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diff --git a/11716-0.txt b/11716-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..666e064 --- /dev/null +++ b/11716-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12306 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11716 *** + +The Balkans +A HISTORY OF BULGARIA—SERBIA—GREECE—RUMANIA—TURKEY + +BY NEVILL FORBES, ARNOLD J. TOYNBEE, D. MITRANY, D.G. HOGARTH + + +Contents + + PREFACE + BULGARIA AND SERBIA. By NEVILL FORBES. + 1. Introductory + 2. The Balkan Peninsula in Classical Times 400 B.C.— A.D. 500 + 3. The Arrival of the Slavs in the Balkan Peninsula, A.D. 500-650 + + BULGARIA. + 4. The Arrival of the Bulgars in the Balkan Peninsula, 600-700 + 5. The Early Years of Bulgaria and the Introduction of Christianity, 700-893 + 6. The Rise and Fall of the First Bulgarian Empire, 893-972 + 7. The Rise and Fall of ‘Western Bulgaria’ and the Greek Supremacy, 963-1186 + 8. The Rise and Fall of the Second Bulgarian Empire, 1186-1258 + 9. The Serbian Supremacy and the Final Collapse, 1258-1393 + 10. The Turkish Dominion and the Emancipation, 1393-1878 + 11. The Aftermath, and Prince Alexander of Battenberg, 1878-86 + 12. The Regeneration under Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, 1886-1908 + 13. The Kingdom, 1908-13 + + SERBIA. + 14. The Serbs under Foreign Supremacy, 650-1168 + 15. The Rise and Fall of the Serbian Empire and the Extinction of Serbian Independence, 1168-1496 + 16. The Turkish Dominion, 1496-1796 + 17. The Liberation of Serbia under Kara-George (1804-13) and Miloš Obrenović (1815-30): 1796-1830 + 18. The Throes of Regeneration: Independent Serbia, 1830-1903 + 19. Serbia, Montenegro, and the Serbo-Croats in Austria-Hungary, 1903-8 + 20. Serbia and Montenegro, and the two Balkan Wars, 1908-13 + + GREECE. By ARNOLD J. TOYNBEE. + 1. From Ancient to Modern Greece + 2. The Awakening of the Nation + 3. The Consolidation of the State + + RUMANIA: HER HISTORY AND POLITICS. By D. MITRANY + 1. Introduction + 2. Formation of the Rumanian Nation + 3. The Foundation and Development of the Rumanian Principalities + 4. The Phanariote Rule + 5. Modern Period to 1866 + 6. Contemporary Period: Internal Development + 7. Contemporary Period: Foreign Affairs + 8. Rumania and the Present War + + TURKEY. By D. G. HOGARTH + 1. Origin of the Osmanlis + 2. Expansion of the Osmanli Kingdom + 3. Heritage and Expansion of the Byzantine Empire + 4. Shrinkage and Retreat + 5. Revival + 6. Relapse + 7. Revolution + 8. The Balkan War + 9. The Future + + INDEX + + + + +MAPS + +The Balkan Peninsula: Ethnological +The Balkan Peninsula +The Ottoman Empire + + + + +PREFACE + + +The authors of this volume have not worked in conjunction. Widely +separated, engaged on other duties, and pressed for time, we have had +no opportunity for interchange of views. Each must be held responsible, +therefore, for his own section alone. If there be any discrepancies in +our writings (it is not unlikely in so disputed a field of history) we +can only regret an unfortunate result of the circumstances. Owing to +rapid change in the relations of our country to the several Balkan +peoples, the tone of a section written earlier may differ from that of +another written later. It may be well to state that the sections on +Serbia and Bulgaria were finished before the decisive Balkan +developments of the past two months. Those on Greece and Rumania +represent only a little later stage of the evolution. That on Turkey, +compiled between one mission abroad and another, was the latest to be +finished. + +If our sympathies are not all the same, or given equally to friends and +foes, none of us would find it possible to indite a Hymn of Hate about +any Balkan people. Every one of these peoples, on whatever side he be +fighting to-day, has a past worthy of more than our respect and +interwoven in some intimate way with our history. That any one of them +is arrayed against us to-day is not to be laid entirely or chiefly at +its own door. They are all fine peoples who have not obtained their +proper places in the sun. The best of the Osmanli nation, the Anatolian +peasantry, has yet to make its physical and moral qualities felt under +civilized conditions. As for the rest—the Serbs and the Bulgars, who +have enjoyed brief moments of barbaric glory in their past, have still +to find themselves in that future which shall be to the Slav. The +Greeks, who were old when we were not as yet, are younger now than we. +They are as incalculable a factor in a political forecast as another +Chosen Race, the Jews. Their past is the world’s glory: the present in +the Near East is theirs more than any people’s: the future—despite the +laws of corporate being and decline, dare we say they will have no part +in it? Of Rumania what are we to think? Her mixed people has had the +start of the Balkan Slavs in modern civilization, and evidently her +boundaries must grow wider yet. But the limits of her possible +expansion are easier to set than those of the rest. + +We hope we have dealt fairly with all these peoples. Mediaeval history, +whether of the East or the West, is mostly a record of bloodshedding +and cruelty; and the Middle Age has been prolonged to our own time in +most parts of the Balkans, and is not yet over in some parts. There are +certain things salutary to bear in mind when we think or speak of any +part of that country to-day. First, that less than two hundred years +ago, England had its highwaymen on all roads, and its smuggler dens and +caravans, Scotland its caterans, and Ireland its moonlighters. Second, +that religious fervour has rarely mitigated and generally increased our +own savagery. Thirdly, that our own policy in Balkan matters has been +none too wise, especially of late. In permitting the Treaty of Bucarest +three years ago, we were parties to making much of the trouble that has +ensued, and will ensue again. If we have not been able to write about +the Near East under existing circumstances altogether _sine ira et +studio_, we have tried to remember that each of its peoples has a case. + +D.G. HOGARTH. + + +_November_, 1915. + + + + +BULGARIA AND SERBIA + + + + +1 +_Introductory_ + + +The whole of what may be called the trunk or _massif_ of the Balkan +peninsula, bounded on the north by the rivers Save and Danube, on the +west by the Adriatic, on the east by the Black Sea, and on the south by +a very irregular line running from Antivari (on the coast of the +Adriatic) and the lake of Scutari in the west, through lakes Okhrida +and Prespa (in Macedonia) to the outskirts of Salonika and thence to +Midia on the shores of the Black Sea, following the coast of the Aegean +Sea some miles inland, is preponderatingly inhabited by Slavs. These +Slavs are the Bulgarians in the east and centre, the Serbs and Croats +(or Serbians and Croatians or Serbo-Croats) in the west, and the +Slovenes in the extreme north-west, between Trieste and the Save; these +nationalities compose the southern branch of the Slavonic race. The +other inhabitants of the Balkan peninsula are, to the south of the +Slavs, the Albanians in the west, the Greeks in the centre and south, +and the Turks in the south-east, and, to the north, the Rumanians. All +four of these nationalities are to be found in varying quantities +within the limits of the Slav territory roughly outlined above, but +greater numbers of them are outside it; on the other hand, there are a +considerable number of Serbs living north of the rivers Save and +Danube, in southern Hungary. Details of the ethnic distribution and +boundaries will of course be gone into more fully later; meanwhile +attention may be called to the significant fact that the name of +Macedonia, the heart of the Balkan peninsula, has been long used by the +French gastronomers to denote a dish, the principal characteristic of +which is that its component parts are mixed up into quite inextricable +confusion. + +Of the three Slavonic nationalities already mentioned, the two first, +the Bulgarians and the Serbo-Croats, occupy a much greater space, +geographically and historically, than the third. The Slovenes, barely +one and a half million in number, inhabiting the Austrian provinces of +Carinthia and Carniola, have never been able to form a political state, +though, with the growth of Trieste as a great port and the persistent +efforts of Germany to make her influence if not her flag supreme on the +shores of the Adriatic, this small people has from its geographical +position and from its anti-German (and anti-Italian) attitude achieved +considerable notoriety and some importance. + +Of the Bulgars and Serbs it may be said that at the present moment the +former control the eastern, and the latter, in alliance with the +Greeks, the western half of the peninsula. It has always been the +ambition of each of these three nationalities to dominate the whole, an +ambition which has caused endless waste of blood and money and untold +misery. If the question were to be settled purely on ethnical +considerations, Bulgaria would acquire the greater part of the interior +of Macedonia, the most numerous of the dozen nationalities of which is +Bulgarian in sentiment if not in origin, and would thus undoubtedly +attain the hegemony of the peninsula, while the centre of gravity of +the Serbian nation would, as is ethnically just, move north-westwards. +Political considerations, however, have until now always been against +this solution of the difficulty, and, even if it solved in this sense, +there would still remain the problem of the Greek nationality, whose +distribution along all the coasts of the Aegean, both European and +Asiatic, makes a delimitation of the Greek state on purely ethnical +lines virtually impossible. It is curious that the Slavs, though +masters of the interior of the peninsula and of parts of its eastern +and western coasts, have never made the shores of the Aegean (the White +Sea, as they call it) or the cities on them their own. The Adriatic is +the only sea on the shore of which any Slavonic race has ever made its +home. In view of this difficulty, namely, the interior of the peninsula +being Slavonic while the coastal fringe is Greek, and of the +approximately equal numerical strength of all three nations, it is +almost inevitable that the ultimate solution of the problem and +delimitation of political boundaries will have to be effected by means +of territorial compromise. It can only be hoped that this ultimate +compromise will be agreed upon by the three countries concerned, and +will be more equitable than that which was forced on them by Rumania in +1913 and laid down in the Treaty of Bucarest of that year. + +If no arrangement on a principle of give and take is made between them, +the road to the East, which from the point of view of the Germanic +powers lies through Serbia, will sooner or later inevitably be forced +open, and the independence, first of Serbia, Montenegro, and Albania, +and later of Bulgaria and Greece, will disappear, _de facto_ if not in +appearance, and both materially and morally they will become the slaves +of the central empires. If the Balkan League could be reconstituted, +Germany and Austria would never reach Salonika or Constantinople. + + + + +2 +_The Balkan Peninsula in Classical Times_ +400 B.C.–A.D. 500. + + +In the earlier historical times the whole of the eastern part of the +Balkan peninsula between the Danube and the Aegean was known as +Thracia, while the western part (north of the forty-first degree of +latitude) was termed Illyricum; the lower basin of the river Vardar +(the classical Axius) was called Macedonia. A number of the tribal and +personal names of the early Illyrians and Thracians have been +preserved. Philip of Macedonia subdued Thrace in the fourth century +B.C. and in 342 founded the city of Philippopolis. Alexander’s first +campaign was devoted to securing control of the peninsula, but during +the Third century B.C. Thrace was invaded from the north and laid waste +by the Celts, who had already visited Illyria. The Celts vanished by +the end of that century, leaving a few place-names to mark their +passage. The city of Belgrade was known until the seventh century A.D. +by its Celtic name of Singidunum. Naissus, the modern Nish, is also +possibly of Celtic origin. It was towards 230 B.C. that Rome came into +contact with Illyricum, owing to the piratical proclivities of its +inhabitants, but for a long time it only controlled the Dalmatian +coast, so called after the Delmati or Dalmati, an Illyrian tribe. The +reason for this was the formidable character of the mountains of +Illyria, which run in several parallel and almost unbroken lines the +whole length of the shore of the Adriatic and have always formed an +effective barrier to invasion from the west. The interior was only very +gradually subdued by the Romans after Macedonia had been occupied by +them in 146 B.C. Throughout the first century B.C. conflicts raged with +varying fortune between the invaders and all the native races living +between the Adriatic and the Danube. They were attacked both from +Aquileia in the north and from Macedonia in the south, but it was not +till the early years of our era that the Danube became the frontier of +the Roman Empire. + +In the year A.D. 6 Moesia, which included a large part of the modern +kingdom of Serbia and the northern half of that of Bulgaria between the +Danube and the Balkan range (the classical Haemus), became an imperial +province, and twenty years later Thrace, the country between the Balkan +range and the Aegean, was incorporated in the empire, and was made a +province by the Emperor Claudius in A.D. 46. The province of Illyricum +or Dalmatia stretched between the Save and the Adriatic, and Pannonia +lay between the Danube and the Save. In 107 A.D. the Emperor Trajan +conquered the Dacians beyond the lower Danube, and organized a province +of Dacia out of territory roughly equivalent to the modern Wallachia +and Transylvania, This trans-Danubian territory did not remain attached +to the empire for more than a hundred and fifty years; but within the +river line a vast belt of country, stretching from the head of the +Adriatic to the mouths of the Danube on the Black Sea, was Romanized +through and through. The Emperor Trajan has been called the Charlemagne +of the Balkan peninsula; all remains are attributed to him (he was +nicknamed the Wallflower by Constantine the Great), and his reign +marked the zenith of Roman power in this part of the world. The Balkan +peninsula enjoyed the benefits of Roman civilization for three +centuries, from the first to the fourth, but from the second century +onwards the attitude of the Romans was defensive rather than offensive. +The war against the Marcomanni under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, in +the second half of this century, was the turning-point. Rome was still +victorious, but no territory was added to the empire. The third century +saw the southward movement of the Germanic peoples, who took the place +of the Celts. The Goths invaded the peninsula, and in 251 the Emperor +Decius was killed in battle against them near Odessus on the Black Sea +(the modern Varna). The Goths reached the outskirts of Thessalonica +(Salonika), but were defeated by the Emperor Claudius at Naissus (Nish) +in 269; shortly afterwards, however, the Emperor Aurelian had +definitively to relinquish Dacia to them. The Emperor Diocletian, a +native of Dalmatia, who reigned from 284 to 305, carried out a +redistribution of the imperial provinces. Pannonia and western Illyria, +or Dalmatia, were assigned to the prefecture of Italy, Thrace to that +of the Orient, while the whole centre of the peninsula, from the Danube +to the Peloponnese, constituted the prefecture of Illyria, with +Thessalonica as capital. The territory to the north of the Danube +having been lost, what is now western Bulgaria was renamed Dacia, while +Moesia, the modern kingdom of Serbia, was made very much smaller. +Praevalis, or the southern part of Dalmatia, approximately the modern +Montenegro and Albania, was detached from that province and added to +the prefecture of Illyria. In this way the boundary between the +province of Dalmatia and the Balkan peninsula proper ran from near the +lake of Scutari in the south to the river Drinus (the modern Drina), +whose course it followed till the Save was reached in the north. + +An event of far-reaching importance in the following century was the +elevation by Constantine the Great of the Greek colony of Byzantium +into the imperial city of Constantinople in 325. This century also +witnessed the arrival of the Huns in Europe from Asia. They overwhelmed +the Ostrogoths, between the Dnieper and the Dniester, in 375, and the +Visigoths, settled in Transylvania and the modern Rumania, moved +southwards in sympathy with this event. The Emperor Valens lost his +life fighting against these Goths in 378 at the great battle of +Adrianople (a city established in Thrace by the Emperor Hadrian in the +second century). His successor, the Emperor Theodosius, placated them +with gifts and made them guardians of the northern frontier, but at his +death, in 395, they overran and devastated the entire peninsula, after +which they proceeded to Italy. After the death of the Emperor +Theodosius the empire was divided, never to be joined into one whole +again. The dividing line followed that, already mentioned, which +separated the prefecture of Italy from those of Illyria and the Orient, +that is to say, it began in the south, on the shore of the Adriatic +near the Bocche di Cattaro, and went due north along the valley of the +Drina till the confluence of that river with the Save. It will be seen +that this division had consequences which have lasted to the present +day. Generally speaking, the Western Empire was Latin in language and +character, while the Eastern was Greek, though owing to the importance +of the Danubian provinces to Rome from the military point of view, and +the lively intercourse maintained between them, Latin influence in them +was for a long time stronger than Greek. Its extent is proved by the +fact that the people of modern Rumania are partly, and their language +very largely, defended from those of the legions and colonies of the +Emperor Trajan. + +Latin influence, shipping, colonization, and art were always supreme on +the eastern shores of the Adriatic, just as were those of Greece on the +shores of the Black Sea. The Albanians even, descendants of the ancient +Illyrians, were affected by the supremacy of the Latin language, from +which no less than a quarter of their own meagre vocabulary is derived; +though driven southwards by the Romans and northwards by the Greeks, +they have remained in their mountain fastnesses to this day, impervious +to any of the civilizations to which they have been exposed. + +Christianity spread to the shores of the peninsula very early; +Macedonia and Dalmatia were the parts where it was first established, +and it took some time to penetrate into the interior. During the reign +of Diocletian numerous martyrs suffered for the faith in the Danubian +provinces, but with the accession of Constantine the Great persecution +came to an end. As soon, however, as the Christians were left alone, +they started persecuting each other, and during the fourth century the +Arian controversy re-echoed throughout the peninsula. + +In the fifth century the Huns moved from the shores of the Black Sea to +the plains of the Danube and the Theiss; they devastated the Balkan +peninsula, in spite of the tribute which they had levied on +Constantinople in return for their promise of peace. After the death of +Attila, in 453, they again retreated to Asia, and during the second +half of the century the Goths were once more supreme in the peninsula. +Theodoric occupied Singidunum (Belgrade) in 471 and, after plundering +Macedonia and Greece, settled in Novae (the modern Svishtov), on the +lower Danube, in 483, where he remained till he transferred the sphere +of his activities to Italy ten years later. Towards the end of the +fifth century Huns of various kinds returned to the lower Danube and +devastated the peninsula several times, penetrating as far as Epirus +and Thessaly. + + + + +3 +_The Arrival of the Slavs in the Balkan Peninsula_, A.D. 500–650 + + +The Balkan peninsula, which had been raised to a high level of security +and prosperity during the Roman dominion, gradually relapsed into +barbarism as a result of these endless invasions; the walled towns, +such as Salonika and Constantinople, were the only safe places, and the +country became waste and desolate. The process continued unabated +throughout the three following centuries, and one is driven to one of +two conclusions, either that these lands must have possessed very +extraordinary powers of recuperation to make it worth while for +invaders to pillage them so frequently, or, what is more probable, +there can have been after some time little left to plunder, and +consequently the Byzantine historians’ accounts of enormous drives of +prisoners and booty are much exaggerated. It is impossible to count the +number of times the tide of invasion and devastation swept southwards +over the unfortunate peninsula. The emperors and their generals did +what they could by means of defensive works on the frontiers, of +punitive expeditions, and of trying to set the various hordes of +barbarians at loggerheads with each other, but, as they had at the same +time to defend an empire which stretched from Armenia to Spain, it is +not surprising that they were not more successful. The growing riches +of Constantinople and Salonika had an irresistible attraction for the +wild men from the east and north, and unfortunately the Greek citizens +were more inclined to spend their energy in theological disputes and +their leisure in the circus than to devote either the one or the other +to the defence of their country. It was only by dint of paying them +huge sums of money that the invaders were kept away from the coast. The +departure of the Huns and the Goths had made the way for fresh series +of unwelcome visitors. In the sixth century the Slavs appear for the +first time. From their original homes which were immediately north of +the Carpathians, in Galicia and Poland, but may also have included +parts of the modern Hungary, they moved southwards and south-eastwards. +They were presumably in Dacia, north of the Danube, in the previous +century, but they are first mentioned as having crossed that river +during the reign of the Emperor Justin I (518-27). They were a +loosely-knit congeries of tribes without any single leader or central +authority; some say they merely possessed the instinct of anarchy, +others that they were permeated with the ideals of democracy. What is +certain is that amongst them neither leadership nor initiative was +developed, and that they lacked both cohesion and organisation. The +Eastern Slavs, the ancestors of the Russians, were only welded into +anything approaching unity by the comparatively much smaller number of +Scandinavian (Varangian) adventurers who came and took charge of their +affairs at Kiev. Similarly the Southern Slavs were never of themselves +able to form a united community, conscious of its aim and capable of +persevering in its attainment. + +The Slavs did not invade the Balkan peninsula alone but in the company +of the Avars, a terrible and justly dreaded nation, who, like the Huns, +were of Asiatic (Turkish or Mongol) origin. These invasions became more +frequent during the reign of the Emperor Justinian I (527-65), and +culminated in 559 in a great combined attack of all the invaders on +Constantinople under a certain Zabergan, which was brilliantly defeated +by the veteran Byzantine general Belisarius. The Avars were a nomad +tribe, and the horse was their natural means of locomotion. The Slavs, +on the other hand, moved about on foot, and seem to have been used as +infantry by the more masterful Asiatics in their warlike expeditions. +Generally speaking, the Avars, who must have been infinitely less +numerous than the Slavs, were settled in Hungary, where Attila and the +Huns had been settled a little more than a century previously; that is +to say, they were north of the Danube, though they were always +overrunning into Upper Moesia, the modern Serbia. The Slavs, whose +numbers were without doubt very large, gradually settled all over the +country south of the Danube, the rural parts of which, as a result of +incessant invasion and retreat, had become waste and empty. During the +second half of the sixth century all the military energies of +Constantinople were diverted to Persia, so that the invaders of the +Balkan peninsula had the field very much to themselves. It was during +this time that the power of the Avars reached its height. They were +masters of all the country up to the walls of Adrianople and Salonika, +though they did not settle there. The peninsula seems to have been +colonized by Slavs, who penetrated right down into Greece; but the +Avars were throughout this time, both in politics and in war, the +directing and dominating force. During another Persian war, which broke +out in 622 and entailed the prolonged absence of the emperor from +Constantinople, the Avars, not satisfied with the tribute extorted from +the Greeks, made an alliance against them with the Persians, and in 626 +collected a large army of Slavs and Asiatics and attacked +Constantinople both by land and sea from the European side, while the +Persians threatened it from Asia. But the walls of the city and the +ships of the Greeks proved invincible, and, quarrels breaking out +between the Slavs and the Avars, both had to save themselves in +ignominious and precipitate retreat. + +After this nothing more was heard of the Avars in the Balkan peninsula, +though their power was only finally crushed by Charlemagne in 799. In +Russia their downfall became proverbial, being crystallized in the +saying, ‘they perished like Avars’. The Slavs, on the other hand, +remained. Throughout these stormy times their penetration of the Balkan +peninsula had been peacefully if unostentatiously proceeding; by the +middle of the seventh century it was complete. The main streams of +Slavonic immigration moved southwards and westwards. The first covered +the whole of the country between the Danube and the Balkan range, +overflowed into Macedonia, and filtered down into Greece. Southern +Thrace in the east and Albania in the west were comparatively little +affected, and in these districts the indigenous population maintained +itself. The coasts of the Aegean and the great cities on or near them +were too strongly held by the Greeks to be affected, and those Slavs +who penetrated into Greece itself were soon absorbed by the local +populations. The still stronger Slavonic stream, which moved westwards +and turned up north-westwards, overran the whole country down to the +shores of the Adriatic and as far as the sources of the Save and Drave +in the Alps. From that point in the west to the shores of the Black Sea +in the east became one solid mass of Slavs, and has remained so ever +since. The few Slavs who were left north of the Danube in Dacia were +gradually assimilated by the inhabitants of that province, who were the +descendants of the Roman soldiers and colonists, and the ancestors of +the modern Rumanians, but the fact that Slavonic influence there was +strong is shown by the large number of words of Slavonic origin +contained in the Rumanian language. + +[Illustration: THE BALKAN PENINSULA ETHNOLOGICAL] + +Place-names are a good index of the extent and strength of the tide of +Slav immigration. All along the coast, from the mouth of the Danube to +the head of the Adriatic, the Greek and Roman names have been retained +though places have often been given alternative names by the Slavonic +settlers. Thrace, especially the south-eastern part, and Albania have +the fewest Slavonic place-names. In Macedonia and Lower Moesia +(Bulgaria) very few classical names have survived, while in Upper +Moesia (Serbia) and the interior of Dalmatia (Bosnia, Hercegovina, and +Montenegro) they have entirely disappeared. The Slavs themselves, +though their tribal names were known, were until the ninth century +usually called collectively S(k)lavini ([Greek: Sklabaenoi]) by the +Greeks, and all the inland parts of the peninsula were for long termed +by them ‘the S(k)lavonias’ ([Greek: Sklabiniai]). + +During the seventh century, dating from the defeat of the Slavs and +Avars before the walls of Constantinople in 626 and the final triumph +of the emperor over the Persians in 628, the influence and power of the +Greeks began to reassert itself throughout the peninsula as far north +as the Danube; this process was coincident with the decline of the +might of the Avars. It was the custom of the astute Byzantine diplomacy +to look on and speak of lands which had been occupied by the various +barbarian invaders as grants made to them through the generosity of the +emperor; by this means, by dint also of lavishing titles and +substantial incomes to the invaders’ chiefs, by making the most of +their mutual jealousies, and also by enlisting regiments of Slavonic +mercenaries in the imperial armies, the supremacy of Constantinople was +regained far more effectively than it could have been by the continual +and exhausting use of force. + + + + +BULGARIA + + + + +4 +_The Arrival of the Bulgars in the Balkan Peninsula,_ 600–700 + + +The progress of the Bulgars towards the Balkan peninsula, and indeed +all their movements until their final establishment there in the +seventh century, are involved in obscurity. They are first mentioned by +name in classical and Armenian sources in 482 as living in the steppes +to the north of the Black Sea amongst other Asiatic tribes, and it has +been assumed by some that at the end of the fifth and throughout the +sixth century they were associated first with the Huns and later with +the Avars and Slavs in the various incursions into and invasions of the +eastern empire which have already been enumerated. It is the tendency +of Bulgarian historians, who scornfully point to the fact that the +history of Russia only dates from the ninth century, to exaggerate the +antiquity of their own and to claim as early a date as possible for the +authentic appearance of their ancestors on the kaleidoscopic stage of +the Balkan theatre. They are also unwilling to admit that they were +anticipated by the Slavs; they prefer to think that the Slavs only +insinuated themselves there thanks to the energy of the Bulgars’ +offensive against the Greeks, and that as soon as the Bulgars had +leisure to look about them they found all the best places already +occupied by the anarchic Slavs. + +Of course it is very difficult to say positively whether Bulgars were +or were not present in the welter of Asiatic nations which swept +westwards into Europe with little intermission throughout the fifth and +sixth centuries, but even if they were, they do not seem to have +settled down as early as that anywhere south of the Danube; it seems +certain that they did not do so until the seventh century, and +therefore that the Slavs were definitely installed in the Balkan +peninsula a whole century before the Bulgars crossed the Danube for +good. + +The Bulgars, like the Huns and the Avars who preceded them, and like +the Magyars and the Turks who followed them, were a tribe from eastern +Asia, of the stock known as Mongol or Tartar. The tendency of all these +peoples was to move westwards from Asia into Europe, and this they did +at considerable and irregular intervals, though in alarming and +apparently inexhaustible numbers, roughly from the fourth till the +fourteenth centuries. The distance was great, but the journey, thanks +to the flat, grassy, treeless, and well-watered character of the +steppes of southern Russia which they had to cross, was easy. They +often halted for considerable periods by the way, and some never moved +further westwards than Russia. Thus at one time the Bulgars settled in +large numbers on the Volga, near its confluence with the Kama, and it +is presumed that they were well established there in the fifth century. +They formed a community of considerable strength and importance, known +as Great or White Bulgaria. These Bulgars fused with later Tartar +immigrants from Asia and eventually were consolidated into the powerful +kingdom of Kazan, which was only crushed by the Tsar Ivan IV in 1552. +According to Bulgarian historians, the basins of the rivers Volga and +Don and the steppes of eastern Russia proved too confined a space for +the legitimate development of Bulgarian energy, and expansion to the +west was decided on. A large number of Bulgars therefore detached +themselves and began to move south-westwards. During the sixth century +they seem to have been settled in the country to the north of the Black +Sea, forming a colony known as Black Bulgaria. It is very doubtful +whether the Bulgars did take part, as they are supposed to have done, +in the ambitious but unsuccessful attack on Constantinople in 559 under +Zabergan, chief of another Tartar tribe; but it is fairly certain that +they did in the equally formidable but equally unsuccessful attacks by +the Slavs and Avars against Salonika in 609 and Constantinople in 626. + +During the last quarter of the sixth and the first of the seventh +century the various branches of the Bulgar nation, stretching from the +Volga to the Danube, were consolidated and kept in control by their +prince Kubrat, who eventually fought on behalf of the Greeks against +the Avars, and was actually baptized in Constantinople. The power of +the Bulgars grew as that of the Avars declined, but at the death of +Kubrat, in 638, his realm was divided amongst his sons. One of these +established himself in Pannonia, where he joined forces with what was +left of the Avars, and there the Bulgars maintained themselves till +they were obliterated by the irruption of the Magyars in 893. Another +son, Asparukh, or Isperikh, settled in Bessarabia, between the rivers +Prut and Dniester, in 640, and some years later passed southwards. +After desultory warfare with Constantinople, from 660 onwards, his +successor finally overcame the Greeks, who were at that time at war +with the Arabs, captured Varna, and definitely established himself +between the Danube and the Balkan range in the year 679. From that year +the Danube ceased to be the frontier of the eastern empire. + +The numbers of the Bulgars who settled south of the Danube are not +known, but what happened to them is notorious. The well-known process, +by which the Franks in Gaul were absorbed by the far more numerous +indigenous population which they had conquered, was repeated, and the +Bulgars became fused with the Slavs. So complete was the fusion, and so +preponderating the influence of the subject nationality, that beyond a +few personal names no traces of the language of the Bulgars have +survived. Modern Bulgarian, except for the Turkish words introduced +into it later during the Ottoman rule, is purely Slavonic. Not so the +Bulgarian nationality; as is so often the case with mongrel products, +this race, compared with the Serbs, who are purely Slav, has shown +considerably greater virility, cohesion, and driving-power, though it +must be conceded that its problems have been infinitely simpler. + + + + +5 +_The Early Years of Bulgaria and the Introduction of Christianity_, +700–893 + + +From the time of their establishment in the country to which they have +given their name the Bulgars became a thorn in the side of the Greeks, +and ever since both peoples have looked on one another as natural and +hereditary enemies. The Bulgars, like all the barbarians who had +preceded them, were fascinated by the honey-pot of Constantinople, and, +though they never succeeded in taking it, they never grew tired of +making the attempt. + +For two hundred years after the death of Asparukh, in 661, the Bulgars +were perpetually fighting either against the Greeks or else amongst +themselves. At times a diversion was caused by the Bulgars taking the +part of the Greeks, as in 718, when they ‘delivered’ Constantinople, at +the invocation of the Emperor Leo, from the Arabs, who were besieging +it. From about this time the Bulgarian monarchy, which had been +hereditary, became elective, and the anarchy of the many, which the +Bulgars found when they arrived, and which their first few autocratic +rulers had been able to control, was replaced by an anarchy of the few. +Prince succeeded prince, war followed war, at the will of the feudal +nobles. This internal strife was naturally profitable to the Greeks, +who lavishly subsidized the rival factions. + +At the end of the eighth century the Bulgars south of the Danube joined +forces with those to the north in the efforts of the latter against the +Avars, who, beaten by Charlemagne, were again pressing south-eastwards +towards the Danube. In this the Bulgars were completely successful +under the leadership of one Krum, whom, in the elation of victory, they +promptly elected to the throne. Krum was a far more capable ruler than +they had bargained for, and he not only united all the Bulgars north +and south of the Danube into one dominion, but also forcibly repressed +the whims of the nobles and re-established the autocracy and the +hereditary monarchy. Having finished with his enemies in the north, he +turned his attention to the Greeks, with no less success. In 809 he +captured from them the important city of Sofia (the Roman Sardica, +known to the Slavs as Sredets), which is to-day the capital of +Bulgaria. The loss of this city was a blow to the Greeks, because it +was a great centre of commerce and also the point at which the +commercial and strategic highways of the peninsula met and crossed. The +Emperor Nikiphóros, who wished to take his revenge and recover his lost +property, was totally defeated by the Bulgars and lost his life in the +Balkan passes in 811. After further victories, at Mesembria (the modern +Misivria) in 812 and Adrianople in 813, Krum appeared before the +capital, where he nearly lost his life in an ambush while negotiating +for peace. During preparations for a final assault on Constantinople he +died suddenly in 815. Though Krum cannot be said to have introduced +civilisation into Bulgaria, he at any rate increased its power and gave +it some of the more essential organs of government. He framed a code of +laws remarkable for their rigour, which was undoubtedly necessary in +such a community and beneficial in its effect. He repressed civil +strife, and by this means made possible the reawakening of commerce and +agriculture. His successor, of uncertain identity, founded in 822 the +city of Preslav (known to the Russians as Pereyaslav), situated in +eastern Bulgaria, between Varna and Silistria, which was the capital +until 972. + +The reign of Prince Boris (852-88) is remarkable because it witnessed +the definitive conversion to Christianity of Bulgaria and her ruler. It +is within this period also that fell the activities of the two great +‘Slavonic’ missionaries and apostles, the brothers Cyril and Methodius, +who are looked upon by all Slavs of the orthodox faith as the founders +of their civilisation. Christianity had of course penetrated into +Bulgaria (or Moesia, as it was then) long before the arrival of the +Slavs and Bulgars, but the influx of one horde of barbarians after +another was naturally not propitious to its growth. The conversion of +Boris in 865, which was brought about largely by the influence of his +sister, who had spent many years in Constantinople as a captive, was a +triumph for Greek influence and for Byzantium. Though the Church was at +this time still nominally one, yet the rivalry between Rome and +Constantinople had already become acute, and the struggle for spheres +of spiritual influence had begun. It was in the year 863 that the +Prince of Moravia, anxious to introduce Christianity into his country +in a form intelligible to his subjects, addressed himself to the +Emperor Michael III for help. Rome could not provide any suitable +missionaries with knowledge of Slavonic languages, and the German, or +more exactly the Bavarian, hierarchy with which Rome entrusted the +spiritual welfare of the Slavs of Moravia and Pannonia used its greater +local knowledge for political and not religious ends. The Germans +exploited their ecclesiastical influence in order completely to +dominate the Slavs politically, and as a result the latter were only +allowed to see the Church through Teutonic glasses. + +In answer to this appeal the emperor sent the two brothers Cyril and +Methodius, who were Greeks of Salonika and had considerable knowledge +of Slavonic languages. They composed the Slavonic alphabet which is +to-day used throughout Russia, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Montenegro, and in +many parts of Austria-Hungary and translated the gospels into Slavonic; +it is for this reason that they are regarded with such veneration by +all members of the Eastern Church. Their mission proved the greatest +success (it must be remembered that at this time the various Slavonic +tongues were probably less dissimilar than they are now), and the two +brothers were warmly welcomed in Rome by Pope Adrian II, who formally +consented to the use, for the benefit of the Slavs, of the Slavonic +liturgy (a remarkable concession, confirmed by Pope John VIII). This +triumph, however, was short-lived; St. Cyril died in 869 and St. +Methodius in 885; subsequent Popes, notably Stephen V, were not so +benevolent to the Slavonic cause; the machinations of the German +hierarchy (which included, even in those days, the falsification of +documents) were irresistible, and finally the invasion of the Magyars, +in 893, destroyed what was left of the Slavonic Church in Moravia. The +missionary brothers had probably passed through Bulgaria on their way +north in 863, but without halting. Many of their disciples, driven from +the Moravian kingdom by the Germans, came south and took refuge in +Bulgaria in 886, and there carried on in more favourable circumstances +the teachings of their masters. Prince Boris had found it easier to +adopt Christianity himself than to induce all his subjects to do the +same. Even when he had enforced his will on them at the price of +numerous executions of recalcitrant nobles, he found himself only at +the beginning of his difficulties. The Greeks had been glad enough to +welcome Bulgaria into the fold, but they had no wish to set up an +independent Church and hierarchy to rival their own. Boris, on the +other hand, though no doubt full of genuine spiritual ardour, was above +all impressed with the authority and prestige which the basileus +derived from the Church of Constantinople; he also admired the pomp of +ecclesiastical ceremony, and wished to have a patriarch of his own to +crown him and a hierarchy of his own to serve him. Finding the Greeks +unresponsive, he turned to Rome, and Pope Nicholas I sent him two +bishops to superintend the ecclesiastical affairs of Bulgaria till the +investiture of Boris at the hands of the Holy See could be arranged. +These bishops set to work with a will, substituted the Latin for the +Greek rite, and brought Bulgaria completely under Roman influence. But +when it was discovered that Boris was aiming at the erection of an +independent Church their enthusiasm abated and they were recalled to +Rome in 867. + +Adrian II proved no more sympathetic, and in 870, during the reign of +the Emperor Basil I, it was decided without more ado that the Bulgarian +Church should be directly under the Bishop of Constantinople, on the +ground that the kingdom of Boris was a vassal-state of the basileus, +and that from the Byzantine point of view, as opposed to that of Rome, +the State came first and the Church next. The Moravian Gorazd, a +disciple of Methodius, was appointed Metropolitan, and at his death he +was succeeded by his fellow countryman and co-disciple Clement, who by +means of the construction of numerous churches and monasteries did a +great deal for the propagation of light and learning in Bulgaria. The +definite subjection of the Bulgarian Church to that of Byzantium was an +important and far-reaching event. Boris has been reproached with +submitting himself and his country to Greek influence, but in those +days it was either Constantinople or Rome (there was no third way); and +in view of the proximity of Constantinople and the glamour which its +civilization cast all over the Balkans, it is not surprising that the +Greeks carried the day. + + + + +6 +_The Rise and Fall of the First Bulgarian Empire_, 893–972 + + +During the reign of Simeon, second son of Boris, which lasted from 893 +to 927, Bulgaria reached a very high level of power and prosperity. +Simeon, called the Great, is looked on by Bulgarians as their most +capable monarch and his reign as the most brilliant period of their +history. He had spent his childhood at Constantinople and been educated +there, and he became such an admirer of Greek civilization that he was +nicknamed _Hèmiargos_. His instructors had done their work so well that +Simeon remained spellbound by the glamour of Constantinople throughout +his life, and, although he might have laid the foundations of a solid +empire in the Balkans, his one ambition was to conquer Byzantium and to +be recognized as basileus—an ambition which was not to be fulfilled. +His first campaign against the Greeks was not very fruitful, because +the latter summoned the Magyars, already settled in Hungary, to their +aid and they attacked Simeon from the north. Simeon in return called +the Pechenegs, another fierce Tartar tribe, to his aid, but this merely +resulted in their definite establishment in Rumania. During the twenty +years of peace, which strange to say filled the middle of his reign +(894-913), the internal development of Bulgaria made great strides. The +administration was properly organized, commerce was encouraged, and +agriculture flourished. In the wars against the Greeks which occupied +his last years he was more successful, and inflicted a severe defeat on +them at Anchialo (the modern Ahiolu) in 917; but he was still unable to +get from them what he wanted, and at last, in 921, he was obliged to +proclaim himself _basileus_ and _autocratōr_ of all Bulgars and Greeks, +a title which nobody else recognized. He reappeared before +Constantinople the same year, but effected nothing more than the +customary devastation of the suburbs. The year 923 witnessed a solemn +reconciliation between Rome and Constantinople; the Greeks were clever +enough to prevent the Roman legates visiting Bulgaria on their return +journey, and thereby administered a rebuff to Simeon, who was anxious +to see them and enter into direct relations with Rome. In the same year +Simeon tried to make an alliance with the Arabs, but the ambassadors of +the latter were intercepted by the Greeks, who made it worth their +while not to continue the journey to Bulgaria. + +In 924 Simeon determined on a supreme effort against Constantinople and +as a preliminary he ravaged Macedonia and Thrace. When, however, he +arrived before the city the walls and the catapults made him hesitate, +and he entered into negotiations, which, as usual, petered out and +brought him no adequate reward for all his hopes and preparations. In +the west his arms were more successful, and he subjected most of the +eastern part of Serbia to his rule. From all this it can be seen that +he was no diplomat, though not lacking in enterprise and ambition. The +fact was that while he made his kingdom too powerful for the Greeks to +subdue (indeed they were compelled to pay him tribute), yet +Constantinople with its impregnable walls, well-organized army, +powerful fleet, and cunning and experienced statesmen, was too hard a +nut for him to crack. + +Simeon extended the boundaries of his country considerably, and his +dominion included most of the interior of the Balkan peninsula south of +the Danube and east of the rivers Morava and Ibar in Serbia and of the +Drin in Albania. The Byzantine Church greatly increased its influence +in Bulgaria during his reign, and works of theology grew like +mushrooms. This was the only kind of literature that was ever popular +in Bulgaria, and although it is usual to throw contempt on the literary +achievements of Constantinople, we should know but little of Bulgaria +were it not for the Greek historians. + +Simeon died in 927, and his son Peter, who succeeded him, was a lover +of peace and comfort; he married a Byzantine princess, and during his +reign (927-69) Greek influence grew ever stronger, in spite of several +revolts on the part of the Bulgar nobles, while the capital Preslav +became a miniature Constantinople. In 927 Rome recognized the kingdom +and patriarchate of Bulgaria, and Peter was duly crowned by the Papal +legate. This was viewed with disfavour by the Greeks, and they still +called Peter only _archōn_ or prince (_knyaz_ in Bulgarian), which was +the utmost title allowed to any foreign sovereign. It was not until 945 +that they recognized Peter as _basileus_, the unique title possessed by +their own emperors and till then never granted to any one else. Peter’s +reign was one of misfortune for his country both at home and abroad. In +931 the Serbs broke loose under their leader Časlav, whom Simeon had +captured but who effected his escape, and asserted their independence. +In 963 a formidable revolt under one Shishman undermined the whole +state fabric. He managed to subtract Macedonia and all western +Bulgaria, including Sofia and Vidin, from Peter’s rule, and proclaimed +himself independent _tsar (tsar_ or _caesar_ was a title often accorded +by Byzantium to relatives of the emperor or to distinguished men of +Greek or other nationality, and though it was originally the equivalent +of the highest title, it had long since ceased to be so: the emperor’s +designations were _basileus_ and _autocratōr_). From this time there +were two Bulgarias—eastern and western. The eastern half was now little +more than a Byzantine province, and the western became the centre of +national life and the focus of national aspirations. + +Another factor which militated against the internal progress of +Bulgaria was the spread of the Bogomil heresy in the tenth century. +This remarkable doctrine, founded on the dualism of the Paulicians, who +had become an important political force in the eastern empire, was +preached in the Balkan peninsula by one Jeremiah Bogomil, for the rest +a man of uncertain identity, who made Philippopolis the centre of his +activity. Its principal features were of a negative character, and +consequently it was very difficult successfully to apply force against +them. The Bogomils recognized the authority neither of Church nor of +State; the validity neither of oaths nor of human laws. They refused to +pay taxes, to fight, or to obey; they sanctioned theft, but looked upon +any kind of punishment as unjustifiable; they discountenanced marriage +and were strict vegetarians. Naturally a heresy so alarming in its +individualism shook to its foundations the not very firmly established +Bulgarian society. Nevertheless it spread with rapidity in spite of all +persecutions, and its popularity amongst the Bulgarians, and indeed +amongst all the Slavs of the peninsula, is without doubt partly +explained by political reasons. The hierarchy of the Greek Church, +which supported the ruling classes of the country and lent them +authority at the same time that it increased its own, was antipathetic +to the Slavs, and the Bogomil heresy drew much strength from its +nationalistic colouring and from the appeal which it made to the +character of the Balkan Slavs, who have always been intolerant of +government by the Church. But neither the civil nor the ecclesiastical +authorities were able to cope with the problem; indeed they were apt to +minimize its importance, and the heresy was never eradicated till the +arrival on the scene of Islam, which proved as attractive to the +schismatics as the well-regulated Orthodox Church had been the reverse. + +The third quarter of the tenth century witnessed a great recrudescence +of the power of Constantinople under the Emperor Nikiphóros Phokas, who +wrested Cyprus and Crete from the Arabs and inaugurated an era of +prosperity for the eastern empire, giving it a new lease of vigorous +and combative life. Wishing to reassert the Greek supremacy in the +Balkan peninsula his first act was to refuse any further payment of +tribute to the Bulgarians as from 966; his next was to initiate a +campaign against them, but in order to make his own success in this +enterprise less costly and more assured he secured the co-operation of +the Russians under Svyatoslav, Prince of Kiev; this potentate’s mother +Olga had visited Constantinople in 957 and been baptized (though her +son and the bulk of the population were still ardent heathens), and +commercial intercourse between Russia and Constantinople by means of +the Dnieper and the Black Sea was at that time lively. Svyatoslav did +not want pressing, and arriving with an army of 10,000 men in boats, +overcame northern Bulgaria in a few days (967); they were helped by +Shishman and the western Bulgars, who did not mind at what price Peter +and the eastern Bulgars were crushed. Svyatoslav was recalled to Russia +in 968 to defend his home from attacks by the Tartar Pechenegs, but +that done, he made up his mind to return to Bulgaria, lured by its +riches and by the hope of the eventual possession of Constantinople. + +The Emperor Nikiphóros was by now aware of the danger he had +imprudently conjured up, and made a futile alliance with eastern +Bulgaria; but in January 969 Peter of Bulgaria died, and in December of +the same year Nikiphóros was murdered by the ambitious Armenian John +Tzimisces,[1] who thereupon became emperor. Svyatoslav, seeing the +field clear of his enemies, returned in 970, and in March of that year +sacked and occupied Philippopolis. The Emperor John Tzimisces, who was +even abler both as general and as diplomat than his predecessor, +quietly pushed forward his warlike preparations, and did not meet the +Russians till the autumn, when he completely defeated them at +Arcadiopolis (the modern Lule-Burgas). The Russians retired north of +the Balkan range, but the Greeks followed them. John Tzimisces besieged +them in the capital Preslav, which he stormed, massacring many of the +garrison, in April 972. Svyatoslav and his remaining troops escaped to +Silistria (the Durostorum of Trajan) on the Danube, where again, +however, they were besieged and defeated by the indefatigable emperor. +At last peace was made in July 972, the Russians being allowed to go +free on condition of the complete evacuation of Bulgaria and a gift of +corn; the adventurous Svyatoslav lost his life at the hands of the +Pechenegs while making his way back to Kiev. The triumph of the Greeks +was complete, and it can be imagined that there was not much left of +the earthenware Bulgaria after the violent collision of these two +mighty iron vessels on the top of it. Eastern Bulgaria (i.e. Moesia and +Thrace) ceased to exist, becoming a purely Greek province; John +Tzimisces made his triumphal entry into Constantinople, followed by the +two sons of Peter of Bulgaria on foot; the elder was deprived of his +regal attributes and created _magistros_, the younger was made a +eunuch. + +[Footnote 1: John the Little.] + + + + +7 +_The Rise and Fall of ‘Western Bulgaria’ and the Greek Supremacy_, +963–1186 + + +Meanwhile western Bulgaria had not been touched, and it was thither +that the Bulgarian patriarch Damian removed from Silistria after the +victory of the Greeks, settling first in Sofia and then in Okhrida in +Macedonia, where the apostate Shishman had eventually made his capital. +Western Bulgaria included Macedonia and parts of Thessaly, Albania, +southern and eastern Serbia, and the westernmost parts of modern +Bulgaria. It was from this district that numerous anti-Hellenic revolts +were directed after the death of the Emperor John Tzimisces in 976. +These culminated during the reign of Samuel (977-1014), one of the sons +of Shishman. He was as capable and energetic, as unscrupulous and +inhuman, as the situation he was called upon to fill demanded. He began +by assassinating all his relations and nobles who resented his desire +to re-establish the absolute monarchy, was recognized as _tsar_ by the +Holy See of Rome in 981, and then began to fight the Greeks, the only +possible occupation for any self-respecting Bulgarian ruler. The +emperor at that time was Basil II (976-1025), who was brave and +patriotic but young and inexperienced. In his early campaigns Samuel +carried all before him; he reconquered northern Bulgaria in 985, +Thessaly in 986, and defeated Basil II near Sofia the same year. Later +he conquered Albania and the southern parts of Serbia and what is now +Montenegro and Hercegovina. In 996 he threatened Salonika, but first of +all embarked on an expedition against the Peloponnese; here he was +followed by the Greek general, who managed to surprise and completely +overwhelm him, he and his son barely escaping with their lives. + +From that year (996) his fortune changed; the Greeks reoccupied +northern Bulgaria, in 999, and also recovered Thessaly and parts of +Macedonia. The Bulgars were subjected to almost annual attacks on the +part of Basil II; the country was ruined and could not long hold out. +The final disaster occurred in 1014, when Basil II utterly defeated his +inveterate foe in a pass near Seres in Macedonia. Samuel escaped to +Prilip, but when he beheld the return of 15,000 of his troops who had +been captured and blinded by the Greeks he died of syncope. Basil II, +known as Bulgaroctonus, or Bulgar-killer, went from victory to victory, +and finally occupied the Bulgarian capital of Okhrida in 1016. Western +Bulgaria came to an end, as had eastern Bulgaria in 972, the remaining +members of the royal family followed the emperor to the Bosphorus to +enjoy comfortable captivity, and the triumph of Constantinople was +complete. + +From 1018 to 1186 Bulgaria had no existence as an independent state; +Basil II, although cruel, was far from tyrannical in his general +treatment of the Bulgars, and treated the conquered territory more as a +protectorate than as a possession. But after his death Greek rule +became much more oppressive. The Bulgarian patriarchate (since 972 +established at Okhrida) was reduced to an archbishopric, and in 1025 +the see was given to a Greek, who lost no time in eliminating the +Bulgarian element from positions of importance throughout his diocese. +Many of the nobles were transplanted to Constantinople, where their +opposition was numbed by the bestowal of honours. During the eleventh +century the peninsula was invaded frequently by the Tartar Pechenegs +and Kumans, whose aid was invoked both by Greeks and Bulgars; the +result of these incursions was not always favourable to those who had +promoted them; the barbarians invariably stayed longer and did more +damage than had been bargained for, and usually left some of their +number behind as unwelcome settlers. + +In this way the ethnological map of the Balkan peninsula became ever +more variegated. To the Tartar settlers were added colonies of +Armenians and Vlakhs by various emperors. The last touch was given by +the arrival of the Normans in 1081 and the passage of the crusaders in +1096. The wholesale depredations of the latter naturally made the +inhabitants of the Balkan peninsula anything but sympathetically +disposed towards their cause. One of the results of all this turmoil +and of the heavy hand of the Greeks was a great increase in the +vitality of the Bogomil heresy already referred to; it became a refuge +for patriotism and an outlet for its expression. The Emperor Alexis +Comnenus instituted a bitter persecution of it, which only led to its +growth and rapid propagation westwards into Serbia from its centre +Philippopolis. + +The reason of the complete overthrow of the Bulgarian monarchy by the +Greeks was of course that the nation itself was totally lacking in +cohesion and organization, and could only achieve any lasting success +when an exceptionally gifted ruler managed to discount the centrifugal +tendencies of the feudal nobles, as Simeon and Samuel had done. Other +discouraging factors wore the permeation of the Church and State by +Byzantine influence, the lack of a large standing army, the spread of +the anarchic Bogomil heresy, and the fact that the bulk of the Slav +population had no desire for foreign adventure or national +aggrandizement. + + + + +8 +_The Rise and Fall of the Second Bulgarian Empire,_ 1186–1258 + + +From 1186 to 1258 Bulgaria experienced temporary resuscitation, the +brevity of which was more than compensated for by the stirring nature +of the events that crowded it. The exactions and oppressions of the +Greeks culminated in a revolt on the part of the Bulgars, which had its +centre in Tirnovo on the river Yantra in northern Bulgaria—a position +of great natural strength and strategic importance, commanding the +outlets of several of the most important passes over the Balkan range. +This revolt coincided with the growing weakness of the eastern empire, +which, surrounded on all sides by aggressive enemies—Kumans, Saracens, +Turks, and Normans—was sickening for one of the severe illnesses which +preceded its dissolution. The revolt was headed by two brothers who +were Vlakh or Rumanian shepherds, and was blessed by the archbishop +Basil, who crowned one of them, called John Asen, as _tsar_ in Tirnovo +in 1186. Their first efforts against the Greeks were not successful, +but securing the support of the Serbs under Stephen Nemanja in 1188 and +of the Crusaders in 1189 they became more so; but there was life in the +Greeks yet, and victory alternated with defeat. John Asen I was +assassinated in 1196 and was succeeded after many internal discords and +murders by his relative Kaloian or Pretty John. This cruel and +unscrupulous though determined ruler soon made an end of all his +enemies at home, and in eight years achieved such success abroad that +Bulgaria almost regained its former proportions. Moreover, he +re-established relations with Rome, to the great discomfiture of the +Greeks, and after some negotiations Pope Innocent III recognized +Kaloian as _tsar_ of the Bulgars and Vlakhs (roi de Blaquie et de +Bougrie, in the words of Villehardouin), with Basil as primate, and +they were both duly consecrated and crowned by the papal legate at +Tirnovo in 1204. The French, who had just established themselves in +Constantinople during the fourth crusade, imprudently made an enemy of +Kaloian instead of a friend, and with the aid of the Tartar Kumans he +defeated them several times, capturing and brutally murdering Baldwin +I. But in 1207 his career was cut short; he was murdered while +besieging Salonika by one of his generals who was a friend of his wife. +After eleven years of further anarchy he was succeeded by John Asen II. +During the reign of this monarch, which lasted from 1218 till 1241, +Bulgaria reached the zenith of its power. He was the most enlightened +ruler the country had had, and he not only waged war successfully +abroad but also put an end to the internal confusion, restored the +possibility of carrying on agriculture and commerce, and encouraged the +foundation of numerous schools and monasteries. He maintained the +tradition of his family by making his capital at Tirnovo, which city he +considerably embellished and enlarged. + +Constantinople at this time boasted three Greek emperors and one +French. The first act of John Asen II was to get rid of one of them, +named Theodore, who had proclaimed himself _basileus_ at Okhrida in +1223. Thereupon he annexed the whole of Thrace, Macedonia, Thessaly, +and Epirus to his dominions, and made Theodore’s brother Manuel, who +had married one of his daughters, viceroy, established at Salonika. +Another of his daughters had married Stephen Vladislav, who was King of +Serbia from 1233-43, and a third married Theodore, son of the Emperor +John III, who reigned at Nicaea, in 1235. This daughter, after being +sought in marriage by the French barons at Constantinople as a wife for +the Emperor Baldwin II, a minor, was then summarily rejected in favour +of the daughter of the King of Jerusalem; this affront rankled in the +mind of John Asen II and threw him into the arms of the Greeks, with +whom he concluded an alliance in 1234. John Asen II and his ally, the +Emperor John III, were, however, utterly defeated by the French under +the walls of Constantinople in 1236, and the Bulgarian ruler, who had +no wish to see the Greeks re-established there, began to doubt the +wisdom of his alliance. Other Bulgarian tsars had been unscrupulous, +but the whole foreign policy of this one pivoted on treachery. He +deserted the Greeks and made an alliance with the French in 1237, the +Pope Gregory IX, a great Hellenophobe, having threatened him with +excommunication; he went so far as to force his daughter to relinquish +her Greek husband. The following year, however, he again changed over +to the Greeks; then again fear of the Pope and of his brother-in-law +the King of Hungary brought him back to the side of Baldwin II, to +whose help against the Greeks he went with a large army into Thrace in +1239. While besieging the Greeks with indifferent success, he learned +of the death of his wife and his eldest son from plague, and +incontinently returned to Tirnovo, giving up the war and restoring his +daughter to her lonely husband. This adaptable monarch died a natural +death in 1241, and the three rulers of his family who succeeded him, +whose reigns filled the period 1241-58, managed to undo all the +constructive work of their immediate predecessors. Province after +province was lost and internal anarchy increased. This remarkable +dynasty came to an inglorious end in 1258, when its last representative +was murdered by his own nobles, and from this time onwards Bulgaria was +only a shadow of its former self. + + + + +9 +_The Serbian Supremacy and the Final Collapse,_ 1258–1393 + + +From 1258 onwards Bulgaria may be said to have continued flickering +until its final extinction as a state in 1393, but during this period +it never had any voice in controlling the destinies of the Balkan +peninsula. Owing to the fact that no ruler emerged capable of keeping +the distracted country in order, there was a regular _chassé-croisé_ of +rival princelets, an unceasing tale of political marriages and murders, +conspiracies and revolts of feudal nobles all over the country, and +perpetual ebb and flow of the boundaries of the warring principalities +which tore the fabric of Bulgaria to pieces amongst them. From the +point of view of foreign politics this period is characterized +generally by the virtual disappearance of Bulgarian independence to the +profit of the surrounding states, who enjoyed a sort of rotativist +supremacy. It is especially remarkable for the complete ascendancy +which Serbia gained in the Balkan peninsula. + +A Serb, Constantine, grandson of Stephen Nemanja, occupied the +Bulgarian throne from 1258 to 1277, and married the granddaughter of +John Asen II. After the fall of the Latin Empire of Constantinople in +1261, the Hungarians, already masters of Transylvania, combined with +the Greeks against Constantine; the latter called the Tartars of +southern Russia, at this time at the height of their power, to his help +and was victorious, but as a result of his diplomacy the Tartars +henceforward played an important part in the Bulgarian welter. Then +Constantine married, as his second wife, the daughter of the Greek +emperor, and thus again gave Constantinople a voice in his country’s +affairs. Constantine was followed by a series of upstart rulers, whose +activities were cut short by the victories of King Uroš II of Serbia +(1282-1321), who conquered all Macedonia and wrested it from the +Bulgars. In 1285 the Tartars of the Golden Horde swept over Hungary and +Bulgaria, but it was from the south that the clouds were rolling up +which not much later were to burst over the peninsula. In 1308 the +Turks appeared on the Sea of Marmora, and in 1326 established +themselves at Brussa. From 1295 to 1322 Bulgaria was presided over by a +nobleman of Vidin, Svetoslav, who, unmolested by the Greeks, grown +thoughtful in view of the approach of the Turks, was able to maintain +rather more order than his subjects were accustomed to. After his death +in 1322 chaos again supervened. One of his successors had married the +daughter of Uroš II of Serbia, but suddenly made an alliance with the +Greeks against his brother-in-law Stephen Uroš III and dispatched his +wife to her home. During the war which ensued the unwonted allies were +utterly routed by the Serbs at Kustendil in Macedonia in 1330. + +From 1331 to 1365 Bulgaria was under one John Alexander, a noble of +Tartar origin, whose sister became the wife of Serbia’s greatest ruler, +Stephen Dušan; John Alexander, moreover, recognized Stephen as his +suzerain, and from thenceforward Bulgaria was a vassal-state of Serbia. +Meanwhile the Turkish storm was gathering fast; Suleiman crossed the +Hellespont in 1356, and Murad I made Adrianople his capital in 1366. +After the death of John Alexander in 1365 the Hungarians invaded +northern Bulgaria, and his successor invoked the help of the Turks +against them and also against the Greeks. This was the beginning of the +end. The Serbs, during an absence of the Sultan in Asia, undertook an +offensive, but were defeated by the Turks near Adrianople in 1371, who +captured Sofia in 1382. After this the Serbs formed a huge southern +Slav alliance, in which the Bulgarians refused to join, but, after a +temporary success against the Turks in 1387, they were vanquished by +them as the result of treachery at the famous battle of Kosovo in 1389. +Meanwhile the Turks occupied Nikopolis on the Danube in 1388 and +destroyed the Bulgarian capital Tirnovo in 1393, exiling the Patriarch +Euthymus to Macedonia. Thus the state of Bulgaria passed into the hands +of the Turks, and its church into those of the Greeks. Many Bulgars +adopted Islam, and their descendants are the Pomaks or Bulgarian +Mohammedans of the present day. With the subjection of Rumania in 1394 +and the defeat of an improvised anti-Turkish crusade from western +Europe under Sigismund, King of Hungary, at Nikopolis in 1396 the +Turkish conquest was complete, though the battle of Varna was not +fought till 1444, nor Constantinople entered till 1453. + + + + +10 +_The Turkish Dominion and the Emancipation,_ 1393–1878 + + +From 1393 until 1877 Bulgaria may truthfully be said to have had no +history, but nevertheless it could scarcely have been called happy. +National life was completely paralysed, and what stood in those days +for national consciousness was obliterated. It is common knowledge, and +most people are now reasonable enough to admit, that the Turks have +many excellent qualities, religious fervour and military ardour amongst +others; it is also undeniable that from an aesthetic point of view too +much cannot be said in praise of Mohammedan civilization. Who does not +prefer the minarets of Stambul and Edirne[1] to the architecture of +Budapest, notoriously the ideal of Christian south-eastern Europe? On +the other hand, it cannot be contended that the Pax Ottomana brought +prosperity or happiness to those on whom it was imposed (unless indeed +they submerged their identity in the religion of their conquerors), or +that its Influence was either vivifying or generally popular. + +[Footnote 1: The Turkish names for Constantinople and Adrianople.] + +To the races they conquered the Turks offered two alternatives—serfdom +or Turkdom; those who could not bring themselves to accept either of +these had either to emigrate or take to brigandage and outlawry in the +mountains. The Turks literally overlaid the European nationalities of +the Balkan peninsula for five hundred years, and from their own point +of view and from that of military history this was undoubtedly a very +splendid achievement; it was more than the Greeks or Romans had ever +done. From the point of view of humanitarianism also it is beyond a +doubt that much less human blood was spilt in the Balkan peninsula +during the five hundred years of Turkish rule than during the five +hundred years of Christian rule which preceded them; indeed it would +have been difficult to spill more. It is also a pure illusion to think +of the Turks as exceptionally brutal or cruel; they are just as +good-natured and good-humoured as anybody else; it is only when their +military or religious passions are aroused that they become more +reckless and ferocious than other people. It was not the Turks who +taught cruelty to the Christians of the Balkan peninsula; the latter +had nothing to learn in this respect. + +In spite of all this, however, from the point of view of the Slavs of +Bulgaria and Serbia, Turkish rule was synonymous with suffocation. If +the Turks were all that their greatest admirers think them the history +of the Balkan peninsula in the nineteenth century would have been very +different from what it has been, namely, one perpetual series of +anti-Turkish revolts. + +Of all the Balkan peoples the Bulgarians were the most completely +crushed and effaced. The Greeks by their ubiquity, their brains, and +their money were soon able to make the Turkish storm drive their own +windmill; the Rumanians were somewhat sheltered by the Danube and also +by their distance from Constantinople; the Serbs also were not so +exposed to the full blast of the Turkish wrath, and the inaccessibility +of much of their country afforded them some protection. Bulgaria was +simply annihilated, and its population, already far from homogeneous, +was still further varied by numerous Turkish and other Tartar colonies. + +For the same reasons already mentioned Bulgaria was the last Balkan +state to emancipate itself; for these reasons also it is the least +trammelled by prejudices and by what are considered national +predilections and racial affinities, while its heterogeneous +composition makes it vigorous and enterprising. The treatment of the +Christians by the Turks was by no means always the same; generally +speaking, it grew worse as the power of the Sultan grew less. During +the fifteenth century they were allowed to practise their religion and +all their vocations in comparative liberty and peace. But from the +sixteenth century onwards the control of the Sultan declined, power +became decentralized, the Ottoman Empire grew ever more anarchic and +the rule of the provincial governors more despotic. + +But the Mohammedan conquerors were not the only enemies and oppressors +of the Bulgars. The rôle played by the Greeks in Bulgaria during the +Turkish dominion was almost as important as that of the Turks +themselves. The contempt of the Turks for the Christians, and +especially for their religion, was so great that they prudently left +the management of it to them, knowing that it would keep them occupied +in mutual altercation. From 1393 till 1767 the Bulgarians were under +the Greco-Bulgarian Patriarchate of Okhrida, an organization in which +all posts, from the highest to the lowest, had to be bought from the +Turkish administration at exorbitant and ever-rising prices; the +Phanariote Greeks (so called because they originated in the Phanar +quarter at Constantinople) were the only ones who could afford those of +the higher posts, with the result that the Church was controlled from +Constantinople. In 1767 the independent patriarchates were abolished, +and from that date the religious control of the Greeks was as complete +as the political control of the Turks. The Greeks did all they could to +obliterate the last traces of Bulgarian nationality which had survived +in the Church, and this explains a fact which must never be forgotten, +which had its origin in the remote past, but grew more pronounced at +this period, that the individual hatred of Greeks and Bulgars of each +other has always been far more intense than their collective hatred of +the Turks. + +Ever since the marriage of the Tsar Ivan III with the niece of the last +Greek Emperor, in 1472, Russia had considered itself the trustee of the +eastern Christians, the defender of the Orthodox Church, and the direct +heir of the glory and prestige of Constantinople; it was not until the +eighteenth century, however, after the consolidation of the Russian +state, that the Balkan Christians were championed and the eventual +possession of Constantinople was seriously considered. Russian +influence was first asserted in Rumania after the Treaty of +Kuchuk-Kainardji, in 1774. It was only the Napoleonic war in 1812 that +prevented the Russians from extending their territory south of the +Danube, whither it already stretched. Serbia was partially free by +1826, and Greece achieved complete independence in 1830, when the +Russian troops, in order to coerce the Turks, occupied part of Bulgaria +and advanced as far as Adrianople. Bulgaria, being nearer to and more +easily repressed by Constantinople, had to wait, and tentative revolts +made about this time were put down with much bloodshed and were +followed by wholesale emigrations of Bulgars into Bessarabia and +importations of Tartars and Kurds into the vacated districts. The +Crimean War and the short-sighted championship of Turkey by the western +European powers checked considerably the development at which Russia +aimed. Moldavia and Wallachia were in 1856 withdrawn from the +semi-protectorate which Russia had long exercised over them, and in +1861 formed themselves into the united state of Rumania. In 1866 a +German prince, Charles of Hohenzollern, came to rule over the country, +the first sign of German influence in the Near East; at this time +Rumania still acknowledged the supremacy of the Sultan. + +During the first half of the nineteenth century there took place a +considerable intellectual renascence in Bulgaria, a movement fostered +by wealthy Bulgarian merchants of Bucarest and Odessa. In 1829 a +history of Bulgaria was published by a native of that country in +Moscow; in 1835 the first school was established in Bulgaria, and many +others soon followed. It must be remembered that not only was nothing +known at that time about Bulgaria and its inhabitants in other +countries, but the Bulgars had themselves to be taught who they were. +The Bulgarian people in Bulgaria consisted entirely of peasants; there +was no Bulgarian upper or middle or ‘intelligent’ or professional +class; those enlightened Bulgars who existed were domiciled in other +countries; the Church was in the hands of the Greeks, who vied with the +Turks in suppressing Bulgarian nationality. + +The two committees of Odessa and Bucarest which promoted the +enlightenment and emancipation of Bulgaria were dissimilar in +composition and in aim; the members of the former were more intent on +educational and religious reform, and aimed at the gradual and peaceful +regeneration of their country by these means; the latter wished to +effect the immediate political emancipation of Bulgaria by violent and, +if necessary, warlike means. + +It was the ecclesiastical question which was solved first. In 1856 the +Porte had promised religious reforms tending to the appointment of +Bulgarian bishops and the recognition of the Bulgarian language in +Church and school. But these not being carried through, the Bulgarians +took the matter into their own hands, and in 1860 refused any longer to +recognize the Patriarch of Constantinople. The same year an attempt was +made to bring the Church of Bulgaria under that of Rome, but, owing to +Russian opposition, proved abortive. In 1870, the growing agitation +having at last alarmed the Turks, the Bulgarian Exarchate was +established. The Bulgarian Church was made free and national and was to +be under an Exarch who should reside at Constantinople (Bulgaria being +still a Turkish province). The Greeks, conscious what a blow this would +be to their supremacy, managed for a short while to stave off the evil +day, but in 1872 the Exarch was triumphantly installed in +Constantinople, where he resided till 1908. + +Meanwhile revolutionary outbreaks began to increase, but were always +put down with great rigour. The most notable was that of 1875, +instigated by Stambulóv, the future dictator, in sympathy with the +outbreak in Montenegro, Hercegovina, and Bosnia of that year; the +result of this and of similar movements in 1876 was the series of +notorious Bulgarian massacres in that year. The indignation of Europe +was aroused and concerted representations were urgently made at +Constantinople. Midhat Pasha disarmed his opponents by summarily +introducing the British constitution into Turkey, but, needless to say, +Bulgaria’s lot was not improved by this specious device. Russia had, +however, steadily been making her preparations, and, Turkey having +refused to discontinue hostilities against Montenegro, on April 24, +1877, war was declared by the Emperor Alexander II, whose patience had +become exhausted; he was joined by Prince Charles of Rumania, who saw +that by doing so he would be rewarded by the complete emancipation of +his country, then still a vassal-state of Turkey, and its erection into +a kingdom. At the beginning of the war all went well for the Russians +and Rumanians, who were soon joined by large numbers of Bulgarian +insurgents; the Turkish forces were scattered all over the peninsula. +The committee of Bucarest transformed itself into a provisional +government, but the Russians, who had undertaken to liberate the +country, naturally had to keep its administration temporarily in their +own hands, and refused their recognition. The Turks, alarmed at the +early victories of the Russians, brought up better generals and troops, +and defeated the Russians at Plevna in July. They failed, however, to +dislodge them from the important and famous Shipka Pass in August, and +after this they became demoralized and their resistance rapidly +weakened. The Russians, helped by the Bulgarians and Rumanians, fought +throughout the summer with the greatest gallantry; they took Plevna, +after a three months’ siege, in December, occupied Sofia and +Philippopolis in January 1878, and pushed forward to the walls of +Constantinople. + +The Turks were at their last gasp, and at Adrianople, in March 1878, +Ignatiyev dictated the terms of the Treaty of San Stefano, by which a +principality of Bulgaria, under the nominal suzerainty of the Sultan, +was created, stretching from the Danube to the Aegean, and from the +Black Sea to Albania, including all Macedonia and leaving to the Turks +only the district between Constantinople and Adrianople, Chalcidice, +and the town of Salonika; Bulgaria would thus have regained the +dimensions it possessed under Tsar Simeon nine hundred and fifty years +previously. + +This treaty, which on ethnological grounds was tolerably just, alarmed +the other powers, especially Great Britain and Germany, who thought +they perceived in it the foundations of Russian hegemony in the +Balkans, while it would, if put into execution, have blighted the +aspirations of Greece and Serbia. The Treaty of Berlin, inspired by +Bismarck and Lord Salisbury, anxious to defend, the former, the +interests of (ostensibly) Austria-Hungary, the latter (shortsightedly) +those of Turkey, replaced it in July 1878. By its terms Bulgaria was +cut into three parts; northern Bulgaria, between the Danube and the +Balkans, was made an autonomous province, tributary to Turkey; southern +Bulgaria, fancifully termed Eastern Rumelia (Rumili was the name always +given by the Turks to the whole Balkan peninsula), was to have +autonomous administration under a Christian governor appointed by the +Porte; Macedonia was left to Turkey; and the Dobrudja, between the +Danube and the Black Sea, was adjudged to Rumania. + + + + +11 +_The Aftermath, and Prince Alexander of Battenberg, 1878–86_ + + +The relations between the Russians and the Bulgarians were better +before the liberation of the latter by the former than after; this may +seem unjust, because Bulgaria could never have freed herself so +decisively and rapidly alone, and Russia was the only power in whose +interest it was to free her from the Turks, and who could translate +that interest so promptly into action; nevertheless, the laws +controlling the relationships of states and nationalities being much +the same as those which control the relationships of individuals, it +was only to be expected. + +What so often happens in the relationships of individuals happened in +those between Russia and Bulgaria. Russia naturally enough expected +Bulgaria to be grateful for the really large amount of blood and +treasure which its liberation had cost Russia, and, moreover, expected +its gratitude to take the form of docility and a general acquiescence +in all the suggestions and wishes expressed by its liberator. Bulgaria +was no doubt deeply grateful, but never had the slightest intention of +expressing its gratitude in the desired way; on the contrary, like most +people who have regained a long-lost and unaccustomed freedom of action +or been put under an obligation, it appeared touchy and jealous of its +right to an independent judgement. It is often assumed by Russophobe +writers that Russia wished and intended to make a Russian province of +Bulgaria, but this is very unlikely; the geographical configuration of +the Balkan peninsula would not lend itself to its incorporation in the +Russian Empire, the existence between the two of the compact and +vigorous national block of Rumania, a Latin race and then already an +independent state, was an insurmountable obstacle, and, finally, it is +quite possible for Russia to obtain possession or control of +Constantinople without owning all the intervening littoral. + +That Russia should wish to have a controlling voice in the destinies of +Bulgaria and in those of the whole peninsula was natural, and it was +just as natural that Bulgaria should resent its pretensions. The +eventual result of this, however, was that Bulgaria inevitably entered +the sphere of Austrian and ultimately of German influence or rather +calculation, a contingency probably not foreseen by its statesmen at +the time, and whose full meaning, even if it had, would not have been +grasped by them. + +The Bulgarians, whatever the origin and the ingredients of their +nationality, are by language a purely Slavonic people; their ancestors +were the pioneers of Slavonic civilization as expressed in its +monuments of theological literature. Nevertheless, they have never been +enthusiastic Pan-Slavists, any more than the Dutch have ever been +ardent Pan-Germans; it is as unreasonable to expect such a thing of the +one people as it is of the other. The Bulgarians indeed think +themselves superior to the Slavs by reason of the warlike and glorious +traditions of the Tartar tribe that gave them their name and infused +the Asiatic element into their race, thus endowing them with greater +stability, energy, and consistency than is possessed by purely Slav +peoples. These latter, on the other hand, and notably the Serbians, for +the same reason affect contempt for the mixture of blood and for what +they consider the Mongol characteristics of the Bulgarians. What is +certain is that between Bulgarians and Germans (including German +Austrians and Magyars) there has never existed that elemental, +ineradicable, and insurmountable antipathy which exists between German +(and Magyar) and Slav wherever the two races are contiguous, from the +Baltic to the Adriatic; nothing is more remarkable than the way in +which the Bulgarian people has been flattered, studied, and courted in +Austria-Hungary and Germany, during the last decade, to the detriment +of the purely Slav Serb race with whom it is always compared. The +reason is that with the growth of the Serb national movement, from 1903 +onwards, Austria-Hungary and Germany felt an instinctive and perfectly +well-justified fear of the Serb race, and sought to neutralize the +possible effect of its growing power by any possible means. + +It is not too much to say, in summing up, that Russian influence, which +had been growing stronger in Bulgaria up till 1877-8, has since been +steadily on the decline; Germany and Austria-Hungary, who reduced +Bulgaria to half the size that Count Ignatiyev had made it by the +Treaty of San Stefano, reaped the benefit, especially the commercial +benefit, of the war which Russia had waged. Intellectually, and +especially as regards the replenishment and renovation of the Bulgarian +language, which, in spite of numerous Turkish words introduced during +the Ottoman rule, is essentially Slavonic both in substance and form, +Russian influence was especially powerful, and has to a certain extent +maintained itself. Economically, owing partly to geographical +conditions, both the Danube and the main oriental railway linking +Bulgaria directly with Budapest and Vienna, partly to the fact that +Bulgaria’s best customers for its cereals are in central and western +Europe, the connexion between Bulgaria and Russia is infinitesimal. +Politically, both Russia and Bulgaria aiming at the same thing, the +possession of Constantinople and the hegemony of the Balkan peninsula, +their relations were bound to be difficult. + +The first Bulgarian Parliament met in 1879 under trying conditions. +Both Russian and Bulgarian hopes had been dashed by the Treaty of +Berlin. Russian influence was still paramount, however, and the viceroy +controlled the organization of the administration. An ultra-democratic +constitution was arranged for, a fact obviously not conducive to the +successful government of their country by the quite inexperienced +Bulgarians. For a ruler recourse had inevitably to be had to the +rabbit-warren of Germanic princes, who were still ingenuously +considered neutral both in religion and in politics. The choice fell on +Prince Alexander of Battenberg, nephew of the Empress of Russia, who +had taken part in the campaign of the Russian army. Prince Alexander +was conscientious, energetic, and enthusiastic, but he was no diplomat, +and from the outset his honesty precluded his success. From the very +first he failed to keep on good terms with Russia or its +representatives, who at that time were still numerous in Bulgaria, +while he was helpless to stem the ravages of parliamentary government. +The Emperor Alexander III, who succeeded his father Alexander II in +1881, recommended him to insist on being made dictator, which he +successfully did. But when he found that this only meant an increase of +Russian influence he reverted to parliamentary government (in September +1883); this procedure discomfited the representatives of Russia, +discredited him with the Emperor, and threw him back into the vortex of +party warfare, from which he never extricated himself. + +Meanwhile the question of eastern Rumelia, or rather southern Bulgaria, +still a Turkish province, began to loom. A vigorous agitation for the +reunion of the two parts of the country had been going on for some +time, and on September 18, 1885, the inhabitants of Philippopolis +suddenly proclaimed the union under Prince Alexander, who solemnly +announced his approval at Tirnovo and triumphantly entered their city +on September 21. Russia frowned on this independence of spirit. Serbia, +under King Milan, and instigated by Austria, inaugurated the policy +which has so often been followed since, and claimed territorial +compensation for Bulgaria’s aggrandisement; it must be remembered that +it was Bismarck who, by the Treaty of Berlin, had arbitrarily confined +Serbia to its inadequate limits of those day. + +On November 13 King Milan declared war, and began to march on Sofia, +which is not far from the Serbo-Bulgarian frontier. Prince Alexander, +the bulk of whose army was on the Turkish frontier, boldly took up the +challenge. On November 18 took place the battle of Slivnitsa, a small +town about twenty miles north-west of Sofia, in which the Bulgarians +were completely victorious. Prince Alexander, after hard fighting, took +Pirot in Serbia on November 27, having refused King Milan’s request for +an armistice, and was marching on Nish, when Austria intervened, and +threatened to send troops into Serbia unless fighting ceased. Bulgaria +had to obey, and on March 3, 1886, a barren treaty of peace was imposed +on the belligerents at Bucarest. Prince Alexander’s position did not +improve after this, indeed it would have needed a much more skilful +navigator to steer through the many currents which eddied round him. A +strong Russophile party formed itself in the army; on the night of +August 21, 1886, some officers of this party, who were the most capable +in the Bulgarian army, appeared at Sofia, forced Alexander to resign, +and abducted him; they put him on board his yacht on the Danube and +escorted him to the Russian town of Reni, in Bessarabia; telegraphic +orders came from St. Petersburg, in answer to inquiries, that he could +proceed with haste to western Europe, and on August 26 he found himself +at Lemberg. But those who had carried out this _coup d’état_ found that +it was not at all popular in the country. A counter-revolution, headed +by the statesman Stambulóv, was immediately initiated, and on September +3 Prince Alexander reappeared in Sofia amidst tumultuous applause. +Nevertheless his position was hopeless; the Emperor Alexander III +forced him to abdicate, and on September 7, 1886, he left Bulgaria for +good, to the regret of the majority of the people. He died in Austria, +in 1893, in his thirty-seventh year. At his departure a regency was +constituted, at the head of which was Stambulóv. + + + + +12 +_The Regeneration under Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg,_ 1886–1908 + + +Stambulóv was born at Tirnovo in 1854 and was of humble origin. He took +part in the insurrection of 1876 and in the war of liberation, and in +1884 became president of the Sóbraniye (Parliament). From 1886 till +1894 he was virtually dictator of Bulgaria. He was intensely patriotic +and also personally ambitious, determined, energetic, ruthlessly cruel +and unscrupulous, but incapable of deceit; these qualities were +apparent in his powerful and grim expression of face, while his manner +inspired the weak with terror and the strongest with respect. His +policy in general was directed against Russia. At the general election +held in October 1886 he had all his important opponents imprisoned +beforehand, while armed sentries discouraged ill-disposed voters from +approaching the ballot-boxes. Out of 522 elected deputies, there were +470 supporters of Stambulóv. This implied the complete suppression of +the Russophile party and led to a rupture with St. Petersburg. + +Whatever were Stambulóv’s methods, and few would deny that they were +harsh, there is no doubt that something of the sort was necessary to +restore order in the country. But once having started on this path he +found it difficult to stop, and his tyrannical bearing, combined with +the delay in finding a prince, soon made him unpopular. There were +several revolutionary outbreaks directed against him, but these were +all crushed. At length the, at that time not particularly alluring, +throne of Bulgaria was filled by Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, who +was born in 1861 and was the son of the gifted Princess Clémentine of +Bourbon-Orleans, daughter of Louis-Philippe. This young man combined +great ambition and tenacity of purpose with extreme prudence, +astuteness, and patience; he was a consummate diplomat. The election of +this prince was viewed with great disfavour by Russia, and for fear of +offending the Emperor Alexander III none of the European powers +recognized him. + +Ferdinand, unabashed, cheerfully installed himself in Sofia with his +mother in July 1886, and took care to make the peace with his suzerain, +the Sultan Abdul Hamid. He wisely left all power in the hands of the +unattractive and to him, unsympathetic prime minister, Stambulóv, till +he himself felt secure in his position, and till the dictator should +have made himself thoroughly hated. Ferdinand’s clever and wealthy +mother cast a beneficent and civilizing glow around him, smoothing away +many difficulties by her womanly tact and philanthropic activity, and, +thanks to his influential connexions in the courts of Europe and his +attitude of calm expectancy, his prestige in his own country rapidly +increased. In 1893 he married Princess Marie-Louise of Bourbon-Parma. +In May 1894, as a result of a social misadventure in which he became +involved, Stambulóv sent in his resignation, confidently expecting a +refusal. To his mortification it was accepted; thereupon he initiated a +violent press campaign, but his halo had faded, and on July 15 he was +savagely attacked in the street by unknown men, who afterwards escaped, +and he died three days later. So intense were the emotions of the +people that his grave had to be guarded by the military for two months. +In November 1894 followed the death of the Emperor Alexander III, and +as a result of this double event the road to a reconciliation with +Russia was opened. Meanwhile the German Emperor, who was on good terms +with Princess Clémentine, had paved the way for Ferdinand at Vienna, +and when, in March 1896, the Sultan recognized him as Prince of +Bulgaria and Governor-General of eastern Rumelia, his international +position was assured. Relations with Russia were still further improved +by the rebaptism of the infant Crown Prince Boris according to the +rites of the eastern Church, in February 1896, and a couple of years +later Ferdinand and his wife and child paid a highly successful state +visit to Peterhof. In September 1902 a memorial church was erected by +the Emperor Nicholas II at the Shipka Pass, and later an equestrian +statue of the Tsar-Liberator Alexander II was placed opposite the House +of Parliament in Sofia. + +Bulgaria meanwhile had been making rapid and astonishing material +progress. Railways were built, exports increased, and the general +condition of the country greatly improved. It is the fashion to compare +the wonderful advance made by Bulgaria during the thirty-five years of +its new existence with the very much slower progress made by Serbia +during a much longer period. This is insisted on especially by +publicists in Austria-Hungary and Germany, but it is forgotten that +even before the last Balkan war the geographical position of Bulgaria +with its seaboard was much more favourable to its economic development +than that of Serbia, which the Treaty of Berlin had hemmed in by +Turkish and Austro-Hungarian territory; moreover, Bulgaria being double +the size of the Serbia of those days, had far greater resources upon +which to draw. + +From 1894 onwards Ferdinand’s power in his own country and his +influence abroad had been steadily growing. He always appreciated the +value of railways, and became almost as great a traveller as the German +Emperor. His estates in the south of Hungary constantly required his +attention, and he was a frequent visitor in Vienna. The German Emperor, +though he could not help admiring Ferdinand’s success, was always a +little afraid of him; he felt that Ferdinand’s gifts were so similar to +his own that he would be unable to count on him in an emergency. +Moreover, it was difficult to reconcile Ferdinand’s ambitions in +extreme south-eastern Europe with his own. Ferdinand’s relations with +Vienna, on the other hand, and especially with the late Archduke +Francis Ferdinand, were both cordial and intimate. + +The gradual aggravation of the condition of the Turkish Empire, notably +in Macedonia, the unredeemed Bulgaria, where since the insurrection of +1902-3 anarchy, always endemic, had deteriorated into a reign of +terror, and, also the unmistakably growing power and spirit of Serbia +since the accession of the Karageorgevich dynasty in 1903, caused +uneasiness in Sofia, no less than in Vienna and Budapest. The Young +Turkish revolution of July 1908, and the triumph of the Committee of +Union and Progress, disarmed the critics of Turkey who wished to make +the forcible introduction of reforms a pretext for their interference; +but the potential rejuvenation of the Ottoman Empire which it +foreshadowed indicated the desirability of rapid and decisive action. +In September, after fomenting a strike on the Oriental Railway in +eastern Roumelia (which railway was Turkish property), the Sofia +Cabinet seized the line with a military force on the plea of political +necessity. At the same time Ferdinand, with his second wife, the +Protestant Princess Eleonora of Reuss, whom he had married in March of +that year, was received with regal honours by the Emperor of Austria at +Budapest. On October 5, 1908, at Tirnovo, the ancient capital, +Ferdinand proclaimed the complete independence of Bulgaria and eastern +Rumelia under himself as King (_Tsar_ in Bulgarian), and on October 7 +Austria-Hungary announced the annexation of Bosnia and Hercegovina, the +two Turkish provinces administered by it since 1879, nominally under +Turkish suzerainty. + + + + +13 +_The Kingdom_, 1908–13 + + +(cf. Chaps. 14, 20) + +The events which have taken place in Bulgaria since 1908 hinge on the +Macedonian question, which has not till now been mentioned. The +Macedonian question was extremely complicated; it started on the +assumption that the disintegration of Turkey, which had been proceeding +throughout the nineteenth century, would eventually be completed, and +the question was how in this eventuality to satisfy the territorial +claims of the three neighbouring countries, Bulgaria, Serbia, and +Greece, claims both historical and ethnological, based on the numbers +and distribution of their ‘unredeemed’ compatriots in Macedonia, and at +the same time avoid causing the armed interference of Europe. + +The beginnings of the Macedonian question in its modern form do not go +farther back than 1885, when the ease with which eastern Rumelia (i.e. +southern Bulgaria) threw off the Turkish yoke and was spontaneously +united with the semi-independent principality of northern Bulgaria +affected the imagination of the Balkan statesmen. From that time Sofia +began to cast longing eyes on Macedonia, the whole of which was claimed +as ‘unredeemed Bulgaria’, and Stambulóv’s last success in 1894 was to +obtain from Turkey the consent to the establishment of two bishops of +the Bulgarian (Exarchist) Church in Macedonia, which was a heavy blow +for the Greek Patriarchate at Constantinople. + +Macedonia had been envisaged by the Treaty of Berlin, article 23 of +which stipulated for reforms in that province; but in those days the +Balkan States were too young and weak to worry themselves or the +European powers over the troubles of their co-religionists in Turkey; +their hands were more than full setting their own houses in some sort +of order, and it was in nobody’s interest to reform Macedonia, so +article 23 remained the expression of a philanthropic sentiment. This +indifference on the part of Europe left the door open for the Balkan +States, as soon as they had energy to spare, to initiate their campaign +for extending their spheres of influence in Macedonia. + +From 1894 onwards Bulgarian propaganda in Macedonia increased, and the +Bulgarians were soon followed by Greeks and Serbians. The reason for +this passionate pegging out of claims and the bitter rivalry of the +three nations which it engendered was the following: The population of +Macedonia was nowhere, except in the immediate vicinity of the borders +of these three countries, either purely Bulgar or purely Greek or +purely Serb; most of the towns contained a percentage of at least two +of these nationalities, not to mention the Turks (who after all were +still the owners of the country by right of conquest), Albanians, +Tartars, Rumanians (Vlakhs), and others; the city of Salonika was and +is almost purely Jewish, while in the country districts Turkish, +Albanian, Greek, Bulgar, and Serb villages were inextricably confused. +Generally speaking, the coastal strip was mainly Greek (the coast +itself purely so), the interior mainly Slav. The problem was for each +country to peg out as large a claim as possible, and so effectively, by +any means in their power, to make the majority of the population +contained in that claim acknowledge itself to be Bulgar, or Serb, or +Greek, that when the agony of the Ottoman Empire was over, each part of +Macedonia would automatically fall into the arms of its respective +deliverers. The game was played through the appropriate media of +churches and schools, for the unfortunate Macedonian peasants had first +of all to be enlightened as to who they were, or rather as to who they +were told they had got to consider themselves, while the Church, as +always, conveniently covered a multitude of political aims; when those +methods flagged, a bomb would be thrown at, let us say, a Turkish +official by an _agent provocateur_ of one of the three players, +inevitably resulting in the necessary massacre of innocent Christians +by the ostensibly brutal but really equally innocent Turks, and an +outcry in the European press. + +Bulgaria was first in the field and had a considerable start of the +other two rivals. The Bulgars claimed the whole of Macedonia, including +Salonika and all the Aegean coast (except Chalcidice), Okhrida, and +Monastir; Greece claimed all southern Macedonia, and Serbia parts of +northern and central Macedonia known as Old Serbia. The crux of the +whole problem was, and is, that the claims of Serbia and Greece do not +clash, while that of Bulgaria, driving a thick wedge between Greece and +Serbia, and thus giving Bulgaria the undoubted hegemony of the +peninsula, came into irreconcilable conflict with those of its rivals. +The importance of this point was greatly emphasized by the existence of +the Nish-Salonika railway, which is Serbia’s only direct outlet to the +sea, and runs through Macedonia from north to south, following the +right or western bank of the river Vardar. Should Bulgaria straddle +that, Serbia would be economically at its mercy, just as in the north +it was already, to its bitter cost, at the mercy of Austria-Hungary. +Nevertheless, Bulgarian propaganda had been so effectual that Serbia +and Greece never expected they would eventually be able to join hands +so easily and successfully as they afterwards did. + +The then unknown quantity of Albania was also a factor. This people, +though small in numbers, was formidable in character, and had never +been effectually subdued by the Turks. They would have been glad to +have a boundary contiguous with that of Bulgaria (with whom they had no +quarrel) as a support against their hereditary enemies, Serbs in the +north and Greeks in the south, who were more than inclined to encroach +on their territory. The population of Macedonia, being still under +Turkish rule, was uneducated and ignorant; needless to say it had no +national consciousness, though this was less true of the Greeks than of +the Slavs. It is the Slav population of Macedonia that has engendered +so much heat and caused so much blood to be spilt. The dispute as to +whether it is rather Serb or Bulgar has caused interminable and most +bitter controversy. The truth is that it _was_ neither the one nor the +other, but that, the ethnological and linguistic missionaries of +Bulgaria having been first in the field, a majority of the Macedonian +Slavs had been so long and so persistently told that they were Bulgars, +that after a few years Bulgaria could, with some truth, claim that this +fact was so. + +Macedonia had been successively under Greek, Bulgar, and Serb, before +Turkish, rule, but the Macedonian Slavs had, under the last, been so +cut off both from Bulgars and Serbs, that ethnologically and +linguistically they did not develop the characteristics of either of +these two races, which originally belonged to the same southern Slav +stock, but remained a primitive neutral Slav type. If the Serbs had +been first in the field instead of the Bulgars, the Macedonian Slavs +could just as easily have been made into Serbs, sufficiently plausibly +to convince the most knowing expert. The well-known recipe for making a +Macedonian Slav village Bulgar is to add _-ov_ or _-ev_ (pronounced +_-off, -yeff_) on to the names of all the male inhabitants, and to make +it Serb it is only necessary to add further the syllable _-ich, -ov_ +and _-ovich_ being respectively the equivalent in Bulgarian and Serbian +of our termination _-son,_ e. g. _Ivanov_ in Bulgarian, and _Jovanovit_ +in Serbian = _Johnson_. + +In addition to these three nations Rumania also entered the lists, +suddenly horrified at discovering the sad plight of the Vlakh +shepherds, who had probably wandered with unconcern about Macedonia +with their herds since Roman times. As their vague pastures could not +possibly ever be annexed to Rumania, their case was merely used in +order to justify Rumania in claiming eventual territorial compensation +elsewhere at the final day of reckoning. Meanwhile, their existence as +a separate and authentic nationality in Turkey was officially +recognized by the Porte in 1906. + +The stages of the Macedonian question up to 1908 must at this point be +quite briefly enumerated. Russia and Austria-Hungary, the two ‘most +interested powers’, who as far back as the eighteenth century had +divided the Balkans into their respective spheres of interest, east and +west, came to an agreement in 1897 regarding the final settlement of +affairs in Turkey; but it never reached a conclusive stage and +consequently was never applied. The Macedonian chaos meanwhile grew +steadily worse, and the serious insurrections of 1902-3, followed by +the customary reprisals, thoroughly alarmed the powers. Hilmi Pasha had +been appointed Inspector-General of Macedonia in December 1902, but was +not successful in restoring order. In October 1903 the Emperor Nicholas +II and the Emperor of Austria, with their foreign ministers, met at +Mürzsteg, in Styria, and elaborated a more definite plan of reform +known as the Mürzsteg programme, the drastic terms of which had been +largely inspired by Lord Lansdowne, then British Secretary of State for +Foreign Affairs; the principal feature was the institution of an +international gendarmerie, the whole of Macedonia being divided up into +five districts to be apportioned among the several great powers. Owing +to the procrastination of the Porte and to the extreme complexity of +the financial measures which had to be elaborated in connexion with +this scheme of reforms, the last of the negotiations was not completed, +nor the whole series ratified, until April 1907, though the gendarmerie +officers had arrived in Macedonia in February 1904. + +At this point again it is necessary to recall the position in regard to +this question of the various nations concerned. Great Britain and +France had no territorial stake in Turkey proper, and did their utmost +to secure reform not only in the _vilayets_ of Macedonia, but also in +the realm of Ottoman finance. Italy’s interest centred in Albania, +whose eventual fate, for geographical and strategic reasons, could not +leave it indifferent. Austria-Hungary’s only care was by any means to +prevent the aggrandizement of the Serb nationality and of Serbia and +Montenegro, so as to secure the control, if not the possession, of the +routes to Salonika, if necessary over the prostrate bodies of those two +countries which defiantly barred Germanic progress towards the East. +Russia was already fatally absorbed in the Far Eastern adventure, and, +moreover, had, ever since the war of 1878, been losing influence at +Constantinople, where before its word had been law; the Treaty of +Berlin had dealt a blow at Russian prestige, and Russia had ever since +that date been singularly badly served by its ambassadors to the Porte, +who were always either too old or too easy-going. Germany, on the other +hand, had been exceptionally fortunate or prudent in the choice of its +representatives. The general trend of German diplomacy in Turkey was +not grasped until very much later, a fact which redounds to the credit +of the German ambassadors at Constantinople. Ever since the triumphal +journey of William II to the Bosphorus in 1889, German influence, under +the able guidance of Baron von Radowitz, steadily increased. This +culminated in the régime of the late Baron Marschall von Bieberstein, +who was ambassador from 1897 to 1912. It was German policy to flatter, +support, and encourage Turkey in every possible way, to refrain from +taking part with the other powers in the invidious and perennial +occupation of pressing reforms on Abdul Hamid, and, above all, to give +as much pocket-money to Turkey and its extravagant ruler as they asked +for. Germany, for instance, refused to send officers or to have a +district assigned it in Macedonia in 1904, and declined to take part in +the naval demonstration off Mitylene in 1905. This attitude of Germany +naturally encouraged the Porte in its policy of delay and subterfuge, +and Turkey soon came to look on Germany as its only strong, sincere, +and disinterested friend in Europe. For the indefinite continuance of +chaos and bloodshed in Macedonia, after the other powers had really +braced themselves to the thankless task of putting the reforms into +practice, Germany alone was responsible. + +The blow which King Ferdinand had inflicted on the prestige of the +Young Turks in October 1908, by proclaiming his independence, naturally +lent lustre to the Bulgarian cause in Macedonia. Serbia, baffled by the +simultaneous Austrian annexation of Bosnia and Hercegovina, and +maddened by the elevation of Bulgaria to the rank of a kingdom (its +material progress had hitherto been discounted in Serbian eyes by the +fact that it was a mere vassal principality), seemed about to be +crushed by the two iron pots jostling it on either side. Its +international position was at that time such that it could expect no +help or encouragement from western Europe, while the events of 1909 +(cf. p. 144) showed that Russia was not then in a position to render +active assistance. Greece, also screaming aloud for compensation, was +told by its friends amongst the great powers that if it made a noise it +would get nothing, but that if it behaved like a good child it might +some day be given Krete. Meanwhile Russia, rudely awakened by the +events of 1908 to the real state of affairs in the Near East, beginning +to realize the growth of German influence at Constantinople, and seeing +the unmistakable resuscitation of Austria-Hungary as a great power, +made manifest by the annexation of Bosnia and Hercegovina, temporarily +reasserted its influence in Bulgaria. From the moment when Baron +Aehrenthal announced his chimerical scheme of an Austrian railway +through the _Sandjak_ of Novi Pazar in January 1908— everybody knows +that the railway already built through Serbia along the Morava valley +is the only commercially remunerative and strategically practicable +road from Berlin, Vienna, and Budapest to Salonika and +Constantinople—Russia realized that the days of the Mürzsteg programme +were over, that henceforward it was to be a struggle between Slav and +Teuton for the ownership of Constantinople and the dominion of the Near +East, and that something must be done to retrieve the position in the +Balkans which it was losing. After Baron Aehrenthal, in January 1909, +had mollified the Young Turks by an indemnity, and thus put an end to +the boycott, Russia in February of the same year liquidated the remains +of the old Turkish war indemnity of 1878 still due to itself by +skilfully arranging that Bulgaria should pay off its capitalized +tribute, owed to its ex-suzerain the Sultan, by very easy instalments +to Russia instead. + +The immediate effects of the Young Turk revolution amongst the Balkan +States, and the events, watched benevolently by Russia, which led to +the formation of the Balkan League, when it was joyfully realized that +neither the setting-up of parliamentary government, nor even the +overthrow of Abdul Hamid, implied the commencement of the millennium in +Macedonia and Thrace, have been described elsewhere (pp. 141, 148). +King Ferdinand and M. Venezelos are generally credited with the +inception and realisation of the League, though it was so secretly and +skilfully concerted that it is not yet possible correctly to apportion +praise for the remarkable achievement. Bulgaria is a very democratic +country, but King Ferdinand, owing to his sagacity, patience, and +experience, and also thanks to his influential dynastic connexions and +propensity for travel, has always been virtually his own foreign +minister; in spite of the fact that he is a large feudal Hungarian +landlord, and has temperamental leanings towards the Central European +Empires, it is quite credible that King Ferdinand devoted all his +undeniable talents and great energy to the formation of the League when +he saw that the moment had come for Bulgaria to realize its destiny at +Turkey’s expense, and that, if the other three Balkan States could be +induced to come to the same wise decision, it would be so much the +better for all of them. That Russia could do anything else than +whole-heartedly welcome the formation of the Balkan League was +absolutely impossible. Pan-Slavism had long since ceased to be the +force it was, and nobody in Russia dreamed of or desired the +incorporation of any Balkan territory in the Russian Empire. It is +possible to control Constantinople without possessing the Balkans, and +Russia could only rejoice if a Greco-Slavonic league should destroy the +power of the Turks and thereby make impossible the further advance of +the Germanic powers eastward. + +That Russia was ever in the least jealous of the military successes of +the league, which caused such gnashing of teeth in Berlin, Vienna, and +Budapest, is a mischievous fiction, the emptiness of which was evident +to any one who happened to be in Russia during the winter of 1912-13. + +The years 1908 to 1912 were outwardly uneventful in Bulgaria, though a +great deal of quiet work was done in increasing the efficiency of the +army, and the material prosperity of the country showed no falling off. +Relations with the other Balkan States, especially with Serbia and +Montenegro, improved considerably, and there was ample room for such +improvement. This was outwardly marked by frequent visits paid to each +other by members of the several royal families of the three Slavonic +kingdoms of the Balkans. In May 1912 agreements for the eventual +delimitation of the provinces to be conquered from Turkey in the event +of war were signed between Bulgaria and Serbia, and Bulgaria and +Greece. The most controversial district was, of course, Macedonia. +Bulgaria claimed central Macedonia, with Monastir and Okhrida, which +was the lion’s share, on ethnical grounds which have been already +discussed, and it was expected that Greece and Serbia, by obtaining +other acquisitions elsewhere, would consent to have their territories +separated by the large Bulgarian wedge which was to be driven between +them. The exact future line of demarcation between Serbian and +Bulgarian territory was to be left to arbitration. The possible +creation of an independent Albania was not contemplated. + +In August 1912 the twenty-fifth anniversary of King Ferdinand’s arrival +in Bulgaria was celebrated with much rejoicing at the ancient capital +of Tirnovo, and was marred only by the news of the terrible massacre of +Bulgars by Turks at Kochana in Macedonia; this event, however, +opportune though mournful, tended considerably to increase the volume +of the wave of patriotism which swept through the country. Later in the +same month Count Berchtold startled Europe with his ‘progressive +decentralization’ scheme of reform for Macedonia. The manner in which +this event led to the final arrangements for the declaration of war on +Turkey by the four Balkan States is given in full elsewhere (cf. p. +151). + +The Bulgarian army was fully prepared for the fray, and the autumn +manoeuvres had permitted the concentration unobserved of a considerable +portion of it, ready to strike when the time came. Mobilisation was +ordered on September 30, 1912. On October 8 Montenegro declared war on +Turkey. On October 13 Bulgaria, with the other Balkan States, replied +to the remonstrances of Russia and Austria by declaring that its +patience was at length exhausted, and that the sword alone was able to +enforce proper treatment of the Christian populations in European +Turkey. On October 17 Turkey, encouraged by the sudden and unexpected +conclusion of peace with Italy after the Libyan war, declared war on +Bulgaria and Serbia, and on October 18 King Ferdinand addressed a +sentimental exhortation to his people to liberate their +fellow-countrymen, who were still groaning under the Crescent. + +The number of Turkish troops opposing the Bulgarians in Thrace was +about 180,000, and they had almost exactly the same number wherewith to +oppose the Serbians in Macedonia; for, although Macedonia was +considered by the Turks to be the most important theatre of war, yet +the proximity of the Bulgarian frontier to Constantinople made it +necessary to retain a large number of troops in Thrace. On October 19 +the Bulgarians took the frontier town of Mustafa Pasha. On October 24 +they defeated the Turks at Kirk-Kilissé (or Lozengrad), further east. +From October 28 to November 2 raged the terrific battle of Lule-Burgas, +which resulted in a complete and brilliant victory of the Bulgarians +over the Turks. The defeat and humiliation of the Turks was as rapid +and thorough in Thrace as it had been in Macedonia, and by the middle +of November the remains of the Turkish army were entrenched behind the +impregnable lines of Chataldja, while a large garrison was shut up in +Adrianople, which had been invested by the end of October. The +Bulgarian army, somewhat exhausted by this brilliant and lightning +campaign, refrained from storming the lines of Chataldja, an operation +which could not fail to involve losses such as the Bulgarian nation was +scarcely in a position to bear, and on December 3 the armistice was +signed. The negotiations conducted in London for two months led, +however, to no result, and on February 3, 1913, hostilities were +resumed. These, for the Bulgarians, resolved themselves into the more +energetic prosecution of the siege of Adrianople, which had not been +raised during the armistice. To their assistance Serbia, being able to +spare troops from Macedonia, sent 50,000 men and a quantity of heavy +siege artillery, an arm which the Bulgarians lacked. On March 26, 1913, +the fortress surrendered to the allied armies. + +The Conference of London, which took place during the spring of that +year, fixed the new Turco-Bulgarian boundary by drawing the famous +Enos-Midia line, running between these two places situated on the +shores respectively of the Aegean and the Black Sea. This delimitation +would have given Bulgaria possession of Adrianople. But meanwhile +Greece and especially Serbia, which latter country had been compelled +to withdraw from the Adriatic coast by Austria, and was further +precluded from ever returning there by the creation of the independent +state of Albania, determined to retain possession of all that part of +Macedonia, including the whole valley of the Vardar with its important +railway, which they had conquered, and thus secure their common +frontier. In May 1913 a military convention was concluded between them, +and the Balkan League, the relations between the members of which had +been becoming more strained ever since January, finally dissolved. +Bulgaria, outraged by this callous disregard of the agreements as to +the partition of Macedonia signed a year previously by itself and its +ex-allies, did not wait for the result of the arbitration which was +actually proceeding in Russia, but in an access of indignation rushed +to arms. + +This second Balkan war, begun by Bulgaria during the night of June 30, +1913, by a sudden attack on the Serbian army in Macedonia, resulted in +its undoing. In order to defeat the Serbs and Greeks the south-eastern +and northern frontiers were denuded of troops. But the totally +unforeseen happened. The Serbs were victorious, defeating the Bulgars +in Macedonia, the Turks, seeing Thrace empty of Bulgarian troops, +re-occupied Adrianople, and the Rumanian army, determined to see fair +play before it was too late, invaded Bulgaria from the north and +marched on Sofia. By the end of July the campaign was over and Bulgaria +had to submit to fate. + +By the terms of the Treaty of Bucarest, which was concluded on August +10, 1913, Bulgaria obtained a considerable part of Thrace and eastern +Macedonia, including a portion of the Aegean coast with the seaport of +Dedeagach, but it was forced to ‘compensate’ Rumania with a slice of +its richest province (the districts of Dobrich and Silistria in +north-eastern Bulgaria), and it lost central Macedonia, a great part of +which it would certainly have been awarded by Russia’s arbitration. On +September 22, 1913, the Treaty of Constantinople was signed by Bulgaria +and Turkey; by its terms Turkey retained possession of Adrianople and +of a far larger part of Thrace than its series of ignominious defeats +in the autumn of 1912 entitled it to. + +In the fatal quarrel between Bulgaria and Serbia which caused the +disruption of the Balkan League, led to the tragic second Balkan war of +July 1913, and naturally left behind the bitterest feelings, it is +difficult to apportion the blame. Both Serbia and Bulgaria were +undoubtedly at fault in the choice of the methods by which they sought +to adjust their difference, but the real guilt is to be found neither +in Sofia nor in Belgrade, but in Vicuna and Budapest. The Balkan League +barred the way of the Germanic Powers to the East; its disruption +weakened Bulgaria and again placed Serbia at the mercy of the Dual +Monarchy. After these trying and unremunerative experiences it is not +astonishing that the Bulgarian people and its ambitious ruler should +have retired to the remote interior of their shell. + + +_Explanation of Serbian orthography_ + +c = ts +č = ch (as in _church_) +ć = ” ” ” but softer +š = sh +ž = zh (as z in _azure_) +gj = g (as in _George_) +j = y + + +[Illustration: THE BALKAN PENINSULA] + + + + +SERBIA + + + + +14 +_The Serbs under Foreign Supremacy_, 650–1168 + + +The manner of the arrival of the Slavs in the Balkan peninsula, of that +of the Bulgars, and of the formation of the Bulgarian nationality has +already been described (cf. p. 26). The installation of the Slavs in +the lands between the Danube, the Aegean, and the Adriatic was +completed by about A.D. 650. In the second half of the seventh century +the Bulgars settled themselves in the eastern half of the peninsula and +became absorbed by the Slavs there, and from that time the nationality +of the Slavs in the western half began to be more clearly defined. +These latter, split up into a number of tribes, gradually grouped +themselves into three main divisions: Serbs (or Serbians), Croats (or +Croatians), and Slovenes. The Serbs, much the most numerous of the +three, occupied roughly the modern kingdom of Serbia (including Old +Serbia and northern Macedonia), Montenegro, and most of Bosnia, +Hercegovina, and Dalmatia; the Croats occupied the more western parts +of these last three territories and Croatia; the Slovenes occupied the +modern Carniola and southern Carinthia. Needless to say, none of these +geographical designations existed in those days except Dalmatia, on the +coast of which the Latin influence and nomenclature maintained itself. +The Slovenes, whose language is closely akin to but not identical with +Serbian (or Croatian), even to-day only number one and a half million, +and do not enter into this narrative, as they have never played any +political rôle in the Balkan peninsula. + +The Serbs and the Croats were, as regards race and language, originally +one people, the two names having merely geographical signification. In +course of time, for various reasons connected with religion and +politics, the distinction was emphasized, and from a historical point +of view the Serbo-Croatian race has always been divided into two. It is +only within the last few years that a movement has taken place, the +object of which is to reunite Serbs and Croats into one nation and +eventually into one state. The movement originated in Serbia, the Serbs +maintaining that they and the Croats are one people because they speak +the same language, and that racial and linguistic unity outweighs +religious divergence. A very large number of Croats agree with the +Serbs in this and support their views, but a minority for long +obstinately insisted that there was a racial as well as a religious +difference, and that fusion was impossible. The former based their +argument on facts, the latter theirs on prejudice, which is notoriously +difficult to overcome. Latterly the movement in favour of fusion grew +very much stronger among the Croats, and together with that in Serbia +resulted in the Pan-Serb agitation which, gave the pretext for the +opening of hostilities in July 1914. + +The designation Southern Slav (or Jugo-Slav, _jug_, pronounced yug, = +_south_ in Serbian) covers Serbs and Croats, and also includes +Slovenes; it is only used with reference to the Bulgarians from the +point of view of philology (the group of South Slavonic languages +including Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian and Slovene; the East Slavonic, +Russian; and the West Slavonic, Polish and Bohemian). + +In the history of the Serbs and Croats, or of the Serbo-Croatian race, +several factors of a general nature have first to be considered, which +have influenced its whole development. Of these, the physical nature of +the country in which they settled, between the Danube and Save and the +Adriatic, is one of the most important. It is almost everywhere +mountainous, and though the mountains themselves never attain as much +as 10,000 feet in height, yet they cover the whole country with an +intricate network and have always formed an obstacle to easy +communication between the various parts of it. The result of this has +been twofold. In the first place it has, generally speaking, been a +protection against foreign penetration and conquest, and in so far was +beneficial. Bulgaria, further east, is, on the whole, less mountainous, +in spite of the Balkan range which stretches the whole length of it; +for this reason, and also on account of its geographical position, any +invaders coming from the north or north-east, especially if aiming at +Constantinople or Salonika, were bound to sweep over it. The great +immemorial highway from the north-west to the Balkan peninsula crosses +the Danube at Belgrade and follows the valley of the Morava to Nish; +thence it branches off eastwards, going through Sofia and again +crossing all Bulgaria to reach Constantinople, while the route to +Salonika follows the Morava southwards from Nish and crosses the +watershed into the valley of the Vardar, which flows into the Aegean. +But even this road, following the course of the rivers Morava and +Vardar, only went through the fringe of Serb territory, and left +untouched the vast mountain region between the Morava and the Adriatic, +which is really the home of the Serb race. + +In the second place, while it has undoubtedly been a protection to the +Serb race, it has also been a source of weakness. It has prevented a +welding together of the people into one whole, has facilitated the rise +of numerous political units at various times, and generally favoured +the dissipation of the national strength, and militated against +national organization and cohesion. In the course of history this +process has been emphasized rather than diminished, and to-day the Serb +race is split up into six political divisions, while Bulgaria, except +for those Bulgars claimed as ‘unredeemed’ beyond the frontier, presents +a united whole. It is only within the last thirty years, with the +gradual improvement of communications (obstructed to an incredible +extent by the Austro-Hungarian government) and the spread of education, +that the Serbs in the different countries which they inhabit have +become fully conscious of their essential identity and racial unity. + +No less important than the physical aspect of their country on the +development of the Serbs has been the fact that right through the +middle of it from south to north there had been drawn a line of +division more than two centuries before their arrival. Artificial +boundaries are proverbially ephemeral, but this one has lasted +throughout the centuries, and it has been baneful to the Serbs. This +dividing line, drawn first by the Emperor Diocletian, has been +described on p. 14; at the division of the Roman Empire into East and +West it was again followed, and it formed the boundary between the +dioceses of Italy and Dacia; the line is roughly the same as the +present political boundary between Montenegro and Hercegovina, between +the kingdom of Serbia and Bosnia; it stretched from the Adriatic to the +river Save right across the Serb territory. The Serbo-Croatian race +unwittingly occupied a country that was cut in two by the line that +divides East from West, and separates Constantinople and the Eastern +Church from Rome and the Western. This curious accident has had +consequences fatal to the unity of the race, since it has played into +the hands of ambitious and unscrupulous neighbours. As to the extent of +the country occupied by the Serbs at the beginning of their history it +is difficult to be accurate. + +The boundary between the Serbs in the west of the peninsula and the +Bulgars in the east has always been a matter of dispute. The present +political frontier between Serbia and Bulgaria, starting in the north +from the mouth of the river Timok on the southern bank of the Danube +and going southwards slightly east of Pirot, is ethnographically +approximately correct till it reaches the newly acquired and +much-disputed territories in Macedonia, and represents fairly +accurately the line that has divided the two nationalities ever since +they were first differentiated in the seventh century. In the confused +state of Balkan politics in the Middle Ages the political influence of +Bulgaria often extended west of this line and included Nish and the +Morava valley, while at other times that of Serbia extended east of it. +The dialects spoken in these frontier districts represent a +transitional stage between the two languages; each of the two peoples +naturally considers them more akin to its own, and resents the fact +that any of them should be included in the territory of the other. +Further south, in Macedonia, conditions are similar. Before the Turkish +conquest Macedonia had been sometimes under Bulgarian rule, as in the +times of Simeon, Samuel, and John Asen II, sometimes under Serbian, +especially during the height of Serbian power in the fourteenth +century, while intermittently it had been a province of the Greek +Empire, which always claimed it as its own. On historical grounds, +therefore, each of the three nations can claim possession of Macedonia. +From an ethnographic point of view the Slav population of Macedonia +(there were always and are still many non-Slav elements) was originally +the same as that in the other parts of the peninsula, and probably more +akin to the Serbs, who are pure Slavs, than to the Slavs of Bulgaria, +who coalesced with their Asiatic conquerors. In course of time, +however, Bulgarian influences, owing to the several periods when the +Bulgars ruled the country, began to make headway. The Albanians also +(an Indo-European or Aryan race, but not of the Greek, Latin, or Slav +families), who, as a result of all the invasions of the Balkan +peninsula, had been driven southwards into the inaccessible mountainous +country now known as Albania, began to spread northwards and eastwards +again during the Turkish dominion, pushing back the Serbs from the +territory where they had long been settled. During the Turkish dominion +neither Serb nor Bulgar had any influence in Macedonia, and the +Macedonian Slavs, who had first of all been pure Slavs, like the Serbs, +then been several times under Bulgar, and finally, under Serb +influence, were left to themselves, and the process of differentiation +between Serb and Bulgar in Macedonia, by which in time the Macedonian +Slavs would have become either Serbs or Bulgars, ceased. The further +development of the Macedonian question is treated elsewhere (cf. chap. +13). + +The Serbs, who had no permanent or well-defined frontier in the east, +where their neighbours were the Bulgars, or in the south, where they +were the Greeks and Albanians, were protected on the north by the river +Save and on the west by the Adriatic. They were split up into a number +of tribes, each of which was headed by a chief called in Serbian +_župan_ and in Greek _archōn_. Whenever any one of these managed, +either by skill or by good fortune, to extend his power over a few of +the neighbouring districts he was termed _veliki_ (=great) _župan_. +From the beginning of their history, which is roughly put at A.D. 650, +until A.D. 1196, the Serbs were under foreign domination. Their +suzerains were nominally always the Greek emperors, who had ‘granted’ +them the land they had taken, and whenever the emperor happened to be +energetic and powerful, as were Basil I (the Macedonian, 867-86), John +Tzimisces (969-76), Basil II (976-1025), and Manuel Comnenus (1143-80), +the Greek supremacy was very real. At those times again when Bulgaria +was very powerful, under Simeon (893-927), Samuel (977-1014), and John +Asen II (1218-41), many of the more easterly and southerly Serbs came +under Bulgarian rule, though it is instructive to notice that the Serbs +themselves do not recognize the West Bulgarian or Macedonian kingdom of +Samuel to have been a Bulgarian state. The Bulgars, however, at no time +brought all the Serb lands under their sway. + +Intermittently, whenever the power of Byzantium or of Bulgaria waned, +some Serb princeling would try to form a political state on a more +ambitious scale, but the fabric always collapsed at his death, and the +Serbs reverted to their favourite occupation of quarrelling amongst +themselves. Such wore the attempts of Časlav, who had been made captive +by Simeon of Bulgaria, escaped after his death, and ruled over a large +part of central Serbia till 960, and later of Bodin, whose father, +Michael, was even recognized as king by Pope Gregory VII; Bodin formed +a state near the coast, in the Zeta river district (now Montenegro), +and ruled there from 1081 to 1101. But as a rule the whole of the +country peopled by the Serbs was split into a number of tiny +principalities always at war with one another. Generally speaking, this +country gradually became divided into two main geographical divisions: +(1) the _Pomorje_, or country _by the sea_, which included most of the +modern Montenegro and the southern halves of Hercegovina and Dalmatia, +and (2) the _Zagorje_, or country _behind the hills_, which included +most of the modern Bosnia, the western half of the modern kingdom of +Serbia, and the northern portions of Montenegro and Hercegovina, +covering all the country between the _Pomorje_ and the Save; to the +north of the _Pomorje_ and _Zagorje_ lay Croatia. Besides their +neighbours in the east and south, those in the north and west played an +important part in Serbian history even in those early days. + +Towards the end of the eighth century, after the decline of the power +of the Avars, Charlemagne extended his conquests eastwards (he made a +great impression on the minds of the Slavs, whose word for king, _kral_ +or _korol_, is derived directly from his name), and his son Louis +conquered the Serbs settled in the country between the rivers Save and +Drave. This is commemorated in the name of the mass of hill which lies +between the Danube and the Save, in eastern Slavonia, and is to this +day known as _Fruška Gora_, or French Hill. The Serbs and Bulgars +fought against the Franks, and while the Bulgars held their own, the +Serbs were beaten, and those who did not like the rule of the +new-comers had to migrate southwards across the Save; at the same time +the Serbs between the rivers Morava and Timok (eastern Serbia) were +subjected by the Bulgars. With the arrival of the Magyars, in the ninth +century, a wall was raised between the Serbs and central and western +Europe on land. Croatia and Slavonia (between the Save and the Drave) +were gradually drawn into the orbit of the Hungarian state, and in +1102, on the death of its own ruler, Croatia was absorbed by Hungary +and has formed part of that country ever since. Hungary, aiming at an +outlet on the Adriatic, at the same time subjected most of Dalmatia and +parts of Bosnia. In the west Venice had been steadily growing in power +throughout the tenth century, and by the end of it had secured control +of all the islands off Dalmatia and of a considerable part of the +coast. All the cities on the mainland acknowledged the supremacy of +Venice and she was mistress of the Adriatic. + +In the interior of the Serb territory, during the eleventh and twelfth +centuries, three political centres came into prominence and shaped +themselves into larger territorial units. These were: (1) Raska, which +had been Caslav’s centre and is considered the birth-place of the +Serbian state (this district, with the town of Ras as its centre, +included the south-western part of the modern kingdom of Serbia and +what was the Turkish _sandjak_ or province of Novi-Pazar); (2) Zeta, on +the coast (the modern Montenegro); and (3) Bosnia, so called after the +river Bosna, which runs through it. Bosnia, which roughly corresponded +to the modern province of that name, became independent in the second +half of the tenth century, and was never after that incorporated in the +Serbian state. At times it fell under Hungarian influence; in the +twelfth century, during the reign of Manuel Comnenus, who was +victorious over the Magyars, Bosnia, like all other Serb territories, +had to acknowledge the supremacy of Constantinople. + +It has already been indicated that the Serbs and Croats occupied +territory which, while the Church was still one, was divided between +two dioceses, Italy and Dacia, and when the Church itself was divided, +in the eleventh century, was torn apart between the two beliefs. The +dividing line between the jurisdictions of Rome and Constantinople ran +from north to south through Bosnia, but naturally there has always been +a certain vagueness about the extent of their respective jurisdictions. +In later years the terms Croat and Roman Catholic on the one hand, and +Serb and Orthodox on the other, became interchangeable. Hercegovina and +eastern Bosnia have always been predominantly Orthodox, Dalmatia and +western Bosnia predominantly Roman Catholic. The loyalty of the +Croatians to Austria-Hungary has been largely owing to the influence of +Roman Catholicism. + +During the first centuries of Serbian history Christianity made slow +progress in the western half of the Balkan peninsula. The Dalmatian +coast was always under the influence of Rome, but the interior was long +pagan. It is doubtful whether the brothers Cyril and Methodius (cf. +chap. 5) actually passed through Serb territory, but in the tenth +century their teachings and writings were certainly current there. At +the time of the division of the Churches all the Serb lands except the +Dalmatian coast, Croatia, and western Bosnia, were faithful to +Constantinople, and the Greek hierarchy obtained complete control of +the ecclesiastical administration. The elaborate organisation and +opulent character of the Eastern Church was, however, especially in the +hands of the Greeks, not congenial to the Serbs, and during the +eleventh and twelfth centuries the Bogomil heresy (cf. chap, 6), a much +more primitive and democratic form of Christianity, already familiar in +the East as the Manichaean heresy, took hold of the Serbs’ imagination +and made as rapid and disquieting progress in their country as it had +already done in the neighbouring Bulgaria; inasmuch as the Greek +hierarchy considered this teaching to be socialistic, subversive, and +highly dangerous to the ecclesiastical supremacy of Constantinople, all +of which indeed it was, adherence to it became amongst the Serbs a +direct expression of patriotism. + + + + +15 +_The Rise and Fall of the Serbian Empire and the Extinction of Serbian +Independence_, 1168–1496 + + +From 1168 the power of the Serbs, or rather of the central Serb state +of Raska, and the extent of its territory gradually but steadily +increased. This was outwardly expressed in the firm establishment on +the throne of the national Nemanja dynasty, which can claim the credit +of having by its energy, skill, and good fortune fashioned the most +imposing and formidable state the Serb race has ever known. This +dynasty ruled the country uninterruptedly, but not without many +quarrels, feuds, and rivalries amongst its various members, from 1168 +until 1371, when it became extinct. + +There were several external factors which at this time favoured the +rise of the Serbian state. Byzantium and the Greek Empire, to which the +Emperor Manuel Comnenus had by 1168 restored some measure of its former +greatness and splendour, regaining temporary control, after a long war +with Hungary, even over Dalmatia, Croatia, and Bosnia, after this date +began definitively to decline, and after the troublous times of the +fourth crusade (1204), when for sixty years a Latin empire was +established on the Bosphorus, never again recovered as a Christian +state the position in the Balkan peninsula which it had so long +enjoyed. Bulgaria, too, after the meteoric glory of its second empire +under the Asen dynasty (1186-1258), quite went to pieces, the eastern +and northern parts falling under Tartar, the southern under Greek +influence, while the western districts fell to Serbia. In the north, on +the other hand, Hungary was becoming a dangerous and ambitious +neighbour. During the thirteenth century, it is true, the attention of +the Magyars was diverted by the irruption into and devastation of their +country by their unwelcome kinsmen from Asia, the Tartars, who wrought +great havoc and even penetrated as far as the Adriatic coast. +Nevertheless Hungary was always a menace to Serbia; Croatia, Slavonia, +and the interior of Dalmatia, all purely Serb territories, belonged to +the Hungarian crown, and Bosnia was under the supremacy of the Magyars, +though nominally independent. + +The objects of the Magyars were twofold—to attain the hegemony of the +Balkan peninsula by conquering all the still independent Serb +territories, and to bring the peninsula within the pale of Rome. They +were not successful in either of these objects, partly because their +wars with the Serbian rulers always failed to reach a decision, partly +because their plans conflicted with those of the powerful Venetian +republic. The relations between Venice and Serbia were always most +cordial, as their ambitions did not clash; those of Venice were not +continental, while those of Serbia were never maritime. The +semi-independent Slavonic city-republic of Ragusa (called Dubrovnik in +Serbian) played a very important part throughout this period. It was +under Venetian supremacy, but was self-governing and had a large fleet +of its own. It was the great place of exchange between Serbia and +western Europe, and was really the meeting-place of East and West. Its +relations with Serbia were by no means always peaceful; it was a +Naboth’s vineyard for the rulers and people of the inland kingdom, and +it was never incorporated within their dominions. Ragusa and the other +cities of the Dalmatian coast were the home during the Middle Ages of a +flourishing school of Serbian literature, which was inspired by that of +Italy. The influence of Italian civilization and of the Italian Church +was naturally strong in the Serb province, much of which was under +Venetian rule; the reason for this was that communication by sea with +Italy was easier and safer than that by land with Serbia. The long, +formidable ranges of limestone mountains which divide the Serbian +interior from the Adriatic in almost unbroken and parallel lines have +always been a barrier to the extension of Serb power to the coast, and +an obstacle to free commercial intercourse. Nevertheless Ragusa was a +great trade centre, and one of the factors which most contributed to +the economic strength of the Serbian Empire. + +The first of the Nemanja dynasty was Stephen, whose title was still +only _Veliki Župan_; he extended Serb territory southwards at the +expense of the Greeks, especially after the death of Manuel Comnenus in +1180. He also persecuted the Bogomils, who took refuge in large numbers +in the adjacent Serb state of Bosnia. Like many other Serbian rulers, +he abdicated in later life in favour of his younger son, Stephen, +called Nemanjié (= Nemanya’s son), and himself became a monk (1196), +travelling for this purpose to Mount Athos, the great monastic centre +and home of theological learning of the Eastern Church. There he saw +his youngest son, who some years previously had also journeyed thither +and entered a monastery, taking the name of Sava. + +It was the custom for every Serbian ruler to found a sort of memorial +church, for the welfare of his own soul, before his death, and to +decorate and endow it lavishly. Stephen and his son together +superintended the erection in this sense of the church and monastery of +Hilandar on Mount Athos, which became a famous centre of Serbian church +life. Stephen died shortly after the completion of the building in +1199, and was buried in it, but in 1207 he was reinterred in the +monastery of Studenica, in Serbia, also founded by him. + +The reign of Stephen Nernanjić (1196-1223) opened with a quarrel +between him and his elder brother, who not unnaturally felt he ought to +have succeeded his father; the Bulgarians profited by this and seized a +large part of eastern Serbia, including Belgrade, Nish, Prizren, and +Skoplje. This, together with the fall of Constantinople and the +establishment of the Latin Empire in 1204, alarmed the Serbs and +brought about a reconciliation between the brothers, and in 1207 Sava +returned to Serbia to organise the Church on national lines. In 1219 he +journeyed to Nicaea and extracted from the Emperor Theodore Lascaris, +who had fallen on evil days, the concession for the establishment of an +autonomous national Serbian Church, independent of the Patriarch of +Constantinople. Sava himself was at the head of the new institution. In +1220 he solemnly crowned his brother King _(Kralj)_ of Serbia, the +natural consequence of his activities in the previous year. For this +reason Stephen Nemanjić is called ‘The First-Crowned’. He was succeeded +in 1223 by his son Stephen Radoslav, and he in turn was deposed by his +brother Stephen Vladislav in 1233. Both these were crowned by Sava, and +Vladislav married the daughter of Tsar John Asen II, under whom +Bulgaria was then at the height of her power. Sava journeyed to +Palestine, and on his return paid a visit to the Bulgarian court at +Tirnovo, where he died in 1236. His body was brought to Serbia and +buried in the monastery of Mileševo, built by Vladislav. This extremely +able churchman and politician, who did a great deal for the peaceful +development of his country, was canonized and is regarded as the patron +saint of Serbia. + +The reign of Vladislav’s son and successor, Stephen Uroš I (1242-76), +was characterized by economic development and the strengthening of the +internal administration. In external affairs he made no conquests, but +defeated a combination of the Bulgarians with Ragusa against him, and +after the war the Bulgarian ruler married his daughter. In his wars +against Hungary he was unsuccessful, and the Magyars remained in +possession of a large part of northern Serbia. In 1276 he was deposed +by his son, Stephen Dragutin, who in his turn, after an unsuccessful +war against the Greeks, again masters of Constantinople since 1261, was +deposed and succeeded by his brother, Stephen Uroš II, named Milutin, +in 1282. This king ruled from 1282 till 1321, and during his reign the +country made very great material progress; its mineral wealth +especially, which included gold and silver mines, began to be +exploited. He extended the boundaries of his kingdom in the north, +making the Danube and the Save the frontier. The usual revolt against +paternal authority was made by his son Stephen, but was unsuccessful, +and the rebel was banished to Constantinople. + +It was the custom of the Serbian kings to give appanages to their sons, +and the inevitable consequence of this system was the series of +provincial rebellions which occurred in almost every reign. When the +revolt succeeded, the father (or brother) was granted in his turn a +small appanage. In this case it was the son who was exiled, but he was +recalled in 1319 and a reconciliation took place. Milutin died in 1321 +and was succeeded by his son, Stephen Uroš III, who reigned till 1331. +He is known as Stephen Dečanski, after the memorial church which he +built at Dečani in western Serbia. His reign was signalized by a great +defeat of the combined Bulgarians and Greeks at Kustendil in Macedonia +in 1330. The following year his son, Stephen Dušan, rebelled against +him and deposed him. Stephen Dušan, who reigned from 1331 till 1355, +was Serbia’s greatest ruler, and under him the country reached its +utmost limits. Provincial and family revolts and petty local disputes +with such places as Ragusa became a thing of the past, and he undertook +conquest on a grand scale. Between 1331 and 1344 he subjected all +Macedonia, Albania, Thessaly, and Epirus. He was careful to keep on +good terms with Ragusa and with Hungary, then under Charles Robert. He +married the sister of the Bulgarian ruler, and during his reign +Bulgaria was completely under Serbian supremacy. The anarchy and civil +war which had become perennial at Constantinople, and the weakening of +the Greek Empire in face of the growing power of the Turks, no doubt to +some extent explain the facility and rapidity of his conquests; +nevertheless his power was very formidable, and his success inspired +considerable alarm in western Europe. This was increased when, in 1345, +he proclaimed his country an empire. He first called together a special +Church council, at which the Serbian Church, an archbishopric, whose +centre was then at Peć (in Montenegro, Ipek in Turkish), was proclaimed +a Patriarchate, with Archbishop Joannice as Patriarch; then this +prelate, together with the Bulgarian Patriarch, Simeon, and Nicholas, +Archbishop of Okhrida, crowned Stephen Tsar of the Serbs, Bulgars, and +Greeks. Upon this the Patriarch of Constantinople gave himself the vain +satisfaction of anathematizing the whole of Serbia, as a punishment for +this insubordination. + +In 1353 the Pope, Innocent VI, persuaded King Louis of Hungary to +undertake a crusade against Serbia in the name of Catholicism, but +Stephen defeated him and re-established his frontier along the Save and +Danube. Later he conquered the southern half of Dalmatia, and extended +his empire as far north as the river Cetina. In 1354 Stephen Dušan +himself approached the Pope, offering to acknowledge his spiritual +supremacy, if he would support him against the Hungarians and the +Turks. The Pope sent him an embassy, but eventually Stephen could not +agree to the papal conditions, and concluded an alliance, of greater +practical utility, with the Venetians. In 1355, however, he suddenly +died, at the age of forty-six, and thus the further development and +aggrandisement of his country was prematurely arrested. + +Stephen Dušan made a great impression on his contemporaries, both by +his imposing personal appearance and by his undoubted wisdom and +ability. He was especially a great legislator, and his remarkable code +of laws, compiled in 1349 and enlarged in 1354, is, outside his own +country, his greatest title to fame. During Stephen Dušan’s reign the +political centre of Serbia, which had for many years gradually tended +to shift southwards towards Macedonia, was at Skoplje (Üsküb in +Turkish), which he made his capital. Stephen Dušan’s empire extended +from the Adriatic in the west to the river Maritsa in the east, from +the Save and Danube in the north to the Aegean; it included all the +modern kingdoms of Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, and most of Greece, +Dalmatia as far north as the river Cetina, as well as the fertile +Morava valley, with Nish and Belgrade—the whole eastern part of Serbia, +which had for long been under either Bulgar or Magyar control. It did +not include the cities of Salonika or Ragusa, nor any considerable part +of the modern kingdom of Bulgaria, nor Bosnia, Croatia, North Dalmatia, +nor Slavonia (between the Save and Drave), ethnologically all purely +Serb lands. From the point of view of nationality, therefore, its +boundaries were far from ideal. + +Stephen Dušan was succeeded by his son, known as Tsar Uroš, but he was +as weak as his father had been strong. Almost as soon as he succeeded +to the throne, disorders, rebellions, and dissensions broke out and the +empire rapidly fell to pieces. With Serbia, as with Bulgaria, the +empire entirely hinged on the personality of one man, and when he was +gone chaos returned. Such an event for Serbia at this juncture was +fatal, as a far more formidable foe than the ruler’s rebellious +relations was advancing against it. The Turkish conquests were +proceeding apace; they had taken Gallipoli in 1354 and Demotika and +Adrianople in 1361. The Serbs, who had already had an unsuccessful +brush with the advance guard of the new invaders near Demotika in 1351, +met them again on the Maritsa river in 1371, and were completely +defeated. Several of the upstart princes who had been pulling Stephen +Dušan’s empire to pieces perished, and Tsar Uroš only survived the +battle of the Maritsa two months; he was unmarried, and with him died +the Nemanja dynasty and the Serbian Empire. + +After this disaster the unity of the Serbian state was completely +destroyed, and it has never since been restored in the same measure. + +That part of the country to the south of Skoplje fell completely under +Turkish control; it was here that the famous national hero, Marko +Kraljević (or King’s son), renowned for his prowess, ruled as a vassal +prince and mercenary soldier of the Turks; his father was one of the +rebel princes who fell at the battle of the river Maritsa in 1371. +North of Skoplje, Serbia, with Kruševac as a new political centre, +continued to lead an independent but precarious existence, much reduced +in size and glory, under a native ruler, Prince Lazar; all the +conquests of Stephen Dušan were lost, and the important coastal +province of Zeta, which later developed into Montenegro, had broken +away and proclaimed its autonomy directly after the death of Tsar Uroš. + +In 1375 a formal reconciliation was effected with the Patriarch of +Constantinople; the ban placed on the Serbian Church in 1352 was +removed and the independence of the Serbian Patriarchate of Peć (Ipek) +recognised. Meanwhile neither Greeks, Bulgars, nor Serbs were allowed +any peace by the Turks. + +In 1389 was fought the great battle of Kosovo Polje, or the Field of +Blackbirds, a large plain in Old Serbia, at the southern end of which +is Skoplje. At this battle Serbian armies from all the Serb lands, +including Bosnia, joined together in defence of their country for the +last time. The issue of the battle was for some time in doubt, but was +decided by the treachery and flight at the critical moment of one of +the Serb leaders, Vuk Branković, son-in-law of Prince Lazar, with a +large number of troops. Another dramatic incident was the murder of +Sultan Murad in his tent by another Serbian leader, Miloš Obilić, who, +accused of treachery by his own countrymen, vowed he would prove his +good faith, went over to the Turks and, pretending to be a traitor, +gained admission to the Sultan’s presence and proved his patriotism by +killing him. The momentary dismay was put an end to by the energetic +conduct of Bayezid, son of Murad, who rallied the Turkish troops and +ultimately inflicted total defeat on the Serbians. From the effects of +this battle Serbia never recovered; Prince Lazar was captured and +executed; his wife, Princess Milica, had to give her daughter to +Bayezid in marriage, whose son thus ultimately claimed possession of +Serbia by right of inheritance. Princess Milica and her son Stephen +continued to live at Kruševac, but Serbia was already a tributary of +Turkey. In the north, Hungary profited by the course of events and +occupied Belgrade and all northern Serbia, but in 1396 the Turks +defeated the Magyars severely at the battle of Nikopolis, on the +Danube, making the Serbs under Stephen fight on the Turkish side. +Stephen also had to help Sultan Bajazet against the Tartars, and fought +at the battle of Angora, in 1402, when Tamerlane captured Bayezid. + +After Stephen returned to Serbia he made an alliance with Hungary, +which gave him back Belgrade and northern Serbia; it was at this time +(1403) that Belgrade first became the capital, the political centre +having in the course of fifty years moved from the Vardar to the +Danube. The disorders which followed the defeat of Bayezid gave some +respite to the Serbs, but Sultan Murad II (1421-51) again took up arms +against him, and invaded Serbia as far as Kruševac. + +At the death of Stephen (Lazarević), in 1427, he was succeeded as +_Despot_ by his nephew, George Branković; but the Sultan, claiming +Serbia as his own, immediately declared war on him. The Serbian ruler +had to abandon Belgrade to the Magyars, and Nish and Kruševac to the +Turks. He then built and fortified the town of Smederevo (or Semendria) +lower down on the Danube, in 1428, and made this his capital. He gave +his daughter in marriage to the Sultan, but in spite of this war soon +broke out again, and in 1441 the Turks were masters of nearly the whole +of Serbia. Later George Branković made another alliance with Hungary, +and in 1444, with the help of John Hunyadi, defeated the Turks and +liberated the whole of Serbia as far as the Adriatic, though he +remained a tributary of the Sultan. The same year, however, the Magyars +broke the treaty of peace just concluded with the Turks, and marched +against them under their Polish king, Ladislas; this ended in the +disastrous battle of Varna, on the Black Sea, where the king lost his +life. In 1451 Sultan Murad II died and was succeeded by the Sultan +Mohammed. In 1453 this sultan captured Constantinople (Adrianople had +until then been the Turkish capital); in 1456 his armies were besieging +Belgrade, but were defeated by John Hunyadi, who, unfortunately for the +Serbs, died of the plague shortly afterwards. George Branković died the +same year, and at his death general disorder spread over the country. +The Turks profited by this, overran the whole of Serbia, and in 1459 +captured Smederevo, the last Serbian stronghold. + +Meanwhile Bosnia had been for nearly a hundred years enjoying a false +security as an independent Serb kingdom. Its rulers had hitherto been +known by the title of _Ban_, and were all vassals of the King of +Hungary; but in 1377 Ban Tvrtko profited by the embarrassments of his +suzerain in Poland and proclaimed himself king, the neighbouring +kingdom of Serbia having, after 1371, ceased to exist, and was duly +crowned in Saint Sava’s monastery of Mileševo. The internal history of +the kingdom was even more turbulent than had been that of Serbia. To +the endemic troubles of succession and alternating alliances and wars +with foreign powers were added those of confession. Bosnia was always a +no man’s land as regards religion; it was where the Eastern and Western +Churches met, and consequently the rivalry between them there was +always, as it is now, intense and bitter. The Bogomil heresy, too, +early took root in Bosnia and became extremely popular; it was the +obvious refuge for those who did not care to become involved in the +strife of the Churches. One of the kings of Bosnia, Stephen Thomas, who +reigned from 1444 till 1461, was himself a Bogomil, and when at the +insistence of the Pope and of the King of Hungary, whose friendship he +was anxious to retain, he renounced his heresy, became ostensibly a +Roman Catholic, and began to persecute the Bogomils, he brought about a +revolution. The rebels fled to the south of Bosnia, to the lands of one +Stephen, who sheltered them, proclaimed his independence of Bosnia, and +on the strength of the fact that Saint Sava’s monastery of Mileševo was +in his territory, announced himself Herzog, or Duke (in Serbian Herceg, +though the real Serb equivalent is _Vojvoda_) of Saint Sava, ever since +when (1448) that territory has been called Hercegovina. In spite of +many promises, neither the Pope nor the King of Hungary did anything to +help Bosnia when the Turks began to invade the country after their +final subjection of Serbia in 1459. In 1463 they invaded Bosnia and +pursued, captured, and slew the last king; their conquest of the +country was complete and rapid. A great exodus of the Serb population +took place to the south, west, and north; but large numbers, especially +of the landowning class, embraced the faith of their conquerors in +order to retain possession of their property. In 1482 a similar fate +befell Hercegovina. Albania had already been conquered after stubborn +resistance in 1478. There remained only the mountainous coastal +province of Zeta, which had been an independent principality ever since +1371. Just as inland Serbia had perished between the Turkish hammer and +the Hungarian anvil, so maritime Serbia was crushed between Turkey and +Venice, only its insignificance and inaccessibility giving it a longer +lease of independent life. Ivan Crnojević, one of the last independent +rulers of Zeta, who had to fly to Italy in 1480, abandoning his +capital, Žabljak, to the Turks, returned in 1481, when the death of +Sultan Mohammed temporarily raised the hopes of the mountaineers, and +founded Cetinje and made it his capital. His son George, who succeeded +him and ruled from 1490 till 1496, is famous as having set up the first +Serbian printing-press there. Its activities were naturally not +encouraged by the Turkish conquest, but it was of great importance to +the national Serbian Church, for which books were printed with it. + +In 1496, Venice having wisely made peace with the Sultan some years +previously, this last independent scrap of Serb territory was finally +incorporated in the Turkish dominions. At the end of the fifteenth +century the Turks were masters of all the Serb lands except Croatia, +Slavonia, and parts of Dalmatia, which belonged to Hungary, and the +Dalmatian coast and islands, which were Venetian. The Turkish conquest +of Serbia, which began in 1371 at the battle of the Maritsa, and was +rendered inevitable by the battle of Kosovo Polje, in 1389, thus took a +hundred and twenty-five years to complete. + + + + +16 +_The Turkish Dominion_, 1496–1796 + + +The lot of the Serbs under Turkish rule was different from that of +their neighbours the Bulgars; and though it was certainly not enviable, +it was undoubtedly better. The Turks for various reasons never +succeeded in subduing Serbia and the various Serb lands as completely +as they had subdued, or rather annihilated, Bulgaria. The Serbs were +spread over a far larger extent of territory than were the Bulgars, +they were further removed from the Turkish centre, and the wooded and +mountainous nature of their country facilitated even more than in the +case of Bulgaria the formation of bands of brigands and rebels and +militated against its systematic policing by the Turks. The number of +centres of national life, Serbia proper, Bosnia, Hercogovina, and +Montenegro, to take them in the chronological order of their conquest +by the Turks, had been notoriously a source of weakness to the Serbian +state, as is still the case to-day, but at the same time made it more +difficult for the Turks to stamp out the national consciousness. What +still further contributed to this difficulty was the fact that many +Serbs escaped the oppression of Turkish rule by emigrating to the +neighbouring provinces, where they found people of their own race and +language, even though of a different faith. The tide of emigration +flowed in two directions, westwards into Dalmatia and northwards into +Slavonia and Hungary. It had begun already after the final subjection +of Serbia proper and Bosnia by the Turks in 1459 and 1463, but after +the fall of Belgrade, which was the outpost of Hungary against the +Turks, in 1521, and the battle of Mohacs, in 1526, when the Turks +completely defeated the Magyars, it assumed great proportions. As the +Turks pushed their conquests further north, the Serbs migrated before +them; later on, as the Turks receded, large Serb colonies sprang up all +over southern Hungary, in the Banat (the country north of the Danube +and east of the Theiss), in Syrmia (or Srem, in Serbian, the extreme +eastern part of Slavonia, between the Save and the Danube), in Bačka +(the country between the Theiss and Danube), and in Baranya (between +the Danube and the Drave). All this part of southern Hungary and +Croatia was formed by the Austrians into a military borderland against +Turkey, and the Croats and immigrant Serbs were organized as military +colonists with special privileges, on the analogy of the Cossacks in +southern Russia and Poland. In Dalmatia the Serbs played a similar rôle +in the service of Venice, which, like Austria-Hungary, was frequently +at war with the Turks. During the sixteenth century Ragusa enjoyed its +greatest prosperity; it paid tribute to the Sultan, was under his +protection, and never rebelled. It had a quasi monopoly of the trade of +the entire Balkan peninsula. It was a sanctuary both for Roman Catholic +Croats and for Orthodox Serbs, and sometimes acted as intermediary on +behalf of its co-religionists with the Turkish authorities, with whom +it wielded great influence. Intellectually also it was a sort of Serb +oasis, and the only place during the Middle Ages where Serbian +literature was able to flourish. + +Montenegro during the sixteenth century formed part of the Turkish +province of Scutari. Here, as well as in Serbia proper, northern +Macedonia (known after the removal northwards of the political centre, +in the fourteenth century, as Old Serbia), Bosnia, and Hercegovina, the +Turkish rule was firmest, but not harshest, during the first half of +the sixteenth century, when the power of the Ottoman Empire was at its +height. Soon after the fall of Smederevo, in 1459, the Patriarchate of +Peć (Ipek) was abolished, the Serbian Church lost its independence, was +merged in the Greco-Bulgar Archbishopric of Okhrida (in southern +Macedonia), and fell completely under the control of the Greeks. In +1557, however, through the influence of a Grand Vizier of Serb +nationality, the Patriarchate of Peć was revived. The revival of this +centre of national life was momentous; through its agency the Serbian +monasteries were restored, ecclesiastical books printed, and priests +educated, and more fortunate than the Bulgarian national Church, which +remained under Greek management, it was able to focus the national +enthusiasms and aspirations and keep alive with hope the flame of +nationality amongst those Serbs who had not emigrated. + +Already, in the second half of the sixteenth century, people began to +think that Turkey’s days in Europe were numbered, and they were +encouraged in this illusion by the battle of Lepanto (1571). But the +seventeenth century saw a revival of Turkish power; Krete was added to +their empire, and in 1683 they very nearly captured Vienna. In the war +which followed their repulse, and in which the victorious Austrians +penetrated as far south as Skoplje, the Serbs took part against the +Turks; but when later the Austrians were obliged to retire, the Serbs, +who had risen against the Turks at the bidding of their Patriarch Arsen +III, had to suffer terrible reprisals at their hands, with the result +that another wholesale emigration, with the Patriarch at its head, took +place into the Austro-Hungarian military borderland. This time it was +the very heart of Serbia which was abandoned, namely, Old Serbia and +northern Macedonia, including Peć and Prizren. The vacant Patriarchate +was for a time filled by a Greek, and the Albanians, many of whom were +Mohammedans and therefore Turcophil, spread northwards and eastwards +into lands that had been Serb since the seventh century. From the end +of the seventeenth century, however, the Turkish power began +unmistakably to wane. The Treaty of Carlowitz (1699) left the Turks +still in possession of Syrmia (between the Danube and Save) and the +Banat (north of the Danube), but during the reign of the Emperor +Charles VI their retreat was accelerated. In 1717 Prince Eugen of Savoy +captured Belgrade, then, as now, a bulwark of the Balkan peninsula +against invasion from the north, and by the Treaty of Passarowitz +(Požarevac, on the Danube), in 1718, Turkey not only retreated +definitively south of the Danube and the Save, but left a large part of +northern Serbia in Austrian hands. By the same treaty Venice secured +possession of the whole of Dalmatia, where it had already gained +territory by the Treaty of Curlowitz in 1699. + +But the Serbs soon found out that alien populations fare little better +under Christian rule, when they are not of the same confession as their +rulers, than under Mohammedan. The Orthodox Serbs in Dalmatia suffered +thenceforward from relentless persecution at the hands of the Roman +Catholics. In Austria-Hungary too, and in that part of Serbia occupied +by the Austrians after 1718, the Serbs discovered that the Austrians, +when they had beaten the Turks largely by the help of Serbian levies, +were very different from the Austrians who had encouraged the Serbs to +settle in their country and form military colonies on their frontiers +to protect them from Turkish invasion. The privileges promised them +when their help had been necessary were disregarded as soon as their +services could be dispensed with. Austrian rule soon became more +oppressive than Turkish, and to the Serbs’ other woes was now added +religious persecution. The result of all this was that a +counter-emigration set in and the Serbs actually began to return to +their old homes in Turkey. Another war between Austria-Hungary and +Turkey broke out in 1737, in which the Austrians were unsuccessful. +Prince Eugen no longer led them, and though the Serbs were again +persuaded by their Patriarch, Arsen IV, to rise against the Turks, they +only did so half-heartedly. By the Treaty of Belgrade, in 1739, Austria +had to withdraw north of the Save and Danube, evacuating all northern +Serbia in favour of the Turks. From this time onwards the lot of the +Serbs, both in Austria-Hungary and in Turkey, went rapidly from bad to +worse. The Turks, as the power of their empire declined, and in return +for the numerous Serb revolts, had recourse to measures of severe +repression; amongst others was that of the final abolition of the +Patriarchate of Peé in 1766, whereupon the control of the Serbian +Church in Turkey passed entirely into the hands of the Greek +Patriarchate of Constantinople. + +The Austrian Government similarly, perceiving now for the first time +the elements of danger which the resuscitation of the Serbian +nationality would contain for the rule of the Hapsburgs, embarked on a +systematic persecution of the Orthodox Serbs in southern Hungary and +Slavonia. During the reign of Maria Theresa (1740-80), whose policy was +to conciliate the Magyars, the military frontier zone was abolished, a +series of repressive measures was passed against those Serbs who +refused to become Roman Catholics, and the Serbian nationality was +refused official recognition. The consequence of this persecution was a +series of revolts which were all quelled with due severity, and finally +the emigration of a hundred thousand Serbs to southern Russia, where +they founded New Serbia in 1752-3. + +During the reigns of Joseph II (1780-90) and Leopold II (1790-2) their +treatment at the hands of the Magyars somewhat improved. From the +beginning of the eighteenth century Montenegro began to assume greater +importance in the extremely gradual revival of the national spirit of +the Serbs. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it had formed +part of the Turkish dominions, though, thanks to the inaccessible +nature of its mountain fastnesses, Turkish authority was never very +forcibly asserted. It was ruled by a prince-bishop, and its religious +independence thus connoted a certain secular freedom of thought if not +of action. In the seventeenth century warlike encounters between the +Turks and the Montenegrins increased in frequency, and the latter tried +to enlist the help of Venice on their side but with indifferent +success. The fighting in Montenegro was often rather civil in +character, being caused by the ill-feeling which existed between the +numerous Montenegrins who had become Mohammedans and those who remained +faithful to their national Church. In the course of the eighteenth +century the rôle which fell to Montenegro became more important. In all +the other Serb countries the families which naturally took a leading +part in affairs were either extinct or in exile, as in Serbia, or had +become Mohammedan, and therefore to all intents and purposes Turkish, +as in Bosnia and Hercegovina. Ragusa, since the great earthquake in +1667, had greatly declined in power and was no longer of international +importance. In Montenegro, on the other hand, there had survived both a +greater independence of spirit (Montenegro was, after all, the ancient +Zeta, and had always been a centre of national life) and a number of at +any rate eugenic if not exactly aristocratic Serb families; these +families naturally looked on themselves and on their bishop as destined +to play an important part in the resistance to and the eventual +overthrow of the Turkish dominion. The prince-bishop had to be +consecrated by the Patriarch of Peć, and in 1700 Patriarch Arsen III +consecrated one Daniel, of the house (which has been ever since then +and is now still the reigning dynasty of Montenegro) of +Petrović-Njegoš, to this office, after he had been elected to it by the +council of notables at Cetinje. Montenegro, isolated from the Serbs in +the north, and precluded from participating with them in the wars +between Austria and Turkey by the intervening block of Bosnia, which +though Serb by nationality was solidly Mohammedan and therefore +pro-Turkish, carried on its feuds with the Turks independently of the +other Serbs. But when Peter the Great initiated his anti-Turkish +policy, and, in combination with the expansion of Russia to the south +and west, began to champion the cause of the Balkan Christians, he +developed intercourse with Montenegro and laid the foundation of that +friendship between the vast Russian Empire and the tiny Serb +principality on the Adriatic which has been a quaint and persistent +feature of eastern European politics ever since. This intimacy did not +prevent the Turks giving Montenegro many hard blows whenever they had +the time or energy to do so, and did not ensure any special protective +clauses in favour of the mountain state whenever the various treaties +between Russia and Turkey were concluded. Its effect was rather +psychological and financial. From the time when the _Vladika_ (= +Bishop) Daniel first visited Peter the Great, in 1714, the rulers of +Montenegro often made pilgrimages to the Russian capital, and were +always sure of finding sympathy as well as pecuniary if not armed +support. Bishops in the Orthodox Church are compulsorily celibate, and +the succession in Montenegro always descended from uncle to nephew. +When Peter I Petrović-Njegoš succeeded, in 1782, the Patriarchate of +Peć was no more, so he had to get permission from the Austrian Emperor +Joseph II to be consecrated by the Metropolitan of Karlovci +(Carlowitz), who was then head of the Serbian national Church. + +About the same time (1787) an alliance was made between Russia and +Austria-Hungary to make war together on Turkey and divide the spoils +between them. Although a great rising against Turkey was organised at +the same time (1788) in the district of Šumadija, in Serbia, by a +number of Serb patriots, of whom Kara-George was one and a certain +Captain Koča, after whom the whole war is called Kočina Krajina +(=Koča’s country), another, yet the Austrians were on the whole +unsuccessful, and on the death of Joseph II, in 1790, a peace was +concluded between Austria and Turkey at Svishtov, in Bulgaria, by which +Turkey retained the whole of Bosnia and Serbia, and the Save and Danube +remained the frontier between the two countries. Meanwhile the Serbs of +Montenegro had joined in the fray and had fared better, inflicting some +unpleasant defeats on the Turks under their bishop, Peter I. These +culminated in two battles in 1796 (the Montenegrins, not being +mentioned in the treaty of peace, had continued fighting), in which the +Turks were driven back to Scutari. With this triumph, which the Emperor +Paul of Russia signalized by decorating the Prince-Bishop Peter, the +independence of the modern state of Montenegro, the first Serb people +to recover its liberty, was _de facto_ established. + + + + +17 +_The Liberation of Serbia under Kara-George_ (1804–13) _and Miloš +Obrenović_ (1815–30): 1796–1830 + + +The liberation of Serbia from the Turkish dominion and its +establishment as an independent state were matters of much slower and +more arduous accomplishment than were the same processes in the other +Balkan countries. One reason for this was that Serbia by its peculiar +geographical position was cut off from outside help. It was easy for +the western powers to help Greece with their fleets, and for Russia to +help Rumania and, later, Bulgaria directly with its army, because +communication between them was easy. But Serbia on the one hand was +separated from the sea, first by Dalmatia, which was always in foreign +possession, and then by Bosnia, Hercegovina, and the _sandjak_ (or +province) of Novi-Pazar, all of which territories, though ethnically +Serb, were strongholds of Turkish influence owing to their large +Mohammedan population. The energies of Montenegro, also cut off from +the sea by Dalmatia and Turkey, were absorbed in self-defence, though +it gave Serbia all the support which its size permitted. Communication, +on the other hand, between Russia and Serbia was too difficult to +permit of military help being rapidly and effectively brought to bear +upon the Turks from that quarter. Bessarabia, Wallachia, and Moldavia +were then still under Turkish control, and either they had to be +traversed or the Danube had to be navigated from its mouth upwards +through Turkish territory. The only country which could have helped +Serbia was Austria, but as it was against their best interests to do +so, the Austrians naturally did all they could not to advance, but to +retard the Serbian cause. As a result of all this Serbia, in her long +struggle against the Turks, had to rely principally on its own +resources, though Russian diplomacy several times saved the renascent +country from disaster. + +Another reason for the slowness of the emancipation and development of +modern Serbia has been the proneness of its people to internal +dissension. There was no national dynasty on whom the leadership of the +country would naturally devolve after the first successful revolution +against Turkish rule, there was not even any aristocracy left, and no +foreign ruler was ever asked for by the Serbs or was ever imposed on +them by the other nations as in the case of Greece, Rumania, and +Bulgaria. On the other hand the rising against Turkey was a rising of +the whole people, and it was almost inevitable that as soon as some +measure of independence was gained the unity the Serbs had shown when +fighting against their oppressors should dissolve and be replaced by +bitter rivalries and disputes amongst the various local leaders who had +become prominent during the rebellion. + +These rivalries early in the nineteenth century resolved themselves +into a blood-feud between two families, the Karagjorgjević and the +Obrenović, a quarrel that filled Serbian history and militated against +the progress of the Serb people throughout the nineteenth century. + +The same reasons which restricted the growth of the political +independence of Serbia have also impeded, or rather made impossible, +its economic development and material prosperity. Until recent years +Austria-Hungary and Turkey between them held Serbia territorially in +such a position that whenever Serbia either demurred at its neighbours’ +tariffs or wished to retaliate by means of its own, the screw was +immediately applied and economic strangulation threatened. Rumania and +Bulgaria economically could never be of help to Serbia, because the +products and the requirements of all three are identical, and Rumania +and Bulgaria cannot be expected to facilitate the sale of their +neighbours’ live stock and cereals, when their first business is to +sell their own, while the cost of transit of imports from western +Europe through those countries is prohibitive. + +After the unsuccessful rebellion of 1788, already mentioned, Serbia +remained in a state of pseudo-quiescence for some years. Meanwhile the +authority of the Sultan in Serbia was growing ever weaker and the real +power was wielded by local Turkish officials, who exploited the +country, looked on it as their own property, and enjoyed +semi-independence. Their exactions and cruelties were worse than had +been those of the Turks in the old days, and it was against them and +their troops, not against those of the Sultan, that the first battles +in the Serbian war of independence were fought. It was during the year +1803 that the Serbian leaders first made definite plans for the rising +which eventually took place in the following year. The ringleader was +George Petrović, known as Black George, or Kara-George, and amongst his +confederates was Miloš Obrenović. The centre of the conspiracy was at +Topola, in the district of Šumadija in central Serbia (between the +Morava and the Drina rivers), the native place of Kara-George. The +first two years of fighting between the Serbians and, first, the +provincial janissaries, and, later, the Sultan’s forces, fully rewarded +the bravery and energy of the insurgents. By the beginning of 1807 they +had virtually freed all northern Serbia by their own unaided efforts +and captured the towns of Požarevac, Smederevo, Belgrade, and Šabac. +The year 1804 is also notable as the date of the formal opening of +diplomatic relations directly between Serbia and Russia. At this time +the Emperor Alexander I was too preoccupied with Napoleon to be able to +threaten the Sultan (Austerlitz took place in November 1805), but he +gave the Serbs financial assistance and commended their cause to the +especial care of his ambassador at Constantinople. + +In 1807 war again broke out between Russia and Turkey, but after the +Peace of Tilsit (June 1807) fighting ceased also between the Turks and +the Russians and the Serbs, not before the Russians had won several +successes against the Turks on the Lower Danube. It was during the two +following years of peace that dissensions first broke out amongst the +Serbian leaders; fighting the Turks was the sole condition of existence +which prevented them fighting each other. In 1809-10 Russia and the +Serbs again fought the Turks, at first without success, but later with +better fortune. In 1811 Kara-George was elected _Gospodar_, or +sovereign, by a popular assembly, but Serbia still remained a Turkish +province. At the end of that year the Russians completely defeated the +Turks at Rustchuk in Bulgaria, and, if all had gone well, Serbia might +there and then have achieved complete independence. + +But Napoleon was already preparing his invasion and Russia had to +conclude peace with Turkey in a hurry, which necessarily implied that +the Sultan obtained unduly favourable terms. In the Treaty of Bucarest +between the two countries signed in May 1812, the Serbs were indeed +mentioned, and promised vague internal autonomy and a general amnesty, +but all the fortified towns they had captured were to be returned to +the Turks, and the few Russian troops who had been helping the Serbs in +Serbia had to withdraw. Negotiations between the Turks and the Serbs +for the regulation of their position were continued throughout 1812, +but finally the Turks refused all their claims and conditions and, +seeing the European powers preoccupied with their own affairs, invaded +the country from Bosnia in the west, and also from the east and south, +in August 1813. The Serbs, left entirely to their own resources, +succumbed before the superior forces of the Turks, and by the beginning +of October the latter were again masters of the whole country and in +possession of Belgrade. Meanwhile Kara-George, broken in health and +unable to cope with the difficulties of the situation, which demanded +successful strategy both against the overwhelming forces of the Turks +in the field and against the intrigues of his enemies at home, somewhat +ignominiously fled across the river to Semlin in Hungary, and was duly +incarcerated by the Austrian authorities. + +The news of Napoleon’s defeat at Leipsic (October 1813) arrived just +after that of the re-occupation of Belgrade by the Turks, damped +_feu-de-joie_ which they were firing at Constantinople, and made them +rather more conciliatory and lenient to the Serbian rebels. But this +attitude did not last long, and the Serbs soon had reason to make fresh +efforts to regain their short-lived liberty. The Congress of Vienna met +in the autumn of 1814, and during its whole course Serbian emissaries +gave the Russian envoys no peace. But with the return of Napoleon to +France in the spring of 1815 and the break-up of the Congress, all that +Russia could do was, through its ambassador at Constantinople, to +threaten invasion unless the Turks left the Serbs alone. Nevertheless, +conditions in Serbia became so intolerable that another rebellion soon +took shape, this time under Miloš Obrenović. This leader was no less +patriotic than his rival, Kara-George, but he was far more able and a +consummate diplomat. Kara-George had possessed indomitable courage, +energy, and will-power, but he could not temporize, and his arbitrary +methods of enforcing discipline and his ungovernable temper had made +him many enemies. While the credit for the first Serbian revolt +(1804-13) undoubtedly belongs chiefly to him, the second revolt owed +its more lasting success to the skill of Miloš Obrenović. The fighting +started at Takovo, the home of the Obrenović family, in April 1815, and +after many astonishing successes against the Turks, including the +capture of the towns of Rudnik, Čačak, Požarevac, and Kraljevo, was all +over by July of the same year. The Turks were ready with large armies +in the west in Bosnia, and also south of the Morava river, to continue +the campaign and crush the rebellion, but the news of the final defeat +of Napoleon, and the knowledge that Russia would soon have time again +to devote attention to the Balkans, withheld their appetites for +revenge, and negotiations with the successful rebels were initiated. +During the whole of this period, from 1813 onwards, Miloš Obrenović, as +head of a district, was an official of the Sultan in Serbia, and it was +one of his principles never to break irreparably with the Turks, who +were still suzerains of the country. At the same time, owing to his +skill and initiative he was recognized as the only real leader of the +movement for independence. From the cessation of the rebellion in 1815 +onwards he himself personally conducted negotiations in the name of his +people with the various pashas who were deputed to deal with him. While +these negotiations went on and the armistice was in force, he was +confronted, or rather harassed from behind, by a series of revolts +against his growing authority on the part of his jealous compatriots. + +In June 1817 Kara-George, who had been in Russia after being released +by the Austrians in 1814, returned surreptitiously to Serbia, +encouraged by the brighter aspect which affairs in his country seemed +to be assuming. But the return of his most dangerous rival was as +unwelcome to Miloš as it was to the Turkish authorities at Belgrade, +and, measures having been concerted between them, Kara-George was +murdered on July 26,1817, and the first act in the blood-feud between +the two families thus committed. In November of the same year a +_skupština_, or national assembly, was held at Belgrade, and Miloš +Obrenović, whose position was already thoroughly assured, was elected +hereditary prince (_knez_) of the country. + +Meanwhile events of considerable importance for the future of the Serb +race had been happening elsewhere. Dalmatia, the whole of which had +been in the possession of Venice since the Treaty of Carlowitz in 1699, +passed into the hands of Austria by the Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797, +when the Venetian republic was extinguished by Napoleon. The Bocche di +Cuttaro, a harbour both strategically and commercially of immense +value, which had in the old days belonged to the Serb principality of +Zeta or Montenegro, and is its only natural outlet on the Adriatic, +likewise became Venetian in 1699 and Austrian in 1797, one year after +the successful rebellion of the Montenegrins against the Turks. + +By the Treaty of Pressburg between France and Austria Dalmatia became +French in 1805. But the Montenegrins, supported by the Russians, +resisted the new owners and occupied the Bocche; at the Peace of Tilsit +in 1807, however, this important place was assigned to France by +Russia, and Montenegro had to submit to its loss. In 1806 the French +occupied Ragusa, and in 1808 abolished the independence of the ancient +Serb city-republic. In 1812 the Montenegrins, helped by the Russians +and British, again expelled the French and reoccupied Cattaro; but +Austria was by now fully alive to the meaning this harbour would have +once it was in the possession of Montenegro, and after the Congress of +Vienna in 1815 took definitive possession of it as well as of all the +rest of Dalmatia, thus effecting the complete exclusion of the Serb +race for all political and commercial purposes from the Adriatic, its +most natural and obvious means of communication with western Europe. + +Though Miloš had been elected prince by his own people, it was long +before he was recognized as such by the Porte. His efforts for the +regularization of his position entailed endless negotiations in +Constantinople; these were enlivened by frequent anti-Obrenović revolts +in Serbia, all of which Miloš successfully quelled. The revolution in +Greece in 1821 threw the Serbian question from the international point +of view into the shade, but the Emperor Nicholas I, who succeeded his +brother Alexander I on the Russian throne in 1825, soon showed that he +took a lively and active interest in Balkan affairs. Pan-Slavism had +scarcely become fashionable in those days, and it was still rather as +the protector of its co-religionists under the Crescent that Russia +intervened. In 1826 Russian and Turkish delegates met at Akerman in +Bessarabia, and in September of that year signed a convention by which +the Russian protectorate over the Serbs was recognized, the Serbs were +granted internal autonomy, the right to trade and erect churches, +schools, and printing-presses, and the Turks were forbidden to live in +Serbia except in eight garrison towns; the garrisons were to be +Turkish, and tribute was still to be paid to the Sultan as suzerain. +These concessions, announced by Prince Miloš to his people at a special +_skupština_ held at Kragujevac in 1827, evoked great enthusiasm, but +the urgency of the Greek question again delayed their fulfilment. After +the battle of Navarino on October 20, 1827, in which the British, +French, and Russian fleets defeated the Turkish, the Turks became +obstinate and refused to carry out the stipulations of the Convention +of Akerman in favour of Serbia. Thereupon Russia declared war on Turkey +in April 1828, and the Russian armies crossed the Danube and the +Balkans and marched on Constantinople. + +Peace was concluded at Adrianople in 1829, and Turkey agreed to carry +out immediately all the stipulations of the Treaty of Bucarest (1812) +and the Convention of Akerman (1826). The details took some time to +settle, but in November 1830 the _hatti-sherif_ of the Sultan, +acknowledging Miloš as hereditary prince of Serbia, was publicly read +in Belgrade. All the concessions already promised were duly granted, +and Serbia became virtually independent, but still tributary to the +Sultan. Its territory included most of the northern part of the modern +kingdom of Serbia, between the rivers Drina, Save, Danube, and Timok, +but not the districts of Nish, Vranja, and Pirot. Turkey still retained +Bosnia and Hercegovina, Macedonia, the _sandjak_ of Novi-Pazar, which +separated Serbia from Montenegro, and Old Serbia (northern Macedonia). + + + + +18 +_The Throes of Regeneration: Independent Serbia,_ 1830–1903 + + +During his rule of Serbia, which lasted virtually from 1817 till 1839, +Prince Miloš did a very great deal for the welfare of his country. He +emancipated the Serbian Church from the trammels of the Greek +Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1831, from which date onwards it was +ruled by a Metropolitan of Serb nationality, resident at Belgrade. He +encouraged the trade of the country, a great deal of which he held in +his own hands; he was in fact a sort of prototype of those modern +Balkan business-kings of whom King George of Greece and King Carol of +Rumania were the most notable examples. He raised an army and put it on +a permanent footing, and organized the construction of roads, schools, +and churches. He was, however, an autocratic ruler of the old school, +and he had no inclination to share the power for the attainment of +which he had laboured so many years and gone through so much. From his +definite installation as hereditary prince discontent at his arbitrary +methods of government amongst his ex-equals increased, and after +several revolts he was forced eventually to grant a constitution in +1835. This, however, remained a dead letter, and things went on as +before. Later in the same year he paid a prolonged visit to his +suzerain at Constantinople, and while he was there the situation in +Serbia became still more serious. After his return he was, after +several years of delay and of growing unpopularity, compelled to agree +to another constitution which was forced on him, paradoxically enough, +by the joint efforts of the Tsar and of the Sultan, who seemed to take +an unnatural pleasure in supporting the democratic Serbians against +their successful colleague in autocracy, who had done so much for his +turbulent subjects. Serbia even in those days was essentially and +uncompromisingly democratic, but even so Miloš obstinately refused to +carry out the provisions of the constitution or in any way to submit to +a curtailment of his power, and in 1839 he left his ungrateful +principality and took refuge in Rumania, where he possessed an estate, +abdicating in favour of his elder son Milan. This Prince Milan, known +as Obrenović II, was seriously ill at the time of his accession, and +died within a month of it. He was succeeded by his younger brother +Michael, known as Obrenović III, who was then only sixteen years of +age. This prince, though young, had a good head on his shoulders, and +eventually proved the most gifted ruler modern Serbia has ever had. His +first reign (1840-2), however, did not open well. He inaugurated it by +paying a state visit to Constantinople, but the Sultan only recognized +him as elective prince and insisted on his having two advisers approved +and appointed by the Porte. Michael on his return showed his +determination to have nothing to do with them, but this led to a +rebellion headed by one of them, Vučić, and, though Michael’s rule was +not as arbitrary as his father’s, he had to bow to the popular will +which supported Vučić and cross the river to Semlin. After a stormy +interval, during which the Emperor Nicholas I tried to intervene in +favour of Michael, Alexander Karagjorgjević, son of Kara-George, was +elected prince (1843). No sooner was this representative of the rival +dynasty installed, however, than rebellions in favour of Michael +occurred. These were thrown into the shade by the events of 1848, In +that memorable year of revolutions the Magyars rose against Austria and +the Serbs in southern Hungary rose against the Magyars. Prince +Alexander resolved to send military help to his oppressed countrymen +north of the Save and Danube, and, though the insurgents were +unsuccessful, Prince Alexander gained in popularity amongst the Serbs +by the line of action he had taken. During the Crimean War, on the +other hand, Serbia remained strictly neutral, to the annoyance of the +Tsar; at the Congress of Paris (1856) the exclusive protectorate of +Russia was replaced by one of all the powers, and Russian influence in +the western Balkans was thereby weakened. Prince Alexander’s prudence, +moreover, cost him his popularity, and in 1858 he in his turn had to +bid farewell to his difficult countrymen. + +In December of the same year the veteran Prince Miloš Obrenović I was +recalled to power as hereditary prince. His activities during his +second reign were directed against Turkish influence, which was still +strong, and he made efforts to have the Turkish populations removed +from the eight garrison towns, including Belgrade, where they still +lived in spite of the fact that their emigration had been stipulated +for in 1830. Unfortunately he did not live long enough to carry out his +plans, for he fell ill at Topchider, the summer palace near Belgrade, +in the autumn of 1860, and died a few days afterwards. He was again +succeeded by his son Michael Obrenović III, who was already thirty-six +years of age. This able prince’s second reign was brilliantly +successful, and it was a disaster for which his foolish countrymen had +to pay dearly, when, by their fault, it was prematurely cut short in +1868. His first act was with the consent of a specially summoned +_skupština_ to abolish the law by which he could only appoint and +remove his counsellers with the approval of the Porte. Next he set +about the organization and establishment of a regular army of 30,000 +men. In 1862 an anti-Turkish rebellion broke out amongst the Serbs in +Hercegovina (still, with Bosnia, a Turkish province), and the Porte, +accusing Prince Michael of complicity, made warlike preparations +against him. + +Events, however, were precipitated in such a way that, without waiting +for the opening of hostilities, the Turkish general in command of the +fortress of Belgrade turned his guns on the city; this provoked the +intervention of the powers at Constantinople, and the entire civilian +Turkish population had to quit the country (in accordance with the +stipulations of 1830), only Turkish garrisons remaining in the +fortresses of Šabac, Belgrade, Smederevo, and Kladovo, along the +northern river frontier, still theoretically the boundary of the +Sultan’s dominions. After this success Prince Michael continued his +military preparations in order to obtain final possession of the +fortresses when a suitable occasion should arise. This occurred in +1866, when Austria was engaged in the struggle with Prussia, and the +policy of Great Britain became less Turcophil than it had hitherto +been. On April 6, 1867, the four fortresses, which had been in Serbian +possession from 1804 to 1813, but had since then been garrisoned by the +Turks, were delivered over to Serbia and the last Turkish soldier left +Serbian soil without a shot having been fired. Though Serbia after this +was still a vassal state, being tributary to the Sultan, these further +steps on the road to complete independence were a great triumph, +especially for Prince Michael personally. But this very triumph +actuated his political opponents amongst his own countrymen, amongst +whom were undoubtedly adherents of the rival dynasty, to revenge, and +blind to the interests of their people they foolishly and most brutally +murdered this extremely capable and conscientious prince in the deer +park near Topchider on June 10, 1868. The opponents of the Obrenović +dynasty were, however, baulked in their plans, and a cousin of the late +prince was elected to the vacant and difficult position. This ruler, +known as Milan Obrenović IV, who was only fourteen years of age at the +time of his accession (1868), was of a very different character from +his predecessor. The first thing that happened during his minority was +the substitution of the constitution of 1838 by another one which was +meant to give the prince and the national assembly much more power, but +which, eventually, made the ministers supreme. + +The prince came of age in 1872 when he was eighteen, and he soon showed +that the potential pleasures to be derived from his position were far +more attractive to him than the fulfilment of its obvious duties. He +found much to occupy him in Vienna and Paris and but little in +Belgrade. At the same time the Serb people had lost, largely by its own +faults, much of the respect and sympathy which it had acquired in +Europe during Prince Michael’s reign. In 1875 a formidable anti-Turkish +insurrection (the last of many) broke out amongst the Serbs of Bosnia +and Hercegovina, and all the efforts of the Turks to quell it were +unavailing. In June 1876 Prince Milan was forced by the pressure of +public opinion to declare war on Turkey in support of the ‘unredeemed’ +Serbs of Bosnia, and Serbia was joined by Montenegro. The country was, +however, not materially prepared for war, the expected sympathetic +risings in other parts of Turkey either did not take place or failed, +and the Turks turned their whole army on to Serbia, with the result +that in October the Serbs had to appeal to the Tsar for help and an +armistice was arranged, which lasted till February 1877. During the +winter a conference was held in Constantinople to devise means for +alleviating the lot of the Christians in Turkey, and a peace was +arranged between Turkey and Serbia whereby the _status quo ante_ was +restored. But after the conference the heart of Turkey was again +hardened and the stipulations in favour of the Christians were not +carried out. + +In 1877 Russia declared war on Turkey (cf. chap. 10), and in the autumn +of the same year Serbia joined in. This time the armies of Prince Milan +were more successful, and conquered and occupied the whole of southern +Serbia including the towns and districts of Nish, Pirot, Vranja, and +Leskovac, Montenegro, which had not been included in the peace of the +previous winter, but had been fighting desperately and continuously +against the Turks ever since it had begun actively to help the Serb +rebels of Hercegovina in 1875, had a series of successes, as a result +of which it obtained possession of the important localities of Nikšić, +Podgorica, Budua, Antivari, and Dulcigno, the last three on the shore +of the Adriatic. By the Treaty of San Stefano the future interests of +both Serbia and Montenegro were jeopardised by the creation of a Great +Bulgaria, but that would not have mattered if in return they had been +given control of the purely Serb provinces of Bosnia and Hercegovina, +which ethnically they can claim just as legitimately as Bulgaria claims +most of Macedonia. The Treaty of San Stefano was, however, soon +replaced by that of Berlin. By its terms both Serbia and Montenegro +achieved complete independence and the former ceased to be a tributary +state of Turkey. The Serbs were given the districts of southern Serbia +which they had occupied, and which are all ethnically Serb except +Pirot, the population of which is a sort of cross between Serb and +Bulgar. The Serbs also undertook to build a railway through their +country to the Turkish and Bulgarian frontiers. Montenegro was nearly +doubled in size, receiving the districts of Nikšić, Podgorica, and +others; certain places in the interior the Turks and Albanians +absolutely refused to surrender, and to compensate for these Montenegro +was given a strip of coast with the townlets of Antivari and Dulcigno. +The memory of Gladstone, who specially espoused Montenegro’s cause in +this matter, is held in the greatest reverence in the brave little +mountain country, but unfortunately the ports themselves are +economically absolutely useless. Budua, higher up the Dalmatian coast, +which would have been of some use, was handed over to Austria, to which +country, already possessed of Cattaro and all the rest of Dalmatia, it +was quite superfluous. Greatest tragedy of all for the future of the +Serb race, the administration of Bosnia and Hercegovina was handed over +‘temporarily’ to Austria-Hungary, and Austrian garrisons were quartered +throughout those two provinces, which they were able to occupy only +after the most bitter armed opposition on the part of the inhabitants, +and also in the Turkish _sandjak_ or province of Novi-Pazar, the +ancient Raska and cradle of the Serb state; this strip of mountainous +territory under Turkish administrative and Austrian military control +was thus converted into a fortified wedge which effectually kept the +two independent Serb states of Serbia and Montenegro apart. After all +these events the Serbs had to set to work to put their enlarged house +in order. But the building of railways and schools and the organization +of the services cost a lot of money, and as public economy is not a +Serbian virtue the debt grew rapidly. In 1882 Serbia proclaimed itself +a kingdom and was duly recognized by the other nations. But King Milan +did not learn to manage the affairs of his country any better as time +went on. He was too weak to stand alone, and having freed himself from +Turkey he threw himself into the arms of Austria, with which country he +concluded a secret military convention. In 1885, when Bulgaria and +‘Eastern Rumelia’ successfully coalesced and Bulgaria thereby received +a considerable increase of territory and power, the Serbs, prompted by +jealousy, began to grow restless, and King Milan, at the instigation of +Austria, foolishly declared war on Prince Alexander of Battenberg. This +speedily ended in the disastrous battle of Slivnitsa (cf. chap. II); +Austria had to intervene to save its victim, and Serbia got nothing for +its trouble but a large increase of debt and a considerable decrease of +military reputation. In addition to all this King Milan was unfortunate +in his conjugal relations; his wife, the beautiful Queen Natalie, was a +Russian, and as he himself had Austrian sympathies, they could scarcely +be expected to agree on politics. But the strife between them extended +from the sphere of international to that of personal sympathies and +antipathies. King Milan was promiscuous in affairs of the heart and +Queen Natalie was jealous. Scenes of domestic discord were frequent and +violent, and the effect of this atmosphere on the character of their +only child Alexander, who was born in 1876, was naturally bad. + +The king, who had for some years been very popular with, his subjects +with all his failings, lost his hold on the country after the +unfortunate war of 1885, and the partisans of the rival dynasty began +to be hopeful once more. In 1888 King Milan gave Serbia a very much +more liberal constitution, by which the ministers were for the first +time made really responsible to the _skupština_ or national assembly, +replacing that of 1869, and the following year, worried by his +political and domestic failures, discredited and unpopular both at home +and abroad, he resigned in favour of his son Alexander, then aged +thirteen. This boy, who had been brought up in what may be called a +permanent storm-centre, both domestic and political, was placed under a +regency, which included M. Ristić, with a radical ministry under M. +Pašić, an extremely able and patriotic statesman of pro-Russian +sympathies, who ever since he first became prominent in 1877 had been +growing in power and influence. But trouble did not cease with the +abdication of King Milan. He and his wife played Box and Cox at +Belgrade for the next four years, quarrelling and being reconciled, +intriguing and fighting round the throne and person of their son. At +last both parents agreed to leave the country and give the unfortunate +youth a chance. King Milan settled in Vienna, Queen Natalie in +Biarritz. In 1893 King Alexander suddenly declared himself of age and +arrested all his ministers and regents one evening while they were +dining with him. The next year he abrogated the constitution of 1888, +under which party warfare in the Serbian parliament had been bitter and +uninterrupted, obstructing any real progress, and restored that of +1869. Ever since 1889 (the date of the accession of the German Emperor) +Berlin had taken more interest in Serbian affairs, and it has been +alleged that it was William II who, through the wife of the Rumanian +minister at his court, who was sister of Queen Natalie, influenced King +Alexander in his abrupt and ill-judged decisions. It was certainly +German policy to weaken and discredit Serbia and to further Austrian +influence at Belgrade at the expense of that of Russia. King Milan +returned for a time to Belgrade in 1897, and the reaction, favourable +to Austria, which had begun in 1894, increased during his presence and +under the ministry of Dr. Vladan Gjorgjević, which lasted from 1897 +till 1900. This state of repression caused unrest throughout the +country. All its energies were absorbed in fruitless political party +strife, and no material or moral progress was possible. King Alexander, +distracted, solitary, and helpless in the midst of this unending welter +of political intrigue, committed an extremely imprudent act in the +summer of 1900. Having gone for much-needed relaxation to see his +mother at Biarritz, he fell violently in love with her lady in waiting, +Madame Draga Mašin, the divorced wife of a Serbian officer. Her +somewhat equivocal past was in King Alexander’s eyes quite eclipsed by +her great beauty and her wit, which had not been impaired by conjugal +infelicity. Although she was thirty-two, and he only twenty-four, he +determined to marry her, and the desperate opposition of his parents, +his army, his ministers, and his people, based principally on the fact +that the woman was known to be incapable of child-birth, only +precipitated the accomplishment of his intention. This unfortunate and +headstrong action on the part of the young king, who, though deficient +in tact and intuition, had plenty of energy and was by no means stupid, +might have been forgiven him by his people if, as was at first thought +possible, it had restored internal peace and prosperity in the country +and thereby enabled it to prepare itself to take a part in the solution +o£ those foreign questions which vitally affected Serb interests and +were already looming on the horizon. But it did not. In 1901 King +Alexander granted another constitution and for a time attempted to work +with a coalition ministry; but this failed, and a term of reaction with +pro-Austrian tendencies, which were favoured by the king and queen, set +in. This reaction, combined with the growing disorganization of the +finances and the general sense of the discredit and failure which the +follies of its rulers had during the last thirty years brought on the +country; completely undermined the position of the dynasty and made a +catastrophe inevitable. This occurred, as is well known, on June 10, +1903, when, as the result of a military conspiracy, King Alexander, the +last of the Obrenović dynasty, his wife, and her male relatives were +murdered. This crime was purely political, and it is absurd to gloss it +over or to explain it merely as the result of the family feud between +the two dynasties. That came to an end in 1868, when the murder of +Kara-George in 1817 by the agency of Miloš Obrenović was avenged by the +lunatic assassination of the brilliant Prince Michael Obrenović III. It +is no exaggeration to say that, from the point of view of the Serbian +patriot, the only salvation of his country in 1903 lay in getting rid +of the Obrenović dynasty, which had become pro-Austrian, had no longer +the great gifts possessed by its earlier members, and undoubtedly by +its vagaries hindered the progress of Serbia both in internal and +external politics. The assassination was unfortunately carried out with +unnecessary cruelty, and it is this fact that made such a bad +impression and for so long militated against Serbia in western Europe; +but it must be remembered that civilization in the Balkans, where +political murder, far from being a product of the five hundred years of +Turkish dominion, has always been endemic, is not on the same level in +many respects as it is in the rest of Europe. Life is one of the +commodities which are still cheap in backward countries. + +Although King Alexander and his wife can in no sense be said to have +deserved the awful fate that befell them, it is equally true that had +any other course been adopted, such as deposition and exile, the +wire-pulling and intriguing from outside, which had already done the +country so much harm, would have become infinitely worse. Even so, it +was long before things in any sense settled down. As for the alleged +complicity of the rival dynasty in the crime, it is well established +that that did not exist. It was no secret to anybody interested in +Serbian affairs that something catastrophic was about to happen, and +when the tragedy occurred it was natural to appeal to the alternative +native dynasty to step into the breach. But the head of that dynasty +was in no way responsible for the plot, still less for the manner in +which it was carried out, and it was only after much natural hesitation +and in the face of his strong disinclination that Prince Peter +Karagjorgjević was induced to accept the by no means enviable, easy, or +profitable task of guiding Serbia’s destiny. The Serbian throne in 1903 +was a source neither of glory nor of riches, and it was notoriously no +sinecure. + +After the tragedy, the democratic constitution of 1888 was first of all +restored, and then Prince Peter Karagjorgjević, grandson of +Kara-George, the leader of the first Serbian insurrection of 1804-13, +who was at that time fifty-nine years of age, was unanimously elected +king. He had married in 1883 a daughter of Prince Nicholas of +Montenegro and sister of the future Queen of Italy, but she had been +dead already some years at the time of his accession, leaving him with +a family of two sons and a daughter. + + + + +19 +_Serbia, Montenegro, and the Serbo-Croats in Austria-Hungary,_ 1903–8 + + +It was inevitable that, after the sensation which such an event could +not fail to cause in twentieth-century Europe, it should take the +country where it occurred some time to live down the results. Other +powers, especially those of western Europe, looked coldly on Serbia and +were in no hurry to resume diplomatic intercourse, still less to offer +diplomatic support. The question of the punishment and exile of the +conspirators was almost impossible of solution, and only time was able +to obliterate the resentment caused by the whole affair. In Serbia +itself a great change took place. The new sovereign, though he laboured +under the greatest possible disadvantages, by his irreproachable +behaviour, modesty, tact, and strictly constitutional rule, was able to +withdraw the court of Belgrade from the trying limelight to which it +had become used. The public finances began to be reorganized, commerce +began to improve in spite of endless tariff wars with Austria-Hungary, +and attention was again diverted from home to foreign politics. With +the gradual spread of education and increase of communication, and the +growth of national self-consciousness amongst the Serbs and Croats of +Austria-Hungary and the two independent Serb states, a new movement for +the closer intercourse amongst the various branches of the Serb race +for south Slav unity, as it was called, gradually began to take shape. +At the same time a more definitely political agitation started in +Serbia, largely inspired by the humiliating position of economic +bondage in which the country was held by Austria-Hungary, and was +roughly justified by the indisputable argument: ‘Serbia must expand or +die.’ Expansion at the cost of Turkey seemed hopeless, because even the +acquisition of Macedonia would give Serbia a large alien population and +no maritime outlet. It was towards the Adriatic that the gaze of the +Serbs was directed, to the coast which was ethnically Serbian and could +legitimately be considered a heritage of the Serb race. + +Macedonia was also taken into account, schools and armed bands began +their educative activity amongst those inhabitants of the unhappy +province who were Serb, or who lived in places where Serbs had lived, +or who with sufficient persuasion could be induced to call themselves +Serb; but the principal stream of propaganda was directed westwards +into Bosnia and Hercegovina. The antagonism between Christian and +Mohammedan, Serb and Turk, was never so bitter as between Christian and +Christian, Serb and German or Magyar, and the Serbs were clever enough +to see that Bosnia and Hercegovina, from every point of view, was to +them worth ten Macedonias, though it would he ten times more difficult +to obtain. Bosnia and Hercegovina, though containing three confessions, +were ethnically homogeneous, and it was realised that these two +provinces were as important to Serbia and Montenegro as the rest of +Italy had been to Piedmont. + +It must at this time be recalled in what an extraordinary way the Serb +race had fortuitously been broken up into a number of quite arbitrary +political divisions. Dalmatia (three per cent. of the population of +which is Italian and all the rest Serb or Croat, preponderatingly Serb +and Orthodox in the south and preponderating Croat or Roman Catholic in +the north) was a province of Austria and sent deputies to the +Reichsrath at Vienna; at the same time it was territorially isolated +from Austria and had no direct railway connexion with any country +except a narrow-gauge line into Bosnia. Croatia and Slavonia, +preponderatingly Roman Catholic, were lands of the Hungarian crown, and +though they had a provincial pseudo-autonomous diet at Agram, the +capital of Croatia, they sent deputies to the Hungarian parliament at +Budapest. Thus what had in the Middle Ages been known as the triune +kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia, with a total Serbo-Croat +population of three millions, was divided between Austria and Hungary. + +Further, there were about 700,000 Serbs and Croats in the south of +Hungary proper, cast and north of the Danube, known as the Banat and +Bačka, a district which during the eighteenth and early nineteenth +centuries was the hearth and home of Serb literature and education, but +which later waned in importance in that respect as independent Serbia +grew. These Serbs were directly dependent on Budapest, the only +autonomy they possessed being ecclesiastical. Bosnia and Hercegovina, +still nominally Turkish provinces, with a Slav population of nearly two +million (850,000 Orthodox Serbs, 650,000 Mohammedan Serbs, and the rest +Roman Catholics), were to all intents and purposes already imperial +lands of Austria-Hungary, with a purely military and police +administration; the shadow of Turkish sovereignty provided sufficient +excuse to the _de facto_ owners of these provinces not to grant the +inhabitants parliamentary government or even genuine provincial +autonomy. The Serbs in Serbia numbered nearly three millions, those in +Montenegro about a quarter of a million; while in Turkey, in what was +known as Old Serbia (the _sandjak_ of Novi-Pasar between Serbia and +Montenegro and the vilayet of Korovo), and in parts of northern and +central Macedonia, there were scattered another half million. These +last, of course, had no voice at all in the management of their own +affairs. Those in Montenegro lived under the patriarchal autocracy of +Prince Nicholas, who had succeeded his uncle, Prince Danilo, in 1860, +at the age of nineteen. Though no other form of government could have +turned the barren rocks of Montenegro into fertile pastures, many of +the people grew restless with the restricted possibilities of a career +which the mountain principality offered them, and in latter years +migrated in large numbers to North and South America, whither +emigration from Dalmatia and Croatia too had already readied serious +proportions. The Serbs in Serbia were the only ones who could claim to +be free, but even this was a freedom entirely dependent on the economic +malevolence of Austria-Hungary and Turkey. Cut up in this way by the +hand of fate into such a number of helpless fragments, it was +inevitable that the Serb race, if it possessed any vitality, should +attempt, at any cost, to piece some if not all of them together and +form an ethnical whole which, economically and politically, should be +master of its own destinies. It was equally inevitable that the policy +of Austria-Hungary should be to anticipate or definitively render any +such attempt impossible, because obviously the formation of a large +south Slav state, by cutting off Austria from the Adriatic and +eliminating from the dual monarchy all the valuable territory between +the Dalmatian coast and the river Drave, would seriously jeopardize its +position as a great power; it must be remembered, also, that +Austria-Hungary, far from decomposing, as it was commonly assumed was +happening, had been enormously increasing in vitality ever since 1878. + +The means adopted by the governments of Vienna and Budapest to nullify +the plans of Serbian expansion were generally to maintain the political +_émiettement_ of the Serb race, the isolation of one group from +another, the virtually enforced emigration of Slavs on a large scale +and their substitution by German colonists, and the encouragement of +rivalry and discord between Roman Catholic Croat and Orthodox Serb. No +railways were allowed to be built in Dalmatia, communication between +Agram and any other parts of the monarchy except Fiume or Budapest was +rendered almost impossible; Bosnia and Hercegovina were shut off into a +watertight compartment and endowed with a national flag composed of the +inspiring colours of brown and buff; it was made impossible for Serbs +to visit Montenegro or for Montenegrins to visit Serbia except via +Fiume, entailing the bestowal of several pounds on the Hungarian state +steamers and railways. As for the _sandjak_ of Novi-Pazar, it was +turned into a veritable Tibet, and a legend was spread abroad that if +any foreigner ventured there he would be surely murdered by Turkish +brigands; meanwhile it was full of Viennese ladies giving picnics and +dances and tennis parties to the wasp-waisted officers of the Austrian +garrison. Bosnia and Hercegovina, on the other hand, became the model +touring provinces of Austria-Hungary, and no one can deny that their +great natural beauties were made more enjoyable by the construction of +railways, roads, and hotels. At the same time this was not a work of +pure philanthropy, and the emigration statistics are a good indication +of the joy with which the Bosnian peasants paid for an annual influx of +admiring tourists. In spite of all these disadvantages, however, the +Serbo-Croat provinces of Austria-Hungary could not be deprived of all +the benefits of living within a large and prosperous customs union, +while being made to pay for all the expenses of the elaborate imperial +administration and services; and the spread of education, even under +the Hapsburg régime, began to tell in time. Simultaneously with the +agitation which emanated from Serbia and was directed towards the +advancement, by means of schools and religious and literary propaganda, +of Serbian influence in Bosnia and Hercegovina, a movement started in +Dalmatia and Croatia for the closer union of those two provinces. About +1906 the two movements found expression in the formation of the +Serbo-Croat or Croato-Serb coalition party, composed of those elements +in Dalmatia, Croatia, and Slavonia which favoured closer union between +the various groups of the Serb race scattered throughout those +provinces, as well as in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Hercegovina, and +Turkey. Owing to the circumstances already described, it was impossible +for the representatives of the Serb race to voice their aspirations +unanimously in any one parliament, and the work of the coalition, +except in the provincial diet at Agram, consisted mostly of conducting +press campaigns and spreading propaganda throughout those provinces. +The most important thing about the coalition was that it buried +religious antagonism and put unity of race above difference of belief. +In this way it came into conflict with the ultramontane Croat party at +Agram, which wished to incorporate Bosnia, Hercegovina, and Dalmatia +with Croatia and create a third purely Roman Catholic Slav state in the +empire, on a level with Austria and Hungary; also to a lesser extent +with the intransigent Serbs of Belgrade, who affected to ignore Croatia +and Roman Catholicism, and only dreamed of bringing Bosnia, +Hercegovina, and as much of Dalmatia as they could under their own +rule; and finally it had to overcome the hostility of the Mohammedan +Serbs of Bosnia, who disliked all Christians equally, could only with +the greatest difficulty be persuaded that they were really Serbs and +not Turks, and honestly cared for nothing but Islam and Turkish coffee, +thus considerably facilitating the germanization of the two provinces. +The coalition was wisely inclined to postpone the programme of final +political settlement, and aimed immediately at the removal of the +material and moral barriers placed between the Serbs of the various +provinces of Austria-Hungary, including Bosnia and Hercegovina. If they +had been sure of adequate guarantees they would probably have agreed to +the inclusion of _all_ Serbs and Croats within the monarchy, because +the constitution of all Serbs and Croats in an independent state (not +necessarily a kingdom) without it implied the then problematic +contingencies of a European war and the disruption of Austria-Hungary. +Considering the manifold handicaps under which Serbia and its cause +suffered, the considerable success which its propaganda met with in +Bosnia and Hercegovina and other parts of Austria-Hungary, from 1903 +till 1908, is a proof, not only of the energy and earnestness of its +promoters and of the vitality of the Serbian people, but also, if any +were needed, of the extreme unpopularity of the Hapsburg régime in the +southern Slav provinces of the dual monarchy. Serbia had no help from +outside. Russia was entangled in the Far East and then in the +revolution, and though the new dynasty was approved in St. Petersburg +Russian sympathy with Serbia was at that time only lukewarm. Relations +with Austria-Hungary were of course always strained; only one single +line of railway connected the two countries, and as Austria-Hungary was +the only profitable market, for geographical reasons, for Serbian +products, Serbia could be brought to its knees at any moment by the +commercial closing of the frontier. It was a symbol of the economic +vassalage of Serbia and Montenegro that the postage between both of +these countries and any part of Austria-Hungary was ten centimes, that +for letters between Serbia and Montenegro, which had to make the long +détour through Austrian territory, was twenty-five. But though this +opened the Serbian markets to Austria, it also incidentally opened +Bosnia, when the censor could be circumvented to propaganda by pamphlet +and correspondence. Intercourse with western Europe was restricted by +distance, and, owing to dynastic reasons, diplomatic relations were +altogether suspended for several years between this country and Serbia. +The Balkan States Exhibition held in London during the summer of 1907, +to encourage trade between Great Britain and the Balkans, was hardly a +success. Italy and Serbia had nothing in common. With Montenegro even, +despite the fact that King Peter was Prince Nicholas’s son-in-law, +relations were bad. It was felt in Serbia that Prince Nicholas’s +autocratic rule acted as a brake on the legitimate development of the +national consciousness, and Montenegrin students who visited Belgrade +returned to their homes full of wild and unsuitable ideas. However, the +revolutionary tendencies, which some of them undoubtedly developed, had +no fatal results to the reigning dynasty, which continued as before to +enjoy the special favour as well as the financial support of the +Russian court, and which, looked on throughout Europe as a picturesque +and harmless institution, it would have been dangerous, as it was quite +unnecessary, to touch. + +Serbia was thus left entirely to its own resources in the great +propagandist activity which filled the years 1903 to 1908. The +financial means at its disposal were exiguous in the extreme, +especially when compared with the enormous sums lavished annually by +the Austrian and German governments on their secret political services, +so that the efforts of its agents cannot be ascribed to cupidity. Also +it must be admitted that the kingdom of Serbia, with its capital +Belgrade, thanks to the internal chaos and dynastic scandals of the +previous forty years, resulting in superficial dilapidation, +intellectual stagnation, and general poverty, lacked the material as +well as the moral glamour which a successful Piedmont should possess. +Nobody could deny, for instance, that, with all its natural advantages, +Belgrade was at first sight not nearly such an attractive centre as +Agram or Sarajevo, or that the qualities which the Serbs of Serbia had +displayed since their emancipation were hardly such as to command the +unstinted confidence and admiration of their as yet unredeemed +compatriots. Nevertheless the Serbian propaganda in favour of what was +really a Pan-Serb movement met with great success, especially in +Bosnia, Hercegovina, and Old Serbia (northern Macedonia). + +Simultaneously the work of the Serbo-Croat coalition in Dalmatia, +Croatia, and Slavonia made considerable progress in spite of clerical +opposition and desperate conflicts with the government at Budapest. +Both the one movement and the other naturally evoked great alarm and +emotion in the Austrian and Hungarian capitals, as they were seen to be +genuinely popular and also potentially, if not actually, separatist in +character. In October 1906 Baron Achrenthal succeeded Count Goluchowski +as Minister for Foreign Affairs at Vienna, and very soon initiated a +more vigorous and incidentally anti-Slav foreign policy than his +predecessor. What was now looked on as the Serbian danger had in the +eyes of Vienna assumed such proportions that the time for decisive +action was considered to have arrived. In January 1908 Baron Achrenthal +announced his scheme for a continuation of the Bosnian railway system +through the _sandjak_ of Novi-Pazar to link up with the Turkish +railways in Macedonia. This plan was particularly foolish in +conception, because, the Bosnian railways being narrow and the Turkish +normal gauge, the line would have been useless for international +commerce, while the engineering difficulties were such that the cost of +construction would have been prohibitive. But the possibilities which +this move indicated, the palpable evidence it contained of the +notorious _Drang nach Osten_ of the Germanic powers towards Salonika +and Constantinople, were quite sufficient to fill the ministries of +Europe, and especially those of Russia, with extreme uneasiness. The +immediate result of this was that concerted action between Russia and +Austria-Hungary in the Balkans was thenceforward impossible, and the +Mürzsteg programme, after a short and precarious existence, came to an +untimely end (cf. chap. 12). Serbia and Montenegro, face to face with +this new danger which threatened permanently to separate their +territories, were beside themselves, and immediately parried with the +project, hardly more practicable in view of their international credit, +of a Danube-Adriatic railway. In July 1908 the nerves of Europe were +still further tried by the Young Turk revolution in Constantinople. The +imminence of this movement was known to Austro-German diplomacy, and +doubtless this knowledge, as well as the fear of the Pan-Serb movement, +prompted the Austrian foreign minister to take steps towards the +definitive regularization of his country’s position in Bosnia and +Hercegovina—provinces whose suzerain was still the Sultan of Turkey. +The effect of the Young Turk coup in the Balkan States was as any one +who visited them at that time can testify, both pathetic and intensely +humorous. The permanent chaos of the Turkish empire, and the process of +watching for years its gradual but inevitable decomposition, had +created amongst the neighbouring states an atmosphere of excited +anticipation, which was really the breath of their nostrils; it had +stimulated them during the endless Macedonian insurrections to commit +the most awful outrages against each other’s nationals and then lay the +blame at the door of the unfortunate Turk; and if the Turk should +really regenerate himself, not only would their occupation be gone, but +the heavily-discounted legacies would assuredly elude their grasp. At +the same time, since the whole policy of exhibiting and exploiting the +horrors of Macedonia, and of organizing guerilla bands and provoking +intervention, was based on the refusal of the Turks to grant reforms, +as soon as the ultra-liberal constitution of Midhat Pasha, which, had +been withdrawn after a brief and unsuccessful run in 1876, was restored +by the Young Turks, there was nothing left for the Balkan States to do +but to applaud with as much enthusiasm as they could simulate. The +emotions experienced by the Balkan peoples during that summer, beneath +the smiles which they had to assume, were exhausting even for southern +temperaments. Bulgaria, with its characteristic matter-of-factness, was +the first to adjust itself to the new and trying situation in which the +only certainty was that something decisive had got to be done with all +possible celerity. On October 5, 1908, Prince Ferdinand sprang on an +astonished continent the news that he renounced the Turkish suzerainty +(ever since 1878 the Bulgarian principality had been a tributary and +vassal state of the Ottoman Empire, and therefore, with all its +astonishingly rapid progress and material prosperity, a subject for +commiseration in the kingdoms of Serbia and Greece) and proclaimed the +independence of Bulgaria, with himself, as Tsar of the Bulgars, at its +head. Europe had not recovered from this shock, still less Belgrade and +Athens, when, two days later. Baron Aehrenthal announced the formal +annexation of Bosnia and Hercegovina by the Emperor Francis Joseph. +Whereas most people had virtually forgotten the Treaty of Berlin and +had come to look on Austria as just as permanently settled in these two +provinces as was Great Britain in Egypt and Cyprus, yet the formal +breach of the stipulations of that treaty on Austria’s part, by +annexing the provinces without notice to or consultation with the other +parties concerned, gave the excuse for a somewhat ridiculous hue and +cry on the part of the other powers, and especially on that of Russia. +The effect of these blows from right and left on Serbia was literally +paralysing. When Belgrade recovered the use of its organs, it started +to scream for war and revenue, and initiated an international crisis +from which Europe did not recover till the following year. Meanwhile, +almost unobserved by the peoples of Serbia and Montenegro, Austria had, +in order to reconcile the Turks with the loss of their provinces, +good-naturedly, but from the Austrian point of view short-sightedly, +withdrawn its garrisons from the _sandjak_ of Novi-Pazar, thus +evacuating the long-coveted corridor which was the one thing above all +else necessary to Serbia and Montenegro for the realization of their +plans. + + + + +20 +_Serbia and Montenegro, and the two Balkan Wars,_ 1908–13 (cf. Chap, +13) + + +The winter of 1908-9 marked the lowest ebb of Serbia’s fortunes. The +successive _coups_ and _faits accomplis_ carried out by Austria, +Turkey, and Bulgaria during 1908 seemed destined to destroy for good +the Serbian plans for expansion in any direction whatever, and if these +could not be realized then Serbia must die of suffocation. It was also +well understood that for all the martial ardour displayed in Belgrade +the army was in no condition to take the field any more than was the +treasury to bear the cost of a campaign; Russia had not yet recovered +from the Japanese War followed by the revolution, and indeed everything +pointed to the certainty that if Serbia indulged in hostilities against +Austria-Hungary it would perish ignominiously and alone. The worst of +it was that neither Serbia nor Montenegro had any legal claim to Bosnia +and Hercegovina: they had been deluding themselves with the hope that +their ethnical identity with the people of these provinces, supported +by the effects of their propaganda, would induce a compassionate and +generous Europe at least to insist on their being given a part of the +coveted territory, and thus give Serbia access to the coast, when the +ambiguous position of these two valuable provinces, still nominally +Turkish but already virtually Austrian, came to be finally regularized. +As a matter of fact, ever since Bismarck, Gorchakóv, and Beaconsfield +had put Austria-Hungary in their possession in 1878, no one had +seriously thought that the Dual Monarchy would ever voluntarily retire +from one inch of the territory which had been conquered and occupied at +such cost, and those who noticed it were astonished at the evacuation +by it of the _sandjak_ of Novi-Pazar. At the same time Baron Achrenthal +little foresaw what a hornet’s nest he would bring about his ears by +the tactless method in which the annexation was carried out. The first +effect was to provoke a complete boycott of Austro-Hungarian goods and +trading vessels throughout the Ottoman Empire, which was so harmful to +the Austrian export trade that in January 1909 Count Achrenthal had to +indemnify Turkey with the sum of £2,500,000 for his technically stolen +property. Further, the attitude of Russia and Serbia throughout the +whole winter remained so provocative and threatening that, although war +was generally considered improbable, the Austrian army had to be kept +on a war footing, which involved great expense and much popular +discontent. The grave external crisis was only solved at the end of +March 1909; Germany had had to deliver a veiled ultimatum at St. +Petersburg, the result of which was the rescue of Austria-Hungary from +an awkward situation by the much-advertised appearance of its faithful +ally in shining armour. Simultaneously Serbia had to eat humble pie and +declare, with complete absence of truth, that the annexation of Bosnia +and Hercegovina had not affected its interests. + +Meanwhile the internal complications in the southern Slav provinces of +Austria-Hungary were growing formidable. Ever since the summer of 1908 +arrests had been going on among the members of the Croato-Serb +coalition, who were accused of favouring the subversive Pan-Serb +movement. The press of Austria-Hungary magnified the importance of this +agitation in order to justify abroad the pressing need for the formal +annexation of Bosnia and Hercegovina. The fact was that, though +immediate danger to the monarchy as a result of the Pan-Serb agitation +was known not to exist, yet in the interests of Austrian foreign +policy, the Serbs had to be compromised in the eyes of Europe, the +Croato-Serb coalition within the Dual Monarchy had to be destroyed to +gratify Budapest in particular, and the religious and political discord +between Croat and Serb, on which the foundation of the power of +Austria-Hungary, and especially that of Hungary, in the south rested, +and which was in a fair way of being eliminated through the efforts of +the coalition, had to be revived by some means or other. It is not +possible here to go into the details of the notorious Agram high +treason trial, which was the outcome of all this. It suffices to say +that it was a monstrous travesty of justice which lasted from March +till October 1909, and though it resulted in the ostensible destruction +of the coalition and the imprisonment of many of its members, it +defeated its own ends, as it merely fanned the flame of nationalistic +feeling against Vienna and Budapest, and Croatia has ever since had to +be governed virtually by martial law. This was followed in December +1909 by the even more famous Friedjung trial. In March 1909 Count +Achrenthal had begun in Vienna a violent press campaign against Serbia, +accusing the Serbian Government and dynasty of complicity in the +concoction of nefarious designs and conspiracies against the integrity +of Austria-Hungary. This campaign was thought to be the means of +foreshadowing and justifying the immediate military occupation of +Serbia. Unfortunately its instigator had not been sufficiently +particular as to the choice of his tools and his methods of using them. +Among the contributors of the highly tendencious articles was the +well-known historian Dr. Friedjung, who made extensive use of documents +supplied him by the Vienna Foreign Office. His accusations immediately +provoked an action for libel on the part of three leaders of the +Croato-Serb coalition who were implicated, in December 1909. The trial, +which was highly sensational, resulted in the complete vindication and +rehabilitation both of those three Austrian subjects in the eyes of the +whole of Austria-Hungary and of the Belgrade Foreign Office in those of +Europe; the documents on which the charges were based were proven to be +partly forgeries, partly falsified, and partly stolen by various +disreputable secret political agents of the Austrian Foreign Office, +and one of the principal Serbian ‘conspirators’, a professor of +Belgrade University, proved that he was in Berlin at the time when he +had been accused of presiding over a revolutionary meeting at Belgrade. +But it also resulted in the latter discrediting of Count Achrenthal as +a diplomat and of the methods by which he conducted the business of the +Austrian Foreign Office, and involved his country in the expenditure of +countless millions which it could ill afford. + +There never was any doubt that a subversive agitation had been going +on, and that it emanated in part from Serbia, but the Serbian Foreign +Office, under the able management of Dr. Milovanović and Dr. +Spalajković (one of the principal witnesses at the Friedjung trial), +was far too clever to allow any of its members, or indeed any +responsible person in Serbia, to be concerned in it, and the brilliant +way in which the clumsy and foolish charges were refuted redounded +greatly to the credit of the Serbian Government. Count Achrenthal had +overreached himself, and moreover the wind had already been taken out +of his sails by the public recantation on Serbia’s part of its +pretensions to Bosnia, which, as already mentioned, took place at the +end of March 1909, and by the simultaneous termination of the +international crisis marked by Russia’s acquiescence in the _fait +accompli_ of the annexation. At the same time the Serbian Crown Prince +George, King Peter’s elder son, who had been the leader of the +chauvinist war-party in Serbia, and was somewhat theatrical in +demeanour and irresponsible in character, renounced his rights of +succession in favour of his younger brother Prince Alexander, a much +steadier and more talented young man. It is certain that when he +realized how things were going to develop Count Achrenthal tried to +hush up the whole incident, but it was too late, and Dr. Friedjung +insisted on doing what he could to save his reputation as a historian. +In the end he was made the principal scapegoat, though the press of +Vienna voiced its opinion of the Austrian Foreign Office in no measured +tones, saying, amongst other things, that if the conductors of its +diplomacy must use forgeries, they might at any rate secure good ones. +Eventually a compromise was arranged, after the defendant had clearly +lost his case, owing to pressure being brought to bear from outside, +and the Serbian Government refrained from carrying out its threat of +having the whole question threshed out before the Hague Tribunal. + +The cumulative effect of all these exciting and trying experiences was +the growth of a distinctly more sympathetic feeling towards Serbia in +Europe at large, and especially a rallying of all the elements +throughout the Serb and Croat provinces of Austria-Hungary, except the +extreme clericals of Agram, to the Serbian cause; briefly, the effect +was the exact opposite of that desired by Vienna and Budapest. +Meanwhile events had been happening elsewhere which revived the +drooping interest and flagging hopes of Serbia in the development of +foreign affairs. The attainment of power by the Young Turks and the +introduction of parliamentary government had brought no improvement to +the internal condition of the Ottoman Empire, and the Balkan peoples +made no effort to conceal their satisfaction at the failure of the +revolution to bring about reform by magic. The counter-revolution of +April 1909 and the accession of the Sultan Mohammed V made things no +better. In Macedonia, and especially in Albania, they had been going +from bad to worse. The introduction of universal military service and +obligatory payment of taxes caused a revolution in Albania, where such +innovations were not at all appreciated. From 1909 till 1911 there was +a state of perpetual warfare in Albania, with which the Young Turks, in +spite of cruel reprisals, were unable to cope, until, in the summer of +that year, Austria threatened to intervene unless order were restored; +some sort of settlement was patched up, and an amnesty was granted to +the rebels by the new Sultan. This unfortunate man, after being +rendered almost half-witted by having been for the greater part of his +life kept a prisoner by his brother the tyrant Abdul Hamid, was now the +captive of the Young Turks, and had been compelled by them to make as +triumphal a progress as fears for his personal safety would allow +through the provinces of European Turkey. But it was obvious to Balkan +statesmen that Turkey was only changed in name, and that, if its +threatened regeneration had slightly postponed their plans for its +partition amongst themselves, the ultimate consummation of these plans +must be pursued with, if possible, even greater energy and expedition +than before. It was also seen by the more perspicacious of them that +the methods hitherto adopted must in future be radically altered. A +rejuvenated though unreformed Turkey, bent on self-preservation, could +not be despised, and it was understood that if the revolutionary bands +of the three Christian nations (Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria) were to +continue indefinitely to cut each others’ throats in Macedonia the +tables might conceivably be turned on them. + +From 1909 onwards a series of phenomena occurred in the Balkans which +ought to have given warning to the Turks, whose survival in Europe had +been due solely to the fact that the Balkan States had never been able +to unite. In the autumn of 1909 King Ferdinand of Bulgaria met Crown +Prince Alexander of Serbia and made an expedition in his company to +Mount Kopaonik in Serbia, renowned for the beauty of its flora. This +must have struck those who remembered the bitter feelings which had +existed between the two countries for years and had been intensified by +the events of 1908. Bulgaria had looked on Serbia’s failures with +persistent contempt, while Serbia had watched Bulgaria’s successful +progress with speechless jealousy, and the memory of Slivnitsa was not +yet obliterated. In the summer of 1910 Prince Nicholas of Montenegro +celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his reign and his golden +wedding. The festivities were attended by King Ferdinand of Bulgaria +and the Crown Prince Boris, by the Crown Prince Alexander of Serbia and +his sister, grandchildren of Prince Nicholas, by his two daughters the +Queen of Italy and the Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia, and by their +husbands, King Victor Emmanuel and the Grand Duke Nicholas. The +happiness of the venerable ruler, who was as respected throughout +Europe as he was feared throughout his principality, was at the same +time completed by his recognition as king by all the governments and +sovereigns of the continent. The hopes that he would simultaneously +introduce a more liberal form of government amongst his own people were +unfortunately disappointed. + +The year 1911, it need scarcely be recalled, was extremely fateful for +the whole of Europe. The growing restlessness and irritability +manifested by the German Empire began to make all the other governments +feel exceedingly uneasy. The French expedition to Fez in April was +followed by the Anglo-Franco-German crisis of July; war was avoided, +and France was recognized as virtually master of Morocco, but the +soreness of the diplomatic defeat rendered Germany a still more trying +neighbour than it had been before. The first repercussion was the war +which broke out in September 1911 between Italy and Turkey for the +possession of Tripoli and Cyrenaica, which Italy, with its usual +insight, saw was vital to its position as a Mediterranean power and +therefore determined to acquire before any other power had time or +courage to do so. In the Balkans this was a year of observation and +preparation. Serbia, taught by the bitter lesson of 1908 not to be +caught again unprepared, had spent much money and care on its army +during the last few years and had brought it to a much higher state of +efficiency. In Austria-Hungary careful observers wore aware that +something was afoot and that the gaze of Serbia, which from 1903 till +1908 had been directed westwards to Bosnia and the Adriatic, had since +1908 been fixed on Macedonia and the Aegean. The actual formation of +the Balkan League by King Ferdinand and M. Venezelos may not have been +known, but it was realized that action of some sort on the part of the +Balkan States was imminent, and that something must be done to +forestall it. In February 1912 Count Aehrenthal died, and was succeeded +by Count Berchtold as Austro-Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs. In +August of the same year this minister unexpectedly announced his new +and startling proposals for the introduction of reforms in Macedonia, +which nobody in the Balkans who had any material interest in the fate +of that province genuinely desired at that moment; the motto of the new +scheme was ‘progressive decentralization’, blessed words which soothed +the great powers as much as they alarmed the Balkan Governments. But +already in May 1912 agreements between Bulgaria and Greece and between +Bulgaria and Serbia had been concluded, limiting their respective zones +of influence in the territory which they hoped to conquer. It was, to +any one who has any knowledge of Balkan history, incredible that the +various Governments had been able to come to any agreement at all. That +arrived at by Bulgaria and Serbia divided Macedonia between them in +such a way that Bulgaria should obtain central Macedonia with Monastir +and Okhrida, and Serbia northern Macedonia or Old Serbia; there was an +indeterminate zone between the two spheres, including Skoplje (Üsküb, +in Turkish), the exact division of which it was agreed to leave to +arbitration at a subsequent date. + +The Macedonian theatre of war was by common consent regarded as the +most important, and Bulgaria here promised Serbia the assistance of +100,000 men. The Turks meanwhile were aware that all was not what it +seemed beyond the frontiers, and in August 1912 began collecting troops +in Thrace, ostensibly for manoeuvres. During the month of September the +patience of the four Governments of Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, and +Montenegro, which had for years with the utmost self-control been +passively watching the awful sufferings of their compatriots under +Turkish misrule, gradually became exhausted. On September 28 the four +Balkan Governments informed Russia that the Balkan League was an +accomplished fact, and on the 30th the representatives of all four +signed the alliance, and mobilization was ordered in Greece, Bulgaria, +and Serbia. The population of Montenegro was habitually on a war +footing, and it was left to the mountain kingdom from its +geographically favourable position to open hostilities. On October 8 +Montenegro declared war on Turkey, and after a series of brilliant +successes along the frontier its forces settled down to the wearisome +and arduous siege of Scutari with its impregnable sentinel, Mount +Taraboš, converted into a modern fortress; the unaccustomed nature of +these tasks, to which the Montenegrin troops, used to the adventures of +irregular warfare, were little suited, tried the valour and patience of +the intrepid mountaineers to the utmost. By that time Europe was in a +ferment, and both Russia and Austria, amazed at having the initiative +in the regulation of Balkan affairs wrested from them, showered on the +Balkan capitals threats and protests, which for once in a way were +neglected. + +On October 13 Greece, Bulgaria, and Serbia replied that the offer of +outside assistance and advice had come too late, and that they had +decided themselves to redress the intolerable and secular wrongs of +their long-suffering compatriots in Macedonia by force of arms. To +their dismay a treaty of peace was signed at Lausanne about the same +time between Turkey and Italy, which power, it had been hoped, would +have distracted Turkey’s attention by a continuance of hostilities in +northern Africa, and at any rate immobilized the Turkish fleet. +Encouraged by this success Turkey boldly declared war on Bulgaria and +Serbia on October 17, hoping to frighten Greece and detach it from the +league; but on the 18th the Greek Government replied by declaring war +on Turkey, thus completing the necessary formalities. The Turks were +confident of an early and easy victory, and hoped to reach Sofia, not +from Constantinople and Thrace, but pushing up north-eastwards from +Macedonia. The rapid offensive of the Serbian army, however, took them +by surprise, and they were completely overwhelmed at the battle of +Kumanovo in northern Macedonia on October 23-4, 1912. On the 31st King +Peter made his triumphal entry into Skoplje (ex-Üsküb), the ancient +capital of Serbia under Tsar Stephen Dušan in the fourteenth century. +From there the Serbian army pursued the Turks southward, and at the +battles of Prilep (November 5) and Monastir (November 19), after +encountering the most stubborn opposition, finally put an end to their +resistance in this part of the theatre of war. On November 9 the Greeks +entered Salonika. + +Meanwhile other divisions of the Serbian army had joined hands with the +Montenegrins, and occupied almost without opposition the long-coveted +_sandjak_ of Novi-Pazar (the ancient Serb Raška), to the inexpressible +rage of Austria-Hungary, which had evacuated it in 1908 in favour of +its rightful owner, Turkey. At the same time a Serbian expeditionary +corps marched right through Albania, braving great hardships on the +way, and on November 30 occupied Durazzo, thus securing at last a +foothold on the Adriatic. Besides all this, Serbia, in fulfilment of +its treaty obligations, dispatched 50,000 splendidly equipped men, +together with a quantity of heavy siege artillery, to help the +Bulgarians at the siege of Adrianople. On December 3 an armistice was +signed between the belligerents, with the condition that the three +besieged Turkish fortresses of Adrianople, Scutari, and Yanina must not +be re-victualled, and on December 16, 1912, peace negotiations were +opened between representatives of the belligerent countries in London. +Meanwhile the Germanic powers, dismayed by the unexpected victories of +the Balkan armies and humiliated by the crushing defeats in the field +of the German-trained Turkish army, had since the beginning of November +been doing everything in their power to support their client Turkey and +prevent its final extinction and at the same time the blighting of +their ambitions eventually to acquire the Empire of the Near East. +During the conference in London between the plenipotentiaries of the +belligerents, parallel meetings took place between the representatives +of the great powers, whose relations with each other were strained and +difficult in the extreme. The Turkish envoys prolonged the +negotiations, as was their custom; they naturally were unwilling to +concede their European provinces to the despised and hated Greek and +Slavonic conquerors, but the delays implied growing hardships for their +besieged and starving garrisons in Thrace, Epirus, and Albania. On +January 23, 1913, a quasi-revolution occurred in the Turkish army, +headed by Enver Bey and other Young Turk partisans, and approved by the +Austrian and German embassies, with the object of interrupting the +negotiations and staking all on the result of a final battle. As a +result of these events, and of the palpable disingenuousness of the +Turks in continuing the negotiations in London, the Balkan delegates on +January 29 broke them off, and on February 3, 1913, hostilities were +resumed. At length, after a siege of nearly five months, Adrianople, +supplied with infinitely better artillery than the allies possessed, +was taken by the combined Serbian and Bulgarian forces on March 26, +1913. The Serbian troops at Adrianople captured 17,010 Turkish +prisoners, 190 guns, and the Turkish commander himself, Shukri Pasha. + +At the outbreak of the war in the autumn of 1912 the Balkan States had +observed all the conventions, disavowing designs of territorial +aggrandizement and proclaiming their resolve merely to obtain +guarantees for the better treatment of the Christian inhabitants of +Macedonia; the powers, for their part, duly admonished the naughty +children of south-eastern Europe to the effect that no alteration of +the territorial _status quo ante_ would under any circumstances be +tolerated. During the negotiations in London, interrupted in January, +and resumed in the spring of 1913 after the fall of Adrianople, it was +soon made clear that in spite of all these magniloquent declarations +nothing would be as it had been before. Throughout the winter +Austria-Hungary had been mobilizing troops and massing them along the +frontiers of Serbia and Montenegro, any increase in the size of which +countries meant a crushing blow to the designs of the Germanic powers +and the end to all the dreams embodied in the phrase ‘Drang nach Osten’ +(‘pushing eastwards’). + +In the spring of 1913 Serbia and Montenegro, instead of being defeated +by the brave Turks, as had been confidently predicted in Vienna and +Berlin would be the case, found themselves in possession of the +_sandjak_ of Novi-Pazar, of northern and central Macedonia (including +Old Serbia), and of the northern half of Albania. The presence of +Serbian troops on the shore of the Adriatic was more than Austria could +stand, and at the renewed conference of London it was decided that they +must retire. In the interests of nationality, in which the Balkan +States themselves undertook the war, it was desirable that at any rate +an attempt should be made to create an independent state of Albania, +though no one who knew the local conditions felt confident as to its +ultimate career. Its creation assuaged the consciences of the Liberal +Government in Great Britain and at the same time admirably suited the +strategic plans of Austria-Hungary. It left that country a loophole for +future diplomatic efforts to disturb the peace of south-eastern Europe, +and, with its own army in Bosnia and its political agents and irregular +troops in Albania, Serbia and Montenegro, even though enlarged as it +was generally recognized they must be, would be held in a vice and +could be threatened and bullied from the south now as well as from the +north whenever it was in the interests of Vienna and Budapest to apply +the screw. The independence of Albania was declared at the conference +of London on May 30, 1913. Scutari was included in it as being a purely +Albanian town, and King Nicholas and his army, after enjoying its +coveted flesh-pots for a few halcyon weeks, had, to their +mortification, to retire to the barren fastnesses of the Black +Mountain. Serbia, frustrated by Austria in its attempts, generally +recognized as legitimate, to obtain even a commercial outlet on the +Adriatic, naturally again diverted its aims southwards to Salonika. The +Greeks were already in possession of this important city and seaport, +as well as of the whole of southern Macedonia. The Serbs were in +possession of central and northern Macedonia, including Monastir and +Okhrida, which they had at great sacrifices conquered from the Turks. +It had been agreed that Bulgaria, as its share of the spoils, should +have all central Macedonia, with Monastir and Okhrida, although on +ethnical grounds the Bulgarians have only very slightly better claim to +the country and towns west of the Vardar than any of the other Balkan +nationalities. But at the time that the agreement had been concluded it +had been calculated in Greece and Serbia that Albania, far from being +made independent, would be divided between them, and that Serbia, +assured of a strip of coast on the Adriatic, would have no interest in +the control of the river Vardar and of the railway which follows its +course connecting the interior of Serbia with the port of Salonika. +Greece and Serbia had no ground whatever for quarrel and no cause for +mutual distrust, and they were determined, for political and commercial +reasons, to have a considerable extent of frontier from west to east in +common. The creation of an independent Albania completely altered the +situation. If Bulgaria should obtain central Macedonia and thus secure +a frontier from north to south in common with the newly-formed state of +Albania, then Greece would be at the mercy of its hereditary enemies +the Bulgars and Arnauts (Albanians) as it had previously been at the +mercy of the Turks, while Serbia would have two frontiers between +itself and the sea instead of one, as before, and its complete economic +strangulation would be rendered inevitable and rapid. Bulgaria for its +own part naturally refused to waive its claim to central Macedonia, +well knowing that the master of the Vardar valley is master of the +Balkan peninsula. The first repercussion of the ephemeral treaty of +London of May 30, 1913, which created Albania and shut out Serbia from +the Adriatic, was, therefore, as the diplomacy of the Germanic powers +had all along intended it should be, the beginning of a feud between +Greece and Serbia on the one hand, and Bulgaria on the other, the +disruption of the Balkan League and the salvation, for the ultimate +benefit of Germany, of what was left of Turkey in Europe. + +The dispute as to the exact division of the conquered territory in +Macedonia between Serbia and Bulgaria had, as arranged, been referred +to arbitration, and, the Tsar of Russia having been chosen as judge, +the matter was being threshed out in St. Petersburg during June 1913. +Meanwhile Bulgaria, determined to make good its claim to the chestnuts +which Greece and Serbia had pulled out of the Turkish fire, was +secretly collecting troops along its temporary south-western +frontier[1] with the object, in approved Germanic fashion, of suddenly +invading and occupying all Macedonia, and, by the presentation of an +irrevocable _fait accompli_, of relieving the arbitrator of his +invidious duties or at any rate assisting him in the task. + +[Footnote 1: This was formed by the stream Zletovska, a tributary of +the river Bregalnica, which in its turn falls into the Vardar on its +left or eastern bank about 40 miles south of Skoplje (Üsküb).] + +On the other hand, the relations between Bulgaria and its two allies +had been noticeably growing worse ever since January 1913; Bulgaria +felt aggrieved that, in spite of its great sacrifices, it had not been +able to occupy so much territory as Greece and Serbia, and the fact +that Adrianople was taken with Serbian help did not improve the feeling +between the two Slav nations. The growth of Bulgarian animosity put +Greece and Serbia on their guard, and, well knowing the direction which +an eventual attack would take, these two countries on June 2, 1913, +signed a military convention and made all the necessary dispositions +for resisting any aggression on Bulgaria’s part. At one o’clock in the +morning of June 30 the Bulgarians, without provocation, without +declaration of war, and without warning, crossed the Bregalnica (a +tributary of the Vardar) and attacked the Serbs. A most violent battle +ensued which lasted for several days; at some points the Bulgarians, +thanks to the suddenness of their offensive, were temporarily +successful, but gradually the Serbs regained the upper hand and by July +1 the Bulgarians were beaten. The losses were very heavy on both sides, +but the final issue was a complete triumph for the Serbian army. +Slivnitsa was avenged by the battle of the Bregalnica, just as Kosovo +was by that of Kumanovo. After a triumphant campaign of one month, in +which the Serbs were joined by the Greeks, Bulgaria had to bow to the +inevitable. The Rumanian army had invaded northern Bulgaria, bent on +maintaining the Balkan equilibrium and on securing compensation for +having observed neutrality during the war of 1912-13, and famine +reigned at Sofia. A conference was arranged at Bucarest, and the treaty +of that name was signed there on August 10, 1913. By the terms of this +treaty Serbia retained the whole of northern and central Macedonia, +including Monastir and Okhrida, and the famous _sandjak_ of Novi-Pazar +was divided between Serbia and Montenegro. Some districts of +east-central Macedonia, which were genuinely Bulgarian, were included +in Serbian territory, as Serbia naturally did not wish, after the +disquieting and costly experience of June and July 1913, to give the +Bulgarians another chance of separating Greek from Serbian territory by +a fresh surprise attack, and the further the Bulgarians could be kept +from the Vardar river and railway the less likelihood there was of +this. The state of feeling in the Germanic capitals and in Budapest +after this ignominious defeat of their protégé Bulgaria and after this +fresh triumph of the despised and hated Serbians can be imagined. +Bitterly disappointed first at seeing the Turks vanquished by the +Balkan League—their greatest admirers could not even claim that the +Turks had had any ‘moral’ victories—their chagrin, when they saw the +Bulgarians trounced by the Serbians, knew no bounds. That the secretly +prepared attack on Serbia by Bulgaria was planned in Vienna and +Budapest there is no doubt. That Bulgaria was justified in feeling +disappointment and resentment at the result of the first Balkan War no +one denies, but the method chosen to redress its wrongs could only have +been suggested by the Germanic school of diplomacy. + +In Serbia and Montenegro the result of the two successive Balkan Wars, +though these had exhausted the material resources of the two countries, +was a justifiable return of national self-confidence and rejoicing such +as the people, humiliated and impoverished as it had habitually been by +its internal and external troubles, had not known for very many years. +At last Serbia and Montenegro had joined hands. At last Old Serbia was +restored to the free kingdom. At last Skoplje, the mediaeval capital of +Tsar Stephen Dušan, was again in Serbian territory. At last one of the +most important portions of unredeemed Serbia had been reclaimed. +Amongst the Serbs and Croats of Bosnia, Hercegovina, Dalmatia, Croatia, +Slavonia, and southern Hungary the effect of the Serbian victories was +electrifying. Military prowess had been the one quality with which +they, and indeed everybody else, had refused to credit the Serbians of +the kingdom, and the triumphs of the valiant Serbian peasant soldiers +immediately imparted a heroic glow to the country whose very name, at +any rate in central Europe, had become a byword, and a synonym for +failure; Belgrade became the cynosure and the rallying-centre of the +whole Serbo-Croatian race. But Vienna and Budapest could only lose +courage and presence of mind for the moment, and the undeniable success +of the Serbian arms merely sharpened their appetite for revenge. In +August 1913 Austria-Hungary, as is now known, secretly prepared an +aggression on Serbia, but was restrained, partly by the refusal of +Italy to grant its approval of such action, partly because the +preparations of Germany at that time were not complete. The fortunate +Albanian question provided, for the time being, a more convenient rod +with which to beat Serbia. Some Serbian troops had remained in +possession of certain frontier towns and districts which were included +in the territory of the infant state of Albania pending the final +settlement of the frontiers by a commission. On October 18, 1913, +Austria addressed an ultimatum to Serbia to evacuate these, as its +continued occupation of them caused offence and disquiet to the Dual +Monarchy. Serbia meekly obeyed. Thus passed away the last rumble of the +storms which had filled the years 1912-13 in south-eastern Europe. + +The credulous believed that the Treaty of Bucarest had at last brought +peace to that distracted part of the world. Those who knew their +central Europe realized that Berlin had only forced Vienna to acquiesce +in the Treaty of Bucarest because the time had not yet come. But come +what might, Serbia and Montenegro, by having linked up their territory +and by forming a mountain barrier from the Danube to the Adriatic, made +it far more difficult for the invader to push his way through to the +East than it would have been before the battles of Kumanovo and +Bregalnica. + + + + +GREECE + + + + +1 +_From Ancient to Modern Greece_ + + +The name of Greece has two entirely different associations in our +minds. Sometimes it calls up a wonderful literature enshrined in a +‘dead language’, and exquisite works of a vanished art recovered by the +spade; at other times it is connected with the currant-trade returns +quoted on the financial page of our newspapers or with the ‘Balance of +Power’ discussed in their leading articles. Ancient and Modern Greece +both mean much to us, but usually we are content to accept them as +independent phenomena, and we seldom pause to wonder whether there is +any deeper connexion between them than their name. It is the purpose of +these pages to ask and give some answer to this question. + +The thought that his own Greece might perish, to be succeeded by +another Greece after the lapse of more than two thousand years, would +have caused an Ancient Greek surprise. In the middle of the fifth +century B.C., Ancient Greek civilization seemed triumphantly vigorous +and secure. A generation before, it had flung back the onset of a +political power which combined all the momentum of all the other +contemporary civilizations in the world; and the victory had proved not +merely the superiority of Greek arms—the Spartan spearman and the +Athenian galley—but the superior vitality of Greek politics—the +self-governing, self-sufficing city-state. In these cities a wonderful +culture had burst into flower—an art expressing itself with equal +mastery in architecture, sculpture, and drama, a science which ranged +from the most practical medicine to the most abstract mathematics, and +a philosophy which blended art, science, and religion into an +ever-developing and ever more harmonious view of the universe. A +civilization so brilliant and so versatile as this seemed to have an +infinite future before it, yet even here death lurked in ambush. + +When the cities ranged themselves in rival camps, and squandered their +strength on the struggle for predominance, the historian of the +Peloponnesian war could already picture Athens and Sparta in ruins,[1] +and the catastrophe began to warp the soul of Plato before he had +carried Greek philosophy to its zenith. This internecine strife of free +communities was checked within a century by the imposition of a single +military autocracy over them all, and Alexander the Great crowned his +father Philip’s work by winning new worlds for Hellenism from the +Danube to the Ganges and from the Oxus to the Nile. The city-state and +its culture were to be propagated under his aegis, but this vision +vanished with Alexander’s death, and Macedonian militarism proved a +disappointment. The feuds of these crowned condottieri harassed the +cities more sorely than their own quarrels, and their arms could not +even preserve the Hellenic heritage against external foes. The Oriental +rallied and expelled Hellenism again from the Asiatic hinterland, while +the new cloud of Rome was gathering in the west. In four generations[2] +of the most devastating warfare the world had seen, Rome conquered all +the coasts of the Mediterranean. Greek city and Greek dynast went down +before her, and the political sceptre passed irrevocably from the +Hellenic nation. + +[Footnote 1: Thucydides, Book I, chap. 10.] + +[Footnote 2: 264-146 B.C.] + +Yet this political abdication seemed to open for Hellenic culture a +future more brilliant and assured than ever. Rome could organize as +well as conquer. She accepted the city-state as the municipal unit of +the Roman Empire, thrust back the Oriental behind the Euphrates, and +promoted the Hellenization of all the lands between this river-frontier +and the Balkans with much greater intensity than the Macedonian +imperialists. Her political conquests were still further +counterbalanced by her spiritual surrender, and Hellenism was the soul +of the new Latin culture which Rome created, and which advanced with +Roman government over the vast untutored provinces of the west and +north, bringing them, too, within the orbit of Hellenic civilization. +Under the shadow of the Roman Empire, Plutarch, the mirror of +Hellenism, could dwell in peace in his little city-state of Chaeronea, +and reflect in his writings all the achievements of the Hellenic spirit +as an ensample to an apparently endless posterity. + +Yet the days of Hellenic culture were also numbered. Even Plutarch +lived[1] to look down from the rocky citadel of Chaeronea upon Teutonic +raiders wasting the Kephisos vale, and for more than three centuries +successive hordes of Goths searched out and ravaged the furthest +corners of European Greece. Then the current set westward to sweep +away[2] the Roman administration in the Latin provinces, and Hellenism +seemed to have been granted a reprieve. The Greek city-state of +Byzantium on the Black Sea Straits had been transformed into the Roman +administrative centre of Constantinople, and from this capital the +Emperor Justinian in the sixth century A.D. still governed and defended +the whole Greek-speaking world. But this political glamour only threw +the symptoms of inward dissolution into sharper relief. Within the +framework of the Empire the municipal liberty of the city-state had +been stifled and extinguished by the waxing jungle of bureaucracy, and +the spiritual culture which the city-state fostered, and which was more +essential to Hellenism than any political institutions, had been part +ejected, part exploited, and wholly compromised by a new gospel from +the east. + +[Footnote 1: About A.D. 100] + +[Footnote 2: A.D. 404-476] + +While the Oriental had been compelled by Rome to draw his political +frontier at the Euphrates, and had failed so far to cross the +river-line, he had maintained his cultural independence within sight of +the Mediterranean. In the hill country of Judah, overlooking the high +road between Antioch and Alexandria, the two chief foci of Hellenism in +the east which the Macedonians had founded, and which had grown to +maturity under the aegis of Rome, there dwelt a little Semitic +community which had defied all efforts of Greek or Roman to assimilate +it, and had finally given birth to a world religion about the time that +a Roman punitive expedition razed its holy city of Jerusalem to the +ground.[1] Christianity was charged with an incalculable force, which +shot like an electric current from one end of the Roman Empire to the +other. The highly-organized society of its adherents measured its +strength in several sharp conflicts with the Imperial administration, +from which it emerged victorious, and it was proclaimed the official +religious organization of the Empire by the very emperor that founded +Constantinople.[2] + +[Footnote 1: A.D. 70.] + +[Footnote 2: Constantine the Great recognized Christianity in A.D. 313 +and founded Constantinople in A.D. 328.] + +The established Christian Church took the best energies of Hellenism +into its service. The Greek intellectuals ceased to become lecturers +and professors, to find a more human and practical career in the +bishop’s office. The Nicene Creed, drafted by an ‘oecumenical’ +conference of bishops under the auspices of Constantine himself,[1] was +the last notable formulation of Ancient Greek philosophy. The cathedral +of Aya Sophia, with which Justinian adorned Constantinople, was the +last original creation of Ancient Greek art.[2] The same Justinian +closed the University of Athens, which had educated the world for nine +hundred years and more, since Plato founded his college in the Academy. +Six recalcitrant professors went into exile for their spiritual +freedom, but they found the devout Zoroastrianism of the Persian court +as unsympathetic as the devout Christianity of the Roman. Their +humiliating return and recantation broke the ‘Golden Chain’ of Hellenic +thought for ever. + +Hellenism was thus expiring from its own inanition, when the inevitable +avalanche overwhelmed it from without. In the seventh century A.D. +there was another religious eruption in the Semitic world, this time in +the heart of Arabia, where Hellenism had hardly penetrated, and under +the impetus of Islam the Oriental burst his bounds again after a +thousand years. Syria was reft away from the Empire, and Egypt, and +North Africa as far as the Atlantic, and their political severance +meant their cultural loss to Greek civilization. Between the Koran and +Hellenism no fusion was possible. Christianity had taken Hellenism +captive, but Islam gave it no quarter, and the priceless library of +Alexandria is said to have been condemned by the caliph’s order to feed +the furnaces of the public baths. + +[Footnote 1: A.D. 325.] + +[Footnote 2: Completed A.D. 538.] + +While Hellenism was thus cut short in the east, a mortal blow was +struck at its heart from the north. The Teuton had raided and passed +on, but the lands he had depopulated were now invaded by immigrants who +had come to stay. As soon as the last Goth and Lombard had gone west of +the Isonzo, the Slavs poured in from the north-eastern plains of Europe +through the Moravian gap, crossed the Danube somewhere near the site of +Vienna, and drifted down along the eastern face of the Alps upon the +Adriatic littoral. Rebuffed by the sea-board, the Slavonic migration +was next deflected east, and filtered through the Bosnian mountains, +scattering the Latin-speaking provincials before it to left and right, +until it debouched upon the broad basin of the river Morava. In this +concentration-area it gathered momentum during the earlier part of the +seventh century A.D., and then burst out with irresistible force in all +directions, eastward across the Maritsa basin till it reached the Black +Sea, and southward down the Vardar to the shores of the Aegean. + +Beneath this Slavonic flood the Greek race in Europe was engulfed. A +few fortified cities held out, Adrianople on the Maritsa continued to +cover Constantinople; Salonika at the mouth of the Vardar survived a +two hundred years siege; while further south Athens, Korinth, and +Patras escaped extinction. But the tide of invasion surged around their +walls. The Slavs mastered all the open country, and, pressing across +the Korinthian Gulf, established themselves in special force throughout +the Peloponnesos. The thoroughness of their penetration is witnessed to +this day by the Slavonic names which still cling to at least a third of +the villages, rivers, and mountains in European Greece, and are found +in the most remote as well as in the most accessible quarters of the +land.[1] + +[Footnote 1: For example: Tsimova and Panitsa in the Tainaron peninsula +(Maina); Tsoupana and Khrysapha in Lakonia; Dhimitzana, Karytena, and +Andhritsena in the centre of Peloponnesos, and Vostitsa on its north +coast; Dobrena and Kaprena in Boiotia; Vonitza on the Gulf of Arta; +Kardhitsa in the Thessalian plain.] + +With the coming of the Slavs darkness descends like a curtain upon +Greek history. We catch glimpses of Arab hosts ranging across Anatolia +at will and gazing at Slavonic hordes across the narrow Bosphorus. But +always the Imperial fleet patrols the waters between, and always the +triple defences of Constantinople defy the assailant. Then after about +two centuries the floods subside, the gloom disperses, and the Greek +world emerges into view once more. But the spectacle before us is +unfamiliar, and most of the old landmarks have been swept away. + +By the middle of the ninth century A.D., the Imperial Government had +reduced the Peloponnesos to order again, and found itself in the +presence of three peoples. The greater part of the land was occupied by +‘Romaioi’—normal, loyal, Christian subjects of the empire—but in the +hilly country between Eurotas, Taygetos, and the sea, two Slavonic +tribes still maintained themselves in defiant savagery and worshipped +their Slavonic gods, while beyond them the peninsula of Tainaron, now +known as Maina, sheltered communities which still clung to the pagan +name of Hellene and knew no other gods but Zeus, Athena, and Apollo. +Hellene and Slav need not concern us. They were a vanishing minority, +and the Imperial Government was more successful in obliterating their +individuality than in making them contribute to its exchequer. The +future lay with the Romaioi. + +The speech of these Romaioi was not the speech of Rome. ‘Romaikà,’ as +it is still called popularly in the country-side, is a development of +the ‘koinè’ or ‘current’ dialect of Ancient Greek, in which the +Septuagint and the New Testament are written. The vogue of these books +after the triumph of Christianity and the oncoming of the Dark Age, +when they were the sole intellectual sustenance of the people, gave the +idiom in which they were composed an exclusive prevalence. Except in +Tzakonia—the iron-bound coast between Cape Malea and Nauplia Bay—all +other dialects of Ancient Greek became extinct, and the varieties of +the modern language are all differentiations of the ‘koinè’, along +geographical lines which in no way correspond with those which divided +Doric from Ionian. Yet though Romaic is descended from the ‘koinè’, it +is almost as far removed from it as modern Italian is from the language +of St. Augustine or Cicero. Ancient Greek possessed a pitch-accent +only, which allowed the quantitative values of syllables to be measured +against one another, and even to form the basis of a metrical system. +In Romaic the pitch-accent has transformed itself into a stress-accent +almost as violent as the English, which has destroyed all quantitative +relation between accented and unaccented syllables, often wearing away +the latter altogether at the termination of words, and always +impoverishing their vowel sounds. In the ninth century A.D. this new +enunciation was giving rise to a new poetical technique founded upon +accent and rhyme, which first essayed itself in folk-songs and +ballads,[1] and has since experimented in the same variety of forms as +English poetry. + +[Footnote 1: The earliest products of the modern technique were called +‘city’ verses, because they originated in Constantinople, which has +remained ‘the city’ _par excellence_ for the Romaic Greek ever since +the Dark Age made it the asylum of his civilization.] + +These humble beginnings of a new literature were supplemented by the +rudiments of a new art. Any visitor at Athens who looks at the three +tiny churches [1] built in this period of first revival, and compares +them with the rare pre-Norman churches of England, will find the same +promise of vitality in the Greek architecture as in his own. The +material—worked blocks of marble pillaged from ancient monuments, +alternating with courses of contemporary brick—produces a completely +new aesthetic effect upon the eye; and the structure—a grouping of +lesser cupolas round a central dome— is the very antithesis of the +‘upright-and-horizontal’ style which confronts him in ruins upon the +Akropolis. + +[Footnote 1: The Old Metropolitan, the Kapnikaria, and St. Theodore.] + +These first achievements of Romaic architecture speak by implication of +the characteristic difference between the Romaios and the Hellene. The +linguistic and the aesthetic change were as nothing compared to the +change in religion, for while the Hellene had been a pagan, the Romaios +was essentially a member of the Christian Church. Yet this new and +determining characteristic was already fortified by tradition. The +Church triumphant had swiftly perfected its organisation on the model +of the Imperial bureaucracy. Every Romaios owed ecclesiastical +allegiance, through a hierarchy of bishops and metropolitans, to a +supreme patriarch at Constantinople, and in the ninth century this +administrative segregation of the imperial from the west-European +Church had borne its inevitable fruit in a dogmatic divergence, and +ripened into a schism between the Orthodox Christianity of the east on +the one hand and the Catholicism of the Latin world on the other. + +The Orthodox Church exercised an important cultural influence over its +Romaic adherents. The official language of its scriptures, creeds, and +ritual had never ceased to be the Ancient Greek ‘koinè’ and by keeping +the Romaios familiar with this otherwise obsolete tongue it kept him in +touch with the unsurpassable literature of his Ancient Greek +predecessors. The vast body of Hellenic literature had perished during +the Dark Age, when all the energies of the race were absorbed by the +momentary struggle for survival; but about a third of the greatest +authors’ greatest works had been preserved, and now that the stress was +relieved, the wreckage of the remainder was sedulously garnered in +anthologies, abridgements, and encyclopaedias. The rising monasteries +offered a safe harbourage both for these compilations and for such +originals as survived unimpaired, and in their libraries they were +henceforth studied, cherished, and above all recopied with more or less +systematic care. + +The Orthodox Church was thus a potent link between past and present, +but the most direct link of all was the political survival of the +Empire. Here, too, many landmarks had been swept away. The marvellous +system of Roman Law had proved too subtle and complex for a world in +the throes of dissolution. Within a century of its final codification +by Justinian’s commissioners) it had begun to fall into disuse, and was +now replaced by more summary legislation, which was as deeply imbued +with Mosaic principles as the literary language with the Hebraisms of +the New Testament, and bristled with barbarous applications of the _Lex +Talionis_. The administrative organization instituted by Augustus and +elaborated by Diocletian had likewise disappeared, and the army-corps +districts were the only territorial units that outlasted the Dark Age. +Yet the tradition of order lived on. The army itself preserved Roman +discipline and technique to a remarkable degree, and the military +districts were already becoming the basis for a reconstituted civil +government. The wealth of Latin technicalities incorporated in the +Greek style of ninth-century officialdom witnesses to this continuity +with the past and to the consequent political superiority of the Romaic +Empire over contemporary western Europe. + +Within the Imperial frontiers the Romaic race was offered an apparently +secure field for its future development. In the Balkan peninsula the +Slav had been expelled or assimilated to the south of a line stretching +from Avlona to Salonika. East of Salonika the empire still controlled +little more in Europe than the ports of the littoral, and a military +highway linking them with each other and with Constantinople. But +beyond the Bosphorus the frontier included the whole body of Anatolia +as far as Taurus and Euphrates, and here was the centre of gravity both +of the Romaic state and of the Romaic nation. + +A new Greek nation had in fact come into being, and it found itself in +touch with new neighbours, whom the Ancient Greek had never known. +Eastward lay the Armenians, reviving, like the Greeks, after the ebb of +the Arab flood, and the Arabs themselves, quiescent within their +natural bounds and transfusing the wisdom of Aristotle and Hippokrates +into their native culture. Both these peoples were sundered from the +Orthodox Greek by religion[1] as well as by language, but a number of +nationalities established on his opposite flank had been evangelized +from Constantinople and followed the Orthodox patriarch in his schism +with Rome. The most important neighbour of the Empire in this quarter +was the Bulgarian kingdom, which covered all the Balkan hinterland from +the Danube and the Black Sea to the barrier-fortresses of Adrianople +and Salonika. It had been founded by a conquering caste of non-Slavonic +nomads from the trans-Danubian steppes, but these were completely +absorbed in the Slavonic population which they had endowed with their +name and had preserved by political consolidation from the fate of +their brethren further south. This Bulgarian state included a large +‘Vlach’ element descended from those Latin-speaking provincials whom +the Slavs had pushed before them in their original migration; while the +main body of the ‘Rumans’, whom the same thrust of invasion had driven +leftwards across the Danube, had established itself in the mountains of +Transylvania, and was just beginning to push down into the Wallachian +and Moldavian plains. Like the Bulgars, this Romance population had +chosen the Orthodox creed, and so had the purely Slavonic Serbs, who +had replaced the Rumans in the basin of the Morava and the Bosnian +hills, as far westward as the Adriatic coast. Beyond, the heathen +Magyars had pressed into the Danubian plains like a wedge, and cut off +the Orthodox world from the Latin-Teutonic Christendom of the west; but +it looked as though the two divisions of Europe were embarked upon the +same course of development. Both were evolving a system of +strongly-knit nationalities, neither wholly interdependent nor wholly +self-sufficient, but linked together in their individual growth by the +ties of common culture and religion. In both the darkness was passing. +The future of civilization seemed once more assured, and in the +Orthodox world the new Greek nation seemed destined to play the leading +part. + +[Footnote 1: The Armenians split off from the Catholic Church four +centuries before the schism between the Roman and Orthodox sections of +the latter.] + +His cultural and political heritage from his ancient predecessors gave +the Romaic Greek in this period of revival an inestimable advantage +over his cruder neighbours, and his superiority declared itself in an +expansion of the Romaic Empire. In the latter half of the tenth century +A.D. the nest of Arab pirates from Spain, which had established itself +in Krete and terrorized the Aegean, was exterminated by the Emperor +Nikiphóros Phokas, and on the eastern marches Antioch was gathered +within the frontier at the Arabs’ expense, and advanced posts pushed +across Euphrates. In the first half of the eleventh century Basil, +‘Slayer of the Bulgars’, destroyed the Balkan kingdom after a +generation of bitter warfare, and brought the whole interior of the +peninsula under the sway of Constantinople. His successors turned their +attention to the cast again, and attracted one Armenian principality +after another within the Imperial protectorate. Nor was the revival +confined to politics. The conversion of the Russians about A.D. 1000 +opened a boundless hinterland to the Orthodox Church, and any one who +glances at a series of Greek ivory carvings or studies Greek history +from the original sources, will here encounter a literary and artistic +renaissance remarkable enough to explain the fascination which the +barbarous Russian and the outlandish Armenian found in Constantinople. +Yet this renaissance had hardly set in before it was paralysed by an +unexpected blow, which arrested the development of Modern Greece for +seven centuries. + +Modern, like Ancient, Greece was assailed in her infancy by a conqueror +from the east, and, unlike Ancient Greece, she succumbed. Turkish +nomads from the central Asiatic steppes had been drifting into the +Moslem world as the vigour of the Arabs waned. First they came as +slaves, then as mercenaries, until at last, in the eleventh century, +the clan of Seljuk grasped with a strong hand the political dominion of +Islam. As champions of the caliph the Turkish sultans disputed the +infidels encroachment on the Moslem border. They challenged the Romaic +Empire’s progress in Armenia, and in A.D. 1071—five years after the +Norman founded at Hastings the strong government which has been the +making of England—the Seljuk Turk shattered at the battle of Melasgerd +that heritage of strong government which had promised so much to +Greece. + +Melasgerd opened the way to Anatolia. The Arab could make no lodgement +there, but in the central steppe of the temperate plateau the Turk +found a miniature reproduction of his original environment. Tribe after +tribe crossed the Oxus, to make the long pilgrimage to these new +marches which their race had won for Islam on the west, and the +civilization developed in the country by fifteen centuries of intensive +and undisturbed Hellenization was completely blotted out. The cities +wore isolated from one another till their commerce fell into decay. The +elaborately cultivated lands around them were left fallow till they +were good for nothing but the pasturage which was all that the nomad +required. The only monuments of architecture that have survived in +Anatolia above ground are the imposing khans or fortified rest-houses +built by the Seljuk sultans themselves after the consolidation of their +rule, and they are the best witnesses of the vigorous barbarism by +which Romaic culture was effaced. The vitality of the Turk was indeed +unquestionable. He imposed his language and religion upon the native +Anatolian peasantry, as the Greek had imposed his before him, and in +time adopted their sedentary life, though too late to repair the +mischief his own nomadism had wrought. Turk and Anatolian coalesced +into one people; every mountain, river, lake, bridge, and village in +the country took on a Turkish name, and a new nation was established +for ever in the heart of the Romaic world, which nourished itself on +the life-blood of the Empire and was to prove the supreme enemy, of the +race. + +This sequel to Melasgerd sealed the Empire’s doom. Robbed of its +Anatolian governing class and its Anatolian territorial army, it ceased +to be self-sufficient, and the defenders it attracted from the west +were at least as destructive as its eastern foes. The brutal régime of +the Turks in the pilgrimage places of Syria had roused a storm of +indignation in Latin Europe, and a cloud gathered in the west once +more. It was heralded by adventurers from Normandy, who had first +served the Romaic Government as mercenaries in southern Italy and then +expelled their employers, about the time of Melasgerd, from their last +foothold in the peninsula. Raids across the straits of Otranto carried +the Normans up to the walls of Salonika, their fleets equipped in +Sicily scoured the Aegean, and, before the eleventh century was out, +they had followed up these reconnoitring expeditions by conducting +Latin Christendom on its first crusade. The crusaders assembled at +Constantinople, and the Imperial Government was relieved when the flood +rolled on and spent itself further east. But one wave was followed by +another, and the Empire itself succumbed to the fourth. In A.D. 1204, +Constantinople was stormed by a Venetian flotilla and the crusading +host it conveyed on board, and more treasures of Ancient Hellenism were +destroyed in the sack of its hitherto inviolate citadel than had ever +perished by the hand of Arab or Slav. + +With the fall of the capital the Empire dissolved in chaos, Venice and +Genoa, the Italian trading cities whose fortune had been made by the +crusades, now usurped the naval control of the Mediterranean which the +Empire had exercised since Nikiphóros pacified Krete. They seized all +strategical points of vantage on the Aegean coasts, and founded an +‘extra-territorial’ community at Pera across the Golden Horn, to +monopolize the trade of Constantinople with the Black Sea. The Latins +failed to retain their hold on Constantinople itself, for the puppet +emperors of their own race whom they enthroned there were evicted +within a century by Romaic dynasts, who clung to such fragments of +Anatolia as had escaped the Turk. But the Latin dominion was less +ephemeral in the southernmost Romaic provinces of Europe. The Latins’ +castles, more conspicuous than the relics of Hellas, still crown many +high hills in Greece, and their French tongue has added another strain, +to the varied nomenclature of the country.[1] Yet there also +pandemonium prevailed. Burgundian barons, Catalan condottieri, and +Florentine bankers snatched the Duchy of Athens from one another in +bewildering succession, while the French princes of Achaia were at feud +with their kindred vassals in the west of the Peloponnesos whenever +they were not resisting the encroachments of Romaic despots in the +south and east. To complete the anarchy, the non-Romaic peoples in the +interior of the Balkan peninsula had taken the fall of Constantinople +as a signal to throw off the Imperial yoke. In the hinterland of the +capital the Bulgars had reconstituted their kingdom. The +Romance-speaking Vlachs of Pindus moved down into the Thessalian +plains. The aboriginal Albanians, who with their back to the Adriatic +had kept the Slavs at bay, asserted their vitality and sent out +migratory swarms to the south, which entered the service of the warring +princelets and by their prowess won broad lands in every part of +continental Greece, where Albanian place-names are to this day only +less common than Slavonic. South-eastern Europe was again in the throes +of social dissolution, and the convulsions continued till they were +stilled impartially by the numbing hand of their ultimate author the +Turk. + +[Footnote 1: e.g. Klemoutsi, Glarentsa (Clarence) and Gastouni—villages +of the currant district in Peloponnesos—and Sant-Omeri, the mountain +that overlooks them.] + +The Seljuk sultanate in Anatolia, shaken by the crusades, had gone the +way of all oriental empires to make room for one of its fractions, +which showed a most un-oriental faculty of organic growth. This was the +extreme march on the north-western rim of the Anatolian plateau, +overlooking the Asiatic littoral of the Sea of Marmora. It had been +founded by one of those Turkish chiefs who migrated with their clans +from beyond the Oxus; and it was consolidated by Othman his son, who +extended his kingdom to the cities on the coast and invested his +subjects with his own name. In 1355 the Narrows of Gallipoli passed +into Ottoman hands, and opened a bridge to unexpected conquests in +Europe. Serbia and Bulgaria collapsed at the first attack, and the +hosts which marched to liberate them from Hungary and from France only +ministered to Ottoman prestige by their disastrous discomfiture. Before +the close of the fourteenth century the Ottoman sultan had transferred +his capital to Adrianople, and had become immeasurably the strongest +power in the Balkan peninsula. + +After that the end came quickly. At Constantinople the Romaic dynasty +of Palaiologos had upheld a semblance of the Empire for more than a +century after the Latin was expelled. But in 1453 the Imperial city +fell before the assault of Sultan Mohammed; and before his death the +conqueror eliminated all the other Romaic and Latin principalities from +Peloponnesos to Trebizond, which had survived as enclaves to mar the +uniformity of the Ottoman domain. Under his successors the tide of +Ottoman conquest rolled on for half a century more over south-eastern +Europe, till it was stayed on land beneath the ramparts of Vienna,[1] +and culminated on sea, after the systematic reduction of the Venetian +strongholds, in the capture of Rhodes from the Knights of St. John.[2] +The Romaic race, which had been split into so many fragments during the +dissolution of the Empire, was reunited again in the sixteenth century +under the common yoke of the Turk. + +[Footnote 1: 1526.] + +[Footnote 2: 1522.] + +Even in the Dark Age, Greece had hardly been reduced to so desperate a +condition as now. Through the Dark Age the Greek cities had maintained +a continuous life, but Mohammed II depopulated Constantinople to +repeople it with a Turkish majority from Anatolia. Greek commerce would +naturally have benefited by the ejection of the Italians from the +Levant, had not the Ottoman Government given asylum simultaneously to +the Jews expelled from Spain. These Sephardim established themselves at +Constantinople, Salonika, and all the other commercial centres of the +Ottoman dominion, and their superiority in numbers and industry made +them more formidable urban rivals of the Greeks than the Venetians and +Genoese had ever been. + +Ousted from the towns, the Greek race depended for its preservation on +the peasantry, yet Greece had never suffered worse rural oppression +than under the Ottoman régime. The sultan’s fiscal demands were the +least part of the burden. The paralysing land-tax, collected in kind by +irresponsible middlemen, was an inheritance from the Romaic Empire, and +though it was now reinforced by the special capitation-tax levied by +the sultan on his Christian subjects, the greater efficiency and +security of his government probably compensated for the additional +charge. The vitality of Greece was chiefly sapped by the ruthless +military organization of the Ottoman state. The bulk of the Ottoman +army was drawn from a feudal cavalry, bound to service, as in the +mediaeval Latin world, in return for fiefs or ‘timaria’ assigned to +them by their sovereign; and many beys and agas have bequeathed their +names in perpetuity to the richest villages on the Messenian and +Thessalian plains, to remind the modern peasant that his Christian +ancestors once tilled the soil as serfs of a Moslem timariot. But the +sultan, unlike his western contemporaries, was not content with +irregular troops, and the serf-communes of Greece had to deliver up a +fifth of their male children every fourth year to be trained at +Constantinople as professional soldiers and fanatical Moslems. This +corps of ‘Janissaries’[1] was founded in the third generation of the +Ottoman dynasty, and was the essential instrument of its military +success. One race has never appropriated and exploited the vitality of +another in so direct or so brutal a fashion, and the institution of +‘tribute-children’, so long as it lasted, effectually prevented any +recovery of the Greek nation from the untimely blows which had stricken +it down. + +[Footnote 1: Yeni Asker—New soldiery.] + + + + +2 +_The Awakening of the Nation_ + + +During the two centuries that followed the Ottoman conquest of +Constantinople, the Greek race was in serious danger of annihilation. +Its life-blood was steadily absorbed into the conquering +community—quite regularly by the compulsory tribute of children and +spasmodically by the voluntary conversion of individual households. The +rich apostasized, because too heavy a material sacrifice was imposed +upon them by loyalty to their national religion; the destitute, because +they could not fail to improve their prospects by adhering to the +privileged faith. Even the surviving organization of the Church had +only been spared by the Ottoman Government in order to facilitate its +own political system—by bringing the peasant, through the hierarchy of +priest, bishop, and patriarch, under the moral control of the new +Moslem master whom the ecclesiastics henceforth served. + +The scale on which wholesale apostasy was possible is shown by the case +of Krete, which was conquered by the Turks from Venice just after these +two centuries had closed, and was in fact the last permanent addition +to the Turkish Empire. No urban or feudal settlers of Turkish blood +were imported into the island. To this day the uniform speech of all +Kretans is their native Greek. And yet the progressive conversion of +whole clans and villages had transferred at least 20 per cent. of the +population to the Moslem ranks before the Ottoman connexion was severed +again in 1897. + +The survival of the Greek nationality did not depend on any efforts of +the Greeks themselves. They were indeed no longer capable of effort, +but lay passive under the hand of the Turk, like the paralysed quarry +of some beast of prey. Their fate was conditional upon the development +of the Ottoman state, and, as the two centuries drew to a close, that +state entered upon a phase of transformation and of consequent +weakness. + +The Ottoman organism has always displayed (and never more conspicuously +than at the present moment) a much greater stability and vitality than +any of its oriental predecessors. There was a vein of genius in its +creators, and its youthful expansion permeated it with so much European +blood that it became partly Europeanized in its inner +tissues—sufficiently to partake, at any rate, in that faculty of +indefinite organic growth which has so far revealed itself in European +life. This acquired force has carried it on since the time when the +impetus of its original institutions became spent—a time when purely +oriental monarchies fall to pieces, and when Turkey herself hesitated +between reconstruction and dissolution. That critical period began for +her with the latter half of the seventeenth century, and incidentally +opened new opportunities of life to her subject Greeks. + +Substantial relief from their burdens—the primary though negative +condition of national revival—accrued to the Greek peasantry from the +decay of Ottoman militarism in all its branches. The Turkish feudal +aristocracy, which had replaced the landed nobility of the Romaic +Empire in Anatolia and established itself on the choicest lands in +conquered Europe, was beginning to decline in strength. We have seen +that it failed to implant itself in Krete, and its numbers were already +stationary elsewhere. The Greek peasant slowly began to regain ground +upon his Moslem lord, and he profited further by the degeneration of +the janissary corps at the heart of the empire. + +The janissaries had started as a militant, almost monastic body, +condemned to celibacy, and recruited exclusively from the Christian +tribute-children. But in 1566 they extorted the privilege of legal +marriage for themselves, and of admittance into the corps for the sons +of their wedlock. The next century completed their transformation from +a standing army into a hereditary urban militia—an armed and privileged +_bourgeoisie_, rapidly increasing in numbers and correspondingly +jealous of extraneous candidates for the coveted vacancies in their +ranks. They gradually succeeded in abolishing the enrolment of +Christian recruits altogether, and the last regular levy of children +for that purpose was made in 1676. Vested interests at Constantinople +had freed the helpless peasant from the most crushing burden of all. + +At the same moment the contemporary tendency in western Europe towards +bureaucratic centralization began to extend itself to the Ottoman +Empire. Its exponents were the brothers Achmet and Mustapha Köprili, +who held the grand-vizierate in succession. They laid the foundations +of a centralized administration, and, since the unadaptable Turk +offered no promising material for their policy, they sought their +instruments in the subject race. The continental Greeks were too +effectively crushed to aspire beyond the preservation of their own +existence; but the islands had been less sorely tried, and Khios, which +had enjoyed over two centuries[1] of prosperity under the rule of a +Genoese chartered company, and exchanged it for Ottoman sovereignty +under peculiarly lenient conditions, could still supply Achmet a +century later with officials of the intelligence and education he +required, Khiots were the first to fill the new offices of ‘Dragoman of +the Porte’ (secretary of state) and ‘Dragoman of the Fleet’ (civil +complement of the Turkish capitan-pasha); and they took care in their +turn to staff the subordinate posts of their administration with a host +of pushing friends and dependants. The Dragoman of the Fleet wielded +the fiscal, and thereby in effect the political, authority over the +Greek islands in the Aegean; but this was not the highest power to +which the new Greek bureaucracy attained. Towards the beginning of the +eighteenth century Moldavia and Wallachia—the two ‘Danubian Provinces’ +now united in the kingdom of Rumania—were placed in charge of Greek +officials with the rank of voivode or prince, and with practically +sovereign power within their delegated dominions. A Danubian +principality became the reward of a successful dragoman’s career, and +these high posts were rapidly monopolized by a close ring of official +families, who exercised their immense patronage in favour of their +race, and congregated round the Greek patriarch in the ‘Phanari’,[2] +the Constantinopolitan slum assigned him for his residence by Mohammed +the Conqueror. + +[Footnote 1: 1346-1566.] + +[Footnote 2: ‘Lighthouse-quarter.’] + +The alliance of this parvenu ‘Phanariot’ aristocracy with the +conservative Orthodox Church was not unnatural, for the Church itself +had greatly extended its political power under Ottoman suzerainty. The +Ottoman Government hardly regarded its Christian subjects as integral +members of the state, and was content to leave their civil government +in the hands of their spiritual pastors to an extent the Romaic +emperors would never have tolerated. It allowed the Patriarchate at +Constantinople to become its official intermediary with the Greek race, +and it further extended the Greek patriarch’s authority over the other +conquered populations of Orthodox faith—Bulgars, Rumans, and +Serbs—which had never been incorporated in the ecclesiastical or +political organization of the Romaic Empire, but which learnt under +Ottoman rule to receive their priests and bishops from the Greek +ecclesiastics of the capital, and even to call themselves by the Romaic +name. In 1691 Mustapha Köprili recognized and confirmed the rights of +all Christian subjects of the Sultan by a general organic law. + +Mustapha’s ‘New Ordinance’ was dictated by the reverses which +Christians beyond the frontier were inflicting upon the Ottoman arms, +for pressure from without had followed hard upon disintegration within. +Achmet’s pyrrhic triumph over Candia in 1669 was followed in 1683 by +his brother Mustapha’s disastrous discomfiture before the walls of +Vienna, and these two sieges marked the turn of the Ottoman tide. The +ebb was slow, yet the ascendancy henceforth lay with Turkey’s Christian +neighbours, and they began to cut short her frontiers on every side. + +The Venetians had never lost hold upon the ‘Ionian’ chain of islands— +Corfù, Cefalonia, Zante, and Cerigo—which flank the western coast of +Greece, and in 1685 they embarked on an offensive on the mainland, +which won them undisputed possession of Peloponnesos for twenty +years.[1] Venice was far nearer than Turkey to her dissolution, and +spent the last spasm of her energy on this ephemeral conquest. Yet she +had maintained the contact of the Greek race with western Europe during +the two centuries of despair, and the interlude of her rule in +Peloponnesos was a fitting culmination to her work; for, brief though +it was, it effectively broke the Ottoman tradition, and left behind it +a system of communal self-government among the Peloponnesian Greeks +which the returning Turk was too feeble to sweep away. The Turks gained +nothing by the rapid downfall of Venice, for Austria as rapidly stepped +into her place, and pressed with fresh vigour the attack from the +north-west. North-eastward, too, a new enemy had arisen in Russia, +which had been reorganized towards the turn of the century by Peter the +Great with a radical energy undreamed of by any Turkish Köprili, and +which found its destiny in opposition to the Ottoman Empire. The new +Orthodox power regarded itself as the heir of the Romaic Empire from +which it had received its first Christianity and culture. It aspired to +repay the Romaic race in adversity by championing it against its Moslem +oppressors, and sought its own reward in a maritime outlet on the Black +Sea. From the beginning of the eighteenth century Russia repeatedly +made war on Turkey, either with or without the co-operation of Austria; +but the decisive bout in the struggle was the war of 1769-74. A Russian +fleet appeared in the Mediterranean, raised an insurrection in +Peloponnesos, and destroyed the Turkish squadron in battle. The Russian +armies were still more successful on the steppes, and the Treaty of +Kutchuk Kainardji not only left the whole north coast of the Black Sea +in Russia’s possession, but contained an international sanction for the +rights of the sultan’s Orthodox subjects. In 1783 a supplementary +commercial treaty extorted for the Ottoman Greeks the right to trade +under the Russian flag. The territorial sovereignty of Turkey in the +Aegean remained intact, but the Russian guarantee gave the Greek race a +more substantial security than the shadowy ordinance of Mustapha +Köprili. The paralysing prestige of the Porte was broken, and Greek +eyes were henceforth turned in hope towards Petersburg. + +[Footnote 1: 1699-1718.] + +By the end of the eighteenth century the condition of the Greeks had in +fact changed remarkably for the better, and the French and English +travellers who now began to visit the Ottoman Empire brought away the +impression that a critical change in its internal equilibrium was at +hand. The Napoleonic wars had just extinguished the Venetian Republic +and swept the Ionian Islands into the struggle between England and +France for the mastery of the Mediterranean. England had fortified +herself in Cefalonia and Zante, France in Corfù, and interest centred +on the opposite mainland, where Ali Pasha of Yannina maintained a +formidable neutrality towards either power. + +The career of Ali marked that phase in the decline of an Oriental +empire when the task of strong government becomes too difficult for the +central authority and is carried on by independent satraps with greater +efficiency in their more limited sphere. Ali governed the Adriatic +hinterland with practically sovereign power, and compelled the sultan +for some years to invest his sons with the pashaliks of Thessaly and +Peloponnesos. The greater part of the Greek race thus came in some +degree under his control, and his policy towards it clearly reflected +the transition from the old to the new. He waged far more effective war +than the distant sultan upon local liberties, and, though the +elimination of the feudal Turkish landowner was pure gain to the +Greeks, they suffered themselves from the loss of traditional +privileges which the original Ottoman conquest had left intact. The +Armatoli, a local Christian militia who kept order in the mountainous +mainland north of Peloponnesos where Turkish feudatories were rare, +were either dispersed by Ali or enrolled in his regular army. And he +was ruthless in the extermination of recalcitrant communities, like +Agrapha on the Aspropotarno, which had never been inscribed on the +taxation-rolls of the Romaic or the Ottoman treasury, or Suli, a robber +clan ensconced in the mountains Immediately west of Ali’s capital. On +the other hand, the administration of these pacified and consolidated +dominions became as essentially Greek in character as the Phanariot +régime beyond the Danube. Ali was a Moslem and an Albanian, but the +Orthodox Greeks were in a majority among his subjects, and he knew how +to take advantage of their abilities. His business was conducted by +Greek secretaries in the Greek tongue, and Yannina, his capital, was a +Greek city. European visitors to Yannina (for every one began the +Levantine tour by paying his respects to Ali) were struck by the +enterprise and intelligence of its citizens. The doctors were +competent, because they had taken their education in Italy or France; +the merchants were prosperous, because they had established members of +their family at Odessa, Trieste, or even Hamburg, as permanent agents +of their firm. A new Greek _bourgeoisie_ had arisen, in close contact +with the professional life of western Europe, and equally responsive to +the new philosophical and political ideas that were being propagated by +the French Revolution. + +This intellectual ferment was the most striking change of all. Since +the sack of Constantinople in 1204, Greek culture had retired into the +monasteries—inaccessible fastnesses where the monks lived much the same +life as the clansmen of Suli or Agrapha. Megaspélaion, the great cave +quarried in the wall of a precipitous Peloponnesian ravine; Metéora, +suspended on half a dozen isolated pinnacles of rock in Thessaly, where +the only access was by pulley or rope-ladder; ‘Ayon Oros’, the +confederation of monasteries great and small upon the +mountain-promontory of Athos—these succeeded in preserving a shadow of +the old tradition, at the cost of isolation from all humane influences +that might have kept their spiritual inheritance alive. Their spirit +was mediaeval, ecclesiastical, and as barren as their sheltering rocks; +and the new intellectual disciples of Europe turned to the monasteries +in vain. The biggest ruin on Athos is a boys’ school planned in the +eighteenth century to meet the educational needs of all the Orthodox in +the Ottoman Empire, and wrecked on the reefs of monastic obscurantism. +But its founder, the Corfiot scholar Evyénios Voulgáris, did not +hesitate to break with the past. He put his own educational ideas into +practice at Yannina and Constantinople, and contributed to the great +achievement of his contemporary, the Khiot Adhamandios Koráis, who +settled in Paris and there evolved a literary adaptation of the Romaic +patois to supersede the lifeless travesty of Attic style traditionally +affected by ecclesiastical penmen. But the renaissance was not confined +to Greeks abroad. The school on Athos failed, but others established +themselves before the close of the eighteenth century in the people’s +midst, even in the smaller towns and the remoter villages. The still +flourishing secondary school of Dhimitzána, in the heart of +Peloponnesos, began its existence in this period, and the national +revival found expression in a new name. Its prophets repudiated the +‘Romaic’ name, with its associations of ignorance and oppression, and +taught their pupils to think of themselves as ‘Hellenes’ and to claim +in their own right the intellectual and political liberty of the +Ancient Greeks. + +This spiritual ‘Hellenism’, however, was only one manifestation of +returning vitality, and was ultimately due to the concrete economic +development with which it went hand in hand. The Greeks, who had found +culture in western Europe, had come there for trade, and their +commercial no less than their intellectual activity reacted in a +penetrating way upon their countrymen at home. A mountain village like +Ambelakia in Thessaly found a regular market for its dyed goods in +Germany, and the commercial treaty of 1783 between Turkey and Russia +encouraged communities which could make nothing of the land to turn +their attention to the sea. Galaxhidi, a village on the northern shore +of the Korinthian Gulf, whose only asset was its natural harbour, and +Hydhra, Spetza, and Psarà, three barren little islands in the Aegean, +had begun to lay the foundations of a merchant marine, when Napoleon’s +boycott and the British blockade, which left no neutral flag but the +Ottoman in the Mediterranean, presented the Greek shipmen that sailed +under it with an opportunity they exploited to the full. The +whitewashed houses of solid stone, rising tier above tier up the naked +limestone mountainside, still testify to the prosperity which chance +thus suddenly brought to the Hydhriots and their fellow islanders, and +did not withdraw again till it had enabled them to play a decisive part +in their nation’s history. + +Their ships were small, but they were home-built, skilfully navigated, +and profitably employed in the carrying trade of the Mediterranean +ports. Their economic life was based on co-operation, for the sailors, +as well as the captain and owner of the ship, who were generally the +same person, took shares in the outlay and profit of each voyage; but +their political organization was oligarchical—an executive council +elected by and from the owners of the shipping. Feud and intrigue were +rife between family and family, class and class, and between the native +community and the resident aliens, without seriously affecting the +vigour and enterprise of the commonwealth as a whole. These seafaring +islands on the eve of the modern Greek Revolution were an exact +reproduction of the Aigina, Korinth, and Athens which repelled the +Persian from Ancient Greece. The germs of a new national life were thus +springing up among the Greeks in every direction— in mercantile +colonies scattered over the world from Odessa to Alexandria and from +Smyrna to Trieste; among Phanariot princes in the Danubian Provinces +and their ecclesiastical colleagues at Constantinople; in the islands +of the Aegean and the Ionian chain, and upon the mountains of Suli and +Agrapha. But the ambitions this national revival aroused were even +greater than the reality itself. The leaders of the movement did not +merely aspire to liberate the Greek nation from the Turkish yoke. They +were conscious of the assimilative power their nationality possessed. +The Suliots, for example, were an immigrant Albanian tribe, who had +learnt to speak Greek from the Greek peasants over whom they +tyrannized. The Hydhriot and Spetziot islanders were Albanians too, who +had even clung to their primitive language during the two generations +since they took up their present abode, but had become none the less +firmly linked to their Greek-speaking neighbours in Peloponnesos by +their common fellowship in the Orthodox Church. The numerous Albanian +colonies settled up and down the Greek continent were at least as Greek +in feeling as they. And why should not the same prove true of the +Bulgarian population, in the Balkans, who had belonged from the +beginning to the Orthodox Church, and had latterly been brought by +improvident Ottoman policy within the Greek patriarch’s fold? Or why +should not the Greek administrators beyond the Danube imbue their Ruman +subjects with a sound Hellenic sentiment? In fact, the prophets of +Hellenism did not so much desire to extricate the Greek nation from the +Ottoman Empire as to make it the ruling element in the empire itself by +ejecting the Moslem Turks from their privileged position and +assimilating all populations of Orthodox faith. These dreams took shape +in the foundation of a secret society—the ‘Philikì Hetairía’ or ‘League +of Friends’—which established itself at Odessa in 1814 with the +connivence of the Russian police, and opened a campaign of propaganda +in anticipation of an opportunity to strike. + +The initiative came from the Ottoman Government itself. At the weakest +moment in its history the empire found in Sultan Mahmud a ruler of +peculiar strength, who saw that the only hope of overcoming his dangers +lay in meeting them half-way. The national movement of Hellenism was +gathering momentum in the background, but it was screened by the +personal ambitions of Ali of Yannina, and Mahmud reckoned to forestall +both enemies by quickly striking Ali down. + +In the winter of 1819-20 Ali was outlawed, and in the spring the +invasion of his territories began. Both the Moslem combatants enlisted +Christian Armatoli, and all continental Greece was under arms. By the +end of the summer Ali’s outlying strongholds had fallen, his armies +were driven in, and he himself was closely invested in Yannina; but +with autumn a deadlock set in, and the sultan’s reckoning was thrown +out. In November 1820 the veteran soldier Khurshid was appointed to the +pashalik of Peloponnesos to hold the Greeks in check and close accounts +with Ali. In March 1821, after five months spent in organizing his +province, Khurshid felt secure enough to leave it for the Yannina +lines. But he was mistaken; for within a month of his departure +Peloponnesos was ablaze. + +The ‘Philikì Hetairía’ had decided to act, and the Peloponnesians +responded enthusiastically to the signal. In the north Germanòs, +metropolitan bishop of Patras, rallied the insurgents at the monastery +of Megaspélaion, and unfurled the monastic altar-cloth as a national +standard. In the south the peninsula of Maina, which had been the +latest refuge of ancient Hellenism, was now the first to welcome the +new, and to throw off the shadowy allegiance it had paid for a thousand +years to Romaic archonts and Ottoman capitan-pashas. Led by Petros +Mavromichalis, the chief of the leading clan, the Mainates issued from +their mountains. This was in April, and by the middle of May all the +open country had been swept clear, and the hosts joined hands before +Tripolitza, which was the seat of Ottoman government at the central +point of the province. The Turkish garrison attacked, but was heavily +defeated at Valtetzi by the tactical skill of Theodore Kolokotrónis the +‘klepht’, who had become experienced in guerrilla warfare through his +alternate professions of brigand and gendarme—a career that had +increased its possibilities as the Ottoman system decayed. After +Kolokotrónis’s victory, the Greeks kept Tripolitza under a close +blockade. Early in October it fell amid frightful scenes of pillage and +massacre, and Ottoman dominion in the Peloponnesos fell with it. On +January 22, 1822, Korinth, the key to the isthmus, passed into the +Greeks’ hands, and only four fortresses—Nauplia, Patras, Koron, and +Modhon—still held out within it against Greek investment. Not a Turk +survived in the Peloponnesos beyond their walls, for the slaughter at +Tripolitza was only the most terrible instance of what happened +wherever a Moslem colony was found. In Peloponnesos, at any rate, the +revolution had been grimly successful. + +There had also been successes at sea. The merchant marine of the Greek +islands had suffered grievously from the fall of Napoleon and the +settlement at Vienna, which, by restoring normal conditions of trade, +had destroyed their abnormal monopoly. The revolution offered new +opportunities for profitable venture, and in April 1821 Hydhra, Spetza +and Psarà hastened to send a privateering fleet to sea. As soon as the +fleet crossed the Aegean, Samos rid itself of the Turks. At the +beginning of June the rickety Ottoman squadron issued from the +Dardanelles, but it was chased back by the islanders under the lee of +Mitylini. Memories of Russian naval tactics in 1770 led the Psariots to +experiment in fire-ships, and one of the two Turkish ships of the line +fell a victim to this attack. Within a week of setting sail, the +diminished Turkish squadron was back again in the Dardanelles, and the +islanders were left with the command of the sea. + +The general Christian revolution thus seemed fairly launched, and in +the first panic the threatened Moslems began reprisals of an equally +general kind. In the larger Turkish cities there were massacres of +Christian minorities, and the Government lent countenance to them by +murdering its own principal Christian official Gregorios, the Greek +patriarch at Constantinople, on April 22, 1821. But Sultan Mahmud +quickly recovered himself. He saw that his empire could not survive a +racial war, and determined to prevent the present revolt from assuming +such a character. His plan was to localize it by stamping out the more +distant sparks with all his energy, before concentrating his force at +leisure upon the main conflagration. + +This policy was justified by the event. On March 6 the ‘Philikì +Hetairia’ at Odessa had opened its own operations in grandiose style by +sending a filibustering expedition across the Russo-Turkish frontier +under command of Prince Alexander Hypsilantis, a Phanariot in the +Russian service. Hypsilantis played for a general revolt of the Ruman +population in the Danubian Principalities and a declaration of war +against Turkey on the part of Russia. But the Rumans had no desire to +assist the Greek bureaucrats who oppressed them, and the Tsar Alexander +had been converted by the experiences of 1812-13 to a pacifistic +respect for the _status quo_. Prince Hypsilantis was driven +ignominiously to internment across the Austrian frontier, little more +than a hundred days after his expedition began; and his fiasco assured +the Ottoman Government of two encouraging facts—that the revolution +would not carry away the whole Orthodox population but would at any +rate confine itself to the Greeks; and that the struggle against it +would be fought out for the present, at least, without foreign +intervention. + +In the other direction, however, rebellion was spreading northward from +Peloponnesos to continental Greece. Galaxídhi revolted in April, and +was followed in June by Mesolonghi—a prosperous town of fishermen, +impregnably situated in the midst of the lagoons at the mouth of the +Aspropotamo, beyond the narrows of the Korinthian Gulf. By the end of +the month, north-western Greece was free as far as the outposts of +Khurshid Pasha beyond the Gulf of Arta. + +Further eastward, again, in the mountains between the Gulf of Korinth +and the river Elládha (Sperkheiòs), the Armatoli of Ali’s faction had +held their ground, and gladly joined the revolution on the initiative +of their captains Dhiakos and Odhyssèvs. But the movement found its +limits. The Turkish garrison of Athens obstinately held out during the +winter of 1821-2, and the Moslems of Negrepont (Euboía) maintained +their mastery in the island. In Agrapha they likewise held their own, +and, after one severely punished raid, the Agraphiot Armatoli were +induced to re-enter the sultan’s service on liberal terms. The Vlachs +in the gorges of the Aspropotamo were pacified with equal success; and +Dramali, Khurshid’s lieutenant, who guarded the communications between +the army investing Yannina and its base at Constantinople, was easily +able to crush all symptoms of revolt in Thessaly from his head-quarters +at Lárissa. Still further east, the autonomous Greek villages on the +mountainous promontories of Khalkidhiki had revolted in May, in +conjunction with the well-supplied and massively fortified monasteries +of the ‘Ayon Oros’; but the Pasha of Salonika called down the South +Slavonic Moslem landowners from the interior, sacked the villages, and +amnestied the monastic confederation on condition of establishing a +Turkish garrison in their midst and confiscating their arms. The monks’ +compliance was assisted by the excommunication under which the new +patriarch at Constantinople had placed all the insurgents by the +sultan’s command. + +The movement was thus successfully localised on the European continent, +and further afield it was still more easily cut short. After the +withdrawal of the Turkish squadron, the Greek fleet had to look on at +the systematic destruction of Kydhonies,[1] a flourishing Greek +industrial town on the mainland opposite Mitylini which had been +founded under the sultan’s auspices only forty years before. All that +the islanders could do was to take off the survivors in their boats; +and when they dispersed to their ports in autumn, the Ottoman ships +came out again from the Dardanelles, sailed round Peloponnesos into the +Korinthian Gulf, and destroyed Galaxídhi. A still greater catastrophe +followed the reopening of naval operations next spring. In March 1822 +the Samians landed a force on Khios and besieged the Turkish garrison, +which was relieved after three weeks by the arrival of the Ottoman +fleet. A month later the Greek fleet likewise appeared on the scene, +and on June 18 a Psariot captain, Constantine Kanaris, actually +destroyed the Ottoman flag-ship by a daring fire-ship attack. Upon this +the Ottoman fleet fled back as usual to the Dardanelles; yet the only +consequence was the complete devastation, in revenge, of helpless +Khios. The long-shielded prosperity of the island was remorselessly +destroyed, the people were either enslaved or massacred, and the +victorious fleet had to stand by as passively this time as at the +destruction of Kydhonies the season before. In the following summer, +again, the same fate befell Trikéri, a maritime community on the Gulf +of Volo which had gained its freedom when the rest of Thessaly stirred +in vain; and so in 1823 the revolution found itself confined on sea, as +well as on land, to the focus where it had originated in April 1821. + +[Footnote 1: Turkish Aivali.] + +This isolation was a practical triumph for Sultan Mahmud. The +maintenance of the Ottoman Empire on the basis of Moslem ascendancy was +thereby assured; but it remained to be seen whether the isolated area +could now be restored to the _status quo_ in which the rest of his +dominions had been retained. + +During the whole season of 1821 the army of Khurshid had been held +before Yannina. But in February 1822 Yannina fell, Ali was slain, his +treasure seized, and his troops disbanded. The Ottoman forces were +liberated for a counterattack on Peloponnesos. Already in April +Khurshid broke up his camp at Lárissa, and his lieutenant Dramali was +given command of the new expedition towards the south. He crossed the +Sperkheiòs at the beginning of July with an army of twenty thousand +men.[1] Athens had capitulated to Odhyssèvs ten days before; but it had +kept open the road for Dramali, and north-eastern Greece fell without +resistance into his hands. The citadel of Korinth surrendered as tamely +as the open country, and he was master of the isthmus before the end of +the month. Nauplia meanwhile had been treating with its besiegers for +terms, and would have surrendered to the Greeks already if they had not +driven their bargain so hard. Dramali hurried on southward into the +plain to the fortress’s relief, raised the siege, occupied the town of +Argos, and scattered the Greek forces into the hills. But the citadel +of Argos held out against him, and the positions were rapidly reversed. +Under the experienced direction of Kolokotrónis, the Greeks from their +hill-fastnesses ringed round the plain of Argos and scaled up every +issue. Dramali’s supplies ran out. An attempt of his vanguard to break +through again towards the north was bloodily repulsed, and he barely +succeeded two days later in extricating the main body in a demoralized +condition, with the loss of all his baggage-train. The Turkish army +melted away, Dramali was happy to die at Korinth, and Khurshid was +executed by the sultan’s command. The invasion of Peloponnesos had +broken down, and nothing could avert the fall of Nauplia. The Ottoman +fleet hovered for one September week in the offing, but Kanaris’s +fire-ships took another ship of the line in toll at the roadsteads of +Tenedos before it safely regained the Dardanelles. The garrison of +Nauplia capitulated in December, on condition of personal security and +liberty, and the captain of a British frigate, which arrived on the +spot, took measures that the compact should be observed instead of +being broken by the customary massacre. But the strongest fortress in +Peloponnesos was now in Greek hands. + +[Footnote 1: Including a strong contingent of Moslem Slavs—Bulgarian +Pomaks from the Aegean hinterland and Serbian Bosniaks from the +Adriatic.] + +In the north-west the season had not passed so well. When the Turks +invested Ali in Yannina, they repatriated the Suliot exiles in their +native mountains. But a strong sultan was just as formidable to the +Suliots as a strong pasha, so they swelled their ranks by enfranchising +their peasant-serfs, and made common cause with their old enemy in his +adversity. Now that Ali was destroyed, the Suliots found themselves in +a precarious position, and turned to the Greeks for aid. But on July 16 +the Greek advance was checked by a severe defeat at Petta in the plain +of Arta. In September the Suliots evacuated their impregnable +fortresses in return for a subsidy and a safe-conduct, and Omer Vrioni, +the Ottoman commander in the west,[1] was free to advance in turn +towards the south. On November 6 he actually laid siege to Mesolonghi, +but here his experiences were as discomfiting as Dramali’s. He could +not keep open his communications, and after heavy losses retreated +again to Arta in January 1823. + +[Footnote 1: He was a renegade officer of Ali’s.] + +In 1823 the struggle seemed to be lapsing into stalemate. The liberated +Peloponnesos had failed to propagate the revolution through the +remainder of the Ottoman Empire; the Ottoman Government had equally +failed to reconquer the Peloponnesos by military invasion. This +season’s operations only seemed to emphasize the deadlock. The Ottoman +commander in the west raised an auxiliary force of Moslem and Catholic +clansmen from northern Albania, and attempted to reach Mesolonghi once +more. But he penetrated no further than Anatolikòn—the Mesolonghiots’ +outpost village at the head of the lagoons—and the campaign was only +memorable for the heroic death of Marko Botzaris the Suliot in a night +attack upon the Ottoman camp. At sea, the two fleets indulged in +desultory cruises without an encounter, for the Turks were still timid +and incompetent, while the growing insubordination and dissension on +the Greek ships made concerted action there, too, impossible. By the +end of the season it was clear that the struggle could only +definitively be decided by the intervention of a third party on one +side or the other—unless the Greeks brought their own ruin upon +themselves. + +This indeed was not unlikely to happen; for the new house of Hellenism +had hardly arisen before it became desperately divided against itself. +The vitality of the national movement resided entirely in the local +communes. It was they that had found the fighting men, kept them armed +and supplied, and by spontaneous co-operation expelled the Turk from +Peloponnesos. But if the co-operation was to be permanent it must have +a central organization, and with the erection of this superstructure +the troubles began. As early as June 1821 a ‘Peloponnesian Senate’ was +constituted and at once monopolized by the ‘Primates’, the propertied +class that had been responsible for the communal taxes under the Romaic +and Ottoman régimes and was allowed to control the communal government +in return. About the same time two Phanariot princes threw in their lot +with the revolution— Alexander Mavrokordatos and Demetrius, the more +estimable brother of the futile Alexander Hypsilantis. Both were +saturated with the most recent European political theory, and they +committed the peasants and seamen of the liberated districts to an +ambitious constitutionalism. In December 1821 a ‘National Assembly’ met +at Epidauros, passed an elaborate organic law, and elected +Mavrokordatos first president of the Hellenic Republic. + +The struggle for life and death in 1822 had staved off the internal +crisis, but the Peloponnesian Senate remained obstinately recalcitrant +towards the National Government in defence of its own vested interests; +and the insubordination of the fleet in 1823 was of one piece with the +political faction which broke out as soon as the immediate danger from +without was removed. + +Towards the end of 1823 European ‘Philhellenes’ began to arrive in +Greece. In those dark days of reaction that followed Waterloo, +self-liberated Hellas seemed the one bright spot on the continent; but +the idealists who came to offer her their services were confronted with +a sorry spectacle. The people were indifferent to their leaders, and +the leaders at variance among themselves. The gentlemanly Phanariots +had fallen into the background. Mavrokordatos only retained influence +in north-western Greece. In Peloponnesos the Primates were +all-powerful, and Kolokotrónis the klepht was meditating a popular +dictatorship at their expense. In the north-east the adventurer +Odhyssévs had won a virtual dictatorship already, and was suspected of +intrigue with the Turks; and all this factious dissension rankled into +civil war as soon as the contraction of a loan in Great Britain had +invested the political control of the Hellenic Republic with a +prospective value in cash. The first civil war was fought between +Kolokotrónis on the one side and the Primates of Hydhra and +Peloponnesos on the other; but the issue was decided against +Kolokotrónis by the adhesion to the coalition of Kolettis the Vlach, +once physician to Mukhtar Pasha, the son of Ali, and now political +agent for all the northern Armatoli in the national service. The +fighting lasted from November 1823 to June 1824, and was followed by +another outbreak in November of the latter year, when the victors +quarrelled over the spoils, and the Primates were worsted in turn by +the islanders and the Armatoli. The nonentity Kondouriottis of Hydhra +finally emerged as President of Greece, with the sharp-witted Kolettis +as his principal wire-puller, but the disturbances did not cease till +the last instalment of the loan had been received and squandered and +there was no more spoil to fight for. + +Meanwhile, Sultan Mahmud had been better employed. Resolved to avert +stalemate by the only possible means, he had applied in the course of +1823 to Mohammed Ali Pasha of Egypt, a more formidable, though more +distant, satrap than Ali of Yannina himself. Mohammed Ali had a +standing army and navy organized on the European model. He had also a +son Ibrahim, who knew how to manoeuvre them, and was ambitious of a +kingdom. Mahmud hired the father’s troops and the son’s generalship for +the re-conquest of Peloponnesos, under engagement to invest Ibrahim +with the pashalik as soon as he should effectively make it his own. By +this stroke of diplomacy a potential rebel was turned into a willing +ally, and the preparations for the Egyptian expedition went forward +busily through the winter of 1823-4. + +The plan of campaign was systematically carried out. During the season +of respite the Greek islanders had harried the coasts and commerce of +Anatolia and Syria at will. The first task was to deprive them of their +outposts in the Aegean, and an advanced squadron of the Egyptian fleet +accordingly destroyed the community of Kasos in June 1824, while the +Ottoman squadron sallied out of the Dardanelles a month later and dealt +out equal measure to Psarà. The two main flotillas then effected a +junction off Rhodes; and, though the crippled Greek fleet still +ventured pluckily to confront them, it could not prevent Ibrahim from +casting anchor safely in Soudha Bay and landing his army to winter in +Krete. In February 1825 he transferred these troops with equal impunity +to the fortress of Modhon, which was still held for the sultan by an +Ottoman garrison. The fire-ships of Hydhra came to harry his fleet too +late, and on land the Greek forces were impotent against his trained +soldiers. The Government in vain promoted Kolokotrónis from captivity +to commandership-in-chief. The whole south-western half of Peloponnesos +passed into Ibrahim’s hands, and in June 1825 he even penetrated as far +as the mills of Lerna on the eastern coast, a few miles south of Argos +itself. + +At the same time the Ottoman army of the west moved south again under a +new commander, Rashid Pasha of Yannina, and laid final siege on April +27 to Mesolonghi, just a year after Byron had died of fever within its +walls. The Greeks were magnificent in their defence of these frail +mud-bastions, and they more than held their own in the amphibious +warfare of the lagoons. The struggle was chequered by the continual +coming and going of the Greek and Ottoman fleets. They were indeed the +decisive factor; for without the supporting squadron Rashid would have +found himself in the same straits as his predecessors at the approach +of autumn, while the slackness of the islanders in keeping the sea +allowed Mesolonghi to be isolated in January 1826. The rest was +accomplished by the arrival of Ibrahim on the scene. His heavy +batteries opened fire in February; his gunboats secured command of the +lagoons, and forced Anatolikòn to capitulate in March. In April +provisions in Mesolonghi itself gave out, and, scorning surrender, the +garrison—men, women, and children together— made a general sortie on +the night of April 22. Four thousand fell, three thousand were taken, +and two thousand won through. It was a glorious end for Mesolonghi, but +it left the enemy in possession of all north-western Greece. + +The situation was going from bad to worse. Ibrahim returned to +Peloponnesos, and steadily pushed forward his front, ravaging as +steadily as he went. Rashid, after pacifying the north-west, moved on +to the north-eastern districts, where the national cause had been +shaken by the final treachery and speedy assassination of Odhyssèvs. +Siege was laid to Athens in June, and the Greek Government enlisted in +vain the military experience of its Philhellenes. Fabvier held the +Akropolis, but Generalissimo Sir Richard Church was heavily defeated in +the spring of 1827 in an attempt to relieve him from the Attic coast; +Grand Admiral Cochrane saw his fleet sail home for want of payment in +advance, when he summoned it for review at Poros; and Karaiskakis, the +Greek captain of Armatoli, was killed in a skirmish during his more +successful efforts to harass Rashid’s communications by land. On June +5, 1827, the Greek garrison of the Akropolis marched out on terms. + +It looked as if the Greek effort after independence would be completely +crushed, and as if Sultan Mahmud would succeed in getting his empire +under control. In September 1826 he had rid it at last of the mischief +at its centre by blowing up the janissaries in their barracks at +Constantinople. Turkey seemed almost to have weathered the storm when +she was suddenly overborne by further intervention on the other side. + +Tsar Alexander, the vaccillator, died in November 1825, and was +succeeded by his son Nicholas I, as strong a character and as active a +will as Sultan Mahmud himself. Nicholas approached the Greek question +without any disinclination towards a Turkish war; and both Great +Britain and France found an immediate interest in removing a ground of +provocation which might lead to such a rude disturbance of the European +‘Balance of Power’. On July 6, 1827, a month after Athens surrendered, +the three powers concluded a treaty for the pacification of Greece, in +which they bound over both belligerent parties to accept an armistice +under pain of military coercion. An allied squadron appeared off +Navarino Bay to enforce this policy upon the Ottoman and Egyptian fleet +which lay united there, and the intrusion of the allied admirals into +the bay itself precipitated on October 20 a violent naval battle in +which the Moslem flotilla was destroyed. The die was cast; and in April +1828 the Russian and Ottoman Governments drifted into a formal war, +which brought Russian armies across the Danube as far as Adrianople, +and set the Ottoman Empire at bay for the defence of its capital. +Thanks to Mahmud’s reorganization, the empire did not succumb to this +assault; but it had no more strength to spare for the subjugation of +Greece. The Greeks had no longer to reckon with the sultan as a +military factor; and in August 1828 they wore relieved of Ibrahim’s +presence as well, by the disembarkation of 14,000 French troops in +Peloponnesos to superintend the withdrawal of the Egyptian forces. In +March 1829 the three powers delimited the Greek frontier. The line ran +east and west from the Gulf of Volo to the Gulf of Arta, and assigned +to the new state no more and no less territory than the districts that +had effectively asserted their independence against the sultan in 1821. +This settlement was the only one possible under the circumstances; but +it was essentially transitory, for it neglected the natural line of +nationality altogether, and left a numerical majority of the Greek +race, as well as the most important centres of its life, under the old +régime of servitude. + +Even the liberated area was not at the end of its troubles. In the +spring of 1827, when they committed themselves into the hands of their +foreign patrons, the Greeks had found a new president for the republic +in John Kapodistrias, an intimate of Alexander the tsar. Kapodistrias +was a Corfiote count, with a Venetian education and a career in the +Russian diplomatic service, and no one could have been more +fantastically unsuitable for the task of reconstructing the country to +which he was called. Kapodistrias’ ideal was the _fin-de-siècle_ +‘police-state’; but ‘official circles’ did not exist in Greece, and he +had no acquaintance with the peasants and sailors whom he hoped to +redeem by bureaucracy. He instituted a hierarchically centralized +administration which made the abortive constitution of Mavrokordatos +seem sober by comparison; he trampled on the liberty of the rising +press, which was the most hopeful educational influence in the country; +and he created superfluous ministerial portfolios for his untalented +brothers. In fact he reglamented Greece from his palace at Aigina like +a divinely appointed autocrat, from his arrival in January 1828 till +the summer of 1831, when he provoked the Hydhriots to open rebellion, +and commissioned the Russian squadron in attendance to quell them by a +naval action, with the result that Poros was sacked by the President’s +regular army and the national fleet was completely destroyed. After +that, he attempted to rule as a military dictator, and fell foul of the +Mavromichalis of Maina. The Mainates knew better how to deal with the +‘police-state’ than the Hydhriots; and on October 9, 1831, Kapodistrias +was assassinated in Nauplia, at the church door, by two representatives +of the Mavromichalis clan. + +The country lapsed into utter anarchy. Peloponnesians and Armatoli, +Kolokotronists and Kolettists, alternately appointed and deposed +subservient national assemblies and governing commissions by naked +violence, which culminated in a gratuitous and disastrous attack upon +the French troops stationed in Peloponnesos for their common +protection. The three powers realized that it was idle to liberate +Greece from Ottoman government unless they found her another in its +place. They decided on monarchy, and offered the crown, in February +1832, to Prince Otto, a younger son of the King of Bavaria. The +negotiations dragged on many months longer than Greece could afford to +wait. But in July 1832 the sultan recognized the sovereign independence +of the kingdom of Hellas in consideration of a cash indemnity; and in +February 1833, just a year after the first overtures had been made, the +appointed king arrived at Nauplia with a decorative Bavarian staff and +a substantial loan from the allies. + + + + +3 +_The Consolidation of the State_ + + +Half the story of Greece is told. We have watched the nation awake and +put forth its newly-found strength in a great war of independence, and +we have followed the course of the struggle to its result—the +foundation of the kingdom of Hellas. + +It is impossible to close this chapter of Greek history without a sense +of disappointment. The spirit of Greece had travailed, and only a +principality was born, which gathered within its frontiers scarcely +one-third of the race, and turned for its government to a foreign +administration which had no bond of tradition or affinity with the +population it was to rule. And yet something had been achieved. An +oasis had been wrested from the Turkish wilderness, in which Hellenism +could henceforth work out its own salvation untrammelled, and extend +its borders little by little, until it brought within them at last the +whole of its destined heritage. The fleeting glamour of dawn had +passed, but it had brought the steady light of day, in which the work +begun could be carried out soberly and indefatigably to its conclusion. +The new kingdom, in fact, if it fulfilled its mission, might become the +political nucleus and the spiritual ensample of a permanently awakened +nation—an ‘education of Hellas’ such as Pericles hoped to see Athens +become in the greatest days of Ancient Greece. + +When, therefore, we turn to the history of the kingdom, our +disappointment is all the more intense, for in the first fifty years of +its existence there is little development to record. In 1882 King +Otto’s principality presented much the same melancholy spectacle as it +did in 1833, when he landed in Nauplia Bay, except that Otto himself +had left the scene. His Bavarian staff belonged to that reactionary +generation that followed the overthrow of Napoleon in Europe, and +attempted, heedless of Kapodistrias’ fiasco, to impose on Greece the +bureaucracy of the _ancien régime_. The Bavarians’ work was entirely +destructive. The local liberties which had grown up under the Ottoman +dominion and been the very life of the national revival, were +effectively repressed. Hydhriot and Spetziot, Suliot and Mainate, +forfeited their characteristic individuality, but none of the benefits +of orderly and uniform government were realized. The canker of +brigandage defied all efforts to root it out, and in spite of the loans +with which the royal government was supplied by the protecting powers, +the public finance was subject to periodical breakdowns. In 1837 King +Otto, now of age, took the government into his own hands, only to have +it taken out of them again by a revolution in 1843. Thereafter he +reigned as a constitutional monarch, but he never reconciled himself to +the position, and in 1862 a second revolution drove him into exile, a +scapegoat for the afflictions of his kingdom. Bavarian then gave place +to Dane, yet the afflictions continued. In 1882 King George had been +nineteen years on the throne[1] without any happier fortune than his +predecessor’s. It is true that the frontiers of the kingdom had been +somewhat extended. Great Britain had presented the new sovereign with +the Ionian Islands as an inaugural gift, and the Berlin Conference had +recently added the province of Thessaly. Yet the major part of the +Greek race still awaited liberation from the Turkish yoke, and regarded +the national kingdom, chronically incapacitated by the twin plagues of +brigandage and bankruptcy, with increasing disillusionment. The kingdom +of Hellas seemed to have failed in its mission altogether. + +[Footnote 1: King George, like King Otto, was only seventeen years old +when he received his crown.] + +What was the explanation of this failure? It was that the very nature +of the mission paralysed the state from taking the steps essential to +its accomplishment. The phenomenon has been, unhappily, only too +familiar in the Nearer East, and any one who travelled in the Balkans +in 1882, or even so recently as 1912, must at once have become aware of +it. + +Until a nation has completely vindicated its right to exist, it is hard +for it to settle down and make its life worth living. We nations of +western Europe (before disaster fell upon us) had learnt to take our +existence for granted, and ‘Politics’ for us had come to mean an +organized effort to improve the internal economy of our community. But +a foreigner who picked up a Greek newspaper would have found in it none +of the matter with which he was familiar in his own, no discussion of +financial policy, economic development, or social reconstruction. The +news-columns would have been monopolized by foreign politics, and in +the cafes he would have heard the latest oscillation in the +international balance of power canvassed with the same intense and +minute interest that Englishmen in a railway-carriage would have been +devoting to Old Age Pensions, National Health Insurance, or Land +Valuation. He would have been amazed by a display of intimate knowledge +such as no British quidnunc could have mustered if he had happened to +stumble across these intricacies of international competition, and the +conversation would always have terminated in the same unanswered but +inconscionable challenge to the future: ‘When will the oppressed +majority of our race escape the Turkish yoke? If the Ottoman dominion +is destroyed, what redistribution of its provinces will follow? Shall +we then achieve our national unity, or will our Balkan neighbours +encroach upon the inheritance which is justly ours?’ + +This preoccupation with events beyond the frontiers was not caused by +any lack of vital problems within them. The army was the most +conspicuous object of public activity, but it was not an aggressive +speculation, or an investment of national profits deliberately +calculated to bring in one day a larger return. It was a necessity of +life, and its efficiency was barely maintained out of the national +poverty. In fact, it was almost the only public utility with which the +nation could afford to provide itself, and the traveller from Great +Britain would have been amazed again at the miserable state of all +reproductive public works. The railways were few and far between, their +routes roundabout, and their rolling-stock scanty, so that trains were +both rare and slow. Wheel-roads were no commoner a feature in Greece +than railways are here, and such stretches as had been constructed had +often never come into use, because they had just failed to reach their +goal or were still waiting for their bridges, so that they were simply +falling into decay and converting the outlay of capital upon them into +a dead loss. The Peiraeus was the only port in the country where +steamers could come alongside a quay, and discharge their cargoes +directly on shore. Elsewhere, the vessel must anchor many cables’ +lengths out, and depend on the slow and expensive services of lighters, +for lack of pier construction and dredging operations. For example, +Kalamata, the economic outlet for the richest part of Peloponnesos, and +the fifth largest port in the kingdom,[1] was and still remains a mere +open roadstead, where all ships that call are kept at a distance by the +silt from a mountain torrent, and so placed in imminent danger of being +driven, by the first storm, upon the rocks of a neighbouring peninsula. + +[Footnote 1: The four chief ports being Peiraeus, Patras, Syra, and +Volos.] + +These grave shortcomings were doubtless due in part to the geographical +character of the country, though it was clear, from what had actually +been accomplished, that it would have been both possible and profitable +to attempt much more, if the nation’s energy could have been secured +for the work. But it is hard to tinker at details when you are kept in +a perpetual fever by a question of life and death, and the great +preliminary questions of national unity and self-government remained +still unsettled. + +Before these supreme problems all other interests paled, for they were +no will-o’-the-wisps of theoretical politics. It needs a long political +education to appreciate abstract ideas, and the Greeks were still in +their political infancy, but the realization of Greater Greece implied +for them the satisfaction of all their concrete needs at once. + +So long as the _status quo_ endured, they were isolated from the rest +of Europe by an unbroken band of Turkish territory, stretching from the +Aegean to the Adriatic Sea. What was the use of overcoming great +engineering difficulties to build a line of European gauge from Athens +right up to the northern frontier, if Turkey refused to sanction the +construction of the tiny section that must pass through her territory +between the Greek railhead and the actual terminus of the European +system at Salonika? Or if, even supposing she withdrew her veto, she +would have it in her power to bring pressure on Greece at any moment by +threatening to sever communications along this vital artery? So long as +Turkey was there, Greece was practically an island, and her only +communication with continental Europe lay through her ports. But what +use to improve the ports, when the recovery of Salonika, the fairest +object of the national dreams, would ultimately change the country’s +economic centre of gravity, and make her maritime as well as her +overland commerce flow along quite other channels than the present? + +Thus the Greek nation’s present was overshadowed by its future, and its +actions paralysed by its hopes. Perhaps a nation with more power of +application and less of imagination would have schooled itself to the +thought that these sordid, obtrusive details were the key to the +splendours of the future, and would have devoted itself to the +systematic amelioration of the cramped area which it had already +secured for its own. This is what Bulgaria managed to do during her +short but wonderful period of internal growth between the Berlin Treaty +of 1878 and the declaration of war against Turkey in 1912. But +Bulgaria, thanks to her geographical situation, was from the outset +freer from the tentacles of the Turkish octopus than Greece had +contrived to make herself by her fifty years’ start, while her +temperamentally sober ambitions were not inflamed by such past +traditions as Greece had inherited, not altogether to her advantage. Be +that as it may, Greece, whether by fault or misfortune, had failed +during this half-century to apply herself successfully to the cure of +her defects and the exploitation of her assets, though she did not lack +leaders strong-minded enough to summon her to the dull business of the +present. Her history during the succeeding generation was a struggle +between the parties of the Present and the Future, and the unceasing +discomfiture of the former is typified in the tragedy of Trikoupis, the +greatest modern Greek statesman before the advent of Venezelos. + +Trikoupis came into power in 1882, just after the acquisition of the +rich agricultural province of Thessaly under the Treaty of Berlin had +given the kingdom a fresh start. There were no such continuous areas of +good arable land within the original frontiers, and such rare patches +as there were had been desolated by those eight years of savage +warfare[1] which had been the price of liberty. The population had been +swept away by wholesale massacres of racial minorities in every +district; the dearth of industrious hands had allowed the torrents to +play havoc with the cultivation-terraces on the mountain slopes; and +the spectre of malaria, always lying in wait for its opportunity, had +claimed the waterlogged plains for its own. During the fifty years of +stagnation little attempt had been made to cope with the evil, until +now it seemed almost past remedy. + +[Footnote 1: 1821-28] + +If, however, the surface of the land offered little prospect of wealth +for the moment, there were considerable treasures to be found beneath +it. A metalliferous bolt runs down the whole east coast of the Greek +mainland, cropping up again in many of the Aegean islands, and some of +the ores, of which there is a great variety, are rare and valuable. The +lack of transit facilities is partly remedied by the fact that workable +veins often lie near enough to the sea for the produce to be carried +straight from mine to ship, by an endless-chain system of overhead +trolleys; so that, once capital is secured for installing the plant and +opening the mine, profitable operations can be carried on irrespective +of the general economic condition of the country. Trikoupis saw how +much potential wealth was locked up in these mineral seams. The problem +was how to attract the capital necessary to tap it. The nucleus round +which have accumulated those immense masses of mobilised capital that +are the life-blood of modern European industry and commerce, was +originally derived from the surplus profits of agriculture. But a +country that finds itself reduced, like Greece in the nineteenth +century, to a state of agricultural bankruptcy, has obviously failed to +save any surplus in the process, so that it is unable to provide from +its own pocket the minimum outlay it so urgently needs in order to open +for itself some new activity. If it is to obtain a fresh start on other +lines, it must secure the co-operation of the foreign investor, and the +capitalist with a ready market for his money will only put it into +enterprises where he has some guarantee of its safety. There was little +doubt that the minerals of Greece would well repay extraction; the +uncertain element was the Greek nation itself. The burning question of +national unity might break out at any moment into a blaze of war, and, +in the probable case of disaster, involve the whole country and all +interests connected with it in economic as well as political ruin. +Western Europe would not commit itself to Greek mining enterprise, +unless it felt confident that the statesman responsible for the +government of Greece would and could restrain his country from its +instinctive impulse towards political adventure. + +The great merit of Trikoupis was that he managed to inspire this +confidence. Greece owes most of the wheelroads, railways, and mines of +which she can now boast to the dozen years of his more or less +consecutive administration. But the roads are unfinished, the +railway-network incomplete, the mines exploited only to a fraction of +their capacity, because the forces against Trikoupis were in the end +too strong for him. It may be that his eye too rigidly followed the +foreign investor’s point of view, and that by adopting a more +conciliatory attitude towards the national ideal, he might have +strengthened his position at home without impairing his reputation +abroad; but his position was really made impossible by a force quite +beyond his control, the irresponsible and often intolerable behaviour +which Turkey, under whatever régime, has always practised towards +foreign powers, and especially towards those Balkan states which have +won their freedom in her despite, while perforce abandoning a large +proportion of their race to the protracted outrage of Turkish +misgovernment. + +Several times over the Porte, by wanton insults to Greece, wrecked the +efforts of Trikoupis to establish good relations between the two +governments, and played the game of the chauvinist party led by +Trikoupis’ rival, Deliyannis. Deliyannis’ tenures of office were always +brief, but during them he contrived to undo most of the work +accomplished by Trikoupis in the previous intervals. A particularly +tense ‘incident’ with Turkey put him in power in 1893, with a strong +enough backing from the country to warrant a general mobilization. The +sole result was the ruin of Greek credit. Trikoupis was hastily +recalled to office by the king, but too late. He found himself unable +to retrieve the ruin, and retired altogether from politics in 1895, +dying abroad next year in voluntary exile and enforced disillusionment. + +With the removal of Trikoupis from the helm, Greece ran straight upon +the rocks. A disastrous war with Turkey was precipitated in 1897 by +events in Krete. It brought the immediate _débâcle_ of the army and the +reoccupation of Thessaly for a year by Turkish troops, while its final +penalties were the cession of the chief strategical positions along the +northern frontier and the imposition of an international commission of +control over the Greek finances, in view of the complete national +bankruptcy entailed by the war. The fifteen years that followed 1895 +were almost the blackest period in modern Greek history; yet the time +was not altogether lost, and such events as the draining of the +Kopais-basin by a British company, and its conversion from a malarious +swamp into a rich agricultural area, marked a perceptible economic +advance. + +This comparative stagnation was broken at last by the Young Turk +_pronunciamiento_ at Salonika in 1908, which produced such momentous +repercussions all through the Nearer East. The Young Turks had struck +in order to forestall the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, but the +opportunity was seized by every restive element within it to extricate +itself, if possible, from the Turkish coils. Now, just as in 1897, +Greece was directly affected by the action of the Greek population in +Krete. As a result of the revolt of 1896-7, Krete had been constituted +an autonomous state subject to Ottoman suzerainty, autonomy and +suzerainty alike being guaranteed by four great powers. Prince George +of Greece, a son of the King of the Hellenes, had been placed at the +head of the autonomous government as high commissioner; but his +autocratic tendency caused great discontent among the free-spirited +Kretans, who had not rid themselves of the Turkish régime in order to +forfeit their independence again in another fashion. Dissension +culminated in 1906, when the leaders of the opposition took to the +mountains, and obtained such support and success in the guerrilla +fighting that followed, that they forced Prince George to tender his +resignation. He was succeeded as high commissioner by Zaimis, another +citizen of the Greek kingdom, who inaugurated a more constitutional +régime, and in 1908 the Kretans believed that the moment for realizing +the national ideal had come. They proclaimed their union with Greece, +and elected deputies to the Parliament at Athens. But the guarantor +powers carried out their obligations by promptly sending a combined +naval expedition, which hauled down the Greek flag at Canea, and +prevented the deputies from embarking for Peiraeus. This apparently +pedantic insistence upon the _status quo_ was extremely exasperating to +Greek nationalism. It produced a ferment in the kingdom, which grew +steadily for nine months, and vented itself in July 1909 in the _coup +d’état_ of the ‘Military League’, a second-hand imitation of the +Turkish ‘Committee of Union and Progress’. The royal family was +cavalierly treated, and constitutional government superseded by a junta +of officers. But at this point the policy of the four powers towards +Krete was justified. Turkey knew well that she had lost Krete in 1897, +but she could still exploit her suzerainty to prevent Greece from +gaining new strength by the annexation of the island. The Young Turks +had seized the reins of government, not to modify the policy of the +Porte, but to intensify its chauvinism, and they accordingly intimated +that they would consider any violation of their suzerain rights over +Krete a _casus belli_ against Greece. Greece, without army or allies, +was obviously not in a position to incur another war, and the ‘Military +League’ thus found that it had reached the end of its tether. There +ensued a deadlock of another eight months, only enlivened by a naval +mutiny, during which the country lay paralysed, with no programme +whatsoever before it. + +Then the man demanded by the situation appeared unexpectedly from the +centre of disturbance, Krete. Venezelos started life as a successful +advocate at Canea. He entered Kretan politics in the struggle for +constitutionalism, and distinguished himself in the successful +revolution of 1906, of which he was the soul. Naturally, he became one +of the leading statesmen under Zaimis’ régime, and he further +distinguished himself by resolutely opposing the ‘Unionist’ agitation +as premature, and yet retaining his hold over a people whose paramount +political preoccupation was their national unity. The crisis of 1908-9 +brought him into close relations with the government of the Greek +kingdom; and the king, who had gauged his calibre, now took the +patriotic step of calling in the man who had expelled his son from +Krete, to put his own house in order. It speaks much for both men that +they worked together in harmony from the beginning. Upon the royal +invitation Venezelos exchanged Kretan for Greek citizenship, and took +in hand the ‘Military League’. After short negotiations, he persuaded +it to dissolve in favour of a national convention, which was able to +meet in March 1910. + +Thus Greece became a constitutional country once more, and Venezelos +the first premier of the new era. During five years of continuous +office he was to prove himself the good genius of his country. When he +resigned his post in April 1915, he left the work of consolidating the +national state on the verge of completion, and it will be his country’s +loss if he is baulked of achievement. Results speak for themselves, and +the remainder of this pamphlet will be little more than a record of his +statesmanship; but before we pass on to review his deeds, we must say a +word about the character to which they are due. In March 1912 the time +came for the first general election since Venezelos had taken office. +Two years’ experience of his administration had already won him such +popularity and prestige, that the old party groups, purely personal +followings infected with all the corruption, jingoism, and insincerity +of the dark fifteen years, leagued themselves in a desperate effort to +cast him out. Corruption on a grand scale was attempted, but Venezelos’ +success at the polls was sweeping. The writer happened to be spending +that month in Krete. The Kretans had, of course, elected deputies in +good time to the parliament at Athens, and once more the foreign +warships stopped them in the act of boarding the steamer for Peiraeus, +while Venezelos, who was still responsible for the Greek Government +till the new parliament met, had declared with characteristic frankness +that the attendance of the Kretan deputies could not possibly be +sanctioned, an opening of which his opponents did not fail to take +advantage. Meanwhile, every one in Krete was awaiting news of the +polling in the kingdom. They might have been expected to feel, at any +rate, lukewarmly towards a man who had actually taken office on the +programme of deferring their cherished ‘union’ indefinitely; but, on +the contrary, they greeted his triumph with enormous enthusiasm. Their +feeling was explained by the comment of an innkeeper. ‘Venezelos!’ he +said: ‘Why, he is a man who can say “No”. He won’t stand any nonsense. +If you try to get round him, he’ll put you in irons.’ And clearly he +had hit the mark. Venezelos would in any case have done well, because +he is a clever man with an excellent power of judgement; but acuteness +is a common Greek virtue, and if he has done brilliantly, it is because +he has the added touch of genius required to make the Greek take ‘No’ +for an answer, a quality, very rare indeed in the nation, which +explains the dramatic contrast between his success and Trikoupis’ +failure. Greece has been fortunate indeed in finding the right man at +the crucial hour. + +In the winter of 1911-12 and the succeeding summer, the foreign +traveller met innumerable results of Venezelos’ activity in every part +of the country, and all gave evidence of the same thing: a sane +judgement and its inflexible execution. For instance, a resident in +Greece had needed an escort of soldiers four years before, when he made +an expedition into the wild country north-west of the Gulf of Patras, +on account of the number of criminals ‘wanted’ by the government who +were lurking in that region as outlaws. In August 1912 an inquiry +concerning this danger was met with a smile: ‘Oh, yes, it was so,’ said +the gendarme, ‘but since then Venezelos has come. He amnestied every +one “out” for minor offences, and then caught the “really bad ones”, so +there are no outlaws in Akarnania now.’ And he spoke the truth. You +could wander all about the forests and mountains without molestation. + +So far Venezelos had devoted himself to internal reconstruction, after +the precedent of Trikoupis, but he was not the man to desert the +national idea. The army and navy were reorganized by French and British +missions, and when the opportunity appeared, he was ready to take full +advantage of it. In the autumn of 1912, Turkey had been for a year at +war with Italy; her finances had suffered a heavy drain, and the +Italian command of the sea not only locked up her best troops in +Tripoli, but interrupted such important lines of communication between +her Asiatic and European provinces as the direct route by sea from +Smyrna to Salonika, and the devious sea-passage thence round Greece to +Scutari, which was the only alternative for Turkish troops to running +the gauntlet of the Albanian mountaineers. Clearly the Balkan nations +could find no better moment for striking the blow to settle that +implacable ‘preliminary question.’ of national unity which had dogged +them all since their birth. Their only chance of success, however, was +to strike in concert, for Turkey, handicapped though she was, could +still easily outmatch them singly. Unless they could compromise between +their conflicting claims, they would have to let this common +opportunity for making them good slip by altogether. + +Of the four states concerned, two, Serbia and Montenegro, were of the +same South-Slavonic nationality, and had been drawn into complete +accord with each other since the formal annexation of Bosnia by +Austria-Hungary in 1908, which struck a hard blow at their common +national idea, while neither of them had any conflicting claims with +Greece, since the Greek and South-Slavonic nationalities are at no +point geographically in contact. With Bulgaria, a nation of Slavonic +speech and culture, though not wholly Slavonic in origin, Serbia had +quarrelled for years over the ultimate destiny of the Üsküb district in +north-western Macedonia, which was still subject to Turkey; but in the +summer of 1912 the two states compromised in a secret treaty upon their +respective territorial ambitions, and agreed to refer the fate of one +debatable strip to the arbitration of Russia, after their already +projected war with Turkey had been carried through. There was a more +formidable conflict of interests between Bulgaria and Greece. These two +nationalities are conterminous over a very wide extent of territory, +stretching from the Black Sea on the east to the inland Lake of Okhrida +on the west, and there is at no point a sharp dividing line between +them. The Greek element tends to predominate towards the coast and the +Bulgar towards the interior, but there are broad zones where Greek and +Bulgar villages are inextricably interspersed, while purely Greek towns +are often isolated in the midst of purely Bulgar rural districts. Even +if the racial areas could be plotted out on a large-scale map, it was +clear that no political frontier could be drawn to follow their +convolutions, and that Greece and Bulgaria could only divide the spoils +by both making up their minds to give and take. The actual lines this +necessary compromise would follow, obviously depended on the degree of +the allies’ success against Turkey in the common war that was yet to be +fought, and Venezelos rose to the occasion. He had the courage to offer +Bulgaria the Greek alliance without stipulating for any definite +minimum share in the common conquests, and the tact to induce her to +accept it on the same terms. Greece and Bulgaria agreed to shelve all +territorial questions till the war had been brought to a successful +close; and with the negotiation of this understanding (another case in +which Venezelos achieved what Trikoupis had attempted only to fail) the +Balkan League was complete. + +The events that followed are common knowledge. The Balkan allies opened +the campaign in October, and the Turks collapsed before an impetuous +attack. The Bulgarians crumpled up the Ottoman field armies in Thrace +at the terrific battle of Lule Burgas; the Serbians disposed of the +forces in the Macedonian interior, while the Greeks effected a junction +with the Serbians from the south, and cut their way through to +Salonika. Within two months of the declaration of war, the Turks on +land had been driven out of the open altogether behind the shelter of +the Chataldja and Gallipoli lines, and only three +fortresses—Adrianople, Yannina, and Scutari—held out further to the +west. Their navy, closely blockaded by the Greek fleet within the +Dardanelles, had to look on passively at the successive occupation of +the Aegean Islands by Greek landing-parties. With the winter came +negotiations, during which an armistice reigned at Adrianople and +Scutari, while the Greeks pursued the siege of Yannina and the +Dardanelles blockade. The negotiations proved abortive, and the result +of the renewed hostilities justified the action of the Balkan +plenipotentiaries in breaking them off. By the spring of 1913 the three +fortresses had fallen, and, under the treaty finally signed at London, +Turkey ceded to the Balkan League, as a whole, all her European +territories west of a line drawn from Ainos on the Aegean to Midía on +the Black Sea, including Adrianople and the lower basin of the river +Maritsa. + +The time had now come for Greece and Bulgaria to settle their account, +and the unexpected extent of the common gains ought to have facilitated +their division. The territory in question included the whole north +coast of the Aegean and its immediate hinterland, and Venezelos +proposed to consider it in two sections. (1) The eastern section, +conveniently known as Thrace, consisted of the lower basin of the +Maritsa. As far as Adrianople the population was Bulgar, but south of +that city it was succeeded by a Greek element, with a considerable +sprinkling of Turkish settlements, as far as the sea. Geographically, +however, the whole district is intimately connected with Bulgaria, and +the railway that follows the course of the Maritsa down to the port of +Dedeagatch offers a much-needed economic outlet for large regions +already within the Bulgarian frontier. Venezelos, then, was prepared to +resign all Greek claims to the eastern section, in return for a +corresponding concession by Bulgaria in the west. (2) The western +section, consisting of the lower basins of the Vardar and Struma, lay +in the immediate neighbourhood of the former frontier of Greece; but +the Greek population of Salonika,[1] and the coast-districts east of +it, could not be brought within the Greek frontier without including as +well a certain hinterland inhabited mainly by Bulgarians. The cession +of this was the return asked for by Venezelos, and he reduced it to a +minimum by abstaining from pressing the quite well-founded claims of +Greece in the Monastir district, which lay further inland still. + +[Footnote 1: The predominant element within the walls of Salonika +itself is neither Greek nor Bulgarian, but consists of about 80,000 of +those Spanish-speaking Jews who settled in Turkey as refugees during +the sixteenth century.] + +But Venezelos’ conciliatory proposals met with no response from the +Bulgarian Government, which was in an ‘all or nothing’ mood. It +swallowed Venezelos’ gift of Thrace, and then proceeded to exploit the +Bulgar hinterland of Salonika as a pretext for demanding the latter +city as well. This uncompromising attitude made agreement impossible, +and it was aggravated by the aggressive action of the Bulgarian troops +in the occupied territory, who persistently endeavoured to steal ground +from the Greek forces facing them. In May there was serious fighting to +the east of the Struma, and peace was only restored with difficulty. +Bulgarian relations with Serbia were becoming strained at the same +time, though in this case Bulgaria had more justice on her side. Serbia +maintained that the veto imposed by Austria upon her expansion to the +Adriatic, in coincidence with Bulgaria’s unexpected gains on the +Maritsa to which Serbian arms had contributed, invalidated the secret +treaty of the previous summer, and she announced her intention of +retaining the Monastir district and the line of the Salonika railway as +far as the future frontier of Greece. Bulgaria, on the other hand, shut +her eyes to Serbia’s necessity for an untrammelled economic outlet to +one sea-board or the other, and took her stand on her strictly legal +treaty-rights. However the balance of justice inclined, a lasting +settlement could only have been reached by mutual forbearance and +goodwill; but Bulgaria put herself hopelessly in the wrong towards both +her allies by a treacherous night-attack upon them all along the line, +at the end of June 1913. This disastrous act was the work of a single +political party, which has since been condemned by most sections of +Bulgarian public opinion; but the punishment, if not the responsibility +for the crime, fell upon the whole nation. Greece and Serbia had +already been drawn into an understanding by their common danger. They +now declared war against Bulgaria in concert. The counter-strokes of +their armies met with success, and the intervention of Rumania made +Bulgaria’s discomfiture certain. + +The results of the one month’s war were registered in the Treaty of +Bucarest. Many of its provisions were unhappily, though naturally, +inspired by the spirit of revenge; but the Greek premier, at any rate, +showed a statesmanlike self-restraint in the negotiations. Venezelos +advocated the course of taking no more after the war than had been +demanded before it. He desired to leave Bulgaria a broad zone of Aegean +littoral between the Struma and Maritsa rivers, including ports capable +of satisfying Bulgaria’s pressing need for an outlet towards the south. +But, in the exasperated state of public feeling, even Venezelos’ +prestige failed to carry through his policy in its full moderation. +King George had just been assassinated in his year of jubilee, in the +streets of the long-desired Salonika; and King Constantine, his son, +flushed by the victory of Kilkish and encouraged by the Machiavellian +diplomacy of his Hohenzollern brother-in-law, insisted on carrying the +new Greek frontier as far east as the river Mesta, and depriving +Bulgaria of Kavala, the natural harbour for the whole Bulgarian +hinterland in the upper basins of the Mesta and Struma. + +It is true that Greece did not exact as much as she might have done. +Bulgaria was still allowed to possess herself of a coastal strip east +of the Mesta, containing the tolerable harbours of Porto Lagos and +Dedeagatch, which had been occupied during hostilities by the Greek +fleet, and thus her need for an Aegean outlet was not left unsatisfied +altogether; while Greece on her part was cleverly shielded for the +future from those drawbacks involved in immediate contact with Turkish +territory, which she had so often experienced in the past. It is also +true that the Kavala district is of great economic value in itself—it +produces the better part of the Turkish Régie tobacco crop—and that on +grounds of nationality alone Bulgaria has no claim to this prize, since +the tobacco-growing peasantry is almost exclusively Greek or Turk, +while the Greek element has been extensively reinforced during the last +two years by refugees from Anatolia and Thrace. + +Nevertheless, it is already clear that Venezelos’ judgement was the +better. The settlement at the close of the present war may even yet +bring Bulgaria reparation in many quarters. If the Ruman and South +Slavonic populations at present included in the complexus of +Austria-Hungary are freed from their imprisonment and united with the +Serbian and Rumanian national states, Bulgaria may conceivably recover +from the latter those Bulgarian lands which the Treaty of Bucarest made +over to them in central Macedonia and the Dobrudja, while it would be +still more feasible to oust the Turk again from Adrianople, where he +slipped back in the hour of Bulgaria’s prostration and has succeeded in +maintaining himself ever since. Yet no amount of compensation in other +directions and no abstract consideration for the national principle +will induce Bulgaria to renounce her claim on Greek Kavala. Access to +this district is vital to Bulgaria from the geographical point of view, +and she will not be satisfied here with such rights as Serbia enjoys at +Salonika—free use of the port and free traffic along a railway +connecting it with her own hinterland. Her heart is set on complete +territorial ownership, and she will not compose her feud with Greece +until she has had her way. + +So long, therefore, as the question of Kavala remains unsettled, Greece +will not be able to put the preliminary problem of ‘national +consolidation’ behind her, and enter upon the long-deferred chapter of +‘internal development’. To accomplish once for all this vital +transition, Venezelos is taking the helm again into his hands, and it +is his evident intention to close the Greek account with Bulgaria just +as Serbia and Rumania hope to close theirs with the same state—by a +bold territorial concession conditional upon adequate territorial +compensation elsewhere.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The above paragraph betrays its own date; for, since it +was written, the intervention of Bulgaria on the side of the Central +Powers has deferred indefinitely the hope of a settlement based upon +mutual agreement.] + +The possibility of such compensation is offered by certain outstanding +problems directly dependent upon the issue of the European conflict, +and we must glance briefly at these before passing on to consider the +new chapter of internal history that is opening for the Greek nation. + +The problems in question are principally concerned with the ownership +of islands. + +The integrity of a land-frontier is guaranteed by the whole strength of +the nation included within it, and can only be modified by a struggle +for existence with the neighbor on whom it borders; but islands by +their geographical nature constitute independent political units, +easily detached from or incorporated with larger domains, according to +the momentary fluctuation in the balance of sea-power. Thus it happened +that the arrival of the _Goeben_ and _Breslau_ at the Dardanelles in +August 1914 led Turkey to reopen promptly certain questions concerning +the Aegean. The islands in this sea are uniformly Greek in population, +but their respective geographical positions and political fortunes +differentiate them into several groups. + +1. The Cyclades in the south-west, half submerged vanguards of mountain +ranges in continental Greece, have formed part of the modern kingdom +from its birth, and their status has never since been called into +question. + +2. Krete, the largest of all Greek islands, has been dealt with +already. She enjoyed autonomy under Turkish suzerainty for fifteen +years before the Balkan War, and at its outbreak she once more +proclaimed her union with Greece. This time at last her action was +legalized, when Turkey expressly abandoned her suzerain rights by a +clause in the Treaty of London. + +3. During the war itself, the Greek navy occupied a number of islands +which had remained till then under the more direct government of +Turkey, The parties to the Treaty of London agreed to leave their +destiny to the decision of the powers, and the latter assigned them all +to Greece, with the exception of Imbros and Tenedos which command +strategically the mouth of the Dardanelles. + +The islands thus secured to Greece fall in turn into several +sub-groups. + +Two of these are _(a)_ Thasos, Samothraki, and Lemnos, off the European +coast, and _(b)_ Samos and its satellite Nikarià, immediately off the +west coast of Anatolia; and these five islands seem definitely to have +been given up by Turkey for lost. The European group is well beyond the +range of her present frontiers; while Samos, though it adjoins the +Turkish mainland, does not mask the outlet from any considerable port, +and had moreover for many years possessed the same privileged autonomy +as Krete, so that the Ottoman Government did not acutely feel its final +severance. + +_(c)_ A third group consists of Mitylini and Khios,[1] and concerning +this pair Greece and Turkey have so far come to no understanding. The +Turks pointed out that the littoral off which these islands lie +contains not only the most indispensable ports of Anatolia but also the +largest enclaves of Greek population on the Asiatic mainland, and they +declared that the occupation of this group by Greece menaced the +sovereignty of the Porte in its home territory. ‘See’, they said, ‘how +the two islands flank both sides of the sea-passage to Smyrna, the +terminus of all the railways which penetrate the Anatolian interior, +while Mitylini barricades Aivali and Edremid as well. As soon as the +Greek Government has converted the harbours of these islands into naval +bases, Anatolia will be subject to a perpetual Greek blockade, and this +violent intimidation of the Turkish people will be reinforced by an +insidious propaganda among the disloyal Greek elements in our midst.’ +Accordingly the Turks refused to recognize the award of the powers, and +demanded the re-establishment of Ottoman sovereignty in Mitylini and +Khios, under guarantee of an autonomy after the precedent of Krete and +Samos. + +[Footnote 1: Including its famous satellite Psarà.] + +To these arguments and demands the Greeks replied that, next to Krete; +these are the two largest, most wealthy, and most populous Greek +islands in the Aegean; that their inhabitants ardently desire union +with the national kingdom; and that the Greek Government would hesitate +to use them as a basis for economic coercion and nationalistic +propaganda against Turkey, if only because the commerce of western +Anatolia is almost exclusively in the hands of the Greek element on the +Asiatic continent. Greek interests were presumably bound up with the +economic prosperity and political consolidation of Turkey in Asia, and +the Anatolian Greeks would merely have been alienated from their +compatriots by any such impolitic machinations. ‘Greek sovereignty in +Mitylini and Khios’, the Greeks maintained, ‘does not threaten Turkish +sovereignty on the Continent. But the restoration of Turkish suzerainty +over the islands would most seriously endanger the liberty of their +inhabitants; for Turkish promises are notoriously valueless, except +when they are endorsed by the guarantee of some physically stronger +power.’ + +Negotiations were conducted between Greece and Turkey from these +respective points of view without leading to any result, and the two +standpoints were in fact irreconcilable, since either power required +the other to leave vital national interests at the mercy of an ancient +enemy, without undertaking to make corresponding sacrifices itself. The +problem probably would never have been solved by compromise; but +meanwhile the situation has been entirely transformed by the +participation of Turkey in the European War, and the issue between +Greece and Turkey, like the issue between Greece and Bulgaria, has been +merged in the general problem of the European settlement. + +The Balkan War of 1912 doomed the Ottoman power in Europe, but left its +Asiatic future unimpaired. By making war against the Quadruple Entente, +Turkey has staked her existence on both continents, and is threatened +with political extinction if the Central Powers succumb in the +struggle. In this event Greece will no longer have to accommodate her +régime in the liberated islands to the susceptibilities of a Turkey +consolidated on the opposite mainland, but will be able to stretch out +her hand over the Anatolian coast and its hinterland, and compensate +herself richly in this quarter for the territorial sacrifices which may +still be necessary to a lasting understanding with her Bulgarian +neighbour. + +The shores that dominate the Dardanelles will naturally remain beyond +her grasp, but she may expect to establish herself on the western +littoral from a point as far north as Mount Ida and the plain of +Edremid. The Greek coast-town of Aivali will be hers, and the still +more important focus of Greek commerce and civilization at Smyrna; +while she will push her dominion along the railways that radiate from +Smyrna towards the interior. South-eastward, Aidin will be hers in the +valley of the Mendere (Maiandros). Due eastward she will re-baptize the +glistening city of Ala Shehr with its ancient name of Philadelphia, +under which it held out heroically for Hellenism many years after Aidin +had become the capital of a Moslem principality and the Turkish +avalanche had rolled past it to the sea. Maybe she will follow the +railway still further inland, and plant her flag on the Black Castle of +Afiun, the natural railway-centre of Anatolia high up on the innermost +plateau. All this and more was once Hellenic ground, and the Turkish +incomer, for all his vitality, has never been able here to obliterate +the older culture or assimilate the earlier population. In this western +region Turkish villages are still interspersed with Greek, and under +the government of compatriots the unconquerable minority would +inevitably reassert itself by the peaceful weapons of its superior +energy and intelligence. + +4. If Greece realizes these aspirations through Venezelos’ +statesmanship, she will have settled in conjunction her outstanding +accounts with both Bulgaria and Turkey; but a fourth group of islands +still remains for consideration, and these, though formerly the +property of Turkey, are now in the hands of other European powers. + +_(a)_ The first of those in question are the Sporades, a chain of +islands off the Anatolian coast which continues the line of Mitylini, +Khios, and Samos towards the south-east, and includes Kos, Patmos, +Astypalià, Karpathos, Kasos, and, above all, Rhodes. The Sporades were +occupied by Italy during her war with Turkey in 1911-12, and she +stipulated in the Peace of Lausanne that she should retain them as a +pledge until the last Ottoman soldier in Tripoli had been withdrawn, +after which she would make them over again to the Porte. The continued +unrest in Tripoli may or may not have been due to Turkish intrigues, +but in any case it deferred the evacuation of the islands by Italy +until the situation was transformed here also by the successive +intervention of both powers in the European War. The consequent lapse +of the Treaty of Lausanne simplifies the status of the Sporades, but it +is doubtful what effect it will have upon their destiny. In language +and political sympathy their inhabitants are as completely Greek as all +the other islanders of the Aegean, and if the Quadruple Entente has +made the principle of nationality its own, Italy is morally bound, now +that the Sporades are at her free disposal, to satisfy their national +aspirations by consenting to their union with the kingdom of Greece. On +the other hand, the prospective dissolution of the Ottoman Empire has +increased Italy’s stake in this quarter. In the event of a partition, +the whole southern littoral of Anatolia will probably fall within the +Italian sphere, which will start from the Gulf of Iskanderun, include +the districts of Adana and Adalia, and march with the new Anatolian +provinces of Greece along the line of the river Mendere. This +continental domain and the adjacent islands are geographically +complementary to one another, and it is possible that Italy may for +strategical reasons insist on retaining the Sporades in perpetuity if +she realizes her ambitions on the continent. This solution would be +less ideal than the other, but Greece would be wise to reconcile +herself to it, as Italy has reconciled herself to the incorporation of +Corsica in France; for by submitting frankly to this detraction from +her national unity she would give her brethren in the Sporades the best +opportunity of developing their national individuality untrammelled +under a friendly Italian suzerainty. + +_(b)_ The advance-guard of the Greek race that inhabits the great +island of Cyprus has been subject to British government since 1878, +when the provisional occupation of the island by Great Britain under a +contract similar to that of Lausanne was negotiated in a secret +agreement between Great Britain and Turkey on the eve of the Conference +at Berlin. The condition of evacuation was in this case the withdrawal +of Russia from Kars, and here likewise it never became operative till +it was abrogated by the outbreak of war. Cyprus, like the Sporades, is +now at the disposal of its _de facto_ possessor, and on November 5, +1914, it was annexed to the British Empire. But whatever decision Italy +may take, it is to be hoped that our own government at any rate will +not be influenced exclusively by strategical considerations, but will +proclaim an intention of allowing Cyprus ultimately to realize its +national aspirations by union with Greece.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Since the above was written, this intention, under a +certain condition, has definitely been expressed.] + +The whole population of the island is Greek in language, while under an +excellent British administration its political consciousness has been +awakened, and has expressed itself in a growing desire for national +unity among the Christian majority. It is true that in Cyprus, as in +Krete, there is a considerable Greek-speaking minority of Moslems[1] +who prefer the _status quo_; but, since the barrier of language is +absent, their antipathy to union may not prove permanent. However +important the retention of Cyprus may be to Great Britain from the +strategical point of view, we shall find that even in the balance of +material interests it is not worth the price of alienating the sympathy +of an awakened and otherwise consolidated nation. + +[Footnote 1: In Cyprus about 22 per cent.] + +This rather detailed review of problems in the islands and Anatolia +brings out the fact that Greek nationalism is not an artificial +conception of theorists, but a real force which impels the most +scattered and down-trodden populations of Greek speech to travail +unceasingly for political unity within the national state. Yet by far +the most striking example of this attractive power in Hellenism is the +history of it in ‘Epirus’.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The name coined to include the districts of Himarra, +Argyrokastro, and Koritsà.] + +The Epirots are a population of Albanian race, and they still speak an +Albanian dialect in their homes; while the women and children, at any +rate, often know no other language. But somewhat over a century ago the +political organism created by the remarkable personality of Ali Pasha +in the hinterland of the Adriatic coast, and the relations of Great +Britain and France with this new principality in the course of their +struggle for the Mediterranean, began to awaken in the Epirots a desire +for civilization. Their Albanian origin opened to them no prospects, +for the race had neither a literature nor a common historical +tradition; and they accordingly turned to the Greeks, with whom they +were linked in religion by membership of the Orthodox Church, and in +politics by subjection to Ali’s Government at Yannina, which had +adopted Greek as its official language. + +They had appealed to the right quarter; for we have seen how Greek +culture accumulated a store of latent energy under the Turkish yoke, +and was expending it at this very period in a vigorous national +revival. The partially successful War of Liberation in the ‘twenties of +the nineteenth century was only the political manifestation of the new +life. It has expressed itself more typically in a steady and universal +enthusiasm for education, which throughout the subsequent generations +of political stagnation has always opened to individual Greeks +commercial and professional careers of the greatest brilliance, and +often led them to spend the fortunes so acquired in endowing the nation +with further educational opportunities. Public spirit is a Greek +virtue. There are few villages which do not possess monuments of their +successful sons, and a school is an even commoner gift than a church; +while the State has supplemented the individual benefactor to an extent +remarkable where public resources are so slender. The school-house, in +fact, is generally the most prominent and substantial building in a +Greek village, and the advantage offered to the Epirots by a +_rapprochement_ with the Greeks is concretely symbolized by the Greek +schools established to-day in generous numbers throughout their +country. + +For the Epirot boy the school is the door to the future. The language +he learns there makes him the member of a nation, and opens to him a +world wide enough to employ all the talent and energy he may possess, +if he seeks his fortune at Patras or Peiraeus, or in the great Greek +commercial communities of Alexandria and Constantinople; while, if he +stays at home, it still affords him a link with the life of civilized +Europe through the medium of the ubiquitous Greek newspaper.[1] The +Epirot has thus become Greek in soul, for he has reached the conception +of a national life more liberal than the isolated existence of his +native village through the avenue of Greek culture. ‘Hellenism’ and +nationality have become for him identical ideas; and when at last the +hour of deliverance struck, he welcomed the Greek armies that marched +into his country from the south and the east, after the fall of Yannina +in the spring of 1913, with the same enthusiasm with which all the +enslaved populations of native Greek dialect greeted the consummation +of a century’s hopes. + +[Footnote 1: There is still practically no literature printed in the +Albanian language.] + +The Greek troops arrived only just in time, for the ‘Hellenism’ of the +Epirots had been terribly proved by murderous attacks from their Moslem +neighbours on the north. The latter speak a variety of the same +Albanian tongue, but were differentiated by a creed which assimilated +them to the ruling race. They had been superior to their Christian +kinsmen by the weight of numbers and the possession of arms, which +under the Ottoman régime were the monopoly of the Moslem. At last, +however, the yoke of oppression was broken and the Greek occupation +seemed a harbinger of security for the future. Unluckily, however, +Epirus was of interest to others besides its own inhabitants. It +occupies an important geographical position facing the extreme heel of +Italy, just below the narrowest point in the neck of the Adriatic, and +the Italian Government insisted that the country should be included in +the newly erected principality of Albania, which the powers had +reserved the right to delimit in concert by a provision in the Treaty +of London. + +Italy gave two reasons for her demand. First, she declared it +incompatible with her own vital interests that both shores of the +strait between Corfù and the mainland should pass into the hands of the +same power, because the combination of both coasts and the channel +between them offered a site for a naval base that might dominate the +mouth of the Adriatic. Secondly, she maintained that the native +Albanian speech of the Epirots proved their Albanian nationality, and +that it was unjust to the new Albanian state to exclude from it the +most prosperous and civilized branch of the Albanian nation. Neither +argument is cogent. + +The first argument could easily be met by the neutralization of the +Corfù straits,[1] and it is also considerably weakened by the fact that +the position which really commands the mouth of the Adriatic from the +eastern side is not the Corfù channel beyond it but the magnificent bay +of Avlona just within its narrowest section, and this is a Moslem +district to which the Epirots have never laid claim, and which would +therefore in any case fall within the Albanian frontier. The second +argument is almost ludicrous. The destiny of Epirus is not primarily +the concern of the other Albanians, of for that matter of the Greeks, +but of the Epirots themselves, and it is hard to see how their +nationality can be defined except in terms of their own conscious and +expressed desire; for a nation is simply a group of men inspired by a +common will to co-operate for certain purposes, and cannot be brought +into existence by the external manipulation of any specific objective +factors, but solely by the inward subjective impulse of its +constituents. It was a travesty of justice to put the Orthodox Epirots +at the mercy of a Moslem majority (which had been massacring them the +year before) on the ground that they happened to speak the same +language. The hardship was aggravated by the fact that all the routes +connecting Epirus with the outer world run through Yannina and +Salonika, from which the new frontier sundered her; while great natural +barriers separate her from Avlona and Durazzo, with which the same +frontier so ironically signalled her union. + +[Footnote 1: Corfù itself is neutralized already by the agreement under +which Great Britain transferred the Ionian Islands to Greece in 1863.] + +The award of the powers roused great indignation in Greece, but +Venezelos was strong enough to secure that it should scrupulously be +respected; and the ‘correct attitude’ which he inflexibly maintained +has finally won its reward. As soon as the decision of the powers was +announced, the Epirots determined to help themselves. They raised a +militia, and asserted their independence so successfully, that they +compelled the Prince of Wied, the first (and perhaps the last) ruler of +the new ‘Albania’, to give them home rule in matters of police and +education, and to recognise Greek as the official language for their +local administration. They ensured observance of this compact by the +maintenance of their troops under arms. So matters continued, until a +rebellion among his Moslem subjects and the outbreak of the European +War in the summer of 1914 obliged the prince to depart, leaving Albania +to its natural state of anarchy. The anarchy might have restored every +canton and village to the old state of contented isolation, had it not +been for the religious hatred between the Moslems and the Epirots, +which, with the removal of all external control, began to vent itself +in an aggressive assault of the former upon the latter, and entailed +much needless misery in the autumn months. + +The reoccupation of Epirus by Greek troops had now become a matter of +life and death to its inhabitants, and in October 1914 Venezelos took +the inevitable step, after serving due notice upon all the signatories +to the Treaty of London. Thanks in part to the absorption of the powers +in more momentous business, but perhaps even in a greater degree to the +confidence which the Greek premier had justly won by his previous +handling of the question, this action was accomplished without protest +or opposition. Since then Epirus has remained sheltered from the +vicissitudes of civil war within and punitive expeditions from without, +to which the unhappy remnant of Albania has been incessantly exposed; +and we may prophesy that the Epiroi, unlike their repudiated brethren +of Moslem or Catholic faith, have really seen the last of their +troubles. Even Italy, from whom they had most to fear, has obtained +such a satisfactory material guarantee by the occupation on her own +part of Avlona, that she is as unlikely to demand the evacuation of +Epirus by Greece as she is to withdraw her own force from her long +coveted strategical base on the eastern shore of the Adriatic. In +Avlona and Epirus the former rivals are settling down to a neighbourly +contact, and there is no reason to doubt that the _de facto_ line of +demarcation between them will develop into a permanent and officially +recognized frontier. The problem of Epirus, though not, unfortunately, +that of Albania, may be regarded as definitely closed. + +The reclamation of Epirus is perhaps the most honourable achievement of +the Greek national revival, but it is by no means an isolated +phenomenon. Western Europe is apt to depreciate modern ‘Hellenism’, +chiefly because its ambitious denomination rather ludicrously +challenges comparison with a vanished glory, while any one who has +studied its rise must perceive that it has little more claim than +western Europe itself to be the peculiar heir of ancient Greek culture. +And yet this Hellenism of recent growth has a genuine vitality of its +own. It displays a remarkable power of assimilating alien elements and +inspiring them to an active pursuit of its ideals, and its allegiance +supplants all others in the hearts of those exposed to its charm. The +Epirots are not the only Albanians who have been Hellenized. In the +heart of central Greece and Peloponnesus, on the plain of Argos, and in +the suburbs of Athens, there are still Albanian enclaves, derived from +those successive migrations between the fourteenth and the eighteenth +centuries; but they have so entirely forgotten their origin that the +villagers, when questioned, can only repeat: ‘We can’t say why we +happen to speak “Arvanitikà”, but we are Greeks like everybody else.’ +The Vlachs again, a Romance-speaking tribe of nomadic shepherds who +have wandered as far south as Akarnania and the shores of the +Korinthian Gulf, are settling down there to the agricultural life of +the Greek village, so that Hellenism stands to them for the transition +to a higher social phase. Their still migratory brethren in the +northern ranges of Pindus are already ‘Hellenes’ in political +sympathy,[1] and are moving under Greek influence towards the same +social evolution. In distant Cappadocia, at the root of the Anatolian +peninsula, the Orthodox Greek population, submerged beneath the Turkish +flood more than eight centuries ago, has retained little individuality +except in its religion, and nothing of its native speech but a garbled +vocabulary embedded in a Turkified syntax. Yet even this dwindling +rear-guard has been overtaken just in time by the returning current of +national life, bringing with it the Greek school, and with the school a +community of outlook with Hellenism the world over. Whatever the fate +of eastern Anatolia may be, the Greek element is now assured a +prominent part in its future. + +[Footnote 1: Greece owed her naval supremacy in 1912-13 to the new +cruiser _Georgios Averof_, named after a Vlach millionaire who made his +fortune in the Greek colony at Alexandria and left a legacy for the +ship’s construction at his death.] + +These, moreover, are the peripheries of the Greek world; and at its +centre the impulse towards union in the national state readies a +passionate intensity. ‘Aren’t you better off as you are?’ travellers +used to ask in Krete during the era of autonomy. ‘If you get your +“Union”, you will have to do two years’ military service instead of one +year’s training in the militia, and will be taxed up to half as much +again.’ ‘We have thought of that,’ the Kretans would reply, ‘but what +does it matter, if we are united with Greece?’ + +On this unity modern Hellenism has concentrated its efforts, and after +nearly a century of ineffective endeavour it has been brought by the +statesmanship of Venezelos within sight of its goal. Our review of +outstanding problems reveals indeed the inconclusiveness of the +settlement imposed at Bucarest; but this only witnesses to the wisdom +of the Greek nation in reaffirming its confidence in Venezelos at the +present juncture, and recalling him to power to crown the work which he +has so brilliantly carried through. Under Venezelos’ guidance we cannot +doubt that the heart’s desire of Hellenism will be accomplished at the +impending European settlement by the final consolidation of the +Hellenic national state.[1] + +[Footnote 1: This paragraph, again, has been superseded by the dramatic +turn of events; but the writer has left it unaltered, for the end is +not yet.] + +Yet however attractive the sincerity of such nationalism may be, +political unity is only a negative achievement. The history of a nation +must be judged rather by the positive content of its ideals and the +positive results which it attains, and herein the Hellenic revival +displays certain grave shortcomings. The internal paralysis of social +and economic life has already been noted and ascribed to the urgency of +the ‘preliminary question’; but we must now add to this the growing +embitterment which has poisoned the relations of Greece with her Balkan +neighbours during the crises through which the ‘preliminary question’ +has been worked out to its solution. Now that this solution is at hand, +will Hellenism prove capable of casting out these two evils, and adapt +itself with strength renewed to the new phase of development that lies +before it? + +The northern territories acquired in 1913 will give a much greater +impetus to economic progress than Thessaly gave a generation ago; for +the Macedonian littoral west as well as east of the Struma produces a +considerable proportion of the Turkish Régie tobacco, while the +pine-forests of Pindus, if judiciously exploited, will go far to remedy +the present deficiency of home-grown timber, even if they do not +provide quantities sufficient for export abroad. If we take into +account the currant-crop of the Peloponnesian plain-lands which already +almost monopolizes the world-market, the rare ores of the south-eastern +mountains and the Archipelago, and the vintages which scientific +treatment might bring into competition with the wines of the Peninsula +and France, we can see that Greece has many sources of material +prosperity within her reach, if only she applies her liberated energy +to their development. Yet these are all of them specialized products, +and Greece will never export any staple commodity to rival the grain +which Rumania sends in such quantities to central Europe already, and +which Bulgaria will begin to send within a few years’ time. Even the +consolidated Greek kingdom will be too small in area and too little +compact in geographical outline to constitute an independent economic +unit, and the ultimate economic interests of the country demand +co-operation in some organization more comprehensive than the political +molecule of the national state. + +Such an association should embrace the Balkans in their widest extent— +from the Black Sea to the Adriatic and from the Carpathians to the +Aegean; for, in sharp contrast to the inextricable chaos of its +linguistic and ecclesiastical divisions, the region constitutes +economically a homogeneous and indivisible whole, in which none of the +parts can divest themselves of their mutual interdependence. Greece, +for example, has secured at last her direct link with the railway +system of the European continent, but for free transit beyond her own +frontier she still depends on Serbia’s good-will, just, as Serbia +depends on hers for an outlet to the Aegean at Salonika. The two states +have provided for their respective interests by a joint proprietorship +of the section of railway between Salonika and Belgrade; and similar +railway problems will doubtless bring Rumania to terms with Serbia for +access to the Adriatic, and both with Bulgaria for rights of way to +Constantinople and the Anatolian hinterland beyond. These common +commercial arteries of the Balkans take no account of racial or +political frontiers, but link the region as a whole with other regions +in a common economic relation. + +South-eastern and central Europe are complementary economic areas in a +special degree. The industries of central Europe will draw upon the raw +products of the south-east to an increasing extent, and the south-east +will absorb in turn increasing quantities of manufactured plant from +central Europe for the development of its own natural resources. The +two areas will become parties in a vast economic nexus, and, as in all +business transactions, each will try to get the best of the continually +intensified bargaining. This is why co-operation is so essential to the +future well-being of the Balkan States. Isolated individually and +mutually competitive as they are at present, they must succumb to the +economic ascendancy of Vienna and Berlin as inevitably as unorganized, +unskilled labourers fall under the thraldom of a well-equipped +capitalist. Central Europe will have in any event an enormous initial +superiority over the Balkans in wealth, population, and business +experience; and the Balkan peoples can only hope to hold their own in +this perilous but essential intercourse with a stronger neighbour, if +they take more active and deliberate steps towards co-operation among +themselves, and find in railway conventions the basis for a Balkan +zollverein. A zollverein should be the first goal of Balkan +statesmanship in the new phase of history that is opening for Europe; +but economic relations on this scale involve the political factor, and +the Balkans will not be able to deal with their great neighbours on +equal terms till the zollverein has ripened into a federation. The +alternative is subjection, both political and economic; and neither the +exhaustion of the Central Powers in the present struggle nor the +individual consolidation of the Balkan States in the subsequent +settlement will suffice by themselves to avert it in the end. + +The awakening of the nation and the consolidation of the state, which +we have traced in these pages, must accordingly lead on to the +confederation of the Balkans, if all that has been so painfully won is +not to perish again without result; and we are confronted with the +question: Will Balkan nationalism rise to the occasion and transcend +itself? + +Many spectators of recent history will dismiss the suggestion as +Utopian. ‘Nationality’, they will say, ‘revealed itself first as a +constructive force, and Europe staked its future upon it; but now that +we are committed to it, it has developed a sinister destructiveness +which we cannot remedy. Nationality brought the Balkan States into +being and led them to final victory over the Turk in 1912, only to set +them tearing one another to pieces again in 1913. In the present +catastrophe the curse of the Balkans has descended upon the whole of +Europe, and laid bare unsuspected depths of chaotic hatred; yet Balkan +antagonisms still remain more ineradicable than ours. The cure for +nationality is forgetfulness, but Balkan nationalism is rooted +altogether in the past. The Balkan peoples have suffered one shattering +experience in common—the Turk, and the waters of Ottoman oppression +that have gone over their souls have not been waters of Lethe. They +have endured long centuries of spiritual exile by the passionate +remembrance of their Sion, and when they have vindicated their heritage +at last, and returned to build up the walls of their city and the +temple of their national god, they have resented each other’s +neighbourhood as the repatriated Jew resented the Samaritan. The Greek +dreams with sullen intensity of a golden age before the Bulgar was +found in the land, and the challenge implied in the revival of the +Hellenic name, so far from being a superficial vanity, is the dominant +characteristic of the nationalism which has adopted it for its title. +Modern Hellenism breathes the inconscionable spirit of the _émigré_.’ + +This is only too true. The faith that has carried them to national +unity will suffice neither the Greeks nor any other Balkan people for +the new era that has dawned upon them, and the future would look dark +indeed, but for a strange and incalculable leaven, which is already +potently at work in the land. + +Since the opening of the present century, the chaotic, unneighbourly +races of south-eastern Europe, whom nothing had united before but the +common impress of the Turk, have begun to share another experience in +common— America. From the Slovak villages in the Carpathians to the +Greek villages in the Laconian hills they have been crossing the +Atlantic in their thousands, to become dockers and navvies, boot-blacks +and waiters, confectioners and barbers in Chicago, St. Louis, Omaha, +and all the other cities that have sprung up like magic to welcome the +immigrant to the hospitable plains of the Middle West. The intoxication +of his new environment stimulates all the latent industry and vitality +of the Balkan peasant, and he abandons himself whole-heartedly to +American life; yet he does not relinquish the national tradition in +which he grew up. In America work brings wealth, and the Greek or +Slovak soon worships his God in a finer church and reads his language +in a better-printed newspaper than he ever enjoyed in his native +village. The surplus flows home in remittances of such abundance that +they are steadily raising the cost of living in the Balkans themselves, +or, in other words, the standard of material civilization; and sooner +or later the immigrant goes the way of his money orders, for +home-sickness, if not a mobilization order, exerts its compulsion +before half a dozen years are out. + +It is a strange experience to spend a night in some remote +mountain-village of Greece, and see Americanism and Hellenism face to +face. Hellenism is represented by the village schoolmaster. He wears a +black coat, talks a little French, and can probably read Homer; but his +longest journey has been to the normal school at Athens, and it has not +altered his belief that the ikon in the neighbouring monastery was made +by St. Luke and the Bulgar beyond the mountains by the Devil. On the +other side of you sits the returned emigrant, chattering irrepressibly +in his queer version of the ‘American language’, and showing you the +newspapers which are mailed to him every fortnight from the States. His +clean linen collar and his well-made American boots are conspicuous +upon him, and he will deprecate on your behalf and his own the +discomfort and squalor of his native surroundings. His home-coming has +been a disillusionment, but it is a creative phenomenon; and if any one +can set Greece upon a new path it is he. He is transforming her +material life by his American savings, for they are accumulating into a +capital widely distributed in native hands, which will dispense the +nation from pawning its richest mines and vineyards to the European +exploiter, and enable it to carry on their development on its own +account at this critical juncture when European sources of capital are +cut off for an indefinite period by the disaster of the European War. +The emigrant will give Greece all Trikoupis dreamed of, but his +greatest gift to his country will be his American point of view. In the +West he has learnt that men of every language and religion can live in +the same city and work at the same shops and sheds and mills and +switch-yards without desecrating each other’s churches or even +suppressing each other’s newspapers, not to speak of cutting each +other’s throats; and when next he meets Albanian or Bulgar on Balkan +ground, he may remember that he has once dwelt with him in fraternity +at Omaha or St. Louis or Chicago. This is the gospel of Americanism, +and unlike Hellenism, which spread downwards from the patriarch’s +residence and the merchant’s counting-house, it is being preached in +all the villages of the land by the least prejudiced and most +enterprising of their sons (for it is these who answer America’s call); +and spreading upward from the peasant towards the professor in the +university and the politician in parliament. + +Will this new leaven conquer, and cast out the stale leaven of +Hellenism before it sours the loaf? Common sense is mighty, but whether +it shall prevail in Greece and the Balkans and Europe lies on the knees +of the gods. + + + + +RUMANIA: HER HISTORY AND POLITICS + + + + +1 +_Introduction_ + + +The problem of the origin and formation of the Rumanian nation has +always provided matter for keen disputation among historians, and the +theories which have been advanced are widely divergent. Some of these +discussions have been undertaken solely for political reasons, and in +such cases existing data prove conveniently adaptable. This elastic +treatment of the historical data is facilitated by the fact that a long +and important period affecting the formation and the development of the +Rumanian nation (270-1220) has bequeathed practically no contemporary +evidence. By linking up, however, what is known antecedent to that +period with the precise data available regarding the following it, and +by checking the inferred results with what little evidence exists +respecting the obscure epoch of Rumanian history, it has been possible +to reconstruct, almost to a certainty, the evolution of the Rumanians +during the Middle Ages. + +A discussion of the varying theories would be out of proportion, and +out of place, in this essay. Nor is it possible to give to any extent a +detailed description of the epic struggle which the Rumanians carried +on for centuries against the Turks. I shall have to deal, therefore, on +broad lines, with the historical facts—laying greater stress only upon +the three fundamental epochs of Rumanian history: the formation of the +Rumanian nation; its initial casting into a national polity (foundation +of the Rumanian principalities); and its final evolution into the +actual unitary State; and shall then pass on to consider the more +recent internal and external development of Rumania, and her present +attitude. + + + + +2 +_Formation of the Rumanian Nation_ + + +About the fifth century B.C., when the population of the +Balkan-Carpathian region consisted of various tribes belonging to the +Indo-European family, the northern portion of the Balkan peninsula was +conquered by the Thracians and the Illyrians. The Thracians spread +north and south, and a branch of their race, the Dacians, crossed the +Danube. The latter established themselves on both sides of the +Carpathian ranges, in the region which now comprises the provinces of +Oltenia (Rumania), and Banat and Transylvania (Hungary). The Dacian +Empire expanded till its boundaries touched upon those of the Roman +Empire. The Roman province of Moesia (between the Danube and the +Balkans) fell before its armies, and the campaign that ensued was so +successful that the Dacians were able to compel Rome to an alliance. + +Two expeditions undertaken against Dacia by the Emperor Trajan (98-117) +released Rome from these ignominious obligations, and brought Dacia +under Roman rule (A.D. 106). Before his second expedition Trajan +erected a stone bridge over the Danube, the remains of which can still +be seen at Turnu-Severin, a short distance below the point where the +Danube enters Rumanian territory. Trajan celebrated his victory by +erecting at Adam Klissi (in the province of Dobrogea) the recently +discovered _Tropaeum Traiani_, and in Rome the celebrated ‘Trajan’s +Column’, depicting in marble reliefs various episodes of the Dacian +wars. + +The new Roman province was limited to the regions originally inhabited +by the Dacians, and a strong garrison, estimated by historians at +25,000 men, was left to guard it. Numerous colonists from all parts of +the Roman Empire were brought here as settlers, and what remained of +the Dacian population completely amalgamated with them. The new +province quickly developed under the impulse of Roman civilization, of +which numerous inscriptions and other archaeological remains are +evidence. It became one of the most flourishing dependencies of the +Roman Empire, and was spoken of as _Dacia Felix_. + +About a century and a half later hordes of barbarian invaders, coming +from the north and east, swept over the country. Under the strain of +those incursions the Roman legions withdrew by degrees into Moesia, and +in A.D. 271 Dacia was finally evacuated. But the colonists remained, +retiring into the Carpathians, where they lived forgotten of history. + +The most powerful of these invaders were the Goths (271-375), who, +coming from the shores of the Baltic, had shortly before settled north +of the Black Sea. Unaccustomed to mountain life, they did not penetrate +beyond the plains between the Carpathians and the Dnjester. They had +consequently but little intercourse with the Daco-Roman population, and +the total absence in the Rumanian language and in Rumanian place-names +of words of Gothic origin indicates that their stay had no influence +upon country or population. Material evidence of their occupation is +afforded, however, by a number of articles made of gold found in 1837 +at Petroasa (Moldavia), and now in the National Museum at Bucarest. + +After the Goths came the Huns (375-453), under Attila, the Avars +(566-799), both of Mongolian race, and the Gepidae (453-566), of Gothic +race—all savage, bloodthirsty raiders, passing and repassing over the +Rumanian regions, pillaging and burning everywhere. To avoid +destruction the Daco-Roman population withdrew more and more into the +inaccessible wooded regions of the mountains, and as a result were in +no wise influenced by contact with the invaders. + +But with the coming of the Slavs, who settled in the Balkan peninsula +about the beginning of the seventh century, certain fundamental changes +took place in the ethnical conditions prevailing on the Danube. The +Rumanians were separated from the Romans, following the occupation by +the Slavs of the Roman provinces between the Adriatic and the Black +Sea. Such part of the population as was not annihilated during the +raids of the Avars was taken into captivity, or compelled to retire +southwards towards modern Macedonia and northwards towards the Dacian +regions. + +Parts of the Rumanian country became dependent upon the new state +founded between the Balkans and the Danube in 679 by the Bulgarians, a +people of Turanian origin, who formerly inhabited the regions north of +the Black Sea between the Volga and the mouth of the Danube. + +After the conversion of the Bulgarians to Christianity (864) the +Slovenian language was introduced into their Church, and afterwards +also into the Church of the already politically dependent Rumanian +provinces.[1] This finally severed the Daco-Rumanians from the Latin +world. The former remained for a long time under Slav influence, the +extent of which is shown by the large number of words of Slav origin +contained in the Rumanian language, especially in geographical and +agricultural terminology. + +[Footnote 1: The Rumanians north and south of the Danube embraced the +Christian faith after its introduction into the Roman Empire by +Constantine the Great (325), with Latin as religious language and their +church organization under the rule of Rome. A Christian basilica, +dating from that period, has been discovered by the Rumanian; +archaeologist, Tocilescu, at Adam Klissi (Dobrogea).] + +The coming of the Hungarians (a people of Mongolian race) about the end +of the ninth century put an end to the Bulgarian domination in Dacia. +While a few of the existing Rumanian duchies were subdued by Stephen +the Saint, the first King of Hungary (995-1038), the ‘land of the +Vlakhs’ (_Terra Blacorum_), in the south-eastern part of Transylvania, +enjoyed under the Hungarian kings a certain degree of national +autonomy. The Hungarian chronicles speak of the Vlakhs as ‘former +colonists of the Romans’. The ethnological influence of the Hungarians +upon the Rumanian population has been practically nil. They found the +Rumanian nation firmly established, race and language, and the latter +remained pure of Magyarisms, even in Transylvania. Indeed, it is easy +to prove—and it is only what might be expected, seeing that the +Rumanians had attained a higher state of civilization than the +Hungarian invaders—that the Hungarians were largely influenced by the +Daco-Romans. They adopted Latin as their official language, they copied +many of the institutions and customs of the Rumanians, and recruited a +large number of their nobles from among the Rumanian nobility, which +was already established on a feudal basis when the Hungarians arrived. + +A great number of the Rumanian nobles and freemen were, however, +inimical to the new masters, and migrated to the regions across the +mountains. This the Hungarians used as a pretext for bringing parts of +Rumania under their domination, and they were only prevented from +further extending it by the coming of the Tartars (1241), the last +people of Mongolian origin to harry these regions. The Hungarians +maintained themselves, however, in the parts which they had already +occupied, until the latter were united into the principality of the +‘Rumanian land’. + +To sum up: ‘The Rumanians are living to-day where fifteen centuries ago +their ancestors were living. The possession of the regions on the Lower +Danube passed from one nation to another, but none endangered the +Rumanian nation as a national entity. “The water passes, the stones +remain”; the hordes of the migration period, detached from their native +soil, disappeared as mist before the sun. But the Roman element bent +their heads while the storm passed over them, clinging to the old +places until the advent of happier days, when they were able to stand +up and stretch their limbs.’[1] + +[Footnote 1: Traugott Tamm, _Über den Ursprung der Rumänen,_, Bonn, +1891.] + + + + +3 +_The Foundation and Development of the Rumanian Principalities_ + + +The first attempt to organize itself into a political entity was made +by the Rumanian nation in the thirteenth century, when, under the +impulse of the disaffected nobles coming from Hungary, the two +principalities of ‘Muntenia’ (Mountain Land), commonly known as +Wallachia and ‘Moldavia’, came into being. The existence of Rumanians +on both sides of the Carpathians long before Wallachia was founded is +corroborated by contemporary chroniclers. We find evidence of it in as +distant a source as the _History of the Mongols,_ of the Persian +chronicler, Rashid Al-Din, who, describing the invasion of the Tartars, +says: ‘In the middle of spring (1240) the princes (Mongols or Tartars) +crossed the mountains in order to enter the country of the Bulares +(Bulgarians) and of the Bashguirds (Hungarians). Orda, who was marching +to the right, passed through the country of the Haute (Olt), where +Bazarambam met him with an army, but was beaten. Boudgek crossed the +mountains to enter the Kara-Ulak, and defeated the Ulak (Vlakh) +people.’[1] Kara-Ulak means Black Wallachia; Bazarambam is certainly +the corrupted name of the Ban Bassarab, who ruled as vassal of Hungary +over the province of Oltenia, and whose dynasty founded the +principality of Muntenia. The early history of this principality was +marked by efforts to free it from Hungarian domination, a natural +development of the desire for emancipation which impelled the Rumanians +to migrate from the subdued provinces in Hungary. + +[Footnote 1: Xenopol, _Histoire des Roumains,_ Paris, 1896, i, 168.] + +The foundation of Moldavia dates from after the retreat of the Tartars, +who had occupied the country for a century (1241-1345). They were +driven out by an expedition under Hungarian leadership, with the aid of +Rumanians from the province of Maramuresh. It was the latter who then +founded the principality of Moldavia under the suzerainty of Hungary, +the chroniclers mentioning as its first ruler the Voivod Dragosh.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The legend as to the foundation of Moldavia tells us that +Dragosh, when hunting one day in the mountains, was pursuing a bison +through the dense forest. Towards sunset, just when a successful shot +from his bow had struck and killed the animal, he emerged at a point +from which the whole panorama of Moldavia was unfolded before his +astonished eyes. Deeply moved by the beauty of this fair country, he +resolved to found a state there. It is in commemoration of this event +that Moldavia bears the head of a wild bison on her banner.] + +The rudimentary political formations which already existed before the +foundation of the principalities were swept away by the invasion of the +Tartars, who destroyed all trace of constituted authority in the plains +below the Carpathians. In consequence the immigrants from Transylvania +did not encounter any resistance, and were even able to impose +obedience upon the native population, though coming rather as refugees +than as conquerors. These new-comers were mostly nobles (boyards). +Their emigration deprived the masses of the Rumanian population of +Transylvania of all moral and political support—especially as a part of +the nobility had already been won over by their Hungarian masters—and +with time the masses fell into servitude. On the other hand the +immigrating nobles strengthened and secured the predominance of their +class in the states which were to be founded. In both cases the +situation of the peasantry became worse, and we have, curiously enough, +the same social fact brought about by apparently contrary causes. + +Though the Rumanians seem to have contributed but little, up to the +nineteenth century, to the advance of civilization, their part in +European history is nevertheless a glorious one, and if less apparent, +perhaps of more fundamental importance. By shedding their blood in the +struggle against the Ottoman invasion, they, together with the other +peoples of Oriental Europe, procured that security which alone made +possible the development of western civilization. Their merit, like +that of all with whom they fought, ‘is not to have vanquished time and +again the followers of Mohammed, who always ended by gaining the upper +hand, but rather to have resisted with unparalleled energy, +perseverance, and bravery the terrible Ottoman invaders, making them +pay for each step advanced such a heavy price, that their resources +were drained, they were unable to carry on the fight, and thus their +power came to an end’.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Xenopol, op. cit., i. 266.] + +From the phalanx of Christian warriors stand out the names of a few who +were the bravest of a time when bravery was common; but while it is at +least due that more tribute than a mere mention of their names should +be paid to the patriot princes who fought in life-long conflict against +Turkish domination, space does not permit me to give more than the +briefest summary of the wars which for centuries troubled the country. + +It was in 1389, when Mircea the Old was Prince of Wallachia, that the +united Balkan nations attempted for the first time to check Ottoman +invasion. The battle of Kosovo, however, was lost, and Mircea had to +consent to pay tribute to the Turks. For a short space after the battle +of Rovine (1398), where Mircea defeated an invading Turkish army, the +country had peace, until Turkish victories under the Sultan Mohammed +resulted, in 1411, in further submissions to tribute. + +It is worthy of mention that it was on the basis of tribute that the +relations between Turkey and Rumania rested until 1877, the Rumanian +provinces becoming at no time what Hungary was for a century and a +half, namely, a Turkish province. + +In a battle arising following his frustration—by means not unconnected +with his name—of a Turkish plot against his person, Vlad the Impaler +(1458-62) completely defeated the Turks under Mohammed II; but an +unfortunate feud against Stephen the Great, Prince of Moldavia, put an +end to the reign of Vlad—a fierce but just prince. + +A period of the most lamentable decadence followed, during which +Turkish domination prevailed more and more in the country. During an +interval of twenty-five years (1521-46) no less than eleven princes +succeeded one another on the throne of Muntenia, whilst of the nineteen +princes who ruled during the last three-quarters of the sixteenth +century, only two died a natural death while still reigning. + +In Moldavia also internal struggles were weakening the country. Not +powerful enough to do away with one another, the various aspirants to +the throne contented themselves with occupying and ruling over parts of +the province. Between 1443-7 there were no less than three princes +reigning simultaneously, whilst one of them, Peter III, lost and +regained the throne three times. + +For forty-seven years (1457-1504) Stephen the Great fought for the +independence of Moldavia. At Racova, in 1475, he annihilated an Ottoman +army in a victory considered the greatest ever secured by the Cross +against Islam. The Shah of Persia, Uzun Hasan, who was also fighting +the Turks, offered him an alliance, urging him at the same time to +induce all the Christian princes to unite with the Persians against the +common foe. These princes, as well as Pope Sixtus IV, gave him great +praise; but when Stephen asked from them assistance in men and money, +not only did he receive none, but Vladislav, King of Hungary, conspired +with his brother Albert, King of Poland, to conquer and divide Moldavia +between them. A Polish army entered the country, but was utterly +destroyed by Stephen in the forest of Kosmin. + +Having had the opportunity of judging at its right value the friendship +of the Christian princes, on his death-bed Stephen advised his son +Bogdan to make voluntary submission to the Turks. Thus Moldavia, like +Wallachia, came under Turkish suzerainty. + +For many years after Stephen’s death the Turks exploited the Rumanian +countries shamelessly, the very candidates for the throne having to pay +great sums for Turkish support. The country groaned under the resultant +taxation and the promiscuousness of the tribute exacted till, in 1572, +John the Terrible ascended the Moldavian throne. This prince refused to +pay tribute, and repeatedly defeated the Turks. An army of 100,000 men +advanced against John; but his cavalry, composed of nobles not +over-loyal to a prince having the peasant cause so much at heart, +deserted to the enemy, with the result that, after a gallant and +prolonged resistance, he suffered defeat. + +Michael the Brave, Prince of Muntenia (1593-1601), was the last of the +Vlakhs to stand up against Turkish aggression. This prince not only +succeeded in crushing a Turkish army sent against him, but he invaded +Transylvania, whose prince had leanings towards Turkey, pushed further +into Moldavia, and succeeded in bringing the three Rumanian countries +under his rule. Michael is described in the documents of the time as +‘Prince of the whole land of Hungro-Wallachia, of Transylvania, and of +Moldavia’. He ruled for eight years. ‘It was not the Turkish sword +which put an end to the exploits of Michael the Brave. The Magyars of +Transylvania betrayed him; the German emperor condemned him; and a +Greek in Austria’s service, General Basta, had him sabred: as though it +were fated that all the enemies of the Rumanian race, the Magyar, the +German, and the Greek, should unite to dip their hands in the blood of +the Latin hero.’[1] The union of the Rumanian lands which he realized +did not last long; but it gave form and substance to the idea which was +from that day onward to be the ideal of the Rumanian nation. + +[Footnote 1: Alfred Rumbaud, Introduction to Xenopol, op, cit., i. +xix.] + +The fundamental cause of all the sufferings of the Rumanian +principalities was the hybrid ‘hereditary-elective’ system of +succession to the throne, which prevailed also in most of the +neighbouring countries. All members of the princely family were +eligible for the succession; but the right of selecting among them lay +with an assembly composed of the higher nobility and clergy. All was +well if a prince left only one successor. But if there were several, +even if illegitimate children, claiming the right to rule, then each +endeavoured to gain over the nobility with promises, sometimes, +moreover, seeking the support of neighbouring countries. This system +rendered easier and hastened the establishment of Turkish domination; +and corruption and intrigues, in which the Sultan’s harem had a share, +became capital factors in the choice and election of the ruler. + +Economically and intellectually all this was disastrous. The Rumanians +were an agricultural people. The numerous class of small freeholders +(moshneni and razeshi), not being able to pay the exorbitant taxes, +often had their lands confiscated by the princes. Often, too, not being +able to support themselves, they sold their property and their very +selves to the big landowners. Nor did the nobles fare better. Formerly +free, quasi-feudal warriors, seeking fortune in reward for services +rendered to their prince, they were often subjected to coercive +treatment on his part now that the throne depended upon the goodwill of +influential personages at Constantinople. Various civil offices were +created at court, either necessitated by the extension of the relations +of the country or intended to satisfy some favourite of the prince. +Sources of social position and great material benefit, these offices +were coveted greedily by the boyards, and those who obtained none could +only hope to cheat fortune by doing their best to undermine the +position of the prince. + + + + +4 +_The Phanariote Rule_ + + +These offices very presently fell to the lot of the Phanariotes (Greek +merchants and bankers inhabiting the quarter of Phanar), who had in +some way or another assisted the princes to their thrones, these being +now practically put up to auction in Constantinople. As a natural +consequence of such a state of affairs the thoughts of the Rumanian +princes turned to Russia as a possible supporter against Ottoman +oppression. A formal alliance was entered into in 1711 with Tsar Peter +the Great, but a joint military action against the Turks failed, the +Tsar returned to Russia, and the Porte threatened to transform +Moldavia, in order to secure her against incipient Russian influence, +into a Turkish province with a pasha as administrator. The nobles were +preparing to leave the country, and the people to retire into the +mountains, as their ancestors had done in times of danger. It is not to +be wondered at that, under the menace of losing their autonomy, the +Rumanians ‘welcomed the nomination of the dragoman of the Porte, +Nicholas Mavrocordato, though he was a Greek. The people greeted with +joy the accession of the first Phanariote to the throne of the +principality of Moldavia’[1] (1711). + +[Footnote 1: Xenopol, op. cit., ii. 138] + +Knowledge of foreign languages had enabled the Phanariotes to obtain +important diplomatic positions at Constantinople, and they ended by +acquiring the thrones of the Rumanian principalities as a recompense +for their services. But they had to pay for it, and to make matters +more profitable the Turks devised the ingenious method of transferring +the princes from one province to another, each transference being +considered as a new nomination. From 1730 to 1741 the two reigning +princes interchanged thrones in this way three times. They acquired the +throne by gold, and they could only keep it by gold. All depended upon +how much they wore able to squeeze out of the country. The princes soon +became past masters in the art of spoliation. They put taxes upon +chimneys, and the starving peasants pulled their cottages down and went +to live in mountain caves; they taxed the animals, and the peasants +preferred to kill the few beasts they possessed. But this often proved +no remedy, for we are told that the Prince Constantin Mavrocordato, +having prescribed a tax on domestic animals at a time when an epidemic +had broken out amongst them, ordered the tax to be levied on the +carcasses. ‘The Administrative régime during the Phanariote period was, +in general, little else than organized brigandage,’ says Xenopol[1]. In +fact the Phanariote rule was instinct with corruption, luxury, and +intrigue. Though individually some of them may not deserve blame, yet +considering what the Phanariotes took out of the country, what they +introduced into it, and to what extent they prevented its development, +their era was the most calamitous in Rumanian history. + +[Footnote 1: Ibid, op. cit., ii. 308] + +The war of 1768 between Russia and Turkey gave the former power a vague +protectorate over the Rumanian provinces (Treaty of Kutchuk Kainardji). +In 1774 Austria acquired from the Turks, by false promises, the +northern part of Moldavia, the pleasant land of Bucovina. During the +new conflict between Turkey and Russia, the Russian armies occupied and +battened upon the Rumanian provinces for six years. Though they had +again to abandon their intention of making the Danube the southern +boundary of their empire—to which Napoleon had agreed by the secret +treaty with Tsar Alexander (Erfurt, September 27, 1808)—they obtained +from Turkey the cession of Bessarabia (Treaty of Bucarest, May 28, +1812), together with that part of Moldavia lying between the Dnjester +and the Pruth, the Russians afterwards giving to the whole region the +name of Bessarabia. + + + + +5 +_Modern Period to 1866_ + + +In 1821 the Greek revolution, striving to create an independent Greece, +broke out on Rumanian ground, supported by the princes of Moldavia and +Muntenia. Of this support the Rumanians strongly disapproved, for, if +successful, the movement would have strengthened the obnoxious Greek +domination; If unsuccessful, the Turks were sure to take a terrible +revenge for the assistance given by the Rumanian countries. The +movement, which was started about the same time by the ennobled +peasant, Tudor Vladimirescu, for the emancipation of the lower classes, +soon acquired, therefore, an anti-Greek tendency. Vladimirescu was +assassinated at the instigation of the Greeks; the latter were +completely checked by the Turks, who, grown suspicious after the Greek +rising and confronted with the energetic attitude of the Rumanian +nobility, consented in 1822 to the nomination of two native boyards, +Jonitza Sturdza and Gregory Ghica, recommended by their countrymen, as +princes of Moldavia and Wallachia. The iniquitous system of ‘the throne +to the highest bidder’ had come to an end. + +The period which marks the decline of Greek influence in the Rumanian +principalities also marks the growth of Russian influence; the first +meant economic exploitation, the second was a serious menace to the +very existence of the Rumanian nation. But if Russia seemed a possible +future danger, Turkey with its Phanariote following was a certain and +immediate menace. When, therefore, at the outbreak of the conflict with +Turkey in 1828 the Russians once more passed the Pruth, the country +welcomed them. Indeed, the Rumanian boyards, who after the rising of +1821 and the Turkish occupation had taken refuge in Transylvania, had +even more than once invited Russian intervention.[1] Hopes and fears +alike were realized. By the Treaty of Adrianople (1829) the rights of +Turkey as suzerain were limited to the exaction of a monetary tribute +and the right of investiture of the princes, one important innovation +being that these last were to be elected by national assemblies for +life. But, on the other hand, a Russian protectorate was established, +and the provinces remained in Russian military occupation up to 1834, +pending the payment of the war indemnity by Turkey. The ultimate aim of +Russia may be open to discussion. Her immediate aim was to make Russian +influence paramount in the principalities; this being the only possible +explanation of the anomalous fact that, pending the payment of the war +indemnity, Russia herself was occupying the provinces whose autonomy +she had but now forcibly retrieved from Turkey. The _Règlement +Organique_, the new constitutional law given to the principalities by +their Russian governor, Count Kisseleff, truly reflected the tendency. +From the administrative point of view it was meant to make for +progress; from the political point of view it was meant to bind the two +principalities to the will of the Tsar. The personal charm of Count +Kisseleff seemed to have established as it were an unbreakable link +between Russians and Rumanians. But when he left the country in 1834 +‘the liking for Russia passed away to be replaced finally by the two +sentiments which always most swayed the Rumanian heart: love for their +country, and affection towards France’. + +[Footnote 1: Sec P. Eliade, _Histoire de l’Esprit Public en Roumanie_, +i, p. 167 et seq.] + +French culture had been introduced into the principalities by the +Phanariote princes who, as dragomans of the Porte, had to know the +language, and usually employed French secretaries for themselves and +French tutors for their children. With the Russian occupation a fresh +impetus was given to French culture, which was pre-eminent in Russia at +the time; and the Russian officials, not speaking the language of the +country, generally employed French in their relations with the Rumanian +authorities, French being already widely spoken in Rumania. The contact +with French civilization, at an epoch when the Rumanians were striving +to free themselves from Turkish, Greek, and Russian political +influence, roused in them the sleeping Latin spirit, and the younger +generation, in constantly increasing numbers, flocked to Paris in +search of new forms of civilization and political life. At this +turning-point in their history the Rumanians felt themselves drawn +towards France, no less by racial affinity than by the liberal ideas to +which that country had so passionately given herself during several +decades. + +By the Treaty of Adrianople the Black Sea was opened to the commercial +vessels of all nations. This made for the rapid economic development of +the principalities by providing an outlet for their agricultural +produce, the chief source of their wealth. It also brought them nearer +to western Europe, which began to be interested in a nation whose +spirit centuries of sufferings had failed to break. Political, +literary, and economic events thus prepared the ground for the Rumanian +Renascence, and when in 1848 the great revolution broke out, it spread +at once over the Rumanian countries, where the dawn of freedom had been +struggling to break since 1821. The Rumanians of Transylvania rose +against the tyranny of the Magyars; those of Moldavia and Muntenia +against the oppressive influence of Russia. The movement under the +gallant, but inexperienced, leadership of a few patriots, who, +significantly enough, had almost all been educated in France, was, +however, soon checked in the principalities by the joint action of +Russian and Turkish forces which remained in occupation of the country. +Many privileges were lost (Convention of Balta Liman, May 1, 1849); but +the revolution had quickened the national sentiment of the younger +generation in all classes of society, and the expatriated leaders, +dispersed throughout the great capitals of Europe, strenuously set to +work to publish abroad the righteous cause of their country. In this +they received the enthusiastic and invaluable assistance of Edgar +Quinet, Michelet, Saint-Marc Girardin, and others. + +This propaganda had the fortune to be contemporaneous and in agreement +with the political events leading to the Crimean War, which was entered +upon to check the designs of Russia. A logical consequence was the +idea, raised at the Paris Congress of 1856, of the union of the +Rumanian principalities as a barrier to Russian expansion. This idea +found a powerful supporter in Napoleon III, ever a staunch upholder of +the principle of nationality. But at the Congress the unexpected +happened. Russia favoured the idea of union, ‘to swallow the two +principalities at a gulp,’ as a contemporary diplomatist maliciously +suggested; while Austria opposed it strongly. So, inconceivably enough, +did Turkey, whose attitude, as the French ambassador at Constantinople, +Thouvenel, put it, ‘was less influenced by the opposition of Austria +than by the approval of Russia’.[1] Great Britain also threw in her +weight with the powers which opposed the idea of union, following her +traditional policy of preserving the European equilibrium. The treaty +of March 30, 1856, re-incorporated with Moldavia the southern part of +Bessarabia, including the delta of the Danube, abolished the Russian +protectorate, but confirmed the suzerainty of Turkey—not unnaturally, +since the integrity of the Ottoman Empire had been the prime motive of +the war. By prohibiting Turkey, however, from entering Rumanian +territory, save with the consent of the great powers, it was recognized +indirectly that the suzerainty was merely a nominal one. Article 23 of +the treaty, by providing that the administration of the principalities +was to be on a national basis, implicitly pointed to the idea of union, +as the organization of one principality independently of the other +would not have been national. But as the main argument of Turkey and +Austria was that the Rumanians themselves did not desire the union, it +was decided to convene in both principalities special assemblies +(divans _ad hoc_) representing all classes of the population, whose +wishes were to be embodied, by a European commission, in a report for +consideration by the Congress. + +[Footnote 1: A. Xenopol, _Unionistii si Separatistii_ (Paper read +before the Rumanian Academy), 1909.] + +To understand the argument of the two powers concerned and the decision +to which it led, it must be borne in mind that the principalities were +in the occupation of an Austrian army, which had replaced the Russian +armies withdrawn in 1854, and that the elections for the assemblies +were to be presided over by Turkish commissaries. Indeed, the latter, +in collaboration with the Austrian consuls, so successfully doctored +the election lists,[1] that the idea of union might once more have +fallen through, had it not been for the invaluable assistance which +Napoleon III gave the Rumanian countries. As Turkish policy was relying +mainly on England’s support, Napoleon brought about a personal meeting +with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, at Osborne (August 1857), the +result of which was a compromise: Napoleon agreed to defer for the time +being the idea of an effective union of the two principalities, England +undertaking, on the other hand, to make the Porte cancel the previous +elections, and proceed to new ones after revision of the electoral +lists. The corrupt Austrian and Turkish influence on the old elections +was best demonstrated by the fact that only three of the total of +eighty-four old members succeeded in securing re-election. The +assemblies met and proclaimed as imperatively necessary to the future +welfare of the provinces, their union, ‘for no frontier divides us, and +everything tends to bring us closer, and nothing to separate us, save +the ill-will of those who desire to see us disunited and weak’; +further, a foreign hereditary dynasty, because ‘the accession to the +throne of princes chosen from amongst us has been a constant pretext +for foreign interference, and the throne has been the cause of unending +feud among the great families of this country’. Moreover, if the union +of the two principalities was to be accomplished under a native prince, +it is obvious that the competition would have become doubly keen; not +to speak of the jealousies likely to be arousal between Moldavians and +Muntenians. + +[Footnote 1: The edifying correspondence between the Porte and its +commissary Vorgoridès regarding the arrangements for the Rumanian +elections fell into the hands of Rumanian politicians, and caused a +great sensation when it appeared in _L’Etoile du Danube_, published in +Brussels by Rumanian _émigrés_.] + +Such were the indisputable wishes of the Rumanians, based on knowledge +of men and facts, and arising out of the desire to see their country +well started on the high road of progress. But Europe had called for +the expression of these wishes only to get the question shelved for the +moment, as in 1856 everybody was anxious for a peace which should at +all costs be speedy. Consequently, when a second Congress met in Paris, +in May 1858, three months of discussion and the sincere efforts of +France only resulted in a hybrid structure entitled the ‘United +Principalities’. These were to have a common legislation, a common +army, and a central committee composed of representatives of both +assemblies for the discussion of common affairs; but were to continue +to form two separate states, with independent legislative and executive +institutions, each having to elect a prince of Rumanian descent for +life. + +Disappointed in their hopes and reasonable expectations, the Rumanians +adopted the principle of ‘help yourself and God will help you’, and +proceeded to the election of their rulers. Several candidates competed +in Moldavia. To avoid a split vote the name of an outsider was put +forward the day before the election, and on January 17, 1859, Colonel +Alexander Ioan Cuza was unanimously elected. In Wallachia the outlook +was very uncertain when the assembly met, amid great popular +excitement, on February 5. The few patriots who had realized that the +powers, seeking only their own interests, were consciously and of set +purpose hampering the emancipation of a long-suffering nation, put +forth and urged the election of Cuza, and the assembly unanimously +adopted this spirited suggestion. By this master-stroke the Rumanians +had quietly accomplished the reform which was an indispensable +condition towards assuring a better future. The political moment was +propitious. Italy’s military preparation prevented Austria from +intervening, and, as usual when confronted with an accomplished fact, +the great powers and Turkey finished by officially recognizing the +action of the principalities in December 1861. The central commission +was at once abolished, the two assemblies and cabinets merged into one, +and Bucarest became the capital of the new state ‘Rumania’. + +If the unsympathetic attitude of the powers had any good result, it was +to bring home for the moment to the Rumanians the necessity for +national unity. When the danger passed, however, the wisdom which it +had evoked followed suit. Cuza cherished the hope of realizing various +ideal reforms. Confronted with strong opposition, he did not hesitate +to override the constitution by dissolving the National Assembly (May +2, 1864) and arrogating to himself the right, till the formation of a +new Chamber, to issue decrees which had all the force of law. He thus +gave a dangerous example to the budding constitutional polity; +political passions were let loose, and a plot organized by the +Opposition led to the forced abdication of Cuza on February 23, 1866. +The prince left the country for ever a few days later. No disturbance +whatever took place, not one drop of blood was shed. + +A series of laws, mostly adapted from French models, was introduced by +Cuza. Under the Education Act of 1864 all degrees of education were +free, and elementary education compulsory. A large number of special +and technical schools were founded, as well as two universities, one at +Jassy (1860) and one at Bucarest (1864). After the _coup d’état_ of +1864 universal suffrage was introduced, largely as an attempt to +‘swamp’ the fractious political parties with the peasant vote; while at +the same time a ‘senate’ was created as a ‘moderating assembly’ which, +composed as it was of members by right and members nominated by the +prince, by its very nature increased the influence of the crown. The +chief reforms concerned the rural question. Firstly, Cuza and his +minister, Cogalniceanu, secularized and converted to the state the +domains of the monasteries, which during the long period of Greek +influence had acquired one-fifth of the total area of the land, and +were completely in the hands of the Greek clergy (Law of December 13, +1863). More important still, as affecting fundamentally the social +structure of the country, was the Rural Law (promulgated on August 26, +1864), which had been the cause of the conflict between Cuza and the +various political factions, the Liberals clamouring for more thorough +reforms, the Conservatives denouncing Cuza’s project as revolutionary. +As the peasant question is the most important problem left for Rumania +to solve, and as I believe that, in a broad sense, it has a +considerable bearing upon the present political situation in that +country, it may not be out of place here to devote a little space to +its consideration. + +Originally the peasant lived in the village community as a free +land-owner. He paid a certain due (one-tenth of his produce and three +days’ labour yearly) to his leader (_cneaz_) as recompense for his +leadership in peace and war. The latter, moreover, solely enjoyed the +privilege of carrying on the occupations of miller and innkeeper, and +the peasant was compelled to mill with him. When after the foundation +of the principalities the upper class was established on a feudal +basis, the peasantry were subjected to constantly increasing burdens. +Impoverished and having in many cases lost their land, the peasants +were also deprived at the end of the sixteenth century of their freedom +of movement. By that time the cneaz, from being the leader of the +community, had become the actual lord of the village, and his wealth +was estimated by the number of villages he possessed. The peasant +owners paid their dues to him in labour and in kind. Those peasants who +owned no land were his serfs, passing with the land from master to +master. + +Under the Turkish domination the Rumanian provinces became the granary +of the Ottoman Empire. The value of land rose quickly, as did also the +taxes. To meet these taxes—from the payment of which the boyards (the +descendants of the cneazi) were exempt—the peasant owners had +frequently to sacrifice their lands; while, greedy after the increased +benefits, the boyards used all possible means to acquire more land for +themselves. With the increase of their lands they needed more labour, +and they obtained permission from the ruler not only to exact increased +labour dues from the peasantry, but also to determine the amount of +work that should be done in a day. This was effected in such a way that +the peasants had, in fact, to serve three and four times the number of +days due. + +The power to acquire more land from the freeholders, and to increase +the amount of labour due by the peasants, was characteristic of the +legislation of the eighteenth century. By a decree of Prince Moruzi, in +1805, the lords were for the first time empowered to reserve to their +own use part of the estate, namely, one-fourth of the meadow land, and +this privilege was extended in 1828 to the use of one-third of the +arable land. The remaining two-thirds were reserved for the peasants, +every young married couple being entitled to a certain amount of land, +in proportion to the number of traction animals they owned. When the +Treaty of Adrianople of 1829 opened the western markets to Rumanian +corn, in which markets far higher prices were obtainable than from the +Turks, Rumanian agriculture received an extraordinary impetus. +Henceforth the efforts of the boyards were directed towards lessening +the amount of land to which the peasants were entitled. By the +_Règlement Organique_ they succeeded in reducing such land to half its +previous area, at the same time maintaining and exacting from the +peasant his dues in full. It is in the same Act that there appears for +the first time the fraudulent title ‘lords of the land’, though the +boyards had no exclusive right of property; they had the use of +one-third of the estate, and a right to a due in labour and in kind +from the peasant holders, present or prospective, of the other +two-thirds. + +With a view to ensuring, on the one hand, greater economic freedom to +the land-owners, and, on the other, security for the peasants from the +enslaving domination of the upper class, the rural law of 1864 +proclaimed the peasant-tenants full proprietors of their holdings, and +the land-owners full proprietors of the remainder of the estate. The +original intention of creating common land was not carried out in the +Bill. The peasant’s holding in arable land being small, he not +infrequently ploughed his pasture, and, as a consequence, had either to +give up keeping beasts, or pay a high price to the land-owners for +pasturage. Dues in labour and in kind were abolished, the land-owners +receiving an indemnity which was to be refunded to the state by the +peasants in instalments within a period of fifteen years. This reform +is characteristic of much of the legislation of Cuza: despotically +pursuing the realization of some ideal reform, without adequate study +of and adaptation to social circumstances, his laws provided no +practical solution of the problem with which they dealt. In this case, +for example, the reform benefited the upper class solely, although +generally considered a boon to the peasantry. Of ancient right +two-thirds of the estate were reserved for the peasants; but the new +law gave them possession of no more than the strip they were holding, +which barely sufficed to provide them with the mere necessaries of +life. The remainder up to two-thirds of the estate went as a gift, with +full proprietorship; to the boyard. For the exemption of their dues in +kind and in labour, the peasants had to pay an indemnity, whereas the +right of their sons to receive at their marriage a piece of land in +proportion to the number of traction animals they possessed was lost +without compensation. Consequently, the younger peasants had to sell +their labour, contracting for periods of a year and upwards, and became +a much easier prey to the spoliation of the upper class than when they +had at least a strip of land on which to build a hut, and from which to +procure their daily bread; the more so as the country had no industry +which could compete with agriculture in the labour market. An +investigation undertaken by the Home Office showed that out of 1,265 +labour contracts for 1906, chosen at random, only 39.7 per cent, were +concluded at customary wages; the others were lower in varying degrees, +13.2 per cent. of the cases showing wages upwards of 75 per cent. below +the usual rates. + +Under these conditions of poverty and economic serfdom the peasantry +was not able to participate in the enormous development of Rumanian +agriculture, which had resulted from increased political security and +the establishment of an extensive network of railways. While the +boyards found an increasing attraction in politics, a new class of +middlemen came into existence, renting the land from the boyards for +periods varying generally from three to five years. Owing to the +resultant competition, rents increased considerably, while conservative +methods of cultivation kept production stationary. Whereas the big +cultivator obtained higher prices to balance the increased cost of +production, the peasant, who produced for his own consumption, could +only face such increase by a corresponding decrease in the amount of +food consumed. To show how much alive the rural question is, it is +enough to state that peasant risings occurred in 1888, 1889, 1894, +1900, and 1907; that new distributions of land took place in 1881 and +1889; that land was promised to the peasants as well at the time of the +campaign of 1877 as at that of 1913; and that more or less happily +conceived measures concerning rural questions have been passed in +almost every parliamentary session. The general tendency of such +legislation partook of the ‘free contract’ nature, though owing to the +social condition of the peasantry the acts in question had to embody +protective measures providing for a maximum rent for arable and pasture +land, and a minimum wage for the peasant labourer. + +Solutions have been suggested in profusion. That a solution is possible +no one can doubt. One writer, basing his arguments on official +statistics which show that the days of employment in 1905 averaged only +ninety-one for each peasant, claims that only the introduction of +circulating capital and the creation of new branches of activity can +bring about a change. The suggested remedy may be open to discussion; +but our author is undoubtedly right when, asking himself why this +solution has not yet been attempted, he says: ‘Our country is governed +at present by an agrarian class…. Her whole power rests in her +ownership of the land, our only wealth. The introduction of circulating +capital would result in the disintegration of that wealth, in the loss +of its unique quality, and, as a consequence, in the social decline of +its possessors.’[1] This is the fundamental evil which prevents any +solution of the rural question. A small class of politicians, with the +complicity of a large army of covetous and unscrupulous officials, live +in oriental indolence out of the sufferings of four-fifths of the +Rumanian nation. Though elementary education is compulsory, more than +60 per cent. of the population are still illiterate, mainly on account +of the inadequacy of the educational budget. Justice is a myth for the +peasant. Of political rights he is, in fact, absolutely deprived. The +large majority, and by far the sanest part of the Rumanian nation, are +thus fraudulently kept outside the political and social life of the +country. It is not surmising too much, therefore, to say that the +opportunity of emancipating the Transylvanians would not have been +wilfully neglected, had that part of the Rumanian nation in which the +old spirit still survives had any choice in the determination of their +own fate. + +[Footnote 1: St. Antim, _Cbestiunea Socială în România,_ 1908, p. 214.] + + + + +6 +_Contemporary Period: Internal Development_ + + +In order to obviate internal disturbances or external interference, the +leaders of the movement which had dethroned Prince Cuza caused +parliament to proclaim, on the day of Cuza’s abdication, Count Philip +of Flanders— the father of King Albert of Belgium—Prince of Rumania. +The offer was, however, not accepted, as neither France nor Russia +favoured the proposal. Meanwhile a conference had met again in Paris at +the instance of Turkey and vetoed the election of a foreign prince. But +events of deeper importance were ripening in Europe, and the Rumanian +politicians rightly surmised that the powers would not enforce their +protests if a candidate were found who was likely to secure the support +of Napoleon III, then ‘schoolmaster’ of European diplomacy. This +candidate was found in the person of Prince Carol of +Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, second son of the head of the elder branch of +the Hohenzollerns (Catholic and non-reigning). Prince Carol was cousin +to the King of Prussia, and related through his grandmother to the +Bonaparte family. He could consequently count upon the support of +France and Prussia, while the political situation fortunately secured +him from the opposition of Russia, whose relations with Prussia were at +the time friendly, and also from that of Austria, whom Bismarck +proposed to ‘keep busy for some time to come’. The latter must have +viewed with no little satisfaction the prospect of a Hohenzollern +occupying the throne of Rumania at this juncture; and Prince Carol, +allowing himself to be influenced by the Iron Chancellor’s advice, +answered the call of the Rumanian nation, which had proclaimed him as +‘Carol I, Hereditary Prince of Rumania’. Travelling secretly with a +small retinue, the prince second class, his suite first, Prince Carol +descended the Danube on an Austrian steamer, and landed on May 8 at +Turnu-Severin, the very place where, nearly eighteen centuries before, +the Emperor Trajan had alighted and founded the Rumanian nation. + +By independent and energetic action, by a conscious neglect of the will +of the powers, which only a young constitutional polity would have +dared, by an active and unselfish patriotism, Rumania had at last +chosen and secured as her ruler the foreign prince who alone had a +chance of putting a stop to intrigues from within and from without. And +the Rumanians had been extremely fortunate in their hasty and not quite +independent choice. A prince of Latin origin would probably have been +more warmly welcomed to the hearts of the Rumanian people; but after so +many years of political disorder, corrupt administration, and arbitrary +rule, a prince possessed of the German spirit of discipline and order +was best fitted to command respect and impose obedience and sobriety of +principle upon the Rumanian politicians. + +Prince Carol’s task was no easy one. The journal compiled by the +provisional government, which held the reins for the period elapsing +between the abdication of Cuza and the accession of Prince Carol, +depicts in the darkest colours the economic situation to which the +faults, the waste, the negligence, and short-sightedness of the +previous régime had reduced the country, ‘the government being in the +humiliating position of having brought disastrous and intolerable +hardship alike upon its creditors, its servants, its pensioners, and +its soldiers’.[1] Reforms were badly needed, and the treasury had +nothing in hand but debts. To increase the income of the state was +difficult, for the country was poor and not economically independent. +Under the Paris Convention of 1858, Rumania remained bound, to her +detriment, by the commercial treaties of her suzerain, Turkey, the +powers not being willing to lose the privileges they enjoyed under the +Turkish capitulations. Moreover, she was specially excluded from the +arrangement of 1860, which allowed Turkey to increase her import taxes. +The inheritance of ultra-liberal measures from the previous regime made +it difficult to cope with the unruly spirit of the nation. Any attempt +at change in this direction would have savoured of despotism to the +people, who, having at last won the right to speak aloud, believed that +to clamour against anything that meant ‘rule’ was the only real and +full assertion of liberty. And the dissatisfied were always certain of +finding a sympathetic ear and an open purse in the Chancellories of +Vienna and St. Petersburg. + +[Footnote 1: D.A. Sturdza, _Treizeci de ani de Domnie ai Regelui +Carol,_ 1900, i.82.] + +Prince Carol, not being sufficiently well acquainted with the +conditions of the country nor possessing as yet much influence with the +governing class, had not been in a position to influence at their +inception the provisions of the extremely liberal constitution passed +only a few weeks after his accession to the throne. The new +constitution, which resembled that of Belgium more nearly than any +other, was framed by a constituent assembly elected on universal +suffrage, and, except for slight modifications introduced in 1879 and +1884, is in vigour to-day. It entrusts the executive to the king and +his ministers, the latter alone being responsible for the acts of the +government.[1] The legislative power is vested in the king and two +assemblies—a senate and a chamber—the initiative resting with any one +of the three.[2] The budget and the yearly bills fixing the strength of +the army, however, must first be passed by the Chamber. The agreement +of the two Chambers and the sanction of the king are necessary before +any bill becomes law. The king convenes, adjourns, and dissolves +parliament. He promulgates the laws and is invested with the right of +absolute veto. The constitution proclaims the inviolability of +domicile, the liberty of the press and of assembly, and absolute +liberty of creed and religion, in so far as its forms of celebration do +not come into conflict with public order and decency. It recognizes no +distinction of class and privilege; all the citizens share equally +rights and duties within the law. Education is free in the state +schools, and elementary education compulsory wherever state schools +exist. Individual liberty and property are guaranteed; but only +Rumanian citizens can acquire rural property. Military service is +compulsory, entailing two years in the infantry, three years in the +cavalry and artillery, one year in all arms for those having completed +their studies as far as the university stage. Capital punishment does +not exist, except for military offences in time of war. + +[Footnote 1: There are at present nine departments: Interior, Foreign +Affairs, Finance, War, Education and Religion, Domains and Agriculture, +Public Works, Justice, and Industry and Commerce. The President of the +Cabinet is Prime Minister, with or without portfolio.] + +[Footnote 2: All citizens of full age paying taxes, with various +exemptions, are electors, voting according to districts and census. In +the case of the illiterate country inhabitants, with an income from +land of less than £12 a year, fifty of them choose one delegate having +one vote in the parliamentary election. The professorial council of the +two universities of Jassy and Bucarest send one member each to the +Senate, the heir to the throne and the eight bishops being members by +right.] + +The state religion is Greek Orthodox. Up to 1864 the Rumanian Church +was subordinate to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. In that year it +was proclaimed independent, national, and autocephalous, though this +change was not recognized by the Patriarchate till 1885, while the +secularization of the property of the monasteries put an end _de facto_ +to the influence of the Greek clergy. Religious questions of a dogmatic +nature are settled by the Holy Synod of Bucarest, composed of the two +metropolitans of Bucarest and Jassy and the eight bishops; the Minister +for Education, with whom the administrative part of the Church rests, +having only a deliberative vote. The maintenance of the Church and of +the clergy is included in the general budget of the country, the +ministers being state officials (Law of 1893). + +Religion has never played an important part in Rumanian national life, +and was generally limited to merely external practices. This may be +attributed largely to the fact that as the Slavonic language had been +used in the Church since the ninth century and then was superseded by +Greek up to the nineteenth century, the clergy was foreign, and was +neither in a position nor did it endeavour to acquire a spiritual +influence over the Rumanian peasant. There is no record whatever in +Rumanian history of any religious feuds or dissensions. The religious +passivity remained unstirred even during the domination of the Turks, +who contented themselves with treating the unbelievers with contempt, +and squeezing as much money as possible out of them. Cuza having made +no provision for the clergy when he converted the wealth of the +monasteries to the state, they were left for thirty years in complete +destitution, and remained as a consequence outside the general +intellectual development of the country. Though the situation has much +improved since the Law of 1893, which incorporated the priests with the +other officials of the Government, the clergy, recruited largely from +among the rural population, are still greatly inferior to the Rumanian +priests of Bucovina and Transylvania. Most of them take up Holy orders +as a profession: ‘I have known several country parsons who were +thorough atheists.’[1] + +[Footnote 1: R. Rosetti, _Pentru ce s-au răsculat țăranii_, 1907, p. +600] + +However difficult his task, Prince Carol never deviated from the +strictly constitutional path: his opponents were free to condemn the +prince’s opinions; he never gave them the chance of questioning his +integrity. + +Prince Carol relied upon the position in which his origin and family +alliances placed him in his relations with foreign rulers to secure him +the respect of his new subjects. Such considerations impressed the +Rumanians. Nor could they fail to be aware of ‘the differences between +the previously elected princes and the present dynasty, and the +improved position which the country owed to the latter’.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Augenzeuge, _Aus dem Leben König Karls von Rumănien, +1894-1900,_ iii. 177.] + +To inculcate the Rumanians with the spirit of discipline the prince +took in hand with energy and pursued untiringly, in spite of all +obstacles, the organization of the army. A reliable and well-organized +armed force was the best security against internal trouble-mongers, and +the best argument in international relations, as subsequent events +amply proved. + +The Rumanian political parties were at the outset personal parties, +supporting one or other of the candidates to the throne. When Greek +influence, emanating from Constantinople, began to make itself felt, in +the seventeenth century, a national party arose for the purpose of +opposing it. This party counted upon the support of one of the +neighbouring powers, and its various groups were known accordingly as +the Austrian, the Russian, &c., parties. With the election of Cuza the +external danger diminished, and the politicians divided upon principles +of internal reform. Cuza not being in agreement with either party, they +united to depose him, keeping truce during the period preceding the +accession of Prince Carol, when grave external dangers wore +threatening, and presiding in a coalition ministry at the introduction +of the new constitution of 1866. But this done, the truce was broken. +Political strife again awoke with all the more vigour for having been +temporarily suppressed. + +The reforms which it became needful to introduce gave opportunity for +the development of strong divergence of views between the political +parties. The Liberals—the Red Party, as they were called at the +time—(led by C.A. Rosetti and Ioan Bratianu, both strong Mazzinists, +both having taken an important part in the revolutionary movements of +1848 and in that which led to the deposition of Cuza) were advocating +reforms hardly practicable even in an established democracy; the +Conservatives (led by Lascar Catargiu) were striving to stem the flood +of ideal liberal measures on which all sense of reality was being +carried away.[1] In little more than a year there were four different +Cabinets, not to mention numerous changes in individual ministers. +‘Between the two extreme tendencies Prince Carol had to strive +constantly to preserve unity of direction, he himself being the only +stable element in that ever unstable country.’ It was not without many +untoward incidents that he succeeded. His person was the subject of +more than one unscrupulous attack by politicians in opposition, who did +not hesitate to exploit the German origin and the German sympathies of +the prince in order to inflame the masses. These internal conflicts +entered upon an acute phase at the time of the Franco-German conflict +of 1870. Whilst, to satisfy public opinion, the Foreign Secretary of +the time, M.P.P. Carp, had to declare in parliament, that ‘wherever the +colours of France are waving, there are our interests and sympathies’, +the prince wrote to the King of Prussia assuring him that ‘his +sympathies will always be where the black and white banner is waving’. +In these so strained circumstances a section of the population of +Bucarest allowed itself to be drawn into anti-German street riots. +Disheartened and despairing of ever being able to do anything for that +‘beautiful country’, whose people ‘neither know how to govern +themselves nor will allow themselves to be governed’, the prince +decided to abdicate. + +[Footnote 1: A few years ago a group of politicians, mainly of the old +Conservative party, detached themselves and became the +Conservative-Democratic party under the leadership of M. Take Ionescu.] + +So strong was the feeling in parliament roused by the prince’s decision +that one of his most inveterate opponents now declared that it would be +an act of high treason for the prince to desert the country at such a +crisis. We have an inkling of what might have resulted in the letter +written by the Emperor of Austria to Prince Carol at the time, assuring +him that ‘my Government will eagerly seize any opportunity which +presents itself to prove by deeds the interest it takes in a country +connected by so many bonds to my empire’. Nothing but the efforts of +Lascar Catargiu and the sound patriotism of a few statesmen saved the +country from what would have been a real misfortune. The people were +well aware of this, and cheers lasting several minutes greeted that +portion of the message from the throne which conveyed to the new +parliament the decision of the prince to continue reigning. + +The situation was considerably strengthened during a period of five +years’ Conservative rule. Prince Carol’s high principles and the +dignified example of his private life secured for him the increasing +respect of politicians of all colours; while his statesmanlike +qualities, his patience and perseverance, soon procured him an +unlimited influence in the affairs of the state. This was made the more +possible from the fact that, on account of the political ignorance of +the masses, and of the varied influence exercised on the electorate by +the highly centralized administration, no Rumanian Government ever +fails to obtain a majority at an election. Any statesman can undertake +to form a Cabinet if the king assents to a dissolution of parliament. +Between the German system, where the emperor chooses the ministers +independently of parliament, and the English system, where the members +of the executive are indicated by the electorate through the medium of +parliament, independently of the Crown, the Rumanian system takes a +middle path. Neither the crown, nor the electorate, nor parliament +possesses exclusive power in this direction. The Government is not, +generally speaking, defeated either by the electorate or by parliament. +It is the Crown which has the final decision in the changes of régime, +and upon the king falls the delicate task of interpreting the +significance of political or popular movements. The system—which comes +nearest to that of Spain—undoubtedly has its advantages in a young and +turbulent polity, by enabling its most stable element, the king, to +ensure a continuous and harmonious policy. But it also makes the +results dangerously dependent on the quality of that same element. +Under the leadership of King Carol it was an undoubted success; the +progress made by the country from an economic, financial, and military +point of view during the last half-century is really enormous. Its +position was furthermore strengthened by the proclamation of its +independence, by the final settlement of the dynastic question,[1] and +by its elevation on May 10, 1881, to the rank of kingdom, when upon the +head of the first King of Rumania was placed a crown of steel made from +one of the guns captured before Plevna from an enemy centuries old. + +[Footnote 1: In the absence of direct descendants and according to the +constitution, Prince Ferdinand (born 1865), second son of King Carol’s +elder brother, was named Heir Apparent to the Rumanian throne. He +married in 1892 Princess Marie of Coburg, and following the death of +King Carol in 1914, he acceded to the throne as Ferdinand I.] + +From the point of view of internal politics progress has been less +satisfactory. The various reforms once achieved, the differences of +principle between the political parties degenerated into mere +opportunism, the Opposition opposing, the Government disposing. The +parties, and especially the various groups within the parties, are +generally known by the names of their leaders, these denominations not +implying any definite political principle or Government programme. It +is, moreover, far from edifying that the personal element should so +frequently distort political discussion. ‘The introduction of modern +forms of state organization has not been followed by the +democratization of all social institutions…. The masses of the people +have remained all but completely outside political life. Not only are +we yet far from government of the people by the people, but our +liberties, though deeply graven on the facade of our constitution, have +not permeated everyday life nor even stirred in the consciousness of +the people.’[1] + +[Footnote 1: C. Stere, _Social-democratizm sau Poporanizm_, Jassy.] + +It is strange that King Carol, who had the welfare of the people +sincerely at heart, should not have used his influence to bring about a +solution of the rural question; but this may perhaps be explained by +the fact that, from Cuza’s experience, he anticipated opposition from +all political factions. It would almost seem as if, by a tacit +understanding, and anxious to establish Rumania’s international +position, King Carol gave his ministers a free hand in the rural +question, reserving for himself an equally free hand in foreign +affairs. This seems borne out by the fact that, in the four volumes in +which an ‘eyewitness’, making use of the king’s private correspondence +and personal notes, has minutely described the first fifteen years of +the reign, the peasant question is entirely ignored.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The ‘eyewitness’ was Dr. Schaeffer, formerly tutor to +Prince Carol.] + +Addressing himself, in 1871, to the Rumanian representative at the +Porte, the Austrian ambassador, von Prokesch-Osten, remarked: ‘If +Prince Carol manages to pull through without outside help, and make +Rumania governable, it will be the greatest _tour de force_ I have ever +witnessed in my diplomatic career of more than half a century. It will +be nothing less than a conjuring trick.’ King Carol succeeded; and only +those acquainted with Rumanian affairs can appreciate the truth of the +ambassador’s words. + + + + +7 +_Contemporary Period: Foreign Affairs_ + + +Up to 1866 Rumanian foreign politics may be said to have been +non-existent. The offensive or defensive alliances against the Turks +concluded by the Rumanian rulers with neighbouring princes during the +Middle Ages were not made in pursuance of any definite policy, but +merely to meet the moment’s need. With the establishment of Turkish +suzerainty Rumania became a pawn in the foreign politics of the +neighbouring empires, and we find her repeatedly included in their +projects of acquisition, partition, or compensation (as, for instance, +when she was put forward as eventual compensation to Poland for the +territories lost by that country in the first partition).[1] Rumania +may be considered fortunate in not having lost more than Bucovina to +Austria (1775), Bessarabia to Russia (1812), and, temporarily, to +Austria the region between the Danube and the Aluta, called Oltenia +(lost by the Treaty of Passarowitz, 1718; recovered by the Treaty of +Belgrade, 1739). + +[Footnote 1: See Albert Sorel, _The Eastern Question in the Eighteenth +Century_ (Engl. ed.), 1898, pp. 141, 147 &c.] + +While her geographical position made of Rumania the cynosure of many +covetous eyes, it at the same time saved her from individual attack by +exciting countervailing jealousies. Moreover, the powers came at last +to consider her a necessary rampart to the Ottoman Empire, whose +dissolution all desired but none dared attempt. Austria and Russia, +looking to the future, were continually competing for paramount +influence in Rumania, though it is not possible to determine where +their policy of acquisition ended and that of influence began. + +The position of the principalities became more secure after the Paris +Congress of 1858, which placed them under the collective guarantee of +the great powers; but this fact, and the maintenance of Turkish +suzerainty, coupled with their own weakness, debarred them from any +independence in their foreign relations. + +A sudden change took place with the accession of Prince Carol; a +Hohenzollern prince related to the King of Prussia and to Napoleon III +could not be treated like one of the native boyards. The situation +called for the more delicacy of treatment by the powers in view of the +possibility of his being able to better those internal conditions which +made Rumania ‘uninteresting’ as a factor in international politics. In +fact, the prince’s personality assured for Rumania a status which she +could otherwise have attained only with time, by a political, economic, +and military consolidation of her home affairs; and the prince does not +fail to remark in his notes that the attentions lavished upon him by +other sovereigns were meant rather for the Hohenzollern prince than for +the Prince of Rumania. Many years later even, after the war of 1878, +while the Russians were still south of the Danube with their lines of +communication running through Rumania, Bratianu begged of the prince to +give up a projected journey on account of the difficulties which might +at any moment arise, and said: ‘Only the presence of your Royal +Highness keeps them [the Russians] at a respectful distance.’ It was +but natural under these circumstances that the conduct of foreign +affairs should have devolved almost exclusively on the prince. The +ascendancy which his high personal character, his political and +diplomatic skill, his military capacity procured for him over the +Rumanian statesmen made this situation a lasting one; indeed it became +almost a tradition. Rumania’s foreign policy since 1866 may be said, +therefore, to have been King Carol’s policy. Whether one agrees with it +or not, no one can deny with any sincerity that it was inspired by the +interests of the country, as the monarch saw them. Rebuking Bismarck’s +unfair attitude towards Rumania in a question concerning German +investors, Prince Carol writes to his father in 1875: ‘I have to put +Rumania’s interests above those of Germany. My path is plainly mapped +out, and I must follow It unflinchingly, whatever the weather.’ + +Prince Carol was a thorough German, and as such naturally favoured the +expansion of German influence among his new subjects. But if he desired +Rumania to follow in the wake of German foreign policy, it was because +of his unshaken faith in the future of his native country, because he +considered that Rumania had nothing to fear from Germany, whilst it was +all in the interest of that country to see Rumania strong and firmly +established. At the same time, acting on the advice of Bismarck, he did +not fail to work toward a better understanding with Russia, ‘who might +become as well a reliable friend as a dangerous enemy to the Rumanian +state’. The sympathy shown him by Napoleon III was not always shared by +the French statesmen,[1] and the unfriendly attitude of the French +ambassador in Constantinople caused Prince Carol to remark that ‘M. de +Moustier is considered a better Turk than the Grand Turk himself’. +Under the circumstances a possible alliance between France and Russia, +giving the latter a free hand in the Near East, would have proved a +grave danger to Rumania; ‘it was, consequently, a skilful, if imperious +act, to enter voluntarily, and without detriment to the existing +friendly relations with France, within the Russian sphere of influence, +and not to wait till compelled to do so.’ + +[Footnote 1: See _Revue des Deux Mondes_, June 15, 1866, article by +Eugène Forcade.] + +The campaigns of 1866 and 1870 having finally established Prussia’s +supremacy in the German world, Bismarck modified his attitude towards +Austria. In an interview with the Austrian Foreign Secretary, Count +Beust (Gastein, October 1871), he broached for the first time the +question of an alliance and, touching upon the eventual dissolution of +the Ottoman Empire, ‘obligingly remarked that one could not conceive of +a great power not making of its faculty for expansion a vital +question’.[2] Quite in keeping with that change were the counsels +henceforth tendered to Prince Carol. Early that year Bismarck wrote of +his sorrow at having been forced to the conclusion that Rumania had +nothing to expect from Russia, while Prince Anthony, Prince Carol’s +father and faithful adviser, wrote soon after the above interview +(November 1871), that ‘under certain circumstances it would seem a +sound policy for Rumania to rely upon the support of Austria’. +Persevering in this crescendo of suggestion, Austria’s new foreign +secretary, Count Andrassy, drifted at length to the point by plainly +declaring not long afterwards that ‘Rumania is not so unimportant that +one should deprecate an alliance with her’. + +[Footnote 2: Gabriel Hanotaux, _La Guerre des Balkans et l’Europe_ +(Beust, Mémoires), Paris, 1914, p. 297.] + +Prince Carol had accepted the throne with the firm intention of shaking +off the Turkish suzerainty at the first opportunity, and not +unnaturally he counted upon Germany’s support to that end. He and his +country were bitterly disappointed, therefore, when Bismarck appealed +directly to the Porte for the settlement of a difference between the +Rumanian Government and a German company entrusted with the +construction of the Rumanian railways; the more so as the Paris +Convention had expressly forbidden any Turkish interference in +Rumania’s internal affairs. It thus became increasingly evident that +Rumania could not break away from Russia, the coming power in the East. +The eyes of Russia were steadfastly fixed on Constantinople: by joining +her, Rumania had the best chance of gaining her independence; by not +doing so, she ran the risk of being trodden upon by Russia on her way +to Byzantium. But though resolved to co-operate with Russia in any +eventual action in the Balkans, Prince Carol skilfully avoided +delivering himself blindfold into her hands by deliberately cutting +himself away from the other guaranteeing powers. To the conference +which met in Constantinople at the end of 1876 to settle Balkan affairs +he addressed the demand that ‘should war break out between one of the +guaranteeing powers and Turkey, Rumania’s line of conduct should be +dictated, and her neutrality and rights guaranteed, by the other +powers’. This _démarche_ failed. The powers had accepted the invitation +to the conference as one accepts an invitation to visit a dying man. +Nobody had any illusions on the possibility of averting war, least of +all the two powers principally interested. In November 1876 Ali Bey and +M. de Nelidov arrived simultaneously and secretly in Bucarest to sound +Rumania as to an arrangement with their respective countries, Turkey +and Russia. In opposition to his father and Count Andrassy, who +counselled neutrality and the withdrawal of the Rumanian army into the +mountains, and in sympathy with Bismarck’s advice, Prince Carol +concluded a Convention with Russia on April 16, 1877. Rumania promised +to the Russian army ‘free passage through Rumanian territory and the +treatment due to a friendly army’; whilst Russia undertook to respect +Rumania’s political rights, as well as ‘to maintain and defend her +actual integrity’. ‘It is pretty certain’, wrote Prince Carol to his +father, ‘that this will not be to the liking of most of the great +powers; but as they neither can nor will offer us anything, we cannot +do otherwise than pass them by. A successful Russian campaign will free +us from the nominal dependency upon Turkey, and Europe will never allow +Russia to take her place.’ + +On April 23 the Russian armies passed the Pruth. An offer of active +participation by the Rumanian forces in the forthcoming campaign was +rejected by the Tsar, who haughtily declared that ‘Russia had no need +for the cooperation of the Rumanian army’, and that ‘it was only under +the auspices of the Russian forces that the foundation of Rumania’s +future destinies could be laid’. Rumania was to keep quiet and accept +in the end what Russia would deign to give her, or, to be more correct, +take from her. After a few successful encounters, however, the Tsar’s +soldiers met with serious defeats before Plevna, and persistent appeals +were now urged for the participation of the Rumanian army in the +military operations. The moment had come for Rumania to bargain for her +interests. But Prince Carol refused to make capital out of the serious +position of the Russians; he led his army across the Danube and, at the +express desire of the Tsar, took over the supreme command of the united +forces before Plevna. After a glorious but terrible struggle Plevna, +followed at short intervals by other strongholds, fell, the peace +preliminaries were signed, and Prince Carol returned to Bucarest at the +head of his victorious army. + +Notwithstanding the flattering words in which the Tsar spoke of the +Rumanian share in the success of the campaign, Russia did not admit +Rumania to the Peace Conference. By the Treaty of San Stefano (March +3,1878) Rumania’s independence was recognized; Russia obtained from +Turkey the Dobrudja and the delta of the Danube, reserving for herself +the right to exchange these territories against the three southern +districts of Bessarabia, restored to Rumania by the Treaty of Paris, +1856. This stipulation was by no means a surprise to Rumania, Russia’s +intention to recover Bessarabia was well known to the Government, who +hoped, however, that the demand would not be pressed after the +effective assistance rendered by the Rumanian army. ‘If this be not a +ground for the extension of our territory, it is surely none for its +diminution,’ remarked Cogalniceanu at the Berlin Congress. Moreover, +besides the promises of the Tsar, there was the Convention of the +previous year, which, in exchange for nothing more than free passage +for the Russian armies, guaranteed Rumania’s integrity. But upon this +stipulation Gorchakov put the jesuitical construction that, the +Convention being concluded in view of a war to be waged against Turkey, +it was only against Turkey that Russia undertook to guarantee Rumania’s +integrity; as to herself, she was not in the least bound by that +arrangement. And should Rumania dare to protest against, or oppose the +action of the Russian Government, ‘the Tsar will order that Rumania be +occupied and the Rumanian army disarmed’. ‘The army which fought at +Plevna’, replied Prince Carol through his minister, ‘may well be +destroyed, but never disarmed.’ + +There was one last hope left to Rumania: that the Congress which met in +Berlin in June 1878 for the purpose of revising the Treaty of San +Stefano, would prevent such an injustice. But Bismarck was anxious that +no ‘sentiment de dignité blessée’ should rankle in Russia’s future +policy; the French representative, Waddington, was ‘above all a +practical man’; Corti, the Italian delegate, was ‘nearly rude’ to the +Rumanian delegates; while Lord Beaconsfield, England’s envoy, receiving +the Rumanian delegates privately, had nothing to say but that ‘in +politics the best services are often rewarded with ingratitude’. Russia +strongly opposed even the idea that the Rumanian delegates should be +allowed to put their case before the Congress, and consent was obtained +only with difficulty after Lord Salisbury had ironically remarked that +‘having heard the representatives of Greece, which was claiming foreign +provinces, it would be but fair to listen also to the representatives +of a country which was only seeking to retain what was its own’. +Shortly before, Lord Salisbury, speaking in London to the Rumanian +special envoy, Callimaki Catargiu, had assured him of England’s +sympathy and of her effective assistance in case either of war or of a +Congress. ‘But to be quite candid he must add that there are questions +of more concern to England, and should she be able to come to an +understanding with Russia with regard to them, she would not wage war +for the sake of Rumania.’ Indeed, an understanding came about, and an +indiscretion enabled the _Globe_ to make its tenor public early in June +1878. ‘The Government of her Britannic Majesty’, it said, ‘considers +that it will feel itself bound to express its deep regret should Russia +persist in demanding the retrocession of Bessarabia…. England’s +interest in this question is not such, however, as to justify her +taking upon herself alone the responsibility of opposing the intended +exchange.’ So Bessarabia was lost, Rumania receiving instead Dobrudja +with the delta of the Danube. But as the newly created state of +Bulgaria was at the time little else than a detached Russian province, +Russia, alone amongst the powers, opposed and succeeded in preventing +the demarcation to the new Rumanian province of a strategically sound +frontier. Finally, to the exasperation of the Rumanians, the Congress +made the recognition of Rumania’s independence contingent upon the +abolition of Article 7 of the Constitution—which denied to +non-Christians the right of becoming Rumanian citizens—and the +emancipation of the Rumanian Jews.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Rumania only partially gave way to this intrusion of the +powers into her internal affairs. The prohibition was abolished; but +only individual naturalization was made possible, and that by special +Act of Parliament. Only a very small proportion of the Jewish +population has since been naturalized. The Jewish question in Rumania +is undoubtedly a very serious one; but the matter is too controversial +to be dealt with in a few lines without risking misrepresentation or +doing an injustice to one or other of the parties. For which reason it +has not been included in this essay.] + +It was only after innumerable difficulties and hardships that, at the +beginning of 1880, Rumania secured recognition of an independence which +she owed to nobody but herself. Whilst Russia was opposing Rumania at +every opportunity in the European conferences and commissions, she was +at pains to show herself more amenable in _tête-à-tête_, and approached +Rumania with favourable proposals. ‘Rather Russia as foe than +guardian,’ wrote Prince Carol to his father; and these words indicate +an important turning-point in Rumania’s foreign policy. + +In wresting Bessarabia from Rumania merely as a sop to her own pride, +and to make an end of all that was enacted by the Treaty of Paris, +1856, Russia made a serious political blunder. By insisting that +Austria should share in the partition of Poland, Frederick the Great +had skilfully prevented her from remaining the one country towards +which the Poles would naturally have turned for deliverance. Such an +opportunity was lost by Russia through her short-sighted policy in +Bessarabia—that of remaining the natural ally of Rumania against +Rumania’s natural foe, Austria-Hungary. + +Rumania had neither historical, geographical, nor any important +ethnographical points of contact with the region south of the Danube; +the aims of a future policy could only have embraced neighbouring +tracts of foreign territory inhabited by Rumanians. Whereas up to the +date of the Berlin Congress such tracts were confined to +Austria-Hungary, by that Congress a similar sphere of attraction for +Rumanian aspirations was created in Russia.[1] The interests of a +peaceful development demanded that Rumania should maintain friendly +relations with both the powers striving for domination in the Near +East; it was a vital necessity for her, however, to be able to rely +upon the effective support of at least one of them in a case of +emergency. Russia’s conduct had aroused a deep feeling of bitterness +and mistrust in Rumania, and every lessening of her influence was a +step in Austria’s favour. Secondary considerations tended to intensify +this: on the one hand lay the fact that through Russia’s interposition +Rumania had no defendable frontier against Bulgaria; on the other hand +was the greatly strengthened position created for Austria by her +alliance with Germany, in whose future Prince Carol had the utmost +confidence. + +[Footnote 1: It is probable that this confederation had much to do with +the readiness with which Bismarck supported the demands of his good +friend, Gorchakov.] + +Germany’s attitude towards Rumania had been curiously hostile during +these events; but when Prince Carol’s father spoke of this to the +German Emperor, the latter showed genuine astonishment: Bismarck had +obviously not taken the emperor completely into his confidence. When, a +few days later, Sturdza had an interview with Bismarck at the latter’s +invitation, the German Chancellor discovered once more that Rumania had +nothing to expect from Russia. Indeed, Rumania’s position between +Russia and the new Slav state south of the Danube might prove +dangerous, were she not to seek protection and assistance from her two +‘natural friends’, France and Germany. And, with his usual liberality +when baiting his policy with false hopes, Bismarck went on to say that +‘Turkey is falling to pieces; nobody can resuscitate her; Rumania has +an important role to fulfil, but for this she must be wise, cautious, +and strong’. This new attitude was the natural counterpart of the +change which was at that time making itself felt in Russo-German +relations. While a Franco-Russian alliance was propounded by Gorchakov +in an interview with a French journalist, Bismarck and Andrassy signed +in Gastein the treaty which allied Austria to Germany (September 1879). +As Rumania’s interests were identical with those of Austria—wrote Count +Andrassy privately to Prince Carol a few months later—namely, to +prevent the fusion of the northern and the southern Slavs, she had only +to express her willingness to become at a given moment the third party +in the compact. In 1883 King Carol accepted a secret treaty of +defensive alliance from Austria. In return for promises relating to +future political partitions in the Balkans, the monarch pledged himself +to oppose all developments likely to speed the democratic evolution, of +Rumania. Though the treaty was never submitted to parliament for +ratification, and notwithstanding a tariff war and a serious difference +with Austria on the question of control of the Danube navigation, +Rumania was, till the Balkan wars, a faithful ‘sleeping partner’ of the +Triple Alliance. + +All through that externally quiet period a marked discrepancy existed +and developed between that line of policy and the trend of public +opinion. The interest of the Rumanians within the kingdom centred +increasingly on their brethren in Transylvania, the solution of whose +hard case inspired most of the popular national movements. Not on +account of the political despotism of the Magyars, for that of the +Russians was in no way behind it. But whilst the Rumanians of +Bessarabia were, with few exceptions, illiterate peasants, in +Transylvania there was a solidly established and spirited middle class, +whose protests kept pace with the oppressive measures. Many of them—and +of necessity the more turbulent—migrated to Rumania, and there kept +alive the ‘Transylvanian Question’. That the country’s foreign policy +has nevertheless constantly supported the Central Powers is due, to +some extent, to the fact that the generation most deeply impressed by +the events of 1878 came gradually to the leadership of the country; to +a greater extent to the increasing influence of German education,[1] +and the economic and financial supremacy which the benevolent passivity +of England and France enabled Germany to acquire; but above all to the +personal influence of King Carol. Germany, he considered, was at the +beginning of her development and needed, above all, peace; as Rumania +was in the same position the wisest policy was to follow Germany, +neglecting impracticable national ideals. King Carol outlined his views +clearly in an interview which he had in Vienna with the Emperor Franz +Joseph in 1883: ‘No nation consents to be bereaved of its political +aspirations, and those of the Rumanians are constantly kept at fever +heat by Magyar oppression. But this was no real obstacle to a friendly +understanding between the two neighbouring states.’ + +[Footnote 1: Many prominent statesmen like Sturdza, Maiorescu, Carp, +&c. were educated in Germany, whereas the school established by the +German community (_Evangelische Knaben und Realschule_), and which it +under the direct control of the German Ministry of Education, is +attended by more pupils than any other school in Bucarest.] + +Such was the position when the Balkan peoples rose in 1912 to sever the +last ties which bound them to the decadent Turkish Empire. King Carol, +who had, sword in hand, won the independence of his country, could have +no objection to such a desire for emancipation. Nor to the Balkan +League itself, unfortunately so ephemeral; for by the first year of his +reign he had already approached the Greek Government with proposals +toward such a league, and toward freeing the Balkans from the +undesirable interference of the powers.[1] It is true that Rumania, +like all the other states, had not foreseen the radical changes which +were to take place, and which considerably affected her position in the +Near East. But she was safe as long as the situation was one of stable +equilibrium and the league remained in existence. ‘Rumania will only be +menaced by a real danger when a Great Bulgaria comes into existence,’ +remarked Prince Carol to Bismarck in 1880, and Bulgaria had done +nothing since to allay Rumanian suspicions. On the contrary, the +proviso of the Berlin Convention that all fortifications along the +Rumania frontier should be razed to the ground had not been carried out +by the Bulgarian Government. Bulgarian official publications regarded +the Dobrudja as a ‘Bulgaria Irredenta’, and at the outset of the first +Balkan war a certain section of the Bulgarian press speculated upon the +Bulgarian character of the Dobrudja. + +[Footnote 1: See Augenzeuge, op. cit., i. 178] + +The Balkan League having proclaimed, however, that their action did not +involve any territorial changes, and the maintenance of the _status +quo_ having been insisted upon by the European Concert, Rumania +declared that she would remain neutral. All this jugglery of mutual +assurances broke down with the unexpected rout of the Turks; the +formula ‘the Balkans to the Balkan peoples’ made its appearance, upon +which Bulgaria was at once notified that Rumania would insist upon the +question of the Dobrudja frontier being included in any fundamental +alteration of the Berlin Convention. The Bulgarian Premier, M. Danev, +concurred in this point of view, but his conduct of the subsequent +London negotiations was so ‘diplomatic’ that their only result was to +strain the patience of the Rumanian Government and public opinion to +breaking point. Nevertheless, the Rumanian Government agreed that the +point in dispute should be submitted to a conference of the +representatives of the great powers in St. Petersburg, and later +accepted the decision of that conference, though the country considered +it highly unsatisfactory. + +The formation of the Balkan League, and especially the collapse of +Turkey, had meant a serious blow to the Central Powers’ policy of +peaceful penetration. Moreover, ‘for a century men have been labouring +to solve the Eastern. Question. On the day when it shall be considered +solved, Europe will inevitably witness the propounding of the Austrian +Question.’[1] To prevent this and to keep open a route to the East +Austro-German diplomacy set to work, and having engineered the creation +of Albania succeeded in barring Serbia’s way to the Adriatic; Serbia +was thus forced to seek an outlet in the south, where her interests +were doomed to clash with Bulgarian aspirations. The atmosphere grew +threatening. In anticipation of a conflict with Bulgaria, Greece and +Serbia sought an alliance with Rumania. The offer was declined; but, in +accordance with the policy which Bucarest had already made quite clear +to Sofia, the Rumanian army was ordered to enter Bulgaria immediately +that country attacked her former allies. The Rumanians advanced +unopposed to within a few miles of Sofia, and in order to save the +capital Bulgaria declared her willingness to comply with their claims. +Rumania having refused, however, to conclude a separate peace, Bulgaria +had to give way, and the Balkan premiers met in conference at Bucarest +to discuss terms. The circumstances were not auspicious. The way in +which Bulgaria had conducted previous negotiations, and especially the +attack upon her former allies, had exasperated the Rumanians and the +Balkan peoples, and the pressure of public opinion hindered from the +outset a fair consideration of the Bulgarian point of view. Moreover, +cholera was making great ravages in the ranks of the various armies, +and, what threatened to be even more destructive, several great powers +were looking for a crack in the door to put their tails through, as the +Rumanian saying runs. So anxious were the Balkan statesmen to avoid any +such interference that they agreed between themselves to a short time +limit: on a certain day, and by a certain hour, peace was to be +concluded, or hostilities were to start afresh. The treaty was signed +on August 10, 1913, Rumania obtaining the line +Turtukai-Dobrich-Balchik, this being the line already demanded by her +at the time of the London negotiations. The demand was put forth +originally as a security against the avowed ambitions of Bulgaria; it +was a strategical necessity, but at the same time a political mistake +from the point of view of future relations. The Treaty of Bucarest, +imperfect arrangement as it was, had nevertheless a great historical +significance. ‘Without complicating the discussion of our interests, +which we are best in a position to understand, by the consideration of +other foreign, interests,’ remarked the President of the Conference, +‘we shall have established for the first time by ourselves peace and +harmony amongst our peoples.’ Dynastic interests and impatient +ambitions, however, completely subverted this momentous step towards a +satisfactory solution of the Eastern Question. + +[Footnote 1: Albert Sorel, op, cit., p. 266.] + +The natural counter-effect of the diplomatic activity of the Central +Powers was a change in Rumanian policy. Rumania considered the +maintenance of the Balkan equilibrium a vital question, and as she had +entered upon a closer union with Germany against a Bulgaria subjected +to Russian influence, so she now turned to Russia as a guard against a +Bulgaria under German influence. This breaking away from the +‘traditional’ policy of adjutancy-in-waiting to the Central Powers was +indicated by the visit of Prince Ferdinand—now King of Rumania—to St. +Petersburg, and the even more significant visit which Tsar Nicholas +afterwards paid to the late King Carol at Constanza. Time has been too +short, however, for those new relations so to shape themselves as to +exercise a notable influence upon Rumania’s present attitude. + + + + +8 +_Rumania and the Present War_ + + +_(a) The Rumanians outside the Kingdom_ + +The axis on which Rumanian foreign policy ought naturally to revolve is +the circumstance that almost half the Rumanian nation lives outside +Rumanian territory. As the available official statistics generally show +political bias it is not possible to give precise figures; but roughly +speaking there are about one million Rumanians in Bessarabia, a quarter +of a million in Bucovina, three and a half millions in Hungary, while +something above half a million form scattered colonies in Bulgaria, +Serbia, and Macedonia. All these live in more or less close proximity +to the Rumanian frontiers. + +That these Rumanian elements have maintained their nationality is due +to purely intrinsic causes. We have seen that the independence of +Rumania in her foreign relations had only recently been established, +since when the king, the factor most influential in foreign politics, +had discouraged nationalist tendencies, lest the country’s internal +development might be compromised by friction with neighbouring states. +The Government exerted its influence against any active expression of +the national feeling, and the few ‘nationalists’ and the ‘League for +the cultural unity of all Rumanians’ had been, as a consequence, driven +to seek a justification for their existence in antisemitic agitation. + +The above circumstances had little influence upon the situation in +Bucovina. This province forms an integral part of the Habsburg +monarchy, with which it was incorporated as early as 1775. The +political situation of the Rumanian principalities at the time, and the +absence of a national cultural movement, left the detached population +exposed to Germanization, and later to the Slav influence of the +rapidly expanding Ruthene element. That language and national +characteristics have, nevertheless, not been lost is due to the fact +that the Rumanian population of Bucovina is peasant almost to a man—a +class little amenable to changes of civilization. + +This also applies largely to Bessarabia, which, first lost in 1812, was +incorporated with Rumania in 1856, and finally detached in 1878. The +few Rumanians belonging to the landed class were won over by the new +masters. But while the Rumanian population was denied any cultural and +literary activities of its own, the reactionary attitude of the Russian +Government towards education has enabled the Rumanian peasants to +preserve their customs and their language. At the same time their +resultant ignorance has kept them outside the sphere of intellectual +influence of the mother country. + +The Rumanians who live in scattered colonies south of the Danube are +the descendants of those who took refuge in these regions during the +ninth and tenth centuries from the invasions of the Huns. Generally +known as Kutzo-Vlakhs, or, among themselves, as Aromuni, they are—as +even Weigand, who undoubtedly has Bulgarophil leanings, recognizes—the +most intelligent and best educated of the inhabitants of Macedonia. In +1905 the Rumanian Government secured from the Porte official +recognition of their separate cultural and religious organizations on a +national basis. Exposed as they are to Greek influence, it will be +difficult to prevent their final assimilation with that people. The +interest taken in them of late by the Rumanian Government arose out of +the necessity to secure them against pan-Hellenic propaganda, and to +preserve one of the factors entitling Rumania to participate in the +settlement of Balkan affairs. + +I have sketched elsewhere the early history of the Rumanians of +Transylvania, the cradle of the Rumanian nation. As already mentioned, +part of the Rumanian nobility of Hungary went over to the Magyars, the +remainder migrating over the mountains. Debarred from the support of +the noble class, the Rumanian peasantry lost its state of autonomy, +which changed into one of serfdom to the soil upon which they toiled. +Desperate risings in 1324, 1437, 1514, 1600, and 1784 tended to case +the Hungarian oppression, which up to the nineteenth century strove +primarily after a political and religious hegemony. But the Magyars +having failed in 1848 in their attempt to free themselves from Austrian +domination (defeated with the assistance of a Russian army at Villagos, +1849), mainly on account of the fidelity of the other nationalities to +the Austrian Crown, they henceforth directed their efforts towards +strengthening their own position by forcible assimilation of those +nationalities. This they were able to do, however, only after +Königgrätz, when a weakened Austria had to give way to Hungarian +demands. In 1867 the Dual Monarchy was established, and Transylvania, +which up to then formed a separate duchy enjoying full political +rights, was incorporated with the new Hungarian kingdom. The Magyars +were handicapped in their imperialist ambitions by their numerical +inferiority. As the next best means to their end, therefore, they +resorted to political and national oppression, class despotism, and a +complete disregard of the principles of liberty and humanity.[1] +Hungarian was made compulsory in the administration, even in districts +where the bulk of the population did not understand that language. In +villages completely inhabited by Rumanians so-called ‘State’ schools +were founded, in which only Hungarian was to be spoken, and all +children upwards of three years of age had to attend them. The +electoral regulations were drawn up in such a manner that the Rumanians +of Transylvania, though ten times more numerous than the Magyars, sent +a far smaller number than do the latter to the National Assembly. To +quash all protest a special press law was introduced for Transylvania. +But the Rumanian journalists being usually acquitted by the juries a +new regulation prescribed that press offences should be tried only at +Kluj (Klausenburg)—the sole Transylvanian town with a predominating +Hungarian population—a measure which was in fundamental contradiction +to the principles of justice.[2] In 1892 the Rumanian grievances were +embodied in a memorandum which was to have been presented to the +emperor by a deputation. An audience was, however, refused, and at the +instance of the Hungarian Government the members of the deputation were +sentenced to long terms of imprisonment for having plotted against the +unity of the Magyar state. + +[Footnote 1: The Rumanians inhabit mainly the province of Transylvania, +Banat, Crishiana, and Maramuresh. They represent 46.2 per cent. of the +total population of these provinces, the Magyars 32.5 per cent., the +Germans 11.5 per cent., and the Serbs 4.5 per cent. These figured are +taken from official Hungarian statistics, and it may therefore be +assumed that the Rumanian percentage represents a minimum.] + +[Footnote 2: Over a period of 22 years (1886-1908) 850 journalists were +charged, 367 of whom were Rumanians; the sentences totalling 216 years +of imprisonment, the fines amounting to Fcs. 138,000.] + +Notwithstanding these disabilities the Rumanians of Transylvania +enjoyed a long period of comparative social and economic liberty at a +time when Turkish and Phanariote domination was hampering all progress +in Rumania. Office under the Government growing increasingly difficult +to obtain, the Rumanians in Transylvania turned largely to commercial +and the open professions, and, as a result, a powerful middle class now +exists. In their clergy, both of the Orthodox and the Uniate +Church—which last, while conducting its ritual in the vernacular, +recognizes papal supremacy— the Rumanians have always found strong +moral support, while the national struggle tends to unite the various +classes. The Rumanians of Hungary form by far the sanest element in the +Rumanian nation. From the Rumanians within the kingdom they have +received little beside sympathy. The important part played by the +country at the Peace of Bucarest, and her detachment from +Austria-Hungary, must necessarily have stimulated the national +consciousness of the Transylvanians; while at the same time all hope +for betterment from within must have ceased at the death of Archduke +Francis Ferdinand, an avowed friend of the long-suffering +nationalities. It is, therefore, no mere matter of conjecture that the +passive attitude of the Rumanian Government at the beginning of the +present conflict must have been a bitter disappointment to them. + +_(b) Rumania’s Attitude_ + +The tragic development of the crisis in the summer of 1914 threw +Rumania into a vortex of unexpected hopes and fears. Aspirations till +then considered little else than Utopian became tangible possibilities, +while, as suddenly, dangers deemed far off loomed large and near. Not +only was such a situation quite unforeseen, nor had any plan of action +been preconceived to meet it, but it was in Rumania’s case a situation +unique from the number of conflicting considerations and influences at +work within it. Still under the waning influence of the thirty years +quasi-alliance with Austria, Rumania was not yet acclimatized to her +new relations with Russia. Notwithstanding the inborn sympathy with and +admiration for France, the Rumanians could not be blind to Germany’s +military power. The enthusiasm that would have sided with France for +France’s sake was faced by the influence of German finance. Sympathy +with Serbia existed side by side with suspicion of Bulgaria. Popular +sentiment clashed with the views of the king; and the bright vision of +the ‘principle of nationality’ was darkened by the shadow of Russia as +despot of the Near East. + +One fact in the situation stood out from the rest, namely, the +unexpected opportunity of redeeming that half of the Rumanian nation +which was still under foreign rule; the more so as one of the parties +in the conflict had given the ‘principle of nationality’ a prominent +place in its programme. But the fact that both Austria-Hungary and +Russia had a large Rumanian population among their subjects rendered a +purely national policy impossible, and Rumania could do nothing but +weigh which issue offered her the greater advantage. + +Three ways lay open: complete neutrality, active participation on the +side of the Central Powers, or common cause with the Triple Entente. +Complete neutrality was advocated by a few who had the country’s +material security most at heart, and also, as a _pis aller_, by those +who realized that their opinion that Rumania should make common cause +with the Central Powers had no prospect of being acted upon. + +That King Carol favoured the idea of a joint action with Germany is +likely enough, for such a policy was in keeping with his faith in the +power of the German Empire. Moreover, he undoubtedly viewed with +satisfaction the possibility of regaining Bessarabia, the loss of which +must have been bitterly felt by the victor of Plevna. Such a policy +would have met with the approval of many Rumanian statesmen, notably of +M. Sturdza, sometime leader of the Liberal party and Prime Minister; of +M. Carp, sometime leader of the Conservative party and Prime Minister; +of M. Maiorescu, ex-Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary, who presided +at the Bucarest Conference of 1913; of M. Marghiloman, till recently +leader of the Conservative party, to name only the more important. M. +Sturdza, the old statesman who had been one of King Carol’s chief +coadjutors in the making of modern Rumania, and who had severed for +many years his connexion with active politics, again took up his pen to +raise a word of warning. M. Carp, the political aristocrat who had +retired from public life a few years previously, and had professed a +lifelong contempt for the ‘Press and all its works’, himself started a +daily paper (_Moldova_) which, he intended should expound his views. +Well-known writers like M. Radu Rosetti wrote[1] espousing the cause +favoured by the king, though not for the king’s reasons: Carol had +faith in Germany, the Rumanians mistrusted Russia. They saw no +advantage in the dismemberment of Austria, the most powerful check to +Russia’s plans in the Near East. They dreaded the idea of seeing Russia +on the Bosphorus, as rendering illusory Rumania’s splendid position at +the mouth of the Danube. For not only is a cheap waterway absolutely +necessary for the bulky products forming the chief exports of Rumania; +but these very products, corn, petroleum, and timber, also form the +chief exports of Russia, who, by a stroke of the pen, may rule Rumania +out of competition, should she fail to appreciate the political +leadership of Petrograd. Paris and Rome were, no doubt, beloved +sisters; but Sofia, Moscow, and Budapest were next-door neighbours to +be reckoned with. + +[Footnote 1: See R. Rosetti, _Russian Politics at Work in the Rumanian +Countries_, facts compiled from French official documents, Bucarest, +1914.] + +Those who held views opposed to those, confident in the righteousness +of the Allies’ cause and in their final victory, advocated immediate +intervention, and to that end made the most of the two sentiments which +animated public opinion: interest in the fate of the Transylvanians, +and sympathy with France. They contended that though a purely national +policy was not possible, the difference between Transylvania and +Bessarabia in area and in number and quality of the population was such +that no hesitation was admissible. The possession of Transylvania was +assured if the Allies were successful; whereas Russia would soon +recover if defeated, and would regain Bessarabia by force of arms, or +have it once more presented to her by a Congress anxious to soothe her +‘sentiment de dignité blessée’. A Rumania enlarged in size and +population had a better chance of successfully withstanding any +eventual pressure from the north, and it was clear that any attempt +against her independence would be bound to develop into a European +question. Rumania could not forget what she owed to France; and if +circumstances had made the Transylvanian question one ‘à laquelle on +pense toujours et dont on ne parle jamais’, the greater was the duty, +now that a favourable opportunity had arisen, to help the brethren +across the mountains. It was also a duty to fight for right and +civilization, proclaimed M. Take Ionescu, the exponent of progressive +ideas in Rumanian politics; and he, together with the prominent +Conservative statesman, M. Filipescu, who loathes the idea of the +Rumanians being dominated by the inferior Magyars, are the leaders of +the interventionist movement. It was due to M. Filipescu’s activity, +especially, that M. Marghiloman was forced by his own party to resign +his position as leader on account of his Austrophil sentiments—an event +unparalleled in Rumanian politics. + +These were the two main currents of opinion which met in conflict at +the Crown Council—a committee _ad hoc_ consisting of the Cabinet and +the leaders of the Opposition—summoned by the king early in August +1914, when Rumania’s neutrality was decided upon. The great influence +which the Crown can always wield under the Rumanian political system +was rendered the more potent in the present case by the fact that the +Premier, M. Bratianu, is above all a practical man, and the Liberal +Cabinet over which he presides one of the most colourless the country +ever had: a Cabinet weak to the point of being incapable of realizing +its own weakness and the imperative necessity at this fateful moment of +placing the helm in the hands of a national ministry. M. Bratianu +considered that Rumania was too exposed, and had suffered too much in +the past for the sake of other countries, to enter now upon such an +adventure without ample guarantees. There would always be time for her +to come in. This policy of opportunism he was able to justify by +powerful argument. The supply of war material for the Rumanian army had +been completely in the hands of German and Austrian arsenals, and +especially in those of Krupp. For obvious reasons Rumania could no +longer rely upon that source; indeed, Germany was actually detaining +contracts for war and sanitary material placed with her before the +outbreak of the war. There was the further consideration that, owing to +the nature of Rumania’s foreign policy in the past, no due attention +had been given to the defence of the Carpathians, nor to those branches +of the service dealing with mountain warfare. On the other hand, a +continuous line of fortifications running from Galatz to Focshani +formed, together with the lower reaches of the Danube, a strong barrier +against attack from the north. Rumania’s geographical position is such +that a successful offensive from Hungary could soon penetrate to the +capital, and by cutting the country in two could completely paralyse +its organization. Such arguments acquired a magnified importance in the +light of the failure of the negotiations with Bulgaria, and found many +a willing ear in a country governed by a heavily involved landed class, +and depending almost exclusively in its banking organization upon +German and Austrian capital. + +From the point of view of practical politics only the issue of the +conflict will determine the wisdom or otherwise of Rumania’s attitude. +But, though it is perhaps out of place to enlarge upon it here, it is +impossible not to speak of the moral aspect of the course adopted. By +giving heed to the unspoken appeal from Transylvania the Rumanian +national spirit would have been quickened, and the people braced to a +wholesome sacrifice. Many were the wistful glances cast towards the +Carpathians by the subject Rumanians, as they were being led away to +fight for their oppressors; but, wilfully unmindful, the leaders of the +Rumanian state buried their noses in their ledgers, oblivious of the +fact that in these times of internationalism a will in common, with +aspirations in common, is the very life-blood of nationality. That +sentiment ought not to enter into politics is an argument untenable in +a country which has yet to see its national aspirations fulfilled, and +which makes of these aspirations definite claims. No Rumanian statesman +can contend that possession of Transylvania is necessary to the +existence of the Rumanian state. What they can maintain is that +deliverance from Magyar oppression is vital to the existence of the +Transylvanians. The right to advance such a claim grows out of their +very duty of watching over the safety of the subject Rumanians. ‘When +there are squabbles in the household of my brother-in-law,’ said the +late Ioan Bratianu when speaking on the Transylvanian question, ‘it is +no affair of mine; but when he raises a knife against his wife, it is +not merely my right to intervene, it is my duty.’ It is difficult to +account for the obliquity of vision shown by so many Rumanian +politicians. ‘The whole policy of such a state [having a large +compatriot population living in close proximity under foreign +domination] must be primarily influenced by anxiety as to the fate of +their brothers, and by the duty of emancipating them,’ affirms one of +the most ardent of Rumanian nationalist orators; and he goes on to +assure us that ‘if Rumania waits, it is not from hesitation as to her +duty, but simply in order that she may discharge it more +completely’.[1] Meantime, while Rumania waits, regiments composed +almost completely of Transylvanians have been repeatedly and of set +purpose placed in the forefront of the battle, and as often +annihilated. Such could never be the simple-hearted Rumanian peasant’s +conception of his duty, and here, as in so many other cases in the +present conflict, the nation at large must not be judged by the policy +of the few who hold the reins. + +[Footnote 1: _Quarterly Review_, London, April, 1915, pp. 449-50.] + +Rumania’s claims to Transylvania are not of an historical nature. They +are founded upon the numerical superiority of the subject Rumanians in +Transylvania, that is upon the ‘principle of nationality’, and are +morally strengthened by the treatment the Transylvanians suffer at the +hands of the Magyars. By its passivity, however, the Rumanian +Government has sacrificed the prime factor of the ‘principle of +nationality’ to the attainment of an object in itself subordinate to +that factor; that is, it has sacrificed the ‘people’ in order to make +more sure of the ‘land’. In this way the Rumanian Government has +entered upon a policy of acquisition; a policy which Rumania is too +weak to pursue save under the patronage of one or a group of great +powers; a policy unfortunate inasmuch as it will deprive her of freedom +of action in her external politics. Her policy will, in its +consequences, certainly react to the detriment of the position acquired +by the country two years ago, when independent action made her arbiter +not only among the smaller Balkan States, but also among those and her +late suzerain, Turkey. + +Such, indeed, must inevitably be the fate of Balkan politics in +general. Passing from Turkish domination to nominal Turkish suzerainty, +and thence to independence within the sphere of influence of a power or +group of powers, this gradual emancipation of the states of +south-eastern Europe found its highest expression in the Balkan League. +The war against Turkey was in effect a rebellion against the political +tutelage of the powers. But this emancipation was short-lived. By their +greed the Balkan States again opened up a way to the intrusion of +foreign diplomacy, and even, as we now see, of foreign troops. The +first Balkan war marked the zenith of Balkan political emancipation; +the second Balkan war was the first act in the tragic _débâcle_ out of +which the present situation developed. The interval between August 1913 +(Peace of Bucarest) and August 1914 was merely an armistice during +which Bulgaria and Turkey recovered their breath, and German and +Austrian diplomacy had time to find a pretext for war on its own +account. + +‘Exhausted but not vanquished we have had to furl our glorious +standards in order to await better days,’ said Ferdinand of Bulgaria to +his soldiers after the conclusion of the Peace of Bucarest; and +Budapest, Vienna, and Berlin have no doubt done their best to keep this +spirit of revenge alive and to prevent a renascence of the Balkan +Alliance. They have succeeded. They have done more: they have succeeded +in causing the ‘principle of nationality’—that idea which involves the +disruption of Austria—to be stifled by the very people whom it was +meant to save. For whilst the German peoples are united in this +conflict, the majority of the southern Slavs, in fighting the German +battles, are fighting to perpetuate the political servitude of the +subject races of Austria-Hungary. + +However suspicious Rumania may be of Russia, however bitter the +quarrels between Bulgars, Greeks, and Serbs, it is not, nor can it ever +be natural, that peoples who have groaned under Turkish despotism for +centuries should, after only one year of complete liberation, join +hands with an old and dreaded enemy not only against their fellow +sufferers, but even against those who came ‘to die that they may live’. +These are the Dead Sea fruits of dynastic policy. Called to the thrones +of the small states of the Near East for the purpose of creating order +and peace, the German dynasties have overstepped their function and +abused the power entrusted to them. As long as, in normal times, +political activities were confined to the diplomatic arena there was no +peril of rousing the masses out of their ignorant indolence; but, when +times are abnormal, it is a different and a dangerous thing to march +these peoples against their most intimate feelings. When, as the +outcome of the present false situation, sooner or later the dynastic +power breaks, it will then be for the powers who are now fighting for +better principles not to impose their own views upon the peoples, or to +place their own princes upon the vacant thrones. Rather must they see +that the small nations of the Near East are given a chance to develop +in peace and according to their proper ideals; that they be not again +subjected to the disintegrating influence of European diplomacy; and +that, above all, to the nations in common, irrespective of their +present attitude, there should be a just application of the ‘principle +of nationality’. + + + + +TURKEY + + +Turkey is no better name for the Osmanli dominion or any part of it +than Normandy would be for Great Britain. It is a mediaeval error of +nomenclature sanctioned by long usage in foreign mouths, but without +any equivalent in the vernacular of the Osmanlis themselves. The real +‘Turkey’ is Turkestan, and the real Turks are the Turcomans. The +Osmanlis are the least typical Turks surviving. Only a very small +proportion of them have any strain of Turkish blood, and this is +diluted till it is rarely perceptible in their physiognomy: and if +environment rather than blood is to be held responsible for racial +features, it can only be said that the territory occupied by the +Osmanlis is as unlike the homeland of the true Turks as it can well be, +and is quite unsuited to typically Turkish life and manners. + +While of course it would be absurd to propose at this time of day any +change in the terms by which the civilized world unanimously designates +the Osmanlis and their dominion, it is well to insist on their +incorrectness, because, like most erroneous names, they have bred +erroneous beliefs. Thanks in the main to them, the Ottoman power is +supposed to have originated in an overwhelming invasion of Asia Minor +by immense numbers of Central Asiatic migrants, who, intent, like the +early Arab armies, on offering to Asia first and Europe second the +choice of apostasy or death, absorbed or annihilated almost all the +previous populations, and swept forward into the Balkans as +single-minded apostles of Islam. If the composition and the aims of the +Osmanlis had been these, it would pass all understanding how they +contrived, within a century of their appearance on the western scene, +to establish in North-west Asia and South-east Europe the most +civilized and best-ordered state of their time. Who, then, are the +Osmanlis in reality? What have they to do with true Turks? and in +virtue of what innate qualities did they found and consolidate their +power? + + + + +1 +_Origin of the Osmanlis_ + + +We hear of Turks first from Chinese sources. They were then the +inhabitants, strong and predatory, of the Altai plains and valleys: but +later on, about the sixth century A.D., they are found firmly +established in what is still called Turkestan, and pushing westwards +towards the Caspian Sea. Somewhat more than another century passes, +and, reached by a missionary faith of West Asia, they come out of the +Far Eastern darkness into a dim light of western history. One Boja, +lord of Kashgar and Khan of what the Chinese knew as the people of +Thu-Kiu—probably the same name as ‘Turk’—embraced Islam and forced it +on his Mazdeist subjects; but other Turkish tribes, notably the +powerful Uighurs, remained intolerant of the new dispensation, and +expelled the Thu-Kiu _en masse_ from their holding in Turkestan into +Persia. Here they distributed themselves in detached hordes over the +north and centre. At this day, in some parts of Persia, e.g. +Azerbaijan, Turks make the bulk of the population besides supplying the +reigning dynasty of the whole kingdom. For the Shahs of the Kajar house +are not Iranian, but purely Turkish. + +This, it should be observed, was the western limit of Turkish expansion +in the mass. Azerbaijan is the nearest region to us in which Turki +blood predominates, and the westernmost province of the true Turk +homeland. All Turks who have passed thence into Hither Asia have come +in comparatively small detachments, as minorities to alien majorities. +They have invaded as groups of nomads seeking vacant pasturage, or as +bands of military adventurers who, first offering their swords to +princes of the elder peoples, have subsequently, on several occasions +and in several localities, imposed themselves on their former masters. +To the first category belong all those Turcoman, Avshar, Yuruk, and +other Turki tribes, which filtered over the Euphrates into unoccupied +or sparsely inhabited parts of Syria and Asia Minor from the seventh +century onwards, and survive to this day in isolated patches, +distinguished from the mass of the local populations, partly by an +ineradicable instinct for nomadic life, partly by retention of the +pre-Islamic beliefs and practices of the first immigrants. In the +second category—military adventurers—fall, for example, the Turkish +praetorians who made and unmade not less than four caliphs at Bagdad in +the ninth century, and that bold _condottiere_, Ahmed ibn Tulun, who +captured a throne at Cairo. Even Christian emperors availed themselves +of these stout fighters. Theophilus of Constantinople anticipated the +Ottoman invasion of Europe by some five hundred years when he +established Vardariote Turks in Macedonia. + +The most important members of the second category, however, were the +Seljuks. Like the earlier Thu-Kiu, they were pushed out of Turkestan +late in the tenth century to found a power in Persia. Here, in +Khorasan, the mass of the horde settled and remained: and it was only a +comparatively small section which went on westward as military +adventurers to fall upon Bagdad, Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor. This +first conquest was little better than a raid, so brief was the +resultant tenure; but a century later two dispossessed nephews of Melek +Shah of Persia set out on a military adventure which had more lasting +consequences. Penetrating with, a small following into Asia Minor, they +seized Konia, and instituted there a kingdom nominally feudatory to the +Grand Seljuk of Persia, but in reality independent and destined to last +about two centuries. Though numerically weak, their forces, recruited +from the professional soldier class which had bolstered up the Abbasid +Empire and formed the Seljukian kingdoms of Persia and Syria, were +superior to any Byzantine troops that could be arrayed in southern or +central Asia Minor. They constituted indeed the only compact body of +fighting men seen in these regions for some generations. It found +reinforcement from the scattered Turki groups introduced already, as we +have seen, into the country; and even from native Christians, who, +descended from the Iconoclasts of two centuries before, found the rule +of Moslem image-haters more congenial, as it was certainly more +effective, than that of Byzantine emperors. The creed of the Seljuks +was Islam of an Iranian type. Of Incarnationist colour, it repudiated +the dour illiberal spirit of the early Arabian apostles which +latter-day Sunnite orthodoxy has revived. Accordingly its professors, +backed by an effective force and offering security and privilege, +quickly won over the aborigines—Lycaonians, Phrygians, Cappadocians, +and Cilicians—and welded them into a nation, leaving only a few +detached communities here and there to cherish allegiance to Byzantine +Christianity. In the event, the population of quite two-thirds of the +Anatolian peninsula had already identified itself with a ruling Turki +caste before, early in the thirteenth century, fresh Turks appeared on +the scene—those Turks who were to found the Ottoman Empire. + +They entered Asia Minor much as the earlier Turcomans had entered it—a +small body of nomadic adventurers, thrown off by the larger body of +Turks settled in Persia to seek new pastures west of the Euphrates. +There are divers legends about the first appearance and establishment +of these particular Turks: but all agree that they were of +inconsiderable number— not above four hundred families at most. +Drifting in by way of Armenia, they pressed gradually westward from +Erzerum in hope of finding some unoccupied country which would prove +both element and fertile. Byzantine influence was then at a very low +ebb. With Constantinople itself in Latin hands, the Greek writ ran only +along the north Anatolian coast, ruled from two separate centres, Isnik +(Nicaea) and Trebizond: and the Seljuk kingdom was run in reality much +more vigorous. Though apparently without a rival, it was subsisting by +consent, on the prestige of its past, rather than on actual power. The +moment of its dissolution was approaching, and the Anatolian peninsula, +two-thirds Islamized, but ill-organised and very loosely knit, was +becoming once more a fair field for any adventurer able to command a +small compact force. + +The newly come Turks were invited finally to settle on the extreme +north-western fringe of the Seljuk territory—in a region so near Nicaea +that their sword would be a better title to it than any which the +feudal authority of Konia could confer. In fact it was a debatable +land, an angle pushed up between the lake plain of Nicaea on the one +hand and the plain of Brusa on the other, and divided from each by not +lofty heights, Yenishehr, its chief town, which became the Osmanli +chief Ertogrul’s residence, lies, as the crow flies, a good deal less +than fifty miles from the Sea of Marmora, and not a hundred miles from +Constantinople itself. Here Ertogrul was to be a Warden of the Marches, +to hold his territory for the Seljuk and extend it for himself at the +expense of Nicaea if he could. If he won through, so much the better +for Sultan Alaeddin; if he failed, _vile damnum!_ + +Hardly were his tribesmen settled, however, among the Bithynians and +Greeks of Yenishehr, before the Seljuk collapse became a fact. The +Tartar storm, ridden by Jenghis Khan, which had overwhelmed Central +Asia, spent its last force on the kingdom of Konia, and, withdrawing, +left the Seljuks bankrupt of force and prestige and Anatolia without an +overlord. The feudatories were free everywhere to make or mar +themselves, and they spent the last half of the thirteenth century in +fighting for whatever might be saved from the Seljuk wreck before it +foundered for ever about 1300 A.D. In the south, the centre, and the +east of the peninsula, where Islam had long rooted itself as the +popular social system, various Turki emirates established themselves on +a purely Moslem basis—certain of these, like the Danishmand emirate of +Cappadocia, being restorations of tribal jurisdictions which had +existed before the imposition of Seljuk overlordship. + +In the extreme north-west, however, where the mass of society was still +Christian and held itself Greek, no Turkish, potentate could either +revive a pre-Seljukian status or simply carry on a Seljukian system in +miniature. If he was to preserve independence at all, he must rely on a +society which was not yet Moslem and form a coalition with the +‘Greeks’, into whom the recent recovery of Constantinople from the +Latins had put fresh heart. Osman, who had succeeded Ertogrul in 1288, +recognized where his only possible chance of continued dominion and +future aggrandizement lay. He turned to the Greeks, as an element of +vitality and numerical strength to be absorbed into his nascent state, +and applied himself unremittingly to winning over and identifying with +himself the Greek feudal seigneurs in his territory or about its +frontiers. Some of these, like Michael, lord of Harmankaya, readily +enough stood in with the vigorous Turk and became Moslems. Others, as +the new state gained momentum, found themselves obliged to accept it or +be crushed. There are to this day Greek communities in the Brusa +district jealously guarding privileges which date from compacts made +with their seigneurs by Osman and his son Orkhan. + +It was not till the Seljuk kingdom was finally extinguished, in or +about 1300 A.D. that Osman assumed at Yenishehr the style and title of +a sultan. Acknowledged from Afium Kara Hissar, in northern Phrygia, to +the Bithynian coast of the Marmora, beside whose waters his standards +had already been displayed, he lived on to see Brusa fall to his son +Orkhan, in 1326, and become the new capital. Though Nicaea still held +out, Osman died virtual lord of the Asiatic Greeks; and marrying his +son to a Christian girl, the famous Nilufer, after whom the river of +Brusa is still named, he laid on Christian foundations the strength of +his dynasty and his state. The first regiment of professional Ottoman +soldiery was recruited by him and embodied later by Orkhan, his son, +from Greek and other Christian-born youths, who, forced to apostatize, +were educated as Imperial slaves in imitation of the Mamelukes, +constituted more than a century earlier in Egypt, and now masters where +they had been bondmen. It is not indeed for nothing that Osman’s latest +successor, and all who hold by him, distinguish themselves from other +peoples by his name. They are Osmanlis (or by a European use of the +more correct form Othman, ‘Ottomans’), because they derived their being +as a nation and derive their national strength, not so much from +central Asia as from the blend of Turk and Greek which Osman promoted +among his people. This Greek strain has often been reinforced since his +day and mingled with other Caucasian strains. + +It was left to Orkhan to round off this Turco-Grecian realm in +Byzantine Asia by the capture first of Ismid (Nicomedia) and then of +Isnik (Nicaea); and with this last acquisition the nucleus of a +self-sufficient sovereign state was complete. After the peaceful +absorption of the emirate of Karasi, which added west central Asia +Minor almost as far south as the Hermus, the Osmanli ruled in 1338 a +dominion of greater area than that of the Greek emperor, whose capital +and coasts now looked across to Ottoman shores all the way from the +Bosphorus to the Hellespont. + + + + +2 +_Expansion of the Osmanli Kingdom_ + + +If the new state was to expand by conquest, its line of advance was +already foreshadowed. For the present, it could hardly break back into +Asia Minor, occupied as this was by Moslem principalities sanctioned by +the same tradition as itself, namely, the prestige of the Seljuks. To +attack these would be to sin against Islam. But in front lay a rich but +weak Christian state, the centre of the civilization to which the +popular element in the Osmanli society belonged. As inevitably as the +state of Nicaea had desired, won, and transferred itself to, +Constantinople, so did the Osmanli state of Brusa yearn towards the +same goal; and it needed no invitation from a Greek to dispose an +Ottoman sultan to push over to the European shore. + +Such an invitation, however, did in fact precede the first Osmanli +crossing in force. In 1345 John Cantacuzene solicited help of Orkhan +against the menace of Dushan, the Serb. Twelve years later came a +second invitation. Orkhan’s son, Suleiman, this time ferried a large +army over the Hellespont, and, by taking and holding Gallipoli and +Rodosto, secured a passage from continent to continent, which the +Ottomans would never again let go. + +Such invitations, though they neither prompted the extension of the +Osmanli realm into Europe nor sensibly precipitated it, did +nevertheless divert the course of the Ottoman arms and reprieve the +Greek empire till Timur and his Tartars could come on the scene and, +all unconsciously, secure it a further respite. But for these +diversions there is little doubt Constantinople would have passed into +Ottoman hands nearly a century earlier than the historic date of its +fall. The Osmanli armies, thus led aside to make the Serbs and not the +Greeks of Europe their first objective, became involved at once in a +tangle of Balkan affairs from which they only extricated themselves +after forty years of incessant fighting in almost every part of the +peninsula except the domain of the Greek emperor. This warfare, which +in no way advanced the proper aims of the lords of Brusa and Nicaea, +not only profited the Greek emperor by relieving him of concern about +his land frontier but also used up strength which might have made head +against the Tartars. Constantinople then, as now, was detached from the +Balkans. The Osmanlis, had they possessed themselves of it, might well +have let the latter be for a long time to come. Instead, they had to +battle, with the help now of one section of the Balkan peoples, now of +another, till forced to make an end of all their feuds and treacheries +by annexations after the victories of Kosovo in 1389 and Nikopolis in +1396. + +Nor was this all. They became involved also with certain peoples of the +main continent of Europe, whose interests or sympathies had been +affected by those long and sanguinary Balkan wars. There was already +bad blood and to spare between the Osmanlis on the one hand, and +Hungarians, Poles, and Italian Venetians on the other, long before any +second opportunity to attack Constantinople occurred: and the Osmanlis +were in for that age-long struggle to secure a ‘scientific frontier’ +beyond the Danube, whence the Adriatic on the one flank and the Euxine +on the other could be commanded, which was to make Ottoman history down +to the eighteenth century and spell ruin in the end. + +It is a vulgar error to suppose that the Osmanlis set out for Europe, +in the spirit of Arab apostles, to force their creed and dominion on +all the world. Both in Asia and Europe, from first to last, their +expeditions and conquests have been inspired palpably by motives +similar to those active among the Christian powers, namely, desire for +political security and the command of commercial areas. Such wars as +the Ottoman sultans, once they were established at Constantinople, did +wage again and again with knightly orders or with Italian republics +would have been undertaken, and fought with the same persistence, by +any Greek emperor who felt himself strong enough. Even the Asiatic +campaigns, which Selim I and some of his successors, down to the end of +the seventeenth century, would undertake, were planned and carried out +from similar motives. Their object was to secure the eastern basin of +the Mediterranean by the establishment of some strong frontier against +Iran, out of which had come more than once forces threatening the +destruction of Ottoman power. It does not, of course, in any respect +disprove their purpose that, in the event, this object was never +attained, and that an unsatisfactory Turco-Persian border still +illustrates at this day the failures of Selim I and Mohammed IV. + +By the opening of the fifteenth century, when, all unlooked for, a most +terrible Tartar storm was about to break upon western Asia, the Osmanli +realm had grown considerably, not only in Europe by conquest, but also +in Asia by the peaceful effect of marriages and heritages. Indeed it +now comprised scarcely less of the Anatolian peninsula than the last +Seljuks had held, that is to say, the whole of the north as far as the +Halys river beyond Angora, the central plateau to beyond Konia, and all +the western coast-lands. The only emirs not tributary were those of +Karamania, Cappadocia, and Pontus, that is of the southern and eastern +fringes; and one detached fragment of Greek power survived in the +last-named country, the kingdom of Trebizond. As for Europe, it had +become the main scene of Osmanli operations, and now contained the +administrative capital, Adrianople, though Brusu kept a sentimental +primacy. Sultan Murad, who some years after his succession in 1359 had +definitely transferred the centre of political gravity to Thrace, was +nevertheless carried to the Bithynian capital for burial, Bulgaria, +Serbia, and districts of both Bosnia and Macedonia were now integral +parts of an empire which had come to number at least as many Christian +as Moslem subjects, and to depend as much on the first as on the last. +Not only had the professional Osmanli soldiery, the Janissaries, +continued to be recruited from the children of native Christian races, +but contingents of adult native warriors, who still professed +Christianity, had been invited or had offered themselves to fight +Osmanli battles—even those waged against men of the True Faith in Asia. +A considerable body of Christian Serbs had stood up in Murad’s line at +the battle of Konia in 1381, before the treachery of another body of +the same race gave him the victory eight years later at Kosovo. So +little did the Osmanli state model itself on the earlier caliphial +empires and so naturally did it lean towards the Roman or Byzantine +imperial type. + +And just because it had come to be in Europe and of Europe, it was able +to survive the terrible disaster of Angora in 1402. Though the Osmanli +army was annihilated by Timur, and an Osmanli sultan, for the first and +last time in history, remained in the hands of the foe, the +administrative machinery of the Osmanli state was not paralysed. A new +ruler was proclaimed at Adrianople, and the European part of the realm +held firm. The moment that the Tartars began to give ground, the +Osmanlis began to recover it. In less than twenty years they stood +again in Asia as they were before Timur’s attack, and secure for the +time on the east, could return to restore their prestige in the west, +where the Tartar victory had bred unrest and brought both the +Hungarians and the Venetians on the Balkan scene. Their success was +once more rapid and astonishing: Salonika passed once and for all into +Ottoman hands: the Frank seigneurs and the despots of Greece were alike +humbled; and although Murad II failed to crush the Albanian, +Skanderbey, he worsted his most dangerous foe, John Hunyadi, with the +help of Wallach treachery at the second battle of Kosovo. At his death, +three years later, he left the Balkans quiet and the field clear for +his successor to proceed with the long deferred but inevitable +enterprise of attacking all that was left of Greek empire, the district +and city of Constantinople. + +The doom of New Rome was fulfilled within two years. In the end it +passed easily enough into the hands of those who already had been in +possession of its proper empire for a century or more. Historians have +made more of this fall of Constantinople in 1453 than contemporary +opinion seems to have made of it. No prince in Europe was moved to any +action by its peril, except, very half-heartedly, the Doge. Venice +could not feel quite indifferent to the prospect of the main part of +that empire, which, while in Greek hands, had been her most serious +commercial competitor, passing into the stronger hands of the Osmanlis. +Once in Constantinople, the latter, long a land power only, would be +bound to concern themselves with the sea also. The Venetians made no +effort worthy of their apprehensions, though these were indeed +exceedingly well founded; for, as all the world knows, to the sea the +Osmanlis did at once betake themselves. In less than thirty years they +were ranging all the eastern Mediterranean and laying siege to Rhodes, +the stronghold of one of their most dangerous competitors, the Knights +Hospitallers. + +In this consequence consists the chief historic importance of the +Osmanli capture of Constantinople. For no other reason can it he called +an epoch-marking event. If it guaranteed the Empire of the East against +passing into any western hands, for example, those of Venice or Genoa, +it did not affect the balance of power between Christendom and Islam; +for the strength of the former had long ceased to reside at all in +Constantinople. The last Greek emperor died a martyr, but not a +champion. + + + + +3 +_Heritage and Expansion of Byzantine Empire_ + + +On the morrow of his victory, Mohammed the Conqueror took pains to make +it clear that his introduction of a new heaven did not entail a new +earth. As little as might be would be changed. He had displaced a +Palaeologus by an Osmanli only in order that an empire long in fact +Osmanli should henceforth be so also _de jure_. Therefore he confirmed +the pre-existing Oecumenical patriarch in his functions and the +Byzantine Greeks in their privileges, renewed the rights secured to +Christian foreigners by the Greek emperors, and proclaimed that, for +his accession to the throne, there should not be made a Moslem the more +or a Christian the less. Moreover, during the thirty years left to him +of life, Mohammed devoted himself to precisely those tasks which would +have fallen to a Greek emperor desirous of restoring Byzantine power. +He thrust back Latins wherever they were encroaching on the Greek +sphere, as were the Venetians of the Morea, the Hospitallers of Rhodes, +and the Genoese of the Crimea: and he rounded off the proper Byzantine +holding by annexing, in Europe, all the Balkan peninsula except the +impracticable Black Mountain, the Albanian highlands, and the Hungarian +fortress of Belgrade; and, in Asia, what had remained independent in +the Anatolian peninsula, the emirates of Karamania and Cappadocia. + +Before Mohammed died in 1481 the Osmanli Turco-Grecian nation may be +said to have come into its own. It was lord _de facto et de jure belli_ +of the eastern or Greek Empire, that is of all territories and seas +grouped geographically round Constantinople as a centre, with only a +few exceptions unredeemed, of which the most notable were the islands +of Cyprus, Rhodes, and Krete, still in Latin hands. Needless to say, +the Osmanlis themselves differed greatly from their imperial +predecessors. Their official speech, their official creed, their family +system were all foreign to Europe, and many of their ideas of +government had been learned in the past from Persia and China, or were +derived from the original tribal organization of the true Turks. But if +they were neither more nor less Asiatics than the contemporary +Russians, they were quite as much Europeans as many of the Greek +emperors had been—those of the Isaurian dynasty, for instance. They had +given no evidence as yet of a fanatical Moslem spirit—this was to be +bred in them by subsequent experiences—and their official creed had +governed their policy hardly more than does ours in India or Egypt. +Mohammed the Conqueror had not only shown marked favour to Christians, +whether his _rayas_ or not, but encouraged letters and the arts in a +very un-Arabian spirit. Did he not have himself portrayed by Gentile +Bellini? The higher offices of state, both civil and military, were +confided (and would continue so to be for a century to come) almost +exclusively to men of Christian origin. Commerce was encouraged, and +western traders recognized that their facilities were greater now than +they had been under Greek rule. The Venetians, for example, enjoyed in +perfect liberty a virtual monopoly of the Aegean and Euxine trade. The +social condition of the peasantry seems to have been better than it had +been under Greek seigneurs, whether in Europe or in Asia, and better +than it was at the moment in feudal Christendom. The Osmanli military +organization was reputed the best in the world, and its fame attracted +adventurous spirits from all over Europe to learn war in the first +school of the age. Ottoman armies, it is worth while to remember, were +the only ones then attended by efficient medical and commissariat +services, and may be said to have introduced to Europe these +alleviations of the horrors of war. + +Had the immediate successors of Mohammed been content—or, rather, had +they been able—to remain within his boundaries, they would have robbed +Ottoman history of one century of sinister brilliance, but might have +postponed for many centuries the subsequent sordid decay; for the seeds +of this were undoubtedly sown by the three great sultans who followed +the taker of Constantinople. Their ambitions or their necessities led +to a great increase of the professional army which would entail many +evils in time to come. Among these were praetorianism in the capital +and the great provincial towns; subjection of land and peasantry to +military seigneurs, who gradually detached themselves from the central +control; wars undertaken abroad for no better reason than the +employment of soldiery feared at home; consequent expansion of the +territorial empire beyond the administrative capacity of the central +government; development of the ‘tribute-children’ system of recruiting +into a scourge of the _rayas_ and a continual offence to neighbouring +states, and the supplementing of that system by acceptance of any and +every alien outlaw who might offer himself for service: lastly, revival +of the dormant crusading spirit of Europe, which reacted on the +Osmanlis, begetting in them an Arabian fanaticism and disposing them to +revert to the obscurantist spirit of the earliest Moslems. To sum the +matter up in other words: the omnipotence and indiscipline of the +Janissaries; the contumacy of ‘Dere Beys’ (‘Lords of the Valleys,’ who +maintained a feudal independence) and of provincial governors; the +concentration of the official mind on things military and religious, to +the exclusion of other interests; the degradation and embitterment of +the Christian elements in the empire; the perpetual financial +embarrassment of the government with its inevitable consequence of +oppression and neglect of the governed; and the constant provocation in +Christendom of a hostility which was always latent and recurrently +active— all these evils, which combined to push the empire nearer and +nearer to ruin from the seventeenth century onwards, can be traced to +the brilliant epoch of Osmanli history associated with the names of +Bayezid II, Selim I, and Suleiman the Magnificent. + +At the same time Fate, rather than any sultan, must be blamed. It was +impossible to forgo some further extension of the empire, and very +difficult to arrest extension at any satisfactory static point. For one +thing, as has been pointed out already, there were important +territories in the proper Byzantine sphere still unredeemed at the +death of Mohammed. Rhodes, Krete, and Cyprus, whose possession carried +with it something like superior control of the Levantine trade, were in +Latin hands. Austrian as well as Venetian occupation of the best +harbours was virtually closing the Adriatic to the masters of the +Balkans. Nor could the inner lands of the Peninsula be quite securely +held while the great fortress of Belgrade, with the passage of the +Danube, remained in Hungarian keeping, Furthermore, the Black Sea, +which all masters of the Bosphorus have desired to make a Byzantine +lake, was in dispute with the Wallachs and the Poles; and, in the reign +of Mohammed’s successor, a cloud no bigger than a man’s hand came up +above its northern horizon—the harbinger of the Muscovite. + +As for the Asiatic part of the Byzantine sphere, there was only one +little corner in the south-east to be rounded off to bring all the +Anatolian peninsula under the Osmanli. But that corner, the Cilician +plain, promised trouble, since it was held by another Islamic power, +that of the Egyptian Mamelukes, which, claiming to be at least equal to +the Osmanli, possessed vitality much below its pretensions. The +temptation to poach on it was strong, and any lord of Constantinople +who once gave way to this, would find himself led on to assume control +of all coasts of the easternmost Levant, and then to push into inland +Asia in quest of a scientific frontier at their back—perilous and +costly enterprise which Rome had essayed again and again and had to +renounce in the end. Bayezid II took the first step by summoning the +Mameluke to evacuate certain forts near Tarsus, and expelling his +garrisons _vi et armis_. Cilicia passed to the Osmanli; but for the +moment he pushed no farther. Bayezid, who was under the obligation +always to lead his army in person, could make but one campaign at a +time; and a need in Europe was the more pressing. In quitting Cilicia, +however, he left open a new question in Ottoman politics—the Asiatic +continental question—and indicated to his successor a line of least +resistance on which to advance. Nor would this be his only dangerous +legacy. The prolonged and repeated raids into Adriatic lands, as far +north as Carniola and Carinthia, with which the rest of Bayezid’s reign +was occupied, brought Ottoman militarism at last to a point, whose +eventual attainment might have been foreseen any time in the past +century— the point at which, strong in the possession of a new arm, +artillery, it would assume control of the state. + +Bayezid’s seed was harvested by Selim. First in a long series of +praetorian creatures which would end only with the destroyer of the +praetorians themselves three centuries later, he owed his elevation to +a Janissary revolt, and all the eight bloody years of his reign were to +be punctuated by Janissary tumults. To keep his creators in any sort of +order and contentment he had no choice but to make war from his first +year to his last. When he died, in 1520, the Ottoman Empire had been +swelled to almost as wide limits in Asia and Africa as it has ever +attained since his day. Syria, Armenia, great part of Kurdistan, +northern Mesopotamia, part of Arabia, and last, but not least, Egypt, +were forced to acknowledge Osmanli suzerainty, and for the first time +an Osmanli sultan had proclaimed himself caliph. True that neither by +his birth nor by the manner of his appointment did Selim satisfy the +orthodox caliphial tradition; but, besides his acquisition of certain +venerated relics of the Prophet, such as the _Sanjak i-sherif_ or holy +standard, and besides a yet more important acquisition—the control of +the holy cities of the faith— he could base a claim on the unquestioned +fact that the office was vacant, and the equally certain fact that he +was the most powerful Moslem prince in the world. Purists might deny +him if they dared: the vulgar Sunni mind was impressed and disposed to +accept. The main importance, however, of Selim’s assumption of the +caliphate was that it consecrated Osmanli militarism to a religious +end—to the original programme of Islam. This was a new thing, fraught +with dire possibilities from that day forward. It marked the +supersession of the Byzantine or European ideal by the Asiatic in +Osmanli policy, and introduced a phase of Ottoman history which has +endured to our own time. + +The inevitable process was continued in the next reign. Almost all the +military glories of Suleiman—known to contemporary Europe as ‘the +Magnificent’ and often held by historians the greatest of Osmanli +sultans— made for weakening, not strengthening, the empire. His +earliest operations indeed, the captures of Rhodes from the Knights and +of Belgrade and Šabac from the Hungarians, expressed a legitimate +Byzantine policy; and the siege of Malta, one of his latest ventures, +might also be defended as a measure taken in the true interests of +Byzantine commerce. But the most brilliant and momentous of his +achievements bred evils for which military prestige and the material +profits to be gained from the oppression of an irreconcilable +population were inadequate compensation. This was the conquest of +Hungary. It would result in Buda and its kingdom remaining Ottoman +territory for a century and a half, and in the principalities of +Wallachia and Moldavia abiding under the Ottoman shadow even longer, +and passing for all time out of the central European into the Balkan +sphere; but also it would result in the Osmanli power finding itself on +a weak frontier face to face at last with a really strong Christian +race, the Germanic, before which, since it could not advance, it would +have ultimately to withdraw; and in the rousing of Europe to a sense of +its common danger from Moslem activity. Suleiman’s failure to take +Vienna more than made good the panic which had followed on his victory +at Mohacs. It was felt that the Moslem, now that he had failed against +the bulwark of central Europe, was to go no farther, and that the hour +of revenge was near. + +[Illustration: The Ottoman Empire (Except the Arabian and African +provinces)] + +It was nearer than perhaps was expected. Ottoman capacity to administer +the overgrown empire in Europe and Asia was strained already almost to +breaking-point, and it was in recognition of this fact that Suleiman +made the great effort to reorganize his imperial system, which has +earned him his honourable title of _El Kanun_, the Regulator. But if he +could reset and cleanse the wheels of the administrative machine, he +could not increase its capacity. New blood was beginning to fail for +the governing class just as the demands on it became greater. No longer +could it be manned exclusively from the Christian born. Two centuries +of recruiting in the Balkans and West Asia had sapped their resources. +Even the Janissaries were not now all ‘tribute-children’. Their own +sons, free men Moslem born, began to be admitted to the ranks. This +change was a vital infringement of the old principle of Osmanli rule, +that all the higher administrative and military functions should be +vested in slaves of the imperial household, directly dependent on the +sultan himself; and once breached, this principle could not but give +way more and more. The descendants of imperial slaves, free-born +Moslems, but barred from the glory and profits of their fathers’ +function, had gradually become a very numerous class of country +gentlemen distributed over all parts of the empire, and a very +malcontent one. Though it was still subservient, its dissatisfaction at +exclusion from the central administration was soon to show itself +partly in assaults on the time-honoured system, partly in assumption of +local jurisdiction, which would develop into provincial independence. + +The overgrowth of his empire further compelled Suleiman to divide the +standing army, in order that more than one imperial force might take +the field at a time. Unable to lead all his armies in person, he +elected, in the latter part of his reign, to lead none, and for the +first time left the Janissaries to march without a sultan to war. +Remaining himself at the centre, he initiated a fashion which would +encourage Osmanli sultans to lapse into half-hidden beings, whom their +subjects would gradually invest with religious character. Under these +conditions the ruler, the governing class (its power grew with this +devolution), the dominant population of the state, and the state itself +all grew more fanatically Moslem. + +In the early years of the seventeenth century, Ahmed I being on the +throne, the Ottoman Empire embraced the widest territorial area which +it was ever to cover at any one moment. In what may be called the +proper Byzantine field, Cyprus had been recovered and Krete alone stood +out. Outside that field, Hungary on the north and Yemen (since Selim’s +conquest in 1516) on the south were the frontier provinces, and the +Ottoman flag had been carried not only to the Persian Gulf but also far +upon the Iranian plateau, in the long wars of Murad III, which +culminated in 1588 with the occupation of Tabriz and half Azerbaijan. + + + + +4 +_Shrinkage and Retreat_ + + +The fringes of this vast empire, however, none too surely held, were +already involving it in insoluble difficulties and imminent dangers. On +the one hand, in Asia, it had been found impossible to establish +military fiefs in Arabia, Kurdistan, or anywhere east of it, on the +system which had secured the Osmanli tenure elsewhere. On the other +hand, in Europe, as we have seen, the empire had a very unsatisfactory +frontier, beyond which a strong people not only set limits to further +progress but was prepared to dispute the ground already gained. In a +treaty signed at Sitvatorok, in 1606, the Osmanli sultan was forced to +acknowledge definitely the absolute and equal sovereignty of his +northern neighbour, Austria; and although, less than a century later, +Vienna would be attacked once more, there was never again to be serious +prospect of an extension of the empire in the direction of central +Europe. + +Moreover, however appearances might be maintained on the frontiers, the +heart of the empire had begun patently to fail. The history of the next +two centuries, the seventeenth and eighteenth, is one long record of +praetorian tumults at home; and ever more rarely will these be +compensated by military successes abroad. The first of these centuries +had not half elapsed ere the Janissaries had taken the lives of two +sultans, and brought the Grand Vizierate to such a perilous pass that +no ordinary holder of it, unless backed by some very powerful Albanian +or other tribal influence, could hope to save his credit or even his +life. During this period indeed no Osmanli of the older stocks ever +exercised real control of affairs. It was only among the more recently +assimilated elements, such as the Albanian, the Slavonic, or the Greek, +that men of the requisite character and vigour could be found. The +rally which marked the latter half of the seventeenth century was +entirely the work of Albanians or of other generals and admirals, none +of whom had had a Moslem grandfather. Marked by the last Osmanli +conquest made at the expense of Europe—that of Krete; by the definite +subjugation of Wallachia; by the second siege of Vienna; by the +recovery of the Morea from Venice; and finally by an honourable +arrangement with Austria about the Danube frontier—it is all to be +credited to the Kuprili ‘dynasty’ of Albanian viziers, which +conspicuously outshone the contemporary sovereigns of the dynasty of +Osman, the best of them, Mohammed IV, not excepted. It was, however, no +more than a rally; for greater danger already threatened from another +quarter. Agreement had not been reached with Austria at Carlowitz, in +1699, before a new and baleful planet swam into the Osmanli sky. + +It was, this time, no central European power, to which, at the worst, +all that lay north of the proper Byzantine sphere might be abandoned; +but a claimant for part of that sphere itself, perhaps even for the +very heart of it. Russia, seeking an economic outlet, had sapped her +way south to the Euxine shore, and was on the point of challenging the +Osmanli right to that sea. The contest would involve a vital issue; and +if the Porte did not yet grasp this fact, others had grasped it. The +famous ‘Testament of Peter the Great’ may or may not be a genuine +document; but, in either case, it proves that certain views about the +necessary policy of Russia in the Byzantine area, which became +commonplaces of western political thinkers as the eighteenth century +advanced, were already familiar to east European minds in the earlier +part of that century. + +Battle was not long in being joined. In the event, it would cost Russia +about sixty years of strenuous effort to reduce the Byzantine power of +the Osmanlis to a condition little better than that in which Osman had +found the Byzantine power of the Greeks four centuries before. During +the first two-thirds of this period the contest was waged not +unequally. By the Treaty of Belgrade, in 1739, Sultan Mahmud I appeared +for a moment even to have gained the whole issue, Russia agreeing to +her own exclusion from the Black Sea, and from interference in the +Danubian principalities. But the success could not be sustained. +Repeated effort was rapidly exhausting Osmanli strength, sapped as it +was by increasing internal disease: and when a crisis arrived with the +accession of the Empress Catherine, it proved too weak to meet it. +During the ten years following 1764 Osmanli hold on the Black Sea was +lost irretrievably. After the destruction of the fleet at Chesme the +Crimea became untenable and was abandoned to the brief mercies of +Russia: and with a veiled Russian protectorate established in the +Danubian principalities, and an open Russian occupation in Morean +ports, Constantinople had lost once more her own seas. When Selim III +was set on a tottering throne, in 1787, the wheel of Byzantine destiny +seemed to have come again almost full circle: and the world was +expecting a Muscovite succession to that empire which had acknowledged +already the Roman, the Greek, and the Osmanli. + +Certainly history looked like repeating itself. As in the fourteenth +century, so in the eighteenth, the imperial provinces, having shaken +off almost all control of the capital, were administering themselves, +and happier for doing so. Mesopotamia, Syria, Egypt, and Trebizond +acknowledged adventurers as virtually independent lords. Asia Minor, in +general, was being controlled, in like disregard of imperial majesty, +by a group of ‘Dere Beys’, descended, in different districts, from +tribal chieftains or privileged tax-farmers, or, often, from both. The +latter part of the eighteenth century was the heyday of the Anatolian +feudal families—of such as the Chapanoghlus of Yuzgad, whose sway +stretched from Pontus to Cilicia, right across the base of the +peninsula, or the Karamanoghlus of Magnesia, Bergama, and Aidin, who +ruled as much territory as the former emirs of Karasi and Sarukhan, and +were recognized by the representatives of the great trading companies +as wielding the only effective authority in Smyrna. The wide and rich +regions controlled by such families usually contributed neither an +_asper_ to the sultan’s treasury nor a man to the imperial armies. + +On no mountain of either Europe or Asia—and mountains formed a large +part of the Ottoman empire in both—did the imperial writ run. Macedonia +and Albania were obedient only to their local beys, and so far had gone +the devolution of Serbia and Bosnia to Janissary aghas, feudal beys, +and the Beylerbey of Rumili, that these provinces hardly concerned +themselves more with the capital. The late sultan, Mustapha III, had +lost almost the last remnant of his subjects’ respect, not so much by +the ill success of his mutinous armies as by his depreciation of the +imperial coinage. He had died bankrupt of prestige, leaving no visible +assets to his successor. What might become of the latter no one in the +empire appeared to care. As in 1453, it waited other lords. + + + + +5 +_Revival_ + + +It has been waiting, nevertheless, ever since—waiting for much more +than a century; and perhaps the end is not even yet. Why, then, have +expectations not only within but without the empire been so greatly at +fault? How came Montesquieu, Burke, and other confident prophets since +their time to be so signally mistaken? There were several co-operating +causes, but one paramount. Constantinople was no longer, as in 1453, a +matter of concern only to itself, its immediate neighbours, and certain +trading republics of Italy. It had become involved with the commercial +interests of a far wider circle, in particular of the great trading +peoples of western Europe, the British, the French, and the Dutch, and +with the political interests of the Germanic and Russian nations. None +of these could be indifferent to a revolution in its fortunes, and +least of all to its passing, not to a power out of Asia, but to a rival +power among themselves. Europe was already in labour with the doctrine +of the Balance of Power. The bantling would not be born at Vienna till +early in the century to come: but even before the end of the eighteenth +century it could be foreseen that its life would be bound up with the +maintenance of Constantinople in independence of any one of the parent +powers—that is, with the prolongation of the Osmanli phase of its +imperial fortunes. This doctrine, consistently acted upon by Europe, +has been the sheet anchor of the Ottoman empire for a century. Even to +this day its Moslem dynasty has never been without one powerful +Christian champion or another. + +There were, however, some thirty years still to elapse after Selim’s +accession before that doctrine was fully born: and had her hands been +free, Russia might well have been in secure possession of the Byzantine +throne long before 1815. For, internally, the Osmanli state went from +bad to worse. The tumultuous insubordination of the Janissaries became +an ever greater scandal. Never in all the long history of their riots +was their record for the years 1807-9 equalled or even approached. +Never before, also, had the provinces been so utterly out of hand. This +was the era of Jezzar the Butcher at Acre, of the rise of Mehemet Ali +in Egypt, of Ali Pasha in Epirus, and of Pasvanoghlu at Vidin. When +Mahmud II was thrust on to the throne in 1809, he certainly began his +reign with no more personal authority and no more imperial prestige or +jurisdiction than the last Greek emperor had enjoyed on his accession +in 1448. + +The great European war, however, which had been raging intermittently +for nearly twenty years, had saved Mahmud an empire to which he could +succeed in name and try to give substance. Whatever the Osmanlis +suffered during that war, it undoubtedly kept them in Constantinople. +Temporary loss of Egypt and the small damage done by the British attack +on Constantinople in 1807 were a small price to pay for the diversion +of Russia’s main energies to other than Byzantine fields, and for the +assurance, made doubly sure when the great enemy did again attack, that +she would not be allowed to settle the account alone. Whatever Napoleon +may have planned and signed at Tilsit, the aegis of France was +consistently opposed to the enemies of the Osmanlis down to the close +of the Napoleonic age. + +Thus it came about that those thirty perilous years passed without the +expected catastrophe. There was still a successor of Osman reigning in +Constantinople when the great Christian powers, met in conclave at +Vienna, half unconsciously guaranteed the continued existence of the +Osmanli Empire simply by leaving it out of account in striking a +Balance of Power in Europe. Its European territory, with the capital +within it, was of quite enough importance to disturb seriously the nice +adjustment agreed at Vienna; and, therefore, while any one’s henceforth +to take or leave, it would become always some one’s to guard. A few +years had yet to pass before the phrase, the Maintenance of the +Integrity of the Ottoman Empire, would be a watchword of European +diplomacy: but, whether formulated thus or not, that principle became a +sure rock of defence for the Osmanli Empire on the birthday of the +doctrine of the Balance of Power. + +Secure from destruction by any foes but those of his own household, as +none knew better than he, the reigning Osmanli was scheming to regain +the independence and dignity of his forefathers. Himself a creature of +the Janissaries, Mahmud had plotted the abolition of his creators from +the first year of his reign, but making a too precipitate effort after +the conclusion of peace with Russia, had ignominiously failed and +fallen into worse bondage than ever. Now, better assured of his +imperial position and supported by leading men of all classes among his +subjects, he returned not only to his original enterprise but to +schemes for removing other checks on the power of the sovereign which +had come into being in the last two centuries—notably the feudal +independence of the Dere Beys, and the irresponsibility of provincial +governors. + +Probably Mahmud II—if he is to be credited with personal initiation of +the reforms always associated with his name—was not conscious of any +purpose more revolutionary than that of becoming master in his own +house, as his ancestors had been. What he ultimately accomplished, +however, was something of much greater and more lasting moment to the +Osmanli state. It was nothing less than the elimination of the most +Byzantine features in its constitution and government. The substitution +of national forces for mercenary praetorians: the substitution of +direct imperial government of the provinces for devolution to +seigneurs, tribal chiefs, and irresponsible officers: the substitution +of direct collection for tax-farming: and the substitution of +administration by bureaucrats for administration by household +officers—these, the chief reforms carried through under Mahmud, were +all anti-Byzantine. They did not cause the Osmanli state to be born +anew, but, at least, they went far to purge it of original sin. + +That Mahmud and his advisers could carry through such reforms at all in +so old a body politic is remarkable: that they carried them through +amid the events of his reign is almost miraculous. One affront after +another was put on the Sultan, one blow after another was struck at his +empire. Inspired by echoes of the French Revolution and by Napoleon’s +recognition of the rights of nationalities, first the Serbs and then +the Greeks seized moments of Ottoman disorder to rise in revolt against +their local lords. The first, who had risen under Selim III, achieved, +under Mahmud, autonomy, but not independence, nothing remaining to the +sultan as before except the fortress of Belgrade with five other +strongholds. The second, who began with no higher hopes than the Serbs, +were encouraged, by the better acquaintance and keener sympathy of +Europe, to fight their way out to complete freedom. The Morea and +central Greece passed out of the empire, the first provinces so to pass +since the Osmanli loss of Hungary. Yet it was in the middle of that +fatal struggle that Mahmud settled for ever with the Janissaries, and +during all its course he was settling one after another with the Dere +Beys! + +When he had thus sacrificed the flower of his professional troops and +had hardly had time to replace the local governments of the provinces +by anything much better than general anarchy, he found himself faced by +a Russian assault. His raw levies fought as no other raw levies than +the Turkish can, and, helped by manifestations of jealousy by the other +powers, staved off the capture of Constantinople, which, at one moment, +seemed about to take place at last. But he had to accept humiliating +terms, amounting virtually, to a cession of the Black Sea. Mahmud +recognized that such a price he must pay for crossing the broad stream +between Byzantinism and Nationalism, and kept on his way. + +Finally came a blow at the hands of one of his own household and creed. +Mehemet Ali of Egypt, who had faithfully fought his sovereign’s battles +in Arabia and the Morea, held his services ill requited and his claim +to be increased beyond other pashas ignored, and proceeded to take what +had not been granted. He went farther than he had intended—more than +half-way across Asia Minor—after the imperial armies had suffered three +signal defeats, before he extorted what he had desired at first: and in +the end, after very brief enjoyment, he had to resign all again to the +mandate, not of his sovereign, but of certain European powers who +commanded his seas. Mahmud, however, who lived neither to see himself +saved by the _giaur_ fleets, nor even to hear of his latest defeat, had +gone forward with the reorganization of the central and provincial +administration, undismayed by Mehemet Ali’s contumacy or the insistence +of Russia at the gate of the Bosphorus. + +As news arrived from time to time in the west of Mahmud’s disasters, it +was customary to prophesy the imminent dissolution of his empire. We, +however, looking backward now, can see that by its losses the Osmanli +state in reality grew stronger. Each of its humiliations pledged some +power or group of powers more deeply to support it: and before Mahmud +died, he had reason to believe that, so long as the European Concert +should ensue the Balance of Power, his dynasty would not be expelled +from Constantinople. His belief has been justified. At every fresh +crisis of Ottoman fortunes, and especially after every fresh Russian +attack, foreign protection has unfailingly been extended to his +successors. + +It was not, however, only in virtue of the increasing solicitude of the +powers on its behalf that during the nineteenth century the empire was +growing and would grow stronger, but also in virtue of certain assets +within itself. First among these ranked the resources of its Asiatic +territories, which, as the European lands diminished, became more and +more nearly identified with the empire. When, having got rid of the old +army, Mahmud imposed service on all his Moslem subjects, in theory, but +in effect only on the Osmanlis (not the Arabs, Kurds, or other half +assimilated nomads and hillmen), it meant more than a similar measure +would have meant in a Christian empire. For, the life of Islam being +war, military service binds Moslems together and to their chiefs as it +binds men under no other dispensation; therefore Mahmud, so far as he +was able to enforce his decree, created not merely a national army but +a nation. His success was most immediate and complete in Anatolia, the +homeland of the Osmanlis. There, however, it was attained only by the +previous reduction of those feudal families which, for many +generations, had arrogated to themselves the levying and control of +local forces. Hence, as in Constantinople with the Janissaries, so in +the provinces with the Dere Beys, destruction of a drastic order had to +precede construction, and more of Mahmud’s reign had to be devoted to +the former than remained for the latter. + +He did, however, live to see not only the germ of a nation emerge from +chaos, but also the framework of an organization for governing it well +or ill. The centralized bureaucracy which he succeeded in initiating +was, of course, wretchedly imperfect both in constitution and +equipment. But it promised to promote the end he had in view and no +other, inasmuch as, being the only existent machine of government, it +derived any effective power it had from himself alone. Dependent on +Stambul, it served to turn thither the eyes and prayers of the +provincials. The naturally submissive and peaceful population of Asia +Minor quickly accustomed itself to look beyond the dismantled +strongholds of its fallen beys. As for the rest— contumacious and +bellicose beys and sheikhs of Kurdish hills and Syrian steppes—their +hour of surrender was yet to come. + +The eventual product of Mahmud’s persistency was the ‘Turkey’ we have +seen in our own time—that Turkey irretrievably Asiatic in spirit under +a semi-European system of administration, which has governed +despotically in the interests of one creed and one class, with +slipshod, makeshift methods, but has always governed, and little by +little has extended its range. Knowing its imperfections and its +weakness, we have watched with amazement its hand feeling forward none +the less towards one remote frontier district after another, painfully +but surely getting its grip, and at last closing on Turcoman chiefs and +Kurdish beys, first in the Anatolian and Cilician hills, then in the +mountains of Armenia, finally in the wildest Alps of the Persian +borderland. We have marked its stealthy movement into the steppes and +deserts of Syria, Mesopotamia, and Arabia— now drawn back, now pushed +farther till it has reached and held regions over which Mahmud could +claim nothing but a suzerainty in name. To judge how far the shrinkage +of the Osmanli European empire has been compensated by expansion of its +Asiatic, one has only to compare the political state of Kurdistan, as +it was at the end of the eighteenth century, and as it has been in our +own time. + +It is impossible to believe that the Greek Empire, however buttressed +and protected by foreign powers, could ever have reconstituted itself +after falling so low as it fell in the fourteenth century and as the +Osmanli Empire fell in the eighteenth; and it is clear that the latter +must still have possessed latent springs of vitality, deficient in the +former. What can these have been? It is worth while to try to answer +this question at the present juncture, since those springs, if they +existed a hundred years ago, can hardly now be dry. + +In the first place it had its predominant creed. This had acted as +Islam acts everywhere, as a very strong social bond, uniting the vast +majority of subjects in all districts except certain parts of the +European empire, in instinctive loyalty to the person of the padishah, +whatever might be felt about his government. Thus had it acted with +special efficacy in Asia Minor, whose inhabitants the Osmanli emperors, +unlike the Greek, had always been at some pains to attach to +themselves. The sultan, therefore, could still count on general support +from the population of his empire’s heart, and had at his disposal the +resources of a country which no administration, however improvident or +malign, has ever been able to exhaust. + +In the second place the Osmanli ‘Turks’, however fallen away from the +virtues of their ancestors, had not lost either ‘the will to power’ or +their capacity for governing under military law. If they had never +succeeded in learning to rule as civilians they had not forgotten how +to rule as soldiers. + +In the third place the sultanate of Stambul had retained a vague but +valuable prestige, based partly on past history, partly on its +pretension to religious influence throughout a much larger area than +its proper dominions; and the conservative population of the latter was +in great measure very imperfectly informed of its sovereign’s actual +position. + +In the fourth and last place, among the populations on whose loyalty +the Osmanli sultan could make good his claim, were several strong +unexhausted elements, especially in Anatolia. There are few more +vigorous and enduring peoples than the peasants of the central plateau +of Asia Minor, north, east, and south. With this rock of defence to +stand upon, the sultan could draw also on the strength of other more +distant races, less firmly attached to himself, but not less vigorous, +such, for example, as the Albanians of his European mountains and the +Kurds of his Asiatic. However decadent might be the Turco-Grecian +Osmanli (he, unfortunately, had the lion’s share of office), those +other elements had suffered no decline in physical or mental +development. Indeed, one cannot be among them now without feeling that +their day is not only not gone, but is still, for the most part, yet to +be. + +Such were latent assets of the Osmanli Empire, appreciated imperfectly +by the prophets of its dissolution. Thanks to them, that empire +continued not only to hold together throughout the nineteenth century +but, in some measure, to consolidate itself. Even when the protective +fence, set up by European powers about it, was violated, as by Russia +several times—in 1829, in 1854, and in 1877—the nation, which Mahmud +had made, always proved capable of stout enough resistance to delay the +enemy till European diplomacy, however slow of movement, could come to +its aid, and ultimately to dispose the victor to accept terms +consistent with its continued existence. It was an existence, of +course, of sufferance, but one which grew better assured the longer it +lasted. By an irony of the Osmanli position, the worse the empire was +administered, the stronger became its international guarantee. No +better example can be cited than the effect of its financial follies. +When national bankruptcy, long contemplated by its Government, +supervened at last, the sultan had nothing more to fear from Europe. He +became, _ipso facto_, the cherished protégé of every power whose +nationals had lent his country money. + +Considering the magnitude of the change which Mahmud instituted, the +stage at which he left it, and the character of the society in which it +had to be carried out, it was unfortunate that he should have been +followed on the throne by two well-meaning weaklings, of whom the first +was a voluptuary, the second a fantastic spendthrift of doubtful +sanity. Mahmud, as has been said, being occupied for the greater part +of his reign in destroying the old order, had been able to reconstruct +little more than a framework. His operations had been almost entirely +forcible—of a kind understood by and congenial to the Osmanli +character—and partly by circumstances but more by his natural +sympathies, he had been identified from first to last with military +enterprises. Though he was known to contemplate the eventual supremacy +of civil law, and the equality of all sorts and conditions of his +subjects before it, he did nothing to open this vista to public view. +Consequently he encountered little or no factious opposition. Very few +held briefs for either the Janissaries or the Dere Beys; and fewer +regretted them when they were gone. Osmanli society identified itself +with the new army and accepted the consequent reform of the central or +provincial administration. Nothing in these changes seemed to affect +Islam or the privileged position of Moslems in the empire. + +It was quite another matter when Abdul Mejid, in the beginning of his +reign, promulgated an imperial decree—the famous Tanzimat or Hatti +Sherif of Gulkhaneh—which, amid many excellent and popular provisions +for the continued reform of the administration, proclaimed the equality +of Christian and Moslem subjects in service, in reward, and before the +law. The new sultan, essentially a civilian and a man of easy-going +temperament, had been induced to believe that the end of an evolution, +which had only just begun, could be anticipated _per saltum_, and that +he and all his subjects would live happily together ever after. His +counsellors had been partly politicians, who for various reasons, good +and bad, wished to gain West European sympathy for their country, +involved in potential bondage to Russia since the Treaty of Unkiar +Skelessi (1833), and recently afflicted by Ibrahim Pasha’s victory at +Nizib; and they looked to Great Britain to get them out of the Syrian +mess. Partly also Abdul Mejid had been influenced by enthusiasts, who +set more store by ideas or the phrases in which they were expressed, +than by the evidence of facts. There were then, as since, ‘young men in +a hurry’ among the more Europeanized Osmanlis. The net result of the +sultan’s precipitancy was to set against himself and his policy all who +wished that such it consummation of the reform process might never come +and all who knew it would never come, if snatched at thus—that is, both +the ‘Old Turks’ and the moderate Liberals; and, further, to change for +the worse the spirit in which the new machine of government was being +worked and in which fresh developments of it would be accepted. + +To his credit, however, Abdul Mejid went on with administrative reform. +The organization of the army into corps—the foundation of the existing +system—and the imposition of five years’ service on all subjects of the +empire (in theory which an Albanian rising caused to be imperfectly +realized in fact), belong to the early part of his reign; as do also, +on the civil side, the institution of responsible councils of state and +formation of ministries, and much provision for secondary education. To +his latest years is to be credited the codification of the civil law. +He had the advantage of some dozen initial years of comparative +security from external foes, after the Syrian question had been settled +in his favour by Great Britain and her allied powers at the cheap price +of a guarantee of hereditary succession to the house of Mehemet Ali. +Thanks to the same support, war with Persia was avoided and war with +Russia postponed. + +But the provinces, even if quiet (which some of them, e.g. the Lebanon +in the early ‘forties’, were not), proved far from content. If the form +of Osmanli government had changed greatly, its spirit had changed +little, and defective communications militated against the +responsibility of officials to the centre. Money was scarce, and the +paper currency—an ill-omened device of Mahmud’s—was depreciated, +distrusted, and regarded as an imperial betrayal of confidence. +Finally, the hostility of Russia, notoriously unabated, and the +encouragement of aspiring _rayas_ credited to her and other foreign +powers made bad blood between creeds and encouraged opposition to the +execution of the pro-Christian Tanzimat. When Christian turbulence at +last brought on, in 1854, the Russian attack which developed into the +Crimean War, and Christian allies, though they frustrated that attack, +made a peace by which the Osmanlis gained nothing, the latter were in +no mood to welcome the repetition of the Tanzimat, which Abdul Mejid +consented to embody in the Treaty of Paris. The reign closed amid +turbulence and humiliations—massacre and bombardment at Jidda, massacre +and Franco-British coercion in Syria—from all of which the sultan took +refuge with women and wine, to meet in 1861 a drunkard’s end. + +His successor, Abdul Aziz, had much the same intentions, the same +civilian sympathies, the same policy of Europeanization, and a +different, but more fatal, weakness of character. He was, perhaps, +never wholly sane; but his aberration, at first attested only by an +exalted conviction of his divine character and inability to do wrong, +excited little attention until it began to issue in fantastic +expenditure. By an irony of history, he is the one Osmanli sultan upon +the roll of our Order of the Garter, the right to place a banner in St, +George’s Chapel having been offered to this Allah-possessed caliph on +the occasion of his visit to the West in 1867. + +Despite the good intentions of Abdul Aziz himself—as sincere as can be +credited to a disordered brain—-and despite more than one minister of +outstanding ability, reform and almost everything else in the empire +went to the bad in this unhappy reign. The administration settled down +to lifeless routine and lapsed into corruption: the national army was +starved: the depreciation of the currency grew worse as the revenue +declined and the sultan’s household and personal extravagance +increased. Encouraged by the inertia of the imperial Government, the +Christians of the European provinces waxed bold. Though Montenegro was +severely handled for contumacy, the Serbs were able to cover their +penultimate stage towards freedom by forcing in 1867 the withdrawal of +the last Ottoman garrisons from their fortresses. Krete stood at bay +for three years and all but won her liberty. Bosnia rose in arms, but +divided against herself. Pregnant with graver trouble than these, +Bulgaria showed signs of waking from long sleep. In 1870 she obtained +recognition as a nationality in the Ottoman Empire, her Church being +detached from the control of the Oecumenical Patriarch of the Greeks +and placed under an Exarch. Presently, her peasantry growing ever more +restive, passed from protest to revolt against the Circassian +refugee-colonists with whom the Porte was flooding the land. The +sultan, in an evil hour, for lack of trained troops, let loose +irregulars on the villages, and the Bulgarian atrocities, which they +committed in 1875, sowed a fatal harvest for his successor to reap. His +own time was almost fulfilled. The following spring a dozen high +officials, with the assent of the Sheikh-ul-Islam and the active +dissent of no one, took Abdul Aziz from his throne to a prison, wherein +two days later he perished, probably by his own hand. A puppet reigned +three months as Murad V, and then, at the bidding of the same +king-makers whom his uncle had obeyed, left the throne free for his +brother Abdul Hamid, a man of affairs and ability, who was to be the +most conspicuous, or rather, the most notorious Osmanli sultan since +Suleiman. + + + + +6 +_Relapse_ + + +The new sultan, who had not expected his throne, found his realm in +perilous case. Nominally sovereign and a member of the Concert of +Europe, he was in reality a semi-neutralized dependant, existing, as an +undischarged bankrupt, on sufferance of the powers. Should the Concert +be dissolved, or even divided, and any one of its members be left free +to foreclose its Ottoman mortgages, the empire would be at an end. +Internally it was in many parts in open revolt, in all the rest +stagnant and slowly rotting. The thrice-foiled claimant to its +succession, who six years before had denounced the Black Sea clause of +the Treaty of Paris and so freed its hands for offence, was manifestly +preparing a fresh assault. Something drastic must be done; but what? + +This danger of the empire’s international situation, and also the +disgrace of it, had been evident for some time past to those who had +any just appreciation of affairs; and in the educated class, at any +rate, something like a public opinion, very apprehensive and very much +ashamed, had struggled into being. The discovery of a leader in Midhat +Pasha, former governor-general of Bagdad, and a king-maker of recent +notoriety, induced the party of this opinion to take precipitate +action. Murad had been deposed in August. Before the year was out +Midhat presented himself before Abdul Hamid with a formal demand for +the promulgation of a Constitution, proposing not only to put into +execution the pious hopes of the two Hatti Sherifs of Abdul Mejid but +also to limit the sovereign and govern the empire by representative +institutions. The new sultan, hardly settled on his uneasy throne, +could not deny those who had deposed his two predecessors, and, +shrewdly aware that ripe facts would not be long in getting the better +of immature ideas, accepted. A parliament was summoned; an electorate, +with only the haziest notions of what it was about, went through the +form of sending representatives to Constantinople; and the sittings +were inaugurated by a speech from the throne, framed on the most +approved Britannic model, the deputies, it is said, jostling and +crowding the while to sit, as many as possible, on the right, which +they understood was always the side of powers that be. + +It is true this extemporized chamber never had a chance. The Russians +crossed the Pruth before it had done much more than verify its powers, +and the thoughts and energies of the Osmanlis were soon occupied with +the most severe and disastrous struggle in which the empire had ever +engaged. But it is equally certain that it could not have turned to +account any chance it might have had. Once more the ‘young men in a +hurry’ had snatched at the end of an evolution hardly begun, without +taking into account the immaturity of Osmanli society in political +education and political capacity. After suspension during the war, the +parliament was dissolved unregretted, and its creator was tried for his +life, and banished. In failing, however, Midhat left bad to become so +much worse that the next reformers would inevitably have a more +convinced public opinion behind them, and he had virtually destroyed +the power of Mahmud’s bureaucracy. If the only immediate effect was the +substitution of an unlimited autocracy, the Osmanli peoples would be +able thenceforward to ascribe their misfortunes to a single person, +meditate attack, on a single position, and dream of realizing some day +an ideal which had been definitely formulated. + +The Russian onslaught, which began in both Europe and Asia in the +spring of 1877, had been brought on, after a fashion become customary, +by movements in the Slavonic provinces of the Ottoman Empire and in +Rumania; and the latter province, now independent in all but name and, +in defiance of Ottoman protests, disposing of a regular army, joined +the invader. In campaigns lasting a little less than a year, the +Osmanli Empire was brought nearer to passing than ever before, and it +was in a suburb of Constantinople itself that the final armistice was +arranged. But action by rival powers, both before the peace and in the +revision of it at Berlin, gave fresh assurance that the end would not +be suffered to come yet; and, moreover, through the long series of +disasters, much latent strength of the empire and its peoples had been +revealed. + +When that empire had emerged, shorn of several provinces—in Europe, of +Rumania, Serbia, and northern Greece, with Bulgaria also well on the +road they had travelled to emancipation, and in Asia, of a broad slice +of Caucasia—Abdul Hamid cut his losses, and, under the new guarantee of +the Berlin Treaty, took heart to try his hand at reviving Osmanli +power. He and his advisers had their idea, the contrary of the idea of +Midhat and all the sultans since Mahmud. The empire must be made, not +more European, but more Asiatic. In the development of Islamic spirit +to pan-Islamic unity it would find new strength; and towards this end +in the early eighties, while he was yet comparatively young, with +intelligence unclouded and courage sufficient, Abdul Hamid patiently +set himself. In Asia, naturally sympathetic to autocracy, and the home +of the faith of his fathers, he set on foot a pan-Islamic propaganda. +He exalted his caliphate; he wooed the Arabs, and he plotted with +extraneous Moslems against whatever foreign government they might have +to endure. + +It cannot be denied that this idea was based on the logic of facts, +and, if it could be realized, promised better than Midhat’s for escape +from shameful dependence. Indeed, Abdul Hamid, an autocrat bent on +remaining one, could hardly have acted upon any other. By far the +greater part of the territorial empire remaining to him lay in Asia. +The little left in Europe would obviously soon be reduced to less. The +Balkan lands were waking, or already awake, to a sense of separate +nationality, and what chance did the Osmanli element, less progressive +than any, stand in them? The acceptance of the Ottoman power into the +Concert of Europe, though formally notified to Abdul Mejid, had proved +an empty thing. In that galley there was no place for a sultan except +as a dependent or a slave. As an Asiatic power, however, exerting +temporal sway over some eighteen million bodies and religious influence +over many times more souls, the Osmanli caliph might command a place in +the sun. + +The result belied these hopes. Abdul Hamid’s failure was owed in the +main to facts independent of his personality or statecraft. The +expansion of Islam over an immense geographical area and among peoples +living in incompatible stages of sophistication, under most diverse +political and social conditions, has probably made any universal +caliphial authority for ever impossible. The original idea of the +caliphate, like that of the _jehad_ or holy war of the faithful, +presupposed that all Moslems were under governments of their own creed, +and, perhaps, under one government. Moreover, if such a caliph were +ever to be again, an Osmanli sultan would not be a strong candidate. +Apart from the disqualification of his blood, he being not of the +Prophet’s tribe nor even an Arab, he is lord of a state irretrievably +compromised in purist eyes (as Wahabis and Senussis have testified once +and again) by its Byzantine heritage of necessary relations with +infidels. Abdul Hamid’s predecessors for two centuries or more had been +at no pains to infuse reality into their nominal leadership of the +faithful. To call a real caliphate out of so long abeyance could hardly +have been effected even by a bold soldier, who appealed to the general +imagination of Moslems; and certainly was beyond the power of a timid +civilian. + +When Abdul Hamid had played this card and failed, he had no other; and +his natural pusillanimity and shiftiness induced him to withdraw ever +more into the depths of his palace, and there use his intelligence in +exploiting this shameful dependence of his country on foreign powers. +Unable or unwilling to encourage national resistance, he consoled +himself, as a weak malcontent will, by setting one power against +another, pin-pricking the stronger and blustering to the weaker. The +history of his reign is a long record of protests and surrenders to the +great in big matters, as to Great Britain in the matter of Egypt in +1881, to Russia in that of Eastern Rumelia in 1885, to France on the +question of the Constantinople quays and other claims, and to all the +powers in 1881 in the matter of the financial control. Between times he +put in such pin-pricks as he could, removing his neighbours’ landmarks +in the Aden _hinterland_ or the Sinaitic peninsula. He succeeded, +however, in keeping his empire out of a foreign war with any power for +about thirty years, with the single exception of a brief conflict with +Greece in 1897. While in the first half of his reign he was at pains to +make no European friend, in the latter he fell more and more under the +influence of Germany, which, almost from the accession of Kaiser +Wilhelm II, began to prepare a southward way for future use, and alone +of the powers, never browbeat the sultan. + +Internally, the empire passed more and more under the government of the +imperial household. Defeated by the sheer geographical difficulty of +controlling directly an area so vast and inadequately equipped with +means of communication, Abdul Hamid soon relaxed the spasmodic efforts +of his early years to better the condition of his subjects; and, +uncontrolled and demoralized by the national disgrace, the +administration went from bad to much worse. Ministers irresponsible; +officials without sense of public obligation; venality in all ranks; +universal suspicion and delation; violent remedies, such as the +Armenian massacres of 1894, for diseases due to neglect; the peasantry, +whether Moslem or Christian, but especially Christian, forced +ultimately to liquidate all accounts; impoverishment of the whole +empire by the improvidence and oppression of the central power— such +phrasing of the conventional results of ‘Palace’ government expresses +inadequately the fruits of Yildiz under Abdul Hamid II. + +_Pari passu_ with this disorder of central and provincial +administration increased the foreign encroachments on the empire. The +nation saw not only rapid multiplication of concessions and +hypothecations to aliens, and of alien persons themselves installed in +its midst under extra-territorial immunity from its laws, secured by +the capitulations, but also whole provinces sequestered, administered +independently of the sultan’s government, and prepared for eventual +alienation. Egypt, Tunisia, Eastern Rumelia, Krete—these had all been +withdrawn from Ottoman control since the Berlin settlement, and now +Macedonia seemed to be going the same way. Bitter to swallow as the +other losses had been—pills thinly sugared with a guarantee of +suzerainty—the loss of Macedonia would be more bitter still; for, if it +were withdrawn from Ottoman use and profit, Albania would follow and so +would the command of the north Aegean and the Adriatic shores; while an +ancient Moslem population would remain at Christian mercy. + +It was partly Ottoman fault, partly the fault of circumstances beyond +Ottoman control, that this district had become a scandal and a +reproach. In the days of Osmanli greatness Macedonia had been neglected +in favour of provinces to the north, which were richer and more nearly +related to the ways into central Europe. When more attention began to +be paid to it by the Government, it had already become a cockpit for +the new-born Christian nationalities, which had been developed on the +north, east, and south. These were using every weapon, material and +spiritual, to secure preponderance in its society, and had created +chronic disorder which the Ottoman administration now weakly encouraged +to save itself trouble, now violently dragooned. Already the powers had +not only proposed autonomy for it, but begun to control its police and +its finance. This was the last straw. The public opinion which had +slowly been forming for thirty years gained the army, and Midhat’s seed +came to fruit. + +By an irony of fate Macedonia not only supplied the spectacle which +exasperated the army to revolt, but by its very disorder made the +preparation of that revolt possible; for it was due to local +limitations of Ottoman sovereignty that the chief promoters of +revolution were able to conspire in safety. By another irony, two of +the few progressive measures ever encouraged by Abdul Hamid contributed +to his undoing. If he had not sent young officers to be trained abroad, +the army, the one Ottoman institution never allowed wholly to decay, +would have remained outside the conspiracy. If he had never promoted +the construction of railways, as he began to do after 1897, the +Salonika army could have had no such influence on affairs in +Constantinople as it exerted in 1908 and again in 1909. As it was, the +sultan, at a mandate from Resna in Macedonia, re-enacted Midhat’s +Constitution, and, a year later, saw an army from Salonika arrive to +uphold that Constitution against the reaction he had fostered, and to +send him, dethroned and captive, to the place whence itself had come. + + + + +7 +_Revolution_ + + +Looking back on this revolution across seven years of its consequences, +we see plainly enough that it was inspired far less by desire for +humane progress than by shame of Osmanli military decline. The +‘Liberty, Equality, Fraternity’ programme which its authors put forward +(a civilian minority among them, sincerely enough), Europe accepted, +and the populace of the empire acted upon for a moment, did not express +the motive of the movement or eventually guide its course. The essence +of that movement was militant nationalism. The empire was to be +regenerated, not by humanizing it but by Ottomanizing it. The Osmanli, +the man of the sword, was the type to which all others, who wished to +be of the nation, were to conform. Such as did not so wish must be +eliminated by the rest. + +The revolutionary Committee in Salonika, called ‘of Union and +Progress’, held up its cards at first, but by 1910 events had forced +its hand on the table. The definite annexation of Bosnia and +Hercegovina by Austria-Hungary in 1908, and the declaration of +independence and assumption of the title Tsar by the ruler of Bulgaria, +since they were the price to be paid by the revolutionaries for a +success largely made in Germany, were opposed officially only _pro +forma_; but when uninformed opinion in the empire was exasperated +thereby against Christendom, the Committee, to appease reactionaries, +had to give premature proof of pan-Osmanli and pro-Moslem intentions by +taking drastic action against _rayas_. The Greeks of the empire, never +without suspicions, had failed to testify the same enthusiasm for +Ottoman fraternity which others, e.g. the Armenians, had shown; now +they resumed their separatist attitude, and made it clear that they +still aspired, not to Ottoman, but to Hellenic nationality. Nor were +even the Moslems of the empire unanimous for fraternity among +themselves. The Arab-speaking societies complained of +under-representation in the councils and offices of the state, and made +no secret of their intention not to be assimilated by the Turk-speaking +Osmanlis. To all suggestions, however, of local home-rule and +conciliation of particularist societies in the empire, the Committee +was deaf. Without union, it believed in no progress, and by union it +understood the assimilation of all societies in the empire to the +Osmanli. + +Logic was on the side of the Committee in its choice of both end and +means. In pan-Ottomanism, if it could be effected, lay certainly the +single chance of restoring Osmanli independence and power to anything +like the position they had once held. In rule by a militarist oligarchy +for some generations to come, lay the one hope of realizing the +pan-Ottoman idea and educating the resultant nation to self-government. +That end, however, it was impossible to realize under the circumstances +in which past history had involved the Ottoman Empire. There was too +much bad blood between different elements of its society which Osmanli +rulers had been labouring for centuries rather to keep apart than to +unite; and certain important elements, both Moslem and Christian, had +already developed too mature ideas of separate nationality. With all +its defects, however, the new order did undoubtedly rest on a wider +basis than the old, and its organization was better conceived and +executed. It retained some of the sympathy of Europe which its +beginnings had excited, and the western powers, regarding its +representative institutions as earnests of good government, however ill +they might work at the first, were disposed to give it every chance. + +Unfortunately the Young Turks were in a hurry to bring on their +millennium, and careless of certain neighbouring powers, not formidable +individually but to be reckoned with if united, to whom the prospect of +regenerated Osmanlis assimilating their nationals could not be welcome. +Had the Young Turks been content to put their policy of Ottomanization +in the background for awhile, had they made no more than a show of +accepting local distinctions of creed and politics, keeping in the +meantime a tight rein on the Old Turks, they might long have avoided +the union of those neighbours, and been in a better position to resist, +should that union eventually be arrayed against themselves. + +But a considerable and energetic element among them belonged to the +nervous Levantine type of Osmanli, which is as little minded to +compromise as any Old Turk, though from a different motive. It elected +to deal drastically and at once with Macedonia, the peculiar object not +only of European solicitude but also of the interest of Bulgaria, +Serbia, and Greece. If ever a province required delicate handling it +was this. It did not get it. The interested neighbours, each beset by +fugitives of its oppressed nationals, protested only to be ignored or +browbeaten. They drew towards one another; old feuds and jealousies +were put on one side; and at last, in the summer of 1912, a Holy League +of Balkan States, inspired by Venezelos, the new Kretan Prime Minister +of Greece, and by Ferdinand of Bulgaria, was formed with a view to +common action against the oppressor of Greek, Serbian, and Bulgarian +nationals in Macedonia. Montenegro, always spoiling for a fight, was +deputed to fire the train, and at the approach of autumn the first +Balkan war blazed up. + + + + +8 +_Balkan War_ + + +The course of the struggle is described elsewhere in this volume. Its +event illustrates the danger of an alliance succeeding beyond the +expectations in which it was formed. The constituent powers had looked +for a stiff struggle with the Ottoman armies, but for final success +sufficient to enable them, at the best, to divide Macedonia among +themselves, at the worst, to secure its autonomy under international +guarantee. Neither they nor any one else expected such an Ottoman +collapse as was in store. Their moment of attack was better chosen than +they knew. The Osmanli War Office was caught fairly in the middle of +the stream. Fighting during the revolution, subsequently against +Albanians and other recalcitrant provincials, and latterly against the +Italians, who had snatched at Tripoli the year before, had reduced the +_Nizam_, the first line of troops, far below strength. The _Redif_, the +second line, had received hardly more training, thanks to the +disorganization of Abdul Hamid’s last years and of the first years of +the new order, than the _Mustafuz_, the third and last line. Armament, +auxiliary services, and the like had been disorganized preparatory to a +scheme for thorough reorganization, which had been carried, as yet, but +a very little way. A foreign (German) element, introduced into the +command, had had time to impair the old spirit of Ottoman soldiers, but +not to create a new one. The armies sent against the Bulgarians in +Thrace were so many mobs of various arms; those which met the Serbs, a +little better; those which opposed the Greeks, a little worse. + +It followed that the Bulgarians, who had proposed to do no more in +Thrace than block Adrianople and immobilize the Constantinople forces, +were carried by their own momentum right down to Chataldja, and there +and at Adrianople had to prosecute siege operations when they ought to +have been marching to Kavala and Salonika. The Serbs, after hard +fighting, broke through not only into Macedonia but into Albania, and +reached the Adriatic, but warned off this by the powers, consoled +themselves with the occupation of much more Macedonian territory than +the concerted plans of the allies had foreseen. The Greeks, instead of +hard contests for the Haliacmon Valley and Epirus—their proper +Irredenta—pushed such weak forces before them that they got through to +Salonika just in time to forestall a Bulgarian column. Ottoman collapse +was complete everywhere, except on the Chataldja front. It remained to +divide the spoil. Serbia might not have Adriatic Albania, and therefore +wanted as much Macedonia as she had actually overrun. Greece wanted the +rest of Macedonia and had virtually got it. Remained Bulgaria who, with +more of Thrace than she wanted, found herself almost entirely crowded +out of Macedonia, the common objective of all. + +Faced with division _ex post facto_, the allies found their _a priori_ +agreement would not resolve the situation. Bulgaria, the predominant +partner and the most aggrieved, would neither recognize the others’ +rights of possession nor honestly submit her claims to the only +possible arbiter, the Tsar of Russia. Finding herself one against two, +she tried a _coup de main_ on both fronts, failed, and brought on a +second Balkan war, in which a new determining factor, Rumania, +intervened at a critical moment to decide the issue against her. The +Ottoman armies recovered nearly all they had lost in eastern and +central Thrace, including Adrianople, almost without firing a shot, and +were not ill pleased to be quit of a desperate situation at the price +of Macedonia, Albania, and western Thrace. + +Defeated and impoverished, the Ottoman power came out of the war +clinging to a mere remnant of its European empire—one single mutilated +province which did not pay its way. With the lost territories had gone +about one-eighth of the whole population and one-tenth of the total +imperial revenue. But when these heavy losses had been cut, there was +nothing more of a serious nature to put to debit, but a little even to +credit. Ottoman prestige had suffered but slightly in the eyes of the +people. The obstinate and successful defence of the Chataldja lines and +the subsequent recovery of eastern Thrace with Adrianople, the first +European seat of the Osmanlis, had almost effaced the sense of Osmanli +disgrace, and stood to the general credit of the Committee and the +individual credit of its military leader, Enver Bey. The loss of some +thousands of soldiers and much material was compensated by an +invaluable lesson in the faultiness of the military system, and +especially the _Redif_ organization. The way was now clearer than +before for re-making the army on the best European model, the German. +The campaign had not been long, nor, as wars go, costly to wage. In the +peace Turkey gained a new lease of life from the powers, and, +profligate that she was, the promise of more millions of foreign money. + +Over and above all this an advantage, which she rated above +international guarantees, was secured to her—the prospective support of +the strongest military power in Europe. The success of Serbia so +menaced Germano-Austrian plans for the penetration of the Balkans, that +the Central Powers were bound to woo Turkey even more lavishly than +before, and to seek alliance where they had been content with +influence. In a strong Turkey resided all their hope of saving from the +Slavs the way to the Mediterranean. They had kept this policy in view +for more than twenty years, and in a hundred ways, by introduction of +Germans into the military organization, promotion of German financial +enterprise, pushing of German commerce, pressure on behalf of German +concessions which would entail provincial influence (for example, the +construction of a transcontinental railway in Asia), those powers had +been manifesting their interest in Turkey with ever-increasing +solicitude. Now they must attach her to themselves with hoops of steel +and, with her help, as soon as might be, try to recast the Balkan +situation. + +The experience of the recent war and the prospect in the future made +continuance and accentuation of military government in the Ottoman +Empire inevitable. The Committee, which had made its way back to power +by violent methods, now suppressed its own Constitution almost as +completely as Abdul Hamid had suppressed Midhat’s parliament. +Re-organization of the military personnel, accumulation of war +material, strengthening of defences, provision of arsenals, dockyards, +and ships, together with devices for obtaining money to pay for all +these things, make Ottoman history for the years 1912-14. The bond with +Germany was drawn lighter. More German instructors were invited, more +German engineers commissioned, more munitions of war paid for in French +gold. By 1914 it had become so evident that the Osmanlis must array +themselves with Austro-Germany in any European war, that one wonders +why a moment’s credit was ever given to their protestations of +neutrality when that war came at last in August 1914. Turkey then +needed other three months to complete her first line of defences and +mobilize. These were allowed to her, and in the late autumn she entered +the field against Great Britain, France, and Russia, armed with German +guns, led by German officers, and fed with German gold. + + + + +9 +_The Future_ + + +Turkey’s situation, therefore, in general terms has become this. With +the dissolution of the Concert of Europe the Ottoman Empire has lost +what had been for a century its chief security for continued existence. +Its fate now depends on that of two European powers which are at war +with the rest of the former Concert. Among the last named are Turkey’s +two principal creditors, holding together about seventy-five per cent. +of her public debt. In the event of the defeat of her friends, these +creditors will be free to foreclose, the debtor being certainly in no +position to meet her obligations. Allied with Christian powers, the +Osmanli caliph has proved no more able than his predecessors to unite +Islam in his defence; but, for what his title is worth, Mohammed V is +still caliph, no rival claim having been put forward. The loyalty of +the empire remains where it was, pending victory or defeat, the +provinces being slow to realize, and still slower to resent, the +disastrous economic state to which the war is reducing them. + +The present struggle may leave the Osmanli Empire in one of three +situations: (1) member of a victorious alliance, reinforced, enlarged, +and lightened of financial burdens, as the wages of its sin; (2) member +of a defeated alliance, bound to pay the price of blood in loss of +territory, or independence, or even existence; (3) party to a +compromise under which its territorial empire might conceivably remain +Ottoman, but under even stricter European tutelage than of old. + +The first alternative it would be idle to discuss, for the result of +conditions so novel are impossible to foresee. Nor, indeed, when +immediate events are so doubtful an at the present moment, is it +profitable to attempt to forecast the ultimate result of any of the +alternatives. Should, however, either the second or the third become +fact, certain general truths about the Osmanlis will govern the +consequences; and these must be borne in mind by any in whose hands the +disposal of the empire may lie. + +The influence of the Osmanlis in their empire to-day resides in three +things: first, in their possession of Constantinople; second, in the +sultan’s caliphate and his guardianship of the holy cities of Islam; +third, in certain qualities of Osmanli character, notably ‘will to +power’ and courage in the field. + +What Constantinople means for the Osmanlis is implied in that name +_Roum_ by which the western dominions of the Turks have been known ever +since the Seljuks won Asia Minor. Apart from the prestige of their own +early conquests, the Osmanlis inherited, and in a measure retain in the +Near East, the traditional prestige of the greatest empire which ever +held it. They stand not only for their own past but also for whatever +still lives of the prestige of Rome. Theirs is still the repute of the +imperial people _par excellence_, chosen and called to rule. + +That this repute should continue, after the sweeping victories of +Semites and subsequent centuries of Ottoman retreat before other heirs +of Rome, is a paradox to be explained only by the fact that a large +part of the population of the Near East remains at this day in about +the same stage of civilization and knowledge as in the time of, say, +Heraclius. The Osmanlis, be it remembered, were and are foreigners in a +great part of their Asiatic empire equally with the Greeks of Byzantium +or the Romans of Italy; and their establishment in Constantinople +nearly five centuries ago did not mean to the indigenous peoples of the +Near East what it meant to Europe—a victory of the East over the +West—so much as a continuation of immemorial ‘Roman’ dominion still +exercised from the same imperial centre. Since Rome first spread its +shadow over the Near East, many men of many races, whose variety was +imperfectly realised, if realised at all, by the peasants of Asia +Minor, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Egypt, have ruled in its name; the +Osmanlis, whose governmental system was in part the Byzantine, made but +one more change which meant the same old thing. The peasants know, of +course, about those Semitic victories; but they know also that if the +Semite has had his day of triumph and imposed, as was right and proper, +his God and his Prophet on Roum—even on all mankind as many believed, +and some may be found in remoter regions who still believe—he has +returned to his own place south of Taurus; and still Roum is Roum, +natural indefeasible Lord of the World. + +Such a belief is dying now, of course; but it dies slowly and hard. It +still constitutes a real asset of the Osmanlis, and will not cease to +have value until they lose Constantinople. On the possession of the old +imperial city it depends for whatever vitality it has. You may +demonstrate, as you will, and as many publicists have done since the +Balkan War and before, what and how great economic, political, and +social advantages would accrue to the Osmanlis, if they could bring +themselves to transfer their capital to Asia. Here they would be rid of +Rumelia, which costs, and will always cost them, more than it yields. +Here they could concentrate Moslems where their co-religionists are +already the great majority, and so have done with the everlasting +friction and weakness entailed in jurisdiction over preponderant +Christian elements. Here they might throw off the remnants of their +Byzantinism as a garment and, no longer forced to face two ways, live +and govern with single minds as the Asiatics they are. + +Vain illusion, as Osmanli imperialists know! It is their empire that +would fall away as a garment so soon as the Near East realized that +they no longer ruled in the Imperial City. Enver Pasha and the +Committee were amply justified in straining the resources of the +Ottoman Empire to cracking-point, not merely to retain Constantinople +but also to recover Adrianople and a territory in Europe large enough +to bulk as Roum. Nothing that happened in that war made so greatly for +the continuation of the old order in Asiatic Turkey as the reoccupation +of Adrianople. The one occasion on which Europeans in Syria had reason +to expect a general explosion was when premature rumours of the entry +of the Bulgarian army into Stambul gained currency for a few hours. +That explosion, had the news proved true or not been contradicted in +time, would have been a panic-stricken, ungovernable impulse of +anarchy—of men conscious that an old world had passed away and ignorant +what conceivable new world could come to be. + +But the perilous moment passed, to be succeeded by general diffusion of +a belief that the inevitable catastrophe was only postponed. In the +breathing-time allowed, Arabs, Kurds, and Armenians discussed and +planned together revolt from the moribund Osmanli, and, separately, the +mutual massacre and plundering of one another. Arab national +organizations and nationalist journals sprang to life at Beirut and +elsewhere. The revival of Arab empire was talked of, and names of +possible capitals and kings were bandied about. One Arab province, the +Hasa, actually broke away. Then men began to say that the Bulgarians +would not advance beyond Chataldja: the Balkan States were at war among +themselves: finally, Adrianople had been re-occupied. And all was as in +the beginning. Budding life withered in the Arab movement, and the Near +East settled down once more in the persistent shadow of Roum. + +Such is the first element in Osmanli prestige, doomed to disappear the +moment that the Ottoman state relinquishes Europe. Meanwhile there it +is for what it is worth; and it is actually worth a tradition of +submission, natural and honourable, to a race of superior destiny, +which is instinctive in some millions of savage simple hearts. + + +What of the second element? The religious prestige of the Ottoman power +as the repository of caliphial authority and trustee for Islam in the +Holy Land of Arabia, is an asset almost impossible to estimate. Would a +death struggle of the Osmanlis in Europe rouse the Sunni world? Would +the Moslems of India, Afghanistan, Turkestan, China, and Malaya take up +arms for the Ottoman sultan as caliph? Nothing but the event will prove +that they would. Jehad, or Holy War, is an obsolescent weapon difficult +and dangerous for Young Turks to wield: difficult because their own +Islamic sincerity is suspect and they are taking the field now as +clients of _giaur_ peoples; dangerous because the Ottoman nation itself +includes numerous Christian elements, indispensable to its economy. + +Undoubtedly, however, the Ottoman sultanate can count on its religious +prestige appealing widely, overriding counteracting sentiments, and, if +it rouses to action, rousing the most dangerous temper of all. It is +futile to ignore the caliph because he is not of the Koreish, and owes +his dignity to a sixteenth-century transfer. These facts are either +unknown or not borne in mind by half the Sunnites on whom he might +call, and weigh far less with the other half than his hereditary +dominion over the Holy Cities, sanctioned by the prescription of nearly +four centuries. + +One thing can be foretold with certainty. The religious prestige of an +Ottoman sultan, who had definitely lost control of the Holy Places, +would cease as quickly and utterly as the secular prestige of one who +had evacuated Constantinople: and since the loss of the latter would +probably precipitate an Arab revolt, and cut off the Hejaz, the +religious element in Ottoman prestige may be said to depend on +Constantinople as much as the secular. All the more reason why the +Committee of Union and Progress should not have accepted that +well-meant advice of European publicists! A successful revolt of the +Arab-speaking provinces would indeed sound the death-knell of the +Ottoman Empire. No other event would be so immediately and surely +catastrophic. + + +The third element in Osmanli prestige, inherent qualities of the +Osmanli ‘Turk’ himself, will be admitted by every one who knows him and +his history. To say that he has the ‘will to power’ is not, however, to +say that he has an aptitude for government. He wishes to govern others; +his will to do so imposes itself on peoples who have not the same will; +they give way to him and he governs them indifferently, though often +better than they can govern themselves. For example, bad as, according +to our standards, Turkish government is, native Arab government, when +not in tutelage to Europeans, has generally proved itself worse, when +tried in the Ottoman area in modern times. Where it is of a purely +Bedawi barbaric type, as in the emirates of central Arabia, it does +well enough; but if the population be contaminated ever so little with +non-Arab elements, practices, or ideas, Arab administration seems +incapable of producing effective government. It has had chances in the +Holy Cities at intervals, and for longer periods in the Yemen. But a +European, long resident in the latter country, who has groaned under +Turkish administration, where it has always been most oppressive, bore +witness that the rule of the native Imam only served to replace +oppressive government by oppressive anarchy. + +As for the Osmanli’s courage as a fighting man, that has often been +exemplified, and never better than in the Gallipoli peninsula. It is +admitted. The European and Anatolian Osmanlis yield little one to the +other in this virtue; but the palm, if awarded at all, must be given to +the levies from northern and central Asia Minor. + + +If Constantinople should be lost, the Arab-speaking parts of the empire +would in all likelihood break away, carrying the Holy Cities with them. +When the constant risk of this consummation, with the cataclysmic +nature of its consequences is considered, one marvels why the +Committee, which has shown no mean understanding of some conditions +essential to Osmanli empire, should have done so little hitherto to +conciliate Arab susceptibilities. Neither in the constitution of the +parliament nor in the higher commands of the army have the +Arab-speaking peoples been given anything like their fair share; and +loudly and insistently have they protested. Perhaps the Committee, +whose leading members are of a markedly Europeanized type, understands +Asia less well than Europe. Certainly its programme of Ottomanization, +elaborated by military ex-attachés, by Jew bankers and officials from +Salonika, and by doctors, lawyers, and other _intellectuels_ fresh from +Paris, was conceived on lines which offered the pure Asiatic very +little scope. The free and equal Osmanlis were all to take their cue +from men of the Byzantine sort which the European provinces, and +especially the city of Constantinople, breed. After the revolution, +nothing in Turkey struck one so much as the apparition on the top of +things everywhere of a type of Osmanli who has the characteristic +qualities of the Levantine Greek. Young officers, controlling their +elders, only needed a change of uniform to pass in an Athenian crowd. +Spare and dapper officials, presiding in seats of authority over Kurds +and Arabs, reminded one of Greek journalists. Osmanli journalists +themselves treated one to rhodomontades punctuated with restless +gesticulation, which revived memories of Athenian cafés in war-time. It +was the Byzantine triumphing over the Asiatic; and the most Asiatic +elements in the empire were the least likely to meet with the +appreciation or sympathy of the Byzantines. + +Are the Arab-speaking peoples, therefore, likely to revolt, or be +successful in splitting the Ottoman Empire, if they do? The present +writer would like to say, in parenthesis, that, in his opinion, this +consummation of the empire is not devoutly to be wished. The +substitution of Arab administration for Osmanli would necessarily +entail European tutelage of the parts of the Arab-speaking area in +which powers, like ourselves, have vital interests—Syria, for example, +southern Mesopotamia, and, probably, Hejaz. The last named, in +particular, would involve us in so ticklish and thankless a task, that +one can only be thankful for the Turkish caretaker there to-day, and +loth to see him dismissed. + +An Arab revolt, however, might break out whether the Triple Entente +desired its success or not. What chance of success would it have? The +peoples of the Arab part of the Ottoman Empire are a congeries of +differing races, creeds, sects, and social systems, with no common bond +except language. The physical character of their land compels a good +third of them to be nomadic, predatory barbarians, feared by the other +two-thirds. The settled folk are divided into Moslem and Christian (not +to mention a large Jewish element), the cleavage being more abrupt than +in western Turkey and the tradition and actual spirit of mutual enmity +more separative. Further, each of those main creed-divisions is +subdivided. Even Islam in this region includes a number of incompatible +sects, such as the Ansariye, the Metawali, and the Druses in the Syrian +mountains, Shiite Arabs on the Gulf coast and the Persian border, with +pagan Kurds and Yezidis in the latter region and north Mesopotamia. As +for the Christians, their divisions are notorious, most of these being +subdivided again into two or more hostile communions apiece. It is +almost impossible to imagine the inhabitants of Syria concerting a +common plan or taking common action. The only elements among them which +have shown any political sense or capacity for political organization +are Christian. The Maronites of the Lebanon are most conspicuous among +these; but neither their numbers nor their traditional relations with +their neighbours qualify them to form the nucleus of a free united +Syria. The ‘Arab Movement’ up to the present has consisted in little +more than talk and journalese. It has not developed any considerable +organization to meet that stable efficient organization which the +Committee of Union and Progress has directed throughout the Ottoman +dominions. + +As for the rest of the empire, Asia Minor will stand by the Osmanli +cause, even if Europe and Constantinople, and even if the Holy Places +and all the Arab-speaking provinces be lost. Its allegiance does not +depend on either the tradition of Roum or the caliphate, but on +essential unity with the Osmanli nation. Asia Minor is the nation. +There, prepared equally by Byzantine domination and by Seljukian +influence, the great mass of the people long ago identified itself +insensibly and completely with the tradition and hope of the Osmanlis. +The subsequent occupation of the Byzantine capital by the heirs of the +Byzantine system, and their still later assumption of caliphial +responsibility, were not needed to cement the union. Even a military +occupation by Russia or by another strong power would not detach +Anatolia from the Osmanli unity; for a thing cannot be detached from +itself. But, of course, that occupation might after long years cause +the unity itself to cease to be. + +Such an occupation, however, would probably not be seriously resisted +or subsequently rebelled against by the Moslem majority in Asia Minor, +supposing Osmanli armaments to have been crushed. The Anatolian +population is a sober, labouring peasantry, essentially agricultural +and wedded to the soil. The levies for Yemen and Europe, which have +gone far to deplete and exhaust it of recent years, were composed of +men who fought to order and without imagination, steadily and +faithfully, as their fathers had fought. They have no lust for war, no +Arabian tradition of fighting for its own sake, and little, if any, +fanaticism. Attempts to inspire Anatolian troops with religious rage in +the Balkan War were failures. They were asked to fight in too modern a +way under too many Teutonic officers. The result illustrated a prophecy +ascribed to Ghasri Mukhtar Pasha. When German instructors were first +introduced into Turkey, he foretold that they would be the end of the +Ottoman army. No, these Anatolians desire nothing better than to follow +their plough-oxen, and live their common village life, under any master +who will let them be. + +Elements of the Christian minority, however, Armenian and Greek, would +give trouble with their developed ideas of nationality and +irrepressible tendency to ‘Europize’. They would present, indeed, +problems of which at present one cannot foresee the solution. It seems +inevitable that an autonomous Armenia, like an autonomous Poland, must +be constituted ere long; but where? There is no geographical unit of +the Ottoman area in which Armenians are the majority. If they cluster +more thickly in the vilayets of Angora, Sivas, Erzerum, Kharput, and +Van, i.e. in easternmost Asia Minor, than elsewhere, and form a village +people of the soil, they are consistently a minority in any large +administrative district. Numerous, too, in the trans-Tauric vilayets of +Adana and Aleppo, the seat of their most recent independence, they are +townsmen in the main, and not an essential element of the agricultural +population. Even if a considerable proportion of the Armenians, now +dispersed through towns of western Asia Minor and in Constantinople, +could be induced to concentrate in a reconstituted Armenia (which is +doubtful, seeing how addicted they are to general commerce and what may +be called parasitic life), they could not fill out both the Greater and +the Lesser Armenias of history, in sufficient strength to overbear the +Osmanli and Kurdish elements. The widest area which might he +constituted an autonomous Armenia with good prospect of +self-sufficiency would be the present Russian province, where the +head-quarters of the national religion lie, with the addition of the +provinces of Erzerum, Van, and Kharput. + +But, if Russia had brought herself to make a self-denying ordinance, +she would have to police her new Armenia very strongly for some years; +for an acute Kurdish problem would confront it, and no concentration of +nationals could be looked for from the Armenia Irredenta of Diarbekr, +Urfa, Aleppo, Aintab, Marash, Adana, Kaisariyeh, Sivas, Angora, and +Trebizond (not to mention farther and more foreign towns), until public +security was assured in what for generations has been a cockpit. The +Kurd is, of course, an Indo-European as much as the Armenian, and +rarely a true Moslem; but it would be a very long time indeed before +these facts reconciled him to the domination of the race which he has +plundered for three centuries. Most of the Osmanlis of eastern Asia +Minor are descendants of converted Armenians; but their assimilation +would be slow and doubtful. Islam, more rapidly and completely than any +other creed, extinguishes racial sympathies and groups its adherents +anew. + +The Anatolian Greeks are less numerous but not less difficult to +provide for. The scattered groups of them on the plateau—in Cappadocia, +Pontus, the Konia district—and on the eastward coast-lands would offer +no serious difficulty to a lord of the interior. But those in the +western river-basins from Isbarta to the Marmora, and those on the +western and north-western littorals, are of a more advanced and +cohesive political character, imbued with nationalism, intimate with +their independent nationals, and actively interested in Hellenic +national politics. What happens at Athens has long concerned them more +than what happens at Constantinople; and with Greece occupying the +islands in the daily view of many of them, they are coming to regard +themselves more and more every day as citizens of Graecia Irredenta. +What is to be done with these? What, in particular, with Smyrna, the +second city of the Ottoman Empire and the first of ‘Magna Graecia’? Its +three and a half hundred thousand souls include the largest Greek urban +population resident in any one city. Shall it be united to Greece? +Greece herself might well hesitate. It would prove a very irksome +possession, involving her in all sorts of continental difficulties and +risks. There is no good frontier inland for such an _enclave_. It could +hardly be held without the rest of westernmost Asia, from Caria to the +Dardanelles, and in this region the great majority of the population is +Moslem of old stocks, devotedly attached both to their faith and to the +Osmanli tradition. + +The present writer, however, is not among the prophets. He has but +tried to set forth what may delay and what may precipitate the collapse +of an empire, whose doom has been long foreseen, often planned, +invariably postponed; and, further, to indicate some difficulties +which, being bound to confront heirs of the Osmanlis, will be better +met the better they are understood before the final agony—If this is, +indeed, to be! + + + + +INDEX + + +Abbasid Empire, +Abdul Aziz, Sultan, +Abdul Hamid, Sultan, +Abdul Mejid, Sultan, +Achaia, +Achmet III: _see_ Ahmed III. +Adalia, +Adana, +Aden, +Adhamandios Koráis, +Adrianople, + captured by the Turks (1361), + captured by Serbians and Bulgarians (1913), + first European seat of the Osmanlis, + foundation of, + Peace and Treaty of (1829), + restored to Turkey (1913), + Russians before (1878), + siege of (1912-13), +Adriatic, the, +Aegean, the, + islands of, + trade of, +Aehrenthal, Baron and Count, +Afium Kara Hissar, +Agram (Zagreb), capital of Croatia, +Agram high treason trial, the, +Agrapha, clansmen of, +Ahiolu (Anchialo), +Ahmed I, Sultan, +Ahmed III, Sultan, +Ahmed ibn Tulun, +Aidin, +Aintab, +Aigina, +Ainos, _See also_ Enos. +Aivali, _See also_ Kydhonies. +Akarnania, +Akerman, Convention of (1826), +Alaeddin, Sultan, +Ala Shehr (Philadelphia), +Albania, + and the Macedonian question, + conquest of, by the Turks, + during the Slav immigration, + in classical times, + made independent, + revolts against Young Turks, + under the Turks, +Albanian language, the, +Albanians, the, + migrations of, +Aleppo, +Alexander the Great, +Alexander I, King of Serbia (1889-1903), +Alexander I, Emperor of Russia, +Alexander II, Emperor of Russia, +Alexander III, Emperor of Russia, +Alexander, Crown Prince of Serbia, +Alexander of Battenberg, Prince of Bulgaria (1879-85), +Alexander Karagjorgjević, Prince of Serbia (1843-58), +Alexandria, +Alexis Comnenus, the Emperor, +Ali Pasha, +Ambelakia, +America, effect of emigration from south-eastern Europe to, +Anatolia, the Turks and, + character of the population, + feudal families, +Anatolikón, + captured by the Turks (1825), +Andrassy, Count, +Angora, + battle of (1402), +Arabia, Turkish prestige in, + and the Turks, + movement of, in the direction of revolt, +Arabs and Anatolia, + and Bulgars, + and Islam, +Arcadiopolis: _see_ Lule-Burgas. +Argos, +Arian controversy, the, +Armatoli, or Christian militia, +Armenians, the, + character of the, + massacres of (1894), +Arnauts: _see_ Albanians. +Arta, Gulf of, + plain of, +Asen dynasty, the, +Asia Minor, Turks in, +Asparukh (Bulgar prince), +Aspropotamo, the, +Astypalià, +Athens, + Duchy of, + University of, + siege of (1821-2), + (1827), +Athos, Mount, +Attila, +Austerlitz, battle of (1805), +Austria-Hungary and the Adriatic, + and the Macedonian question, + and Serbia, relations between, + and the Serbs, + and the Treaty of Berlin, + and Turkey, relations between, + wars between, + annexation of Bosnia and Hercegovina by, + occupation of Bosnia and Hercegovina by, + relations with the Balkan League, + relations with Rumania, + Ruman and South Slavonic populations in, +Austrian politics in Rumania, +Austrians and Serbs, relations between, + and Turks, +Avars, the: their invasion of the Balkan peninsula with the Slavs, + their war with the Bulgars, +Avlona, + bay of, +Avshar tribe, +‘Ayon Oros’, +Azerbaijan, + +Bačka, +Bagdad, +‘Balance of Power’, the, +Balkan League, the, + formation of the, + dissolution of the, +Balkan peninsula, the, annexation of, by Mohammed II, + control of, + economic unity of, + German policy in, + nationalism in, + Slav inhabitants of, + Turkish power in, + under Roman rule, +Balkan States, relations between the, + zollverein, +Balkan war, the first (1912-13), + the second (June 1913), +Banat, the, +Baranya, +Basil I, the Emperor, +Basil II, the Emperor, + ‘Slayer of the Bulgars’, +Bassarab, dynasty of, +Bayezid I, Sultan, +Bayezid II, Sultan, +Beaconsfield, Earl of, +Beirut, +Belgrade, + capital of Serbia, + captured by the Serbs (1807), + captured by the Turks (1521), + (1813), + its Celtic name, + Treaty of (1739), +Belisarius, +Berchtold, Count, +Bergama, +Berlin, + Congress of (1878), + Treaty of (1878), +Bessarabia, Bulgars in, 25, + lost(1812), + regained (1856), + lost again (1878), + importance with regard to present situation, +Bieberstein, Duron Marschall von, +Bismarck, +Bitolj: _see_ Monastir. +Black Castle of Afiun, +Black Sea, + Russian exclusion from, +Bogomil heresy, the, +Boja, lord of Kashgar, +Boris, Bulgar prince (852-88), +Boris, Crown Prince of Bulgaria, +Bosnia, annexation of, + independence of, and conquest of, by the Turks, + in relation to the other Serb territories, + its Slavonic population, + relations of, with Hungary, + revolts in, against Turkey, + under Austro-Hungarian rule, + under Turkish rule, +Bosphorus, the, +Botzaris, Marko, +Branković, George, +Branković, Vuk, +Bratianu, Ioan (father), + (son), +Bregalnica, battle of the (1913), +Brusa, +Bucarest, Committee of, + Peace Conference (1913), + Treaty of (1812), + (1913), +Bucovina, acquisition by Austria, + Rumanians in, +Buda, +Budapest, in relation to the Serbo-Croats, +Budua, +Bulgaria, declaration of independence by, and assumption of title Tsar +by its ruler, + conflicting interests with Greece, + early wars between, and the Greeks, + geographical position of, + growth of, + intervention on the side of the Central Powers in the European War, + its division into eastern and western, + extent of western, + in the two Balkan wars (1912-13), + its early relations with Rome, + its relations with Russia, + obtains recognition as a nationality in the Ottoman Empire, + of Slav speech and culture, + place of, in the Balkan peninsula, + Turkish atrocities in, +Bulgaria and Rumania, +Bulgaria and Serbia, contrasted, + the agreement between, + wars between (1885, 1913), +Bulgaria and Turkey, relations between, +Bulgarian bishoprics in Macedonia, + Church, early vicissitudes of the, + claims and propaganda in Macedonia, + Exarchist Church, the, + literature, + monarchy, origins of the, +Bulgarians, general distribution of, + their attitude to the Slavs and the Germans, +Bulgarians and Serbians, contrast between, +Bulgars, the, their origin, + their advance westwards and then southwards into the Balkan + peninsula, + their absorption by the Slavs, + north of the Danube, + adherents of the Orthodox Church, +Burke, Edmund, +Byron, Lord, +Byzantine Christianity, + commerce, + diplomacy, its attitude towards the Slav and other invaders, + Empire, + heritage and expansion of, by the Turks, +Byzantium, ascendancy of, over Bulgaria, + decline of, + Greek colony of, + Roman administrative centre, + +Cairo, +Caliphate, the, +Campo Formio, Treaty of (1797), +Candia, siege of, +Canea, +Cantucuzene, John, +Cape Malea, +Cappadocia, +Caria, +Carinthia, +Carlowitz, Treaty of (1699), +Carniola, +Carol, Prince of Rumania, + his accession, + joins Russia against Turkey, + intention to abdicate, + proclaimed king, + King, + and the Balkans, + personal points, +Carp, P.P., +Carpathian mountains, the, +Catargiu, Lascar, +Catherine, Empress, +Cattaro, Bocche di, +Caucasia, +Cefalonia, +Celts, the, in the Balkan peninsula, +Cerigo, +Cetina river (Dalmatia), +Cetinje, +Chaeronea, +Charlemagne, crushes the Avars, +Charles VI, Emperor of Austria, +Charles, Prince and King of Rumania: _see_ Carol. +Časlav, revolts against Bulgars, +Chataldja, lines of, +Chesme, destruction of Turkish fleet in, +Chios: _see_ Khios. +Christianity, + in the Balkan peninsula in classical times, + introduced into Bulgaria, + introduced amongst the Serbs, +Christians, their treatment by the Turks, +Church, division of the, affects the Serbs and Croats, +Church, Generalissimo Sir Richard, +Churches, rivalry of the eastern and western, +Cilicia, +Claudius, the Emperor, +Coalition, Serbo-Croat or Croato-Serb, the, +Cochrane, Grand Admiral, +Cogalniceanu, M., +Comnenus: _see_ Alexis _and_ Manuel. +Concert of Europe, +Constantine the Great, +Constantine, King of Greece, +Constantine, ruler of Bulgaria, +Constantinople, + and the Serbian Church, + ascendancy of, over Bulgaria, + cathedral of Aya Sophia, + commercial interests of, + decline of, + defences of, + ecclesiastical influence of, + fall of (1204), + (1453), + its position at the beginning of the barbarian invasions, + made an imperial city, + Patriarchate at, + ‘Phanari’, the, + spiritual rivalry of, with Rome, +Constitution, Rumanian, +Corfù, +Corinth: _see_ Korinth. +Crete: _see_ Krete. +Crimea, abandoned to Russia, +Crimean War, the, +Croatia, + absorbed by Hungary, + position of, in relation to the Serb territories, +Croato-Serb unity, movement in favour of, +Croats, Crotians, + general distribution of, + their origin, +Croats and Serbs, difference between, +Crusaders, the, in the Balkan peninsula, +Crusades; the first; the fourth, +Cuza, Prince of Rumania, +Cyclades, the, +Cyprus, + in Latin hands, + in Ottoman hands, + under the British, +Cyrenaica, +Cyril, St., +Cyrillic alphabet, the, + +Dacia, + subjection to, and abandonment by, the Romans, +Dacians, + settlement in Carpathian regions, + wars with Rome, +Dalmatia, + acquired by Austria-Hungary, + and Venice, + in classical times, + in relation to other Serb territories, + its Slavonic population, + relations of, with Hungary, +Daniel, Prince-Bishop of Montenegro, +Danilo, Prince of Montenegro, +Danube, the, + as frontier of Roman Empire, +Danube _(continued)_: + Bulgars cross the, + Slavs cross the, +Danubian principalities, Russian protectorate in, +Dardanelles, the, +Decius, the Emperor, +Dedeagach, +Deliyannis, +Demotika, +Dhimitzána, +Diocletian, the Emperor, his redistribution of the imperial provinces, +Dnieper, the, +Dniester, the, +Dobrudja, + acquisition by Rumania, + Bulgarian aspirations in regard to, +Draga, Queen-Consort of Serbia, +Dramali, +Drave, the, +Drina, the, +Dubrovnik: _see_ Ragusa. +Dulcigno (Ulcinj), +Durazzo, +Durostorum: _see_ Silistria. +Dushan: _see_ Stephen Dušan. + +Eastern Church, the, +Eastern Slavs; _see_ Russians. +Edremid, +Egypt, +Egyptian expedition (1823-4), +Enos-Midia line, the, +Enver Bey, +Epirus, + power of Hellenism in, +Ertogrul, Osmanli chief, +Erzerum, +Eugen, Prince, of Savoy, +Euphrates, the, +Euxine trade, +Evyénios Voulgáris, +Exarchist Church, the, + +Fabvier, +Ferdinand, Prince and King of Bulgaria (1886-), + his relations with foreign powers, +Ferdinand, King of Rumania, +Filipescu, Nicholas, +Fiume (Rjeka), +France, + and the Macedonian question, + and the struggle for Greek independence, + and the struggle for the Mediterranean, + and the Turks, + relations with Rumania, +French, the, + in the Balkan peninsula, + in Dalmatia, + in Morocco, + influence in Rumania, +French Revolution + and the rights of nationalities, +Friedjung, Dr., and the accusation against Serbia, + +Galaxidhi, +Galicia, +Gallipoli, +Genoese, +George, Crown Prince of Serbia, +George, + King of Greece, + assassination of, +George, Prince of Greece, +German diplomacy at Constantinople, + influence in the Near East, + influence in Rumania, + influence in Turkey, +German Empire, restlessness of, +German hierarchy, early struggles of, against Slavonic liturgy, +Germanic peoples, southward movement of, +Germanòs, metropolitan bishop of Patrae, +Germany and the Turkish frontier, + efforts to reach the Adriatic, + its expansion eastward, + and the Macedonian question, + and Russia, relations between, + and the Treaty of Berlin, + relations with Rumania, + revolutions promoted by, +Gjorgjević, Dr. V., +Golden Horn, +Goluchowski, Count, +Gorazd, +Gorchakov, Prince, +Goths, invasion of the, +Great Britain and the Balkan States, relations between, + and Egypt, + and Rumania, + and Syria, + and the Ionian Islands, + and the Macedonian question, + and the struggle for Greek independence, + and the struggle for the Mediterranean, + and the Treaty of Berlin, + loan to Greece, + occupation of Cyprus, +Greece, anarchy in, + ancient, + and Macedonia, + and Russia, + and Serbia, + and the adjacent islands, + and the Christian religion, + and the first Balkan war, + and the Ionian Islands, + and the Orthodox Church, + and the Slav migration, + brigandage in, + conflict of interests with Bulgaria, + conquest of, by the Turks, + delimitation of the frontier (1829), + dispute with Italy as to possession of Epirus, + effect of the French Revolution on, + invasion of, by Goths, + land-tax, + loans to, + local liberties, + ‘Military League’ of 1909, + minerals of, + monarchy established, and its results, + ‘National Assembly’, + oppressive relations with Turkey, and efforts for liberation, + revolutions in 1843 and 1862. + territorial contact with Turkey. + ‘tribute-children’ for Turkish army from. + war with Turkey (1828); (1897); (1912). +Greek agriculture. + anti-Greek movement in Rumania. + army. + art and architecture. + ascendancy in Bulgaria. + _bourgeoisie_. + claims and propaganda in Macedonia. + coalition with the Seljuks. + commerce and economic progress. + dialects of Ancient Greece. + education. + influence in the Balkan peninsula. + influence in Bulgaria. + influence in Rumania. + language in Rumanian Church. + literature. + monastic culture. + nationalism. + national religion. + navy. + officials tinder the Turks. + Patriarch. + public finance. + public spirit. + public works. + railways. + renaissance. + shipping. + unity. +Greek Empire, decline of. +Greek hierarchy, in Bulgaria, the. +Greeks, Anatolian. + Byzantine. + general distribution of. + Ottoman. + their attitude with regard to the barbarian invasions. +Gregorios, Greek Patriarch at Constantinople. +Gulkhaneh. + +Hadrian, the Emperor. +Haliacmon Valley. +Halys river. +Hasa. +Hatti Sherif. +Hejaz. +Hellenic culture and civilization. +Hellenic Republic. +Hellespont, the. +Hercegovina. + annexation of, by Austria-Hungary. + its Slavonic population. + origin and independence of, and conquest of, by the Turks. + revolts in, against Turkey. + under Austro-Hungarian rule. + under Turkish rule. +Hilmi Pasha. +Hungarians. + and the Turks. + invade the Balkan peninsula. +Hungary, + and the Balkan peninsula, + and the Serbo-Croats, + and the Serbs, + and Turkey, wars between, + conquest of, by Suleiman I, + growth of, + loss of, by the Turks, + Slavs in, +Huns, arrival of the, in Europe, + their origin, + settled in Hungary, +Hunyadi, John, +Hydhra and the Hydhriots, +Hypsilantis, Prince Alexander, + Prince Demetrius, + +Ibar, the, +Ibrahim Pasha, +Ida, Mount, +Ignatiyev, Count, +Illyria, Celtic invasion of, + prefecture of, + Roman conquest of, +Illyrians, the, +Imbros, +Ionescu, Take, +Ionian islands, + presented to Greece by Great Britain, +Ipek: _see_ Peć +Iran, +Iskanderoun, Gulf of, +Italian influence in the Balkan peninsula, + trading cities, +Italy, and the Macedonian question, + and the possession of Epirus, + diocese of, + prefecture of, + war with Turkey (1911-12), +Ivan III, Tsar of Russia, +Ivan IV, Tsar of Russia, + +Jehad, or Holy War, +Jenghis Khan, +Jerusalem, +Jews, at Constantinople, + in Rumania, + in Turkey, +Jezzar the Butcher, +Jidda, +John Alexander, ruler of Bulgaria, +John Asen I, Bulgar Tsar (1186-96), +John Asen II, Bulgar Tsar (1218-41), +John Tzimisces, the Emperor, +John the Terrible, Prince of Moldavia, +Joseph II, Emperor of Austria, +Judah, +Jugo-Slav(ia), +Justin I, the Emperor, +Justinian I, the Emperor, + +Kaisariyeh, +Kalamata, +Kaloian, Bulgar Tsar (1196-1207), +Kama, Bulgars on the, +Kanaris, Constantine, +Kapodistrias, John, +Kara-George (Petrović), +Karagjorgjević (sc. family of Kara-George) dynasty, the, +Karaiskakis, +Karamania, +Karasi, +Karlovci (Carlowitz, Karlowitz), +Karpathos, +Kasos; + destruction of (1824), +Kavala, +Kazan, +Khalkidhiki, +Kharput, + siege of (1822), +Khorasan, +Khurshid Pasha, +Kiev, +Kilkish, Greek victory at, +Kirk-Kilissé, battle of, +Kisseleff, Count, +Kladovo, +Knights Hospitallers of St. John, +Kochana, +Kolettis, +Kolokotrónis, Theodore, +Kondouriottis, +Konia, + battle of, +Kopais basin, draining of, +Korinth, + surrender of (1822), +Korinthian Gulf, +Kos, +Kosovo, vilayet of, +Kosovo Polje, battle of, +Kraljević, Marko: _see_ Marko K. +Krete, + conquest of, by Turks, + intervention of the powers and constituted an autonomous state, + speech of, +Krum (Bulgar prince), +Kruševac, +Kubrat (Bulgar prince), +Kumanovo, battle of (1912), +Kumans, the Tartar, +Kurdistan, +Kurds, the, +Kutchuk Kainardji, Treaty of, +Kydhonies, destruction of, + +Laibach (Ljubljana), +Lansdowne, Marquess of, +Lárissa, +Latin Empire at Constantinople, the, + influence in the Balkan peninsula, +Lausanne, Treaty of (1912), +Lazar (Serbian Prince), +‘League of Friends’, +Leipsic, battle of (1813), +Lemnos, +Leo, the Emperor, +Leopold II, Emperor of Austria, +Lepanto, battle of (1571), +Lerna, +Leskovac, +Levant, the, + commerce of, +Libyan war (1911-12), +Lombards, the, +London, Conference of (1912-13), + Treaty of (1913), +Louis, conquers the Serbs, +Lule-Burgas, + battle of (1912), + +Macedonia, + anarchy in, + defeat of the Turks by the Serbians in, + establishment of Turks in, + general characteristics of, in classical times, + inhabitants of, + revolt in, + place-names in, +Macedonian question, the, + Slavs, the, +Magnesia, +Magyars, the, + their irruption into Europe, + growing power and ambitions of the, + influence upon the Rumanians, +Mahmud I, Sultan, +Mahmud II, Sultan, +Maina, +Maiorescu, Titu +Malasgerd, battle of, +Malta, siege of, +Mamelukes, Egyptian, +Manichaean heresy, the, +Manuel Comnenus, the Emperor, +Marash, +Marcus Aurelius, the Emperor, +Marghiloman, Alexander, +Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria, +Maritsa, the, + battle of, +Marko Kraljević, +Marmora, Sea of, +Mavrokordatos, Alexander, +Mavromichalis clan, +Mavromichalis, Petros, +Mediterranean, the, +Megaspélaion, +Mehemet Ali: _see_ Mohammed Ali. +Melek Shah, of Persia, +Mendere (Maiandros), +Mesolonghi, +Mesopotamia, +Messenia, +Mesta, +Metéora, +Methodius, St., +Michael Obrenović III, Prince of Serbia (1840-2, 1860-8), +Michael III, the Emperor, +Michael the Brave, Prince of Wallachia, +Midhat Pasha and representative institutions in Turkey, +Media, +Milan Obrenović II, Prince of Serbia (1839), +Milan Obrenović IV, Prince and King of Serbia (1868-89), +Mileševo, monastery of, +Milica, Princess, +Military colonies, Austro-Hungarian, of Serbs against Turkey, +Miloš Obrenović I, Prince of Serbia (1817-39, 1858-60), +Milovanović, Dr., +Mircea the Old, Prince of Wallachia, +Misivria (Mesembria), +Mitylini, +Modhon, +Mohacs, battle of, +Mohammed II, Sultan, +Mohammed IV, Sultan, +Mohammed V, Sultan, +Mohammed Ali Pasha, of Egypt, +Mohammedan influence in the Balkan peninsula, +Mohammedan Serbs, of Bosnia and Hercegovina, the, +Moldavia, + foundation of, +Monastir (Bitolj, in Serbian), + battle of (1912), +Montenegro, + achieves its independence, + and the Balkan League, + autonomous, + becomes a kingdom, + conquered by the Turks, + during the Napoleonic wars, + in the Balkan war (1912-13), + position of, amongst the other Serb territories, + relations with Russia, + revolt in, + under Turkish rule, + war with Turkey, +Montesquieu, +Morava, the, +Moravia, its conversion to Christianity, +Morea: _see_ Peloponnesos. +Morocco crisis, the, +Moslems, +Mukhtar Pasha, +Muntenia (Wallachia), foundation of, +Murad I, Sultan, murder of, +Murad II, Sultan, +Murad III, Sultan, +Murad V, Sultan, +Murzsteg programme of reforms, the, +Mustapha II, Sultan, +Mustapha III, Sultan, + +Naissus: _see_ Nish. +Napoleon I, +Napoleon III, and Rumania, +Natalie, Queen-Consort of Serbia, +Nationalism, +Nauplia, + fall of (1822), +Nauplia Bay, +Navarino, battle of (1827), +Negrepont, +Nemanja dynasty, the, +Nicaea, +Nicholas I, Prince and King of Montenegro (1860-), +Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, +Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia, +Nicomedia, +Nikarià, 230. +Nikiphóros Phokas, the Emperor, +Nikopolis, + battle of, +Nikšić, +Nilufer, +Nish (Naissus, Niš), + Celtic origin, + Goths defeated at, + Bulgarians march on, + geographical position of, +Nish-Salonika railway, +Nizib, +Normans, the, +Novae: _see_ Svishtov. +Novi Pazar, Sandjak of, + occupied by Austria-Hungary, + evacuated by Austria-Hungary, + occupied by Serbia and Montenegro, + +Obilić, Miloš, +Obrenović dynasty, the, +Odessa, + Committee of, +Odhyssèus, +Oecumenical Patriarch, the, +Okhrida, + Archbishopric and Patriarchate of, + Lake of, +Old Serbia (northern Macedonia), +Orient, prefecture of the, +Orkhan, +Orthodox Church: _see_ Eastern Church. +Osman (Othman), Sultan, +Osmanli: _see_ Turkey _and_ Turks. +Ostrogoths, the, +Otranto, straits of, +Otto, Prince, of Bavaria, King of Greece, + driven into exile, +Ottoman Empire: _see_ Turkey. +Ouchy, Treaty of: _see_ Lausanne, Treaty of. +Oxus, + +Palaiologos, Romaic dynasty of, +Pannonia, + Bulgars in, +Pan-Serb movement, the +Pan-Slavism, +Paris, Congress of (1856), + Convention (1858), + Treaty of (1856), +Paša, M, +Passarowitz, Treaty of, +Pasvanoghlu, +Patmos, +Patras, + Gulf of, +Paul, Emperor of Russia, +Paulicians, the, +Peć (Ipek, in Turkish), patriarchate of, +Pechenegs, the Tartar, +Petraeus, +‘Peloponnesian Senate’, +Peloponnesos (Morea), +Pera, +Persia and the Turks, + at war with Constantinople, + Grand Seljuk of, +Persian Gulf, +Peter the Great, + ‘Testament’ of, +Peter, Bulgar Tsar (927-69) +Peter I, King of Serbia (1903), +Peter I, Prince-Bishop of Montenegro, +Petrović-Njegoš, dynasty of, +Petta, battle of, +Phanariote Greeks, the, _See_ Greek officials under the + Turks, _and_ Turkey, Phanariot régime. +‘Philhellenes’, +‘Philikì Hetairia’, +Philip, Count of Flanders, +Philip of Macedonia, +Philippopolis, Bogomil centre, + foundation of, + revolts against Turks, +Pindus, +Pirot, +Place-names, the distribution of classical, indigenous, and + Slavonic, in the Balkan peninsula, +Plevna, siege of, +Podgorica, +Poland, +Pontus, +Popes, attitude of the, towards the Slavonic liturgy, +Poros, +Porto Lagos, +Požarevac, +Preslav, Bulgarian capital, +Prespa, +Pressburg, Treaty of (1805), +Prilep, battle of (1912), +‘Primates’, the, +Prizren, +Prussia and Austria, war between (1866), +Psarà, + +Radowitz, Baron von, +Ragusa (Dubrovnik, in Serbian), its relations with the Serbian +state, + prosperity of, under Turkish rule, + decline of, +Railways in the Balkan peninsula, +Rashid Pasha, +Raška, centre of Serb state, +Règlement Organique, +Religious divisions in the Balkan peninsula, +Resna, in Macedonia, +Rhodes, + siege of, +Ristić, M., +Rodosto, +Romaic architecture, + government, + language, +‘Romaioi’, +Roman Catholicism in the Balkan peninsula, +Roman Empire, +Roman law, +Rome, its conquest of the Balkan peninsula, + relations of, with Bulgaria, + relations of, with Serbia, + spiritual rivalry of, with Constantinople, +Rosetti, C.A., +Rovine, battle of, +Rumania and the Balkan peninsula, + and the second Balkan war(1913), + and Bulgaria, + and the Russo-Turkish war (1877), + anti-Greek movement in, + anti-Russian revolution in, + commerce of, + convention with Russia (1877), + dynastic question in, + education in, + influences at work in, + military situation, + nationalist activity in, + neutrality of, + origins of, + Patriarch’s authority in, + peasantry of, + Phanariotes in, + political parties in, + politics of, internal, + relations with Russia, + religion and Church in, + Roman civilization, influence in, + rural question in, + Russian influence in; politics in, + struggle for independence, + territorial gains, + territorial losses, + Turkish rule in, + Upper class in (cneazi, boyards), + origins of, + social evolution of, + economic and political supremacy, +Rumanian army, + claims in Macedonia, + principalities, foundation of, + union of, + revolt (1822), +Rumanians, early evidences of, + in Bessarabia, + in Bucovina, + in Hungary, + in Macedonia, +Rumelia, Eastern, +Russia and Bulgaria, + and Greece, + and Montenegro, + and Rumania, + and Serbia, + and Turkey, + and the Macedonian question, + and the struggle for Greek independence, + Bulgars in, + commercial treaty with Turkey (1783), + convention with Rumania (1877), + conversion to Christianity, + occupation of Kars, + re-organization under Peter the Great, + wars with Turkey (1769-84), + (1787), + (1807), + (1828), + (1877-8), + (1914-15), +Russian diplomacy at Constantinople, + influence in Bulgaria, + invasion of Balkan peninsula, + relations with the Balkan Christians, + relations with the Balkan League, +Russians, the, comparison of, + with the Southern Slavs, + _see_ Slavs, the Eastern, + +Šabac (Shabatz), +Salisbury, Lord, +Salonika, +Salonika-Nish railway, the, +Samos, +Samothraki, +Samuel, Tsar of western Bulgaria (977-1014), +San Stefano, Treaty of (1878), +Saracens, the, +Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia, +Sava, St., +Save, the, +Scutari (di Albania), Skodra, +Selim I, Sultan, +Selim III, Sultan, +Seljuks, the, +Semendria: _see_ Smederevo. +Semites, the, +Serb migrations, + national life, centres of, + political centres, + race, home of the, + territories, divisions of the, +Serbia and Austria-Hungary, relations between, + and Bulgaria, contrasted, + the agreement between, + and Macedonia, + and Russia, relations between, + and the annexation of Bosnia and Hercegovina, + and the Balkan League, + and Turkey, + dissensions in, + geography of, + Patriarch’s authority in, + the barrier to German expansion eastwards, + Turkish conquest of, + wars with Turkey (1875-7), +Serbian Church, the, + claims and propaganda in Macedonia, + Empire, its extent under Stephen Dušan, + literature, + nation, centre of gravity of, + principality, its extent in 1830, +Serbo-Bulgarian war (1885), + (1913), +Serbo-Croat nationality, formation of the, +Serbo-Croat unity, movement in favour of, +Serbo-Croats, general distribution of, +Serbs, defeat Bulgars and Greeks, + distribution of the, in the Balkan peninsula, + general distribution of the, + north of the Danube, + outside the boundaries of the Serb state, + religious persecution of, + revolt against Bulgaria, + revolt against the Magyars, + revolts against Turkey, + their attitude towards the Germans, +Serbs and Croats, difference between, +Shabatz: _see_ Šabac. +Shipka Pass, +Shishman, revolts against Bulgaria, +Sicily, +Silistria, +Simeon the Great, Bulgar Tsar (893-927), +Singidunum: _see_ Belgrade. +Sitvatorok, Treaty of, +Sivas, +Skanderbey, +Skodra: _see_ Scutari. +Skoplje (Üsküb, in Turkish), +Slav influence in Rumania, +Slavonia, + absorbed by Hungary, +Slavonic immigration, the streams of, in the Balkan peninsula, + languages, the, use of, in Rumanian Church, + liturgy, the, southern, nationalities, +Slavs, maritime, + method of their migration southwards into the Balkan peninsula + migration, in the seventh century, + their lack of cohesion, + their attacks on Salonika and Constantinople with the Avars, + their original home, + their settlement south of the Danube, + the Balkan, their attitude towards the Church, under Turkish rule, + the Eastern (Russians), + the Southern, general distribution of, + the Western, +Slivnitsa, battle of (1885), +Slovenes, the, +Smederevo (Semendria), +Smyrna, +Sofia, captured by the Bulgars from the Greeks, captured by the Turks, +Soudha Bay, +Southern Slav nationalities, the, +Spain, Jews expelled from, +Spalajković, Dr., +Spetza, +Sporades, the, +Srem: _see_ Syrmia. +Stambul, +Sultanate of, +Stambulov, +Stephen Dragutin, +Stephen Dušan, King of Serbia(1331-45), Tsar of Serbs, Bulgars, and +Greeks (1345-55), +Stephen (Lazarević), Serbian Prince, +Stephen Nemanja, _veliki župan_, +Stephen Nemanjić, King of Serbia (1196-1223), the First-Crowned, +Stephen Radoslav, King of Serbia (1223-33), +Stephen Uroš I, King of Serbia (1242-76), +Stephen Uroš II (Milutin), King of Serbia (1282-1321), +Stephen Uroš III (Dećanski), King of Serbia (1321-31), +Stephen Vladislav, King of Serbia (1233-42), +Stephen the Great, Prince of Moldavia, +Struma, the, +Suleiman I, Sultan (the Magnificent), +Suli, clansmen of, +Šumadija, +Svetoslav, ruler of Bulgaria, +Svishtov, +Svyatoslav, Prince of Kiev, +Syria, +Syrian question, the, +Syrmia, + +Tabriz, +Tanzimat, the, +Taraboš, Mount, +Tarsus, +Tartar invasion, the, +Tartars of the Golden Horde, +Tenedos, +Teutons, the, +Thasos, +Theodore Lascaris, the Emperor, +Theodoric, +Theodosius, the Emperor, +Theophilus of Constantinople, +Thessaly, +Thrace, +Thu-Kiu, people of, +Tilsit, peace of (1807), +Timok, the, +Timur, +Tirnovo, centre and capital of second Bulgarian empire, +Trajan, the Emperor, in the Balkan peninsula, + his conquest of Dacia, +Transylvania, +Trebizond, +Trieste, +Trikéri, destruction of, +Trikoupis, Greek statesman, +Tripoli, +Tripolitza, +Tunisia, +Turcomans, the, +Turkestan, +Turkey: administrative systems, + and the Armenian massacres (1894), + and the Balkans, + and Bulgaria, + and the Bulgarian atrocities, + and Greece, + and the islands of southeastern Europe, + and Rumania, + and Russia, + and Serbia, + and the struggle for Greek independence, + and the suzerainty of Krete, + Christians in, position of, + codification of the civil law, + commercial treaties, + Committee of Union and Progress, + conquests in Europe, + in Asia, + of the Balkan peninsula, + decline and losses of territory in Europe and Asia, + ‘Dere Beys’, + Dragoman, office of, 184, 185, + expansion: of the Osmanli kingdom, + of the Byzantine Empire, + extent of the empire in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, + territorial expansion in Asia, + feudal aristocracy of, + financial embarrassments and public debt, + frontier beyond the Danube, + German influence in, + Grand Vizierate, + military organization, + soldiery recruited from Christian races, + ‘tribute-children’ system of recruiting, + name of, + pan-Islamic propaganda under Abdul Hamul, + pan-Ottomanism, + Phanariot régime, + praetorians, + railway construction, effect of, + reforms in, + representative institutions inaugurated, + revival and relapse in the nineteenth century, + revolution of 1910, + war in the Balkans (1912), + war with Great Britain, France, and Russia (1914-15), + wars with Greece (1821), + (1897), + (1912), + war with Italy (1911-12), + wars with Russia (1769-74), + (1787), + (1807), + (1828), + (1877-8), + (1914-15), + wars with Serbia (1875-7), + Young Turks, the, +Turkish conquests in Europe, + fleet, + janissaries, +Turks (Osmanlis), entry into Europe, + general distribution of, + nomadic tribes of, + origin of, + vitality and inherent qualities of the, +Tzakonia, + +Uighurs, Turkish tribe, +Unkiar Skelessi, Treaty of (1833), +Uroš, King of Serbia: _see_ Stephen Uroš. +Uroš, Serbian Tsar (1355-71), +Üskub: _see_ Skoplje, + +Valens, the Emperor, +Valtetzi, battle of, +Van, +Vardar, the, +Varna, + battle of (1444), + captured by the Bulgars, +Venezelos, E., Kretan and Greek statesman, + his part in the Kretan revolution, + becomes premier of Greece, + work as a constructive statesman, + the formation of the Balkan League, + his proposals to Bulgaria for settlement of claims, + his handling of the problem of Epirus, + results of his statesmanship, +Venice and the Venetian Republic, +Victoria, Queen of England, +Vienna, + besieged by the Turks (1526), + (1683), + Congress of (1814), + in relation to the Serbo-Croats: _see_ Budapest. +Visigoths, the, +Vlad the Impaler, Prince of Wallachia, +Vlakhs, the, +Volga, Bulgars of the, +Volo, Gulf of, +Vranja, +Vrioni, Omer, + +Wallachia, + advent of the Turks in, + subjugation of, by the Turks, +Wied, Prince of, +William II, German Emperor, + +Yannina, +Yantra, the, +Yemen, +Yenishehr, +Yuruk tribe, +Yuzgad, + +Zabergan, +Zaimis, high commissioner of Krete, +Zante, +Zeta, the, river and district, + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11716 *** |