The economic resources of the Ottoman Empire were depleted by the cost of the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913. The French, British and Germans had offered financial aid, during which, a pro-German faction influenced by Enver Pasha, the former Ottoman military attaché in Berlin, opposed the pro-British majority in the Ottoman cabinet and tried to secure closer relations with Germany. In December 1913, the Germans sent General Otto Liman von Sanders and a military mission to Constantinople. The geographical position of the Ottoman Empire meant that Russia, France and Britain had a mutual interest in Turkish neutrality, should there be a war in Europe.