Introduction

The Ottoman Empire, which collapsed so rapidly in 1908-18, started out as a ghazi principality established by Osman Ghazi in the marches of northwestern Anatolia in the thirteenth century. The principal stages on the road leading to Ottoman collapse, in the period of the Balkan and First World Wars are not difficult to identify. In the Armistice of Mudros, which ended Ottoman participation in the First World War, the Ottoman's were obliged to agree to the demobilisation of the greater part of their armed forces. The leaders of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), which ruled the Ottoman Empire throughout the greater part of its final phase, have not on the whole had a good press. In the Treaty of Paris the contracting parties agreed to respect and guarantee the independence and integrity of the Ottoman Empire, but it rapidly transpired that such guarantees were worthless.