The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-07-12
About the Eastern Question.

The so-called Eastern Question" is as
old as the time of the crusades. At first
it was purely religious question. The
crusaders fought to rescue Jerusalem and
the Holy Land from Mohammedans. The
Mohammedans fought to overcome every
thing that stood in the way of their SUI
premacy. After they had overrun South
western Asia, Egypt and Northern AT
RIGA they turned their attention to Eu-
rope; and they might have made them
selves masters of Europe, in time, if they
had not been so terribly defeated in 732
A. D., by Charles Martel.
When the Turks had risen to be the
leading power of the Mohammedan
world the invasion and conquest of Eu-
rope became their foremost aim. They
had before them in Eastern Europe the
Byzsntine or Greek empire, with Con-
stantinople as its capital. The Emperor
Constantine had made this city the cap
itol of the Roman empire in $50 A. ID. 4;
but in 395 A. d. the Emperor, Theodosius
the Great, divided the Roman empire be-
tween his two sons, Arcadius and Homo
RUS, giving Honorius the eastern part of
it. The most important successor of
Honorius was Justinian, who reigned
from 527 to SOS A. d. Constantinople
became the metropolitan city of what
were called the Greek churches, in dis
tinction from those which were organized
as the Roman Catholic Church. The
crusaders, who were Roman Catholics,
captured Constantinople in 1904, and
held control of the empire until 1861,
troubled, however, by constant rebellion.
1t is probable that Mohammedan in
vasion of Europe, from the East, was de-
layed one or two centuries by the cru
sades, which gave the Mohammedans an
abundance of military work in Asia.
The Turks began invading Europe in
1928; and in 1861 they had been so sue
cessful that the Sultan Amunath was
able to establish his capital at Adrian
ople. Most of the provinces of the Greek
empire had asserted their independence
previous to the arrival of the Turks. This
empire had been so reduced rs to con-
sist of little more than the city of
Constantinople. 1t disappeared when
the Turks captured this city, in 1853.
During the next one or two centuries the
Turks sought to make all Europe Mo-
hammedan. They invaded Italy, Hun
gary and Germany, and won some sue
cesses; but at length the force of their
invasion was checked, if not broken, by
the overwhelming defeat of a great Turk
ish army, Sept. II, 1888, under the walls
of Vienna, by Christian army, led by
John Sobieski, king of Poland; and by
the previous defeat of great Turkish
fleet of three hundred ships, in the gulf
of Lepanto, by Don John of Austria.
After this there came decline of the
Turkish military and naval power, and a
succession of feeble Sultans. 1t was no
longer possible for these Mohammedans
to advance further into Europe. The
Christian provinces they had conquered
were subjected to the most harrassing
and brutal oppression, the Christians be-
ing disarmed, reduced to condition as
miserable as that of serfdom, and placed
entirely at the mercy Of the local gov
ernors. The actual condition of the
Christians of Turkey cannot be seen at
Constantinople, where many influences
Operate to check and restrain the Op-
preston.
Meanwhile Russia, chief patron and
upholder of the Greek church, has risen
from obscurity and become a "great
power;" and, since the time of Peter the
Great, the Russians have been disposed
to interfere in behalf of the oppressed
Christians of the Turkish provinces. 1t
is due to Russian influence that some Of
these provinces have been made semi-in-
dependent. In the other provinces the
oppression becomes more intolerable
every year because the Turkish govern.
ment becomes more worthless and rapa-
cious. There can be no real and perma-
nent protection for the Christian people
of Turkey until that Mohammedan gov
eminent is driven out of Europe.
In the present century, as we all know,
this eastern Question" has become
political question. 1t is chiefly political
with most Of the powers of Europe, and
this has saved the Turkish government
from overthrow. With the Russian peO-
pie it is religious question, because the
Christians in Turkey are of their own
faith; but it cannot be settled properly
without having political consequences.
ConstantinOple must,an will, ultimately,
go into other hands, and become to the
world what it is capable of being. The
conflict is irrepressible; it defies all the
arts of diplomacy; it will go on to the
end. When the end will be reached, or
how far the question will be advanced
towards actual settlement by the present
war, time alone can show.
England has done more to uphold the
present government of Turkey than any
other power in Europe. But it is the
custom Of England to sacrifice everything
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