In this episode of the Explaining History Podcast, we return to Eugene Rogan’s superb The Fall of the Ottomans to explore how military defeat and political crisis in the Balkan Wars transformed the Ottoman Empire from within—and set the stage for the birth of modern Turkey.

It’s remarkable how topical the story of a declining empire, seemingly in endless crisis, yet still capable of surprising its enemies, feels at this moment. But the Ottoman story is worth understanding on its own terms, not just as a mirror to our own times.

We pick up the narrative in 1913, following the catastrophic First Balkan War in which the Ottomans lost most of their remaining European territories. The defeat of Edirne—a historic Ottoman city—triggered a political earthquake in Constantinople. The liberal government that had overseen the loss was overthrown, and when the Grand Vizier was assassinated in June 1913, the Committee of Union and Progress (the Young Turks) seized the opportunity to eliminate their opponents once and for all.

The result was the emergence of a ruling triumvirate that would dominate the empire until its final collapse: Enver Pasha, Talat Pasha, and Cemal Pasha. More powerful than the Sultan himself, these men would lead the Ottoman Empire into the First World War and oversee both its greatest triumphs and its ultimate destruction.

But 1913 also brought an unexpected gift. Bulgaria, aggrieved by the div