Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire food shortages and hundreds of thousands of refugees haunted the empire. After the war there was a violent expel of the Muslim peasants of eastern Thrace. The Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1913 was a short-lived agreement signed in July 1913 between the Ottoman sultan Mehmed V and the British over several issues. However the status of Kuwait that came to be the only lasting result, as its outcome was formal independence for Kuwait. Albania had been under Ottoman rule in about 1478. When Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece laid claim to Albanian-populated lands during Balkan Wars, the Albanians declared independence. The European
Rise of the Ottoman Empire tax burden was increased, prompting criticism from writers who saw such centralization in a negative light. Of particular importance for Ottoman success was their ability to keep the empire intact from generation to generation. While other Turkic groups frequently divided their realms between the sons of a deceased ruler, the Ottomans consistently kept the empire united under a single heir. The process of centralization is closely connected with an influx of Muslim scholars from Central Anatolia, where a more urban and bureaucratic Turkish civilization had developed under the Seljuks of Rum. Particularly influential was the Çandarlı family, which supplied several