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hello fellow AH members this is my first tl in the after 1900 forum. I would like to tell you that in this tl, Prince Mehmed Ziyaeddin the eldest son of Mehmed V becomes interested in the miltiary and modernization, as well as retaking glory for the Ottomans, he spends less time in the harems and reads books on warfare and goverment and politcs. Now I honestly have no info on how Mehmed lived but in this tl we will say he was born in 1880 so he is now 20 years old in the year 1900. Here is his diary and his tale.
Chapter I: The Boy Mehmet
July 14th 1900- Dear Diary, as you know it is my birthday today, I have just turned 20. You must know that the other princes are busy wiling their time away in the harems. I detest the fact that those worms would become emperor. No the throne will be mine. However you see I have decided to read up on history, politics, warfare, and government. I am currently reading Machiavellian and Hobbes and Voltaire. However I detest that Locke he is to me a failure. Hobbes on the other hand is a true genius. I am also reading the art of war by Sun Tzu and various military textbooks on European warfare. Those Europeans are as of now the most advanced society and it would be foolish to not adopt their reforms.
Anyway three weeks ago as an early birthday present I convinced my father after great hue and cry to send me to Edirne to learn how to run a province as training. At Edirne I met a postman named Mehmed Talat. Now Talat you see was an ordinary man but he greatly intrigued me. He had come to deliver mail to our palace and when I met him he and I struck up a conversation. Soon he visited the palace every day and as he handed out mail, he and I talked about government and politics. You see Mehmed had big plans. His ideas were quite marvelous and both of us had agreed on so many points. However I disagreed with him about his hatred of Armenians. I didn’t really like the fact that he hated these people. So I am now in my palace after having finished reading some military strategy books. That postman soon stopped appearing and for a long time I am sad that I would never see my acquaintance.
Now you see after finishing a book by Hobbes I started to come up with a plan for my reign. After all why waste time when I had much better things to do. First I plan to continue the assimilation of the ethnic peoples in my empire. Next I would start building rails and roads so that I can get a path for supplying troops. Next I plan to build many new buildings of entertainment and business, so as to plz the people. You see from my reading of Macciavelli I came to understand that the strongest fortress a prince can have is the love of his people, I also wanted absolute power, after all those peasants cannot rule by themselves they are stupid and uneducated a nation cannot be succesful unless it is ruled by a monarch.
Anyway I plan to build schools, factories, and rapidly industrialize my empire. In Europe tensions have been raising between the great powers, I myself envy those euro nations; it was due Austria and Russia that the ottomans suffered so I hated from the bottom of my heart the Austrians. They were scum, I also despise the British for how they seized Egypt and swindled their way into our territory. But It does not really matter because soon I fear a war will break out, it is bound to happen and when it does the great powers will exhaust themselves and once they are weakened and my empire in strength I will launch a counterattack. I also plan to get rid of our fleet on the waters. You see I realized there is no way we can ever build enough ships to compete with the Royal navy of United Kingdom and Ireland so I came up with a counter plan. I will build many subs at a cheaper price and fortify my coasts. After all no matter how many ships the enemy has if they cannot land their troops their ships are useless. However the problem is that for my fortifications a lot of money will be lost. Thus I plan to first create new businesses and merchants to bring gold to my coffers. Next for the army I will create them in the German military style when I become emperor. WHy because the germans have a proffestional an well trained army that is exxtremly formidable.
I swear to Allah that I will become the greatest Ottoman sultan, and I will bring back glory and prestige to my country.
Signed Prince Mehmet Ziyaadin (future sultan)
Anyway Just to clarify I know that Ziyaadin might not have been born in 1880 but,, could fellow Ah commers go with it. ABout Ziyaadin basically he was a person who loved to read books so he came across Macciavelli and from their soon started reading other books. It is perfectly plausable for this character to excist. However unfortunatly this Mehmet is not the same mehmet as otl, he is a completly different character. Also about edirne I know that Ottoman sultans were confined to the harems but could they have gone out to actually become governors. I am a bit confused on that point because I really am not sure about whether Mehmet would be allowed out of the imperial harems. So plz tell me what you think. I know that some of his ideas are crazy but remember he is still 20 so he has time to improve. Other than that how do people like this tl. I have made it as plausable as I can.
Btw about my other tls they are temprarily on Hiatus because I am suffering from writers block. Sorry