Mehmed V Reşâd was the penultimate sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1909 to 1918. Mehmed V reigned as a constitutional monarch. He had little influence over government affairs and his ministries showed little regard for the Ottoman constitution. The first half of his reign was marked by increasingly polarizing politics, and the second half by war and domination of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) and the Three Pashas.