Lnd.: Taylor & Francis, 2005. - 249 p.
The disappearance of the Ottoman Empire had been foretold since the
end of the eighteenth century. But, since it was not finally
abolished by the Turkish Grand National Assembly in the newly
established capital in Ankara until 1924, in fact it survived its
traditional enemies, the Russian and Habsburg Empires, and its
disastrous ally, the German Empire, by six or seven years.
Moreover, during the First World War, at Gallipoli and Kut, the
Ottoman Empire was able to inflict some impressive defeats on its
former ally, after 1914 its most ambitious and dangerous enemy, the
British Empire.
The mysterious combination of weakness and strength which
characterised the Ottoman Empire in its last decades is the subject
of The Great Powers and the End of the Ottoman Empire. It contains
seven chapters. The first, by Feroz Ahmad, author of the only
account in English of the Young Turks in power, deals with aspects
of the inteal policy of the Empire. In the other chapters F. R.
Bridge, R. J. B. Bosworth, Alan Bodger, Ulrich Trumpener, L. Bruce
Fulton and Marian Kent describe, respectively, the relations of the
Habsburg Monarchy, Italy, Russia, Germany, France and Great Britain
with the Ottoman Empire after 1900. Each chapter gives an excellent
account of the subject, based on archival as well as printed
sources, and there is an extensive and up-to-date bibliography. The
Great Powers and the End of the Ottoman Empire, is therefore,
indispensable for anyone interested in the history.