The Middle East

The Ottoman Empire was the great loser of the nineteenth century. Once a dominant power, it became known as "the sick man of Europe." European powers progressively peeled away Ottoman territory.

• Greece won independence in 1830
• France took Algeria (1830) and Tunisia (1881)
• Britain took effective control of Egypt (1882) after the Egyptian government's financial collapse
• Italy seized Libya (1911-1912)
• The Balkans fragmented into independent states with European backing (Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania)

The Ottoman Empire would not finally collapse until WWI (covered in Unit 10.5). But by 1900 it had been reduced from a major imperial power to a struggling state surrounded by European-aligned successor states.