The Italo-Turkish War saw the cession of the Empire's North African territories and the Dodecanese Islands, including Rhodes, during which the CUP was forced out of power by the military.

This was followed up by the traumatic loss of almost all of the Empire's European territories west of Constantinople (now Istanbul) in the First Balkan War, and the return of a now radicalized CUP rule in another coup.

In 1915, Ottoman forces successfully fended off an Allied invasion at Gallipoli and captured a large British garrison at Kut.

During that year, the CUP initiated the Armenian genocide against the Sultan's wishes, though his private disapproval over his governments' actions was inconsequential.

With military collapse in the field and the Arab Revolt spelling impending disaster, the Ottomans signed the Armistice of Mudros, though by then he was dead, and succeeded by Mehmed VI.

Mehmed became crown-prince in 1876 with the ascension of his brother Abdul Hamid II, but was essentially kept under house arrest in Dolmabahçe Palace, and was under close surveillance.

After the lifting of many restrictions in the aftermath of the Young Turk Revolution Mehmed earned popularity as crown prince by attending ceremonies that celebrated the constitution, much to the chagrin of his previously absolutist brother.

[14] His reign began at the conclusion of the 31 March Incident on 27 April 1909, which resulted in the deposition of his brother Abdul Hamid II.

As he was leaving Sirkeci to Beyazıt in the royal carriage, the people of Istanbul lined up on both sides of the road and enthusiastically applauded as he passed by.

When the sultan was asked to take a more proactive approach to politics when partisanship took hold, Mehmed V responded "If I was to interfere in every matter during the Constitutional Monarchy administration, what was [my] brother's fault?"

[16] Despite its shaky foundations, the constitution was promulgated for the third and final time when Mehmed ascended to the throne (it was retracted during the 1909 and 1878 crisis).

This was the first of many examples of Sultan Reşad's reluctant approval of many laws, decrees and wills during his reign against his personal convictions and the constitution, and he soon developed a disinterest in statecraft.

The assassination of Ahmet Samim Bey and the Western-sponsored integration of the Cretan State into Greece threw the sultan into a fit of depression.

The Savior Officers demanded the pro-CUP Grand Vizier Mehmed Said Pasha dissolve parliament and to resign, which he did.

Mehmed V appointed Ahmed Muhtar Pasha in his place, who formed a national unity government called the Great Cabinet.

With the loss of the Empire's ethnic minorities in Rumelia and North Africa, the movement's raison d'être also evaporated, and the country's politics soon began to take on a more exclusionary character, centered around Turkish nationalism.

The more extreme elements of a right-wing faction, primarily in the upper echelons of the CUP-dominated government, would go on to commit genocide against the Armenians.

[citation needed] Mehmed V died at Yıldız Palace on 3 July 1918 at the age of 73, only four months before the end of World War I.