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.
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