The Ottoman Empire had remained neutral at the outbreak of the Great War. Enver Pasha, the Minister of War, and Sait Halim Pasha, the Grand Vizier, signed a secret treaty of alliance with Germany on 2 August 1914. This was grudgingly accepted by the Ottoman cabinet. However its opponents still had time to abrogate the treaty. Cemal Pasha, Minister of the Navy, favoured the Entente.
Many Ottomans held strong pro British and pro French sentiments, and regarded war against those countries as unthinkable. On 18 August the Ottoman Empire declared neutrality with a 'Notification of Neutrality'. and on 10 September 1914 the Grand Vizier annulled the Capitulations which gave special privileges to foreign nationals. These first two paragraphs are as in OTL.
Preventing the Ottomans joining the Central Powers was a prime objective of the Balfour government. It was thought that their neutrality was much more likely than their joining the Entente. There was the fact of Ottoman-Russian enmity, and the Ottomans would need to recover after having fought in the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 in which they had suffered a defeat.
A traditional objective of Unionist (or Conservative) policy was preservation of the Ottoman Empire against Russian expansionism. In the Balfour cabinet Lord Lansdowne, the Foreign Secretary, was a strong advocating of at least keeping the Ottomans neutral.
In early August 1914, the British government delivered two battleships, the Sultan Osman 1 and the Reshadieh, which the Ottomans had ordered from British shipbuilders.
On 10 August, two German warships, the Goeben and the Breslau reached the Dardenelles, which were Ottoman waters. According to the rules of war the ships were interned.
Originally posted by stevep
Have they also made a similar change on the Chilean ships or still sought to hire them?
That was the first time I had read about the Chilean ships. I don't know what happened in OTL.
Steve
That information is helpful. Thank you.
Because in OTL the Chilean navy was not of decisive importance in the Great War, in this TL Britain hired the Chilean ships as in OTL.
Negotiations took place in the first three weeks of August 1914 for a defensive alliance of Bulgaria, Greece, the Ottoman Empire and Romania. the Treaty of Bucharest signed on 19 August 1914 affirmed the neutrality of these nations in the war, and committed all of them to mutual defence in the event of an attack by another nation or combination of nations.
On 20 August, the British, French and Russian ambassadors in Constantinople gave verbal assurances to Sait Halim Pasha, the Grand Vizier that if the Ottoman Empire observed strict neutrality, Britain, France and Russia would uphold its independence and integrity against any threat which might arise during ther war. Two days later, Sait Halim offered the three ambassadors the follow terms:
The Entente Powers must offer the Ottoman Empire written, individual guarantees of its independence and integrity to be valid for the duration of theb war and the subsequent peace settlement; they must renounce all rights of interference in the Empire's internal affairs; they must agree to the full annulment of the capitulations. In return the Empire would give a guarantee of neutrality in relation to the Entente Powers, and dismiss the German military mission in Constantinople.
After consulting with their respective governments, the three ambassadors agreed to these terms. They were formalised by the Treaty of Constantinople signed on 28 August.