The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1878-03-13
TURKISH EMPIRE.
Its Growth, aud Its Resources-a and Ability
for Further Conflict.

Its Growth, and Its Resources-and Ability
for Further Conflict.
Iii worth while to trace the successive
strokes by which the Turkish empire has
been curtailed since the acme of its
greatness under Solyman and his son,
Selim H., in the sixteenth century. Let
us bear in mind that at the latter epoch,
besides all his present dominions-ex-
cept Crete-the sultan controlled the
whole of Hungary, a large part OF
Poland, all the southern provinces of
Russia skirting the Black Sea, together
with Austrian Croatia, the so.called
military frontiers, and Independent
Servia on the west and Russian Georgia
on the east. The first sign of d~ecadence
in the aggressive power of Turkey were
the double defeats of Solyman before
Vienna in 1929 and 1882, and his repeat
cd repulses by the Hungarians at the
fortress of Sziget, nj of which cost the
sultan his life. The next blow was
struck at Lepanto in 1871, where the
Turkish fleets lost the prestige and
dominance which, since the downfall of
Rhodes they had maintained throughout
the Mediterranean. About q century
later, under the impulse of a remarkable
family of statesmen, the Ottoman
armies undertook to renew aggressive
movements, but they were routed before
Vienna by the heroic Pole, John Sobei-
ski. In the subsequent wal against
Austria, whose troops were commanded
by the famous Generals Prince Eugene
and Louis of Baden, the Turkish
strength on the middle Danube was
destroyed. With the loss of fortresses
in this quarter, the hope of Ottoman
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT north of the river seems
to have been abandoned, and at the
peace of Carlowitz, in 1893, Mustapha
II. surrendered nearly all his Hungarian
possessions to Austria, Azov to Peter
the Great, Podolia and the Ukaine to
Poland, and the Morea to Venice. No
terms which at the present ju~ncture
Russia could hope to see ratified by the
European powers could possibly ap-
proach in severity the conditions of the
peace of Carlowitz.
During the whole of the last century
Turkey was at war, now with Russia,
now with Austria. Notwithstanding
some partial successes, such as the re-
conquest of Morea in IT'S, the general
result of this long contest was disas-
trous to the Ottoman sovereign. He
lost, for instance, the Crimea and all his
outlying possessions north of the Black
sea, and by the treaty concluded with
Russia at Jassy, in 1892, the Dneister
was made the frontier between the two
empires. The present century has wit
messed a series of rebellions usually fol-
lowed by the concession of partial in.
dependence to provincial governors.
Thus, in 1905, Servia rose under the
leadership of Czerny George, and subse-
quently achieved a notable measure Of
self-government. The insurrection of
Ali Pasha at Janina in 1922 was crushed,
but the Greek revolution which followed
was successful. We should remark,
however, that it was not until the Tur-
kish Egyptian fleet had been destroyed
at Navarino, and the Russian armies,
under Diebitsh, had crossed the Balkans
and arrived at Adrianople, that the
porte would acknowledge the independ-
ance of Greece.
Three years after the treaty of Adria-
nople, namely, in 1882, began the peril
Gus contest Of the sultan with his too
powerful vassal, Mehemet Ali, the
Viceroy of Egypt. In this struggle
Mahmoud II. was repeatedly defeated,
and the quarrel was only ended after O
lapse of seven years, and when the loss
of the sultan's Asiatic dominions seemed
inevitable, by the direct intervention of
England and her allies in behalf of the
porte. This action constitutes al epoch
in European diplomacy. The official
admission, in fact, of Turkey into the
political system of Europe dates no
further back than the. treaties of 1910
and 1841. To the same principle must
be referred the acceptance of the in
tegrity of Turkey as a cardinal princi-
pie Of international policy on the part Of
the western powers. Thirteen years
after its adoption this principle led to
the Crimean war, which resulted in the
di%scomforture of Russia and the ap-
parent rehabilitation of the Ottoman
power. But it has been disavowed and
set at naught by 1.-THE attitude of Eng
land since Russia's rescission of the
treaty of Paris, and throughout the
present conflict.
It is now five centuries and a half
since the crescent appeared in eastern
Europe. Two centuries remain to be
completed, if the Turks are to exhibit a
tenacity equal to that shown by the
Modlem conquerors in Spain. What
ever may be the terms of the present
peace, it is certain that the sultan will
retain in Europe a far more defensible
position AM more substantial resources
than belonged to the Spanish Moors in
the fourteenth century, relegated to the
kingdom of Granada. Let us remember,
too, that the. Greek emperors, without
allies, and almost without resources out
side the walls of their capital maintain
ed themselves for some three hundred
years at Constantinople. Very differ
ent are the means at the command of
the Ottoman ruler. His European
provinces will still equal in area those
controlled by Bajazet, and fall but
little short of those possessed by Mo-
manned II. when he undertook the con-
quest Of Stamboul. In Asia he keeps
the whole of the superb inheritance
which Selim, the first Ottoman caliph,
made over in 1920 to Solyman, and
which, for the first time in the history of
the dynasty, included Mesopotamia,
Assyria, Syria, and Egypt. OF the con
quests of Solyman and his successors,
the present monarch still holds Gambia,
Rhodes, Cyprus, the Islands of the
Hgean, the suzerainty of Tripol1 and
Tunis, together with Yemen in the
south and Armenia in the north, unless,
indeed, the latter country shall be
claimed by Russia as security for the
payment Of the war indemnify. In a
word, Notwithstanding the repeated
mutilations of two centuries, beginning
with the peace which a Russian grand
duke is about to sign at Adrianople,
Turkey is yet no uncomfortable power.
The resources at the disposal of the
porte are still superior to those with
which Mohammed II. marched, in 1853,
to the capture of Constantinople.-New
York Sun.
France, Spain and Germany.
The Histor;sch.P olitische Blatter