Berlin-Baghdad Express : The Ottoman Empire and Germany's Bid for World Power, 1898-1918

by McMeekin, Sean

• ISBN13: 9780674057395
• ISBN10: 0674057392
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-09-15
• Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr

Summary

The modern Middle East was forged in the crucible of the First World War, but few know the full story of how war actually came to the region. As Sean McMeekin reveals in this startling reinterpretation of the war, it was neither the British nor the French but rather a small clique of Germans and Turks who thrust the Islamic world into the conflict for their own political, economic, and military ends.The Berlin-Baghdad Express tells the fascinating story of how Germany exploited Ottoman pan-Islamism in order to destroy the British Empire, then the largest Islamic power in the world. Meanwhile the Young Turks harnessed themselves to German military might to avenge Turkey's hereditary enemy, Russia. Told from the perspective of the key decision-makers on the Turco-German side, many of the most consequential events of World War I-Turkeyrs"s entry into the war, Gallipoli, the Armenian massacres, the Arab revolt, and the Russian Revolution-are illuminated as never before.Drawing on a wealth of new sources, McMeekin forces us to re-examine Western interference in the Middle East and its lamentable results. It is an epic tragicomedy of unintended consequences, as Turkish nationalists give Russia the war it desperately wants, jihad begets an Islamic insurrection in Mecca, German sabotage plots upend the Tsar delivering Turkey from Russia's yoke, and German Zionism midwifes the Balfour Declaration. All along, the story is interwoven with the drama surrounding German efforts to complete the Berlin to Baghdad railway, the weapon designed to win the war and assure German hegemony over the Middle East.

Table of Contents

List of Maps	p. xi
List of Abbreviations	p. xiii
A Note on Names and Translations	p. xv
Prologue: The View from Haydarpasha	p. 1
The Vision
The Kaiser, the Baron and the Dragoman	p. 7
Berlin to Baghdad	p. 32
Young Turks and Old Caliphs	p. 54
The Prophet Armed
A gift from Mars: German Holy War Fever	p. 85
The War for the Porte	p. 100
The First Global Jihad: Death to Infidels Everywhere! (Unless they be Germans, Austrians, Hungarians, Americans or - Possibly - Italians)	p. 123
Adventures in German Jihad
Parting the Red Sea	p. 141
An Austrian in Arabia	p. 153
Showdown at the Suez Canal	p. 166
Gallipoli: From Disaster to Triumph	p. 180
The Blood of the Prophet	p. 191
The Shia Stratagem	p. 201
To the Gates of India	p. 209
Boomerang
Trouble on the Baghdad Railway	p. 233
The Reluctant Mahdi	p. 259
Iranian Implosion	p. 275
Betrayal in Mecca	p. 288
The Holy War Devours its Children	p. 301
Consolation Prize? The Race for Baku	p. 318
Epilogue: The Strange Death of German Zionism and the Nazi-Muslim Connection	p. 340
Notes	p. 367
Bibliography	p. 413
Acknowledgements	p. 427
Index	p. 431
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