War by Revolution. Germany and Great Britain in the Middle East in the Era of World War I

4 WARBYREVOLUTION

taint-astheTurksviewedit-ofsnatchinglandfromtheOttomans.
Berlin,insharpcontrasttoBritain,ruledonlya fewoverseaslands,
whichcontainedasmallnumberofMuslimsubjects-in1914,roughly
2,600,000,scatteredthroughEastandSouth-WestAfricaandthe
Kamerun."
Onlyduringhislastyearshadthe"ironchancellor,"OttoPrince
vonBismarck,involvedGermanyintheaffairsoftheMiddleEast.
ConcernedmainlywiththesecurityofthenewGermanEmpirein
centralEurope,hehadencouragedthediversiontoEurope'speriph-
ery-theMiddleEastandAfrica-oftheattentionofEurope'sother
GreatPowers,includingBritain."Butby theendoftheI880s,
Bismarck'sentryintotherace foroverseascoloniesledhimto side
withFranceagainstBritain,encouragingthelattertomakeconces-
sionstoGermanyinSouth-WestAfrica,theKamerun,andTogoland,
andinsuchislandsasZanzibar,NewGuinea,andSamoa."
Bismarck'spolicyalsoincludedpreservationofwhatremainedof
theOttomanEmpire,despiteitsseriousinternalproblemsandlosses
oflandtoBritain,France,andRussia.GermaninterestinTurkey
longpredatedtheBismarckianera;"nonethelessunderhisleader-
shipGermanysawtheTurkishstateas abulwarkagainstRussian
expansionintotheMiddleEastandBalkans.Consequently,Bismarck
consentedin1882 to Turkishrequestsforamilitarymissionto
Constantinopletoassistinreformingthesultan'sarmy.Thedispatch
oftheofficerssoonbeganasteadyGermanpenetrationpacifiqueof
theOttomanEmpire.Thisincludedshipmentsofarmamentsto
TurkeyandconcessionsforconstructionoftheAnatolianrailroad."
DespitehissupportfortheOttomanEmpire,Bismarckexertedhim-
selffornoneofthenon-Turkishpeoples,includingtheArabs,who
livedunderOttomanrule.Moreover,heremainedsilentaboutthe
severemistreatmentbytheSublimePorte(theTurkishgovernment,
sonamedforthegateofthesultan'spalace)oftheChristianpeoples
in itsprovincesoftheBalkansandeasternAnatolia.Germanofficials
were aslittleconcernedforsuchpeoples,ortheArabs, astheywere
fortheirownnationalminoritiesathorne."Nevertheless,theGer-
manleadersviewedthemandthatpartoftheworldashavingin-
creasingimportanceforGermany,asillustratedbythefoundingin
1887 inBerlinoftheSeminarforOrientalLanguages."