Once thought as the most powerful nation in the world, the Ottoman Empire by the end of the 19th century was a shadow of its former self. Lagging behind in industrialization compared to the other European powers, its literacy declining, and political unrest on the rise, losing territory after territory. While victorious in the Crimean War, it came as a pyrrhic victory and showed the Ottomans were dependent on the British and French to preserve themselves. This defeat did not even slow their decline, seeing the loss of Greek territory, the suzerainty over Romania, Bulgaria, and finally, Albania and the Aegean islands in the war with Italy. Spurred on by these defeats, a group of young, liberal officers created a coup that established the First Republic of Turkey in 1918.
The new republic was immediately beset on by all sides. Cosmopolitan elites clashed with the rural peasants, and ideological clashes between socialist, liberal, and reactionary militias echoed through the countryside. Rebellious Arabs and Armenians though stirred up a new passion though within the Turkish militias, awakening a nationalist pride within the regiments. Many of these regiments were able to find common cause against the rebellions. It would only be through the intervention of the military that a mass slaughter of Armenians would be prevented.
By 1921, many of these militias had formed into a greater organization, known as the National Turkish Front. Their numbers were swelled by reductions from the Army and saw officers, particularly those who felt more loyalty to the former Osman Dynasty than this new republic, flocking to inflate the NTF’s ranks. Due to the nature of the Turkish constitution and the stranglehold that urban elites held over Turkish politics, the government took a decidedly liberal outlook. The NTF’s ideology of promotion of ultra nationalist tendencies, an end to the republic, and new style of corporatism, an ideology that would eventually gain the moniker “Fascist”. Standing in the 1922 elections, the NTF won the popular vote but their party found themselves shut out of power at the expense of the host of liberal delegates from the cities. Furious, the NTF militias refused to take their seats and instead decided to overthrow the government. A march on both Constantinople and Ankara saw support for the republic evaporate, and the Sublime State of Turkey was established.
The new Turkish state has greatly reorganized itself, reorganizing the military and beginning the first major Turkish industrialization program. Though Turkey has yet to reach the levels of the European economies, Turkey is well recovered from the Balkan and Italian Wars. With the Arabs and Armenians subdued, and the liberals near broken, Turkey can look outside its borders once more. There are dreams of subduing Bulgaria, Romania, even Greece and Serbia once more. Perhaps even, if Turkey is truly favored, their armies might march past the gates of Vienna, surpassing even the great Ottoman Empire of old.
