation. On the occasion of the Badr, for example, Muhammad chose a particular place for the encampment of his troops. A companion of his, Hubab al-Mundhir asked him whether he had chosen the place of his own wisdom or from advice from God. Muhammad told al-Mundhir that he had done so out of his own judgment and wisdom. When al-Mundhir pointed out that the place was easily detectable to enemies, the Prophet replied that ‘You have made a sound decision’ and he moved his troops to the place that al-Mundhir pointed out was a better resting spot.
During the lifetime of Muhammad, Ra’y remained a powerful doctrine, but after his death, the doctrine of the Hadith began to overtake Ra’y and while it remained a part of the Hanafi school doctrine of Islam, it remained so as a very minor point and was largely forgotten in Islamic theology. [2]
It is perhaps so surprising that on the 21st of February, 1920, Abdulmejid II, a deeply religious Sultan and Caliph called a theological meeting between priests and clergymen from throughout the Empire to discuss new theological matters and to debate on new theological topics, which Abdulmejid II himself enjoyed a lot. Ra’y as a doctrine had enjoyed a small comeback as progressive muslims in the empire looked at it as a progressive ideal and doctrine.
Abdulmejid II and fellow theologians after the 1920 Theological Debate
Abdulmejid II agreed. He certainly liked the theoretical portions of the doctrine, and asked the Ulema if the Ra’y doctrine could be emphasized in Islamic teaching throughout the Ottoman Empire. The Ulema, many of whom had been replaced by the ever-growing progressive class of theologians in the Ottoman Empire after 1908, were mostly in agreement. Even conservative Ulema’s weren’t really opposed to it, as for them, it was bringing out a doctrine that had been long forgotten, and would be good for preserving more doctrines of the Islamic faith. It was agreed on this meeting that the Ra’y doctrine would receive more emphasis in Ottoman Islamic Classes. Despite the growing secularism of the empire, due to the emphasis in modernity, Islamic students of the empire had to compulsorily attend Islamic theology classes (and still do) just as Christian and Jewish students had to attend Christian and Jewish theological classes (and still do) from grades 3 to 8. In this syllabus, the Caliph, and Sultan had a full say, despite being Constitutional Monarch, and Abdulmejid II had the doctrine of Ra’y to become included and particularly emphasized in Islamic studies in the Ottoman Empire. Ra’y would after a few generations, prove to become one of the cornerstones of modern Ottoman Islamism.” Evolution of Islam in the Ottoman Empire 1397 – present. © 2017.
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[1] – numbers taken and adjusted for TL from Contours of the World Economy 1- 2030 by Angus Madison
[2] – Previous two paragraphs are mostly cited from Earl Modes of the Ijtihad: Ra’y, Qiyas, and Istihsan by Ahmad Hasan
***
“After 1915, the Kingdom of Bulgaria was left as a shell of what it once was. Once, called the fastest industrializing powerhouse in the Balkans, Bulgaria’s economy was decimated, and the population of the country was culled in a massive war that had seen hundreds of thousands killed, either through Ottoman shells and guns, or due to their own internal civil strife, between communist and royalist sympathizers throughout the Bulgarian state. The Ottoman occupation of Rumelia hadn’t exactly been clean either, and though Riza was keen on making the troops stay in line, a good amount of Ottoman troops, angered by the deaths of their fellow comrades at the hands of Bulgarian guns, committed some atrocities on the Bulgarian civilian authorities. Most of the time, the Ottoman army punished those who had acted in such a manner, but many a times, these cases fell through slippery fingers and never found their way into Ottoman military court, leaving many to remain scot free. The Ottomans stripped Rumelia of all its economic and industrial output until they retreated after the occupation time period was over as per the Treaties that were signed after the end of the Balkan War.
Nikola Mushanov
In this dire situation one will have to say quite frankly that the situation Bulgaria was in was dire. Thankfully political stability, which was much needed was found, and the three biggest Bulgarian political parties – The Bulgarian Agrarian National Union, Bulgarian Democratic Party and the Bulgarian Social Democrats – had banded together in what is called today as the Bulgarian National Recovery Coalition Alliance. From this coalition, Nikola Mushanov of the Democratic Party rose to power as the first post-war Bulgarian Prime Minister with the approval of Tsar Boris III. Born in 1872, he entered Bulgarian politics in 1902 after he became a member of the Bulgarian National Assembly for the constituency of Sabranie. From then on, he had a meteoritic rise to power, and by 1910, he was the leader of the Democratic Party in Bulgaria and despite his economic nationalism and his slight rightist tendencies, he remained a moderate, and he reverently opposed war with the Ottoman Empire, declaring that the Bulgarian nation would be destroyed in such a war. And he was right. To many in the Bulgarian nation, this gave him credence and the right to rise through the ranks, and in 1915 he became Prime Minister of Bulgaria.
Immediately, Mushanov began to normalize relations with the Ottoman Empire, and sent the first post-war military attaché from Bulgaria into the Ottoman Empire the next year in 1916. He wasn’t above from begging when it could be used to aid the nation either, and he virtually begged the Ottoman Ambassador to Bulgaria, Resad Pasha to give Bulgaria interest free loans to startup the Bulgarian economy after the war. The Ottomans, eager to include Bulgaria within its own sphere of influence and out of the Austrian and Russian hands, agreed, and several loans with little to no interest were given to the Bulgarian government. Mushanov used these loans to build up new coal mines, new industrial estates and had the demobilized troops become engaged in these new occupations to meet their demands of a proper job and stabilizing their standard of living.
Mushanov was also brutal, as was typical of nationalists. Mushanov knew acutely that the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), the organization that wanted Macedonia and Thrace to be unified with Bulgaria had been the one to spark the flames of war within the Bulgarian government, by radicalizing its officer class. Mushanov decided that he would deal with this threat in a fast and swift manner. IMRO buildings were shut down throughout Bulgaria, and with the aid of Ottoman intelligence, the Bulgarians began to raid the homes and shelters of major IMRO heads and figures, taking them into custody and exiling them into life imprisonment, or sometimes, even executing them. This culling of the IMRO also included the officer class within the Bulgarian Military, many of whom had links with the IMRO, and this saw pro-IMRO officers slowly and gradually becoming replaced with pro-governmental officers, as the IMRO’s influence continued to wane under the hard and harsh leadership of Mushanov.
This sparked of a wave of fear within the Bulgarian army and many were now even thinking about committing themselves to a coup to get rid of the Bulgarian Prime Minister if he acted without caution and without credence. On the 8th of July 1918, the Bulgarian Prime Minister opened negotiations with the Ottoman Empire about the reconstruction of Burgas, which was still in bad shape after the war, with Ottoman investment thrown in in return for the Ottoman navy gaining a shipping duty in the port and basing rights. This was the last straw, and one man, Ivan Valkov decided to act. Valkov had been a Bulgarian General during the Balkan War and he was extremely patriotic about the Bulgarian nation state and he was angry that the government, in his view was kowtowing the Ottomans. He led a general insurrection with support from some regiments of the military and began to incite major rebellion throughout the Bulgarian Kingdom.
Rebels being arrested at Vratsa
Unfortunately for Valkov, Mushanov acted fast and quick, gaining the support of Boris III and Mushanov had loyalist regiments of the Bulgarian army surround the insurrectionists in and around of Vratsa, where they were massacred by the government. Around 300 insurrectionist soldiers were killed, Valkov among them. This quick and decisive action by Mushanov only increased his popularity throughout the Kingdom, as the insurrection hadn’t been quite popular with the people as it was.
With all of this going on, and as the Bulgarian economy recovered, Bulgaria was going to go to Polls on the 27th of February, 1920. The coalition consisting of the Agrarian National Union, the Democratic Party and the Social Democrats created political pacts with one another, and they managed to stave off a probable discontinuation of the coalition. By the end of the elections, the coalition had managed to win 176 of the 236 seats up for election in the Bulgarian National Assembly, which continued the premiership of Mushanov, who was widely becoming popular. King Boris III renewed his premiership on the 1st of March, and he continued to govern of Bulgaria.
Mushanov immediately began to reopen negotiations with the Ottoman government regarding a new economic trade deal with Constantinople, and after several years of negotiations, and recovery the Bulgarian economy was in a proper state to be able to negotiate on somewhat equal terms. It would be the beginning of the Bulgarian Golden Era.” Boris III and his Political Acumen © 2016.
***
“In 1920, the Irish Home Rule Government would have to go polls again according to the Irish Home Rule Act which guaranteed the right to vote every five years in a general elections and determined the length of government to be 5 years each. In 1918, the death of Redmond had given pause to the Irish government, however the quick ascension of William O’Brien had staved off a possible crisis. The elections of 1920 would prove to be an interesting one.
Ireland was rife with division. One section of Irish society, the society that lived on the eastern coast, and the major cities all didn’t have much separatism present, however the rural society of Irish society were extremely separatist and mostly republican in nature. This all boils down to economics, by and large. Despite the hostility even many ambivalent Irishmen had to the English and Scots, the economic power of the United Kingdom, which was still by far the largest economy on the planet, was just too much to lose for the money minded, and the economic independence that had been given to the Irish after the Home Rule Bill allowed the Irish to benefit their own society allaying some fears in Irish society. A sense of comradely also developed in Ireland over the Great War and Home Rule Passage within the coastal Irishmen and many British men. The idea of being Western British in Ireland was becoming strong, at least within the eastern coast of Ireland. In the rural areas however, Irish separatism remained powerful and a driving force in politics. There, the lack of proper investment naturally made many people look for independence, and the usual catholic and protestant divide only furthered this deep hole further. Soon enough, an urban and rural divide in Ireland would start to form as the urban society of Ireland shunned full independence from Britain whilst the rural society demanded it.
The question of Northern Ireland remained too. The Northern Irish remained out of the Home Rule Area, and they had voted against joining the Home Rule area as well, which made any claims that the Irish had on rejoining Northern Ireland into Ireland an impossibility as they would show their opponents in Westminster that they would flout democracy if needed to meet their own goals, which O’Brien was not willing to do at all. The Ulstermen of the Northern Irish were actively opposing union with the Home Rule area of Ireland and remained under the direct control of Westminster, without any sort of devolution, barring some extra powers given to the counties and shires. Many Irish nationalists saw this as a slight and wanted to reunify Ireland, only to be met with resistance from not only the Ulstermen but also from the government, with O’Brien famously stating in January 3, 1920 that ‘Ulster will join the rest of us of their own free will. If we are to remain a democratic society then their decision to remain out will be respected and adhered to.’
Of course, this sentiment was not shared by many Irish nationalists. Nonetheless, despite this atmosphere, O’Brien had walked forward looking past these, and continued the implement economic reforms, which proved themselves to be popular among the common Irish person. The Cottage Construction Act of 1919 had provided thousands of homeless men and women with homes throughout Ireland, and the railroad and road construction schemes made by O’Brien increased railroad coverage in Ireland and increase transportation links throughout Irish society as new highways were constructed within Ireland. Galway saw a massive upswing in governmental intervention as the city was industrialized to come onto the same level as Cork and Dublin. Veteran’s Welfare Act was also passed by the man which gave a series of health insurances and welfare exemptions to Irish veterans of the Great War. All of these economic policies made O’Brien personally extremely popular within Irish society.
Cottages like these were built under the Cottages Act for the common Irish folk.
Meanwhile the Irish Unionist Party was formed in 1919 as an official party within Ireland rather than the disparate branch of Irish unionists going on the same ticket as the Irish Unionist League. Viscount Midleton, to say the least, was not a charismatic speaker, however the party in and of itself was capable of utilizing and exploiting the increased feeling of solidarity between Ireland and Britain due to the Great War, and it sort of became Ireland’s branch of the Conservative Party from mainland Britain. Irish Unionists scoured the countryside in the runnup to the 1920 Elections, and began to use propaganda reels to increase their attraction and rather than just running on the platform of unionism as was usual for them before 1920, they began to form proper and coherent economic and political policies to increase their political legitimacy in Irish society. These actions would prove to be useful and would increase their share of seats in the Irish Commons. Meanwhile, as the Unionists did their thing, Irish Labour wanted to exploit the increase of the suffrage and targeted Irish Trade Unions and Worker Councils to gain more votes. They wanted to at least gain representation in the irish Commons, and increase their voting share. Cork and Dublin voting largely in favor of the Labourites during the 1918 General Elections had been a good sign for them. Johnson would lead the party through with the 1920 convention on the 7th of January, 1920 which would see the party adopt an official social democratic ideology and policy, in line with the mainland Labour party. The Liberals largely had an ambivalent and centrist policy of campaigning within Ireland and didn’t do much all things considered. However Sinn Fein lead by Arthur Griffith showed itself as the new Irish separatist party and campaigned on a policy of economic nationalism and pro-dominionship, and they advocated that Ireland ought to be a Dominion, with a free legislature and economy free from British control, but still within the British Empire as a whole. This was the moderate position for many nationalists, and it did attract a good amount of votes during the elections.
As the country went to polls on the 8th of February, 1920, the IPP retained their large share of the seats in government, though the Irish Unionists increased their share of the seats in government. Labour made important ground within the Irish trade unions and managed to gain several key votes within Dublin, Cork, Waterford and Galway, which allowed the party to become the third largest party within the Commons. The Liberals gained 10 seats, and Sinn Fein managed to win 8 seats, mostly rural constituencies. 8 independents were elected, out of which 7 were independent nationalists, again, mostly from rural constituencies. O’Brien formed a new minority government and retained the position of First Minister of Ireland within the United Kingdom.
With the mandate that he needed, O’Brien began to conduct several new economic reforms, with the man intent on bringing Ireland on the level of industrialization as that of Northern Ireland, which was at least around 40% more industrialized on a per capita basis than the rest of Ireland. O’Brien’s policy of economic building and increasing the manufacturing capability of Ireland would prove to have dividends down the line, long after he had passed way.” Irish Home Rule: A History 1915 – present. © 2018.
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“The implementation of the Railway Act of 1919 was controversial, as the Russians began to growl from across the border, as the Ottomans started to construct the new railroads planned by the government. The Russians did not like the idea of the Ottomans improving their infrastructure in the eastern tracts of Anatolia, especially as the Turks living within Kars were already restless under Russian rule and were looking back at the Ottoman Empire with what can be categorized as some nostalgia. The Russian Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Alexander Sidorov handed over several letters of protest to the Ottoman government demanding that the ‘provocative’ actions of the Ottoman government cease. The Ottomans, who knew the Russians would not seek war over the construction of a railroad line within their own territory, promptly ignored the small warnings and continued on, laying the foundations of the Trabzon railway, which would increase transportation and movement between inner and outer Anatolia.
Russo-Ottoman relations during this time were complex, and not at all straightforward. With issues such as the above, many come to the silly conclusion that relations between the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire were bad. They would be partially correct and otherwise wrong. Despite several incidents such as the above, the Russians and Ottomans were rather cordial with one another during this time. Nicholas II had revived the policy of friendly relationship with the Ottoman Empire that his father, Alexander III had maintained in the late 19th century. Nicholas II himself had been an adherent of this policy in the early 20th century but had abandoned it after the Russo-Japanese War to compensate losses in the Far East in the Balkans. The Russian government allowed several Ottoman nobility from minor houses to marry into the Central Asian noble houses that had been denied to them since 1828, and the Russians and Ottomans signed several trading agreements with one another. Ottoman gems, and airplanes were increasingly becoming a lucrative industry for the Russians and they wanted in inside of this industrial section of the economy whilst the Ottomans, who before their discovery of the massive amounts of oil and natural gas beneath their territory, was reliant on Russia for oil and natural gas. As such a cordial trading and economic relation between Constantinople and St. Petersburg developed.
The Russian embassy in Constantinople.
At the same time, Ottoman foreign relations became more and friendlier with the Greeks, as the Greco-Ottoman rapprochement continued. Of course, the Ottomans and Greeks still had their fair share of rabid nationalists who would love to attack the other, but the Greeks knew they couldn’t defeat the Ottomans and the Ottomans knew that attacking the Greeks would draw Russia and the British into a fight that they would love to fight. As such a pragmatic relationship between the Ottomans and the Greeks continued to develop. The rights given to Greek merchants on Ottoman soil, within Hejaz and Najd was being used by the Greeks to the best of their ability exploiting it with all they had, to bring in more economic dividends for the Greek state. The Greeks and the Ottomans also began to engage in more and more trade with one another. During the Balkan War, as the Ottomans went on war footing to fight off the Balkan Threat, the Greeks had benefitted immensely as they filled in the hole that the Ottoman industries couldn’t when civilian industries were transferred to become war industries. Civilian goods from the Greek Kingdom flooded into the Ottoman Empire substituting normal Ottoman goods and trade between Greece and the Ottoman Empire continued to prosper as the two entered the ‘Era of Prosperous Relations’. The Era of Prosperous Relations would be the name given to the relationship between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Greece from 1911-1941 before the Second Great War which forced the two to become outright allies with one another.
Turkish Cypriots in the Ottoman Empire.
Nonetheless tensions between the Ottoman Empire and Greece existed. The turnover of Cyprus from Britain to Greece had nearly exploded into a conflict between Greece and the Ottomans and the Ottomans were not amused that a so called ‘friendly power’ had gone behind their backs to negotiate with the British for their nominal territory. Of course the Ottoman Sultan remained Suzerain of Cyprus but that was a small consolation and several thousand Turkish Cypriots flooded into the Ottoman Empire, as they were unwilling to live into a Greek dominated state which would, unconsciously or not, favor Greek Cypriots over Turkish Cypriots. Nonetheless, due to force of necessity of retaining good relations with their neighbor, the Ottomans did not pursue a revanchist policy with Greece and retained their good relations with them.” Osman and the World Around the Empire © 2020
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“The Ottoman Economy beginning in 1920 was extraordinarily different from the economy that the empire had in 1910. In the beginning of 1910, the Ottoman economy was weighed at around $23,794.588 million (inflation added for adjust, 1990 value), whilst by the starting of 1920, the Ottoman economy had grown over two times the size, with a total weightage of around $53,829.455 million (inflation added for adjust, 1990 value). The decade had been an extremely good decade for Ottoman economics and the Ottoman Empire wished to retain that level of growth within the empire. Because despite the astounding growth of the Ottoman economy in the past decade, the Ottoman economy still paled in the face of the economies of perhaps, countries like Great Britain and the United States. The United Kingdom at the beginning of 1920 had an economy the size of $356,073.3336 million (adjusted for inflation, 1990 value) whilst the United States had an economy that weighed in $639,640.788 million (adjusted for inflation, 1990 value). Of course, if we take the British empire into account, the British would have a weighted value of $727,871.692 million, both which are massive amounts of revenue and gross national products. [1]
Ottoman GDP Growth Rate 1890-1919 *
* - OTL growth rate applied here until 1910.
The Ottoman’s economy paled in comparison to the British and the American economy. As you can see, the Ottoman economy represented only 14% of the British economy and 8% of the American economy. Despite the fact that the Ottoman economy had improved and had overtaken several countries such as Italy and Spain in Europe and had become the richest country in Asia barring Japan, the Ottoman economy still had a lot of ways to go. Many of the economic developments during the past decade were long term projects and long term investments and they didn’t show themselves in the numbers in the short term, as the agricultural investments would take generations to truly come out, and the development of the service sector took a lot of time to complete.
In particular, Riza wanted the economy to become more dynamic and more powerful if he wanted to make sure that the economy could grow at a more unprecedented rate of growth. On the 7th of January, 1920, he withdrew the Ottoman Lira from the fixed exchange rate system entirely and allowed the Lira to become a floating currency, to allow true growth to occur in the Ottoman Empire.
Of course, this immediately allowed the Ottomans to print more money, but on a sustainable level to fund more economic projects throughout the empire. To the naked eye however the most striking difference between the Ottomans and the British and American Empires was the fact that despite the treasure trove of minerals and natural resources beneath Ottoman soils, the Ottomans could not exploit them for a quite bit of time, and on the other hand, the vast expanse of North America and the British Empire gave Washington and London the command over vast amounts of natural resources that were easily extractable and exploitable. Though Britain proved to be the exception, at the start of 1920, virtually every European country still had a large portion of their manpower working in the agricultural sector, and the Ottomans were no different. 39% of their entire workforce was involved in agriculture according to the 1919 census with 7.62 million people in the Empire involved in the agrarian sector.
The Ottomans under Ahmet Riza decided that they would focus on food development and agricultural development to make the Ottoman economy far more powerful. Despite the popular myth that agrarian economies present a backward economy, some of the most powerful and strong economies in the planet have always been agrarian economies, due to the powerful independence that having a stable supply of food gave to these countries. Countries such as France, Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark were largely food independent and the Ottomans wished to imitate them.
Despite the rapid progress made by the Ottomans, for all but the privileged class of the Ottoman agricultural society in the rural countryside of the Empire, agrarian life remained hard for many. On peasant farms in particular, extra yields depended on extraordinarily long hours, in excess of 9 to 12 hours at times, and six days per week for the ordinary rural farmer. Farms below 20 hectares were usually always in loss. As such the Ottomans had a dilemma on their hands. What to do? The obvious solution was that the Ottomans conduct a land redistribution program which would incentivize more agricultural yields in the small amount of lands that normal rural peasants had to make the agricultural industry more productive and profiting by granting the massive tracts of untouched arable lands to the needy peasants. However the Ottoman Empire was not going to commit the mistake that the Germans had in the 1880s when they conducted their own redistribution process which saw Germany become agriculturally cramped by the 1920s. A month long survey was conducted throughout the Ottoman Empire, and data was compiled by the empire’s agricultural ministry before being handed over to the cabinet.
In the file, the government was told with the best possible areas of the Ottoman Empire that could be given to farmers in need, whilst it also outlined other arable but untouched lands that would have to be kept by the government as a reserve for further agricultural expansion in the future. As a result, nearly 933,000 hectares of land were distributed by the Ottoman government to private ownership to the peasants for great agricultural use whilst the Ottomans held onto the other territories. Tax exemptions for large quantities of surplus yields were announced as well which encouraged the population to grow more in their new farmlands.
The Ottoman Empire also used the aid of skilled manpower to grow their economic and agricultural output. In particular one Nikolay Stoyanov was crucial in this endeavor. Stoyanov was a Russian born Bulgarian who taught at the University of Sofia from 1913 to 1915 as a professor. During the Balkan War he fled to the Ottoman Empire during the aborted republic, and stayed in the Ottoman Empire after that taking up a residential status. Stoyanov was a well-known botanist, and he was recruited by the government almost immediately. He managed to classify more than 2,936 species of plants and plant organisms within the Ottoman Balkans and these classifications were used to great effect by the Ottomans to choose proper geobotany and paleobotany areas to cultivate within the Empire. His research of acclimation of crops and plants as well as their floristics, and morphology also gave the Ottomans greater insight in proper Crop behavior which allowed them properly coordinate agricultural experiments.
Distribution of Wealth in the Ottoman Empire.
Coupled with these agricultural advancements, one of Riza’s greatest achievements can be stated through the 1920 Debt Reduction Plan. Of course Riza gets most of the credit, but credit largely is deserved by the entire cabinet, all of whom were present and made the act themselves together. The plan proposed that farmers in the Ottoman Empire assume collective responsibility for each other’s debts. The debts of all of the farmers, estimated to be nearly 9 million pounds, were to be transferred to the Smyrna National Bank (SNB), a state owned mortgage bank. The SNB would then repay the original creditors at an interest of around 2 to 4% depended on the security of the original loan granted to them. For their part, each farmer would provide 1.5% of the value of their farm in monetary assets to the Financial Ministry. For their taking on of this debt, most farmers who were saddled with this program would get vouchers that granted tax exemptions in other areas such as electricity and income tax. This was a radical plan, and more importantly of all, it worked. By 1922, the year when Riza was ousted from power during the 1922 Ottoman General Elections, the debt had been halved already with the Farming debt standing at around 4.2 million pounds.
The agricultural developments that were implemented in early 1920 would have a profound effect on Ottoman agriculture throughout the future, and would lay the foundation for future Ottoman food security.” A History of Ottoman Agriculture and Its Economy. © 2009.
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“Literally speaking, Ra’y in Islam means opinion and judgment. But the Arabs had used it for several centuries before Islam itself to denote well-considered opinions and skills in affairs. A person having mental perception and sound knowledge was known as Dhu Al-Ra’y by the Arabians and was adopted by the Turks soon after. The opposite of the given word was Mufannad which was meant to denote a man who was weak in his judgment and unsound in mind. The epithet is reported have been applied to man alone and not to a woman, because according to the Arabs, the woman who was the mother, taught Ra’y to young children and thus could not be devoid of it. Ra’y also implied intellectual perfection and maturity in judgment and has since its creation as a concept been a criterion of greatness. The Quran itself time and again exhorts to deep thinking and meditation over its verses. The Prophet Muhammad himself set examples by accepting the opinion of his companions in matters that he was directed to by his revelation. On the occasion of the Badr, for example, Muhammad chose a particular place for the encampment of his troops. A companion of his, Hubab al-Mundhir asked him whether he had chosen the place of his own wisdom or from advice from God. Muhammad told al-Mundhir that he had done so out of his own judgment and wisdom. When al-Mundhir pointed out that the place was easily detectable to enemies, the Prophet replied that ‘You have made a sound decision’ and he moved his troops to the place that al-Mundhir pointed out was a better resting spot.
During the lifetime of Muhammad, Ra’y remained a powerful doctrine, but after his death, the doctrine of the Hadith began to overtake Ra’y and while it remained a part of the Hanafi school doctrine of Islam, it remained so as a very minor point and was largely forgotten in Islamic theology. [2]
It is perhaps so surprising that on the 21st of February, 1920, Abdulmejid II, a deeply religious Sultan and Caliph called a theological meeting between priests and clergymen from throughout the Empire to discuss new theological matters and to debate on new theological topics, which Abdulmejid II himself enjoyed a lot. Ra’y as a doctrine had enjoyed a small comeback as progressive muslims in the empire looked at it as a progressive ideal and doctrine.
Abdulmejid II and fellow theologians after the 1920 Theological Debate
Abdulmejid II agreed. He certainly liked the theoretical portions of the doctrine, and asked the Ulema if the Ra’y doctrine could be emphasized in Islamic teaching throughout the Ottoman Empire. The Ulema, many of whom had been replaced by the ever-growing progressive class of theologians in the Ottoman Empire after 1908, were mostly in agreement. Even conservative Ulema’s weren’t really opposed to it, as for them, it was bringing out a doctrine that had been long forgotten, and would be good for preserving more doctrines of the Islamic faith. It was agreed on this meeting that the Ra’y doctrine would receive more emphasis in Ottoman Islamic Classes. Despite the growing secularism of the empire, due to the emphasis in modernity, Islamic students of the empire had to compulsorily attend Islamic theology classes (and still do) just as Christian and Jewish students had to attend Christian and Jewish theological classes (and still do) from grades 3 to 8. In this syllabus, the Caliph, and Sultan had a full say, despite being Constitutional Monarch, and Abdulmejid II had the doctrine of Ra’y to become included and particularly emphasized in Islamic studies in the Ottoman Empire. Ra’y would after a few generations, prove to become one of the cornerstones of modern Ottoman Islamism.” Evolution of Islam in the Ottoman Empire 1397 – present. © 2017.
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[1] – numbers taken and adjusted for TL from Contours of the World Economy 1- 2030 by Angus Madison
[2] – Previous two paragraphs are mostly cited from Earl Modes of the Ijtihad: Ra’y, Qiyas, and Istihsan by Ahmad Hasan
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Chapter 42: Revanchist Ideas
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“The ascension of Velmir Vulkicevic in Serbia brought forward several problems that would lay the foundations for the Balkan Front of the Second Great War. Elected from the National Party, it is of little surprise to anyone with a proper eye of political attitudes that the man was nationalistic and would pursue nationalistic goals. Economic nationalism was the first goal that he pursued, and he closed off the free trading move of the previous administration in order to build up the Serbian industry. In the mind of Vulkicevic it had been Serbia’s dependence on foreign goods, such as Austrian and Italian weapons that had seen them lose against the Ottomans. After the Ottoman withdrawal from Leskovac, the same policies were applied and integrated within the former Ottoman Occupation Zone within Serbia as well.
Velmir Vulkicevic
That said, Vulkicevic wasn’t exactly a bad prime minister and he was competent. He conducted a land reform plan that was similar to that of the Ottoman Land Reform Act, and distributed vast swathes of Serbian lands to the peasants to increase the productivity of the lands under their control. Agricultural yields increased and the government became involved in increasing the agricultural independence of the country. Coupled with the protectionist policies of the Serbian government, the Serbs were rapidly, but ironically, trying to imitate the Ottomans in their policy of removing dependence on foreign economic powers. Vulkicevic knew this, and while he was loathe to follow any policy that the Ottomans liked to follow, if it worked, he was willing to work along with said policies.
Transportation was also increased, and the muddy and ill-constructed roads throughout Serbia were renovated, and the government began to involve itself in building bridges and other connections to the rural heartland of the Serbian Kingdom. Three new railway lines, albeit small ones, were constructed by the Serbians with investment from the Germans and Romanians, and several new academies were opened in Serbia under the watchful eye of Vulkicevic to make sure that the literacy rate and innovation of the country went high up. That said, while these were admirable policies, we cannot still forget that the government led by Vulkicevic was an ultra-nationalistic government, and they unleashed their horror in many ways. There was still a small minority of Muslim Serbs living in Serbia as an aftermath of the Ottoman Dominion Over Serbia which had lasted for four hundred years. Most Muslim Serbs had been expelled after 1878 but a good few remained in the south. These were expelled by Vulkicevic into Ottoman territories and Austrian Bosnia. While not many remained in Serbia to create a real refugee crisis, it was still a humanitarian disaster, as the 30,000 to 50,000 Muslim Serbs that remained were almost all forced to convert to Christianity to stay or were forced to leave behind their ancestral homes at the point of the bayonet.
Ottoman Slavs of Muslim origins were angered by this obvious ploy at ethnic cleansing and complained to the Ottoman Government. Riza did lodge a complaint and asked the Serbian government to see to it that every citizen of the country was treated fairly, however the government of the Ottoman Empire did little to follow this up, as engaged as they were in the Second Yemenite Rebellion during this time period.
Like most Constitutional Monarchies during the early 20th century, the Serbian Monarchy had a good amount of constitutional power that they could have used to curb this growing nationalistic mood of the government, however King Peter I had become nearly senile after the Balkan War, becoming largely trapped in his consciousness. As a result in late 1917 and early 1918, Crown Prince Alexander became the Prince Regent of the Serbian Kingdom in the name of his father. Prince Alexander was not much better than Vulkicevic. In fact Alexander himself had extremely high nationalistic tendencies that showed themselves in the field of battle, when he exacted brutal policies when Serbia occupied northern Macedonia during the Balkan War under his command. Alexander cooperated with Vulkicevic and even became a staunch ally of the man.
Tensions between the Ottoman Empire and the Serbian Kingdom raised to a massive amount when in mid to late 1918, Prince Alexander decreed that any and all Muslim subjects would be subjected to segregation policies in the Kingdom in the sectors of education, occupation and monetary aid. This was a move that served to alienate the Ottomans even more. But whilst this did raise tensions, it was not out of place for the already nationalistic policies of the Serbian state, and the Ottomans did little, not wishing to play the interventionist cop in the Balkans.
On April 3, 1920, however the National Party, and the Radicals of the Serbian government merged to form the United National Salvation Front (UNSF) Party, and with the aid of the Crown Prince, rejected all other parties in the Serbian government, and launched a coup de etat with the support of most of the Serbian military. The rest of the parliamentary members, not of the aforementioned parties were arrested and imprisoned whilst only the independents were allowed to retain their seats. Soon, the 240 seat legislature of the Serbian government was filled with 229 members of the UNSF alongside 11 intimidated independents. All other political parties in the Serbian government was banned by Royal and Governmental Decree. Serbia had effectively become a one party state.
The other two members of the Triumvirate - Prince Regent Alexander and Josif Kostic
Soon enough after the coup, the government of the new Serbian Kingdom coalesced around a group of three people which would later become known as the Triumvirate. The Triumvirate was the three most influential and powerful members of the new National Salvation Government, consisting of Vulkicevic himself, the Minister of Education, Josif Kostic and Crown Prince Alexander, who was also holding a position as Minister of Defense after April 3rd. This was already a breach of constitutional authority as the reigning Prince Regent was now a part of government. In order to bypass this, in his authority as Prince Regent, he dissolved the constitution on the 17th of April, and declared that a new constitution would be written down by the new government.
The Ottomans did little but watch. They did not wish to be like the French or British, or the Americans for the matter and did not wish to intercede in domestic affairs, but even the non-interventionist Ottoman Government looked at the events in Serbia with narrowed eyes. So much so that Abdul Ferar Pasha, the General in command of the Northern Balkan Military Sector even petitioned the Ottoman Government that they invade the Serbian Kingdom to push the new government out of power and reinstate a new democratic government in Serbia. Riza wisely pushed this policy down. Intervention would only make the Serbians even more anti-Ottoman. For the moment, a wait and see approach would have to do.
But soon enough new tensions flared. The new school curriculum devised by Kostic was revisionist in nature and put almost all of the woes of the Serbian state at the feet of the Ottomans. They declared the wars of Serbian Independence as some sort of crusade and the victory of the good over evil, and the victory in 1878 showed rather insulting pictures of the Sultan being hung upside down by the collective Russian-Serbian and Bulgarian troops. The French Ambassador to Yugoslavia, Louis Frederic Clement-Simon would tell the French government, ‘The new history taught in Serbia is nothing but a farce of epic proportions. Every Russo-Ottoman War has been denoted as a holy war between Evil and Good, and every Ottoman victory has been shown in the light of Satan defeating God Himself whilst every Ottoman defeat has been shown as God and His Angels defeating and banishing Satan. There is nothing ‘historical’ about this new historical curriculum.’
Not not only that, but the Ottomans still constituted around a tenth of the total Serbian imports. As a result, Ottoman goods were boycotted by the Serbs, and Ottoman businessmen and diplomats in Serbia found themselves being lynched and attacked, and in some times, even killed. Even Ottoman Serbs, in Serbia for diplomatic or familial reasons were attacked and lynched due to the fact that they held Ottoman passports. It was brutal and gruesome. On May 29th, 1920, the Ottoman government listed Serbia as a vital no-go country for any Ottoman civilian wishing to go abroad and the Ottomans began to close the border with Serbia. This was just fine for the Serbs. The more far the Ottomans were, the happier they would be. However unfortunately for both the men in Constantinople and Belgrade, these tensions would simply be the small precursor to the sparks that would set the Second Great War alight.” The Triumvirate Dictatorship of Serbia: Fall of the Serbian Kingdom © 2019
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“The leader of the Liberal Union, Hasan Prishtina, was killed on the 19th of April, 1920 by anti-Prishtina Albanians in Kosovo. Tribal identities still held sway in the Albanian society during this time period, and Prishtina had managed to anger the Durres Albanians, and their leader, Farruk Pasha, had ordered the leader to be killed. The man’s chef was turned over using money and familial threats, and poison was dispatched. By the end of the day after dinner, Prishtina……was dead. During the initial police inquiry by the Ottoman Police, the Ottomans got nowhere as they couldn’t discern a probable killer, however soon enough the Chef spoke up and admitted to the deed. The entire tribe of Farruk Pasha near Durres was captured and interrogated by the Ottomans. This was becoming a problem for the Ottomans, as whilst in the sedentary places of the Empire, the Empire had largely been successful in their ideology of a combined Ottoman Identity, in tribal lands, especially in Syria and Iraq, as well as Albania, they were still failing miserably. Tribes still identified themselves within their tribes and not as Ottoman. And one such consequence of that fact was that one of their political leaders had been assassinated.
Immediately in the Liberal Union, a leadership contest began as several members of the party jockeyed with one another to try and become the new leader. Prominent among these candidates were Faik Konica, like Prishtina, an Albanian, and then there was Mustafa Kemal Pasha, ethnically, a Turkish man. Kemal had joined the Liberal Union in 1916 after the end of the Balkan War when he had enlisted in the Reserve Officer Corps and joined a formal political career. As a war hero in both the Italo-Ottoman War and the Balkan War he was extremely popular among the common Ottoman people, and he was economically and politically learned. He was also extremely slippery with his tongue and when knew when to speak and how to speak. He also had a strong base of support among the Slavic population of the Ottoman Empire due to his wife, who was a Bulgarian and prolific writer in Bulgarian within the Ottoman Empire. She was one of the first literary encourager of Ottoman-Bulgarian rapprochement and her books, Rapprochement and The Ties That Bind would prove to become exemplary examples of early twentieth century Bulgarian literature.
Early poll on the leadership elections.
There was a growing new political tradition within the Ottoman Empire’s political parties that some kind of democratic vote would have to be taken to choose their new leader. The Ottoman Democratic Party had done it for the first time in 1918 and the Liberals didn’t want the Democrats to have a so called ‘one-up’ over them, and it was decided that a leadership election would be held within the Liberal Union Party to choose their next political leader. The date of the election was set for June 15, 1920.
As a result, for the entirety of the month of May, the two prime candidates, Konica and Kemal began to lobby powerful members of the political party, including former leader Ali Kemal, to gain influence within the party, so that they may swing the vote in their favor. The rest of the Ottoman political spectrum looked on at this development with unhidden anticipation and curiosity. Konica represented the decentralizing faction of the party, who wanted decentralization of power within the Ottoman Empire, whilst Kemal represented the ‘moderate federal’ faction of the party which believed that a levelled federal power and levelled central power system of governance, like the one currently in place was the one that was best for the Ottoman Empire. Both had solid arguments, but in the end during the debates that followed both seemed to be evenly matched with one another.
Finally on the 15th of June, the ballots were cast, and the party, and indeed the entire empire watched on with unhidden anticipation. In the words of the Sultan himself, it was ‘an interesting event to behold’.
Out of the ~134,000 votes that were cast in the 1920 Liberal Union Leadership Election, Mustafa Kemal Pasha, popular war hero managed to gain ~73,000 of the votes, against Konica’s 51,000 votes, and won the leadership election with a good majority. The support of former leader, Ali Kemal for Mustafa Kemal was decisive and is said to have swung the undecided voters towards him. On the 25th of June, 1920, he was officially named the leader of the Liberal Union.” The Liberal Union: The Ottoman Liberals © 1968.
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“Amidst the backdrop of the controversial Red 1919, the Presidential Elections of 1920 were looming within the United States of America. The actions of both the government and rioters during Red 1919 had been extremely controversial, and the desegregation of the government was starting to increasingly make the Southern Democrats ostracized, which only increased their power and their influence in the American Deep South. Tensions were high, and all of the parties involved in this political mess were all involved in it knee deep. The Democrats, Republicans, and Progressives all knew that their rhetoric would be the manner with which they could come to power. The Socialists knew this too, but they didn’t have nearly as strong as a powerbase to make their presence properly known to matter.
Furnifold McLendel Simmons
On June 3rd, 1920, the Democratic National Convention took place in Chicago, ironically chosen due to the events that occurred there last summer. It was a brutal affair, to say the least. The Southern Democrats and their increased influence as an aftermath of Red 1919 were arguing in favor of a new southern democrat, for president, and the northern democrats denounced this heavily wanting to have a northern democrat this time. Of course, the increased power of the Southerners only improved their position. The two sides began to fight and debate fiercely, but in the end, the party managed to reach and strike a compromise with one another. Furnifold McLendel Simmons was chosen to become the presidential candidate of the Democrats, and he was a southern Democrat, and that fulfilled the aspirations of the Southern Faction in the party, whilst Franklin D. Roosevelt, a northern Democrat was chosen as the vice presidential candidate, as a check on their presidential candidate. This was grudgingly accepted by both the Southern and Northern Factions of the party.
The main issues that the Democrats were going to run in the election was going to be the desegregation of the government, with the party going to argue in favor of the current status quo to satisfy their southern support base, whilst they would also campaign heavily regarding the Philippine War and its aftermath. The Democrats assumed the moderate position and demanded that the Philippine Autonomy be restored and the current military occupation of the archipelago end whilst Filipino privileges be restored as well. Economically they had no ground to stay on as Hughes had solved the depression of the Democrats own making, but they generally focused on state level economics to shore up economic support.
Governor Frank Orren Lowden refused to re-nominate Hughes and La Folette
Similarly, the Republican National Convention took place on the 8th of June, 1920 in the city of Boston. President Hughes and Vice-President Robert La Follete were quickly re-nominated by the Republican Party as their candidates with no real opposition from anyone other than Governor Frank Orren Lowden, who had taken issue with Hughes’s overriding of the state government to take action in Red 1919 who refused to support the re-nomination as a result. Chief among the republican priorities was the fact that the government was coming under heavy criticism for the de-segregation of the American Government [1] and the heavy handed occupation of the Filipino Archipelago. The continued guerilla war in the Archipelago was costing the American government millions in dollars, and the Americans were also outraged by the several atrocities that had been committed by American troops in the islands. Though, for the normal American, they were more concerned with the money that was being drained into the Philippines rather than the atrocities sadly.
The Republicans however had the advantage in terms of economic policy and their main economic platform would be to maintain the current economic policy which had seen the Americans out of the recent depression. Hughes in particular advocated for more social reform at a sedate pace that would ensure higher standards of living. Social Justice Reform was also on the table, as the discrimination between Blacks and Whites in the justice system was there for everyone to see.
Simultaneous to these two events on June 20, the Progressive National Convention was held in Helena, Montana. The Progressives were the ones who could take advantage of the growing rift between the Republicans and Democrats and they knew it. They were sufficiently towards the left for the leftists and sufficiently right for the rightists. Essentially America had found its first real centrist political party. The Progressives were divided on whom to take on as their main candidate for the presidential race, however, Whitmell P. Martin won the presidential bid in the Progressive Party. This was mainly because Louisiana, which had voted Progressive in 1916 by a razor thin majority would only do so if they had another candidate from Louisiana, as Martin was. Martin was also a sufficiently moderate candidate that all factions of the Progressive Party like the Centrists, Left and Right could band together on. Martin was also a sufficiently charismatic speaker, and the party liked that about him as well. For his running mate, the old and enigmatic Samuel Gompers was chosen as the party’s vice presidential nominee. He was the leader of the American Federation of Labor and whilst he had agreed with Hughes’s social reform campaign going on, Gompers had been critical of the fact that the reforms did not extend far enough, and as a result had joined the Progressive Party, which thought the same, in 1919.
Whitmell P. Martin, the Progressive Candidate for President.
The Progressives had the most definite campaign plan from among all of the parties taking part in the elections. In terms of the Philippine Islands, they wanted to restore Philippine Autonomy whilst simultaneously keeping the military governorship to eliminate the guerillas. They also made a comprehensive plan of granting the Philippines independence within 30 years though they would remain in the American Sphere of Influence. Regarding Race, the Progressives support de-segregation and stated that it hadn’t gone nearly as far enough as it should have, and supported the most minimal of segregation of policies, and that too only to keep the southerners in tandem with them. Economically, the Progressives filed a plan that supported more labor reforms, like hour systems and minimum wage being increased, and more social benefits. Like the Liberal Reforms of the early 1910s in the United Kingdom from which they drew inspiration from, they also supported the creation of a welfare state, which was quite frankly, popular among the working class of American society. They were also the first real party to have a coherent campaign foreign policy. They deemed the isolation of America from international affairs as hurting America’s image and promised that more international diplomatic operations would be launched and promised greater economic integration with the global economy.
Minor parties throughout the United States of America like the Socialists, Communists, Farmer-Laborites, and Prohibitionists elected their candidates as well, however they would have a relatively minor influence in the election to come. The modern Three Party working system of American politics was already starting to form during this era, and the elections of 1920, 1924 and 1928 would only cement that system in the years to come.” American Politics in the Post-War World: Country in Jeopardy © 2007.
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“In April 1915, at the Battle of Celaya, the Anti-Constitutionalist Faction of the Mexican Revolution was defeated decisively by General Alvaro Obregon, and Venustiano Carranza. The defeat of Pancho Villa forced him to retreat north, to the state of Chihuahua where he continued to remain a guerilla leader against the Constitutionalist Government. Obregon, who was loathe to stop the momentum that the Constitutionalists had gained during the Battle of Celaya asked Carranza for permission to attack the regions of Chihuahua under the command and control of Villa. Carranza, emboldened by his victory at Celaya gave the permission that his general needed, and 10,000 troops of the Mexican Federal Army entered Chihuahua the next year in 1916. The state militias of the Chihuahuan state aided the Mexican Federal Army as they scoured the countryside, destroying one guerilla base after another until late 1916 when Villa himself was captured in a small deserted base in southern Chihuahua. The Mexican Army hauled him back to Mexico City, and there, he was imprisoned by the Mexican Government on charges of vigilantism and armed rebellion. Villa and his forces thus ended themselves as a threat to the new Constitutionalist government.
President Carranza
However where Villa had been nullified as a threat to the Mexican Government, Emiliano Zapata continued to be a major thorn in the side of the Mexican government. In late 1916 a force of 12,000 Mexican soldiers under the command of Pablo Gonzalez Garza was sent by Carranza to attack the Zapatista controlled territories in Morelos and bring them back under the command of the central government. This attacked failed, despite the internal factionalism and inter-fighting the Zapatista military command, all of whom hated one another and was only united by their faith in the cause of Zapata’s vision for Mexico.
The Mexican defeat at the Battle of Morelos was a humiliation of a very high order, and the Mexican government was forced to undergo a new military supervision and modernization scheme, both in equipment and tactics. The Mexicans were loath to ask foreign powers for aid. The Americans were out of the question, whilst Britain, France, Spain and Austria had all been unreliable and even traitorous against Mexican interests in the past. The Mexicans thus surprisingly to the international community turned to the Ottoman government. The victories that the Ottoman Empire had secured in 1911 and 1915 had allowed their prestige to recover, and the Mexican government sent Genaro Estrada, an up and coming diplomat in the Mexican government, to seek aid from the government in Constantinople. More than happy to have a natural gas supplier that was friendly to them and not have a large ulterior motive against them, like the Russians, French and British, the Ottomans acquiesced.
Djevat Pasha, the Ottoman military leader who had been instrumental in the invasion of Bulgaria in 1915 was sent as a military supervisor and 25,000 rifles along with 5,000 machine guns were leased by the Ottoman empire to Mexico. Djevat Pasha was a disciplinarian and he was disgusted by the rather shambolic state of the Mexican military’s discipline and professionalism. Arriving in Mexico City on the 28th of January, 1917 he whipped the Mexican Army to shape throughout the entire year, implementing rigorous training schemes and maneuvers to build their discipline in battle. Having faced several guerilla attacks in Bulgaria, he knew how to counter guerilla tactics as well. He taught several tactics, such as Cordon and Search tactics, as well as air operations and combined arms approach against guerillas, and Public Diplomatic Warfare tactics were used from the Ottoman military books to counter the guerilla movement brewing in Southern Mexico.
On October 31, 1917 after six months of hard and rigorous training, the Mexican Army under Gonzalez moved again under the supervision of Djevat Pasha, and this time they were successful. Six months was a small amount of time to instill proper discipline and indeed the Mexican troops were nowhere near Ottoman standards, but they were enough. They managed to conduct proper anti-insurgency tactics with the help of cordoning and aerial reconnaissance and Zapatista Generals were forced to give more and more ground to the Carranza Government. Tochimilo, Magana and Ayaquica, major Zapatista strongholds fell to the Mexican Army.
Zapata was forced to retreat into the mountains of Huautla, where the last base of support for Zapata remained. Gonzalez, with the aid of Djevat Pasha and General Jesus Guajardo began to move against the area as well. Guerilla attacks in the mountains were frequent, but incapable of dislodging the Mexican Army and on April 29, 1918, Zapata was finally captured by the Mexican Army. But Zapata would not give in, and he fought, and he fought fiercely. In the mayhem that ensued with his guard trying to fight him and restrain him, he was shot, and the man died a few hours after bleeding out. Nonetheless, despite this less than stellar manner of ending the war that had engulfed Mexico, the fact remained that the war in Mexico……was over.
The Second Battle of Morelo, the last battle of the Mexican Revolution.
On the 23rd of June, 1918, President Carranza would declare that the Mexican Revolution was over, and for good reason as political normalcy started to seep back into the Mexican nation. For the rest of 1918, Carranza and the Constitutionalists went on about to restore the economic state of the country and repairing the damaged population of the deeply divided nation. Aided by allies such as Obregon and Adolfo de la Huerta, he became involved in repairing the economy of the nation. Roads were rebuilt, and destroyed oil infrastructure was rebuilt too. Schools that were destroyed were constructed back again from the ground, and loans from the Ottoman Empire allowed them to finance these projects. 1918 and 1919 passed by in Mexico largely with the Mexicans trying to heal.
On the 13th of February, Carranza pardoned several former Villa and Zapatista generals in order to forward his policy of reconciliation and called for a new constitutional convention on the 18th of June to finalize the new Mexican constitution. The Second Mexican Constitutional Convention ironed out the details that had been left for future amendments. The anti-clerical articles were cut out of the new constitution, as it was deemed to anti-pragmatic to denounce Catholicism in a Catholic majority country, however the separation of state and religion was strongly emphasized in the new constitution. It also fixed the Presidential term limit for six years, with no chance of re-election. That meant that the next presidential election would take place in 1922, two years from the convention. Mexico became a semi-presidential republic after the convention.
Mexican-Ottoman relations also experienced an upswing after the Mexican Revolution, with the two countries experiencing increased economic ties with one another. Djevat Pasha even became the new ambassador of the empire to Mexico. It was the beginning of a new era of relations between Constantinople and Mexico City.” The Mexican Revolution: How a Nation is Forged. © 1989.
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[1] – sad but yes, the Republicans were coming under fire in the 20s otl as well for their de-segregating measures.
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“The ascension of Velmir Vulkicevic in Serbia brought forward several problems that would lay the foundations for the Balkan Front of the Second Great War. Elected from the National Party, it is of little surprise to anyone with a proper eye of political attitudes that the man was nationalistic and would pursue nationalistic goals. Economic nationalism was the first goal that he pursued, and he closed off the free trading move of the previous administration in order to build up the Serbian industry. In the mind of Vulkicevic it had been Serbia’s dependence on foreign goods, such as Austrian and Italian weapons that had seen them lose against the Ottomans. After the Ottoman withdrawal from Leskovac, the same policies were applied and integrated within the former Ottoman Occupation Zone within Serbia as well.
Velmir Vulkicevic
That said, Vulkicevic wasn’t exactly a bad prime minister and he was competent. He conducted a land reform plan that was similar to that of the Ottoman Land Reform Act, and distributed vast swathes of Serbian lands to the peasants to increase the productivity of the lands under their control. Agricultural yields increased and the government became involved in increasing the agricultural independence of the country. Coupled with the protectionist policies of the Serbian government, the Serbs were rapidly, but ironically, trying to imitate the Ottomans in their policy of removing dependence on foreign economic powers. Vulkicevic knew this, and while he was loathe to follow any policy that the Ottomans liked to follow, if it worked, he was willing to work along with said policies.
Transportation was also increased, and the muddy and ill-constructed roads throughout Serbia were renovated, and the government began to involve itself in building bridges and other connections to the rural heartland of the Serbian Kingdom. Three new railway lines, albeit small ones, were constructed by the Serbians with investment from the Germans and Romanians, and several new academies were opened in Serbia under the watchful eye of Vulkicevic to make sure that the literacy rate and innovation of the country went high up. That said, while these were admirable policies, we cannot still forget that the government led by Vulkicevic was an ultra-nationalistic government, and they unleashed their horror in many ways. There was still a small minority of Muslim Serbs living in Serbia as an aftermath of the Ottoman Dominion Over Serbia which had lasted for four hundred years. Most Muslim Serbs had been expelled after 1878 but a good few remained in the south. These were expelled by Vulkicevic into Ottoman territories and Austrian Bosnia. While not many remained in Serbia to create a real refugee crisis, it was still a humanitarian disaster, as the 30,000 to 50,000 Muslim Serbs that remained were almost all forced to convert to Christianity to stay or were forced to leave behind their ancestral homes at the point of the bayonet.
Ottoman Slavs of Muslim origins were angered by this obvious ploy at ethnic cleansing and complained to the Ottoman Government. Riza did lodge a complaint and asked the Serbian government to see to it that every citizen of the country was treated fairly, however the government of the Ottoman Empire did little to follow this up, as engaged as they were in the Second Yemenite Rebellion during this time period.
Like most Constitutional Monarchies during the early 20th century, the Serbian Monarchy had a good amount of constitutional power that they could have used to curb this growing nationalistic mood of the government, however King Peter I had become nearly senile after the Balkan War, becoming largely trapped in his consciousness. As a result in late 1917 and early 1918, Crown Prince Alexander became the Prince Regent of the Serbian Kingdom in the name of his father. Prince Alexander was not much better than Vulkicevic. In fact Alexander himself had extremely high nationalistic tendencies that showed themselves in the field of battle, when he exacted brutal policies when Serbia occupied northern Macedonia during the Balkan War under his command. Alexander cooperated with Vulkicevic and even became a staunch ally of the man.
Tensions between the Ottoman Empire and the Serbian Kingdom raised to a massive amount when in mid to late 1918, Prince Alexander decreed that any and all Muslim subjects would be subjected to segregation policies in the Kingdom in the sectors of education, occupation and monetary aid. This was a move that served to alienate the Ottomans even more. But whilst this did raise tensions, it was not out of place for the already nationalistic policies of the Serbian state, and the Ottomans did little, not wishing to play the interventionist cop in the Balkans.
On April 3, 1920, however the National Party, and the Radicals of the Serbian government merged to form the United National Salvation Front (UNSF) Party, and with the aid of the Crown Prince, rejected all other parties in the Serbian government, and launched a coup de etat with the support of most of the Serbian military. The rest of the parliamentary members, not of the aforementioned parties were arrested and imprisoned whilst only the independents were allowed to retain their seats. Soon, the 240 seat legislature of the Serbian government was filled with 229 members of the UNSF alongside 11 intimidated independents. All other political parties in the Serbian government was banned by Royal and Governmental Decree. Serbia had effectively become a one party state.
The other two members of the Triumvirate - Prince Regent Alexander and Josif Kostic
Soon enough after the coup, the government of the new Serbian Kingdom coalesced around a group of three people which would later become known as the Triumvirate. The Triumvirate was the three most influential and powerful members of the new National Salvation Government, consisting of Vulkicevic himself, the Minister of Education, Josif Kostic and Crown Prince Alexander, who was also holding a position as Minister of Defense after April 3rd. This was already a breach of constitutional authority as the reigning Prince Regent was now a part of government. In order to bypass this, in his authority as Prince Regent, he dissolved the constitution on the 17th of April, and declared that a new constitution would be written down by the new government.
The Ottomans did little but watch. They did not wish to be like the French or British, or the Americans for the matter and did not wish to intercede in domestic affairs, but even the non-interventionist Ottoman Government looked at the events in Serbia with narrowed eyes. So much so that Abdul Ferar Pasha, the General in command of the Northern Balkan Military Sector even petitioned the Ottoman Government that they invade the Serbian Kingdom to push the new government out of power and reinstate a new democratic government in Serbia. Riza wisely pushed this policy down. Intervention would only make the Serbians even more anti-Ottoman. For the moment, a wait and see approach would have to do.
But soon enough new tensions flared. The new school curriculum devised by Kostic was revisionist in nature and put almost all of the woes of the Serbian state at the feet of the Ottomans. They declared the wars of Serbian Independence as some sort of crusade and the victory of the good over evil, and the victory in 1878 showed rather insulting pictures of the Sultan being hung upside down by the collective Russian-Serbian and Bulgarian troops. The French Ambassador to Yugoslavia, Louis Frederic Clement-Simon would tell the French government, ‘The new history taught in Serbia is nothing but a farce of epic proportions. Every Russo-Ottoman War has been denoted as a holy war between Evil and Good, and every Ottoman victory has been shown in the light of Satan defeating God Himself whilst every Ottoman defeat has been shown as God and His Angels defeating and banishing Satan. There is nothing ‘historical’ about this new historical curriculum.’
Not not only that, but the Ottomans still constituted around a tenth of the total Serbian imports. As a result, Ottoman goods were boycotted by the Serbs, and Ottoman businessmen and diplomats in Serbia found themselves being lynched and attacked, and in some times, even killed. Even Ottoman Serbs, in Serbia for diplomatic or familial reasons were attacked and lynched due to the fact that they held Ottoman passports. It was brutal and gruesome. On May 29th, 1920, the Ottoman government listed Serbia as a vital no-go country for any Ottoman civilian wishing to go abroad and the Ottomans began to close the border with Serbia. This was just fine for the Serbs. The more far the Ottomans were, the happier they would be. However unfortunately for both the men in Constantinople and Belgrade, these tensions would simply be the small precursor to the sparks that would set the Second Great War alight.” The Triumvirate Dictatorship of Serbia: Fall of the Serbian Kingdom © 2019
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“The leader of the Liberal Union, Hasan Prishtina, was killed on the 19th of April, 1920 by anti-Prishtina Albanians in Kosovo. Tribal identities still held sway in the Albanian society during this time period, and Prishtina had managed to anger the Durres Albanians, and their leader, Farruk Pasha, had ordered the leader to be killed. The man’s chef was turned over using money and familial threats, and poison was dispatched. By the end of the day after dinner, Prishtina……was dead. During the initial police inquiry by the Ottoman Police, the Ottomans got nowhere as they couldn’t discern a probable killer, however soon enough the Chef spoke up and admitted to the deed. The entire tribe of Farruk Pasha near Durres was captured and interrogated by the Ottomans. This was becoming a problem for the Ottomans, as whilst in the sedentary places of the Empire, the Empire had largely been successful in their ideology of a combined Ottoman Identity, in tribal lands, especially in Syria and Iraq, as well as Albania, they were still failing miserably. Tribes still identified themselves within their tribes and not as Ottoman. And one such consequence of that fact was that one of their political leaders had been assassinated.
Immediately in the Liberal Union, a leadership contest began as several members of the party jockeyed with one another to try and become the new leader. Prominent among these candidates were Faik Konica, like Prishtina, an Albanian, and then there was Mustafa Kemal Pasha, ethnically, a Turkish man. Kemal had joined the Liberal Union in 1916 after the end of the Balkan War when he had enlisted in the Reserve Officer Corps and joined a formal political career. As a war hero in both the Italo-Ottoman War and the Balkan War he was extremely popular among the common Ottoman people, and he was economically and politically learned. He was also extremely slippery with his tongue and when knew when to speak and how to speak. He also had a strong base of support among the Slavic population of the Ottoman Empire due to his wife, who was a Bulgarian and prolific writer in Bulgarian within the Ottoman Empire. She was one of the first literary encourager of Ottoman-Bulgarian rapprochement and her books, Rapprochement and The Ties That Bind would prove to become exemplary examples of early twentieth century Bulgarian literature.
Early poll on the leadership elections.
There was a growing new political tradition within the Ottoman Empire’s political parties that some kind of democratic vote would have to be taken to choose their new leader. The Ottoman Democratic Party had done it for the first time in 1918 and the Liberals didn’t want the Democrats to have a so called ‘one-up’ over them, and it was decided that a leadership election would be held within the Liberal Union Party to choose their next political leader. The date of the election was set for June 15, 1920.
As a result, for the entirety of the month of May, the two prime candidates, Konica and Kemal began to lobby powerful members of the political party, including former leader Ali Kemal, to gain influence within the party, so that they may swing the vote in their favor. The rest of the Ottoman political spectrum looked on at this development with unhidden anticipation and curiosity. Konica represented the decentralizing faction of the party, who wanted decentralization of power within the Ottoman Empire, whilst Kemal represented the ‘moderate federal’ faction of the party which believed that a levelled federal power and levelled central power system of governance, like the one currently in place was the one that was best for the Ottoman Empire. Both had solid arguments, but in the end during the debates that followed both seemed to be evenly matched with one another.
Finally on the 15th of June, the ballots were cast, and the party, and indeed the entire empire watched on with unhidden anticipation. In the words of the Sultan himself, it was ‘an interesting event to behold’.
Out of the ~134,000 votes that were cast in the 1920 Liberal Union Leadership Election, Mustafa Kemal Pasha, popular war hero managed to gain ~73,000 of the votes, against Konica’s 51,000 votes, and won the leadership election with a good majority. The support of former leader, Ali Kemal for Mustafa Kemal was decisive and is said to have swung the undecided voters towards him. On the 25th of June, 1920, he was officially named the leader of the Liberal Union.” The Liberal Union: The Ottoman Liberals © 1968.
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“Amidst the backdrop of the controversial Red 1919, the Presidential Elections of 1920 were looming within the United States of America. The actions of both the government and rioters during Red 1919 had been extremely controversial, and the desegregation of the government was starting to increasingly make the Southern Democrats ostracized, which only increased their power and their influence in the American Deep South. Tensions were high, and all of the parties involved in this political mess were all involved in it knee deep. The Democrats, Republicans, and Progressives all knew that their rhetoric would be the manner with which they could come to power. The Socialists knew this too, but they didn’t have nearly as strong as a powerbase to make their presence properly known to matter.
Furnifold McLendel Simmons
On June 3rd, 1920, the Democratic National Convention took place in Chicago, ironically chosen due to the events that occurred there last summer. It was a brutal affair, to say the least. The Southern Democrats and their increased influence as an aftermath of Red 1919 were arguing in favor of a new southern democrat, for president, and the northern democrats denounced this heavily wanting to have a northern democrat this time. Of course, the increased power of the Southerners only improved their position. The two sides began to fight and debate fiercely, but in the end, the party managed to reach and strike a compromise with one another. Furnifold McLendel Simmons was chosen to become the presidential candidate of the Democrats, and he was a southern Democrat, and that fulfilled the aspirations of the Southern Faction in the party, whilst Franklin D. Roosevelt, a northern Democrat was chosen as the vice presidential candidate, as a check on their presidential candidate. This was grudgingly accepted by both the Southern and Northern Factions of the party.
The main issues that the Democrats were going to run in the election was going to be the desegregation of the government, with the party going to argue in favor of the current status quo to satisfy their southern support base, whilst they would also campaign heavily regarding the Philippine War and its aftermath. The Democrats assumed the moderate position and demanded that the Philippine Autonomy be restored and the current military occupation of the archipelago end whilst Filipino privileges be restored as well. Economically they had no ground to stay on as Hughes had solved the depression of the Democrats own making, but they generally focused on state level economics to shore up economic support.
Governor Frank Orren Lowden refused to re-nominate Hughes and La Folette
Similarly, the Republican National Convention took place on the 8th of June, 1920 in the city of Boston. President Hughes and Vice-President Robert La Follete were quickly re-nominated by the Republican Party as their candidates with no real opposition from anyone other than Governor Frank Orren Lowden, who had taken issue with Hughes’s overriding of the state government to take action in Red 1919 who refused to support the re-nomination as a result. Chief among the republican priorities was the fact that the government was coming under heavy criticism for the de-segregation of the American Government [1] and the heavy handed occupation of the Filipino Archipelago. The continued guerilla war in the Archipelago was costing the American government millions in dollars, and the Americans were also outraged by the several atrocities that had been committed by American troops in the islands. Though, for the normal American, they were more concerned with the money that was being drained into the Philippines rather than the atrocities sadly.
The Republicans however had the advantage in terms of economic policy and their main economic platform would be to maintain the current economic policy which had seen the Americans out of the recent depression. Hughes in particular advocated for more social reform at a sedate pace that would ensure higher standards of living. Social Justice Reform was also on the table, as the discrimination between Blacks and Whites in the justice system was there for everyone to see.
Simultaneous to these two events on June 20, the Progressive National Convention was held in Helena, Montana. The Progressives were the ones who could take advantage of the growing rift between the Republicans and Democrats and they knew it. They were sufficiently towards the left for the leftists and sufficiently right for the rightists. Essentially America had found its first real centrist political party. The Progressives were divided on whom to take on as their main candidate for the presidential race, however, Whitmell P. Martin won the presidential bid in the Progressive Party. This was mainly because Louisiana, which had voted Progressive in 1916 by a razor thin majority would only do so if they had another candidate from Louisiana, as Martin was. Martin was also a sufficiently moderate candidate that all factions of the Progressive Party like the Centrists, Left and Right could band together on. Martin was also a sufficiently charismatic speaker, and the party liked that about him as well. For his running mate, the old and enigmatic Samuel Gompers was chosen as the party’s vice presidential nominee. He was the leader of the American Federation of Labor and whilst he had agreed with Hughes’s social reform campaign going on, Gompers had been critical of the fact that the reforms did not extend far enough, and as a result had joined the Progressive Party, which thought the same, in 1919.
Whitmell P. Martin, the Progressive Candidate for President.
The Progressives had the most definite campaign plan from among all of the parties taking part in the elections. In terms of the Philippine Islands, they wanted to restore Philippine Autonomy whilst simultaneously keeping the military governorship to eliminate the guerillas. They also made a comprehensive plan of granting the Philippines independence within 30 years though they would remain in the American Sphere of Influence. Regarding Race, the Progressives support de-segregation and stated that it hadn’t gone nearly as far enough as it should have, and supported the most minimal of segregation of policies, and that too only to keep the southerners in tandem with them. Economically, the Progressives filed a plan that supported more labor reforms, like hour systems and minimum wage being increased, and more social benefits. Like the Liberal Reforms of the early 1910s in the United Kingdom from which they drew inspiration from, they also supported the creation of a welfare state, which was quite frankly, popular among the working class of American society. They were also the first real party to have a coherent campaign foreign policy. They deemed the isolation of America from international affairs as hurting America’s image and promised that more international diplomatic operations would be launched and promised greater economic integration with the global economy.
Minor parties throughout the United States of America like the Socialists, Communists, Farmer-Laborites, and Prohibitionists elected their candidates as well, however they would have a relatively minor influence in the election to come. The modern Three Party working system of American politics was already starting to form during this era, and the elections of 1920, 1924 and 1928 would only cement that system in the years to come.” American Politics in the Post-War World: Country in Jeopardy © 2007.
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“In April 1915, at the Battle of Celaya, the Anti-Constitutionalist Faction of the Mexican Revolution was defeated decisively by General Alvaro Obregon, and Venustiano Carranza. The defeat of Pancho Villa forced him to retreat north, to the state of Chihuahua where he continued to remain a guerilla leader against the Constitutionalist Government. Obregon, who was loathe to stop the momentum that the Constitutionalists had gained during the Battle of Celaya asked Carranza for permission to attack the regions of Chihuahua under the command and control of Villa. Carranza, emboldened by his victory at Celaya gave the permission that his general needed, and 10,000 troops of the Mexican Federal Army entered Chihuahua the next year in 1916. The state militias of the Chihuahuan state aided the Mexican Federal Army as they scoured the countryside, destroying one guerilla base after another until late 1916 when Villa himself was captured in a small deserted base in southern Chihuahua. The Mexican Army hauled him back to Mexico City, and there, he was imprisoned by the Mexican Government on charges of vigilantism and armed rebellion. Villa and his forces thus ended themselves as a threat to the new Constitutionalist government.
President Carranza
However where Villa had been nullified as a threat to the Mexican Government, Emiliano Zapata continued to be a major thorn in the side of the Mexican government. In late 1916 a force of 12,000 Mexican soldiers under the command of Pablo Gonzalez Garza was sent by Carranza to attack the Zapatista controlled territories in Morelos and bring them back under the command of the central government. This attacked failed, despite the internal factionalism and inter-fighting the Zapatista military command, all of whom hated one another and was only united by their faith in the cause of Zapata’s vision for Mexico.
The Mexican defeat at the Battle of Morelos was a humiliation of a very high order, and the Mexican government was forced to undergo a new military supervision and modernization scheme, both in equipment and tactics. The Mexicans were loath to ask foreign powers for aid. The Americans were out of the question, whilst Britain, France, Spain and Austria had all been unreliable and even traitorous against Mexican interests in the past. The Mexicans thus surprisingly to the international community turned to the Ottoman government. The victories that the Ottoman Empire had secured in 1911 and 1915 had allowed their prestige to recover, and the Mexican government sent Genaro Estrada, an up and coming diplomat in the Mexican government, to seek aid from the government in Constantinople. More than happy to have a natural gas supplier that was friendly to them and not have a large ulterior motive against them, like the Russians, French and British, the Ottomans acquiesced.
Djevat Pasha, the Ottoman military leader who had been instrumental in the invasion of Bulgaria in 1915 was sent as a military supervisor and 25,000 rifles along with 5,000 machine guns were leased by the Ottoman empire to Mexico. Djevat Pasha was a disciplinarian and he was disgusted by the rather shambolic state of the Mexican military’s discipline and professionalism. Arriving in Mexico City on the 28th of January, 1917 he whipped the Mexican Army to shape throughout the entire year, implementing rigorous training schemes and maneuvers to build their discipline in battle. Having faced several guerilla attacks in Bulgaria, he knew how to counter guerilla tactics as well. He taught several tactics, such as Cordon and Search tactics, as well as air operations and combined arms approach against guerillas, and Public Diplomatic Warfare tactics were used from the Ottoman military books to counter the guerilla movement brewing in Southern Mexico.
On October 31, 1917 after six months of hard and rigorous training, the Mexican Army under Gonzalez moved again under the supervision of Djevat Pasha, and this time they were successful. Six months was a small amount of time to instill proper discipline and indeed the Mexican troops were nowhere near Ottoman standards, but they were enough. They managed to conduct proper anti-insurgency tactics with the help of cordoning and aerial reconnaissance and Zapatista Generals were forced to give more and more ground to the Carranza Government. Tochimilo, Magana and Ayaquica, major Zapatista strongholds fell to the Mexican Army.
Zapata was forced to retreat into the mountains of Huautla, where the last base of support for Zapata remained. Gonzalez, with the aid of Djevat Pasha and General Jesus Guajardo began to move against the area as well. Guerilla attacks in the mountains were frequent, but incapable of dislodging the Mexican Army and on April 29, 1918, Zapata was finally captured by the Mexican Army. But Zapata would not give in, and he fought, and he fought fiercely. In the mayhem that ensued with his guard trying to fight him and restrain him, he was shot, and the man died a few hours after bleeding out. Nonetheless, despite this less than stellar manner of ending the war that had engulfed Mexico, the fact remained that the war in Mexico……was over.
The Second Battle of Morelo, the last battle of the Mexican Revolution.
On the 23rd of June, 1918, President Carranza would declare that the Mexican Revolution was over, and for good reason as political normalcy started to seep back into the Mexican nation. For the rest of 1918, Carranza and the Constitutionalists went on about to restore the economic state of the country and repairing the damaged population of the deeply divided nation. Aided by allies such as Obregon and Adolfo de la Huerta, he became involved in repairing the economy of the nation. Roads were rebuilt, and destroyed oil infrastructure was rebuilt too. Schools that were destroyed were constructed back again from the ground, and loans from the Ottoman Empire allowed them to finance these projects. 1918 and 1919 passed by in Mexico largely with the Mexicans trying to heal.
On the 13th of February, Carranza pardoned several former Villa and Zapatista generals in order to forward his policy of reconciliation and called for a new constitutional convention on the 18th of June to finalize the new Mexican constitution. The Second Mexican Constitutional Convention ironed out the details that had been left for future amendments. The anti-clerical articles were cut out of the new constitution, as it was deemed to anti-pragmatic to denounce Catholicism in a Catholic majority country, however the separation of state and religion was strongly emphasized in the new constitution. It also fixed the Presidential term limit for six years, with no chance of re-election. That meant that the next presidential election would take place in 1922, two years from the convention. Mexico became a semi-presidential republic after the convention.
Mexican-Ottoman relations also experienced an upswing after the Mexican Revolution, with the two countries experiencing increased economic ties with one another. Djevat Pasha even became the new ambassador of the empire to Mexico. It was the beginning of a new era of relations between Constantinople and Mexico City.” The Mexican Revolution: How a Nation is Forged. © 1989.
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[1] – sad but yes, the Republicans were coming under fire in the 20s otl as well for their de-segregating measures.
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Chapter 43: End of 1920
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“Charles Maurras in 1920 was in the height of his power. Under his reign as the leader of the Action Francaise, the party had managed to become a coherent party that had managed to gain representation in the Chamber of Deputies and the National Assembly in a proper manner, and were contesting elections all throughout France. The Great War had been instrumental in French politics, as it had allowed Maurras to increase his popularity among the French polity. His newspaper saw an increase from 7,500 subscribers to 660,000 subscribers all throughout France in an unprecedented rise. Maurras had seized upon the nationalistic tensions in Alsace and Lorraine between Imperial Germany and France and had used it to his advantage and his rhetoric was popular among many segments of French society.
Charles Maurras
French Orleanist Monarchism also remained a powerful force in French politics behind the scenes during this time, and the man’s intrigues with the Comte de Paris also ensured that he had proper aristocratic backing in French politics as well. As much as the French Republic had tried to move past its aristocratic background and history, aristocrats had remained powerful influentially and economically in the country. Because of the Orlean’s general constitutionalism and liberalist views, their presence in the French aristocratic arena also brought some of the Liberal Conservatives over to the Action Francais and Maurras’s side during the Great War.
More importantly some of the things Maurras had said, were true, which only increased his popularity. The draconian laws passed by Viviani and the French government during the Great War had been extremely similar to the doctrine of monarchical dictatorship which Maurras was known to espouse, and as such the government of the republic doing something which was extremely similar to what the man espoused, was a blessing for Maurras and he milked it for all that was worth. In the 1917 French Legislative Elections, he managed to win a seat from the Orleans region and he became a Deputy. Known for his fiery and eloquent speeches, he was consistent in his views of restoring a neo-absolutist constitutional monarchy (the full view of how this would work is quite complicated and debated). Poincare’s personal homage of the party has also allowed the party to grow into a proper party in the French political arena.
However the assassination of Charles Maurras by an anarchist named Germaine Berton in the streets of Paris opened up a can of worms within the party that threatened to tear the party apart. Like Maurras there were hardline monarchists and rightists who wanted to make sure that a ‘proper’ France was restored and the hated Third Republic was disavowed from French history completely. However, a growing movement within the party was centered around De Magallon, Leon Daudet, and Jacques Baineville, who advised that a more moderate approach to things and issues would allow them to act even more properly in French politics.
Xavier de Magallon
In particular Xavier de Magallon was a moderate leaning nationalist within the party who was leading the Moderate Faction of the party. He was the son of a Provencal Aristocrat (Jule de Magallon) and in his younger years he had been a nationalist militant. During the Great War, he had been a brigadier general and he distinguished himself in battle. During the war he had become disillusioned with radical rightist views, blaming it for starting the war which had taken the lives of so many brave Frenchmen. As a result, he quickly became a moderate rightist politician within the part of Maurras when he returned to the party after the Great War. De Magallon aspired to become the next leader of the party after the death of Maurras, however he was stopped in his tracks by hardliners like Maurice Pujo and Xavier Vallat.
Pujo in particular distrusted the moderate by a great deal. De Magallon, despite his aristocratic roots, had been lukewarm to the idea of a monarchical restoration, and remained ambivalent on that particular party policy, and this was used by Pujo to land heavy attacks on the aspiring moderate leader. Vallat was also critical of the fact that de Magallon had turned his back on his militant heritage which was worrying for many hardline nationalists within the party. As such, the party began to split between these two factions.
In the French Chamber of Deputies there was speculation that the party would splinter into a moderate center-right party and a hardline far right party, however these ideas and predictions would not come to pass. De Magallon proved himself to be a good negotiator, and after appointing a soft hardliner, Maurice de Chalais, as a show of good faith, he began to encroach into the hardliner faction within the party, outright demanding that he be given the leadership of the party. On the 18th of August, 1920, he called for a party wide vote on the matter, to settle the multi-month long issue of leadership within the party. It was agreed that on the 15th of September, a vote would be held within the most highest echelons of the party to decide the successor to Maurras. De Magallon represented the moderate faction, whilst Pujo stood up to represent the hardliner faction. In a crucial party vote, De Magallon won the party vote, winning 51.05% of the total votes that were cast.
Maurice Pujo, Magallon's opponent.
Most of the hardliners, already reeling from the death of Maurice and the defection of soft hardliners like de Chalais to de Magallon did nothing, but a few like Pujo left the party in disgust. Nonetheless, most of the party stayed with Magallon, even if a good minority disagreed with his political views. On the 26th of September, 1920, De Magallon assumed leadership of the party, and declared that ‘This party will become a true democratic anti-establishment, pro-traditional and populist democratic political party, for the people of France’.
It was a turning point in the history of the party. De Magallon had chosen a good time to contest the leadership, and now he was determined to become a proper democratic leader of a party based on democratic nationalism, as he called it. He denounced the label of Quantum Fasian that was being labelled towards the Action Francais. The term itself was being used to label the far-right ultra-nationalist and ultra-radical triumvirate dictatorship in the Kingdom of Serbia, and de Magallon would not have anyone label his party in such a manner.
The next few years of French politics would prove to be extremely interested, as the 1921 French Legislative Elections were arriving soon.” The Transformation of French Politics After the Great War © 1989
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“Prince Louis, the Chancellor of the Empire of Danubia found himself in an extremely complicated position in 1920, as he tried to put the various nationalistic movements in the Habsburg Empire back to the ground. The honorable defeat, as the Austrians and habsburgs called it, had allowed most of the blowback of defeat in war to be mitigated, however that didn’t mean that the Empire had gone through the transition unscathed. Romanian Nationalists and Ukrainian Nationalists, as well as Serbs in the Danubian Empire were none too happy about being in the Empire, and they acted on it, in several ethnic riots that often got bloody within the Empire.
Society was changing, and some in manners that weren’t conductive to the survival of the Danubian Empire. The Articles Act of 1919 for example allowed total freedom of expression throughout the Danubian Empire, but ultra-nationalistic groups in the Empire simply used it to further their own goals. A constitutional amendment had been made to make freedom of speech a constitutional right, and now the government had no right in meddling in who published what, and this was detrimental to the unity of the Empire, though most remained unionists in and out of the empire.
Logo of the Maffia
In particular, during the Great War, a secret organization named Maffia had been established by emigres Tomas Garrigue Masaryk and Edvard Benes, both of whom had the goal of an independent Bohemia/Czechia in mind when they established that party. Other anti-royalist and anti-Austrian figures of Czech politics such as Karel Kramar and Alois Rasin were also members of this militant group. The goal of the Maffia was to oversee the overthrow of the Emperor of Austria, and cause the disintegration of the Habsburg Empire. The group were implicated in the assassination of Franz Ferdinand as well, and were involved in the killings of several governmental officers and administrators throughout the Crownland of Bohemia, which was a part of the Austrian half of the Empire. Nonetheless, Prince Louis had taken the charge in the matter of suppressing the Maffia, and on the 23rd of September, 1920, 200 of Maffia members throughout Bohemia and Moravia were arrested by the Danubian police, and presenting evidence, they were sentenced to death for treason against the state. Emperor Charles later granted amnesty to all but Edvard Benes and Masaryk, who were the leaders of the group that had killed nearly 398 governmental officials in the 5 years of its existence. The others had their sentence reduced to life imprisonment on the persuasion of the Emperor.
Hungarian Magnates
The Czechs weren’t the only problem however. The Hungarian Elites and Magnate Lords had basically controlled Hungary after the Compromise of 1867 and they weren’t happy about the fact that the Austrian and Illyrian halves of the Empire were now ‘ganging’ up on them. The centralization measures of both Charles I and Prince Louis angered the large Hungarian Magnates and the bypassing of the Hungarian Transleithanian Legislature by the Imperial Diet to pass Universal Suffrage throughout the Empire had angered the Hungarian Lords to no end. Of course, there were a few Hungarian Magnates who were largely in favor of these reforms, however a majority remained opposed to any sort of reform in basic principle.
In June 1920, a land reform act was passed by Prince Louis, and the plan was radical. In it, several lands that were owned by nobles, but not used at all, were to be redistributed to the people on the basis of farming and agricultural use. Some were allocated for industrial usage as well. Louis gave a 75% compensation to the nobles, due to the fact that the nobles rarely if ever even visited these lands, much less use them. The Austrian and Illyrian nobles were largely fine with the land reform, however the Hungarian Magnates raised hell over the issue. They demanded that the reform not be applicable within the Crownlands of St. Stephen and some even went as far as to threaten secession if their demands weren’t met. A pro-Magnate demonstration in Budapest was attacked by a pro-Reformist crowd from the University of Buda, and the riot devolved into what became known as the Battle of Budapest by the Danubian media on the 8th of October, 1920. Around 88 were killed in the riot, and the Hungarian Magnates began to mutter actual threats of secession rather than their nonsensical remarks earlier.
In the end Prince Louis decided to compromise, the compensation for the Hungarian Magnates was raised to the rate of 110%, which was reluctantly accepted by the Magnate run legislature of Transleithania, though discontent continued to rumble in the Hungarian Half of the Empire. It wasn’t only the Hungarians however, the Romanians were rumbling too. They were now asking for a Transylvanian Kingdom within the Danubian Empire, so that the Romanians in the Empire could get an equal say as the Hungarians. The Transylvanian Romanian League was founded on the 8th of August, 1920, by Romanian Nationalists. Though these nationalists were largely by and large moderate nationalists, not intent on either independence or joining Romania, the Hungarian Lords stamped down on them. If they gave rights to the Trasylvananin Romanians, who was next? The Slovaks? The Serbs? The Saxon Germans? It was the domino effect that the Hungarians worried about and such they stamped on these movements hard, and as a result, they radicalized the moderate nationalists one by one, which would have an adverse effect on Danubia in the future.
Flag of Austrian Trieste
However, Prince Louis was also afforded with another problem. A good amount of anti-Left Italians, began to migrate from the Italian border into the Danubian Empire, settling in Trieste, the Istrian Peninsula and Tyrol. Around 100,000 Italian emigrated from the country and settled in Danubia. Thankfully for both the Italians and the Danubians, this miniature refugee crisis was handled pretty well, and by the end of 1920, the Italians were either repatriated back to Italy based on passport legalities, or the others were settled into the country based on an economic basis. Also critically, the Italians were settled by the government in places in Hungary, Bohemia and Bosnia, to avoid their exposure to the small Italian nationalist groups within South Tyrol, Trieste and Istria, and to an extent, in Dalmatia.
This mixture of a stable, yet unstable government and country would set the tone of the Danubian Empire for many years to come unfortunately.” The Dissolution of Danubia and the Rise of the Archduchy of Austria © 2013
***
“In Iran, 5 years of reforms within the Qajar Dynasty had been controversial to say the least. The Prime Minister of Iran, Zia ol Din Tabatabae was insistent on reforms being paced with extreme and fierce speed, whilst the new Shah of Iran, Shah Abdul Hussein Farman Farma Qajar, wanted a more moderate approach that was suitable for the traditionalists and reformists of Iran. However Tabateabae bluntly told the new Shah, that Iran was now a Constitutional monarchy and the Shah’s opinions in politics was largely to be ignored. Tabatabae had been a republican in his youth, and while he had come to accept constitutional monarchism as a part of his overall ideology, his republican heritage showed itself in times like these.
Zia ol Din Tabatabae
Nonetheless, the Shah was insulted by this crass behavior and contrary to what Tabatabae stated, the Shah of Iran still held a major amount of constitutional power in his hands. As such, the Shah dissolved the Iranian Parliament on the 23rd of August, 1920, and forced a new general election to take place in Iran. The Reformist Party led by Tabatabae won the elections, securing a majority of seats in the elections, however their majority was reduced by 60 to a paltry 16. The Traditionalists also increased their seats in the Iranian Parliament and the Moderates, a new party based on centrism, gained small momentum as well. This angered Tabatabae, and the Shah and the Prime minister soon became locked in a struggle to appoint the new cabinet, but in the end, the Shah came out on top, and the Shah appointed 10 Reformist Ministers, 7 Traditionalist Ministers, and 3 moderate ministers to the Iranian cabinet, a perfect equilibrium depicting the three political spectrums of Iranian society at the time.
Tabatabae was humiliated, and he decided to start implementing his reforms even faster than what was previously thought possible. He copied the Women’s Suffrage Act from the Ottoman Empire, and implemented an Iranian version of it, using his prerogative as Prime minister to pass the act (which is why Iran during this time is considered a semi-democracy. The power levels distributed to the Shah and the Prime Minister by the constitution was a little too lopsided), and several other social reforms, such as religious ones were passed by the man as well.
This angered virtually every segment of Iranian politics. The Reformists were aghast that Zia had learnt nothing from the reduced majority during the election and the Traditionalists were of course angered by the reformist approaches to legislation. The moderates deemed the acts to be too fast, and done haphazardly and according to one Moderate Minister ‘a half-baked bunch of acts that sound good on paper but were horrible in actuality’.
He wasn’t off the mark there.
Khaz’al Ibn Jabir, Sheikh of Arabistan.
In Arabistan, which was ruled by a semi-independent sheikdom, and was ruled by their Sheikh, Khaz’al Ibn Jabir, who was an avowed traditionalist, and a Sunni, who more likely hated the Shia majority country he was forced to swear allegiance too. The political polarization of the Iranians gave him the chance that he had longed to have. On the 15th of September 1920, he placed strategic militias loyal to him all over the Emirate and took control of the Emirate from the Iranian Army by suppressing them and taking them prisoner. Using the radical reforms as his basis in secession, he declared the Independence of the Kingdom of Arabistan.
This was a dire state of news for everyone in Iran. Most of the legislature blamed Tabatabae for the secession of Arabistan, and the Iranian Parliament passed a vote of no-confidence on the Iranian Prime Minister ousting him. Soleiman Eskandari, a moderate politician was elected as Prime Minister after Zia ol Din, and he was more of a reconciliatory politician. Unfortunately the Khuzestan Arabs were not interested in being a part of Iran again and were bent on keeping the independence that they had just gained.
War was now inevitable. However this meant that the British held Khuzestan oil fields were in the danger of being attacked in the war that was about to come, and British Prime Minister Austen Chamberlain demanded that the issue be resolved peacefully due to fear of damaging the oil fields and the primary source of British oil in the entire world. Chamberlain proposed that a meeting be held in the British Raj between the Arabistani Leaders and the Iranians to reach a proper solution to the crisis. This was however not to be. Ibn Jabir escalated the crisis when he attacked the Iranian Army positions at the border, and the Iranians now were bound by public pressure to act and they began to mobilize their troops on the border.
In response, the British Admiralty sent one battleship escorted by 5 destroyers and 3 cruisers into the Persian Gulf, in a clear warning to both Arabistan and Iran that escalation of the war by any side would not be tolerated by the British. Prime Minister Chamberlain was loathe to deal with the Russians regarding this matter, and Tsar Nicholas II also wanted to do nothing with the crisis, stating that it was outside the Russian Sphere of Influence in Iran. The Russian Economy was still recovering from the Great War, and for once in his life, the Tsar was taking the advice of proper economic ministers who were influencing his opinion on the matter.
In the Ottoman Empire, Grand Vizier Ahmet Riza was looking at the developments in the Iranian Kingdom with some amount of trepidation present. The Ottomans had several tribes in Iraq and Syria which were semi-autonomous and they were afraid of the precedent that the secession of Arabistan posed to these tribes. Already the tribes of Yemen muttered under their breath profanities against the Sultan and the Caliphate, and more separatist groups could not be added to the mix. As a result, the Ottomans took a keen view to the crisis as well. In particular, the Ottomans also bought oil from the British Empire as a valuable alternative to Russia, and they were not happy to have the Abadan Oil Fields under pressure. As a result, Chamberlain and Riza quickly found a middle ground to speak on.
On the 4th of November, 1920, the British Foreign Minister, and Riza met aboard a British warship, HMS Indomitable in the Mediterranean to discuss the issue. The Ottomans wanted to make sure that the Iranian border remained stable, and that the precedent of semi-autonomous regions leaving a broader nation state be quashed down. The British were all for the idea, considering the fact that the British Princely States were also semi-autonomous regions within the framework of the British Empire in India, and of course, the question of oil supply meant that Chamberlain told the Ottomans that he would be willing to support a ‘limited Ottoman intervention’.
On the 9th of November, the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies passed a vote, condemning the unilateral secession of Arabistan, and declared that the 49th and 50th Infantry Divisions, based in Kirkuk and Basra would be entering Arabistan, with aid from the 37th (Southampton) Infantry Division of Britain based in Bahrain and the Gulf Coast. On the 12th of November, the British landed in the southern coast without real opposition, and the Ottomans all but invaded Arabistan too. Seeing this the Iranians began to invade as well.
Ottoman officers posing in Arabistan after occupying it for ~1 month.
However despite the urgency of the Anglo-Ottomans in taking Arabistan (the entire area was occupied by the 18th of November), a good amount of oil wells (~12) were destroyed by the Sheikh in retaliation causing a small hike in the oil prices. Nonetheless, the Anglo-Ottomans were largely successful in their endeavor, and managed to meet their goals. Administrative authority was given back to the Iranians on the 5th of December, 1920, and the Ottomans withdrew by the end of the year.
The British meanwhile placed a permanent garrison in the Abadan Oil Fields, instead of a small militia like garrison, and the Iranians largely began to stamp down on Sunni and Arab separatism within their borders, as Eskandari began to pass moderate reforms that satisfied both the Traditionalists and the Reformists. It would however be the prelude to the Arabistan Republican Army, which would wreak havoc in Iran and Ottoman Iraq in the 30s and the 40s.” The Transformation of Iran in the 20th Century © 2021.
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“The 1920 US Elections were hotly contested throughout the United States of America. The country had been through a lot of things in the past 4 years, and the country was eager to go to polls.
Simmons, the Democratic Candidate, was eager to make sure that the Democrats consolidated their base in the south and managed to ensure that it remained solidly blue, knowing that the damage that Wilson had created in the party would likely take a good few years to heal, meaning that chances of the Democrats winning the Presidential Elections were rather slim. So Simmons largely campaigned in the south, meeting with local elites, and the local oligarchs and industrialists, and giving tours of the Southern beaches and industries. Appealing to the Southern Racism that the American South is so famous for, he spoke against the desegregation of the American Federal Bureaucracy, and began to state matters of national importance like the Philippines to have their autonomy restored, though under the provision of an American military occupation that would continue. His running mate, Franklin D. Roosevelt had more passion in running and winning, and he scoured Northern USA trying to garner votes in the Northern Democratic swing regions as well. He sought the aid of prominent democrats like Cox in the north to shore up support, and began to take part in several charity shows to shore up popularity. He also, speaking on behalf of Simmons, began to advocate a moderate decentralized economic model to gain votes from pro-States rights people in the Empire.
Hughes was largely running on the basis of his handling of the Depression, which was admirable in his own right, and Hughes was supportive of continuing slow and moderate social and labour reforms throughout the United States. His goal of continuing labour reforms in the United States ate through several thousands of pro-socialist voters and allowed the Republicans to retain a large labour mandate in the American population. Hughes was insistent on continuing these reforms and advocated for a self-reliable industrial economy. In response to attacks from Simmons regarding desegregation, he defended his position and even attacked some southern democrats known for their support of segregation and racial discrimination, even going so far as to allude to the Confederate States of America.
Martin on the other hand, wanted to retain the Progressive stronghold in Louisiana and the Midwest. Martin advocated for pro-Philippine independence platform, though he also stated that he would keep an independent Philippines within the American Sphere of Influence, and supported the desegregation measures of the Government. Most importantly, drawing many voters, Martin viewed the Liberal Party in the UK and their creation of a proto-welfare state in the UK with admiration and promised the foundations of a welfare state in the USA based on the UK’s Liberal model as well, drawing a lot of leftist votes.
In the end, Hughes won the re-election rather handily, winning 279 Electoral Votes, and Simmons managed to gain 171 electoral votes. Martin was successful in preserving the Progressive stronghold in the Midwest and even managed to flip Minnesota to the Progressives, though he lost New Hampshire to Hughes, more due to his ignorance of the state more than anything else. After the elections were called, Hughes settled in for his second term as the President of the United States of America.” The Hughes Presidency © 2010.
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“Charles Maurras in 1920 was in the height of his power. Under his reign as the leader of the Action Francaise, the party had managed to become a coherent party that had managed to gain representation in the Chamber of Deputies and the National Assembly in a proper manner, and were contesting elections all throughout France. The Great War had been instrumental in French politics, as it had allowed Maurras to increase his popularity among the French polity. His newspaper saw an increase from 7,500 subscribers to 660,000 subscribers all throughout France in an unprecedented rise. Maurras had seized upon the nationalistic tensions in Alsace and Lorraine between Imperial Germany and France and had used it to his advantage and his rhetoric was popular among many segments of French society.
Charles Maurras
French Orleanist Monarchism also remained a powerful force in French politics behind the scenes during this time, and the man’s intrigues with the Comte de Paris also ensured that he had proper aristocratic backing in French politics as well. As much as the French Republic had tried to move past its aristocratic background and history, aristocrats had remained powerful influentially and economically in the country. Because of the Orlean’s general constitutionalism and liberalist views, their presence in the French aristocratic arena also brought some of the Liberal Conservatives over to the Action Francais and Maurras’s side during the Great War.
More importantly some of the things Maurras had said, were true, which only increased his popularity. The draconian laws passed by Viviani and the French government during the Great War had been extremely similar to the doctrine of monarchical dictatorship which Maurras was known to espouse, and as such the government of the republic doing something which was extremely similar to what the man espoused, was a blessing for Maurras and he milked it for all that was worth. In the 1917 French Legislative Elections, he managed to win a seat from the Orleans region and he became a Deputy. Known for his fiery and eloquent speeches, he was consistent in his views of restoring a neo-absolutist constitutional monarchy (the full view of how this would work is quite complicated and debated). Poincare’s personal homage of the party has also allowed the party to grow into a proper party in the French political arena.
However the assassination of Charles Maurras by an anarchist named Germaine Berton in the streets of Paris opened up a can of worms within the party that threatened to tear the party apart. Like Maurras there were hardline monarchists and rightists who wanted to make sure that a ‘proper’ France was restored and the hated Third Republic was disavowed from French history completely. However, a growing movement within the party was centered around De Magallon, Leon Daudet, and Jacques Baineville, who advised that a more moderate approach to things and issues would allow them to act even more properly in French politics.
Xavier de Magallon
In particular Xavier de Magallon was a moderate leaning nationalist within the party who was leading the Moderate Faction of the party. He was the son of a Provencal Aristocrat (Jule de Magallon) and in his younger years he had been a nationalist militant. During the Great War, he had been a brigadier general and he distinguished himself in battle. During the war he had become disillusioned with radical rightist views, blaming it for starting the war which had taken the lives of so many brave Frenchmen. As a result, he quickly became a moderate rightist politician within the part of Maurras when he returned to the party after the Great War. De Magallon aspired to become the next leader of the party after the death of Maurras, however he was stopped in his tracks by hardliners like Maurice Pujo and Xavier Vallat.
Pujo in particular distrusted the moderate by a great deal. De Magallon, despite his aristocratic roots, had been lukewarm to the idea of a monarchical restoration, and remained ambivalent on that particular party policy, and this was used by Pujo to land heavy attacks on the aspiring moderate leader. Vallat was also critical of the fact that de Magallon had turned his back on his militant heritage which was worrying for many hardline nationalists within the party. As such, the party began to split between these two factions.
In the French Chamber of Deputies there was speculation that the party would splinter into a moderate center-right party and a hardline far right party, however these ideas and predictions would not come to pass. De Magallon proved himself to be a good negotiator, and after appointing a soft hardliner, Maurice de Chalais, as a show of good faith, he began to encroach into the hardliner faction within the party, outright demanding that he be given the leadership of the party. On the 18th of August, 1920, he called for a party wide vote on the matter, to settle the multi-month long issue of leadership within the party. It was agreed that on the 15th of September, a vote would be held within the most highest echelons of the party to decide the successor to Maurras. De Magallon represented the moderate faction, whilst Pujo stood up to represent the hardliner faction. In a crucial party vote, De Magallon won the party vote, winning 51.05% of the total votes that were cast.
Maurice Pujo, Magallon's opponent.
Most of the hardliners, already reeling from the death of Maurice and the defection of soft hardliners like de Chalais to de Magallon did nothing, but a few like Pujo left the party in disgust. Nonetheless, most of the party stayed with Magallon, even if a good minority disagreed with his political views. On the 26th of September, 1920, De Magallon assumed leadership of the party, and declared that ‘This party will become a true democratic anti-establishment, pro-traditional and populist democratic political party, for the people of France’.
It was a turning point in the history of the party. De Magallon had chosen a good time to contest the leadership, and now he was determined to become a proper democratic leader of a party based on democratic nationalism, as he called it. He denounced the label of Quantum Fasian that was being labelled towards the Action Francais. The term itself was being used to label the far-right ultra-nationalist and ultra-radical triumvirate dictatorship in the Kingdom of Serbia, and de Magallon would not have anyone label his party in such a manner.
The next few years of French politics would prove to be extremely interested, as the 1921 French Legislative Elections were arriving soon.” The Transformation of French Politics After the Great War © 1989
***
“Prince Louis, the Chancellor of the Empire of Danubia found himself in an extremely complicated position in 1920, as he tried to put the various nationalistic movements in the Habsburg Empire back to the ground. The honorable defeat, as the Austrians and habsburgs called it, had allowed most of the blowback of defeat in war to be mitigated, however that didn’t mean that the Empire had gone through the transition unscathed. Romanian Nationalists and Ukrainian Nationalists, as well as Serbs in the Danubian Empire were none too happy about being in the Empire, and they acted on it, in several ethnic riots that often got bloody within the Empire.
Society was changing, and some in manners that weren’t conductive to the survival of the Danubian Empire. The Articles Act of 1919 for example allowed total freedom of expression throughout the Danubian Empire, but ultra-nationalistic groups in the Empire simply used it to further their own goals. A constitutional amendment had been made to make freedom of speech a constitutional right, and now the government had no right in meddling in who published what, and this was detrimental to the unity of the Empire, though most remained unionists in and out of the empire.
Logo of the Maffia
In particular, during the Great War, a secret organization named Maffia had been established by emigres Tomas Garrigue Masaryk and Edvard Benes, both of whom had the goal of an independent Bohemia/Czechia in mind when they established that party. Other anti-royalist and anti-Austrian figures of Czech politics such as Karel Kramar and Alois Rasin were also members of this militant group. The goal of the Maffia was to oversee the overthrow of the Emperor of Austria, and cause the disintegration of the Habsburg Empire. The group were implicated in the assassination of Franz Ferdinand as well, and were involved in the killings of several governmental officers and administrators throughout the Crownland of Bohemia, which was a part of the Austrian half of the Empire. Nonetheless, Prince Louis had taken the charge in the matter of suppressing the Maffia, and on the 23rd of September, 1920, 200 of Maffia members throughout Bohemia and Moravia were arrested by the Danubian police, and presenting evidence, they were sentenced to death for treason against the state. Emperor Charles later granted amnesty to all but Edvard Benes and Masaryk, who were the leaders of the group that had killed nearly 398 governmental officials in the 5 years of its existence. The others had their sentence reduced to life imprisonment on the persuasion of the Emperor.
Hungarian Magnates
The Czechs weren’t the only problem however. The Hungarian Elites and Magnate Lords had basically controlled Hungary after the Compromise of 1867 and they weren’t happy about the fact that the Austrian and Illyrian halves of the Empire were now ‘ganging’ up on them. The centralization measures of both Charles I and Prince Louis angered the large Hungarian Magnates and the bypassing of the Hungarian Transleithanian Legislature by the Imperial Diet to pass Universal Suffrage throughout the Empire had angered the Hungarian Lords to no end. Of course, there were a few Hungarian Magnates who were largely in favor of these reforms, however a majority remained opposed to any sort of reform in basic principle.
In June 1920, a land reform act was passed by Prince Louis, and the plan was radical. In it, several lands that were owned by nobles, but not used at all, were to be redistributed to the people on the basis of farming and agricultural use. Some were allocated for industrial usage as well. Louis gave a 75% compensation to the nobles, due to the fact that the nobles rarely if ever even visited these lands, much less use them. The Austrian and Illyrian nobles were largely fine with the land reform, however the Hungarian Magnates raised hell over the issue. They demanded that the reform not be applicable within the Crownlands of St. Stephen and some even went as far as to threaten secession if their demands weren’t met. A pro-Magnate demonstration in Budapest was attacked by a pro-Reformist crowd from the University of Buda, and the riot devolved into what became known as the Battle of Budapest by the Danubian media on the 8th of October, 1920. Around 88 were killed in the riot, and the Hungarian Magnates began to mutter actual threats of secession rather than their nonsensical remarks earlier.
In the end Prince Louis decided to compromise, the compensation for the Hungarian Magnates was raised to the rate of 110%, which was reluctantly accepted by the Magnate run legislature of Transleithania, though discontent continued to rumble in the Hungarian Half of the Empire. It wasn’t only the Hungarians however, the Romanians were rumbling too. They were now asking for a Transylvanian Kingdom within the Danubian Empire, so that the Romanians in the Empire could get an equal say as the Hungarians. The Transylvanian Romanian League was founded on the 8th of August, 1920, by Romanian Nationalists. Though these nationalists were largely by and large moderate nationalists, not intent on either independence or joining Romania, the Hungarian Lords stamped down on them. If they gave rights to the Trasylvananin Romanians, who was next? The Slovaks? The Serbs? The Saxon Germans? It was the domino effect that the Hungarians worried about and such they stamped on these movements hard, and as a result, they radicalized the moderate nationalists one by one, which would have an adverse effect on Danubia in the future.
Flag of Austrian Trieste
However, Prince Louis was also afforded with another problem. A good amount of anti-Left Italians, began to migrate from the Italian border into the Danubian Empire, settling in Trieste, the Istrian Peninsula and Tyrol. Around 100,000 Italian emigrated from the country and settled in Danubia. Thankfully for both the Italians and the Danubians, this miniature refugee crisis was handled pretty well, and by the end of 1920, the Italians were either repatriated back to Italy based on passport legalities, or the others were settled into the country based on an economic basis. Also critically, the Italians were settled by the government in places in Hungary, Bohemia and Bosnia, to avoid their exposure to the small Italian nationalist groups within South Tyrol, Trieste and Istria, and to an extent, in Dalmatia.
This mixture of a stable, yet unstable government and country would set the tone of the Danubian Empire for many years to come unfortunately.” The Dissolution of Danubia and the Rise of the Archduchy of Austria © 2013
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“In Iran, 5 years of reforms within the Qajar Dynasty had been controversial to say the least. The Prime Minister of Iran, Zia ol Din Tabatabae was insistent on reforms being paced with extreme and fierce speed, whilst the new Shah of Iran, Shah Abdul Hussein Farman Farma Qajar, wanted a more moderate approach that was suitable for the traditionalists and reformists of Iran. However Tabateabae bluntly told the new Shah, that Iran was now a Constitutional monarchy and the Shah’s opinions in politics was largely to be ignored. Tabatabae had been a republican in his youth, and while he had come to accept constitutional monarchism as a part of his overall ideology, his republican heritage showed itself in times like these.
Zia ol Din Tabatabae
Nonetheless, the Shah was insulted by this crass behavior and contrary to what Tabatabae stated, the Shah of Iran still held a major amount of constitutional power in his hands. As such, the Shah dissolved the Iranian Parliament on the 23rd of August, 1920, and forced a new general election to take place in Iran. The Reformist Party led by Tabatabae won the elections, securing a majority of seats in the elections, however their majority was reduced by 60 to a paltry 16. The Traditionalists also increased their seats in the Iranian Parliament and the Moderates, a new party based on centrism, gained small momentum as well. This angered Tabatabae, and the Shah and the Prime minister soon became locked in a struggle to appoint the new cabinet, but in the end, the Shah came out on top, and the Shah appointed 10 Reformist Ministers, 7 Traditionalist Ministers, and 3 moderate ministers to the Iranian cabinet, a perfect equilibrium depicting the three political spectrums of Iranian society at the time.
Tabatabae was humiliated, and he decided to start implementing his reforms even faster than what was previously thought possible. He copied the Women’s Suffrage Act from the Ottoman Empire, and implemented an Iranian version of it, using his prerogative as Prime minister to pass the act (which is why Iran during this time is considered a semi-democracy. The power levels distributed to the Shah and the Prime Minister by the constitution was a little too lopsided), and several other social reforms, such as religious ones were passed by the man as well.
This angered virtually every segment of Iranian politics. The Reformists were aghast that Zia had learnt nothing from the reduced majority during the election and the Traditionalists were of course angered by the reformist approaches to legislation. The moderates deemed the acts to be too fast, and done haphazardly and according to one Moderate Minister ‘a half-baked bunch of acts that sound good on paper but were horrible in actuality’.
He wasn’t off the mark there.
Khaz’al Ibn Jabir, Sheikh of Arabistan.
In Arabistan, which was ruled by a semi-independent sheikdom, and was ruled by their Sheikh, Khaz’al Ibn Jabir, who was an avowed traditionalist, and a Sunni, who more likely hated the Shia majority country he was forced to swear allegiance too. The political polarization of the Iranians gave him the chance that he had longed to have. On the 15th of September 1920, he placed strategic militias loyal to him all over the Emirate and took control of the Emirate from the Iranian Army by suppressing them and taking them prisoner. Using the radical reforms as his basis in secession, he declared the Independence of the Kingdom of Arabistan.
This was a dire state of news for everyone in Iran. Most of the legislature blamed Tabatabae for the secession of Arabistan, and the Iranian Parliament passed a vote of no-confidence on the Iranian Prime Minister ousting him. Soleiman Eskandari, a moderate politician was elected as Prime Minister after Zia ol Din, and he was more of a reconciliatory politician. Unfortunately the Khuzestan Arabs were not interested in being a part of Iran again and were bent on keeping the independence that they had just gained.
War was now inevitable. However this meant that the British held Khuzestan oil fields were in the danger of being attacked in the war that was about to come, and British Prime Minister Austen Chamberlain demanded that the issue be resolved peacefully due to fear of damaging the oil fields and the primary source of British oil in the entire world. Chamberlain proposed that a meeting be held in the British Raj between the Arabistani Leaders and the Iranians to reach a proper solution to the crisis. This was however not to be. Ibn Jabir escalated the crisis when he attacked the Iranian Army positions at the border, and the Iranians now were bound by public pressure to act and they began to mobilize their troops on the border.
In response, the British Admiralty sent one battleship escorted by 5 destroyers and 3 cruisers into the Persian Gulf, in a clear warning to both Arabistan and Iran that escalation of the war by any side would not be tolerated by the British. Prime Minister Chamberlain was loathe to deal with the Russians regarding this matter, and Tsar Nicholas II also wanted to do nothing with the crisis, stating that it was outside the Russian Sphere of Influence in Iran. The Russian Economy was still recovering from the Great War, and for once in his life, the Tsar was taking the advice of proper economic ministers who were influencing his opinion on the matter.
In the Ottoman Empire, Grand Vizier Ahmet Riza was looking at the developments in the Iranian Kingdom with some amount of trepidation present. The Ottomans had several tribes in Iraq and Syria which were semi-autonomous and they were afraid of the precedent that the secession of Arabistan posed to these tribes. Already the tribes of Yemen muttered under their breath profanities against the Sultan and the Caliphate, and more separatist groups could not be added to the mix. As a result, the Ottomans took a keen view to the crisis as well. In particular, the Ottomans also bought oil from the British Empire as a valuable alternative to Russia, and they were not happy to have the Abadan Oil Fields under pressure. As a result, Chamberlain and Riza quickly found a middle ground to speak on.
On the 4th of November, 1920, the British Foreign Minister, and Riza met aboard a British warship, HMS Indomitable in the Mediterranean to discuss the issue. The Ottomans wanted to make sure that the Iranian border remained stable, and that the precedent of semi-autonomous regions leaving a broader nation state be quashed down. The British were all for the idea, considering the fact that the British Princely States were also semi-autonomous regions within the framework of the British Empire in India, and of course, the question of oil supply meant that Chamberlain told the Ottomans that he would be willing to support a ‘limited Ottoman intervention’.
On the 9th of November, the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies passed a vote, condemning the unilateral secession of Arabistan, and declared that the 49th and 50th Infantry Divisions, based in Kirkuk and Basra would be entering Arabistan, with aid from the 37th (Southampton) Infantry Division of Britain based in Bahrain and the Gulf Coast. On the 12th of November, the British landed in the southern coast without real opposition, and the Ottomans all but invaded Arabistan too. Seeing this the Iranians began to invade as well.
Ottoman officers posing in Arabistan after occupying it for ~1 month.
However despite the urgency of the Anglo-Ottomans in taking Arabistan (the entire area was occupied by the 18th of November), a good amount of oil wells (~12) were destroyed by the Sheikh in retaliation causing a small hike in the oil prices. Nonetheless, the Anglo-Ottomans were largely successful in their endeavor, and managed to meet their goals. Administrative authority was given back to the Iranians on the 5th of December, 1920, and the Ottomans withdrew by the end of the year.
The British meanwhile placed a permanent garrison in the Abadan Oil Fields, instead of a small militia like garrison, and the Iranians largely began to stamp down on Sunni and Arab separatism within their borders, as Eskandari began to pass moderate reforms that satisfied both the Traditionalists and the Reformists. It would however be the prelude to the Arabistan Republican Army, which would wreak havoc in Iran and Ottoman Iraq in the 30s and the 40s.” The Transformation of Iran in the 20th Century © 2021.
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“The 1920 US Elections were hotly contested throughout the United States of America. The country had been through a lot of things in the past 4 years, and the country was eager to go to polls.
Simmons, the Democratic Candidate, was eager to make sure that the Democrats consolidated their base in the south and managed to ensure that it remained solidly blue, knowing that the damage that Wilson had created in the party would likely take a good few years to heal, meaning that chances of the Democrats winning the Presidential Elections were rather slim. So Simmons largely campaigned in the south, meeting with local elites, and the local oligarchs and industrialists, and giving tours of the Southern beaches and industries. Appealing to the Southern Racism that the American South is so famous for, he spoke against the desegregation of the American Federal Bureaucracy, and began to state matters of national importance like the Philippines to have their autonomy restored, though under the provision of an American military occupation that would continue. His running mate, Franklin D. Roosevelt had more passion in running and winning, and he scoured Northern USA trying to garner votes in the Northern Democratic swing regions as well. He sought the aid of prominent democrats like Cox in the north to shore up support, and began to take part in several charity shows to shore up popularity. He also, speaking on behalf of Simmons, began to advocate a moderate decentralized economic model to gain votes from pro-States rights people in the Empire.
Hughes was largely running on the basis of his handling of the Depression, which was admirable in his own right, and Hughes was supportive of continuing slow and moderate social and labour reforms throughout the United States. His goal of continuing labour reforms in the United States ate through several thousands of pro-socialist voters and allowed the Republicans to retain a large labour mandate in the American population. Hughes was insistent on continuing these reforms and advocated for a self-reliable industrial economy. In response to attacks from Simmons regarding desegregation, he defended his position and even attacked some southern democrats known for their support of segregation and racial discrimination, even going so far as to allude to the Confederate States of America.
Martin on the other hand, wanted to retain the Progressive stronghold in Louisiana and the Midwest. Martin advocated for pro-Philippine independence platform, though he also stated that he would keep an independent Philippines within the American Sphere of Influence, and supported the desegregation measures of the Government. Most importantly, drawing many voters, Martin viewed the Liberal Party in the UK and their creation of a proto-welfare state in the UK with admiration and promised the foundations of a welfare state in the USA based on the UK’s Liberal model as well, drawing a lot of leftist votes.
In the end, Hughes won the re-election rather handily, winning 279 Electoral Votes, and Simmons managed to gain 171 electoral votes. Martin was successful in preserving the Progressive stronghold in the Midwest and even managed to flip Minnesota to the Progressives, though he lost New Hampshire to Hughes, more due to his ignorance of the state more than anything else. After the elections were called, Hughes settled in for his second term as the President of the United States of America.” The Hughes Presidency © 2010.
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