The Problematic Era

In the aftermath of World War I, the United States stood at a crossroads. On the one hand, the Wilson administration was paving the way for the United States to play an active role in the postwar reshaping of the Middle East and to undertake new responsibilities, most notably mandates, through participation in the League of Nations. On the other hand, there was strong domestic pressure to maintain the isolationist foreign policy tradition of the United States. Thus, the clash of these internationalist and isolationist trends determined the path that the United States would take at this crucial juncture. In the meantime, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire created a power vacuum in this region, which was filled in Anatolia by a nationalist movement against the occupying forces. This victorious nationalist struggle would in the end enable the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923. ¹ The volatile period starting with the truce at the end of World War I and lasting until the re-establishment of diplomatic ties in 1927, proved to be a quite complicated one in the history of Turkish-American relations.