Surviving Ottomans

I think there is still a chance for the Ottomans to win the Balkan wars. The Ottomans were in the process of re-organizing their armies when the armies of the Balkan nations attacked. Bulgaria in particular had done lots of recon and had a good amount of intelligence on the state of the Ottoman army. If the Ottomans were attacked at a different time, or if they have more of their army available in Europe, as OTL most of it was in Asia at the time, unable to be brought over quickly enough due to the abysmal infrastructural system.

This being said, it is still relatively hard, especially when compared to the Ottomans sitting out World War One. They had joined the Germans originally due to a fear of partition by the victors afterward, as well as due to the requisitioning of their ships without compensation (one of Churchill's patented "smart ideas") which enabled pro-German members of the Ottoman cabinet such as Enver Pasha to fully declare in favour of Germany. OTL he had signed a secret alliance with Germany a few days previously, but it is unknown as to whether the rest of the Ottoman cabinet would have gone along with it. Make the British a bit more competent with their diplomacy, or the Germans a bit less competent with theirs, and the Ottomans might sit out the war. Assuming they don't join the allies later on of course.
 
If the Ottomans can avoid the great War they could potentially make off with a king's ransom just by charging ships passing through the straits.

A lot of Russia's economy was cut off without the wheat exports through the Black Sea so Russia will be in financially and logistically if Britain and France can send arms through the area.

Things don't look good for Germany if that happens.
 
In reality aside from the East and West coasts the Ottomans never really controlled the rest of it, much of Arabia was nominally Ottoman Teritory, but the reality was it was controlled by a few tribal groups allied to the Ottomans and by that point it would be more trouble than its'd be worth to ty and conquer central Arabia, and that's assuming Britain does'nt decide to support them against the Ottomans.



The region had a history of being independent/center of a state and as the Ottomans are likely to grow more and more secular (the OE was'nt that much more religious than the rest of Europe at the time) it makes sense to seperate the Hejaz given it contains so many Islamic Holy Sites.
Just because it was only nominally controlled by the Ottomans doesn't mean it won't stay that way. Though I do agree that Central Arabia is pretty much out of the question.

Having Hejaz split off however doesn't make much sense. Or at least the argument for it. Just because it had a lot of holy sites, while the Ottoman Empire becomes secular, doesn't mean it'll just split off. Why would it?
 
Anyone think that the if the Ottomans were to stay neutral while the situation in Russia got increasingly desperate that the Allies would try to bribe them into the war? Any chance the British would recognize all of Arabia as Ottoman territory and cede suzerainty over any protectorates they held(save for Aden)?

It would surely set the stage for a much wealthier Ottoman state, and a wealthier Ottoman state is a more capable Ottoman state, assuming they don't go drunk on petrodollars. In an alternate dimension, the Ottoman Caliph is laughing his ass off right now, the richest man in the world.
 
Anyone think that the if the Ottomans were to stay neutral while the situation in Russia got increasingly desperate that the Allies would try to bribe them into the war? Any chance the British would recognize all of Arabia as Ottoman territory and cede suzerainty over any protectorates they held(save for Aden)?
At the time the British only really controlled the Aden colony with the rest of Aden, Oman, the Trucial states as protectorates and Kuwait being an autonomous caza of the Ottoman Empire. Since oil hadn't been discovered yet the British won't have any interest in the interior of Arabia, I don't think they ever actually made any claims on or attempts to grab the area, they're much more interested in securing control of the Persian Gulf. Which is why I don't think they'd be willing to cede any of it, the whole point was securing the route to India which at this stage is still the jewel in the crown.
 
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