Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1878-02-16
THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE.
The Gradual Waning Of the Crescent.

Suppose the conditions of peace to b.
fairly reported, what will be left of tn,
Ottoman power? How does the extern
of the Sultan's authority compare with
that of earlier members of his dynasty
whose resources were a danger to Eu
rope? The truth is that the present
ruler, as regards breadth of dominions
will remain more formidable poten
tate than Bajazet or Mohammed III
and may fairly vie with any of his house
prior 10 the reign of Solyman the Mag
nificent.
1t is worth while to trace the success
sive strokes by which the Turkish EN-
pire has been curtailed since the acm,
of its greatness under Solyman and hi:
son, Selim H., in the sixteenth century
Let US bear in mind that at the latter
epoch, besides all his present dominion.
except Crete-the Sultan controlled
almost the whole of Hungary, a large
part OF Poland, all the southern prov
inces OF Russia skirting the Black Sea
together with Austrian Creotia, the so
called military frontiers, and independ
ent Servia ON the west and Russian
Georgia on the east. The first signs o.
decadence in the aggressive power o.
Turkey were the double defeats of Soly
man before Vienna in 1929 and 1882
and his repeated repulses by the Hun
garians at the fortress of Sziget, one o.
which cost the Sultan his life. The nexi
blow was struck at Lepanto, in 1911
where the Turkish fleets lost the pres
tige and dominance which, since the
downfall OF Rhodes, they had maintain
ed throughout the Mediterranean. About
a century later, under the impulse of a
remarkable family of statesmen, the OF.
toman armies undertook to renew az.
gressive movements, but they were routed
before Vienna by the heroic Pole, John
Sobieski. In the subsequent war against
Austria, whose troops We're command
ed by the famous generals, Prince Eu-
gene and Louis of Baden, the Turkish
strength on the middle Danube was de.
stroyed. With the loss OF fortresses in
this quarter, the hope of Ottoman ag-
grandizement north OF the river seems
to have been abandoned; and at the
peace of Carlowitz, in 1899, Mustapha
ii. surrendered nearly all his Hungarian
possessions to Austria, AZov to Peter the
Great, Podolia, and the Ukraine to Po-
land, and the Morea to Venice. No
terms which at the present juncture
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 ut war, now with Russia,
now with Austria. Notwithstanding
some partial successes, such as the re-
conquest OF the Morea in 17l5, the gen
eral result OF this long contest was dis
astrous 10 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 Dniester
was made the frontier between the two
Empires. The present century has wit
messed il series of rebellions usually fol-
lowed by the concession OF partial indie
pendence "a provincial governors.
Thus, in 1893 Servia rose under
the leadership OF Czerny George, and
subsequently, achieved 4 notable meas
ure of self-government. The insurrec-
ton OF Ali Pasha at ,Ianina in 1922 was
crushed, but the Greek revolution which
followed was successful. WeshOuld re-
mark, however, that il was not until the
Turkish-Egyptian fleet had been destroy
ed al Navarino, and the Russian armies,
under Diehitsh, had crossed the Balkans
and arrived at Adrianople, that the
Porte Womb acl nOxVladcre tha indaDend-
ence OF Greece.
Three years after the treaty of Adrian
ople, namely, in 1882, began the peril
Gus contest of the Sultan with his too
powerful vassal, Mehemet Ali, the Vice
roy OF Egypt In this struggle Nah
mould Ii. was repeatedly defeated, and
the quarrel was only ended after a lapse
of several years, and when the loss of
the Suitan's Asiatic dominions seemed
lnpyita hla nv tho biract Intervention If |