The collapse of the Ottoman Empire was by no means a singular event. After six hundred years of ruling over the peoples of North Africa, the Balkans, and the Middle East, a series of wars, insurrections, and revolutions spanning the early twentieth century brought the sultanate to an end. This book encompasses a full accounting of the international political, economic, and social forces that prompted this climactic event in the making of the modern world. In surveying the many tragedies that transpired in the years between 1908 and 1922, this book particularly explores the causes that eventual ... More

The collapse of the Ottoman Empire was by no means a singular event. After six hundred years of ruling over the peoples of North Africa, the Balkans, and the Middle East, a series of wars, insurrections, and revolutions spanning the early twentieth century brought the sultanate to an end. This book encompasses a full accounting of the international political, economic, and social forces that prompted this climactic event in the making of the modern world. In surveying the many tragedies that transpired in the years between 1908 and 1922, this book particularly explores the causes that eventually led so many to view the legacy of the Ottomans with loathing and resentment. Fall of the Sultanate provides a retelling of this critical history as seen through the eyes of those who lived through the Ottoman collapse. Drawing upon a large gamut of sources in multiple languages, this book strikes a critical balance in presenting and interpreting the most impactful experiences that shaped the lives of the empire’s last generation. The story presented here takes into account the perspectives of the empire’s diverse population as well as the leaders who piloted the state to its end. In surveying the personal, communal, and national struggles that defined Italy’s invasion of Libya, the Balkan War, the Great War, and the Turkish War of Independence, Fall of the Sultanate presents readers with a fresh and comprehensive exposition of how and why Ottoman imperial rule ended in bloodshed and disillusionment.