territory, Abdulhamid, a master politician, succeeded in holding the Empire together for the thirty-three years of his reign by playing off against one another the Great Powers and opposing interests of those bent on its destruction. But the price was high. His successful foreign policies were paid for by internal repression of considerable severity. In the face of the lack of unity in the First Parliament, elected following the Proclamation of the First Constitution on 23 December, 1876, and many of the members representing the minorities, that is, Armenians, Greeks, Jews, Bulgars, Serbs, and others, pursuing interests other than those of the Empire, Abdulhamid was left with little alternative but to dissolve it, though the Constitution was not abrogated. Following this, the Sultan ruled as a despot from Yildiz Palace, supported by far-reaching intelligence networks, rigorous censorship, denunciations, and the like.

It should be stressed, however, that this was not a bloody despotism. And it was not from the ordinary people that opposition came, but from the intellectuals, students educated in the new educational establishments, and particularly from army cadets in the military academies. Despite his vigorous criticisms of Abdulhamid's absolutist government and its consequences, Bediuzzaman referred to him as "compassionate". In the thirty-three years of his reign, he only signed the death-warrant for three or four criminals, pardoning even those who made attempts on his own life, including the Armenians who placed a bomb in his carriage. Others he sent into exile, rather than spilling their blood

The Young Turk movement emerged at this time. Its members, which included former Young Ottomans, represented a wide spectrum of ideas, and were united only in their common opposition to Abdulhamid's internal despotism and their desire to see fundamental social and political reforms and the restoration of the Constitution. The Committee of Union and Progress, which led the Constitutional Revolution of 1908, formed one group within the movement. They saw representative government and freedom from despotism to be the essential conditions for preserving the unity of the Empire, particularly in the face of the nationalist aspirations of