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Ottomanism or Osmanlılık ( Ottoman Turkish : عثمانلولق , Turkish : Osmanlıcılık . French : Ottomanisme ) was a concept which developed prior to the 1876–1878 First Constitutional Era of the Ottoman Empire . Its proponents believed that it could create the Unity of the Peoples, İttihad-ı Anasır , needed to keep millets from tearing the empire apart.

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118-694: Thinkers such as Montesquieu (1689–1755) and Rousseau (1712–1778), as well as the events of the French Revolution of 1789, strongly influenced Ottomanism. It promoted equality among the millet s . The idea of Ottomanism originated amongst the Young Ottomans (founded in 1865) in concepts such as the acceptance of all separate ethnicities in the Empire regardless of their religion, i.e., all were to be "Ottomans" with equal rights. In other words, Ottomanism held that all subjects were equal before

236-581: A catastrophe since the immigrants readily united with the existing population of Albanian Muslims and participated in the series of 1911 Albanian uprisings and the Albanian revolt of 1912 . Some Albanian government troops switched sides. In May 1912, Albanian rebels seeking national autonomy and the re-installment of Sultan Abdul Hamid II to power drove the Young Turkish forces out of Skopje and pressed south towards Manastir (now Bitola ), forcing

354-472: A clearly defined and balanced separation of powers. Montesquieu was troubled by a cataract and feared going blind. At the end of 1754 he visited Paris and was soon taken ill, and died from a fever on 10 February 1755. He was buried in the Église Saint-Sulpice, Paris . Montesquieu's philosophy of history minimized the role of individual persons and events. He expounded the view in Considerations on

472-837: A coordinated attack by the Balkan states. The Ottoman leadership decided to secure all of their territory. As a result, the available forces, which could not be effortlessly reinforced from Asia because of Greek control of the sea and the inadequacy of the Ottoman railway system, were dispersed too thinly across the region. They failed to stand up to the rapidly-mobilized Balkan armies. The Ottomans had three in Europe (the Macedonian, Vardar and Thracian Armies), with 1,203 pieces of mobile and 1,115 fixed artillery in fortified areas. The Ottoman High Command repeated its error of previous wars by ignoring

590-536: A discussion of how the England's constitution sustained liberty (XI, 6), and another to the realities of English politics (XIX, 27). As for France, the intermediate powers (including the nobility) the nobility and the parlements had been weakened by Louis XIV, and welcomed the strengthening of parlementary power in 1715. Montesquieu advocated reform of slavery in The Spirit of Law , specifically arguing that slavery

708-501: A full third of the fleet (the six new destroyers and the submarine Delfin ) reached Greece only after hostilities had started, forcing the navy to reshuffle crews, who consequently suffered from lacking familiarity and training. Coal stockpiles and other war stores were also in short supply, and the Georgios Averof had arrived with barely any ammunition and remained so until late November. Fotakis 2005 , p. 46 Montenegro

826-688: A large army and was identified as the " Prussia of the Balkans." However, Bulgaria could not win a war alone against the Ottomans. In Greece, Hellenic Army officers had rebelled in the Goudi coup of August 1909 and secured the appointment of a progressive government under Eleftherios Venizelos , which they hoped would resolve the Crete question in Greece's favour. They also wanted to reverse their defeat in

944-625: A large extent. Between 1908 and 1911, the office of the Navy Minister changed hands nine times. Interdepartmental infighting and the entrenched interests of the bloated and averaged officer corps, many of whom occupied their positions as quasi- sinecure , further obstructed drastic reform. In addition, the Ottoman ministers met the British attempts to control the navy's construction programme with suspicion. Consequently, funds for Gamble's ambitious plans for new ships were unavailable. To counter

1062-463: A large number of war correspondents. An estimated 200 to 300 journalists from around the world covered the war in the Balkans in November 1912. Due to poor organization, transportation problems and the protracted war with Italy , the Ottoman order of battle only had 12,024 officers, 324,718 other ranks, 47,960 animals, 2,318 artillery pieces and 388 machine guns ready by early October instead of

1180-552: A population of 2,912,000, with about 228 heavy guns, grouped in ten infantry divisions, two independent brigades and a cavalry division, under the effective command of the former war minister, Radomir Putnik . The Serbian High Command, in its prewar war games, had concluded that the most likely site for the decisive battle against the Ottoman Vardar Army would be on the Ovče Pole Plateau, ahead of Skopje. Thus,

1298-630: A result of the war, the League captured and partitioned almost all of the Ottoman Empire's remaining territories in Europe. Ensuing events also led to the creation of an independent Albania , which dissatisfied the Serbs . Bulgaria, meanwhile, was dissatisfied over the division of the spoils in Macedonia and attacked its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on 16 June 1913, which provoked the start of

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1416-528: A search for allies, Serbia was ready to negotiate a treaty with Bulgaria. The agreement provided that in the event of victory against the Ottomans, Bulgaria would receive all of Macedonia south of the Kriva Palanka – Ohrid line. Bulgaria accepted Serbia's expansion as being to the north of the Shar Mountains ( Kosovo ). The intervening area was agreed to be "disputed" and would be arbitrated by

1534-532: A similar pronouncement in The Histories of Herodotus , where he makes a distinction between the "ideal" temperate climate of Greece as opposed to the overly cold climate of Scythia and the overly warm climate of Egypt. This was a common belief at the time, and can also be found within the medical writings of Herodotus' times, including the "On Airs, Waters, Places" of the Hippocratic corpus. One can find

1652-493: A similar statement in Germania by Tacitus, one of Montesquieu's favorite authors. Philip M. Parker , in his book Physioeconomics (MIT Press, 2000), endorses Montesquieu's theory and argues that much of the economic variation between countries is explained by the physiological effect of different climates. From a sociological perspective, Louis Althusser , in his analysis of Montesquieu's revolution in method, alluded to

1770-479: A social "principle": monarchies (free governments headed by a hereditary figure, e.g. king, queen, emperor), which rely on the principle of honor; republics (free governments headed by popularly elected leaders), which rely on the principle of virtue; and despotisms (unfree), headed by despots which rely on fear. The free governments are dependent on constitutional arrangements that establish checks and balances. Montesquieu devotes one chapter of The Spirit of Law to

1888-567: A social and political response, with the hope of saving the Empire from downfall. The major precursors to Ottomanism were the Reformation Edict of 1856 , which promised full equality under the law regardless of religion, and the Ottoman Nationality Law of 1869, which created a common Ottoman citizenship irrespective of religious or ethnic affiliation. The Ottoman Nationality Law , promulgated on January 19, 1869,

2006-449: A term he coined): the monarchy , the aristocracy , and the commons . Montesquieu saw two types of governmental power existing: the sovereign and the administrative . The administrative powers were the executive , the legislative , and the judicial . These should be separate from and dependent upon each other so that the influence of any one power would not be able to exceed that of the other two, either singly or in combination. This

2124-494: Is being published by the Société Montesquieu. It is planned to total 22 volumes, of which (as of February 2022) all but five have appeared. Articles and chapters Books First Balkan War Balkan League victory Total: 156,139 killed, wounded, or died of disease Serbian and Montenegrin front Greek front The First Balkan War lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and involved actions of

2242-534: Is his meteorological climate theory, which holds that climate may substantially influence the nature of man and his society, a theory also promoted by the French naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon . By placing an emphasis on environmental influences as a material condition of life, Montesquieu prefigured modern anthropology's concern with the impact of material conditions, such as available energy sources, organized production systems, and technologies, on

2360-607: Is implemented in many constitutions throughout the world. He is also known for doing more than any other author to secure the place of the word despotism in the political lexicon. His anonymously published The Spirit of Law (1748), which was received well in both Great Britain and the American colonies, influenced the Founding Fathers of the United States in drafting the U.S. Constitution . Montesquieu

2478-441: Is often better organized by several than by one person alone. If there were no monarch, and the executive authority were entrusted to a certain number of persons chosen from the legislative body, that would be the end of freedom, because the two authorities would be combined, the same persons sometimes having, and always in a position to have, a role in both. Montesquieu identifies three main forms of government, each supported by

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2596-558: Is to run away." However, Greece was the only Balkan country to possess a meaningful navy, which was vital to the League to prevent Ottoman reinforcements from being rapidly transferred by ship from Asia to Europe. The Serbs and the Bulgarians readily appreciated it as the chief factor in initiating the process of Greece's inclusion in the League. As the Greek ambassador to Sofia put it during the negotiations that led to Greece's entry into

2714-574: The Académie Française in January 1728. In April 1728, with Berwick's nephew Lord Waldegrave as his traveling companion, Montesquieu embarked on a grand tour of Europe, during which he kept a journal. His travels included Austria and Hungary and a year in Italy. He went to England at the end of October 1729, in the company of Lord Chesterfield , where he was initiated into Freemasonry at

2832-660: The Balkan League (the Kingdoms of Bulgaria , Serbia , Greece and Montenegro ) against the Ottoman Empire . The Balkan states' combined armies overcame the initially numerically inferior (significantly superior by the end of the conflict) and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies, achieving rapid success. The war was a comprehensive and unmitigated disaster for the Ottomans, who lost 83% of their European territories and 69% of their European population. As

2950-692: The Bosnian crisis , which led to the Austrian annexation of the province in October 1908. The Serbs then directed their war efforts to the south. After the annexation, the Young Turks tried to induce the Muslim population of Bosnia to emigrate to the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman authorities resettled those who took up the offer in districts of northern Macedonia with few Muslims. The experiment proved to be

3068-523: The Dodecanese islands, a campaign which had dominated Ottoman military efforts. Though the Ottoman Empire and Italy made peace on 15 October 1912, only days after the outbreak of hostilities in the Balkans, the protracted war had prevented the Ottomans from reinforcing their position in the Balkans as their relations with the Balkan states deteriorated. The Ottomans' military capabilities were hampered by several factors, such as domestic strife caused by

3186-657: The Dodecanese Islands in the Aegean Sea . The Italians' decisive military victories over the Ottoman Empire and the successful 1912 Albanian revolt encouraged the Balkan states to imagine that they might win a war against the Ottomans. By the spring and summer of 1912, the various Christian Balkan nations had created a network of military alliances, becoming known as the Balkan League. The Great Powers, most notably France and Austria-Hungary , reacted to

3304-573: The Duke of Berwick whom he had known when Berwick was military governor at Bordeaux. He also acquainted himself with the English politician Viscount Bolingbroke , some of whose political views were later reflected in Montesquieu's analysis of the English constitution. In 1726 he sold his office, bored with the parlement and turning more toward Paris. In time, despite some impediments he was elected to

3422-637: The European Union and its member states. The Montesquieu tower in Luxembourg was completed in 2008 as an addition to the headquarters of the Court of Justice of the European Union . The building houses many of the institution's translation services. Until 2019, it stood, with its sister tower, Comenius, as the tallest building in the country. A critical edition of Montesquieu's works

3540-508: The Greco-Turkish War (1897) by the Ottomans. An emergency military reorganization, led by a French military mission, had been started for that purpose, but its work was interrupted by the outbreak of war in the Balkans. In the discussions that led to Greece joining the Balkan League , Bulgaria refused to commit to any agreement on distributing territorial gains, unlike its deal with Serbia over Macedonia. Bulgaria's diplomatic policy

3658-541: The Horn Tavern Lodge in Westminster. He remained in England until the spring of 1731, when he returned to La Brède. Outwardly he seemed to be settling down as a squire: he altered his park in the English fashion, made inquiries into his own genealogy, and asserted his seignorial rights. But he was continuously at work in his study, and his reflections on geography, laws and customs during his travels became

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3776-607: The Protestant Jeanne de Lartigue, who eventually bore him three children. The Baron died in 1716, leaving him his fortune as well as his title, and the office of président à mortier in the Bordeaux Parlement, a post that he would hold for twelve years. Montesquieu's early life was a time of significant governmental change. England had declared itself a constitutional monarchy in the wake of its Glorious Revolution (1688–1689), and joined with Scotland in

3894-644: The Sea of Marmara . In terms of forces engaged, it was the largest battle fought in Europe between the end of the Franco-Prussian War and the beginning of the First World War. As a result, the Ottoman forces were pushed to their final defensive position across the Çatalca Line, protecting the peninsula and Constantinople . There, they managed to stabilize the front with the help of fresh reinforcements from Asia. The line had been constructed during

4012-494: The Second Balkan War . During the war, many civilians, overwhelmingly Muslim Turks , were either killed or forced to flee their homes. The highly politicized and disorganized units of the Ottoman army were quite incapable of evacuating the civilians in the war zone. This situation left many civilians in the occupied areas defenseless against the invading armies of the Balkan League. Although there are discussions about

4130-675: The Struma Corps (14th Infantry and Serez Redif divisions, plus the Nevrekop Detachment ), were deployed. Against Montenegro, four-plus divisions were deployed: According to the organizational plan, though the men of the Western Group were to total 598,000, slow mobilization and the inefficiency of the rail system drastically reduced the number of men available. According to the Western Army Staff, when

4248-845: The Struma Corps were to protect the right flank of the Vardar Army and prevent Bulgarian encroachment along the Struma . The Yanya Corps (22,000 men) was to defend Epirus and Albania from the Greek Army of Epirus , while the VIII Corps (29,000 men) was deployed to guard the Thessalian mountain passes leading to Thessaloniki. Additional 25,000 men of the Işkodra Corps were stationed in Shkodër to protect Northern Albania. Thus,

4366-642: The Tsar of Russia in the event of a successful war against the Ottoman Empire. During the war, it became apparent that the Albanians did not consider Serbia as a liberator, as had been suggested by King Peter I, and the Serbian forces failed to observe his declaration of amity toward Albanians. After the successful coup d'état for unification with Eastern Rumelia, Bulgaria began to dream that its national unification would be realized. For that purpose, it developed

4484-517: The Union of 1707 to form the Kingdom of Great Britain . In France, the long-reigning Louis XIV died in 1715 and was succeeded by the five-year-old Louis XV . These national transformations had a great impact on Montesquieu; he would refer to them repeatedly in his work. Montesquieu eventually withdrew from the practice of law to devote himself to study and writing. He achieved literary success with

4602-483: The 11th Infantry Division from the Eastern Army's IV Corps was moved there to replace it. Thus, one complete army corps was removed from the Eastern Army's order of battle. As a consequence of the insufficient intelligence of the invading forces, the Ottoman offensive plan failed in the face of Bulgarian superiority. That forced Kölemen Abdullah Pasha to abandon Kirk Kilisse , which was taken without resistance by

4720-515: The 1912 Albanian revolt had broken out, and a formal agreement between Serbia and Montenegro had been signed on 7 March. On 18 October 1912, King Peter I of Serbia issued a declaration, 'To the Serbian People,' which appeared to support Albanians as well as Serbs: The Turkish governments showed no interest in their duties towards their citizens and turned a deaf ear to all complaints and suggestions. Things got so far out of hand that no one

4838-675: The 200 French franc note. Since 1989, the annual Montesquieu prize has been awarded by the French Association of Historians of Political Ideas for the best French-language thesis on the history of political thought . On Europe Day 2007, the Montesquieu Institute opened in The Hague , the Netherlands, with a mission to advance research and education on the parliamentary history and political culture of

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4956-640: The American founders than any source except for the Bible . Following the American Revolution , his work remained a powerful influence on many of the American founders, most notably James Madison of Virginia , the "Father of the Constitution ". Montesquieu's philosophy that "government should be set up so that no man need be afraid of another" reminded Madison and others that a free and stable foundation for their new national government required

5074-468: The Balkans. The Ottoman General Staff, assisted by the German military mission, developed twelve war plans designed to counter various combinations of opponents. Work on Plan No. 5, which was against Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro, was very advanced and had been sent to the army staff for them to develop local plans. The Ottoman fleet had performed abysmally in the 1897 Greco-Turkish War, forcing

5192-718: The Bulgarian High Command decided to wait a few days, but that allowed the Ottoman forces to occupy a new defensive position on the Lüleburgaz - Karaağaç - Pınarhisar line. However, the Bulgarian attack by the First and Third Armies, which together accounted for 107,386 riflemen, 3,115 cavalries, 116 machine guns and 360 artillery pieces, defeated the reinforced Ottoman Army, with 126,000 riflemen, 3,500 cavalries, 96 machine guns, and 342 artillery pieces and reached

5310-494: The Bulgarian Third Army. The fortress of Adrianople, with some 61,250 men, was isolated and besieged by the Bulgarian Second Army, but for the time being, no assault was possible because of the lack of siege equipment in the Bulgarian inventory. Another consequence of Greek naval supremacy in the Aegean was that the Ottoman forces did not receive the reinforcements that had been in the war plans, which would have been further corps transferred by sea from Syria and Palestine. Thus,

5428-457: The Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline , that each historical event was driven by a principal movement: It is not chance that rules the world. Ask the Romans, who had a continuous sequence of successes when they were guided by a certain plan, and an uninterrupted sequence of reverses when they followed another. There are general causes, moral and physical, which act in every monarchy, elevating it, maintaining it, or hurling it to

5546-442: The Edirne-Kırklareli defensive line, where the Bulgarian First and Third Armies (a combined 174,254 men) defeated the Ottoman East Army (of 96,273 combatants), near Gechkenli, Seliolu and Petra. The Ottoman XV Corps urgently left the area to defend the Gallipoli Peninsula against an expected Greek amphibious assault, which never materialized. The absence of the corps created an immediate vacuum between Adrianople and Demotika , and

5664-516: The English achieved liberty by separating executive, legislative, and judicial powers, and when Catherine the Great wrote her Nakaz (Instruction) for the Legislative Assembly she had created to clarify the existing Russian law code, she avowed borrowing heavily from Montesquieu's Spirit of Law , although she discarded or altered portions that did not support Russia's absolutist bureaucratic monarchy. Montesquieu's most influential work divided French society into three classes (or trias politica ,

5782-427: The First Army and to be covered by the cavalry division that hid it from the Ottomans' sight. The Third Army had three infantry divisions and was assigned to cross Mount Stranja and to take the fortress of Kirk Kilisse ( Kırklareli ). The 2nd (49,180) and 7th (48,523 men) Divisions were assigned independent roles, operating in Western Thrace and Eastern Macedonia, respectively. Three hundred Armenians from throughout

5900-416: The First Balkan War by declaring war against the Ottomans on 8 October [ O.S. 25 September] 1912. The western part of the Balkans, including Albania, Kosovo, and Macedonia, was less vital to the resolution of the war and the survival of the Ottoman Empire than the Thracian theatre, where the Bulgarians fought significant battles against the Ottomans. Although geography dictated Thrace would be

6018-420: The French political anthropologist Georges Balandier considered Montesquieu to be "the initiator of a scientific enterprise that for a time performed the role of cultural and social anthropology". According to social anthropologist D. F. Pocock , Montesquieu's The Spirit of Law was "the first consistent attempt to survey the varieties of human society, to classify and compare them and, within society, to study

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6136-441: The Greek acquisition of the Georgios Averof , the Ottomans initially tried to buy the new German armoured cruiser SMS  Blücher or the battlecruiser SMS  Moltke . Not able to afford the ships' high cost, the Ottomans acquired two old Brandenburg -class pre-dreadnought battleships , which became Barbaros Hayreddin and Turgut Reis . Along with the cruisers Hamidiye and Mecidiye , both ships were to form

6254-408: The Greek navy played an indirect but crucial role in the Thracian campaign by neutralizing three corps, a significant portion of the Ottoman army, in the all-important opening round of the war. Another more direct role was the emergency transportation of the Bulgarian 7th Rila Division from the Macedonian Front to the Thracian Front after the end of operations there. After the Battle of Kirk Kilisse,

6372-460: The League, "Greece can provide 600,000 men for the war effort. With 200,000 men on the battlefield, the fleet will be able to prevent 400,000 men from being landed by Turkey between Salonica and Gallipoli ." The Greek army was still undergoing reorganization by a French military mission , which arrived in early 1911. Under French supervision, the Greeks had adopted the triangular infantry division as their primary formation though more importantly,

6490-494: The Navy Ministry and dramatically improved the number and the quality of exercises in gunnery and fleet maneuvers. In 1912, the core unit of the fleet was the fast armoured cruiser Georgios Averof , which had been completed in 1910 and then was the fastest and the most modern warship in the combatant navies. It was complemented by three rather-antiquated battleships of the Hydra class . There were also eight destroyers, built in 1906–1907, and six new destroyers, hastily bought in

6608-522: The Ottoman Empire in order to safeguard their Albanian territories. Without a centralized national structure, Albanians were compelled to depend on Ottoman establishments, its military, and its administration to shield them from partition. However, all three proved inadequate against the onslaught of four invading Balkan armies. Even following the signing of the armistice in December 1912, Ottoman regular troops, along with Albanian irregular forces, persisted in central and southern Albania. Montenegro started

6726-455: The Ottoman Empire, Europe, and Russia, a small yet significant number, volunteered to fight on the side of the Balkan League's soldiers of more than 850,000. Under the leadership of Andranik Ozanian and Garegin Nzhdeh , the Armenian detachment was commissioned to fight the Ottomans first at Momchilgrad and Komotini and its environs, and then later İpsala , Keşan , and Malkara , and Tekirdağ . Serbia called upon about 255,000 men, out of

6844-419: The Ottoman First Army, with 105,000 men in eastern Thrace and the Kircaali detachment, of 24,000 men, in western Thrace. The Bulgarian forces were divided into the First, Second and Third Bulgarian Armies of 297,002 men in the eastern part and 49,180 (33,180 regulars and 16,000 irregulars) under the 2nd Bulgarian Division (General Stilian Kovachev) in the western part. The first large-scale battle occurred against

6962-436: The Ottoman government to begin a drastic overhaul. Older ships were retired, and newer ones were acquired, chiefly from France and Germany. In addition, in 1908, the Ottomans called in a British naval mission to update their training and doctrine. The British mission, headed by Admiral Sir Douglas Gamble , would find its task almost impossible. The political upheaval in the aftermath of the Young Turk Revolution prevented it to

7080-523: The Ottoman military personnel stationed in Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and Epirus numbered almost 200,000 men, who were pitted against 234,000 Serbs, 48,000 Bulgarians and 115,000 Greeks. Bulgaria was militarily the most powerful of the four Balkan states, with a large, well-trained, well-equipped army. Bulgaria mobilized a total of 599,878 men out of a population of 4.3 million. The Bulgarian field army counted for nine infantry divisions , one cavalry division and 1,116 artillery units. The commander-in-chief

7198-446: The Secondat family. His family was of Huguenot origin. After the death of his mother he was sent to the Catholic College of Juilly , a prominent school for the children of French nobility, where he remained from 1700 to 1711. His father died in 1713 and he became a ward of his uncle, the Baron de Montesquieu . He became a counselor of the Bordeaux Parlement in 1714. He showed preference for Protestantism and in 1715 he married

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7316-442: The Serbs and the Montenegrins in the theatre of Sandžak and the Bulgarians and the Serbs in the Macedonian and the Bulgarians alone in the Thracian theatre. The bulk of the Bulgarian forces (346,182 men) was to attack Thrace, fighting against the Thracian Ottoman Army of 96,273 men and about 26,000 garrison troops, or about 115,000 personnel in total, according to Hall's, Erickson's and the Turkish General Staff's 1993 studies. It

7434-424: The Young Turk Revolution and the counterrevolutionary coup several months later. That resulted in different groups competing for influence within the military. A German mission had tried reorganizing the army, but its recommendations had not been fully implemented. The Ottoman army was caught in the middle of reform and reorganization. Also, several of the army's best battalions had been transferred to Yemen to face

7552-404: The Young Turks to grant effective autonomy over large regions in June 1912. Serbia, which had been helping to arm the Hamidian and Catholic Albanians rebelling in the Mirditë region; sent secret agents to some of the prominent leaders, taking the revolt as a pretext for war. Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, and Bulgaria had all been in talks about possible offensives against the Ottoman Empire before

7670-586: The actions of Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece, there was enough time for Montenegro to prepare, which helped its successful military campaign. Known colloquially as "the sick man of Europe", by 1912, the Ottoman Empire was at the end stages of a centuries long decline. Upon the outbreak of war Turkish forces were extremely vulnerable. The Ottoman Empire itself possessed a far larger population than all of its adversaries combined, of around 26 million. However just over 6.1 million lived in what still remained of Ottoman Europe, of which only 2.3 million were Muslim. A majority of

7788-414: The analysis of the objectives of the Balkan Pact, it had deadly consequences for the Ottoman Army in Thrace, which was now required to defend the area from the bulk of the Bulgarian army against impossible odds. The misappraisal was also the reason for the catastrophic aggressive Ottoman strategy at the start of the campaign in Thrace. On the Thracian Front, the Bulgarian army had placed 346,182 men against

7906-416: The basic elements of this legislation. Many in the non-Muslim millets and many Muslims rejected Ottomanism. Non-Muslims perceived it as a step towards dismantling their traditional privileges. Meanwhile, the Muslims saw it as the elimination of their own superior position. There were claims that Ottomanism was a reaction to the Tanzimat , the 1839-1876 era of intensive restructuring of the Ottoman Empire by

8024-485: The bureaucratic elite. The inauguration of the General Assembly in 1876 contributed to the spirit of reform, as all millets were represented in this bicameral assembly. Ottomanism enjoyed a revival during the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, and during the Second Constitutional Era of 1908 to 1920. It lost most of its adherents during the First Balkan War of 1912–13, when the Ottoman Empire lost most of its European territories inhabited by minorities. Disappointment in

8142-404: The established command structure to create new superior commands, the Eastern Army and Western Army , reflecting the division of the operational theatre between the Thracian (against the Bulgarians) and Macedonian (against the Greeks, Serbs and Montenegrins) fronts. The Western Army fielded at least 200,000 men, and the Eastern Army fielded 115,000 men against the Bulgarians. The Eastern Army

8260-429: The exact amount of civilian casualties, when the war ended great changes occurred in the demographic makeup of the Balkan region. Tensions among the Balkan states over their rival aspirations to the provinces of Ottoman-controlled Rumelia ( Eastern Rumelia , Thrace and Macedonia ) subsided somewhat after the mid-19th-century intervention by the Great Powers , which aimed to secure both more complete protection for

8378-424: The executive and judicial powers, as Montesquieu indicated, there will be no separation or division of its powers, since the power to appoint carries with it the power to revoke. The executive authority must be in the hands of a monarch, for this part of the government, which almost always requires immediate action, is better administrated by one than by several, whereas that which depends on the legislative authority

8496-417: The executive authority for things that stem from the law of nations, and the executive authority for those that stem from civil law. By virtue of the first, the prince or magistrate enacts temporary or perpetual laws, and amends or abrogates those that have been already enacted. By the second, he makes peace or war, sends or receives embassies, establishes the public security, and provides against invasions. By

8614-410: The executive authority, there is no freedom, because one can fear lest the same monarch or the same senate make tyrannical laws in order to carry them out tyrannically. Again there is no freedom if the authority to judge is not separated from the legislative and executive authorities. If it were combined with the legislative authority, power over the life and liberty of the citizens would be arbitrary, for

8732-433: The failure of Ottomanism became integral to the surge of Kemalism in the 1920s. Montesquieu Charles Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (18 January 1689 – 10 February 1755), generally referred to as simply Montesquieu , was a French judge , man of letters , historian , and political philosopher . He is the principal source of the theory of separation of powers , which

8850-510: The formation of the alliances by trying unsuccessfully to dissuade the Balkan League from going to war. In late September, the League and the Ottoman Empire mobilized their armies. Montenegro was the first to declare war on 25 September ( O.S. )/8 October. After issuing an impossible ultimatum to the Ottoman Porte on 13 October, Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece declared war on the Ottomans on 17 October (1912). The declarations of war attracted

8968-547: The free labor of slaves. While addressing French readers of his General Theory , John Maynard Keynes described Montesquieu as "the real French equivalent of Adam Smith , the greatest of your economists, head and shoulders above the physiocrats in penetration, clear-headedness and good sense (which are the qualities an economist should have)." Another example of Montesquieu's anthropological thinking, outlined in The Spirit of Law and hinted at in Persian Letters ,

9086-468: The government of the Republic, other men would have risen in their place. The cause was not the ambition of Caesar or Pompey, but the ambition of man. Former Former Montesquieu is credited as being among the progenitors, who include Herodotus and Tacitus , of anthropology —as being among the first to extend comparative methods of classification to the political forms in human societies. Indeed,

9204-538: The ground. All accidents are controlled by these causes. And if the chance of one battle—that is, a particular cause—has brought a state to ruin, some general cause made it necessary for that state to perish from a single battle. In a word, the main trend draws with it all particular accidents. In discussing the transition from the Republic to the Empire , he suggested that if Caesar and Pompey had not worked to usurp

9322-419: The growth of complex socio-cultural systems. He goes so far as to assert that certain climates are more favorable than others, the temperate climate of France being ideal. His view is that people living in very warm countries are "too hot-tempered", while those in northern countries are "icy" or "stiff". The climate of middle Europe is therefore optimal. On this point, Montesquieu may well have been influenced by

9440-657: The initial mission was to pin down the Ottoman forces there until sufficient reinforcements could be sent from the Army of Thessaly after the successful conclusion of operations. The Greek navy was relatively modern, strengthened by the recent purchase of numerous new units and undergoing reforms under the supervision of a British mission . Invited by Greek Prime Minister Venizelos in 1910, the mission began its work upon its arrival in May 1911. Granted extraordinary powers and led by Vice Admiral Lionel Grant Tufnell , it thoroughly reorganized

9558-499: The inter-functioning of institutions." "Émile Durkheim," notes David W. Carrithers, "even went so far as to suggest that it was precisely this realization of the interrelatedness of social phenomena that brought social science into being." Montesquieu's political anthropology gave rise to his influential view that forms of government are supported by governing principles: virtue for republics, honor for monarchies, and fear for despotisms. American founders studied Montesquieu's views on how

9676-419: The judge would be the legislator. If it were combined with the executive authority, the judge could have the strength of an oppressor. All would be lost if the same man or the same body of principals, or of nobles, or of the people, exercised these three powers: that of making laws, that of executing public resolutions, and that of judging crimes or disputes between individuals. If the legislative branch appoints

9794-428: The law. Ideally, all citizens would share a geographical area, a language, culture, and a sense of a "non-Ottoman" party who were different from them. The essence of the millet system of confessional groupings was not dismantled, but secular organizations and policies were applied. Primary education, conscription, head tax and military service were to be applied to non-Muslims and Muslims alike. Ottomanism

9912-612: The locals, and the growing concern of the great powers over the treatment of Christians within the Empire . The Ottomans thought that if they could unite the Empire fully under one state entity, then they would be stronger and the Europeans would have a harder time encroaching on Ottoman territory, as well as on Ottoman people. Previously, the Empire was vastly split into many small communities that mostly governed themselves. The Sultan oversaw these communities, but most areas adhered to their own laws and beliefs. This accounted in part for

10030-586: The main forces were formed as three armies for the advance towards Skopje, and a division and an independent brigade were to cooperate with the Montenegrins in the Sanjak of Novi Pazar . The First Army (132,000 men), the strongest, was commanded by Crown Prince Alexander , and the Chief of Staff was Colonel Petar Bojović . The First Army formed the centre of the drive towards Skopje. The Second Army (74,000 men)

10148-557: The most influential people in the Ottoman capital, had reported to Berlin on 21 October that the Ottoman forces believed that the bulk of the Bulgarian army would be deployed in Macedonia with the Serbs. Then, the Ottoman headquarters, under Abdullah Pasha , expected to meet only three Bulgarian infantry divisions, accompanied by cavalry, east of Adrianople. According to historian E. J. Erickson, though that assumption possibly resulted from

10266-510: The ongoing rebellion. In the summer of 1912, the Ottoman High Command decided disastrously to dismiss some 70,000 mobilized troops. Though the regular army ( Nizam ) was well-equipped and had trained active divisions, the reserve units ( Redif ) that reinforced it was ill-equipped, especially in artillery, and badly-trained. The Ottomans' strategic situation was difficult, as their borders were almost impossible to defend against

10384-493: The overhaul of the mobilization system allowed the country to field and equip a far greater number of troops than had been the case in 1897. Foreign observers estimated Greece would mobilize approximately 50,000 men, but the Greek army fielded 125,000, with another 140,000 in the National Guard and reserves. Upon mobilization, as in 1897, the force was grouped in two field armies, reflecting the geographic division between

10502-427: The planned full complement of 750,000 officers and soldiers. A total of 920 officers and 42,607 men of them had been assigned to non-divisional units and services, the remaining 293,206 officers and men were assigned to four armies. Opposing them and continuing their secret prewar settlements for expansion, the three Slavic allies (Bulgarian, Serbs and Montenegrins) had extensive plans to co-ordinate their war efforts:

10620-473: The primary battlefield in a war with the Ottoman Empire, the position of the Ottoman Army there was jeopardized by erroneous intelligence estimates of the opponents' order of battle. Unaware of the secret prewar political and military settlement over Macedonia between Bulgaria and Serbia, the Ottoman leadership assigned the bulk of its forces there. The German ambassador, Hans Baron von Wangenheim , one of

10738-613: The primary sources for his major works on political philosophy at this time. He next published Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline (1734), among his three best known books. He was to publish The Spirit of Law in 1748, quickly translated into English. It quickly rose to influence political thought profoundly in Europe and America. In France, the book met with an enthusiastic reception by many but

10856-711: The provinces' Christian majority as well as to maintain the status quo. By 1867, Serbia and Montenegro had both secured their independence, which was confirmed by the Treaty of Berlin (1878) . The question of the viability of Ottoman rule was revived after the Young Turk Revolution in July 1908, which compelled the Ottoman Sultan to restore the suspended constitution of the empire. Serbia's aspirations to take over Bosnia and Herzegovina were thwarted by

10974-400: The publication of his 1721 Persian Letters ( French : Lettres persanes ), a satire representing society as seen through the eyes of two Persian visitors to Paris , cleverly criticizing absurdities of contemporary French society. The work was an instant classic and accordingly was immediately pirated. In 1722, he went to Paris and entered social circles with the help of friends including

11092-515: The relatively modern core of the Ottoman battlefleet. By the summer of 1912, however, they were already in poor condition because of chronic neglect: the rangefinders and ammunition hoists had been removed, the telephones were not working, the pumps were corroded, and most of the watertight doors could no longer be closed. During the onset of the First Balkan War, most Albanians, including frequent rebels like Isa Boletin, united to defend

11210-548: The remainder were Orthodox Christians, considered unfit for conscription. The poor transport network of the Empire's Asian regions dictated that the only reliable way to mass transfer troops to the front was by sea where they'd be vulnerable to attacks from the Greek fleet based in the Aegean. In addition, in 1912 Ottomans were still at war with the Italians who in the year proceeding had overrun Ottoman Libya and by now were invading

11328-427: The seminal character of anthropology's inclusion of material factors, such as climate, in the explanation of social dynamics and political forms. Examples of certain climatic and geographical factors giving rise to increasingly complex social systems include those that were conducive to the rise of agriculture and the domestication of wild plants and animals. Between 1981 and 1994, a depiction of Monetesquieu appeared on

11446-607: The success of the Ottoman Empire: the Sultan didn't force any major changes on populations as he conquered them. Because of struggle for self-determination , the concept of nation-states with shared senses of identities began to rise in Europe, most notably with the Greek War of Independence of 1821-1830, which also started affecting the various other peoples of the Ottoman Empire. From these instances, Ottomanism developed as

11564-409: The summer of 1912 as the imminence of war became apparent. Nevertheless, at the outbreak of the war, the Greek fleet was far from ready. The Ottoman battlefleet retained a clear advantage in the number of ships, speed of the primary surface units and, most importantly, the number and calibre of the ships' guns. In addition, as the war caught the fleet in the middle of its expansion and reorganization,

11682-402: The third, he punishes criminals, or determines the disputes that arise between individuals. The latter we shall call the judiciary power, and the other, simply, the executive power of the state. Montesquieu argues that each power should only exercise its own functions; he is quite explicit here: When in the same person or in the same body of magistracy the legislative authority is combined with

11800-482: The two operational theatres that were open to the Greeks: Thessaly and Epirus. The Army of Thessaly (Στρατιά Θεσσαλίας) was placed under Crown Prince Constantine , with Lieutenant-General Panagiotis Danglis as his chief of staff. It fielded the bulk of the Greek forces: seven infantry divisions, a cavalry regiment, and four independent Evzones light mountain infantry battalions, roughly 100,000 men. It

11918-430: The war began, it had only 200,000 men available. Although more men would reach their units, war casualties prevented the Western Group from coming near its nominal strength. In wartime, the Ottomans had planned to bring more troops in from Syria, both Nizamiye and Redif . Greek naval supremacy prevented those reinforcements from arriving. Instead, those soldiers had to deploy via the land route, and most never made it to

12036-497: Was Tsar Ferdinand , and the operating command was in the hands of his deputy, General Mihail Savov . The Bulgarians also had a small navy of six torpedo boats restricted to operations along the country's Black Sea coast. Bulgaria was focused on actions in Thrace and Macedonia. It deployed its main force in Thrace by forming three armies. The First Army (79,370 men), under General Vasil Kutinchev , had three infantry divisions and

12154-546: Was a radical idea because it does not follow the three Estates structure of the French Monarchy: the clergy , the aristocracy, and the people at large represented by the Estates-General , thereby erasing the last vestige of a feudalistic structure. The theory of the separation of powers largely derives from The Spirit of Law : In every state there are three kinds of power: the legislative authority,

12272-538: Was born at the Château de la Brède in southwest France, 25 kilometres (16 mi) south of Bordeaux . His father, Jacques de Secondat (1654–1713), was a soldier with a long noble ancestry, including descent from Richard de la Pole , Yorkist claimant to the English crown . His mother, Marie Françoise de Pesnel (1665–1696), who died when Charles was seven, was an heiress who brought the title of Barony of La Brède to

12390-853: Was commanded by Nazim Pasha and had seven corps of 11 regular infantry divisions, 13 Redif divisions and at least one cavalry division: The Western Army (Macedonian and Vardar Army) constituted ten corps with 32 infantry and two cavalry divisions. Against Serbia, the Ottomans deployed the Vardar Army (HQ in Skopje) under Halepli Zeki Pasha , with five corps of 18 infantry divisions, one cavalry division and two independent cavalry brigades under the: The Macedonian Army (headquarters in Thessaloniki under Ali Rıza Pasha ) had 14 divisions in five corps, deployed against Greece, Bulgaria and Montenegro. Against Greece, at least seven divisions were deployed: Against Bulgaria, in southeastern Macedonia, two divisions,

12508-597: Was commanded by General Božidar Janković , and since it was on the right wing, had the task to invade Kosovo and then move south to join the other armies in the expected battle at Ovče Polje. There were two more concentrations in northwestern Serbia across the borders between Serbia and Austria-Hungary: the Ibar Army (25,000 men), under General Mihailo Živković , and the Javor Brigade (12,000 men), under Lieutenant-Colonel Milovoje Anđelković. Greece, whose population

12626-435: Was commanded by General Stepa Stepanović and had one Serbian and one Bulgarian (7th Rila) division. It formed the army's left wing and advanced towards Stracin . Though the inclusion of a Bulgarian division was according to a prewar arrangement between Serbian and Bulgarian armies, it ceased to obey the orders of Stepanović as soon as the war began, only following those of the Bulgarian High Command. The Third Army (76,000 men)

12744-706: Was denounced by the Sorbonne and, in 1751, by the Catholic Church ( Index of Prohibited Books ). It received the highest praise from much of the rest of Europe, especially Britain. Montesquieu was also highly regarded in the British colonies in North America as a champion of liberty. According to a survey of late eighteenth-century works by political scientist Donald Lutz, Montesquieu was the most frequently quoted authority on government and politics in colonial pre-revolutionary British America, cited more by

12862-603: Was deployed to the south of Yambol and assigned operations along the Tundzha River. The Second Army (122,748 men), under General Nikola Ivanov , with two infantry divisions and one infantry brigade, was deployed west of the First Army and was assigned to capture the strong fortress of Adrianople ( Edirne ). Plans had the Third Army (94,884 men), under General Radko Dimitriev , to be deployed east of and behind

12980-455: Was expected to overcome the fortified Ottoman border positions and advance towards southern and central Macedonia, aiming to take Thessaloniki and Bitola. The remaining 10,000 to 13,000 men in eight battalions were assigned to the Army of Epirus ( Στρατιά Ηπείρου ) under Lieutenant-General Konstantinos Sapountzakis . As it had no hope of capturing Ioannina, the heavily fortified capital of Epirus,

13098-474: Was inherently wrong because all humans are born equal, but that it could perhaps be justified within the context of climates with intense heat, wherein laborers would feel less inclined to work voluntarily. As part of his advocacy he presented a satirical hypothetical list of arguments for slavery . In the hypothetical list, he'd ironically list pro-slavery arguments without further comment, including an argument stating that sugar would become too expensive without

13216-476: Was inspired and formed as a reaction to European ideas and the growing Western involvement in the Ottoman Empire. Following the Tanzimat reforms begun in 1839, Ottomanism developed from a need to bring the Empire together. The Ottomans feared the growing threat the Europeans posed, especially after events like the 1838 Treaty of Balta Liman , which allowed for British merchants in the Empire to be taxed equally to

13334-486: Was one of those laws that combined elements of the principles of jus soli and jus sanguinis and thus resembled the French Nationality Law , specifically the 1851 formulation, which it is argued to have been inspired by. The nationality legislation was a 19th-century concept, and the Ottoman Empire adopted it early. The Ottoman Nationality Law appeared before any commonly-adopted international concept of

13452-745: Was satisfied with the situation in Turkey in Europe. It also became unbearable for the Serbs, the Greeks, and the Albanians. By the grace of God, I have therefore ordered my brave army to join in the Holy War to free our brethren and to wish for a better future. In Old Serbia, my army will meet not only upon Christian Serbs but also upon Muslim Serbs, who are equally dear to us, and in addition to them, upon Christian and Muslim Albanians with whom our people have shared joy and sorrow for thirteen centuries now. To all of them, we bring freedom, brotherhood and equality. In

13570-479: Was the smallest nation in the Balkan Peninsula, but in recent years before the war, it had improved its military skills with support from Russia . Also, it was the only Balkan country never to be fully conquered by the Ottoman Empire. As the smallest member of the League, Montenegro did not have much influence. However, it was advantageous for Montenegro, since when the Ottoman Empire was trying to counter

13688-475: Was then 2,666,000, was considered the weakest of the three main allies since it fielded the smallest army and had suffered a defeat against the Ottomans 16 years earlier, in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897. A British consular dispatch from 1910 expressed the common perception of the Greek army's abilities: "If there is a war, we shall probably see that the only thing Greek officers can do besides talking

13806-569: Was to be supported by the Kırcaali Detachment of 24,000 military personnel, deployed along the Arda river to prevent the Bulgarians from reaching the Aegean Sea and thus cutting Ottoman transportation and communication links with Macedonia. The Vardar Army of some 58,000 men was deployed near Kumanovo against the First and Second Serbian Armies of 90,000 Serbian and approx. 50,000 Serbian and Bulgarian men. Approx. 28,000 additional men from

13924-461: Was to push Serbia into one that limited its access to Macedonia while simultaneously refusing any such agreement with Greece. Bulgaria believed that its army could occupy the big part of Aegean Macedonia and the port city of Salonica ( Thessaloniki ) before the Greeks could do so. In 1911, Italy had launched an invasion of Tripolitania , now in Libya , which was quickly followed by the occupation of

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