Osman Reborn; The Survival of Ottoman Democracy [An Ottoman TL set in the 1900s]

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boredviewer1234

About how religion would be affected, I've said missionary work is incredibly likely, and while I'm afraid I can't really draw a good map, Islamic majority places are kind of in a ''line'' from Africa to Asia, with the exceptions of Bangladesh, Albania and Indonesia which is also in a line with Malaysia.


I believe target's would be Ethiopia and the Congo given the Congo has roughly something like 10% of the population at the moment and the history with Egpyt and Sudan would make them attractive target's for preachers.

Asia I guess would be India, Burma and China with the koran belt already there in China.

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Hawabin

Hawabin

Sārthākā said:
but if the Ottomans managed to bring a military success, they would enforce status quo. Grey apparently told the British Admiralty to ready in case the Italians did not wish for status quo if the ottomans won militarily after Shar Al-Shatt otl.
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Know this is old stuff but could you point the source if it's no bother.
 

ZeSteel

As I was reading through I had a question, why are you referring to Istanbul as Constantinople? As far as I am aware Istanbul was the common name for the city by this point. I'm just curious, was it still called Constantinople at this point, or is it just your preferred naming convention?
 
Abd ar-Rahman II

Abd ar-Rahman II

ZeSteel said:
As I was reading through I had a question, why are you referring to Istanbul as Constantinople? As far as I am aware Istanbul was the common name for the city by this point. I'm just curious, was it still called Constantinople at this point, or is it just your preferred naming convention?
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As far as I know the name wasn’t changed until Mustafa Kemal and the Turkish Republic even if it existed before him .
Ottoman called it Konstantiniyye .
 
Chapter 38: The Calm of a Storm.
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    • Sarthak

    Sarthak

    Chapter 38: The Calm of a Storm.

    ***

    “The Italian Civil War and the Italian Revolution held its breath as General Ottovio Ragni, the commander of the Italian Red Army entered Neapolitan territory on the 16th of April, 1919 to conduct a whirlwind campaign which would end the Italian Civil War once and for all. He had around 60,000 men under him and he aimed to defeat whatever the anti-communists would throw at him and captured Naples which would basically ensure the fall of the mainland to the communists. Meanwhile, communist agents in Sicily and Sardinia were working to make sure that the islands fell under communist rule as well.

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    Ottovio Ragni    ​

    The Red Army moved south and was met by the 3rd Italian Army, under the command of General Emannuele Filiberto, the 2nd Duke of Aosta, who was renowned throughout Italy as the undefeated Duke, since he had led the Italian 3rd Army without a single defeat under his belt. The Duke hadn’t been willing to raise arms against the Socialists and Communists at first, however the dire situation of not having proper commanders for the provisional government, as well as empty promises from Sturzo about restoring the monarchy prompted the 2nd Duke of Aosta to join sides with the Italian Provisional Government.

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    2nd Duke of Aosta    ​

    The two armies met each other during the Battle of Fessani. The Battle of Fessani saw the Duke defeat the Italian Red Army in a whirlwind attack that took the Socialists by surprise and pushed them back, however the Red Army simply withdrew in good order north to Lazio where they met up with reinforcements in San Lorenzo, which endangered the Duke’s position with a flanking attack from the northeast. As a result, despite not having suffered a defeat, the Duke had to retreat from Fessani and he moved to the mountain pass of Cascano. The mountain pass there presented the 3rd army with a great defensive barrier against attacks from the north and flanking maneuvers and the Duke ordered his men to hunker down.

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    The Battle of Cascano    ​

    On April 29, the attack came as the Battle of Cascano began. However unfortunately for the Duke, the concentrated amount of troops in the mountain pass also allowed the enemy to concentrate their artillery fire at his troops and the Provisional troops were mowed down. The personal magnetism of the Duke undimmed he led several speeches and walked among the troops in the front, allowing the men to hold firm in their defensive lines. This melted away when the Duke was struck by fragments of a shell exploding near a trenchline that he was examining. The strike was fatal and the Duke died, in his attempt to raise morale. Their iconic commander dead, the Italian Third Army began to give way to the Red Army and finally on May 3, the Italian Red Army broke through Cascano, and the Italian Third Army virtually ceased to exist as they disintegrated into the countryside.

    On May 10, the Italian Red Army entered Naples after a brief firefight with the Provisional garrison troops that proved to be fruitless and raised the socialist republican banner in the ancient city taking Pompei and Salerno alongside the city and its urban parameters. Like Seratti had thought, the resistance against the Socialists and Communists started to crumble in the face of the Red Army’s breakthrough. The country was tired of 4 years of endless war and they wanted peace, at almost any cost. Tired Neapolitan troops began to desert from the Provisional government en masse and the infighting in the Provisional government, with moderate republicans, far right nationalists and monarchists all wasting time arguing with one another and dithering rather than taking active actions against the incoming Red Army. On May 27, the Red Army took Taranto after dealing a final crushing blow at the Battle of Massafra, which ended any and all resistance to socialist rule on the Italian mainland. All that now remained after this would be the islands of Sicily and Sardinia.

    Despite the distances involved, Sardinia was actually the easier of the two main Italian islands to retake. The island was devastated by the Allied Invasion two years prior and now they were embroiled in a war they didn’t want and didn’t support. The Provisional government had been cut off from Italian mainland agriculture which was sustaining the island’s population and didn’t have enough money to buy extra agricultural supplies from international benefactors. As a result, many Sardinians had been killed from starvation and many were turning to acts and deeds such as cannibalization to sustain themselves and prevent themselves from dying from hunger. Communist agents thus found it relatively easy to infiltrate Sardinian society and fill them with rage and anger against the Provisional government and had them rioting.

    On May 25, a massive amount of Sardinian peasants revolted in Sassari in favor of the Italian Socialists and declared the Provisional government illegitimate. The Italian Provisional Navy based in Cagliari defected over to the Socialists as they deemed continuing the war as a lost cause by all rights and signed over the surrender of the ships to Rome. Accompanied by the defected ships, the Socialists reintegrated Sardinia into the People’s Democratic Republic of Italy, despite a small scale anti-guerilla war going on in the island against communist rule.

    Sicily was the harder part, to end the war, as most of the provisional troops were concentrated there, and despite the shorter distance, the sheer volume of artillery and cannon that the provisional government had stored in Sicily gave the Socialists a pause. On May 29, 1919 the government in Rome gave the go to for 100,000 Red troops to invade Sicily through the straits of Messina which would not require a massive ship lift to do so, due to the very short distance between Sicily and Neapolitan territory in Calabria. Red Marines landed ashore to the islands of Vulcano, Lipari and Lafa on May 31 and took the islands without a fight as the prelude to the actual invasion. That night a massive bombardment of Messina from Calabria took place as the Reds started to move troops in order to invade Sicily.

    From Reggio Calabria as their base, the Reds launched an amphibious invasion made out of makeshift transport barges and around 8,000 Reds landed in the first wave. The Reds all coalesced into a defensive parameters in their landing grounds fending off attempts to defeat them until the second and third waves provided them with ample men to actually move against the provisional government. On June 12th, 20,000 Reds stormed Messina and took the city and the majority of the members of the provisional government stuck there prisoner. With the government falling in the hands of the Reds, all means of resistance started to effectively crumble in Sicily as well. On June 30, Sturzo signed the Instrument of Surrender therefore handing over power over the island of Sicily to the Reds, ending the Italian Civil War and Italian Revolution once and for all.

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    3rd Duke of Genoa    ​

    Before the Reds could arrive near Palermo, the Sicilian Fleet commanded by Prince Ferdinando of Savoy, the son of the 2nd Duke of Genoa, managed to take command of the fleet stationed there and purged the fleet of suspected communists and left sympathizers. He then organized a withdrawal of ships, taking around 40,000 refugees with him as his fleet sailed to French Tunisia where they would be given refuge. There, he would hand over the fleet he came with to the French. As the main branch of the House of Savoy had collectively been culled due to the revolution and the civil war, including his father, Prince Thomas, Prince Ferdinando, the 3rd Duke of Genoa, officially became the pretender in exile to the Italian throne which by this point was defunct.” The Italian Revolution © 1988.

    ***

    “On April 7, the American 4th Army advanced on the capital of the Philippines after years of fighting in the archipelago. The Philippine revolt against the American government was about to end after 3 years of brutal warfare between the ethnic Filipinos and the American government who sought to retain control over the island statelets in the Philippines. The American 4th Army was commanded by Brigadier General Frederick Abbot and he commanded 40,000 men spread all across the outskirts of Manila. He was ordered by President Hughes to take the city and end the Second American-Filipino War once and for all.

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    Brigadier General Frederick Abbot     ​

    Meanwhile the Filipino defenses were led by Emilio Aguinaldo and President Sergio Osmena who was trying to hurriedly make sure that a proper defense of the capital could be made. The Filipinos had around 50,000 troops with them, however they were far from well trained or well equipped like that of their American counterparts. Chinese and Japanese supervisors could only do so much when the islands were under constant American blockade, so much so that the lucrative Dutch-Filipino and Malaya-Filipino trade had been halted by the entire war as well.

    American regiments opened fire at Manila on the 10th of April, 1919 and began to break into the Filipino resistance and defensive parameters in and around of Rosario and Bacoor which allowed the American Regiments to enter Paranaque easily by the end of the day, however were stalled there by heavy Filipino resistance, combined with the aid given by Chinese and Japanese volunteers present in the area who fought alongside the Filipino troops. In the north, led by Brigadier General Irving Hale, led a massive bombardment and attack on the Filipino barrier and defensive parameter in the area of Santa Maria, and the overwhelming amount of American firepower forced the Filipino regiments in the north to fall back to the La Mesa watershed which provided the Filipinos with a strong defensive position to halt the American advance from the north. However the main American breakthrough came at the center. Led by Brigadier General Edward Anderson, the 26th and 17th American Cavalry Regiments broke through the Filipino defenses at the heights of Calawis and pushed into Rodriguez, where the speed of the cavalry did not give the Filipinos enough time to retreat and form a proper defense. Having completely flanked the defenses at La Mesa, the Filipino defenders there were slaughtered, and American troops from the center began to pour into Metropolitan Manila.

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    American troops in the outskirts off a destroyed Manilla    ​

    The next day with no other choice but to surrender, President Osmena signed the decree of surrender. Emilio Aguinaldo, prominent Filipino nationalist and wartime hero of the Philippine population, even committed suicide in anguish of having lost the war with Washington DC once again. Sergio Osmena was captured by American forces, and the entire provisional government of the Philippines was taken by the American government as hostage. President Hughes was then caught in a conundrum. What could he do about the Philippine government without angering the population of the Philippines? Well as the answer had it, anything he did would alienate one facet of Philippine society. On the other hand, Datu Piang continued to conduct a small scale guerilla war in Mindanao against American authority in the islands and the Sultans of Mindanao had also gone into hiding and had started to conduct a massive guerilla war against the American occupation on the island, which caused a massive amount of money going down the proverbial drain.

    President Hughes already had massive problems at home, having had to fight against the southern Democrats and reversing some of their more racial policies, which was important considering that the Black population made up a massive share of Republican votes, and the situation in the Philippines promised to make sure that the upcoming Presidential elections next year would be interesting to say the least. Hughes recognized this fact and decided that for the time being he would suspend Philippine autonomy until the House of Representatives and the Senate got their act together so that a proper solution could be made.

    Hughes himself preferred to allow Philippines to have gradual independence from the United States of America. Hardline imperialist factions within both the Democrats and Republicans however wanted to keep the Philippines bound to the American nation, whilst the small Socialist and Progressive faction in the government of the United States of America supported Philippine independence from the United States of America with some kind of guarantee against China and Japan and under the sphere of American interests.

    1623236278849.png

    Philippine Guerilas    ​

    On May 26th, the Emergency Philippine Act of 1919 went into effect and basically suspended any sort of Philippine autonomy for a time duration of five years until when a final decision on the Philippines could be made. The American government basically handed the Philippines over to military occupation for the American army to look after. Brigadier General Frederick Abbot became the new Military Governor of the Philippines and it was made his duty to quell the growing guerilla movement in Luzon and Mindanao. It was often the case that the American government had control of major cities and the transportation centers and links between these cities however had no control of the countryside, where Philippine guerillas ruled supreme. Soon enough warlords started to spring up all over the Philippines archipelago in the rural areas, where these warlords basically enforced their own doctrines and their own rules, bypassing American law. The American government now thus had to focus their attacks on unconventional warfare to make sure that the war ended. But for the most part peace had returned to the Philippine Archipelago and the American government was saddled with many thought to be an ‘Oriental Monetary Sinkhole’.

    The situation for America was thus a complicated conundrum. Should Philippine autonomy be restored? But that had led to the declaration of independence. Should Philippine autonomy be abolished entirely? But that would lead to massive spiritual and national resistance against the American occupation and lead to a massive loss of money. The debate would basically consume the rest of Hughes’s Presidency.” The American Filipino Conflicts. © 1989.

    ***

    “The Ottoman government of Ahmet Riza was once again caught up with affairs that were changing in and around of Arabia, as the situation in Arabia soon turned dim. The Rashidi Dynasty had lost the majority of its power within their own population. The Ottomans had invaded the country to install a prince to the throne who would be amenable to their demands, and the country was going through major social upheaval due to it, as many supported the Ottomans and many on the other hand did not support the ottomans. The Ottoman government was largely not paying attention to the Arabians due to the events in Yemen and the various assassinations and this allowed the Arabians to gain a window of opportunity. A particularly anti-Ottoman leader within the Rashidi Dynasty, Saud bin Saud Al-Rashid, began to intrigue against the main Rashidi line in place, and started to intrigue with the tribal groups in the country.

    1623236311652.png

    Saud bin Saud     ​

    However Saud bin Saud was a fool and an idiot, and was easily flattered into being overtly gullible. As a result, the early republicans of Arabia began to influence the man easily and on April 2, 1919 he began to become influenced by republican ideals. In particular, Abdullah Al-Saeed, a republican in the Arabian peninsula, based in and out of Hail found the Rashidi prince increasingly easy to influence and by the end of the month of April, 1919, the prince was increasingly become the puppet of Al-Saeed. Al-Saeed soon became involved in increasingly anti-established and pro-republican rallies and attacks against the puppet Rashidi government of the Ottoman empire based in Ha’il. The Ottoman government did not look into these matters, deeming them to be Rashidi internal affairs, and the Rashidi government was extremely cocky and proud of itself to really consider that these small scale riots and protests were any threat to them if at all.

    King Mut’ib of Rashidi Arabia was also not aware of the developments within his country and the government was wilfully ignorant of the ticking time bomb within their own borders. As anger against the Ottoman government, which basically controlled all facets of governance in the Kingdom of Rashidi Arabia grew, so did anger against the puppet government in Ha’il which bent to every Ottoman demand upon the country. The loyalty of the tribesmen were always fickle, and the charismatic posterity of Al-Saeed allowed the republicans to finally coalesce into the Republican Associations of Arabians with Al-Saeed at its center and Saud bin Saud at its center, with the movement starting to grow more and more on the grassroots level.

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    Abdullah Al-Saeed    ​

    Worrisomely for the Rashidi government, the first elections in the country were slated to start in May 18, 1919, with a limited democratic reform passing through the country intent on creating unicameral National Assembly of Rashidi Arabia, which would have jurisdiction over the national budget and tribal issues of the nation. It was to be King Mut’ib’s great democratic triumph in his own words. However, it would prove to be the king’s Achilles heel.

    The three partisan groups that were going to take part in the elections were the ‘Pro-Administration’ group led by Eqab bin Mohaya who was to become a so called ‘establishment party’ which was to become a political party that would basically be a ‘yes-party’ for the King. Against them were the Republicans, who coalesced under the banner of the ‘Anti-Administration Group’ and whilst on paper they weren’t republicans, as republicanism was punishable by death, most of the RAA were politically taking part in the elections under the banner of the Anti-Administration Group. Independents were the last group of political members that were allowed to run in the elections.

    The elections were bitter. The issue of the Ottoman empire exercising so much control over the government proved to become a divisive issue and the two debates held by the political groups that were broadcasted through radio (not that that mattered, very few in rashidi Arabia had access to radios other than the rich and the aristocrats) devolved into open argument with one another. There were 67 seats up for grabs in the Rashidi Arabian Assembly, of which the Anti-Administration Group won 35 seats, and the Pro-Administration won 31 seats whilst one independent managed to gain representation in the assembly as well.

    jabal shammar elections.png
    ​

    However despite the small razor thin majority that Al-Saeed had won, King Mut’ib still appointed Eaqb bin Mohaya as the first Chief Minister of the Rashidi Arabian Kingdom. To the Republican Association this was vindication to their belief that the kingdom wasn’t going anywhere and would remain stuck on the late 19th century as a country and state. As a result, on May 28, Al-Saeed and Saud bin Saud declared that the government in Ha’il had proven itself to be illegitimate due to their ignorance of the wishes of the people, and gathering the so called Republican Guard, (around 8,000 of them), the RAA revolted against the government of Rashidi Arabia, declaring the United Republic of Arabia with their interim provisional capital being located in Al-Dawadimi, which was quickly captured by 800 Republican militants. King Mut’ib reacted violently and then did the very thing that vindicated the Republican’s points even further. He asked the Ottoman government for aid.

    Grand Vizier Ahmet Riza was extremely angered by the developments in Rashidi Arabia and he deemed that the Rashidi government was quickly becoming impotent as a proper government. On June 27, 1919 a meeting was held in the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies, and the members of the Ottoman chamber began to debate with one another the pros and cons of intervention in the Kingdom of Rashidi Arabia. Virtually all of the tribes had sided with the Republicans, and central royal authority was only really centered around the Ha’il to Riyadh area and the Republicans had managed to muster a pretty large army for the small population pool of the Arabians. As a result, many in the Ottoman government weren’t eager for intervention. They had also argued that anger at overt Ottoman interference had also led to the civil conflict in Rashidi Arabia, and that going further would only allow more hatred against the Ottoman government to foster.

    The Ottoman government in the end declared that they would not intervene for the moment, as they adopted a wait and see approach. But nonetheless, around 80,000 troops were mobilized in the Najd Sanjak, Basra Vilayet and Hejaz Vilayet for the off chance that the government did try to intervene. On July 28, however most of the Royal Guard defected over to the side of the Republicans, and Rashidi Family was exiled into Oman, and the Republic of Arabia was formally proclaimed by the government, with Al-Saeed naming himself President, and forming a Presidential government under his leadership. At first, the Ottoman government wasn’t really sure what to do with this change in power, and the Ottomans didn’t demobilize their troops, thought they did send some diplomatic negotiators. Al-Saeed very much knew that despite his anti-Ottoman rhetoric if the Ottomans wanted they could come down crashing down hard on his country, and the Arabs had nowhere near the proper population for a proper guerilla war, and the entire terrain of the country was ill-suited for an irregular war. As a result, Al-Saeed opened dialogue with the Ottomans and while he abolished the title of the country being subservient to the Ottomans, he remained, nominally at least, allied with the Ottoman Empire.” The Arab Republic: 1919-1942, the Experiment in Futility ©

    ***

    Coming Next:-

    The Hughes Presidency
    The Iranian Question
    The Zionist Question
    The Question of British Devolution.
     
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    • SenatorChickpea

    Damn shame to see the Philippines crushed- a lot of civilians will have been massacred by the American troops. Tens of thousands more will die in the aftermath from the disruption of war.

    I don’t see how the Red Army can force a mountain pass against veteran troops and a veteran commander in a week, though. Did the Duke really not have a single machine gun or piece of artillery of his own? The lessons of our own Great War are that passes massively favour the defender, but here you have it as the reverse. And why was the Duke right by his troops, not in an HQ?

    I didn’t see the Rashidi thing coming. Interesting stuff.
     
    Sarthak

    Sarthak

    SenatorChickpea said:
    Damn shame to see the Philippines crushed- a lot of civilians will have been massacred by the American troops. Tens of thousands more will die in the aftermath from the disruption of war.
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    and the warlords too sadly
    SenatorChickpea said:
    I don’t see how the Red Army can force a mountain pass against veteran troops and a veteran commander in a week, though. Did the Duke really not have a single machine gun or piece of artillery of his own? The lessons of our own Great War are that passes massively favour the defender, but here you have it as the reverse. And why was the Duke right by his troops, not in an HQ?
    Click to expand...
    The Duke did have artillery, however they were not replaceable. Almost every artillery industry is in the north and every equipment loss he took he could not replace it. The Red strategy hinged on that fact because they were not only wearing down the troops, but were inflicting heavy equipment losses as well which were not capable of being replaced easily
    SenatorChickpea said:
    I didn’t see the Rashidi thing coming. Interesting stuff.
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    Well, Arabia is an important part of this timeline
     

    Aghstadian

    I believe this Arab Republic more or less an oligarchy right? After all it doesn't matter at all for the people outside the rich, aristorcrat, and powerful tribal chief.

    Well not a good recipe for stability down the line i think. If the Arabian government ever want to limit these powerful interest to develop their country it will be a hard fight (or even can incite a coup).
     
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