Ottoman Empire, 1908–1918
Hybrid Regime · Empire · Middle East · Great War Era era
The Young Turk Ottoman state, a constitutional revolution turning to authoritarian nationalist rule amid territorial losses, war and the Armenian genocide.
The 1908 Young Turk revolution restored the constitution, but the Committee of Union and Progress moved toward authoritarian, increasingly nationalist rule amid catastrophic territorial losses in the Balkan Wars. Entering the First World War alongside Germany, the wartime government carried out the Armenian genocide. Defeat in 1918 led to the occupation and partition of the empire.
Dominant patterns
- External Expansion
- Militarization
- Revolutionary Risk
- Economic Crisis
- Institutional Decay
Political-science factor profile
Each factor 0–100; higher = stronger authoritarian / crisis pole (except institutional stability, where higher = stronger institutions).
| Centralization of Power | 55 |
| Media Control | 55 |
| Repression | 68 |
| Nationalism | 78 |
| Militarization | 78 |
| Economic Stress | 65 |
| External Conflict | 88 |
| Cult of Personality | 55 |
| Elite Fragmentation | 62 |
| Institutions | 38 |
| Social Polarization | 72 |
| Corruption & Patrimonialism | 55 |
| Ideological Mobilization | 65 |
| External Sovereignty | 70 |
Economy & society
| GDP per capita | $1000 (intl-$) |
| GDP growth | -2%/yr |
| Population | 21.0M people |
| Share of world population | 1.2% |
| Urban share | 25% |
| Territory | ~1.8M km² |
| Capital population | ~1.0M |
Closest historical twins
The country-eras whose structural profile most resembles Ottoman Empire 1908–1918, by similarity score (0–100).
- Haiti, 1791–1804 – similarity 92/100 · shared: External Expansion, Militarization, Revolutionary Risk, Economic Crisis, Institutional Decay
- China, 1937–1945 – similarity 91/100 · shared: External Expansion, Militarization, Revolutionary Risk, Economic Crisis, Institutional Decay
- China, 1927–1937 – similarity 87/100 · shared: External Expansion, Militarization, Revolutionary Risk, Institutional Decay
- Poland, 1918–1935 – similarity 83/100 · shared: External Expansion, Militarization, Revolutionary Risk, Economic Crisis, Institutional Decay
- Rwanda, 1990–1994 – similarity 82/100 · shared: External Expansion, Militarization, Revolutionary Risk, Economic Crisis
- Syria, 2011–2019 – similarity 81/100 · shared: External Expansion, Militarization, Revolutionary Risk, Economic Crisis
- Serbia, 1989–2000 – similarity 80/100 · shared: External Expansion, Militarization, Economic Crisis
- Russia, 1905–1917 – similarity 77/100 · shared: External Expansion, Militarization, Revolutionary Risk
What followed
- The Armenian genocide during the war.
- Defeat and partition of the empire by 1918.