197). In fact, it was this strategic manipulation of the British during and after World War I that ultimately caused the dissolution of the once great Ottoman Empire. When the Ottomans first allied with the Germans in 1914, they were seen as neither a threat to the Entente powers nor as a particularly strong ally to their European counterparts; instead, they were seeking to avoid war altogether because of the heavy toll previous battles of the Balkan Wars and the Italian annexation of Libya and the Aegean Islands had taken on the Ottoman Army. And although the Entente powers began planning the postwar partition of the empire shortly after this new alliance, Britain quickly found itself pinned down by the surprisingly powerful combination of Ottoman and German resistance. In response to the wartime crisis, Britain reached out to
197). In fact, it was this strategic manipulation of the British during and after World War I that ultimately caused the dissolution of the once great Ottoman Empire. When the Ottomans first allied with the Germans in 1914, they were seen as neither a threat to the Entente powers nor as a particularly strong ally to their European counterparts; instead, they were seeking to avoid war altogether because of the heavy toll previous battles of the Balkan Wars and the Italian annexation of Libya and the Aegean Islands had taken on the Ottoman Army. And although the Entente powers began planning the postwar partition of the empire shortly after this new alliance, Britain quickly found itself pinned down by the surprisingly powerful combination of Ottoman and German resistance. In response to the wartime crisis, Britain reached out to