Five pillars Essay

The task is:
“Describe the decline of the Ottoman Empire (Sick Man of Europe) vs. the Great Powers interventions since the Greek Independence War (1820s-30), Crimean War (1854-56), 1877 Russo-Turkish War and 1878 Congress of Berlin, and Christian anti-Turkic secessionism in the Balkans (1920s-1913).”
Introduction
In South Eastern Europe’s history witnessed a long period of the Ottoman Empire influence, starting from the 14th century up until the 20th century. (De Bellaigue, 2001). Simply speaking, this empire was the largest political formation of the region at that time.
In the 16th century the Ottoman Empire became the dominant world power. In the end of the 17th century the European military force began to appear and later the protection of the rights of non-Muslim minorities in the Ottoman Empire was supported by European states.
The Ottoman Empire considered being a traditional autocracy, like some other Asian states. I should note that it wasn’t just a Turkish State, but it eventually was ethnically composite and consisted of a large number of different people, with various religions and languages. (De Bellaigue, 2001)
Why the Ottoman Empire is known as “sick man of Europe”? This term “sick man of Europe” was given it by Tsar Nicholas I of Russia in order to describe the awful state fo affairs for the Ottoman Empire in the beginning of the 20th century.
This phrase was caused by the number of factors that lead to decline of the such a huge political and military power of the South Eastern Europe as the Ottoman Empire (among these factors financial problems and the loss of the territory due to wars could be named).

The Greek Independence War
The Greek War of Independence took place between 1821 and 1830. It was arranged by active Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire with a help of some European states.
There were a several attempts of Greeks to fight for the independence from the Ottoman Empire, In 1814 a group Filiki Eteria was secretly established in 1814 with n aim to free Greece and later in 1821 they began that now is known as the Greek revolution.
Later Great Powers (Russia, the United Kingdom and France) made a decision to help Greece in its fight for freedom against Ottoman–Egyptian forces, which ended with Ottoman–Egyptian fleet destruction in the battle.
In the result of the Greek War of Independence, this country was recognized as an independent nation in May 1832.
The Crimean War
Troubles for The Ottoman Empire continued with the start of the Crimean War (1853 –1856). The participants of this war were Russian Empire, the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. (Edgerton, 1999)
The territories of the Crimea that were under Turks’ rule were occupied by the Russian Empire in 1853. But Britain and France were disturbed with this military expansion and participated in negotiations in order to achieve the withdrawal. Later the Ottoman Empire decided to announce the war on Russia.
Despite that the Crimean war resulted in a victory of the Great Powers alliance and the Ottoman Empire was in fact a winner, participants have spent a lot of money on this war and in 1858 the Sultan was pronounced a bankrupt. So the war has influenced negatively the financial affairs of the Ottoman Empire.
1877 Russo-Turkish War and 1878 Congress of Berlin
The conflict of the Ottoman Empire and Coalition of the Russian Empire and Balkan countries is known as 1877 Russo-Turkish War.
In the summer of 1878 European Great Powers meeting took place in Berlin and its main goal was to discuss the issues of Balkan countries reorganizing.
In the result of 1877 Russo-Turkish War and the congress in Berlin, Russia gained a control over some territories in the Caucasus, while Romania, Serbia and Montenegro officially announced their independence from the Ottoman Empire. Bulgaria was reorganized as the Principality of Bulgaria. Also, according to negotiations in Berlin, Bosnia and Herzegovina was taken by Austria, while Cyprus was taken by Britain.
In general, the results of Berlin congress were perceived as real achievement of peacemaking policies, but of course it wasn’t suitable for The Ottoman Empire at all.
On the opposite to the Balkans, the Ottoman Empire was substantially weakened due to these 1878 agreements and became more vulnerable to the influence of the further troubles.
Christian anti-Turkic secessionism in the Balkans (1912-13)
The stage of Great Powers contest – that’s how the Balkan countries were seen in the beginning of the twentieth century. Russian Empire and other countries had great interest in these countries.
Greece, Montenegro, Serbia and Bulgaria have formed the Balkan League and Turkey was asked for a province in Macedonia (it was conquered by Turkey in 1896). But later even without Tusks’ response, and with Montenegro’s initiative, the states have attacked the Ottoman Empire in 1912. (Glenny, 2000)
In 1913, a second Balkan War took place and unfortunately this war shown that the Ottoman Empire is no longer the most influential force in South Eastern Europe. For the Balkan countries these wars resulted in radicalizing of the national policies and people’s spirits.

The crisis of Ottoman Empire in the beginning of the 20th century
It is a disputable issue that actual decline of the Ottoman Empire started in the 16th century and the final crisis has happened in the early 20th century. Some of historians indicate that the beginning of its decline has started in 1683, when the empire has failed to conquer Vienna for the second time, and it started to lose territories in Europe, “or in the early 19th century, when the Ottoman Empire was economically and politically incorporated into a Western-dominated world-system.“ (Johnson, 2005)
The Eastern Mediterranean region was under Turks’ dominance for about five hundred years. Turks also controlled the main routes of the Central Europe, some Arab countries incl. Egypt and there was a time when even European countries such as Austria and Italy were seriously afraid of their dominance.
From the strategic point of view, the situation in the beginning of the 20th century was not specifically good for the Ottoman Empire, although it obtained control of Arabian Peninsula, including the territories of modern Saudi Arabia and Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan. “Sick man of Europe”, the Ottoman Empire, was clearly in decline in 1900-1920, in comparison to it’s great past and lost a lot of its territories.
Sherif Hussein was a recognized religious leader of the Arabs, being a descendent of Mohammad Hussein and his sons were actively engaged in the planning of an uprising against the Turkish authorities. During the war, the Turks had hoped to recapture territory from the Brits in North Africa.
The British, on the other hand, saw aiding Hussein and the Arabs as a way to divide the Turkish forces and protect the British forces in North Africa.
Thomas Edward Lawrence, known as Lawrence of Arabia, was the man who brought the two interests together. The Arabs, led by Hussein’s sons, rebelled against Turks in the Hejaz and succeeded in taking control of the area north to Damascus. Also, Hussein, with British support took the title of King of the Arabs and established a kingdom from the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf.
Meanwhile, the Allies (sometimes these forces are also called the Great Powers) were making secret arrangements for the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Russia was going to annex Constantinople and the Straits of the Dardanelles after the war.
In 1918 the secret agreement was signed by the British and French and it was later ratified by Russians. This agreement was going to divide the territory of the Ottoman Empire into spheres of influence: British were to control Mesopotamia and Palestine; French wanted Syria and parts of southern Anatolia; while Russians were going to get Armenia and Kurdistan. By a separate agreement Italians were to get several cities on the Aegean coast including Smyrna.
In 1917 Baghdad was captured by the British forces, after two and a half years of fighting. A year later, in October 1918, the Ottoman Empire’s capitulation to the Allied Powers was confirmed officially.
The Treaty of Sevres, the Allied peace treaty with Turkey, was signed in 1920. According to its terms, Smyrna was to be administered by the Greeks for a period of five years: however, the city would technically be under Turkish sovereignty. After the five years period, the city might be joined to Greece by an act of the Smyrna Parliament or by a plebiscite. Greece also gained the control over Eastern and Western Thrace. Constantinople and the Straits of the Dardanelles were left under the control of the Turks.
Yet, an international commission was to administer the waterways of the Straits. In Eastern Anatolia, the Armenians were granted independence and allowed to establish their own state. The Kurds received the permission to establish the autonomous government of Kurdistan.
The Kingdom of Hejaz in Arabia was started under the rule of Sherif Hussein who protected British interests in the area.
Syria became a mandate of France, and Mesopotamia and Palestine became mandates of Great Britain. Britain also got certain rights in Egypt, the Sudan and Cyprus.
Italy occupied the island of Rhodes and accepted Greek interests in the Aegean Islands and Western Anatolia, including Smyrna.
Summarizing, the Treaty of Sevres cut the 75% of the Ottoman Empire territory. The population of the remaining Turkish territory was about eight million people in central Anatolia.
Turkish Sultan signed the treaty and the Allies thought that they had concluded a peace with a defeated Turkey that could be enforced easily, primarily with Greek forces of occupation. They did not realize the new spirit of nationalism sweeping Anatolia.
In 1923 a new treaty was renegotiated between the Allies and the newly recognized Turkish Republic. Eastern Thrace was returned to Turkey. Italy retained Rhodes and Great Britain kept Cyprus. Turkey was not required to pay war reparations. An International commission was set up to operate the Straits whose shores were demilitarized. Turkey was given the right to close the Straits to an enemy in time of war. Neither the Armenians nor the Kurds were granted self-determination.
At an agreement reached between the Greeks and Turks, 1,400,000 Greeks were expelled from Anatolia and returned to Greece. Ten days after the Treaty of Lausanne was signed, the Allied forces evacuated Constantinople.