British Policy Towards the Ottoman Empire
and the Origins of the Dardanelles Campaign
The
second volume ofthe Straits Trilogyby Geoffrey Miller
Volume
I: Superior Force
: the conspiracy behind the escape of Goeben and
Breslau
Volume
II: Straits
: British Policy towards the Ottoman
Empire and the Origins of the Dardanelles Campaign
Volume
III: The Millstone
: British Naval Policy in the Mediterranean,
1900-1914, the Commitment to France and British Intervention in the War
These books
provide a comprehensive account of British naval and diplomatic policy in the two decades
prior to the Great War, focusing in particular on the escape of the German ships
Goeben
and Breslau [Superior Force], the origins of the Dardanelles Campaign
[Straits], and the
political and diplomatic imperatives behind the British decision to enter the
war in August 1914 [The Millstone].
Each non-fiction title by Geoffrey Miller has its
own dedicated web-site.
On all of these sites the ENTIRE TEXT IS AVAILABLE.
For further information on each
individual title, please select a link below or click on a cover to go to that
book's web-site.
On 19 February 1915 the guns of the
massed Anglo-French fleet off Cape Helles opened fire on targets on the
European and Asiatic shores of the Ottoman Empire. The Dardanelles
campaign had begun. There is, however, little in-depth analysis of the
way in which the campaign came about. Turkey’s pre-war alignment with
Germany culminated with the signatures of the German Ambassador and
Turkish Grand Vizier on the formal Treaty of Alliance on the afternoon
of Sunday, 2 August 1914, but for months the treaty remained no more
than a scrap of paper. The Turks mobilized only as fast as their
moribund economy allowed while at the same time continuing to give the
outward appearance of an anxious, if hardly disinterested, neutral.
The menacing days of August passed; the Turks prevaricated, neither in
the War nor immune from it. Unable to contain himself any longer, the
First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, actively sought Greek
co-operation for a planned major offensive against the Turks at the
Dardanelles. His plea for assistance reached the British Officer at the
head of the Greek Navy, Rear-Admiral Mark Kerr, who set impossible
conditions which he knew would result in the proposal being rejected in
London. With his plans having thus gone awry, Churchill turned his gaze
away from the plain of Troy — temporarily.
By October, 1914 the patience of the Germans had also snapped. With the
connivance of the Turkish Minister of War, but against the wishes of the
majority of the Turkish Cabinet, the German Admiral at the head of the
Turkish Navy single-handedly forced the issue. At the helm of the
magnificent battle cruiser Goeben, which had escaped from the pursuing
British Squadron in the first days of the war and had sought refuge at
Constantinople, Admiral Souchon steamed into the Black Sea and
deliberately shelled Russian ships, ports and shore installations. The
Turks, reluctant to the last, were finally propelled into the war. Yet,
would this outcome have eventuated without the presence of Souchon and
Goeben? The Turkish fleet by itself was too weak to risk a sortie in the
Black Sea. Without Goeben could the issue have been forced? Now that the
Turks had become involuntarily embroiled in the War, Churchill’s eyes
once more turned eastward.
STRAITS takes the opening bombardment at the Dardanelles not as the
starting point but as its culmination in an endeavour to explain how it
was that Turkey was aligned with Germany — a ruinous alliance which was
by no means preordained. British diplomatic policy towards the Ottoman
Empire failed comprehensively when the result could have been so
different. Why, for example, was every Turkish appeal for an alliance
with Britain rebuffed? The Young Turk revolution of 1908 presented the
British Foreign Office with a quandary — to support the new régime,
which had successfully restored the constitution, or continue to remain
aloof, as had been the policy during the reign of Abdul the Damned.
Support was grudgingly provided but the improved British position at the
Sublime Porte was jeopardized by two events: the new Ambassador, who was
deeply antagonistic to the new régime, and the Anglo-Russian convention
which meant that the British Foreign Secretary had to try somehow to
support the Turks without alienating the Russians.
The common thread running through the book is the struggle to control
the Straits of the Dardanelles and Bosphorus from the period when the
British Squadron at Malta commanded the Mediterranean Sea unopposed at
the turn of the century through to the disintegration of the Ottoman
Empire first as a result of the Turco-Italian and Balkan Wars and then
following Turkey’s forced, and ultimately disastrous, entry into World
War I. This struggle encompassed Russian aspirations, Greek ambition,
French colonial ardour and British Imperial and oil considerations — all
underpinned by the constant desire of the Turks themselves to prevent
the collapse of their Empire.
British diplomatic policy towards the Ottoman Empire failed
comprehensively when the result could have been so different.
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Geoffrey Miller
can be contacted by:
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01262 850943
[International: +44 1262 850943]
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"Straits
is a masterpiece of historical scholarship. Also
highly recommended is Geoffrey Miller’s Superior
Force tracing the escape of the German battle
cruiser Goeben and her consort Breslau in the
first days of the war into the Dardanelles."
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