ABSTRACT
The Great Powers remained generally committed to the principle of the preservation of the Ottoman Empire until the outbreak of the First World War, but in the closing years of the nineteenth century a series of factors conspired to undermine their commitment. German military and political influence in the Ottoman Empire generally marched hand in hand with economic investment. In 1913, following the defeat of the Ottoman army in the Balkan Wars, the Germans again responded to an Ottoman request for assistance, dispatching a military mission, led by General Otto Liman von Sanders. France, Russia and the Austrian Empire, generally supported the preservation of the Ottoman Empire. Austria-Hungary made strenuous efforts to persuade the Ottomans to join an alliance of Balkan powers, aimed at Serbia, but all to no avail. By the end of the nineteenth century France, unlike Italy, had already acquired substantial interests in the Ottoman Empire, particularly in Syria and the Lebanon.
