The Great Man Fighting Against Imperialism

I would like to talk to you about Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, a great commander and statesman who changed his destiny by preventing the disintegration of a country with his struggle. Actually, this will be a series of articles because it would be unfair for him to summarize what he did in just one article. Moreover, explaining all the stages of the process will enable us to better understand what He is doing.

With the end of the 1st World War, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk wrote his name in history with golden letters with his struggle against the imperialist powers. Perhaps, many of you may have heard of His name, but I think some of you have not, and such a great man should be known to the whole world.

In order to understand the story of how the Ottoman Empire, founded by the Turks, resulted in territorial losses and its regime changed and became a state that continued to exist as the Republic of Turkey, thanks to Atatürk, it is necessary to know why and how the First World War began. Now let's take a look at how the conditions for the world's first great war were formed.

Europe's Awakening

Foto: Pixabay

In the Middle Ages (375-1453), when the Islamic civilization lived its heyday, free thought and science did not develop in Europe, which was under the pressure of the Catholic Church. The Church controlled both political, economic and scientific activities. The "Dogmatic Thought" system, in which church discourses were accepted as true without questioning, dominated Europe for almost a thousand years. However, with the 15th century, voices and criticisms began to rise against the Catholic Church in Europe.

One of the developments in Europe in the 16th century was Geographical Discoveries. As a result of Geographical Discoveries, the European states that opened to the ocean both discovered the Americas and reached India, which is known as the source of wealth of the east, by sea. They got rich by transporting the resources in these discovered regions to their own countries. Thanks to economic development in Europe, science, art and literature developed rapidly. The period in which these developments took place was called the Renaissance, which means "rebirth". With the Renaissance, reason and science came to the fore and dogmatic thoughts began to be questioned.

As the reactions increased, the Catholic Church began to lose its power and control over the society. Finally, after the process called the Reformation, the Catholic Church had to correct itself and withdraw from the political and scientific fields. Europeans, freed from the oppression of the Catholic Church, began to develop and enlighten rapidly under the guidance of reason and science. In this period called the Age of Enlightenment (17th century-18th century), science developments gained speed.

Foto: Pixabay

European states invented steamships and established weaving factories by using the knowledge they acquired over time for technological developments. This gave birth to the industrial revolution. Small production workshops were replaced by large factories, while manpower was replaced by machines. As a result of the rapid production of the machines, the market grew and the need for more raw materials emerged. European states bought the materials they needed from countries that were not yet industrialized and sold the products they produced to these countries. This led to the emergence and rapid growth of the understanding of colonialism. Britain established a great colonial empire. Other European states tried to do the same. The colonial race that started between the European states increased the competition for raw materials and markets. World War I is a result of this rivalry.

I tried to explain what happened before Atatürk's great struggle, both in general and briefly. Here I end my first article. However, this is not the end, it is the beginning. Our story is just beginning. I'm taking a break here so that the article is not too long and you don't get bored while reading it.

See you later in the story. Thank you for reading…