Kickstarter, Ottoman Empire Style

Crowdfunding is great. Go to Kickstarter (or a similar site), list your project and get a lot of people to donate enough money to fund it. Or, if you are a donator, search out stuff you find neat and throw a couple of bucks at it. Movies, books, software, music, science projects...you can find just about anything out there, looking for funding. Anything, that is, except a battleship. For that, you have to go back to the first decade of the 20th Century.

The Ottoman Empire (aka Turkey) had been in decline for some time by the dawn of the 20th Century. However, they were still considered a regional power and did control a substantial amount of territory in the Middle East. Their empire would be impacted by develops in the Black Sea, the Aegean (where they had a long-standing conflict with Greece over a number of islands) and the Eastern Mediterranean. This meant they needed a navy, able to compete - or at least inflict damage on - the other nations that could project power into the region.

The problem is that the central government didn't have the funds to buy the dreadnoughts that were the core of a modern battle fleet. So, they formed the Ottoman Navy Foundation and solicited public contributions. They were able to raise enough funds to order two battleships from England, Sultan Osman I and Reşadiye. However, by the time the ships were finished, August 1914, World War One had broken out. Although Turkey was not yet a combatant, the British feared (correctly) that the Turks would join the war on Germany's side. The British Admiralty seized both ships and added them to the Fleet (as Agincourt and Erin), where they served into the 1920s.

This decision is seen by some as pushing the Turks into war, although the Ottoman Empire had been aligning with Germany for some time prior to the outbreak of hostilities. Turkey formally entered the war a few months later, an act which would result in the final disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, the ramifications of which we still deal with today.

The lesson of all this? If you have to crowdfund your navy, you probably are in no shape to go to war. Now, crowdfunding an awesome project like God Hates Dinosaurs is a much better idea.