'Historical Summary of Events in Territories of the Ottoman Empire, Persia and Arabia affecting the British Position in the Persian Gulf, 1907-1928' [‎5v] (17/188)

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looked. Enver's personal ambitions, the demands of the t an- Turks, and the national
tradition of Russia as the mortal enemy, all required the chief Turkish military effort
to be directed against Caucasia. As long as Turkey held command of the Black
Sea, the line of communications for her armies on the eastern front would be by water
to Trebizond, and thence by the great road—constructed more than fifty years ago
and maintained for the requirements of Turkish defence against Russia on this front
-—to the fortress of Erzerum. In point of time it saved weeks; in point of capacity
for marching troops and heavy traffic no other route compared with in. In fact, the
success of the military operations the War party had in view, and the immediate and
dazzling triumph Enver saw in prospect for himself, were only to be achieved by
use of the Black Sea route to Trebizond. And after having retaken the provinces
lost to Russia in 1878 and reoccupied Batum—as was hoped might be done—control
of the Black Sea route would be more necessary than ever for the further operations
contemplated. In the absence of the two new Turkish battleships requisitioned in
England by His Majesty's Government on the outbreak of war, all the hopes of the
C.U.P. and the Pan-Turks, all the fortunes of Enver Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. and the ruling
group, hung upon the " Goeben." The return of this vessel caused the War party to
be as anxious for war against Russia as ever.
To this extent then had German policy in Turkey, directed to reaching the
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , been successful. The Ottoman Empire was now to be thrown into the
struggle under leaders deeply committed to Germany, yet compelled, by Turkish
feeling, and resolved, in furtherance of their own ambitions, to attempt the
realisation of Turkish Nationalist war aims widely at variance with those of their
great ally.
Chapter (2).—Persia (1908-14).
Persian history during the last twenty years has been greatly influenced by the
development of national feeling, though not in the violent and surprising form
exhibited in Turkey during the same period. The quickening of dry bones in Persia
preceded the similar movement in Turkey and furnished example and encouragement
to the Young Turks of 1907-8.
Popular resentment against the granting of valuable concessions to foreigners
by the Shah, and the gathering force of a demand for constitutional liberty had
become visible to the world by 1905. Rapidly gaining in strength, the constitutional
movement had extorted the greater part of its demands by 1906. Elections were held
and the first Majlis or National Assembly met in October of that year and drafted
the Constitution, which received the Shah's signature on the 1st January, 1907.
The Shah from whom these reforms had been wrung died a few days later. His
successor, Muhammed Ali Shah, at once devoted himself to combatting the
constitutional movement and destroying the Constitution imposed on his predecessor.
At this point it becomes necessary to glance at the Anglo-Russian Convention of
1907, concluded a few months after Muhammed Ali Shah ascended the throne, for it
greatly influenced the course of events in Persia up to the end of the war in 1918.
For many years Persia had come within that sphere in Asia in which British
and Russian interests were in opposition. In the kingdom of the Shahs Russia saw
the ultimate possibility of reaching, on the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , the warm water coastline
that had so long been one of her national aims. From the days of Peter the Great
onwards, she had regarded Persia as an easy field for successful aggression. Under
the treaties of Gulistan, in 1813, and Turkmanchai, in 1828, she had forced the Shah
to cede to her in perpetuity eleven of his valuable northern provinces, as well as
compelling his acceptance of the condition that no Persian war vessel should ever
be maintained on the Caspian. Between 1828 and 1907 Russia's southward advance
in Persia had been interrupted. But from about 1840 she had pressed her conquests
in Central Asia, and by 1885 had established a common frontier with Afghanistan.
The " threat to India " so set up forced upon Great Britain an attitude of watchful
precaution, determined the relations between the two Powers and profoundly affected
the course of British xurcign policy
After the Russo-Japanese war of 1904 it became evident that Russia was once
more turning her attention to Persia. But now other high considerations of policy
intervened. The increase of German population, wealth and power in the last quarter
of the 19th century was creating a danger in Central Europe to which France and
Russia had long been alive, and against which they had allied themselves in 1892.
From the time of the South African war (1899-1902) onwards, the growing
ambitions of Germany were directed to courses that, if continued, would challenge