Mubarak Al-Sabah included other pressures and troubles for the Ottoman Empire including the British lobbying on Kuwait's behalf, led to the Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1913, which recognized Kuwait as an autonomous "kaza" of the Ottoman Empire within the Green zone outlined in the map as well as an independent entity within the red zone outlined in the map. By the time World War I began Mubarak closely sided with the British against the Ottomans, and the 1913 Convention was rendered null. In support of the war effort Mubarak sent a force to Umm Qasr, Safwan, Bubiyan, and Basra to expel the Ottomans
Transformation of the Ottoman Empire in particular suffered from heavy competition, and its commercial presence declined significantly, particularly after 1645, when the Ottomans and Venetians went to war over Crete. The English were by far the most successful European merchants in the empire during the seventeenth century, and they benefited from friendly relations between the two states. The Ottomans exported raw silk and imported cheap woolen cloth, as well as tin necessary for the production of military armaments. While in 1550 the Ottoman Empire was a patrimonial state in which all power was held exclusively by the sultan, by 1700 it had experienced a political