Point of No Return? Prospects of Empire After the Ottoman Defeat in the Balkan Wars (1912–13)

Bibliographic Data

ID8969328
AuthorsRamazan Hakkı Öztan (0000-0002-6777-4938, University of Neuchâtel, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume50
Issue1
Pages65-84
Publication date2018-01-31
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal Middle East Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-7438 • E-ISSN: 1471-6380
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0020743817000940
OpenAlexW2789997711
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited41

In late 1912, the Ottoman imperial armies suffered a series of quick defeats at the hands of the Balkan League, comprising Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Montenegro, resulting in significant territorial losses. The Ottoman defeat in the Balkan Wars (1912–13) often stands at the center of teleological accounts of a neat and linear transition from Ottoman Empire to Turkish Republic. These teleological readings see the Ottoman defeat as a historical turning point when Ottoman elites turned nationalist, discovered Anatolia, and embraced the Turkish core. This article contends that such approaches frame late Ottoman history in anticipation of the later reality of nation-states, and overlook the messy and historically complex nature of the collapse of empire and the emergence of the nation-state. Although the defeat was certainly shocking for the Ottoman ruling elite, I argue that it initiated an era of debate rather than one of broad consensus. Similarly, the defeat neither marked the end of the Ottoman Empire nor heralded the coming of the Turkish Republic, but rather reinvigorated the Ottoman imperialist project

Ancient history · Economic history · Elite · Empire · Montenegro · Nationalism · Ottoman empire · Political science · Politics · State (computer science · Turkish · Balkans: History, Politics, Society · History · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Turkey's Politics and Society

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