Entry of Ottoman Empire Into WWI The Entry of the Ottoman Empire into World War I

As an empire under a single government, the Ottoman Empire had been on the decline since the Seventeenth Century. Composed of many different ethnic groups who spoke several languages other than Turkish, the Empire was divided into several different regional factions which did not mix well with each other. The single unifying factor in the Empire was Islam, but fully 25% of the Empire's population was not Islamic by the beginning of the Twentieth Century; this was one of the eventual reasons for the numerous rebellions in the empire, especially in the Ottoman-controlled Balkan territories.

Prior to 1908, the Ottoman Empire was ruled by the Sultan; although his rule was absolute and personal in form, in actuality rule throughout the Empire depended upon the local leaders who often ignored the Sultan. In addition, foreign countries, especially European countrie

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ts did not outstrip those of the other European powers. On the other hand, the Germans had also been training and equipping the Turkish Army since before the turn of the century and many high officials in the C.U.P., who had been trained by the Germans, tended to view Germany in a favorable light. Consequently, the Germans were asked to send a new, and larger, military mission to Istanbul in 1913. The new mission, headed by Major-General Otto Liman von Sanders, arrived in Istanbul in January of 1914. This development worried the Russians, who had developed a powerful rivalry with Germany; the Russians were convinced that the Germans intended to gain control of the straits into the Black Sea, allowing them to cut off much of Russia's economic lifeline in the event of war. In fact, the psychological effect of the new military mission on the Triple Entente alliance (Russia, France, and Britain) was greater than the actual benefit to the Turkish military. Although the new mission did substantially increase the political influence of Germany in Turkey, it did not convert Turkey into a reliable German ally, as was thought in most of the Entente countries. In the summer of 1914, the high command of the Turkish Navy was still being
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Approximate Word count = 2763
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

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