Mubarak Al-Sabah office nor the flag would happen until World War I. Mubarak as well, in October 1907 sold the rights for any terminus railroad sites to the British, compromising the German-Ottoman plan to extend the Berlin-Baghdad Railway to the port, which would have given them access to trade on the Indian subcontinent. In exchange Mubarak received £4000 per year and a promise that Britain would recognize Kuwait's autonomy and the Sheikh's power over it. Mubarak also engaged in affairs concerning the neighboring areas around him, which caused consternation on both the Ottoman and the British sides. Mubarak supported and smuggled British
Historiography of the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans hastened the slide into bankruptcy. After negotiations with the European powers, the Public Debt Administration was set up, to which certain revenues were assigned. This arrangement subjected the Ottomans to foreign financial control from which they failed to free themselves, in part because of continued borrowing. In 1914, the Ottoman debt stood at 139.1 million Turkish pounds, and the government was still dependent on European financiers Why had the Ottomans not developed their own financial system in line with London and Paris? It was not for the want of trying. Since the beginning of the 18th century,