The Berlin-Baghdad Express : The Ottoman Empire and Germany's Bid for World Power / Sean McMeekin.
2012
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Details
Title
The Berlin-Baghdad Express : The Ottoman Empire and Germany's Bid for World Power / Sean McMeekin.
Author
McMeekin, Sean, author.
ISBN
9780674058538
Published
Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2012]
Copyright
©2010
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource (496 p.)
Other Standard Identifiers
10.4159/9780674058538 doi
Dewey Decimal Classification
940.3/1
Summary
The modern Middle East was forged in the crucible of the First World War, but few know the full story of how war actually came to the region. As Sean McMeekin reveals in this startling reinterpretation of the war, it was neither the British nor the French but rather a small clique of Germans and Turks who thrust the Islamic world into the conflict for their own political, economic, and military ends. The Berlin-Baghdad Express tells the fascinating story of how Germany exploited Ottoman pan-Islamism in order to destroy the British Empire, then the largest Islamic power in the world. Meanwhile the Young Turks harnessed themselves to German military might to avenge Turkey's hereditary enemy, Russia. Told from the perspective of the key decision-makers on the Turco-German side, many of the most consequential events of World War I-Turkey's entry into the war, Gallipoli, the Armenian massacres, the Arab revolt, and the Russian Revolution-are illuminated as never before. Drawing on a wealth of new sources, McMeekin forces us to re-examine Western interference in the Middle East and its lamentable results. It is an epic tragicomedy of unintended consequences, as Turkish nationalists give Russia the war it desperately wants, jihad begets an Islamic insurrection in Mecca, German sabotage plots upend the Tsar delivering Turkey from Russia's yoke, and German Zionism midwifes the Balfour Declaration. All along, the story is interwoven with the drama surrounding German efforts to complete the Berlin to Baghdad railway, the weapon designed to win the war and assure German hegemony over the Middle East.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 03. Jan 2023)
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Table of Contents
Frontmatter
Contents
List of Maps
List of Abbreviations
A Note on Names and Translations
Prologue: The View from Haydarpasha
I The Vision
II The Prophet Armed
III Adventures in German Jihad
IV Boomerang
Epilogue: The Strange Death of German Zionism and the Nazi-Muslim Connection
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Index
Contents
List of Maps
List of Abbreviations
A Note on Names and Translations
Prologue: The View from Haydarpasha
I The Vision
II The Prophet Armed
III Adventures in German Jihad
IV Boomerang
Epilogue: The Strange Death of German Zionism and the Nazi-Muslim Connection
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Index