European Great Powers the Fall

European Great Powers

The fall of the Ottoman Empire did not come all at once. Nor did it come from entirely inside the Empire itself. Rather, the geographical, military, and religious policies of great European powers did help influence the end of an Empire that had ruled over much of the Muslim world since the sixteenth century.

The Empire had covered much of the Middle East for centuries. Most of its inhabitants were Muslim, and although they were under the foreign rule of the Turks, for centuries they had enjoyed the fact that it was still a Muslim rule, rather than another religious affiliation; "For settled peoples, what mattered was that a Muslim government rule over them," (Goldschmidt & Davidson 2009 p 194). Thus, Islam kept the Empire in a state of relative peace. The Ottoman Empire ruled over most of the Arab world for centuries, dating back from the sixteenth century until it fell in the twentieth century. Yet, the growing influence of outside European powers began to slowly eat away at Ottoman control.

Many of the great European powers encroached on the territories of the Ottoman Empire. During the beginning decades of the nineteenth century, Russia was dead set on driving its troops towards the sea, and thus began a campaign against parts of the Ottoman Empire that stood in its way. This initiated a more modern tension seen between the powers of Europe and Muslim controlled regions of the Empire. This tension only grew until it completely blew up in the beginning decades of the twentieth century. Great Britain ruled over Egypt and India at the time, thus geographically surrounding the Ottoman Empire on both sides. In fact, Britain stationed over 100,000 troops in Egypt during World War 1 to protect its interests in Egypt and pressure the Ottoman Empire with its sheer military might. With the growing hostility between the two super powers in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth, this set up a position for European powers, like Great Britain, to start siphoning off the Empire from the rest of the world. After the defeat of Germany and its allies, the European powers divided up the Middle East to suit their own interests, which truly signified the end of the Ottoman Empire as it had once stood. The European great powers, including Great Britain and France, then began to take a center role in the aftermath of World War 1. Once the Ottomans had been displaced from power, these European nations held a powerful influence in how the former Empire was to be divided between the various groups. The divisions created by this influence often continue to plague the area with conflict even today, as seen in the case of the constant fighting between Palestinians and Israelis.

European military policies also inflicted great damage on the waning Ottoman Empire in the twentieth century. The Ottoman Empire entered into the chaos of World War I on the German side. This directly pitted it against the majority of the other European powers, who were united in their fight against Germany and its allies including Austria. In fact, the Ottoman sultan "proclaimed a military jihad against Great Britain, France, and Russia," (Goldschmidt & Davidson 2009 p 200). After years of failure in the war, trouble began brewing internally within the Empire itself. What resulted were massive waves of revolts from Muslim citizens of the Empire. As Arabs around the Ottoman Empire began to rebel against Ottoman control, they were often helped by the European great powers, including Britain and its connections to Egypt. Many European nations gained the support of these rebel groups through promising independence once the Ottomans were overthrown. European support for these smaller revolutions within the Empire helped it collapse within itself.