Committee of Union and Progress

The Committee of Union and Progress, or CUP, was like a super-secret club that became a big political party! They started in 1889, a long, long time ago, in a place called the Ottoman Empire. Think of it like a giant country that had been around for hundreds of years.

The CUP members were also called 'Young Turks' because they were younger and wanted to make big changes, like having a king who listened to the people's ideas.

These 'Young Turks' were tired of the old way of doing things. The ruler, Sultan Abdul Hamid II, had all the power! The CUP wanted a constitution, which is like a rulebook for the country that says everyone, even the ruler, has to follow the laws.

In 1908, they started a big event called the Young Turk Revolution. It was so important that it made the Sultan share his power and let people have more say in how the country was run. This was a huge deal!

After the revolution, the CUP became very powerful. From 1913 to 1918, they were like the main bosses of the Ottoman Empire. They wanted to make the empire strong and modern, but they also made some very sad and terrible choices.

They made policies that hurt many people who were different from them. This part of their story is a reminder that even when people want to make things better, they must always be kind and fair to everyone.

After a big war called World War I, the CUP leaders had to leave. Some of them were even punished for the bad things that happened. But many of the ideas the CUP had for making the country modern were used later on. The CUP's story shows how groups can try to change things, and how those changes can have good and bad effects that last a very long time.