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| 1899–1914 |
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| The Baghdad Railway. As part of a policy of developing railway communications within the empire for military and economic reasons, the Ottoman government promoted the construction of a railroad connecting Istanbul to Baghdad and the Persian Gulf. In Nov. 1899 the sultan granted the Deutsche Bank and the German-Anatolian Railway Company a preliminary concession for the extension of the Anatolian railway to Baghdad. A definitive concession was granted on March 5, 1903. The project became the object of rivalry among German, French, and British companies, and met with the hostility of Britain, France, and Russia, which feared for their own interests in the region. The diplomatic hurdles as well as technical and financial difficulties hampered the construction of the line itself. By 1914 it still had large gaps, which were finished only in 1940. | 1 |
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| 1900, Aug. 12 |
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| The Ottoman Imperial University, the first state university in the empire, was reopened in Istanbul (having been open previously in 1870–71 and 1874–81). It was reorganized as the University of Istanbul in 1933. | 2 |
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| 1901, May 17 |
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| Theodor Herzl, leader of the Zionist movement, met with the sultan in Istanbul and presented a proposal for the establishment of a Jewish autonomous region in Palestine (See 1907, Aug. 14–21). Abdulhamid opposed the idea. | 3 |
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| 1902–3 |
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| Insurrection in Macedonia, accompanied by much violence and terrorism by groups representing Macedonian as well as Greek, Serbian, and Bulgarian nationalists. After abortive attempts to find a settlement, Russia and Austria issued a program of reform (Oct. 1903) approved by all the Berlin Treaty signatories. It provided for Russian and Austrian inspectors in addition to the Ottoman inspector general, and the introduction of various reforms to be supervised by foreign consuls. Political violence in Macedonia continued despite the reforms. | 4 |
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| 1903 |
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| Death of Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi (b. 1849), a member of a notable family of Aleppo who fell out with Abdulhamid's regime and from exile in Cairo (where he died) wrote two books that called on the Arabs to take over the caliphate from the corrupted Turks. His writings were a milestone in the emergence of a distinctly Arab nationalist ideology. | 5 |
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| 1905–6 |
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| The second general Ottoman population census (a total of 20.8 million inhabitants counted). | 6 |
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| 1906, Oct. 1 |
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| Agreement over the Ottoman-Egyptian border in Sinai. The Ottomans made a unilateral attempt to redraw Egypt's eastern boundary by reassigning most of the Sinai to their direct rule. They and the British sent forces to occupy Taba and other points on the Gulf of Aqaba in a struggle to assert their territorial claims (known as the Taba incident). The agreement fixed the boundary on an almost straight line from al-Rafah on the Mediterranean to Taba at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba. This line later became the boundary between Egypt and the Palestine Mandate. | 7 |
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| 1908, July |
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| THE YOUNG TURK REVOLUTION. On July 3 an army officer in the Third Army in Macedonia, Ahmed Niyazi Bey, took to the hills with a group of supporters, issuing a call to rebellion and the restoration of the 1876 constitution. Acts of insubordination soon spread throughout Macedonia, and the Committee of Union and Progress skillfully assumed the leadership role in this uncoordinated movement of resistance. Agents of the sultan sent to investigate the unrest were assassinated, and troops dispatched from Anatolia to suppress the rebels joined them instead. On July 23 Abdulhamid gave way and proclaimed the restoration of the constitution. | 8 |
| This initial success of the Young Turks, which excited celebrations in many parts of the empire, opened the way for a series of profound changes. The sultan lost much of his power, the secret police and censorship were dismantled, parliamentary elections were set in motion, and the Young Turks, in particular the Committee of Union and Progress, took hold of the reins of power. | 9 |
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| Oct. 5 |
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| Bulgaria proclaimed its independence (See Oct. 5), renouncing the sultan's suzerainty and stopping the payment of tribute. On the following day, Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, which it had occupied since 1878. After their calls to have the terms of the Treaty of Berlin enforced met with no response from the signatories, the Ottomans reached agreements with Austria (Feb. 26, 1909) and Bulgaria (April 19, 1909), recognizing the end of Ottoman suzerainty while providing for the protection of the Muslim communities and their religious life. | 10 |
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| Dec. 17 |
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| Opening of the Ottoman Parliament, after elections in which candidates of the Committee of Union and Progress won a large majority of the seats. Their chief opponents were the Liberal Party of Prince Sabaheddin, which promoted decentralization of the empire. | 11 |
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