Sultan Abdulhamid's Counter Revolution - 1909

In this episode of Explaining History, Nick returns to the turbulent twilight of the Ottoman Empire. Following the euphoria of the 1908 Young Turk Revolution, disillusionment quickly set in. We explore the 1909 Counter-Revolution, where religious conservatives and mutinous soldiers attempted to roll back constitutional rule and restore the Sultan's absolute power.

But the restoration of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) did not bring stability. Instead, it exposed deep ethnic fault lines. Drawing on Eugene Rogan's The Fall of the Ottomans, we examine how the "Armenian Question" metastasized from a demand for civil rights into a pretext for mass murder.

From the massacres in Adana to the cynical interventions of European powers, we trace the road to the first genocide of the 20th century. How did the fear of partition radicalize the Ottoman state? And what role did the Great Powers play in turning ethnic tension into catastrophe?

Listen to this episode advert free on Patreon here

Also, you can sign up for the Explaining History Russian Revolution Masterclass here

Key Topics:

• The 1909 Counter-Revolution: The failed attempt to restore Islamic law and absolutism.
• The Armenian Question: How demands for autonomy were viewed as an existential threat.
• The Adana Massacres: The prelude to the genocide of 1915.
• European Intervention: How Western meddling exacerbated sectarian violence.

Books Mentioned:

• The Fall of the Ottomans by Eugene Rogan

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