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The War That Made the Middle East: World War I and the End of the Ottoman Empire
A new history that tells the story of how European imperial ambitions destroyed the Ottoman Empire during the Great War and created a divided and unstable Middle East
The Ottoman Empire’s collapse at the end of the First World War is often treated as a foregone conclusion. It was only a matter of time, the story goes, before the so-called Sick Man of Europe succumbed to its ailments—incompetent management, nationalism, and ethnic and religious conflict. In The War That Made the Middle East, Mustafa Aksakal overturns this conventional narrative. He describes how European imperial ambitions and the Ottoman commitment to saving its empire at any cost—including the destruction of the Armenian community and the deaths of more than a million Ottoman troops and other civilians—led to the empire’s violent partition and created a politically unstable Middle East.
The War That Made the Middle East shows that, until 1914, the Ottoman Empire was a viable multiethnic, multireligious state, and that relations between the Arabs, Jews, Muslims, and Christians of Palestine were relatively stable. When war broke out, the Ottoman government sought an alliance with the Entente but was rejected because of British and French designs on the Eastern Mediterranean. After the Ottomans entered the fight on the side of Germany and were defeated, Britain and France seized Ottoman lands and new national elites in former Ottoman territories claimed their own states. The region was renamed “the Middle East,” erasing a robust and modernizing 600-year-old empire.
A sweeping narrative of war, great power politics, and ordinary people caught up in the devastation, The War That Made the Middle East offers new insights about the Great War and its profound and lasting consequences.
The Ottoman Empire’s collapse at the end of the First World War is often treated as a foregone conclusion. It was only a matter of time, the story goes, before the so-called Sick Man of Europe succumbed to its ailments—incompetent management, nationalism, and ethnic and religious conflict. In The War That Made the Middle East, Mustafa Aksakal overturns this conventional narrative. He describes how European imperial ambitions and the Ottoman commitment to saving its empire at any cost—including the destruction of the Armenian community and the deaths of more than a million Ottoman troops and other civilians—led to the empire’s violent partition and created a politically unstable Middle East.
The War That Made the Middle East shows that, until 1914, the Ottoman Empire was a viable multiethnic, multireligious state, and that relations between the Arabs, Jews, Muslims, and Christians of Palestine were relatively stable. When war broke out, the Ottoman government sought an alliance with the Entente but was rejected because of British and French designs on the Eastern Mediterranean. After the Ottomans entered the fight on the side of Germany and were defeated, Britain and France seized Ottoman lands and new national elites in former Ottoman territories claimed their own states. The region was renamed “the Middle East,” erasing a robust and modernizing 600-year-old empire.
A sweeping narrative of war, great power politics, and ordinary people caught up in the devastation, The War That Made the Middle East offers new insights about the Great War and its profound and lasting consequences.
264 pages, Hardcover
First published January 13, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 18, 2026
A story of the First World War and the final unraveling of the multinational, multiethnic Ottoman Empire. Britain, France, Italy, and Russia conspired - and contested - to wrest land and peoples away from the declining Ottomans. The government in Istanbul, headed by a Unionist party convinced of the disloyalty of many of its non-Turkish inhabitants (where manifest, a disloyalty deliberately nurtured by European/Russian predators), carried out its own campaign to uproot and neutralize whole communities of Armenians, Kurds, Arabs, and others suspected to be traitorous. Assaulted from without and within, the 500-year-old Ottoman Empire dissolved into the mists of time. The very concept of a multiethnic state having disappeared, the postwar Middle East began the third decade of the twentieth century as an arena of incessant conflict, as it remains today.
A well-written, insightful, and ultimately depressing tale.
A well-written, insightful, and ultimately depressing tale.
July 30, 2026
A dull book that makes up for it in content. The author's main point is that the Ottoman Empire could have survived had it not joined the First World War, and that things like the Armenian Genocide came out of that war. But everything gets overshadowed by the "greatness" of Enver Pasha, the Ottoman Napoleon, the hero of Sarikamish. Honestly though, this guy might be the worst general of all time — I was too rough on Chichagov and the unfortunate Mack, thinking about it now.
The premise is that the CUP government fought two wars: one against the Entente, one against its own people. And it was the second that cost them the empire. Solid arguments for it. I need to read a lot more on the Ottomans to see if it holds.
There's also a bit near the end, around 1915, where the government wants Turkish as the national language for the whole empire. Reads tragically funny from India, where our lower house is chewing on the same shit. History do rhyme, man, it do. Hope we don't end up like the Ottomans.
The premise is that the CUP government fought two wars: one against the Entente, one against its own people. And it was the second that cost them the empire. Solid arguments for it. I need to read a lot more on the Ottomans to see if it holds.
There's also a bit near the end, around 1915, where the government wants Turkish as the national language for the whole empire. Reads tragically funny from India, where our lower house is chewing on the same shit. History do rhyme, man, it do. Hope we don't end up like the Ottomans.
February 16, 2026
Excellent historical writing fascinating subject to me.
June 25, 2026
This book looks at the Ottoman Empire during, and in the period immediately leading up to, World War I. His question is whether the Empire could have survived the war, if it had not participated, or if it had backed the side that won.
The author focuses on European influence on the Empire, and how that influence undermined the Empire's minorities (especially Christians) over the long run. I thought the author made a good case, and addressed an important part of Middle Eastern history. However, he blamed all of the Empire's problems on European interference, which I thought was a bit unfair. I am glad to see Middle Eastern scholars looking at the region, and pointing out the problems with European influence, but I think they often go too far in looking at outside influence, leaving the reader with the impression that there were no domestic sources of weakness.
The author looks at the Committee of Union and Progress, its rise to power in the early 20th century, and its influence on World War I. I found this part of the book compelling, and it covered a period that I am not overly familiar with. The author emphasized the presence of minorities (particularly Greeks and Armenians) in the Ottoman parliament, and their loyalty to the Ottoman Empire. In particular, he argues that Greeks in the Empire were not necessarily loyal to the independent state of Greece, but saw themselves as loyal subjects of the sultan. The author provides numerous examples of how this worked, but did not provide evidence that the majority of Christians (and other minorities) within the Empire preferred to remain Ottoman subjects, rather than seeking independence. The book left it unclear whether the cases that he cited were outliers or were more common. Also, he argues that the killing of Armenians and Greeks by the Ottoman government was not planned in advance, although it began less than a year after the Empire entered World War I. He argues that the stresses related to the war led to the persecution of minorities, and hence to the collapse of the Empire.
The book looks at different subjects, beginning with the Empire's economic problems, and how those weakened the government, and led to rebellion (both among minorities and among Turks). From there, he looks at how the government took the decision to liquidate its Christian population. Overall, I think this was a well-researched book, which presents the Turkish view sympathetically, but is also fair to the other sides of the argument.
The author focuses on European influence on the Empire, and how that influence undermined the Empire's minorities (especially Christians) over the long run. I thought the author made a good case, and addressed an important part of Middle Eastern history. However, he blamed all of the Empire's problems on European interference, which I thought was a bit unfair. I am glad to see Middle Eastern scholars looking at the region, and pointing out the problems with European influence, but I think they often go too far in looking at outside influence, leaving the reader with the impression that there were no domestic sources of weakness.
The author looks at the Committee of Union and Progress, its rise to power in the early 20th century, and its influence on World War I. I found this part of the book compelling, and it covered a period that I am not overly familiar with. The author emphasized the presence of minorities (particularly Greeks and Armenians) in the Ottoman parliament, and their loyalty to the Ottoman Empire. In particular, he argues that Greeks in the Empire were not necessarily loyal to the independent state of Greece, but saw themselves as loyal subjects of the sultan. The author provides numerous examples of how this worked, but did not provide evidence that the majority of Christians (and other minorities) within the Empire preferred to remain Ottoman subjects, rather than seeking independence. The book left it unclear whether the cases that he cited were outliers or were more common. Also, he argues that the killing of Armenians and Greeks by the Ottoman government was not planned in advance, although it began less than a year after the Empire entered World War I. He argues that the stresses related to the war led to the persecution of minorities, and hence to the collapse of the Empire.
The book looks at different subjects, beginning with the Empire's economic problems, and how those weakened the government, and led to rebellion (both among minorities and among Turks). From there, he looks at how the government took the decision to liquidate its Christian population. Overall, I think this was a well-researched book, which presents the Turkish view sympathetically, but is also fair to the other sides of the argument.
May 9, 2026
Short and readable, a story of how Western imperialism and its terrors prompted the revolutionary Young Turk regime to engage in imperialism of its own, with persecution of wars, mainly World War One, breaking up the Ottoman Empire and destroying Turks' relations with the empire's Christian, Arab, Kurdish populations. Of the range of sources used, diaries, particularly of the Spanish consul in Jerusalem, were most interesting. Not exactly clear why so many passages from archival sources were also presented in the original, because the author seldom explained the nuances in terminology and why they mattered.
July 20, 2026
This is a lesson of history that a multiethenic federating unit when starts opressing its ethenic or other miniorities and start blaming them for being unpatriotic just to hide its economic and political failures the result is always chaos and breakdown.
January 28, 2026
Death of Empire and its consequences...
Just as the breakup of the Austro‑Hungarian Monarchy, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire was a catastrophe that brought only misery to the world. This book by Aksakal is a great revisionist work; however, the author unfortunately gets stuck on the grasshopper famine. Overall, the “revision” (truth) really should get out there, into the public consciousness. An important book, though it could be organized better.
3.5*
Just as the breakup of the Austro‑Hungarian Monarchy, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire was a catastrophe that brought only misery to the world. This book by Aksakal is a great revisionist work; however, the author unfortunately gets stuck on the grasshopper famine. Overall, the “revision” (truth) really should get out there, into the public consciousness. An important book, though it could be organized better.
3.5*
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews