The Rebirth of the Ottoman Empire

[Don Grey]

I was at a dinner party last night where most of the guests were elderly Turks, and one was holding the opinion that the Ottomans weren't Turks, but just used them for cannon-fodder. I asked him where his family was from, and he was half Circassian (Çerkez) and a quarter Albanian. So I pointed out that he wasn't Turkish either, nor for that matter was anyone who lived in Turkey, at least from an ethnic perspective.

Turkish culture is Ottoman, and the blood of the people who live there is also Ottoman, meaning a mix of lots of different peoples.

I dont know why you have explained this to me but if your asking me of my backround its part bulgarian part mecedonian part circassian some where around there,there should be some turkish or a better answer is this is probably what being turkish is.But if you looked at the genetic makeup of people that live in turkey its something like this meaning everyone is mixed with something.

 

[Abdul Hadi Pasha]

I dont know why you have explained this to me but if your asking me of my backround its part bulgarian part mecedonian part circassian some where around there,there should be some turkish or a better answer is this is probably what being turkish is.But if you looked at the genetic makeup of people that live in turkey its something like this meaning everyone is mixed with something.

I was explaining in general, not to you - you already know all this.

A lot of people when looking at Ottoman or Turkish history look at it from an ethnic perspective that is meaningless in the context of the time. The Ottoman Empire wasn't a Turkish state that ruled over Arabs and the various Balkan peoples, it was the state that ran the whole empire wherein everyone was more or less equal, although the Balkans and Istanbul were predominant, mostly due to education and location.

If an Arab Ottoman was unhappy with the government, he complained about Istanbul, not Turkey or the Turks. Nor did he think about himself as an Arab. Just as "Turk" referred to non-Arab Muslim peasants, "Arab" referred to beduin. Someone from Damascus thought of himself as a Damascene and loyal subject of the Padishah, not an Arab.

Anyway, "Turkish" and "Ottoman" are cultural labels, not ethnic. You're a Turk because you live in Turkey, speak Turkish, and live in a Turkish (Ottoman) culture, not because you're ethnically Turkish. And even then, Turkish (Ottoman) culture is really mostly Persian fused with lots of others. If it were in essence Turkish, we'd be eating horse meat & milk and riding around all day pillaging.

Now you might here Arab nationalists complain about "Turkish domination", but that's the result of modern propaganda, not a reflection about how people felt when the empire existed. The Ottoman state was simply the government. Nobody really considered an alternative, any more than the Greeks considered an alternative to the Roman government.

 

[Don Grey]

Well put Abdul.

So Onkel whens the next update?

 

[MerryPrankster]

Re: Abdul's point about Ottoman culture being very similar to Persian (in other threads, he contrasted the Ottoman language to modern Turkish, for example), the Ottomans absorbing the Persians outright seems a lot more doable.

Still, given the size, autonomous-principality status would still be prudent.

Re: holding down Greece, will this prove problematic for the Ottomans when the second war comes? If an insurrection seizes control of the Isthmus of Corinth, that could be problematic.

 

[Abdul Hadi Pasha]

Re: Abdul's point about Ottoman culture being very similar to Persian (in other threads, he contrasted the Ottoman language to modern Turkish, for example), the Ottomans absorbing the Persians outright seems a lot more doable.

Still, given the size, autonomous-principality status would still be prudent.

Re: holding down Greece, will this prove problematic for the Ottomans when the second war comes? If an insurrection seizes control of the Isthmus of Corinth, that could be problematic.

I think given the size and geography of Persia, not to mention the lack of transport & communications, holding it outright would be a nightmare. It was a nightmare for the Persians.

It's got an inconvenient huge desert right in the middle of it, and is pretty mountainous, not to mention messy ethnically:

 

[MerryPrankster]

Re: ethnic issues, unless there's large-scale ethnic nationalism, wouldn't the multinational nature of the Ottoman Empire make this less of a problem?

Hmm...if transport/communications is going to be a problem, perhaps the territories on the other side of the desert can get away with breaking off from Persia and, say, giving their allegiance to the Afghan monarchy?

 

[Don Grey]

Re: ethnic issues, unless there's large-scale ethnic nationalism, wouldn't the multinational nature of the Ottoman Empire make this less of a problem?

Hmm...if transport/communications is going to be a problem, perhaps the territories on the other side of the desert can get away with breaking off from Persia and, say, giving their allegiance to the Afghan monarchy?

From what onkel has said massive investments have been made by the ottomans for years like rail and communication systems but large portions of persia is mountians and a big desert in the middle does make it difficulte.

 

[MerryPrankster]

Re: my idea about isolated chunks of eastern Persia swearing allegiance to Kabul, I was thinking of a revived version of this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durrani_Empire

 

[Abdul Hadi Pasha]

Re: my idea about isolated chunks of eastern Persia swearing allegiance to Kabul, I was thinking of a revived version of this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durrani_Empire

If you're going to get rid of a state, make it Afghanistan. Persia is a long-term historical unit, and a great del of Afghanistan is just plain Persian. Annex the Persian parts of it to Persia, and distribute the rest to surrounding states.

If I were the Ottomans, I would only want the Northwestern portions, which are Turkish and Kurdish. And at the time, the richest provinces.

 

[Summoner]

If you're going to get rid of a state, make it Afghanistan. Persia is a long-term historical unit, and a great del of Afghanistan is just plain Persian. Annex the Persian parts of it to Persia, and distribute the rest to surrounding states.

If I were the Ottomans, I would only want the Northwestern portions, which are Turkish and Kurdish. And at the time, the richest provinces.

Abdul what are your thoughts on OE controlling or exerting influence on any of Russia's Asian provinces (Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan etc... etc...) or even China's Xinjiang region? You make a good argument about all of Persia being too much territory. Maybe it would have just been easier to take from Russia more land around the Caspian Sea?

Keeping this map in mind ( http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Turkic_languages.png ), do you think OE could have interacted with the various other Turkic people of Asia?

 

[MerryPrankster]

Russia bowed out of the war before OTL's total collapse, so the Ottoman armies crossing the Caspian and liberating the Turkic peoples there from the Czarist yoke is not going to happen.

Yet.

 

[Don Grey]

Russia bowed out of the war before OTL's total collapse, so the Ottoman armies crossing the Caspian and liberating the Turkic peoples there from the Czarist yoke is not going to happen.

Yet.

True. But im sure they have influence over them. For a good portion of this TL russia couldnt even maintain influence in its own cities let alone central asia. And they dont have a chance to move in and liberate them with out creating a massive war with russia. When ww2 starts they can send a small force through the caspian with persian axuiliary (in exchange for there help the ottomans can give them more atonomy except for the azeri and kurdish areas) from the south into modern day turkmenistan as support would be more then enough to liberate them. Then use the turkics there as militia/insurgancies against russia while she is occupied with the main ottoman army in the caucasus plus germany and AH at there western front.

I just got an intresting idea. With otto weapons and training maybe the persians can take afghanistan for them selves to form the Greater State of Persia.If i remember correctly large portians of afghanistan speak a farsi dielect.The other portians of afghanistan could be split up amongst other nations like abdul said.No offence to afghans but i never belived they should have been a state in the first place.The upside to this is it would win the hearts and minds of the persians even more just like saying being a loyal atonomis region of the ottos your economi and land mass has ground.plus it would be a nice buffer zone between british holding and ottoman holdingd.From which the ottos can launch insurgencies and attacks on brit colonies in modern day pakistan and india or just create massive unrest as muslims under brits will see the prosperity of there muslim neighbours that are on good terms with the ottos and make a comperison on them selves under the british.

I just hope the yanks dont get in on this war or the CP is screwed.

 

[Summoner]

I just got an intresting idea. With otto weapons and training maybe the persians can take afghanistan for them selves to form the Greater State of Persia.If i remember correctly large portians of afghanistan speak a farsi dielect.The other portians of afghanistan could be split up amongst other nations like abdul said.No offence to afghans but i never belived they should have been a state in the first place.The upside to this is it would win the hearts and minds of the persians even more just like saying being a loyal atonomis region of the ottos your economi and land mass has ground.plus it would be a nice buffer zone between british holding and ottoman holdingd.From which the ottos can launch insurgencies and attacks on brit colonies in modern day pakistan and india or just create massive unrest as muslims under brits will see the prosperity of there muslim neighbours that are on good terms with the ottos and make a comperison on them selves under the british.

Sounds like a good plan but most likely unfeasible in this TL. There are many doubts in this TL as to whether OE can even control all of Persia. Adding Afghanistan to this mix may be an over-extension. After the all, look at what happened to the Russians during their invasion.

Also, looking at this map: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Afghanistan_Ethnolinguistic_Groups_1997.jpg , how would one go about partitioning Afghanistan?

Except for the northern areas which are Turkic ethnic groups, it is Iranian related people from east to west.

If OE will directly control Afghanistan, will they just give up those northern areas? If so, Russia will eventually absorb them. To the east is British India. Balochs and Pashtuns are on both sides of this OE/Persian-Indian border. If I recall correctly, even today the Pakistan-Afghan border (Durrand Land) is not recognized by Afghanistan and cuts right through Pashtun tribal area.

This map: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Durand_Line_Border_Between_Afghanistan_And_Pakistan.jpg illustrates the spread of Pashtun and Baloch groups across the border.

 

[Don Grey]

Sounds like a good plan but most likely unfeasible in this TL. There are many doubts in this TL as to whether OE can even control all of Persia. Adding Afghanistan to this mix may be an over-extension. After the all, look at what happened to the Russians during their invasion.

Also, looking at this map: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Afghanistan_Ethnolinguistic_Groups_1997.jpg , how would one go about partitioning Afghanistan?

Except for the northern areas which are Turkic ethnic groups, it is Iranian related people from east to west.

If OE will directly control Afghanistan, will they just give up those northern areas? If so, Russia will eventually absorb them. To the east is British India. Balochs and Pashtuns are on both sides of this OE/Persian-Indian border. If I recall correctly, even today the Pakistan-Afghan border (Durrand Land) is not recognized by Afghanistan and cuts right through Pashtun tribal area.

This map: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Durand_Line_Border_Between_Afghanistan_And_Pakistan.jpg illustrates the spread of Pashtun and Baloch groups across the border.

Well the ottos wont be taking afghanistan thats just insane with central asia siting there. I mean ottos can spply training and weapons to persians and maybe send some officers for command but the persians will take afghanistan for them selves hence greater state of persia.The ottos will just have nominal control over the matter and only through tahran.I mean to make it a persian holding as a buffer between otto and brit holdings ofcourse not direct ottoman control.

 

[Abdul Hadi Pasha]

If Russia didn't collapse, then there's really not much chance of gaining Turkistan. A pity...

 

[Summoner]

Well the ottos wont be taking afghanistan thats just insane with central asia siting there. I mean ottos can spply training and weapons to persians and maybe send some officers for command but the persians will take afghanistan for them selves hence greater state of persia.The ottos will just have nominal control over the matter and only through tahran.I mean to make it a persian holding as a buffer between otto and brit holdings ofcourse not direct ottoman control.

I agree with you Don Grey, but for the purpose of this TL:

In 1937, after two decades of friendly Persian-Ottoman relations, heavy Ottoman investment and involvement in the economy, a customs union, a military alliance and the increasing merger of Ottoman and Persian administration and interests had led the Ottoman Empire to exercise the Sultan’s authority as caliph. Due to this increased cooperation, consultation and integration, political and cultural differences had faded while the fear of overextension had faded with Persia’s modernized infrastructure. The whole Shi’a and Sunni Islam divide had never been as large as portrayed by the west and Anglo-Russian attempts to drive a wedge between Persia and the Ottomans over religious divides had failed. The Persian puppet Shah “accepted the authority of the caliph” and so Persia was annexed into the Ottoman Empire, albeit with an autonomous status. This made de jure what had already been de facto for more than a decade.

If this is the state of Persia, as an integral part of OE, can it be extended into Afghani and other lands? I'm wondering how much modernization and investment was done by OE to the region? What other risks are there?

For curiosity's sake, a map of Greater Persia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Greater_Iran.gif

 

[rad_vsovereign]

Speaking of Russo-Turkish war Abdul, what about your TL?
I really am eager to read it

 

[Don Grey]

If Russia didn't collapse, then there's really not much chance of gaining Turkistan. A pity...

I realy want turkistan to happen.I will even give more atonomy to persia or even independence as a loyal protectoriat if turkestan was possible. But it depends on what will happen in ww2 russia can still go down. Plus whens the next update its been w hile now is the TL over ?

 

[Don Grey]

I agree with you Don Grey, but for the purpose of this TL:



If this is the state of Persia, as an integral part of OE, can it be extended into Afghani and other lands? I'm wondering how much modernization and investment was done by OE to the region? What other risks are there?

For curiosity's sake, a map of Greater Persia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Greater_Iran.gif

I would like to know exactly how much investment has happen in persia from what i got from the update its quite alot.

And that map is just insane. The ones that seem possible because of language is tajikistan and afghanistan. But lets look at the other minorities which will not be happy with persian rule. Because unlike ottoman rule with persia you will be persianized. You have araba kurds armenian georgian pakistani. Then ther comes the Turkics: anatolian turks, turcomens, azeris, kyrgiz and uzbeks.Persia cant achive this atleast not in this time plus large portions of its territory are not too fond of persian plus you also have to deal with sunnies and christians. I just dont think theres enough persians. Pre-islam its possible even better if its pre-christianity. These eras persian didnt have to many rivals and they were a dominant power. But post islam is to hard if you ask me to many variables to deal with.

Persia is not uncanquerable ghanzi empire the seljuks and the timurids did it. But like china persians have a annoying tendancy to asimilate there conquerers. The only thing that saved the persian from being conquerd by the ottomans was culture and strategic locations. Its easy to invade persia from the east and north east but not from the west because of the logistics (mountains). If selim had lived longer he would have taken atleast a big chunck of persia. Sure persia had a fine army but nothing near what the ottos could muster.I always got annoyed the the ottomans constantly busted there head against the hapsbhurgs and tryed to annex hungary ( they should have just vessalised the dame thing) while they already had a fair chunck of balkans.If suleyman realy wanted to go in to europe and help the french at the same time he should have just taken more of the north western coastal areas of the balkans instead of the ottos seiging vienna twice! Sorry is just get real mad at senceless ottoman mistakes.

 

[Onkel Willie]

Update . I hope I didn't go too far with bashing Britain and Russia. If so, point it out to me.

EDIT: I split the update into two parts because of the size.

Chapter VI: World War II, 1940 – 1945.​

After an interbellum of nearly 25 years or a quarter century, the great powers of the world had gone to war again, boldly as ever before. The war would last some five years and cost the lives of 60 million people on fronts ranging from the Ganges to Africa and then Central-Eastern Europe. The war started with the unfolding of the war plans by both sides. Germany in the interbellum years had managed to maintain a large standing army as well as compete with Britain in a race for naval supremacy and prestige, a race which countries like Japan, Italy, Austria and the Ottoman Empire all too gladly joined, thus decreasing the relative power of the British Empire which would fight valiantly one more time before its downfall and long descent to what it has become today. At the same time, Germany, Austria and the Ottoman Empire would rise to defend their status of great power and ascend to super power status.

In the west, the French army invaded the Walloon rump state with the Germans launching their own counter invasion to pre-empt this French move which had been expected since Germany had strengthened its border defences too. The French army based themselves on putting as much firepower into the hands of the individual soldier as possible to negate Germany’s numerical superiority. Wallonia was overrun while the French also occupied Dutch Flanders and the south of the Netherlands up to the river delta that split the Netherlands in two. Here potent and larger German-Dutch forces stopped the French invasion. Germany, after the war, had invested in armour and airpower as France had done and the Imperial German Air Force outnumbered the French Royal Air Force in the skies while the German panzerwaffe was very powerful too. Italy was neutral, but this issue was solved when the Italians discovered agents-provocateurs in Algeria, their new colony, and they were successfully trying to stir up a rebellion from disgruntled French colonists who wanted to rejoin their fatherland. Italy therefore declared war in April 1940 after French offensives had been halted on the Meuse and German border defences and with the Germans planning their own counteroffensives while the Russian giant decided to act decisively in these opening phases of the war because they knew they would lose a protracted war on multiple fronts. Russia wanted to regain all the territories lost in the Great War, also known as World War I, and they pursued this goal without regard for the odds stacked against them with their enemies having the Motherland boxed in on all sides. The government of the Russian Empire knew that this was their last chance to recover from nearly a century’s worth of territorial losses and defeats since the Crimean War lest they be ground into the dust by the unstoppable progress of time. 15 million Russian soldiers invaded on a front running from the Barents Sea to the Black Sea in Russia’s stratagem to decide this war with one knockout blow. Russian forces indeed overran much of Finland although they were punished by the destruction of much of the Russian Baltic Fleet by the Imperial German Navy which dominated the Baltic Sea. The Baltic states were overrun in a matter of days too which created a joyous situation in St. Petersburg as success seemed within arm’s reach. Further south, their numerical superiority led to the overrunning of Galicia although the Austrian army managed to retreat and regroup in an orderly fashion further south although these defeats were somewhat troublesome for morale. On the Balkan front, Romania was completely overrun after two weeks due to the sheer momentum of the Russian offensive known as Northern Storm. Russia’s enormous offensive, however, lacked clear strategic goals beyond settling irredentist claims based on a quick march into said territories. The logistical situation in western Russia was also a suffocating one as the limited road and railroad network, although heavily expanded in the inter-war years, was not sufficient to supply the Russian army that was barging toward the Vistula by April where they were stopped after the battles of Danzig and Warsaw after organized German limited counterattacks with good Polish performance since they were bent on preserving their independence. Little more than limited counterattacks were undertaken since the German General Staff, although considering border defence paramount, realized that this offensive was too large to stop in one operation. The frontlines finally stabilized in early May after a tempestuous Russian advance that caused a lot of damage and losses on a line from Danzig through Warsaw, to Przemysl and from Bukovina on to southern Dobrudja. Russian losses, in the meantime, were murderous as their army had seen little reform to a more modern armoured force, still relying large on massive numbers and infantry although some better weapons had been introduced, including a small tank weapon and the largest air force in the world, if slightly obsolescent. The quality of the officers corps had also been improved upon after the end of the outdated promotion based on social status rather than competence and skill. Nonetheless, the Russians had been stopped and no decisive victory had been achieved, a failure for Russia and France alike with Germany, the Ottoman Empire and Austria settling in for the long haul.

The French consolidated their gains with the arrival of timely Spanish reinforcements to safeguard their border with Italy so France could focus on Germany. A British Expeditionary Force the size of a two corps was deployed to France through Calais and took over French efforts in the Netherlands where strong Dutch defences, such as the Water Line, were held by entrenched Dutch and German forces. Entente forces on the western front now occupied a frontline running the swath of territory from Rotterdam, along the river Meuse and Franco-German border and interrupted by Switzerland all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. While assessing the situation and means available, Germany and Italy agreed to a joint offensive in the autumn of 1940 with Germany’s war making potential kicking in fully. On the eastern, Caucasus and Middle Eastern fronts, in the meantime, the Ottomans were preparing their own offensives for the summer of 1940 which would free up German forces to squash France and Spain while the Ottomans and the Austrians dealt with Russia, using their joint long border on the west and much of the south of Russia as an advantage, a weakness that the Russians were all too well aware of, but which they couldn’t solve with the means available. The Ottomans had recaptured Baku and Tiflis by August after fierce battles against the defending Russians who used the mountainous landscape to their advantage. This ended a six month occupation that had begun in March 1940 although the Russians left Baku destroyed to deprive the Ottomans of its oil production even though the Sublime Porte controlled many more oil supplies throughout her domains. Starting in summer 1940 the Porte also increased her support to Central Asian rebels against Russian rule massively, equipping them with modern weapons, vehicles, a petroleum supply and military advisors, thus igniting a rebellion that would grow into a full-fledged pan-Turanist and pan-Islamic independence movement which strived for an independent Central Asian state of Turkestan with the approval of the caliph in Constantinople. The Russians now had to divert more forces to Central Asia which weakened their efforts elsewhere, which was aggravated after the Japanese invaded from the east on German request, promising them oil from the Dutch East Indies as the Netherlands were an ally. The Japanese marched for Vladivostok in April although its location on a peninsula and its strong redoubts, trench lines, fortifications and naval artillery support led the Japanese to besiege the city instead, cutting it off by land with the army and by sea with the Imperial Japanese Navy. In the meantime, the Far Eastern Squadron of the Russian navy, which been stripped of ships to strengthen the Northern and Baltic Fleets, was all but destroyed as it tried to break the Japanese blockade of Vladivostok, save for a few of the larger ships. The Japanese also defeated the French garrison in French Indochina which threatened the oil export form the Dutch East Indies to Japan and the Japanese sent troops to help the Dutch defend their colony.

A Polish offensive attempted by the Poles themselves in August failed as Germany had given high priority to the western front. With the stabilization of the eastern front, troops could go west to defeat France. The October offensive by Germany and Italy was successful since even the Franco-Spanish combine couldn’t fight a two-front war. The alpine front was bloody since the French used the mountainous terrain to their advantage. In Belgium the French destroyed the bridges on the Meuse river and entrenched themselves for lack of a better option although the French leadership knew they had lost the initiative after they hadn’t succeeded in taking the Ruhr Area, their main strategic objective while Russia was expected to take Silesia which would cripple the German war machine. Germany switched to full war production which still dwarfed French production, more so since the loss of the Briey-Longwy region in 1914 constituted the loss of 1/5 of France’s heavy industry. In the naval theatre in the Mediterranean, a struggle was going on between the Entente and the Central Powers too. The Austrian, Italian and Ottoman navies dominated the eastern Mediterranean while the French and British dominated the western part and attempted to blockade Italian ports although land links with the Ottomans ensured that they had all the fuel they needed to fight on while food production would have to last until the blockade was broken. This British effort in the Mediterranean was becoming increasingly difficult with the Germans sending ships to Scandinavian ports to spread out in the Atlantic and cut off Russia’s northern ports of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk which completely isolated Russia since the Baltic, the Black Sea ports and Vladivostok were blockaded. The Ottoman navy had grown large enough to compete with the Royal Navy’s position in the Mediterranean Sea as well as the Indian Ocean thanks to the enormous oil revenue which had made funding a naval building program easy.

In the meantime, by the start of December 1940, German forces had broken a stubborn Anglo-French defence in the Battle of Namur where the Entente had entrenched themselves with strong artillery and air support, forming a strong pocket of resistance. German forces broke out into Dutch Flanders and liberated much of Wallonia before the end of the year, taking Charleroi where the French had employed mustard gas to stop the German army. The Germans proceeded to invade northern France while Italian forces conquered Toulon. With the French army becoming increasingly divided between north and south, the Central Powers’ advance sped up although the French fought a ferocious defence, and their Spanish allies a little less so since many Spanish felt they were fighting for France’s sake and not Spain’s sake despite having been spoon-fed Catholic-reactionary propaganda. The French war effort weakened and the state machinery built around years of ultranationalist propaganda and belief in “final victory” crumbled as the Gaullist regime failed to make true on its claim although the French refused to surrender and repeat the shame of 1914. The Spanish half of the personal union were encouraged to fight on after Italy had manifested the intent to annex the Balearics and Gibraltar in the event of victory while balkanizing Spain itself. The French and Spanish armies, after the fall of Paris in January 1941, made a fighting retreat to the screen of the Pyrenees until February where they regrouped and formed a strong defensive line in the mountains. De Gaulle and King Alphonse I/Alfonso XIII set up shop in Madrid while the French Atlantic fleet was ordered to sail for Britain to continue the war from there and assist in fighting the German navy the defeat of which was vital for victory over the German Empire which seemed further away than ever. The fall of France went hand in hand with the capture of French navy ships in port after Italian forces took Marseille, thus changing the balance of power in the western Mediterranean Sea in favour of the Central Powers. This made the entire Mediterranean Sea a Central Powers’ lake once more as the Spanish navy was not large enough to tip the balance back again. This also made resupply of forces in Africa easier. German and Italian forces had gone to Africa through the Ottoman Empire’s north-south railroad connections which made logistical problems in Central Africa a lot less urgent. German and Italian troops had invaded Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika and Northern Rhodesia with a number of small scale but ultimately successful offensives which forced Britain to divert valuable armies here which could now not be put to use in British India and Afghanistan where Ottoman offensives put border defences under pressure, leading to fears of a breakout into British India proper as Kabul fell in May 1941 and a rebellion flared up in the Muslim parts of British India, fuelled by the Sultan’s authority as caliph and his moral, political and military support.

1941 was not a better year for the Entente than 1940. Russia was ejected from Polish territory by joint German-Polish-Austrian offensives, liberating Warsaw in April 1941 after a fierce struggle which left the Polish capital devastated. Ottoman offensives were successful in retaking Poti and later Abkhazia after the Russians had mounted a successful alpine guerrilla-style defence in the Caucasus mountains. Russia’s deteriorating strategic situation made an Ottoman breakthrough easier. From here they started to stir up unrest among the Muslim Chechen and Dagestani populations although the Russians fought street-to-street battles for every village and every hovel, and not only here but on the western front too where Odessa and Lithuania were taken in June while the Japanese broke the siege of Vladivostok after over a year of siege which had now finally exhausted Russian foodstuffs and ammunition. The Russians glorified the heroic defence although of the 30.000 remaining defenders few looked like the heroes in propaganda and more like starving, walking corpses. Despite this situation, however, Russia was not beaten since it had invested heavily in industrial and agricultural development far from Russia’s borders, mainly in the Urals. Russia would fight on as it could not let itself be humiliated again. The Spanish theatre was somewhat better since the lacking infrastructure and bad logistics hampered German efforts to complete the conquest of Spain. German forces would break through the defences in the Pyrenees in the winter of 1941-’42 and establish a new frontline on the Ebro river which would hold for a long time. Germany, in the meantime, upgraded efforts against Britain with the Royal Navy dispersed more and more to defend Great Britain’s global empire. The German navy expanded quickly with war production and naval superiority would swing in favour of Germany in the second half of 1941, leading to a siege like situation as the Germans attacked supply lines to Britain. They attempted to starve Britain of food, natural resources and other imports and into submission by destroying merchant shipping. Supply lines from India to Britain also came under threat increasingly, leading to a divided empire more and more as reinforcements couldn’t go from one to the other theatre anymore.