Interesting. Does the influx of Italian settlers into Tunisia mean that Tunisia will become more of a settler colony? Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you have an influx of French settlers as well in an earlier chapter? If so, that would make it much harder to decolonize Tunisia later on.
Osman Reborn; The Survival of Ottoman Democracy [An Ottoman TL set in the 1900s]
- Thread starter Sarthak
- Start date
It will definitely make decolonization slightly harder down the line.
Hello,
Italy seems likely to remain in flux for a decade or two, regardless of whoever is in power. Is the Mafia as seen in OTL existing already in ITL, because it is likely to be transformed by recent events.
As for Arabia, there are concerns about the rise of ITL analogs to these characters...
Gamal Abdel Nasser | Biography & Facts
Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egyptian army officer who served as prime minister (1954–56) and then president (1956–70) of Egypt.
www.britannica.com
A Lesson In Hate
How an Egyptian student came to study 1950s America and left determined to wage holy war
www.smithsonianmag.com
Well, the Republic definitely does not last. The question is, what replaces it?
My current guess is Ottoman annexation.
So, for Hughes presidency, I assume that it will focus on Southern USA, where you said Democrat's were reversing their reforms.
I forgot who had taken over Iran (was it a branch of Qajars or someone else). As to what can Iranian question refer to, I assume it's about the zones to influence between Britain, Russia and ottomans.
Zionist question? Trouble brewing in Sinai again?
So British devolution? Would that mean more autonomy for colonies?
republicans, not democrats
partially
nope. The final verdict regarding the zionist congress in the ottoman empire
no. With Irish home rule a thing ittl, the case for Scottish, welsh and English home rule are stronger ittl leading to some debates
the italian mafia will certainly be interesting in all of this
It is possible i guess.As for Arabia, there are concerns about the rise of ITL analogs to these characters...
Gamal Abdel Nasser | Biography & Facts
Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egyptian army officer who served as prime minister (1954–56) and then president (1956–70) of Egypt.A Lesson In Hate
How an Egyptian student came to study 1950s America and left determined to wage holy war
So I imagine the ottoman commanders have laid out some facts to the govt if they did invade an annex.
1st: no Rashidi Oasis town can withstand an Ottoman assault. Artillerly, bombings, or if the Ottomans felt truly malicious chemical weapons would force a surrender in days if not hours and once the main areas to receive food and especially water is in Ottoman hands the Arabs are going to have to either face the Turkish guns head on which is suicide or eke an even harsher existence out in the desert and most likely prey on each other weakening any chance of a coalition or far more likely breaking it forever.
2nd: the Rashidi are a pre-industrial and barely agricultural society. The majority of the population is nomadic meaning a major loss in men due to war, capture or disease would set this nation back decades. famine and disease would no doubt follow killing off probably more people than the actual war itself. Basically this land isn’t going to be productive and be very depopulated but hey that does mean it’ll probably be very quiet. But hey those few areas where you can grow something can be settled by new people something which can be used to soothe any ruffled feathers from the local tribes in the empire.
After all the concept of stripping a vassal of his lands and privileges for incompetence and disloyalty just means opportunities for others.
3rd: simply put numbers is in the Turks favor in otl Saudi Arabia had a population of 2.73 million but Saudi Arabia also had the much more populated coastline of the Hejaz, Yemen, and Basra Vilayets to beef up the numbers. Now though I can’t imagine the population even breaks a million and that’s me being generous cause I can’t find a population density map for 1919-1920 but modern ones place most of the population in the regions of Makkah, Jizan, Bahah having the most ppl. With the next most populated regioms being Asir, Al Madinah, Quassam, and Ridayh.
The Arabs only have Ridayh and Quassam in their hands and Ha’il along with the other regions in Rashidi Arabia have even less population. And it’s a mostly nomadic ppl spread out across a desert it can’t mobilize its population let alone arm it.
4th: God is on their side, Islam is an important factor in everyday Arab life and the Sultan is the caliph of Islam holding onto the holy cities, defender of the faith, etc… so fighting against him isn’t something pious Arabs would like to do and that can be swept aside with excuses of “not fighting the caliph but his corrupt advisors” shit like that. Which only lasts as long as they win… once they start losing this is a clear sign from god you goofed and to the less religious this is a sign to look for better options and god told me to betray these infidels is a good out. And while the Arabs may not be superstitious idiots but if the army comes in and trashes these fort towns/oasis’s that have stood since somebodies grandpa was a kid and bring low chieftains that have existed for decades and they claim god is on their side. The Arabs are far more likely to take that reason as fact.
5th: The British have no reason to get involved, the Ottomans serve their interest better as a counter balance to Russia or Austria and now that Italy’s communist… well an invasion force from Tunisia to Sicily is nice but from Albania to Otranto is useful too. So any Arab expedition will be a one on one between the Rashidi Arabs and the Ottomans.
1st: no Rashidi Oasis town can withstand an Ottoman assault. Artillerly, bombings, or if the Ottomans felt truly malicious chemical weapons would force a surrender in days if not hours and once the main areas to receive food and especially water is in Ottoman hands the Arabs are going to have to either face the Turkish guns head on which is suicide or eke an even harsher existence out in the desert and most likely prey on each other weakening any chance of a coalition or far more likely breaking it forever.
2nd: the Rashidi are a pre-industrial and barely agricultural society. The majority of the population is nomadic meaning a major loss in men due to war, capture or disease would set this nation back decades. famine and disease would no doubt follow killing off probably more people than the actual war itself. Basically this land isn’t going to be productive and be very depopulated but hey that does mean it’ll probably be very quiet. But hey those few areas where you can grow something can be settled by new people something which can be used to soothe any ruffled feathers from the local tribes in the empire.
After all the concept of stripping a vassal of his lands and privileges for incompetence and disloyalty just means opportunities for others.
3rd: simply put numbers is in the Turks favor in otl Saudi Arabia had a population of 2.73 million but Saudi Arabia also had the much more populated coastline of the Hejaz, Yemen, and Basra Vilayets to beef up the numbers. Now though I can’t imagine the population even breaks a million and that’s me being generous cause I can’t find a population density map for 1919-1920 but modern ones place most of the population in the regions of Makkah, Jizan, Bahah having the most ppl. With the next most populated regioms being Asir, Al Madinah, Quassam, and Ridayh.
The Arabs only have Ridayh and Quassam in their hands and Ha’il along with the other regions in Rashidi Arabia have even less population. And it’s a mostly nomadic ppl spread out across a desert it can’t mobilize its population let alone arm it.
4th: God is on their side, Islam is an important factor in everyday Arab life and the Sultan is the caliph of Islam holding onto the holy cities, defender of the faith, etc… so fighting against him isn’t something pious Arabs would like to do and that can be swept aside with excuses of “not fighting the caliph but his corrupt advisors” shit like that. Which only lasts as long as they win… once they start losing this is a clear sign from god you goofed and to the less religious this is a sign to look for better options and god told me to betray these infidels is a good out. And while the Arabs may not be superstitious idiots but if the army comes in and trashes these fort towns/oasis’s that have stood since somebodies grandpa was a kid and bring low chieftains that have existed for decades and they claim god is on their side. The Arabs are far more likely to take that reason as fact.
5th: The British have no reason to get involved, the Ottomans serve their interest better as a counter balance to Russia or Austria and now that Italy’s communist… well an invasion force from Tunisia to Sicily is nice but from Albania to Otranto is useful too. So any Arab expedition will be a one on one between the Rashidi Arabs and the Ottomans.
On the one hand I'm all for Arabic Democratization, on the other hand.... this won't probably end well will it? That state is just begging for instability, curiously enough isn't 1942 around the time of the 2nd Suez Crisis?
Well looks like the Philippines are going to be far closer to Indonesia in terms of independence than a a good divorce, I can't see the Philippines as being pro US in this timeline.
On the other hand the Arab democracy is interesting, it while obviously being a oligarch it's democratic nature in theory makes it one of the greatest threats to the Ottomans if it can promote Pan Arab ideology.
On the other hand the Arab democracy is interesting, it while obviously being a oligarch it's democratic nature in theory makes it one of the greatest threats to the Ottomans if it can promote Pan Arab ideology.
If I have to say, poor Phillipines, this would probably more likely to make Filipinos anti-American at that rate. It won't be Pro-US in this TL.
Arab democracy would be higher potential to make relations with the Ottomans more complicated at best and aggravating at best, should the Arab Republic pursued Pan-Arabism, especially in matters of Muslim world headed by the Caliph. Can't say it'll go down so well unless there's a good compromise, since ITTL Ottoman is more democratic and more reasonable, it'll be good idea for compromise between the empire and Arab Republic.
Arab democracy would be higher potential to make relations with the Ottomans more complicated at best and aggravating at best, should the Arab Republic pursued Pan-Arabism, especially in matters of Muslim world headed by the Caliph. Can't say it'll go down so well unless there's a good compromise, since ITTL Ottoman is more democratic and more reasonable, it'll be good idea for compromise between the empire and Arab Republic.
Chapter 39: Economic-Political Developments
Chapter 39: Economic-Political Developments
***
“The presidency of President Hughes was bound to be a hard one. He had inherited a depression, and a country whose segregation had grown threefold in the past presidency. As a result, many were even surprised by the competence that Hughes showed in his capability as president to tackle such problems in the country.
Around 87% of all Blacks in the country had voted in favor of Hughes during the 1916 US Presidential Elections, and Hughes wasn’t going to allow their contribution to his victory go unnoticed. From 1912, under the Wilson Presidency, the Federal Bureaucracy had been segregated to an astonishing degree, with the Navy, Treasury, Commerce and Postal Services of the country, which hadn’t been subject to various segregation laws, now being subjected to said laws. In particular, the Navy and Postal Service had never been segregated before, and the inclusion of segregated sailor bunks, canteens and officers in the Navy had the American Navy up in arms as the costs of segregation clogged up more of the Navy budget and the Postal Service complained about the extra costs of segregating their white and black employees throughout the country.
Despite rather heated debates in Congress with many southern Democrats fighting against Hughes’s pro-Black attitude with fierce resistance, the de-segregation of the Federal Bureaucracy began under Hughes. The Treasury and the Commercial Services of the bureaucracy were de-segregated and the various laws of segregations, such as separate applications, separate office quarters, separate training facilities etc were all abolished. The postal service restored the Blacks the right to be promoted to higher offices in the service, and the Navy had several segregating laws thrown out of the window too. The official quota on Black officers serving in the United States Navy was also abolished under the authority and supervision of Hughes. The severity of the segregation present in the army was also dampened by Hughes, and Black officers, discharged on rather idiotic grounds were re-called back into service. The rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan was also a huge problem for Hughes, which opened up a can of worms that exploded into what is today known as Red 1919 in the United States of America.
Red 1919
With the outbreak of the Great War and the 2nd American Filipino War, the northern industrial cities of the USA began to suffer from severe labor shortages, which were filled by African Americans by and large. By the starting of 1919, around 500,000 African Americans had migrated to the northern United States filling new positions in expanding industries such as the railroad industries and electric industries. These jobs were for the better part of the last century filled in almost exclusively by Whites, and many talented African Americans began to take up spots and jobs that were normally taken in by Whites. This increased resentment against blacks among many working class Whites, and immigrants, as well as many first generation Americans trying to earn a dollar to survive.
Rioters in Chicago
By April, 1919 this situation had been exacerbated to such a large amount that small riots began to erupt throughout the United States. The first violence started in Georgia, in Jenkins County, where several black owned property were destroyed and attacked by arson and deliberate ignorance by the local authorities. The riots from Georgia spread north into South Carolina, and a riot between hundreds of Blacks and Whites in Charleston left 6 Whites and 19 Blacks dead. Soon the entirety of the American south was aflame in a new round of racial tensions as riots broke out in Texas (Longview Massacre), Arizona (Bisbee Riots) and Indianapolis (Garfield Park Riot). Soon enough the riots broke through into Maryland and into Washington DC itself. Hughes managed to break the riots in Washington personally, ordering the police to disperse the crowd using peaceful measures, such as pushing the rioters away and the arresting instigators of the attackers. However in many pro-Segregation states the riots continued, with cognitive and willful ignorance from their pro-Segregation governors. On July 27, 1919 however came the greatest massacre of Red 1919 in the city of Chicago. Chicago’s beaches across the Michigan Lake were segregated by custom by 1919, and when a group of teen Blacks swam into the White side by mistake, longstanding tensions broke out violently and the four Black teens were drowned by some of the White nationalists present on the shore. The Chicago police refused to conduct a survey and investigation, and the blacks, seeing as the law wasn’t on their side, turned to violence as their answer. In particular, African Americans of Liberian origins and Whites of ethnic Irish origin attacked one another with brutal and ruthless ferocity. 48 people were killed in the Chicago Riots, including 27 Blacks and 21 Whites. It left ~650 people injured, of which around 100 would die of their wounds later on, and around ~1200 families, primarily blacks, were left homeless.
This situation was no longer tenable, and Hughes had to use federal authority and superseded the state governments and personally passed several legislations that would see several federal investigations into the matter. Several members of the Chicago police, who had refused to even think about investigating the deaths of the poor Black teens were stripped of their occupations, and the killers were thrown into jail. The federal government also began a massive investigation into the racial tensions of the country. State militias and national guards were then employed to disperse Race riots and instigators, regardless of race were ordered to be arrested. Violence continued sporadically into the late 1919s, however the actions of Hughes in late July and early August largely weathered the storm that was brewing in the United States.
In reaction to the riots and deaths of several blacks however, many Black members of American society were severely radicalized, and this would prove to become a foreshadowing to the Troubles of 1947 – 1965. Led by Cyril Valentine Briggs, several radicalized and maligned African Americans formed the African Liberation Brotherhood on the 28th of September, 1919 with the intent of carving out a separate African American country in the United States, as a measure against the racial tensions in the country. As separatism was quite frankly near-illegal in the United States, the ALB were forced underground, and led by poet Claude McKay, a prominent ally of the ALB, wrote pro-African American radical poems and articles in many underground press’s and papers disguised as simple pamphlets and stories. The ALB also took inspiration from the Italian Socialists and Communists who had embraced the Arab population present in Sicily and Sardinia with equal arms and fervor, and viewed socialism or at least leftism as their basis of a state. As a result, many members of the ALB quickly became associated with the American Socialist Party and American Communist Party in the United States of America.
Hughes’s quick action and his considerable work between 1916 and 1924 allowed the United States of America to stave off a miniature race war, however it was only successful for a time. Red 1919 allowed the southern democrats to gain power again within the Democratic Party, and would prove to be incapable of allowing reform in the south. As a result, many progressive democrats would defect to the Progressive Party, allowing the party to become the permanent third party in US politics that it is recognized as today.” Origins of the African American Troubles © 2003
***
“The passage of the Irish Home Rule Bill in 1913 and 1914 had allowed John Redmond to become the First Minister of Ireland, and Ireland was retained in the United Kingdom with significant autonomy. That had led to a damper in separatist ideas in Ireland, and the death of John Redmond, who called Ireland ‘The Emerald Jewel in the British Empire’ in June 1918 was attended by hundreds of thousands of Irishmen. His successor, William O’Brien who had reconciled with the party in 1916 succeeded him in his post as First Minister of Ireland after a contingent election in the Irish Commons before the Irish Elections of 1920. While 5 counties in Ulster had opted out of the Home Rule Bill, and remained out of the Home Rule area in Ireland, the question now arose, with the (near)-successful implementation of Home Rule in Ireland, the issue of Scottish Home Rule and Welsh Home Rule, which had been put on stop due to the Great War arose again in the British Parliament.
A British study determined that only 50.6% of all UK legislation in 1912 had anything to do with the entire country as a whole, and the rest were all pertaining to local affairs that would be better suited for local authorities. The Liberal party had supported the devolution proposals for Wales and Scotland, and to an extent, of England as well. However the new Conservative and Liberal Unionist government of Prime Minister Austen Chamberlain was ardent in their belief that Scotland, Wales and England weren’t going to get home rule. Chamberlain argued that it would fundamentally make the situation in Ulster extremely complicated if England, Wales and Scotland home rule. The people of England, Wales and the Lowlands of Scotland weren’t interested in Home Rule either, and committing themselves to a policy that had no popular support among the population was deemed too risky by the conservative government and against their entire ideology as a whole. Chamberlain also argued that with Ireland now enjoying autonomy and home rule, the clogging up of the UK Parliament was gone, and certainly this was true. A 1920 Governmental investigation found out that by 1920, around 71% of all legislation in the Parliament pertained to the whole country as a whole, and the rest pertained to England, Wales and Scotland.
Nonetheless, the idea of continued devolution in England, Wales and Scotland proved to be popular in the leftist segments of society and the Liberals in particular were supportive of further devolution, though McKenna, the leader of the Liberals personally opposed increased devolution. Labour had no definite proposal on Home Rule, and most in the party adopted a wait and see approach. The IPP supported extra devolution and federalism throughout the United Kingdom, however on a legal and popular basis. Devlin in particular believed that it would be foolish to think that implementing home rule in England, Wales and Scotland, when the people didn’t want it would be idiotic and extremely short-sighted.
Instead Chamberlain opted to compromise a bit, and increased autonomy was handed over to the English, Welsh and Scottish counties and shires so that they could take care of issues that did not need national oversight, many of which were still under the command of the central government during this time. As a result, room for more legislation was opened up for the Parliament as well.
Chamberlain in particular was opposed to federalism due to the fact that the Italian Communists has also implemented a proposal of federalism between the historical regions of Italy, with Piedmont, Lombardy, Venetia, Latium, Naples, Sicily and Sardinia receiving a significant federal amount of autonomy. He believed that it would embolden the leftist factions within the UK’s population which would have a negative effect on the political stability of the country. He already viewed Labour and their hidden socialists with narrowed eyes and he didn’t wish to give them more ammunition against the British government. Despite his opposition to extra federalism, Chamberlain was capable of compromise, and he got along with the Irish devolved government pretty well, and O’Brien was a good acquaintance of Chamberlain [1]. Over 250,000 to 300,000 Irishmen had served in the British Army during the Great War, amounting to nearly 5% to 6% of the total Irish population, purely based on volunteers, and this had increased feelings of slight solidarity in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Arthur Griffith
Of course separatism remained an extremely divisive role in Irish society during this time. The increased solidarity and with mainland Britain and the irish population being more or less placated by Home rule had forced even many nationalists to give towards a moderate proposal. In 1919, Sinn Fein leader, Arthur Griffith proposed that his earlier proposal of a Britannic-Irish Dual Monarchy on the basis of Austria-Hungary be the official policy of the party or forming Ireland into a formal Dominion within the framework of the British Empire. The latter option was taken up by the Sinn Fein during the 1919 Party Convention, mainly due to the fact that the former proposal was too ill-equipped for the Irish situation and no one in either Britain or Ireland were keen on that proposal.” Austen Chamberlain: The Engima © 2018
***
“The official declaration of Egyptian independence in October 1919 invoked a variety of emotions in the Ottoman populace. For the government, who had collaborated with the British is setting up the independent Kingdom of Egypt, they weren’t surprised and simply resigned to the fate of Egypt, as a part of the European humiliations of the Ottoman Empire within Egypt since 1796. However in the Ottoman population, there was widespread rioting. Islamic protests in Constantinople and Smyrna broke out in favor of the Sultan retaining his temporal authority in Egypt, and in Hejaz, the Hashemite Custodians of the Holy Mosques professed to have been distressed by the Egyptian breakage from the Sultan’s authority. The Ottoman Nationalist Party led by Enver Pasha tried to capitalize on this situation, however the Ottoman Liberal Union managed to outmaneuver the Ottoman Nationalists, and instead the Liberals managed to capitalized the independence of Egypt, showing themselves as the great party that would deliver the Ottomans out of the humiliations of giving up Cyprus and Egypt respectively.
Abbas II of Egypt, became Abbas I of Egypt, as its new King/Sultan, however despite the removal of the temporal authority of the Ottoman Sultan in Egypt, Abbas I still recognized the title of Caliph, and declared himself loyal to the Caliphate, as he had been since the beginning of his reign in Egypt. That was assuring the Ottoman government that they would still be closely linked with one another despite Egypt’s new independence.
In particular, the new Egyptian Prime Minister, Hussein Roshdy Pasha, knew that despite Egypt’s independence, the country was still de-facto a British puppet state and run by the British. The British naval fleet still based in Alexandria was proof of this fact. As a result, he wished to increase the participation of other countries in the economic development of Egypt, as a small counterweight against the British within Egypt. To this purpose, he demanded an Ottoman supervisor for the issue of the Sinai Peninsula, where the Zionists were based in and the construction of a railway line connecting Ottoman Libya and Ottoman Palestine. The former request of the Egyptians were declined by the British representatives in Egypt, however the latter request was accepted. The Ottoman Railway Commission and the British and Egyptian companies in North Africa became involved in constructing the Tobruk to Jerusalem railway, with the intention of providing a better transportation link for North African muslims to the holy city of Jerusalem. The main stations of this railway was located in Tobruk, Alexandria, Cairo, and finally Jerusalem. Several thousands of pounds was invested into this project by the Egyptians, Ottomans and British.
Perhaps the greatest issue of the Ottoman Empire during this time was however that of the Zionist Question. The Zionists had proven themselves to the Ottomans that they weren’t to be trusted at all, and the attempted declaration of independence had proven to even the pro-Zionist Ottoman jews that the Zionist Congress would not be able to take the mantle of ‘Representative of All Jews’ without being laughed out by the Ottoman government. On October 3, 1919 the Ottoman Government ordered that every representative agency of the Zionist Congress within the Ottoman Empire be dissolved within two weeks, lest they come under direct control from the Ottoman government’s Ministry of the Interior. It was a direct threat to the Zionists, and a direct consequence of the Sinai question as well. All known Jewish militias in the ottoman Empire were raided and destroyed, and the extremist branches of Jewish militias were arrested by the Ottoman police, and their leaders were thrown into jail.
Majority of the Ottoman Jews supported the actions of their government, with Liberal Union politician, David Ben Gurion calling it ‘an apt decision from the government’ and the several Sephardic Jews living in the Ottoman Empire since the expulsion of Jews from Spain in the 1400s, supported the move as well. The Baghdadi and Lebanite jews supported the move as well. In fact several Baghdadi Jews were found lynching pro-Zionist Jews in Baghdad in October, 1919 and the Ottoman police were forced to protect the Zionists of all people. Finally on October 16, 1919 the Ottoman government handed the official ambassador and representative of the Zionist Congress within the Ottoman Empire, a note asking all members of the Zionist Congress to remove themselves from Ottoman soil.
A group of baghdadi Jews.
In Salonika, the Ottoman Jewish Front Organization, declared the Zionist Congress to be misguided, and not representative of the Jewish population of the Ottoman Empire. With royal and governmental assent, the OJFO declared itself the representation of all Jewish peoples within the Ottoman Empire, and that all members OJFO with Zionist links would be evicted from the organization if they didn’t tender their resignation to the Zionist Congress by the end of 1919. This was the final death warrant to the Zionist Congress within the Ottoman Empire and proved to the government and the country that the Jews of the Ottoman Empire, by and large would be loyal to the country, as many higher members of the OJFO were first generation Ottomans, and Jewish immigrants from Spain, Italy, Russia and France.” Zionism in the Ottoman Empire: 1887-1919 © 1993
***
“After the passage of several economic reforms in 1917 and social reforms as well, Ahmet Riza went on a final infrastructural and economic campaign that is largely called ‘Riza’s Last Project’. The Ottoman Empire had a semi-vast railway system, however the interior and semi-rural areas of the Ottoman Empire were still rather disconnected with the rest of the Ottoman Empire. In order to make sure that the country could become better organized and better connected, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire presented the ‘New Railway Construction Act of 1919’ into the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies on the 7th of September, 1919. The plan was hefty. It called for the construction of nearly 1000 to 1300 kilometers of new rail in the Ottoman empire. However more significantly, it allocated the construction of these new railway lines all to indigenous companies in the Ottoman empire. Foreign investment in these projects were not present at all, so as to remove foreign, mainly Austrian, and British influence in Ottoman transportation networks.
Within the Ottoman Balkans, the proposed plan would extend several railway lines into the Salonika frontier lands and increase transportation in Macedonia and Albania, including several frontier railway lines leading into the Bulgarian-Ottoman border to increase the infrastructural development of the region. In Anatolia, the plan was mainly focused on connecting interior railway lines with one another passing through un-connected towns and villages. Mainly, this increased the railway coverage into Armenia and the Pontic Region. In Syria, a small plan was implemented of creating a parallel railway line into the deserted interior of the region, to make sure that the isolated tribes within the Ottoman Empire were better connected with the central government of the country. Like in Syria, in Mesopotamia, the railway lines proposed would include a parallel line into the interior deserts of the region to make better connection, and several new lines were proposed on the Ottoman-Persian border to make sure that the border regions were brought into line with the government.
In Hejaz a long railway line parallel to the coastal railway line was proposed as well, and finally in Libya, railway lines extending into the interior of the countryside and the desert was also proposed. After two months of hefty negotiations and debates in the Ottoman chamber of deputies, the Act was passed through the Chamber and several hundreds of thousands of pounds were allocated for the railway scheme. This Act would provide hundreds of thousands of people throughout the Ottoman Empire with much needed employment and would become the backbone of the Booming 20s Economic Boom in the Ottoman Empire.” Ottoman Railways © 2020
***
“The first Ottoman exploration to the Mesopotamian oilfields was acquired through the activities of Mr. William Knox D'Arcy, an Australasian who laid the foundations of British oil power in Persia. In I906 Mr. D'Arcy, "with the full support of His Majesty's Ambassador at Constantinople ", petitioned the Sultan for the rights which the Deutsche Bank had permitted to lapse. Negotiations continued throughout 1907 without result and were interrupted by the outbreak of the Young Turk Revolution the following year. In I909 control of the Mesopotamian oilfields was transferred from the Sultan's Civil List to the Ottoman Ministry of Finance, and the question of petroleum concessions became involved in the complicated negotiations of 1910-1912 regarding a loan to the new Ottoman Government, an increase in the customs duties of the Ottoman Empire, and a proposed internationalization of the Bagdad Railway.' Because of what the Ottomans considered the unfriendly policies of Sir Edward Grey during these negotiations no definitive action was taken on Mr. D'Arcy's application of I906, and in I9II his position was not much stronger than it had been before the Young Turk Revolution. In the meantime, however, Mr. D'Arcy had incorporated in I909 the Anglo- Persian Oil Company, to which he assigned all of his oil claims including whatever consideration he deserved in the Mesopotamian fields. The full importance of this step is appreciated only by reference to the fact that in the spring of 1914 the British Government purchased a controlling interest in the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. Between I908 and I9I2 the Royal Dutch-Shell combine appears to have joined the scramble for control of the oil re- sources of Mesopotamia. In some manner, through the good offices of Mr. C. S. Gulbenkian, an Ottoman subject of considerable influence and ability, sometimes called the Talleyrand of oil diplomacy, they secured a claim to consideration in the award of Turkish petroleum concessions. Thus, by I912 there were three groups jostling each other for favorable position in Mesopotamia. At this stage of the proceedings Sir Ernest Cassel, an English banker of German birth, conceived the idea of forming an Anglo-German syndicate under British control for the purpose of reconciling the divergent interests involved. Sir Ernest Cassel enjoyed the confidence of the Ottoman Government and the good-will of the Deutsche Bank, and he had the good fortune to be represented in Constantinople by Sir Henry Babington Smith, president of the National Bank of the Ottoman Empire and former British representative on the Ottoman Public Debt Administration. In I9I2 Sir Ernest Cassel formed an English joint-stock corporation, The Ottoman Petroleum Company, with a capital of 8o,ooo pounds, for the purpose of acquiring all claims to the Mesopotamian oilfields, as well as of prospecting for oil in other parts of the Ottoman Empire. At the outset all shares in the new company remained in the control of the National Bank of Ottoman Empire, presumably for subsequent allocation to the various interests concerned. Sir Ernest Cassel had the cooperation of the Deutsche Bank and appears to have won over the Royal Dutch-Shell interests and he had also won the support of D’Arcy and the Ottoman government. [2]
In November 12, 1919, Gulbenkian and D’Arcy’s groups were in Kirkuk trying to find better positions for oil in the Mesopotamian region when one Ottoman Arab worker in the area cried out ‘Black Water! It’s Black Water!’. Knowing the moment for what it was, the men ran out, and gushing out of the crater of a British oil drill were droplets of oil. It was a moment of great enthusiasm and success for the Ottoman Petroleum Company and for both the Ottomans and the British. The British had managed to make their investment into the possible oilfields in the Ottoman Empire worthwhile whilst the Ottomans had been handed a revenue source of epic proportions.
The Ottoman government, was quick to cash in some of the earlier British promises, and a renegotiation of shares was made with the British and the Ottomans. The Ottomans were not Persia, who could be bullied into submission and the Ottomans wanted to emphasize that. Ahmet Riza bluntly told the D’Arcy that it was 2/3 profits to Constantinople, the rest to Britain and that was the best deal that the Ottomans were willing to give the British government. For the British, it was a small humiliation to bare, as a third was still a considerable amount, and the Treaty of Alexandretta, signed on December 12, 1919 formalized the 2/3 agreement between the Ottoman Empire and the United Kingdom regarding the oil fields in Ottoman Mesopotamia. Regarding probable oil fields in Syria, Anatolia, and the Najd area, the Ottomans had full rights and had no interest in sharing with the British. Gulbenkian was soon transferred to the Najd area, where he would search for more oil in the region.” The Modern Fuel: Oil © 2017
***
Ottoman Census Report, December 1919
Total Population: 24,726,958
Ethnic Groups:-
Religious Affiliation:-
From: Ottoman Population Handbook, Ottoman Governmental Records © 2018 Volume.
***
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[1] – This is otl as well.
[2] – Most information from The Turkish Petroleum Company--A Study in Oleaginous Diplomacy by Edward Mead Earle.
***
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“The presidency of President Hughes was bound to be a hard one. He had inherited a depression, and a country whose segregation had grown threefold in the past presidency. As a result, many were even surprised by the competence that Hughes showed in his capability as president to tackle such problems in the country.
Around 87% of all Blacks in the country had voted in favor of Hughes during the 1916 US Presidential Elections, and Hughes wasn’t going to allow their contribution to his victory go unnoticed. From 1912, under the Wilson Presidency, the Federal Bureaucracy had been segregated to an astonishing degree, with the Navy, Treasury, Commerce and Postal Services of the country, which hadn’t been subject to various segregation laws, now being subjected to said laws. In particular, the Navy and Postal Service had never been segregated before, and the inclusion of segregated sailor bunks, canteens and officers in the Navy had the American Navy up in arms as the costs of segregation clogged up more of the Navy budget and the Postal Service complained about the extra costs of segregating their white and black employees throughout the country.
Despite rather heated debates in Congress with many southern Democrats fighting against Hughes’s pro-Black attitude with fierce resistance, the de-segregation of the Federal Bureaucracy began under Hughes. The Treasury and the Commercial Services of the bureaucracy were de-segregated and the various laws of segregations, such as separate applications, separate office quarters, separate training facilities etc were all abolished. The postal service restored the Blacks the right to be promoted to higher offices in the service, and the Navy had several segregating laws thrown out of the window too. The official quota on Black officers serving in the United States Navy was also abolished under the authority and supervision of Hughes. The severity of the segregation present in the army was also dampened by Hughes, and Black officers, discharged on rather idiotic grounds were re-called back into service. The rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan was also a huge problem for Hughes, which opened up a can of worms that exploded into what is today known as Red 1919 in the United States of America.
Red 1919
With the outbreak of the Great War and the 2nd American Filipino War, the northern industrial cities of the USA began to suffer from severe labor shortages, which were filled by African Americans by and large. By the starting of 1919, around 500,000 African Americans had migrated to the northern United States filling new positions in expanding industries such as the railroad industries and electric industries. These jobs were for the better part of the last century filled in almost exclusively by Whites, and many talented African Americans began to take up spots and jobs that were normally taken in by Whites. This increased resentment against blacks among many working class Whites, and immigrants, as well as many first generation Americans trying to earn a dollar to survive.
Rioters in Chicago
By April, 1919 this situation had been exacerbated to such a large amount that small riots began to erupt throughout the United States. The first violence started in Georgia, in Jenkins County, where several black owned property were destroyed and attacked by arson and deliberate ignorance by the local authorities. The riots from Georgia spread north into South Carolina, and a riot between hundreds of Blacks and Whites in Charleston left 6 Whites and 19 Blacks dead. Soon the entirety of the American south was aflame in a new round of racial tensions as riots broke out in Texas (Longview Massacre), Arizona (Bisbee Riots) and Indianapolis (Garfield Park Riot). Soon enough the riots broke through into Maryland and into Washington DC itself. Hughes managed to break the riots in Washington personally, ordering the police to disperse the crowd using peaceful measures, such as pushing the rioters away and the arresting instigators of the attackers. However in many pro-Segregation states the riots continued, with cognitive and willful ignorance from their pro-Segregation governors. On July 27, 1919 however came the greatest massacre of Red 1919 in the city of Chicago. Chicago’s beaches across the Michigan Lake were segregated by custom by 1919, and when a group of teen Blacks swam into the White side by mistake, longstanding tensions broke out violently and the four Black teens were drowned by some of the White nationalists present on the shore. The Chicago police refused to conduct a survey and investigation, and the blacks, seeing as the law wasn’t on their side, turned to violence as their answer. In particular, African Americans of Liberian origins and Whites of ethnic Irish origin attacked one another with brutal and ruthless ferocity. 48 people were killed in the Chicago Riots, including 27 Blacks and 21 Whites. It left ~650 people injured, of which around 100 would die of their wounds later on, and around ~1200 families, primarily blacks, were left homeless.
This situation was no longer tenable, and Hughes had to use federal authority and superseded the state governments and personally passed several legislations that would see several federal investigations into the matter. Several members of the Chicago police, who had refused to even think about investigating the deaths of the poor Black teens were stripped of their occupations, and the killers were thrown into jail. The federal government also began a massive investigation into the racial tensions of the country. State militias and national guards were then employed to disperse Race riots and instigators, regardless of race were ordered to be arrested. Violence continued sporadically into the late 1919s, however the actions of Hughes in late July and early August largely weathered the storm that was brewing in the United States.
In reaction to the riots and deaths of several blacks however, many Black members of American society were severely radicalized, and this would prove to become a foreshadowing to the Troubles of 1947 – 1965. Led by Cyril Valentine Briggs, several radicalized and maligned African Americans formed the African Liberation Brotherhood on the 28th of September, 1919 with the intent of carving out a separate African American country in the United States, as a measure against the racial tensions in the country. As separatism was quite frankly near-illegal in the United States, the ALB were forced underground, and led by poet Claude McKay, a prominent ally of the ALB, wrote pro-African American radical poems and articles in many underground press’s and papers disguised as simple pamphlets and stories. The ALB also took inspiration from the Italian Socialists and Communists who had embraced the Arab population present in Sicily and Sardinia with equal arms and fervor, and viewed socialism or at least leftism as their basis of a state. As a result, many members of the ALB quickly became associated with the American Socialist Party and American Communist Party in the United States of America.
Hughes’s quick action and his considerable work between 1916 and 1924 allowed the United States of America to stave off a miniature race war, however it was only successful for a time. Red 1919 allowed the southern democrats to gain power again within the Democratic Party, and would prove to be incapable of allowing reform in the south. As a result, many progressive democrats would defect to the Progressive Party, allowing the party to become the permanent third party in US politics that it is recognized as today.” Origins of the African American Troubles © 2003
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“The passage of the Irish Home Rule Bill in 1913 and 1914 had allowed John Redmond to become the First Minister of Ireland, and Ireland was retained in the United Kingdom with significant autonomy. That had led to a damper in separatist ideas in Ireland, and the death of John Redmond, who called Ireland ‘The Emerald Jewel in the British Empire’ in June 1918 was attended by hundreds of thousands of Irishmen. His successor, William O’Brien who had reconciled with the party in 1916 succeeded him in his post as First Minister of Ireland after a contingent election in the Irish Commons before the Irish Elections of 1920. While 5 counties in Ulster had opted out of the Home Rule Bill, and remained out of the Home Rule area in Ireland, the question now arose, with the (near)-successful implementation of Home Rule in Ireland, the issue of Scottish Home Rule and Welsh Home Rule, which had been put on stop due to the Great War arose again in the British Parliament.
A British study determined that only 50.6% of all UK legislation in 1912 had anything to do with the entire country as a whole, and the rest were all pertaining to local affairs that would be better suited for local authorities. The Liberal party had supported the devolution proposals for Wales and Scotland, and to an extent, of England as well. However the new Conservative and Liberal Unionist government of Prime Minister Austen Chamberlain was ardent in their belief that Scotland, Wales and England weren’t going to get home rule. Chamberlain argued that it would fundamentally make the situation in Ulster extremely complicated if England, Wales and Scotland home rule. The people of England, Wales and the Lowlands of Scotland weren’t interested in Home Rule either, and committing themselves to a policy that had no popular support among the population was deemed too risky by the conservative government and against their entire ideology as a whole. Chamberlain also argued that with Ireland now enjoying autonomy and home rule, the clogging up of the UK Parliament was gone, and certainly this was true. A 1920 Governmental investigation found out that by 1920, around 71% of all legislation in the Parliament pertained to the whole country as a whole, and the rest pertained to England, Wales and Scotland.
Nonetheless, the idea of continued devolution in England, Wales and Scotland proved to be popular in the leftist segments of society and the Liberals in particular were supportive of further devolution, though McKenna, the leader of the Liberals personally opposed increased devolution. Labour had no definite proposal on Home Rule, and most in the party adopted a wait and see approach. The IPP supported extra devolution and federalism throughout the United Kingdom, however on a legal and popular basis. Devlin in particular believed that it would be foolish to think that implementing home rule in England, Wales and Scotland, when the people didn’t want it would be idiotic and extremely short-sighted.
Instead Chamberlain opted to compromise a bit, and increased autonomy was handed over to the English, Welsh and Scottish counties and shires so that they could take care of issues that did not need national oversight, many of which were still under the command of the central government during this time. As a result, room for more legislation was opened up for the Parliament as well.
Chamberlain in particular was opposed to federalism due to the fact that the Italian Communists has also implemented a proposal of federalism between the historical regions of Italy, with Piedmont, Lombardy, Venetia, Latium, Naples, Sicily and Sardinia receiving a significant federal amount of autonomy. He believed that it would embolden the leftist factions within the UK’s population which would have a negative effect on the political stability of the country. He already viewed Labour and their hidden socialists with narrowed eyes and he didn’t wish to give them more ammunition against the British government. Despite his opposition to extra federalism, Chamberlain was capable of compromise, and he got along with the Irish devolved government pretty well, and O’Brien was a good acquaintance of Chamberlain [1]. Over 250,000 to 300,000 Irishmen had served in the British Army during the Great War, amounting to nearly 5% to 6% of the total Irish population, purely based on volunteers, and this had increased feelings of slight solidarity in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Arthur Griffith
Of course separatism remained an extremely divisive role in Irish society during this time. The increased solidarity and with mainland Britain and the irish population being more or less placated by Home rule had forced even many nationalists to give towards a moderate proposal. In 1919, Sinn Fein leader, Arthur Griffith proposed that his earlier proposal of a Britannic-Irish Dual Monarchy on the basis of Austria-Hungary be the official policy of the party or forming Ireland into a formal Dominion within the framework of the British Empire. The latter option was taken up by the Sinn Fein during the 1919 Party Convention, mainly due to the fact that the former proposal was too ill-equipped for the Irish situation and no one in either Britain or Ireland were keen on that proposal.” Austen Chamberlain: The Engima © 2018
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“The official declaration of Egyptian independence in October 1919 invoked a variety of emotions in the Ottoman populace. For the government, who had collaborated with the British is setting up the independent Kingdom of Egypt, they weren’t surprised and simply resigned to the fate of Egypt, as a part of the European humiliations of the Ottoman Empire within Egypt since 1796. However in the Ottoman population, there was widespread rioting. Islamic protests in Constantinople and Smyrna broke out in favor of the Sultan retaining his temporal authority in Egypt, and in Hejaz, the Hashemite Custodians of the Holy Mosques professed to have been distressed by the Egyptian breakage from the Sultan’s authority. The Ottoman Nationalist Party led by Enver Pasha tried to capitalize on this situation, however the Ottoman Liberal Union managed to outmaneuver the Ottoman Nationalists, and instead the Liberals managed to capitalized the independence of Egypt, showing themselves as the great party that would deliver the Ottomans out of the humiliations of giving up Cyprus and Egypt respectively.
Abbas II of Egypt, became Abbas I of Egypt, as its new King/Sultan, however despite the removal of the temporal authority of the Ottoman Sultan in Egypt, Abbas I still recognized the title of Caliph, and declared himself loyal to the Caliphate, as he had been since the beginning of his reign in Egypt. That was assuring the Ottoman government that they would still be closely linked with one another despite Egypt’s new independence.
In particular, the new Egyptian Prime Minister, Hussein Roshdy Pasha, knew that despite Egypt’s independence, the country was still de-facto a British puppet state and run by the British. The British naval fleet still based in Alexandria was proof of this fact. As a result, he wished to increase the participation of other countries in the economic development of Egypt, as a small counterweight against the British within Egypt. To this purpose, he demanded an Ottoman supervisor for the issue of the Sinai Peninsula, where the Zionists were based in and the construction of a railway line connecting Ottoman Libya and Ottoman Palestine. The former request of the Egyptians were declined by the British representatives in Egypt, however the latter request was accepted. The Ottoman Railway Commission and the British and Egyptian companies in North Africa became involved in constructing the Tobruk to Jerusalem railway, with the intention of providing a better transportation link for North African muslims to the holy city of Jerusalem. The main stations of this railway was located in Tobruk, Alexandria, Cairo, and finally Jerusalem. Several thousands of pounds was invested into this project by the Egyptians, Ottomans and British.
Perhaps the greatest issue of the Ottoman Empire during this time was however that of the Zionist Question. The Zionists had proven themselves to the Ottomans that they weren’t to be trusted at all, and the attempted declaration of independence had proven to even the pro-Zionist Ottoman jews that the Zionist Congress would not be able to take the mantle of ‘Representative of All Jews’ without being laughed out by the Ottoman government. On October 3, 1919 the Ottoman Government ordered that every representative agency of the Zionist Congress within the Ottoman Empire be dissolved within two weeks, lest they come under direct control from the Ottoman government’s Ministry of the Interior. It was a direct threat to the Zionists, and a direct consequence of the Sinai question as well. All known Jewish militias in the ottoman Empire were raided and destroyed, and the extremist branches of Jewish militias were arrested by the Ottoman police, and their leaders were thrown into jail.
Majority of the Ottoman Jews supported the actions of their government, with Liberal Union politician, David Ben Gurion calling it ‘an apt decision from the government’ and the several Sephardic Jews living in the Ottoman Empire since the expulsion of Jews from Spain in the 1400s, supported the move as well. The Baghdadi and Lebanite jews supported the move as well. In fact several Baghdadi Jews were found lynching pro-Zionist Jews in Baghdad in October, 1919 and the Ottoman police were forced to protect the Zionists of all people. Finally on October 16, 1919 the Ottoman government handed the official ambassador and representative of the Zionist Congress within the Ottoman Empire, a note asking all members of the Zionist Congress to remove themselves from Ottoman soil.
A group of baghdadi Jews.
In Salonika, the Ottoman Jewish Front Organization, declared the Zionist Congress to be misguided, and not representative of the Jewish population of the Ottoman Empire. With royal and governmental assent, the OJFO declared itself the representation of all Jewish peoples within the Ottoman Empire, and that all members OJFO with Zionist links would be evicted from the organization if they didn’t tender their resignation to the Zionist Congress by the end of 1919. This was the final death warrant to the Zionist Congress within the Ottoman Empire and proved to the government and the country that the Jews of the Ottoman Empire, by and large would be loyal to the country, as many higher members of the OJFO were first generation Ottomans, and Jewish immigrants from Spain, Italy, Russia and France.” Zionism in the Ottoman Empire: 1887-1919 © 1993
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“After the passage of several economic reforms in 1917 and social reforms as well, Ahmet Riza went on a final infrastructural and economic campaign that is largely called ‘Riza’s Last Project’. The Ottoman Empire had a semi-vast railway system, however the interior and semi-rural areas of the Ottoman Empire were still rather disconnected with the rest of the Ottoman Empire. In order to make sure that the country could become better organized and better connected, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire presented the ‘New Railway Construction Act of 1919’ into the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies on the 7th of September, 1919. The plan was hefty. It called for the construction of nearly 1000 to 1300 kilometers of new rail in the Ottoman empire. However more significantly, it allocated the construction of these new railway lines all to indigenous companies in the Ottoman empire. Foreign investment in these projects were not present at all, so as to remove foreign, mainly Austrian, and British influence in Ottoman transportation networks.
Within the Ottoman Balkans, the proposed plan would extend several railway lines into the Salonika frontier lands and increase transportation in Macedonia and Albania, including several frontier railway lines leading into the Bulgarian-Ottoman border to increase the infrastructural development of the region. In Anatolia, the plan was mainly focused on connecting interior railway lines with one another passing through un-connected towns and villages. Mainly, this increased the railway coverage into Armenia and the Pontic Region. In Syria, a small plan was implemented of creating a parallel railway line into the deserted interior of the region, to make sure that the isolated tribes within the Ottoman Empire were better connected with the central government of the country. Like in Syria, in Mesopotamia, the railway lines proposed would include a parallel line into the interior deserts of the region to make better connection, and several new lines were proposed on the Ottoman-Persian border to make sure that the border regions were brought into line with the government.
| Red lines depict already existing major railway lines whilst the orange lines depict railway lines being constructed according to the 1919 Railway Act Balkans Anatolia Mesopotamia Hejaz and Yemen Libya |
In Hejaz a long railway line parallel to the coastal railway line was proposed as well, and finally in Libya, railway lines extending into the interior of the countryside and the desert was also proposed. After two months of hefty negotiations and debates in the Ottoman chamber of deputies, the Act was passed through the Chamber and several hundreds of thousands of pounds were allocated for the railway scheme. This Act would provide hundreds of thousands of people throughout the Ottoman Empire with much needed employment and would become the backbone of the Booming 20s Economic Boom in the Ottoman Empire.” Ottoman Railways © 2020
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“The first Ottoman exploration to the Mesopotamian oilfields was acquired through the activities of Mr. William Knox D'Arcy, an Australasian who laid the foundations of British oil power in Persia. In I906 Mr. D'Arcy, "with the full support of His Majesty's Ambassador at Constantinople ", petitioned the Sultan for the rights which the Deutsche Bank had permitted to lapse. Negotiations continued throughout 1907 without result and were interrupted by the outbreak of the Young Turk Revolution the following year. In I909 control of the Mesopotamian oilfields was transferred from the Sultan's Civil List to the Ottoman Ministry of Finance, and the question of petroleum concessions became involved in the complicated negotiations of 1910-1912 regarding a loan to the new Ottoman Government, an increase in the customs duties of the Ottoman Empire, and a proposed internationalization of the Bagdad Railway.' Because of what the Ottomans considered the unfriendly policies of Sir Edward Grey during these negotiations no definitive action was taken on Mr. D'Arcy's application of I906, and in I9II his position was not much stronger than it had been before the Young Turk Revolution. In the meantime, however, Mr. D'Arcy had incorporated in I909 the Anglo- Persian Oil Company, to which he assigned all of his oil claims including whatever consideration he deserved in the Mesopotamian fields. The full importance of this step is appreciated only by reference to the fact that in the spring of 1914 the British Government purchased a controlling interest in the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. Between I908 and I9I2 the Royal Dutch-Shell combine appears to have joined the scramble for control of the oil re- sources of Mesopotamia. In some manner, through the good offices of Mr. C. S. Gulbenkian, an Ottoman subject of considerable influence and ability, sometimes called the Talleyrand of oil diplomacy, they secured a claim to consideration in the award of Turkish petroleum concessions. Thus, by I912 there were three groups jostling each other for favorable position in Mesopotamia. At this stage of the proceedings Sir Ernest Cassel, an English banker of German birth, conceived the idea of forming an Anglo-German syndicate under British control for the purpose of reconciling the divergent interests involved. Sir Ernest Cassel enjoyed the confidence of the Ottoman Government and the good-will of the Deutsche Bank, and he had the good fortune to be represented in Constantinople by Sir Henry Babington Smith, president of the National Bank of the Ottoman Empire and former British representative on the Ottoman Public Debt Administration. In I9I2 Sir Ernest Cassel formed an English joint-stock corporation, The Ottoman Petroleum Company, with a capital of 8o,ooo pounds, for the purpose of acquiring all claims to the Mesopotamian oilfields, as well as of prospecting for oil in other parts of the Ottoman Empire. At the outset all shares in the new company remained in the control of the National Bank of Ottoman Empire, presumably for subsequent allocation to the various interests concerned. Sir Ernest Cassel had the cooperation of the Deutsche Bank and appears to have won over the Royal Dutch-Shell interests and he had also won the support of D’Arcy and the Ottoman government. [2]
In November 12, 1919, Gulbenkian and D’Arcy’s groups were in Kirkuk trying to find better positions for oil in the Mesopotamian region when one Ottoman Arab worker in the area cried out ‘Black Water! It’s Black Water!’. Knowing the moment for what it was, the men ran out, and gushing out of the crater of a British oil drill were droplets of oil. It was a moment of great enthusiasm and success for the Ottoman Petroleum Company and for both the Ottomans and the British. The British had managed to make their investment into the possible oilfields in the Ottoman Empire worthwhile whilst the Ottomans had been handed a revenue source of epic proportions.
The Ottoman government, was quick to cash in some of the earlier British promises, and a renegotiation of shares was made with the British and the Ottomans. The Ottomans were not Persia, who could be bullied into submission and the Ottomans wanted to emphasize that. Ahmet Riza bluntly told the D’Arcy that it was 2/3 profits to Constantinople, the rest to Britain and that was the best deal that the Ottomans were willing to give the British government. For the British, it was a small humiliation to bare, as a third was still a considerable amount, and the Treaty of Alexandretta, signed on December 12, 1919 formalized the 2/3 agreement between the Ottoman Empire and the United Kingdom regarding the oil fields in Ottoman Mesopotamia. Regarding probable oil fields in Syria, Anatolia, and the Najd area, the Ottomans had full rights and had no interest in sharing with the British. Gulbenkian was soon transferred to the Najd area, where he would search for more oil in the region.” The Modern Fuel: Oil © 2017
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Ottoman Census Report, December 1919
Total Population: 24,726,958
Ethnic Groups:-
| Name of Ethnicity | Population | % |
| Turks | 9,427,366 | 38.12% |
| Arabs | 7,827,752 | 31.65% |
| Greeks | 3,360,469 | 13.59% |
| Armenians | 1,351,683 | 5.46% |
| Albanians | 1,011,017 | 4.08% |
| Slavs | 892,418 | 3.6% |
| Jews | 383,962 | 1.55% |
| Protestants | 68,471 | 0.27% |
| Caucasus People’s | 210,802 | 0.85% |
| Others | 193,018 | 0.78% |
Religious Affiliation:-
| Religion | Population | Percentile |
| Islam | 18,545,465 | 75.001% |
| Christianity | 5,797,531 | 23.44% |
| Jews | 383,962 | 1.55% |
From: Ottoman Population Handbook, Ottoman Governmental Records © 2018 Volume.
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[1] – This is otl as well.
[2] – Most information from The Turkish Petroleum Company--A Study in Oleaginous Diplomacy by Edward Mead Earle.
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