Çanakkale Boğazı (Bahr-i Sefid Boğazı) Savunma Sistemi 1770-1918

Abstract

This Ph. D. Dissertation aims to study how the Dardanelles were defended during the final period of declineand dissolution of the Ottoman Empire (1770-1918). The research period of this dissertation is 150 years.It extends over a long period —a quarter of the Ottoman Empire‘s history. One of the reasons for choosing a long period such as this is that, from the end of the XIV century, the absolute sovereign of the Dardanelles (Bahr-i Sefid) was the Ottoman Empire. While it did not accept the will of other countries, the Ottoman Empire lost its superintendency initiative on Dardanelles. Because the other countries were being supported by the Russians to be involved in the Straits issues and because the Russians went down to theMediterranean Sea and the Aegean Sea from the Baltic Sea. In the following period, every question relevant to strait passage had been discussed in international treaties —a situation which continues to today. The Dardanelles continues to be an important foreign policy subject to the Turkish Republic, which was founded after the Ottoman Empire.This thesis aims at presenting all the works made for the Dardanelles defence and analysing its effects on world politics and the Ottoman Empire In the studied historical period. In this frame, this Ph. D. Dissertation will search for the answers to the following questions: Did Dardanelles play a role in the decadence of the Ottoman Empire, which has played an important role in the period of becoming a state?In the last period of the Ottoman Empire, what politics and initiatives did other countries assume through the Dardanelles?In the XVIII and XIX centuries, how did the defence methods change as a result of technological developments to warfare and weapons developments? Did the Ottoman Empire keep step with this change with regard to strait defence? What were the effects of the Ottoman Empire‘s naval policy to strait defence?Which castles and bastions were built for strait defence? What are the reasons for which some did not last until our days?