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In the beggining the Ottoman empire was not allied with anyone. They were neutral. There was the triple alliance that was composed of Germany, Italy, and Austria - Hungary. Also the triple entente was composed of Russia, Great Britain, and France. Yet the ottomans remained neutral.

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During World War one, the ottomans began to be allied with the Central powers, Germany, and Austria - Hungary. They joined the Central powers because Germany needed their help. The treaty of Mudros that was signed towards the end of the war and put an end to the once very strong empire.

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At the beginning of the war (1914) the ottoman empire was doing pretty well economically. They had a really great harvest that year also, which led to an increase in profits. During the war, they sent all men, and all supplies. They went to total war, and began to ration food. Everyone wanted to sell in order to make money, and no one wanted to buy. The war took all the resources and supplies from the ottomans.

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Works Cited

"Discover The Ottomans." TheOttomans.org - Discover The Ottomans. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.

"The Ottoman Empire before World War I." World War I. N.p., 15 Dec. 2015. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.

"Ottoman Empire Signs Treaty with Allies." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.

"Post-war Economies (Turkey)." New Articles RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.
"Population+of+ottoman+empire - Google Search." Population+of+ottoman+empire - Google Search. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.
"List of Countries by Population in 1900." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Feb. 2017. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.

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The Ottoman Empire before World War I was in a state of rapid transition and decay. Through the medieval period and into the modern era, the Ottoman Empire had been one of the world's largest imperial powers. In the 17th century the Muslim Ottomans ruled vast swathes of eastern Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East. Ottoman power extended from the Persian Gulf to central Europe; Ottoman sultans ruled almost the entire north coast of Africa and west to Egypt and the Holy Lands (modern-day Israel and Palestine). The Ottoman navy ruled the waters of the Mediterranean, while their traders rivaled those of Spain, Portugal and the Italian city-states. The empire was governed from Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul, Turkey); its ruler was the sultan, the heir to a powerful royal family. In 1683 the Ottomans invaded Austria with an army of 200,000 men and laid siege to Vienna, a city they had long coveted. It took a massive combined force of Austrians, Germans and Poles to defend the Austrian capital and drive the Ottomans from central Europe.

This defeat, along with the inept leadership of several weak sultans, saw Ottoman expansion stall during the 1700s. The 19th century was one of degradation, as the Ottomans struggled to retain control of their empire, in the face of external pressure and internal turmoil. By the 1850s the situation was so desperate that Tsar Nicholas I of Russia famously described the Ottoman Empire as "the sick man of Europe". He was soon proved correct, while the sickness later became terminal. There were several reasons for this decline. As in other large empires of the time, the Ottomans were confronted with rising nationalism and opposition, as ethnic and regional groups demanded self-determination and independence. The once-formidable military power of the Ottoman Empire also decreased significantly. The Ottomans were driven out of north Africa and Egypt after a series of unsuccessful wars.

Recognising their weakening military position and incapacity to wage war, Ottoman leaders began seeking alliances with European nations. Internally the Ottoman Empire was also suffering from a failing economy. Centuries before the Ottomans ruled the world's richest empire, but by the 1800s they had long been overtaken by the trading strength of the British, French and other European powers. By the 1870s the Ottomans owed more than 200 million pounds to European banks; the annual repayments on their loans and interest comprised more than half the national revenue.

"The periodic crises of the Eastern Question - the fragmentation of the Ottoman Empire with its implied threat to European peace - had produced rivalry and tension in the political relations among the Powers... The Ottoman Empire was vulnerable to many pressures. Spread over a vast area... it contained many subject peoples and many diverse regions. Fighting a rear-guard battle with nationalist independence movements within its borders, and European imperial ambitions from without them, the Empire had one trump card: the general desire of the European Powers for it to survive as a political entity, for its total disintegration was a worse alternative."
Marian Kent, historian

By the mid-1800s the empire's internal problems, as well as the infiltration of Western ideas, led to calls for modernisation. The Edict of Tanzimat (1839) introduced sweeping European-inspired reforms to Ottoman military organisation, farming, public administration, even uniforms and dress. In 1876 a group of young Ottomans, who had been educated in European universities, launched a short-lived revolution: they overthrew the sultan, drafted a liberal constitution and backed a moderate leader to rule as a constitutional monarch. These political reforms did not last, however they were revived in 1908 by the Young Turk movement, which restored the constitution and the Ottoman Parliament. One of the Young Turks, Mustafa Kemal, was a young army officer who played a minor role in the 1908 revolution. Kemal would later make history by commanding Turkish forces at Gallipoli (1915) and leading his nation to independence from Allied occupation (1923).

By 1908 the Ottoman Empire was crumbling, a situation which troubled the rulers and diplomats of Europe. The Ottomans occupied an area of geographic and strategic importance, including extensive Mediterranean and Black Sea coastline and the Bosphorus, a strait of water connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. Russia and Austria-Hungary saw the break-up of the Ottoman lands as an opportunity to increase their own territory and influence. Control of the Bosphorus would also give Russia's strong Black Sea navy access to the Mediterranean. Conversely, Britain and Germany hoped the Ottomans could hold their empire together and continue serving as a buffer against the territorial ambitions of Austria-Hungary and Russia. To serve these agendas, European leaders - particularly those of Britain, France and Germany - all sought some form of Ottoman alliance in the early 1900s.

This placed Ottoman politicians in the precarious position of having to choose foreign allies - or to proceed with none at all. There was little support in the sultan's ranks for an alliance with France, since its closest ally was Russia, a bitter enemy of the Ottomans. A moderate faction favoured an agreement with Britain, which controlled nearby Egypt and southern Iraq and could offer trade deals. Others among the Ottomans preferred neutrality, believing the empire should remain disconnected from European intrigues and tensions. It was Germany's strong position against Russia, along with promises of financial support and the construction of a Berlin-to-Baghdad railway, that ultimately won the day.

1. The Ottoman Empire was once a superpower, ruling the Middle East and much of northern Africa and eastern Europe.
2. By the end of the 1800s the empire was in decline, shrinking in size and subject to internal problems and instability.
3. There were attempts at political reform, such as the Young Turk rebellion, though they did not arrest the decline.
4. Despite its 19th century problems, the Ottomans occupied a critical position, controlling access to the Black Sea.
5. The European powers showed a strong interest in the future of the empire, particularly Germany, which invested in the Berlin-Baghdad railway that passed through Ottoman territory.

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This page was written by Jennifer Llewellyn, Jim Southey and Steve Thompson. To reference this page, use the following citation:
J. Llewellyn et al, "Ottoman Empire before World War I" at Alpha History, http://alphahistory.com/worldwar1/ottoman-empire/, 2014, accessed [date of last access].

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The Ottoman Empire before World War I was in a state of rapid transition and decay. Through the medieval period and into the modern era, the Ottoman Empire had been one of the world's largest imperial powers. In the 17th century the Muslim Ottomans ruled vast swathes of eastern Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East.

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After fighting side by side with the Central Powers, the war came to an end. The defeat of the Central Powers led the Allies to occupy part of the Empire in the aftermath of World War I. Spring of  1915, Allied powers took naval and land operations. They landed and took the remaing land that the Ottomans didn't lose during the war. Years of fighting to keep their remaing land, led to their defeat and the split of their Middle Eastern territories. The territories were split among the British and French.

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This is a map of the Ottoman Empire after WW1 .

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Before the war, the ottomans relied completely on their ruler to enforce justice throughout the land. They ruled with a  Solomonic ruler which came from Soloman, who was a ruler in Hebrew history. The Solomonic ruler was there to enfore a distributive justice, meaning equal treatment to all. The Ottoman Empire's resistance failed in WWI, and their government resigned. In 1923 Turkey was declared a republic, after WWI (Turkey is what the ottoman empire turned into). They developed a strategy for politics in the beginning of the 1930's. The Ottomans still followed traditional Turkish politics.

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The Ottoman empire was created by Turkish tribes. In four years of war, the Ottoman Empire had put 2.8 million men in war. 771, 840 were killed and more than 2 million civilians were killed due to the war, including both Turks and Armenians, who were believed to have died of war-related causes. The decision to go to war destroyed the Ottoman empire. The population of the Ottoman Empire went from 30,860,000 to 14.63 million after the war

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This is a map of the Ottoman Empire before WW1.