the beginnings of ottoman-german partnership - Bilkent University

allowing German economic penetration into his Empire would prevent Russia from
achieving its ambitions in the Balkans, the Straits and Eastern Anatolia. On the other
hand, when Britain joined those who wanted to partition the Ottoman Empire after
the Congress of Berlin, Germany replaced Britain as the new diplomatic protector.
Abdulhamid's policy that alleviated the ambitions of France, Russia and Great
Britain by using Germany worked well. Basically he applied the policy of divide and
conquer on the Great Powers, with considerable success. Germany became a serious
rival of those Great Powers in the Ottoman Empire, and this, in turn, created more
sophisticated power struggle in the Eastern Question. When Abdülhamid requested
German military officers and trainers from Wilhelm II, relations between Germany
and the Ottoman Empire improved further. 50 To what extent this military help
profited the Ottomans is debatable, but it certainly benefited German economic
enterprises such as Krupp and Mauser, and bolstered German economic penetration
in the Ottoman Empire. Before the Balkan Wars (1912-1913), the Ottoman army's
equipment was modernized, but full-scale efforts were not made to reform the army
structure, its officer corps and chain of command. German military, economic, and
diplomatic dealings in the Ottoman Empire surely gave a new dynamism to the
Ottomans. Although Abdulhamid had reformist domestic policies, he never wanted
to risk the status quo of the empire by becoming an official ally of Germany since
this would alienate Britain and France and leave Germany in control. He never let
Germany have a say in defense policy. 51 German military officers were never
allowed to initiate drastic changes in the Ottoman army since Abdulhamid felt that a
powerful army most certainly would constitute a major menace to his autocratic
50 Feroz Ahmad, ‘Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nun Sonu’, in Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nun Sonu ve Büyük
Güçler, ed. by Marian Kent (İstanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, 1999), pp. 11-12.
51 Mustafa Gencer, ‘Osmanlı-Alman Münasebetleri Çerçevesinde Şark Meselesi’, Türkler (Cilt 13),
(Ankara: Yeni Türkiye Yayınları, 2002), pp. 36-37.
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