Turkey, The Great Powers, And The Bagdad Railway - free ebook by Edward Mead Earle

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Turkey, The Great Powers, And The Bagdad Railway

Edward Mead Earle

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Turkey, The Great Powers, and The Bagdad Railway

Turkey, The Great Powers, and The Bagdad Railway

A Study in Imperialism BY EDWARD MEAD EARLE, Ph.D. ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1924 All rights reserved PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Copyright, 1923, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published July, 1923. Reprinted July, 1924 Press of J. J. Little &amp; Ives Company New York, U. S. A. “When the history of the latter part of the nineteenth century will come to be written, one event will be singled out above

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PREFACE

PREFACE

The Chester concessions and the Anglo-American controversy regarding the Mesopotamian oilfields are but two conspicuous instances of the rapid development of American activity in the Near East. Turkey, already an important market for American goods, gives promise of becoming a valuable source of raw materials for American factories and a fertile field for the investment of American capital. Thus American religious interests in the Holy Land, American educational interests in Anatolia and Syria,

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MAPS

MAPS

TURKEY, THE GREAT POWERS, AND THE BAGDAD RAILWAY TURKEY, THE GREAT POWERS AND THE BAGDAD RAILWAY A Study in Imperialism...

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CHAPTER I AN ANCIENT TRADE ROUTE IS REVIVED

CHAPTER I AN ANCIENT TRADE ROUTE IS REVIVED

Many a glowing tale has been told of the great Commercial Revolution of the sixteenth century and of the consequent partial abandonment of the trans-Asiatic trade routes to India in favor of the newer routes by water around the Cape of Good Hope. It is sometimes overlooked, however, that a commercial revolution of the nineteenth century, occasioned by the adaptation of the steam engine to land and marine transportation, was of perhaps equal significance. Cheap carriage by the ocean greyhound ins

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Turkish Sovereignty is a Polite Formality

Turkish Sovereignty is a Polite Formality

The reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II (1876–1909) began with a disastrous foreign war; it terminated in the turmoil of revolution. And during the intervening three decades of his régime the Ottoman Empire was forced to wage a fight for its very existence—a fight against disintegration from within and against dismemberment from without. One of the principal problems of Abdul Hamid was the government of his vast empire in spite of domestic dissension and foreign interference. His subjects were a poly

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The Natural Wealth of Asiatic Turkey Offers Alluring Opportunities

The Natural Wealth of Asiatic Turkey Offers Alluring Opportunities

It was not because of a lack of natural resources that Turkey was a “backward nation.” The Sultan’s Asiatic dominions were rich in raw materials, in fuel, and in agricultural possibilities. Anatolia, for example, is a great storehouse of important metals. A fine quality of chrome ore is to be found in the region directly south of th e Sea of Marmora and in Cilicia, constituting sources of supply which were sufficient to assure Turkey first position among the chrome-producing nations until 1900,

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Forces Are at Work for Regeneration

Forces Are at Work for Regeneration

Probably there was no group of men more fully aware of the needs of Turkey than the members of the Ottoman Public Debt Administration. They were concerned, it is true, solely with obtaining prompt payment of interest and principal of Ottoman bonds and with improving Ottoman credit in European financial markets. But the accomplishment of this purpose, they realized, was altogether out of the question in the continued presence of political instability and economic stagnation. One must feed the goo

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BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

1 Count L. Ostrorog, The Turkish Problem (Paris, 1915, English translation, London, 1919), Chapter II; Leon Dominian, The Frontiers of Language and Nationality in Europe (London, 1917); V. Bérard, Le Sultan, l’Islam, et les puissances (Paris, 1907), pp. 15 et seq. ; E. Fazy, Les Turcs d’aujourd’hui (Paris, 1898); A. Vamberry, Das Türkenvolk (Leipzig, 1885); A. Geiger, Judaism and Islam (London, 1899). Regarding Arab nationalism, in particular, cf. N. Azoury, Le réveil de la nation arabe (Paris,

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The First Rails Are Laid

The First Rails Are Laid

During the summer of 1888 the Oriental Railways—from the Austrian frontier, across the Balkan Peninsula via Belgrade, Nish, Sofia, and Adrianople, to Constantinople—were opened to traffic. Connections with the railways of Austria-Hungary and other European countries placed the Ottoman capital in direct communication with Vienna, Paris, Berlin, and London ( via Calais). The arrival at the Golden Horn, August 12, 1888, of the first through express from Paris and Vienna was made the occasion of gre

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The Traders Follow the Investors

The Traders Follow the Investors

The construction of the Anatolian Railways by German capitalists was accompanied by a considerable expansion of German economic interests in the Near East. In 1889, for example, a group of Hamburg entrepreneurs established the Deutsche Levante Linie , which inaugurated a direct steamship service between Hamburg, Bremen, Antwerp, and Constantinople. It was the expectation of the owners of this line that the construction of the Anatolian railways would materially increase the volume of German trad

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The German Government Becomes Interested

The German Government Becomes Interested

In a sense, German diplomacy had paved the way for the Anatolian Railway concessions. For numerous reasons, which need not be discussed here, French and British influence at the Sublime Porte gradually declined during the decades of 1870–1890. British prestige, in particular, waned after the occupation of Egypt in 1882. The German ambassador at Constantinople during most of this period was Count Hatzfeld, an unusually shrewd diplomatist, who perceived the extraordinary opportunity which then exi

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German Economic Interests Make for Near Eastern Imperialism

German Economic Interests Make for Near Eastern Imperialism

Bismarck’s policy of aloofness in the Near East, however desirable it may have been from the political point of view, could not have appealed to those statesmen and soldiers and business men who believed that diplomatic policies should be determined in large part by the economic situation of the German Empire. The interest of William II in Turkey was enthusiastically supported by all those who sought to have German foreign affairs conducted with full recognition of the needs of industrialized Ge

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BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

1 The Annual Register , 1888, pp. 44, 310. 2 Good general statements of the transportation problem of Turkey during the two decades 1880–1900 are Verney and Dambmann, op. cit. , Part III; J. Courau, La locomotive en Turquie d’Asie (Brussels, 1895), pp. 18–47; Corps de droit ottoman , Volume IV, pp. 117 et seq. 3 Corps de droit ottoman , Volume IV, pp. 202–223, 237–242, etc. 4 Bulletin de la Chambre de Commerce française de Constantinople , August 31, 1888, p. 10; September 30, 1888, p. 31. Cf. ,

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The Germans Overcome Competition

The Germans Overcome Competition

During 1898 and 1899 the Ottoman Ministry of Public Works received many applications for permission to construct a railway to Bagdad. Whatever may have been thought later of the financial prospects of the Bagdad Railway there was no scarcity then of promoters who were willing and anxious to undertake its construction. It was not because of lack of competition that the Deutsche Bank finally was awarded the all-important concession. In 1898, for example, an Austro-Russian syndicate proposed the bu

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The Bagdad Railway Concession Is Granted

The Bagdad Railway Concession Is Granted

It was almost three years after the Sultan’s preliminary announcement of the Bagdad concession that the imperial decree was issued. During the interval the German technical commission was completing its survey of the line; details of the concession were being arranged between Zihni Pasha, Minister of Public Works, and Dr. Kurt Zander, General Manager of the Anatolian Railway Company; Dr. von Siemens was working out plans for the financing of the enterprise. Finally, on March 18, 1902, an imperia

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The Locomotive Is to Supplant the Camel

The Locomotive Is to Supplant the Camel

The Bagdad Railway was to revive the “central route” of medieval tra de—to traverse one of the world’s historic highways. It was to bring back to Anatolia, Syria, and Mesopotamia some of the prosperity and prestige which they had enjoyed before the explorations of the Portuguese and Spaniards had opened the new sea routes to the Indies. 33 The starting point of the new railway was to be Konia. This town of 44,000 inhabitants, situated high in the Anatolian plateau, was a landmark in the Near Eas

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The Sultan Loosens the Purse-Strings

The Sultan Loosens the Purse-Strings

There are special and peculiar problems connected wi th the construction of railways in the economically backward areas of the world. In well populated regions, such as western Europe, railways have been built to accommodate existing traffic; in sparsely populated regions, such as eastern Russia and western United States, they have been constructed chiefly to create new traffic. In the economically advanced countries of the world the railway has been the result of civilization; in the backward c

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Some Turkish Rights Are Safeguarded

Some Turkish Rights Are Safeguarded

As mortgagor the Sultan was certain to insist upon the recognition and protection of certain rights. To assure observance by the concessionaires of their obligations under the convention, supervision over construction, operation, and maintenance of the railway was vested in t he Ministry of Public Works, represented by two Imperial Railway Commissioners. As a guarantee of good faith the Company was obliged to deposit with a Constantinople bank a bond of £30,000, subject to release only upon the

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BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

1 On this point cf. M. Solovieff, La Terre Sainte et la société impériale de Palestine (Petrograd, 1892). The society there referred to was said to be liberally patronized by the Tsar and other members of the imperial family. 2 For details of the Kapnist plan see The Times (London), December 17, 1898; The Euphrates Valley Railway —a prospectus (London, 1899). 3 In a memorandum of June 10, 1899, to the Sultan, Dr. Kurt Zander, General Manager of the Anatolian Railway Company, said that, in accord

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The Financiers Get Their First Profits

The Financiers Get Their First Profits

The convention of March, 1903, marked the beginning, not the end, of the work of the promoters of the Bagdad Railway. Ahead of Dr. von Gwinner 1 and his associates lay all sorts of obstacles, some of which proved to be insurmountable. There were the financial difficulties and risks attendant upon the task of borrowing and expending the funds for the construction of the railway—estimated at about one hundred million dollars. There were the technical difficulties of constructing a line across obst

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The Bankers’ Interests Become More Extensive

The Bankers’ Interests Become More Extensive

The years 1904 to 1909 were lean years, judged by actual progress in the laying of rails from Bulgurlu to Bagdad and Basra. Nevertheless, they were years characterized, on the part of the investors interested in the consummation of the great enterprise, by every possible activity to prepare the way for eventual success on a grand scale. In the spring of 1906, for example, Dr. Karl Helfferich was appointed assistant general manager of the Anatolian Railways, and one year later was elected a manag

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Broader Business Interests Develop

Broader Business Interests Develop

Speaking to the Reichstag in March, 1908, Baron von Schoen, Foreign Secretary of the Empire, explained a few of the opportunities which the Bagdad Railway opened to German industry and commerce. “The advantages,” he said, “which accrue to Germany from this great enterprise, conceived on a grand scale, are obvious. In the first place, there arises the prospect of considerable participation of German industry in the furnishing of rails, rolling stock, and other railway materials. Furthermore, Germ

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Sea Communications are Established

Sea Communications are Established

Exports and imports, however, are not the only items which enter into the international balance sheet. As has been so amply demonstrated in the experience of the British Empire, ocean freights may constitute one of the chief items in the prosperity of a nation which lives upon commerce with other nations. It was not surprising, therefore, that upon the heels of German banks and German merchants in the Near East closely followed those other great promoters of German economic expansion, the steams

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BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

1 Dr. Arthur von Gwinner (1856- ) is one of the most distinguished of modern financiers. He was born, appropriately enough, at Frankfort-on-the-Main when that city was a center of international finance. His father, a lawyer, was an intimate friend of Schopenhauer and the latter’s executor and biographer. In 1885 young Gwinner married a daughter of Philip Speyer and thus became a member of one of the famous families of bankers in Europe and America. For a time he conducted a private banking busin

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Political Interests Come to the Fore

Political Interests Come to the Fore

It was asserted times without number that the Bagdad Railway was an independent financial enterprise, unconnected with the political aims of the German Government in Turkey and in no sense associated with an imperialist policy in the Near East. At the time the concession of 1903 was granted Dr. Rohrbach expressed the belief that political and diplomatic considerations were quite outside the plans and purposes of the promoters of the Railway. 1 Herr Bassermann, leader of the National Liberal Part

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Religious and Cultural Interests Reënforce Political and Economic Motives

Religious and Cultural Interests Reënforce Political and Economic Motives

Along with economic and political motives for imperialist ventures there frequently goes a religious motive. That such should be the case in the Near East was to be expected because of the religious appeal of the Ottoman Empire as the homeland of the Jews, the birthplace of Christianit y, the cradle of Mohammedanism. It was small wonder, then, that the Bagdad Railway, which promised to link Central European cities with the holy places of Syria and Palestine, should have been supported enthusiast

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Some Few Voices are Raised in Protest

Some Few Voices are Raised in Protest

Not all Germans were dazzled by the Oriental glamor of the Bagdad Railway plan. Herr Scheidemann, leader of the Social Democrats in the Reichstag, time and time again sounded warnings against the complications almost certain to result from the construction of the railway. Speaking before the Reichstag in March, 1911, for example, he said: “We are the last to misjudge the great value of this road to civilization. We know its economic significance: we know that it traverses a region which in antiq

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BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

1 Die Bagdadbahn , p. 46. 2 Stenographische Berichte, XII Legislaturperiode, 1 Session , Volume 231 (1908), pp. 4226a, 4253c. 3 Wile, op. cit. , pp. 39–40. 4 Riesser, op. cit. , p. 543; The Quarterly Review , Volume 235 (1921), p. 315. 5 Parliamentary Debates, House of Lords , Volume 121 (1903), p. 1348. 6 For an interesting discussion of this point see George von Siemens, “The National Importance of the Bourse,” in The Nation (London), October 6, 1900. Cf. , also, W. M. Shuster, The Strangling

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Russia Voices Her Displeasure

Russia Voices Her Displeasure

Russian objections to the Bagdad Railway were put forth as early as 1899, the year in which the Sultan announced his intention of awarding the concession to the Deutsche Bank . The press of Petrograd and Moscow roundly denounced the proposed railway as inimical to the vital economic interests of Russia. It was claimed that the new line would offer serious competition to the railways of the Caspian and Caucasus regions, that it would menace the success of the new Russian trans-Persian line, and t

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The French Government Hesitates

The French Government Hesitates

The position of France in the Bagdad Railway controversy was anomalous. In addition to political, economic, and religious reasons for opposing the construction of the trans-Mesopotamian railway, the French had many historical and sentimental interests which influenced the Government of the Republic to resist German penetration in the Near East. French patriots recalled with pride the rôle of France in the Crusades; they remembered that Palestine itself was once a Latin kingdom; they believed tha

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French Interests are Believed to be Menaced

French Interests are Believed to be Menaced

The commercial interests of southern France were opposed to participation in the Bagdad Railway by the French Government or by French capitalists. Business men were fearful, for example, lest “the new route to India” should divert traffic between England and the East from the existing route across Europe via Calais to Marseilles and thence by steamer to Suez, to a new express service from Calais to Constantinople via Osten d, Cologne, Munich, and Vienna. Thus the importance of the port of Marsei

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The Bagdad Railway Claims French Supporters

The Bagdad Railway Claims French Supporters

The Bagdad Railway was not without friends in France. The French chairman of the Ottoman Public Debt Administration was an enthusiastic supporter of the project and served on the Board of Directors of the Bagdad Railway Company, for he believed that widespread railway construction was essential to the establishment, upon a firm basis, of Turkish credit. The French-controlled Imperial Ottoman Bank, as early as 1899, had agreed to participate in the financing of the Bagdad line, and an officer of

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BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

1 Regarding Russian railways in the Near East cf. the article “Russia—Railways,” in the Encyclopedia Britannica , 11th edition, Volume 23, p. 891. The trans-Persian railway from Resht, a Persian port on the Caspian, to Teheran was completed in September, 1899. Cf. “Russia’s Tightening Grip on Persia,” in The Globe (London), August 24, 1899; also “Russian Railways in Asia,” The Financial News (London), August 14, 1899. The Bagdad Railway frequently was referred to in the French and Russian press

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Early British Opinions Are Favorable

Early British Opinions Are Favorable

The idea of a trans-Mesopotamian railway was not new to informed Englishmen. As early as 1831 a young British army officer, Francis R. Chesney, who had seen service in the Near East, became impressed with the desirability of constructing a railway from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. From 1835 to 1837—while Moltke was in Turkey studying military topography—Chesney was engaged in exploring the Euphrates Valley and upon his return to England brought glowing tales of the latent wealth of anc

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The British Government Yields to Pressure

The British Government Yields to Pressure

The Bagdad Railway came up for discussion in Parliament on April 7, 1903. Mr. Balfour then informed the House of Commons that negotiations were being carried on between British and German capitalists, and between British capitalists and the Foreign Office, for the purpose of determining the conditions upon which British financiers might participate in the enterprise. If a satisfactory agreement could be reached by the bankers, His Majesty’s Government would be asked to give its consent to a reas

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Vested Interests Come to the Fore

Vested Interests Come to the Fore

In addition to the pressure which was brought to bear on the Balfour Cabinet by the newspapers, there were important vested business interests which quietly, but effectively, made themselves heard at Downing Street during the critical days of the Bagdad negotiations of 1903. It already has been noted that in 1888, as part of the plans of the Public Debt Administration for the improvement of transportation facilities in Turkey, the British-owned Smyrna-Aidin Railway Company was granted permission

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Imperial Defence Becomes the Primary Concern

Imperial Defence Becomes the Primary Concern

British journalists and statesmen, as well as the ordinary British patriot, have been accustomed to judge international questions from but one point of view—the promotion and protection of the interests of that great and benevolent institution, “the noblest fabric yet reared by the genius of a conquering nation,” the British Empire. 21 Imperial considerations have been the determining factors in the formulation of diplomatic policies and of naval and military strategy. The possession of a far-fl

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British Resistance is Stiffened by the Entente

British Resistance is Stiffened by the Entente

One year after the failure of the Bagdad Railway negotiations of 1903, the age-old colonial rivalry of France and Great Britain was brought to a temporary close by the Entente Cordiale . It is not possible, with the information now at our disposal, to estimate with any degree of accuracy the influence which the Bagdad Railway exerted upon British imperialists in the final determination to reach an agreement with France. One may agree with an eminent French authority, however, that “neither in En

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BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

1 Sir William Andrew, Memoir on the Euphrates Valley Route (London, 1857), passim ; also The Euphrates Valley Route to India (London, 1882); F. R. Chesney, Narrative of the Euphrates Expedition (London, 1868); The Proposed Imperial Ottoman Railway , a prospectus issued by the promoters (London, 1857); F. von Koeppen, Moltke in Kleinasien (Hanover, 1883). 2 Cf. article “Suez Canal” in Encyclopedia Britannica , Volume 26, p. 23. How similar were these objections to those subsequently advanced in o

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A Golden Opportunity Presents Itself to the Entente Powers

A Golden Opportunity Presents Itself to the Entente Powers

The Young Turk revolutions of 1908 and 1909, which ended the reign of Abdul Hamid in the Ottoman Empire, offered France and Great Britain an unprecedented opportunity to assume moral and political leadership in the Near East. Many members of the Committee of Union and Progress, the revolutionary party, had been educated in western European universities—chiefly in Paris—and had come to be staunch admirers of French and English institutions. “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,” the slogan of Republica

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The Germans Achieve a Diplomatic Triumph

The Germans Achieve a Diplomatic Triumph

The Young Turk program, in its political aspects, was not only liberal, but nationalist. In the fresh enthusiasm of the early months of the revolution, emphasis was laid upon modernizing the political institutions of the empire—parliamentary government and ministerial responsibility and equality before the law were the concern of the reformers. As time went on, however, liberalism was eclipsed by nationalism and modernizing by Ottomanizing. By the autumn of 1909 Turkish nationalist activities we

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The German Railways Justify Their Existence

The German Railways Justify Their Existence

From the Turkish point of view, the best test of the wisdom of supporting the German railway concessions in Turkey was an examination of the results achieved in improving political and economic conditions in the Ottoman Empire. By 1914 the Anatolian Railways and part of the Bagdad Railway had been in existence a sufficient length of time to appraise their worth to Asia Minor, and the appraisal thus arrived at would be a fair prognostication of the value of the entire system when it should be ope

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The Young Turks Have Some Mental Reservations

The Young Turks Have Some Mental Reservations

Although the revolutionary party in Turkey had come to look with favor upon German influence in the Near East, and particularly to support the Bagdad Railway, there is little reason for accepting the too hastily drawn conclusion that the Young Turks had sold their country to the Kaiser or that they were under a definite obligation to subscribe to German diplomatic policies. They were too strongly nationalistic for that. They believed that the Ottoman Empire must eventually rid itself of foreign

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BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

1 For accounts of the Young Turk Revolutions see René Pinon, L’Europe et la jeune Turquie (Paris, 1911); V. Bérard, La révolution turque (Paris, 1909); C. R. Buxton, Turkey in Revolution (London, 1909); Ernst Jäckh, Der aufsteigende Halbmond (Berlin, 1911); A. H. Lybyer, “The Turkish Parliament,” in Proceedings of the American Political Science Association , Volume VII (1910), pp. 66 et seq. ; S. Panaretoff, Near Eastern Affairs and Conditions (New York, 1922), Chapter V; A. Kutschbach, Die türk

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The Kaiser and the Tsar Agree at Potsdam

The Kaiser and the Tsar Agree at Potsdam

During the early days of November, 1910, William II entertained at the Potsdam palace his fellow sovereign Nicholas II, Tsar of all the Russias. He extended his royal hospitality, also, to the recently chosen foreign ministers of Germany and Russia respectively—Herr von Kiderlen-Waechter, next to the ambassador at Constantinople the Kaiser’s most competent expert on the tortuous affairs of the Near East; and M. Sazonov, subsequently to guide Russian foreign policy during the critical days of Jul

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French Capitalists Share in the Spoils

French Capitalists Share in the Spoils

France, relieved of the necessity of supporting Russia’s strategic objections to the Bagdad Railway, was glad to compromise with Turkey—in return for compensatory concessions to French investors. The sharp rebuff given M. Pichon by the Young Turks in the loan negotiations of the spring and summer of 1910 had convinced French diplomatists and business men alike that a policy of bullying the new administration at Constantinople would be futile. 10 Continued obstruction of Ottoman economic rehabili

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The Young Turks Conciliate Great Britain

The Young Turks Conciliate Great Britain

The Bagdad negotiations of 1910–1911 between Sir Ernest Cassel and Dr. von Gwinner, on the one hand, and the British and Ottoman Governments, on the other, came to naught, it will be recalled, because of the refusal of Sir Edward Grey to consent to an increase in the Turkish customs duties. The Sublime Porte was unwilling to grant the economic concessions demanded by Great Britain as the price of her assistance in Ottoman financial stabilization. But the Young Turks were shrewd enough to keep th

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British Imperial Interests Are Further Safeguarded

British Imperial Interests Are Further Safeguarded

In the Speech from the Throne, February 10, 1914, King George V informed Parliament that the Near Eastern question was approaching a solution. “My relations with foreign Powers continue to be friendly,” he said. “I am happy to say that my negotiations, both with the German Government and the Ottoman Government as regards matters of importance to the commercial and industrial interests of this country in Mesopotamia are rapidly approaching a satisfactory issue.” Nothing was said to indicate the c

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Diplomatic Bargaining Fails to Preserve Peace

Diplomatic Bargaining Fails to Preserve Peace

It is one of the tragedies of pre-War diplomacy that the negotiations of 1910–1914 failed to preserve peace in the Near East or, at least, to prevent the entry of Turkey into the Great War. But the failure of the treaties between Germany and the Entente Powers regarding the Ottoman Empire can be traced, in general, to the same reasons that contributed to the collapse of all diplomacy in the crisis of 1914. Imperialism, nationalism, militarism—these were the causes of the Great War; these were th

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BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

1 Statement of Chancellor von Bethmann Hollweg to the Reichstag, December 10, 1910, in Stenographische Berichte, XII Legislaturperiode, 2 Session , Volume 262, pp. 3561b et seq. Cf. , also, The Annual Register , 1910, pp. 314–315, 335–336; Shuster, op. cit. , pp. 225 et seq. The informal agreement reached at Potsdam was confirmed by a treaty of August 19, 1911. The Annual Register , 1911, pp. 357–358. For the diplomatic correspondence arising out of the Potsdam Agreement cf. de Siebert, op. cit.

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Nationalism and Militarism Triumph at Constantinople

Nationalism and Militarism Triumph at Constantinople

The outbreak of the Great War precipitated a serious political crisis at Constantinople. Decisions of the utmost moment to the future of the Ottoman Empire had to be taken. Chief among these was the choice between neutrality and entry into the war in coöperation with the Central Powers. Pacifists and Entente sympathizers, of whom Djavid Bey was perhaps the foremost, counseled non-intervention in the struggle. Militarists and Germanophiles, headed by Enver Pasha, the distinguished Minister of War

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Asiatic Turkey Becomes One of the Stakes of the War

Asiatic Turkey Becomes One of the Stakes of the War

Whatever may have been the European origins of the Great War, there was no disposition on the part of the belligerents to overlook its imperial possibilities. A war which was fought for the protection of France against German aggression, for the defence of Belgian neutrality, for the recovery of Alsace-Lorraine, for the democratizing of a bureaucratic German Empire—this war was fought not only in Flanders and Picardy and the Vosges, but in Africa and Asia and the South Seas; not only in Poland a

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Germany Wins Temporary Domination of the Near East

Germany Wins Temporary Domination of the Near East

Allied military successes in Turkey were not looked upon with equanimity in Germany. There was a realization in Berlin, as well as London and Paris and Petrograd, that the stakes of the war were as much imperial as Continental. Nothing had as yet occurred which had lessened the importance of establishing an economically self-sufficient Middle European bloc of nations. In the event that the German oversea colonies could not be recovered, Asiatic Turkey—because of its favorable geographical positi

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“Berlin to Bagdad” Becomes But a Memory

“Berlin to Bagdad” Becomes But a Memory

Germany may have been determined to dominate the Ottoman Empire by military force. But from the Turkish point of view domination by Germany was hardly more objectionable than the dismemberment which was certain to be the result of an Allied victory. Indeed, confident that they would eventually win the war, the Entente Powers had proceeded far in their plans for the division of the Ottoman Empire. During the spring of 1915, as has been indicated, 23 Russia had been promised Constantinople, and It

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To the Victors Belong the Spoils

To the Victors Belong the Spoils

During 1919, the Allied Governments set about possessing themselves of the spoils which were theirs by virtue of the secret treaties and by right of conquest. In April, Italian troops occupied Adalia and rapidly extended their lines into the interior as far as Konia. In November, French armies replaced the British forces in Syria and Cilicia. Great Britain began the “pacification” of the tribesmen of Mesopotamia and Kurdistan. And in the meantime there was plentiful evidence that German rights i

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“The Ottoman Empire is Dead. Long Live Turkey!”

“The Ottoman Empire is Dead. Long Live Turkey!”

In the meantime, however, while the Sèvres Treaty was still in the making, there was a small handful of Turkish patriots who were determined at all costs to win that complete independence for which Turkey had entered the war. These Nationalists were outraged by the Greek occupation of Smyrna, in May, 1919, which they considered a forecast of the kind of peace to be dictated to Turkey. During the summer of 1919 they held two conferences at Erzerum and Sivas and agreed to reject any treaty which h

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BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

1 C. J. H. Hayes, A Brief History of the Great War (New York, 1920), pp. 71–72; “A Rival to the Bagdad Line,” in The Near East , May 25, 1917. 2 Supra , Chapter V. 3 Regarding the diplomatic situation at Constantinople during the critical months of July to November, 1914, cf. “Correspondence respecting events leading to the rupture of relations with Turkey,” Parliamentary Papers , No. Cd. 7628 (1914); C. Mehrmann, Der diplomatische Krieg in Vorderasien (Dresden, 1916); J. Aulneau, La Turquie et

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Germany is Eliminated and Russia Withdraws

Germany is Eliminated and Russia Withdraws

The Great War has completely destroyed German influence in the Near East. In the way of any resumption of German enterprise in Turkey are formidable obstacles which are not likely to be removed for some time. To begin with, the Turks themselves will not encourage German attempts to recover the Bagdad Railway or other property rights which were liquidated by the Treaty of Versailles. Among Turkish Nationalists there is satisfaction that Turkey has “shaken off the yoke of the ambitious leaders who

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France Steals a March and Is Accompanied by Italy

France Steals a March and Is Accompanied by Italy

Those who believed that the defeat of Germany and the withdrawal of Russia would solve all problems o f competitive imperialism in the Near East were destined to be disillusioned. For no sooner was the war over than France and Great Britain took to pursuing divergent policies regarding Turkey. The rivalry between these two powers—which had been terminated for a time by the Entente of 1904—was resumed in all its former intensity. The Entente, in fact, had been formed because of common fear of Ger

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British Interests Acquire a Claim to the Bagdad Railway

British Interests Acquire a Claim to the Bagdad Railway

The Angora Treaty met with a distinctly heated reception from the British Government. During November and December, 1921, Lord Curzon carried on a lengthy correspondence with the French Embassy at London, in which he made it perfectly plain that the British Government considered the Franklin-Bouillon treaty a breach of good faith on the part of France, in the light of which Great Britain must possess greater freedom of action than would otherwise be the case. 25 Lord Curzon called into question

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America Embarks upon an Uncharted Sea

America Embarks upon an Uncharted Sea

The Great War was accompanied by a definite growth of American prestige in the Near East. After the entry of Turkey into the war against the Allied Powers, American schools and missions were left practically a free hand in the Ottoman Empire; and inasmuch as the United States did not declare war against Turkey, American institutions were not disturbed even after 1917. Carrying on their work under the most trying circumstances, these educational and philanthropic enterprises established a still g

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BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

1 Mufty-Zade Zia Bey, “How the Turks Feel,” in Asia , Volume XXII (1922), p. 857. 2 “Declaration of the Rights of the Toiling and Exploited People,” Article III. Available in English translation in International Conciliation , No. 136 (New York, 1919). 3 Supra , Chapter VII. 4 The text of the Russo-Turkish Treaty of March 16, 1921, is given as an appendix to an article by A. Nazaroff, “Russia’s Treaty with Turkey,” in Current History , Volume XVII (1922), pp. 276–279. 5 Bowman, op. cit. , p. 398

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