The Ottoman Empire During World War I

How was the crippling Ottoman Empire who were on the verge of collapse, able to start a war that would change history forever? On June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian Nationalist assassinated Franz Ferdinand, archduke of the Austria-Hungarian Empire, in Sarajevo, Bosnia. There were two major groups in Europe – on one side was the Triple Alliance consisting of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy while their enemy was the triple Entente made of France, Russia and Great Britain. World War I is considered the first modern war because soldiers in trenches used efficient weapons such as the machine gun, tanks, air force, etc.. During the Balkan Wars, Serbia broke free of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire was not industrialized causing them to lack in military technology. If the Ottoman Empire could unite all the different nationalities and ethnicities from within the empire, then it could save Serbia from breaking free and trying to unite the Slavs. The Ottoman Empire was not financially able to support being able to have a huge army such as Germany or a strong navy such as Great Britain. …show more content…
The Serbs and a few other countries formed the Balkan League which defeated the Ottoman Empire. “The Turkish collapse was so complete that all parties were willing to conclude an armistice on Dec. 3, 1912,” (www.britannica.com). The Ottoman Empire had been in power over many different groups of nationalities and ethnicities for centuries, but could not go against the forces that were so committed in governing themselves. There were normal tensions that existed between the ruler and the ruled, specifically in the Balkans. The different ethnicities from which the Ottoman Empire was composed of also clashed with one another. The Turks held the most power in the Ottoman Empire which did not se The disintegration of the Ottoman Empire created the power vacuum in the