(15) ministers due to a plethora of frustrations within the empire this meant that sultan abdul hamid ii would be responsible for handling the resolution of the balkan unrest initially murad the fifth had taken the throne in abdul aziz's place but he was deposed after days due to accusations that he was mentally ill and unfit for the job one of sultan abdul hamid's initial actions was to promulgate the first ottoman constitution in although it only lasted for two years before the sultan suspended it in . over the next few years france extended their reach into tunisia and britain came to power in egypt in prompting the
ottomans to look toward germany for friendship around which time the greco-turkish war was sparked in by the disagreement between the ottomans and greeks as to whether crete should remain under the ottoman empire or unite with greece germany austria-hungary france italy russia and britain all backed the ottomans and wished to maintain peace in crete the war was short-lived and a defeat for greece which was forced to pay heavy reparations and allow crete to remain an autonomous state under
ottoman sovereignty though sultan abdul hamid ii and his forces were undeniably victorious against the greeks and crete the issue would continue into the next century additionally unrest in the balkans was far from over as the s came to a close problems with armenia and its neighbors began in the s and only grew with time as the ottoman empire was pushed more and more in the direction of urgent defense over its dwindling power and territory a fall from grace that would only get worse in the years to come the th century for the ottoman empire was marked or more accurately scarred by one thing collapse
turkey's conquering power from the past years would finally come to a humiliating end with the whole world watching the sick man of europe would be unable to overcome the devastation brought by the balkans wars and events to follow the first domino to fall was actually prior to the balkan wars and is known as the young turk revolution the young turks alongside other reformist groups making up the committee of union and progress was a movement established by groups of young university students
in favor of once again establishing a constitutional monarchy like the one that the sultan abdul hamid ii had established in and abolished two years later as the ottomans were pushed more and more into a defensive stance against the rest of europe's powers many of the young turks and other unionist reform supporters became further concerned with preserving their state when the anglo-russian convention of occurred the ottoman reformists felt that there was a potential for the diplomacy to extend into a partition of ottoman-controlled macedonia finally in july of the revolution broke out led by unionists
such as major ahmed niyazi ayub sabri and ismail enver and began to put heavy pressure on the sultan to end his absolute rule and reinstate the constitution given the amount of support within the ottoman military and the weak state of abdul hamid's rule the revolution ended on july th with the sultan capitulating and restoring a constitutional monarchy the ottoman government now underwent a significant change and a general election took place in november of . the committee of union and progress or cup had great success and as did many other former movements established new political
parties such as the freedom and accord party or the ottoman socialist party the new system was messy and many of the incoming politicians were working class people with no experience running a government meanwhile sultan abdul hamid ii had been able to maintain his title under the terms that his position was basically only symbolic matters were complicated in though
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