Imperial Predator

Britain and the Destruction of the Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire didn’t just dissolve—it was destroyed. This revealing new history exposes Britain’s central role in tearing it apart.

The Ottoman Empire didn’t just dissolve—it was destroyed. This revealing new history exposes Britain’s central role in tearing it apart.

Britain’s plunder of the Ottoman Empire is one of history’s great land grabs. In 1876, the Ottomans controlled territory as large as contemporary China. By 1923, nine-tenths of this grand heritage was gone, half now under British control.

From the ‘civilising mission’ of Lord Salisbury to the Sykes-Picot Agreement, this is the riveting story of Britain’s systematic destruction of the Ottoman Empire. Nineteenth-century diplomacy was brutal, with treaties ignored and promises elided. The Ottomans sought to balance between the European powers, but Britain had a navy second to none and admirals no less impetuous than Nelson. Allying itself with Russia in 1914, Britain spurned the Young Turks, driving them into the German camp—thereby expanding World War One into Asia and increasing British costs by half. Although the Ottomans resisted more fiercely than often recorded, their fateful wartime defeat would taint the future of the whole Middle East.

Drawing on the latest archival research, David S. Tonge shows that the end of the Ottomans was far more than a collapse: it was imperial asset-stripping by a predator at the top of its game. Written in the memory of every Turk and Arab, this history forged today’s world.

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