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

MUSLIMUNRESTANDGERMANSUPPORT 39

EuphratesRivers, itsinterestsinMesopotamianoil,anditsdomina-
tionoverKuwait.w
As forGermany,itsleaderstoohadincentivesby19I2-1913tosettle
therailroadproblem,as well asotherissuesinTurkey,withBritain.
Therecentcrises overMoroccoandintheBalkanshadintensified
theperceptionin BerlinthatFrance,Britain,andRussiahad"en-
circled"Germany-eventhoughmuchofthe"encirclement"hadbeen
self-imposed-andthatatwo-frontwarwithRussiaandFrance
seemedevermorelikely.Anxietyalsoexistedinsomegovernment
circles-particularlythekaiserandthechancellor,Theobaldvon
BethmannHollweg-thatTurkeyhadbeensoweakenedby itsrecent
warsthatitmightnotsurvive.Othershowever,liketheGermanam-
bassadorinConstantinople,Wangenheim,andtheforeignsecretary,
AlfredvonKiderlen-Wachter,believedthatTurkeycouldcontinueto
exist, evenwithoutitsEuropeanterritory.
BethmannHollweg,whohopedtoachievearapprochementwith
Britain,therebydividingitfromits alliesandsecuringLondon'sneu-
tralityintheeventofacontinentalwar,soughttoturnapartitionof
TurkeytoGermany'sadvantagebyusingtheissueinnegotiations
withBritain.Inordernottoarouseanti-Britishprotestsfromthe
Germanpublicandpressuregroups,particularlythePan-German
League, Berlindelayedfor aslongaspossiblepublicationoftheAnglo-
OttomanrailwayconventionofAugust1913.91
Notonlythepan-GermansbutalsosomeGermanindustrialists,
governmentofficials,andpublicistsdemandedthattheirgovernment
transformTurkeyintoasatellite,whichGermanycouldexploiteco-
nomicallyinunlimitedfashion.Thesegroupsurgedcompletionof
theBaghdadrailroadtothePersianGulfBeginningin1913,Germany's
newforeignsecretary,GottliebvonJagow,togetherwithleadingin-
dustrialists,envisionedtheReichdividingtheMiddleEastandgain-
ingcontrolofitseconomy.Also,variousnationalistwritersand
Orientalists,suchasErnstjackh(whohadjoinedtheforeignminis-
try in1912)andPaulRohrbach,urgedthegovernmenttosettleGer-
mancolonistsinTurkey.This,theyargued,wouldstrengthenYoung
Turkruleoverthehostileandsupposedlydegeneratenon-Turkish
peoplesoftheOttomanEmpire."