Was there anything that could have saved the Ottoman Empire from collapsing in the 20th Century?

Was there anything that could have saved the Ottoman Empire from collapsing in the 20th Century?

Not fighting 30 wars in 30 minutes would of been a good place to start.

God.

Not entering ww1 would have delayed it by a bit but overall not really, it was pretty much dead by the time it entered ww1 and destined to be picked apart by European powers like what was happening in 1890's (giving Cyprus and Yemen to Britain) and 1910's (losing Libya)

this, i dont get the obsession with the ottoman empire, is attaturk saving turkey from pic related not good enough for the turks? they got off lightly compared to austria

>they got off lightly compared to austria

They lost the bulk of their territory and population. Also 1/4 of their population died in the war, only just barely avoiding losing even more (and being genocided out of numerous territories) by crushing the Greeks in the following war. They were the most harshly treated of any of the Central Powers.

The empire, no. Turkey? Yes, but you'd be hard pressed to get a better result than what Ataturk originally did. Staying out of the war isn't an option either; the Germans threatened to terminate Ottoman-German cooperation if the Ottomans didn't enter the war, and without a strong ally in Europe there was absolutely nothing stopping the Ottomans from getting gobbled up by Russia when it became convenient.

Those were conquered territories that lacked major Turkish presence. The Ottomans never pursued assimilation policies and just allowed the locals to rule on their own whilst giving tribute. Ataturk saved the most important part of the empire, Anatolia which was the Turkish heartland.

I thought after the youn turk rev the Ottomans started pushing for turkification of the Arab speaking territories which galvanised alot of them against the Ottomans. I think they did a similar thing to the Albanians as well.

>Those were conquered territories that lacked major Turkish presence

So was basically the entire Austrian empire.

>Ataturk saved the most important part of the empire, Anatolia which was the Turkish heartland.

The empire's economic heartland was Rumelia (including Thrace).

>They were the most harshly treated of any of the Central Powers
1. No, Austria and Germany had it worse
2. You cant say they didnt deserve it

>1. No, Austria and Germany had it worse

Bullshit. Austria and Germany didn't have 1/4 of their populations die. Austria and Germany didn't have lands where they held the ethnic majority for hundreds of years earmarked for annexation and genocide. Austria and Germany didn't have the bulk of the war fought on their soil. Austria and Germany were not immediately subjected to a bloody war before the ink had dried on the treaty. Germany didn't lose 60% of its territory.

>So was basically the entire Austrian empire.
Which is good. Why run a state where dozens of ethnicities hate you?

>The empire's economic heartland was Rumelia (including Thrace).
I was talking about demographically which was more important for Ataturk since he could do Turkification more successfully.

>1/4 of their populations die
And they killed half of that themselves
>lands where they held the ethnic majority for hundreds of years earmarked for annexation and genocide
Germany got to experience that and where have turks ever been the majority outside of Turkey?
>Austria and Germany were not immediately subjected to a bloody war
Which Turkey started and which resulted in Turkey getting off alot easier
>Germany didn't lose 60% of its territory
Multicultural empires deserves to be ripped apart

>and being genocided out of numerous territories
it's almost like Turks didnu nuffin

>And they killed half of that themselves

Armenians yes, but 1/4 of ethnic Turks died in the war, and the Turks didn't kill those. They died primarily of disease and famine brought by wartime privations. Like most of the civilian deaths in Italy, Germany, Austria-Hungary, etc., except much worse because Turkey was so poor.

>Germany got to experience that

No they didn't, there was no attempted genocide of Germans after WW1.

>and where have turks ever been the majority outside of Turkey?

East Thrace and Istanbul. Also the parts of Anatolia that were going to be handed to the Greeks. All of these areas had been majority-Turkish for a while by that point.

>Which Turkey started and which resulted in Turkey getting off alot easier

Turkey "started" the war by objecting when Greece invaded them.

>Multicultural empires deserves to be ripped apart

Not an argument. Germany didn't get treated half as harshly as Turkey did.

>1/4 of ethnic Turks died in the war
Source? Accordind to wiki 15% died out of all ottoman citizens and i doubt they treated arabs better than turks

>East Thrace and Istanbul. Also the parts of Anatolia that were going to be handed to the Greeks
Excluding Istanbul, greeks were ca 50% there and they got genocided way worse than the turks in those areas
Also Turkey got to keep all of those areas

>Turkey "started" the war by objecting when Greece invaded them
and Greece invaded because the turks were not going to follow the peace treaties

>Not an argument
Yes it is
Germany was homogeneous and lost germanspeaking territories
Austria and Hungary lost territories with their respective majorities too
Turkey only lost territories with other ethnic majorities and even got to keep alot of territory which used to have christian majority or still had kurdish majority

They most lose the bulk of their territory.
But at the same time: Half the reason they even lost it in the first place, is that the Ottoman empire was bad at utilizing its land.

>That spacing
Go home

As much as we love Ataturk and his ideals there still is a thing to imperialism.
I don't know why but it seems so attractive.

Many Greeks cities like Thesalonika used to have Turkish majority

If it wasn't full of t*rks

Not fighting in World War I is the obvious answer. I don't know what the hell they were thinking considering they were bound for a multi-front war with Russia and Britain.

Reforming the Empire way before (look up Tanzimat Reforms).
Not entering WWI.

do what the british empire did. evolve in a colonial empire and then a commonwealth. those guys were smart.

>Many Turkish cities like Istanbul used to have Greek Majority
FTFY

underrated post

Holding off for another 15 years until they realize that they have control of most of the world's crude oil reserves under one central government.

Goodbye chronic insolvency

Probably not, overdue if anything. By all reason it would've died if Russia was uncontested during the Crimean War.

This. With that level of cash floating around they could have bribed the shit out of local leaders to stop them agitating, enacted widespread reforms and basically kept the state intact.

>Germany was homogeneous and lost germanspeaking territories

Ayy lmao.

Germany was only united some 50 years ago. Bavaria in particular did not like being under Prussian rule.

Germany got off by far the lightest out of the 3 major central powers. Territorial loss was minimal, consisting of primarily polish-speaking areas to the east, and the newly conquered Alsace-Lorraine.

There was a population exchange after the war, too.

No. Except for the ruling family and the three Pastas, almost no one wanted to keep it intact. The time for feudal amalgamations had long since passed and each ethnicity wanted it's own state. TYT thought Turks were superior to Arabs and no longer wanted to he held back by them.