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| Abdül Hamid II |
The repressive policies of Abdül Hamid
II fostered disaffection, especially among those educated in Europe
or in Westernized schools. Young officers and students who conspired
against the sultan's regime coalesced into small groups, largely
outside Istanbul. One young officer, Mustafa Kemal (later known
as Atatürk), organized a secret society among fellow officers
in Damascus and, later, in Thessaloniki (Salonika) in present-day
Greece. Atatürk's group merged with other nationalist reform
organizations in 1907 to form the Committee of Union and Progress
(CUP). Also known as the Young Turks, this group sought to restore
the 1876 constitution and unify the diverse elements of the empire
into a homogeneous nation through greater government centralization
under a parliamentary regime.
In July 1908, army units in Macedonia revolted
and demanded a return to constitutional government. Appearing to
yield, Abdül Hamid II approved parliamentary elections in November
in which the CUP won all but one of the Turkish seats under a system
that allowed proportional representation of all millets . The Young
Turk government was weakened by splits between nationalist and liberal
reformers, however, and was threatened by traditionalist Muslims
and by demands from non-Turkish communities for greater autonomy.
Abdül Hamid II was forced to abdicate and was succeeded by
his brother, Mehmet V, in 1909. Foreign powers took advantage of
the political instability in Istanbul to seize portions of the empire.
Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina immediately after the 1908
revolution, and Bulgaria proclaimed its complete independence. Italy
declared war in 1911 and seized Libya. Having earlier formed a secret
alliance, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, and Bulgaria invaded Ottoman-held
Macedonia and Thrace in October 1912. Ottoman forces were defeated,
and the empire lost all of its European holdings except part of
eastern Thrace.
The disasters befalling the empire led to internal
political change. The liberal government in power since July 1912
was overthrown in January 1913 in a coup engineered by Enver Pasha,
and the most authoritarian elements of the Young Turk movement gained
full control. A second Balkan war broke out in June 1913, when the
Balkan allies began fighting among themselves over the division
of the spoils from the first war. Taking advantage of the situation,
Ottoman forces turned on Bulgaria, regaining Edirne and establishing
the western boundary of the empire at the Maritsa River.
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