The Europe of Two Armed Camps, 1905—1914 877under the control of European administrators. The Ottoman governor of
Egypt was constrained to sell his shares of the Suez Canal to the British
government for a quarter of their real value, leading Egypt to bankruptcy.
Turkish Sultan Abdulhamid II (ruled 1876-1909) agreed to a constitu
tion upon his ascension to the throne in 1876, consolidating some of the
reforms of the past several decades. The constitution established parlia
mentary rule and guaranteed personal freedom and equality before the law.
The sultan hoped to discourage the powers from intervening in Ottoman
affairs on the pretext of forcing political reform. But in 1878 he suspended
the constitution and dissolved the parliament it had established. The secret
police rooted out potential opposition. During Abdtilhamid’s rule, foreign
trade increased, agriculture developed, railway lines and paved roads more
than doubled, and public schools increased in number. But his reign was
also marked by the brutal repression of non-Muslim peoples of the
Ottoman Empire. About 200,000 Armenians (who made up about 6 percent
of the empire’s population) were slaughtered in 1894-1895 in eastern Ana
tolia in response to Turkish fears of Armenian nationalism, encouraged by
Russia. Moreover, the empire continued to be beset by financial problems,
above all, high-interest debt owed to foreign bondholders. Influenced by
Western political ideas and reflecting the emergence of a generation of Turk
ish intellectuals, a group of nationalists in 1889 founded the Committee of
Union and Progress, finding
support in the bureaucracy
and army. In July 1908, these
“Young Turks,” as they were
called, revolted in the name
of “order and progress” and
forced the sultan to restore the
constitution of 1876. One of
their leaders was Mustafa
Kemal (later known as Atatiirk,
1881-1938). The Young Turks
wanted to unify and modern
ize the Ottoman lands, while
preventing Western interven
tion on behalf of the Armeni
ans. Abdulhamid II was
deposed in 1909 when he tried
to plot a counter-revolution,
and gradually a Western-like
bureaucracy was put in place.
The chaos within the
Ottoman Empire seemed to
promise the realization of the
Russian dream of opening the The Young Turks, 1908.