Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1913 final draft. As it was an “autonomous” "kaza", the Ottoman government agreed to refrain from interfering in the affairs of Kuwait, “including the question of succession, and from any administrative as well as any occupation or military act.” It also allowed for the use of the Ottoman flag with the option to inscribe the word “Kuwait” on it (Article 2). The agreement also identified the territories of Kuwait as two different regions, demarcated in red and green on a map annexed to the convention. The red line, as it is commonly referred to, demarcated the region in which the sheikh
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