ea was a mess. Outnumbered by Christian European residents, the Turkish army in charge of keeping order in the region had its hands full, as rebellious factions began raiding each others' towns. This anarchy drove the Christians into neighboring Bulgaria and Serbia, who had left the Ottoman Empire during the previous century. Realizing the plight of their country, several officers in the Turkish army in Macedonia began plotting to overthrow the Sultan and establish a "new" Turkey, governed more effectively by a stronger central government based upon western European ideas of "democracy."
These "New Turks" of the Committee of Union and Progress (C.U.P.) were successful in forcing the Sultan to restore the constitution in 1908 and finally deposing him in 1909. Under the C.U.P., a feeling of nationalism awoke within the Turkish people, replacing the concept of Ottomanism. This nationalism insisted upon an essential "Turkishness" of all which remained in the Empire. It started with cultural and social values, but eventually included political values
...