Norwich bulletin., 1914-11-24
THE WAR PRIMER By National Geographic Society

DardanelIes-Keen political interest has centered around the Dardanelles since the time when Persian strength was tested upon the soldiers of free Greece. XerNes came this way with his vast army for the inya sion of Eu- rope, and crossed the Dardanelles, then known as the HelleSpont, over a pom toon bridge, constructed near Abydos, on the ASiatic side, and touching Gre clan shores near Sestos, where the waterway is about 6,500 feet wide. It was on this occasion that the capri cious currents of the strait called forth the most historic spanking ever given. They carried away the pom toons, whereupon NerXes ordered the Hellespont to be Soundly hogged.
 When the eastern invasion had spent itself after Marathon and Salamis, the Dardanelles became a point of depar- tUFe for the hardy conqueror who turned the tables. Alexander in 334 E. C., 146 years after XerXes, crossed in the path Of the Persian, and began his successful subjugation of the out worn east. The tide shifted once more, and throughout the long struggle of Byzantium against the east the Darda- neIles were ever and again frontier waters. At last, in 1856, the Turlses forced themselves over the much con tested boundary, spread over it's Flu ropeIR banks, and settled down to stay.
 
 western struggle, the Dardanelles, nev- ertheless, preserved their political inn portance, an importance derived, first, from Turkish control of Alediterra- nean- Black sea commerce, and, later, from the complex diplomatic game in which the great powers of Europe sought to balance themselves one against the other and each to make l that balance contribute to its own ad- vantage Mighty Russia's only ports ! FnN=
 sea territory. Conventions of the pow ] CTS, however, have held her shut up l fast within the inland sea. For a cen | tury these conventions have stood be- 1 tween Russia and her ambitions to have an outlet on the M editerranean By a fiEe-poWer treaty in 1S41 1t was | arranged that no ship of war of any l nation other than tho Ottoman should | pass the DardanelleS without express 1 permission of the porte. The closing l of the strait was reaf1rmed at London l in 1871 and at Berlins in 1SIS- Even l merchant vessels must have passes | which they are required to show to the i authorities at the narrows Boats 1 may pass through only during the | daytime, yet they are required to pay | a. small lighthouse fee.
 ] The strait is d narrow, irregular | channel connecting the Aegean sea l with the Sea. of MaTmcra. It cuts Flu | rope from Asia on a course from 1 southwest to northeast. It is only 1 about 45 miles long, while it varies 1 in width from one to five miles. Its l average depth is 180 feet. Upon tho l European side the shores are steep anC barren and their inhospitabie line O. 1 battery crowned rocks makes the Oar l danelles a place for unusually strons l defense. The shores on the Asiatit side are long-sloped and very fertile for the most part being clothed Witl 1 beautiful forests.
 The Dardanelles guard the approach to Constantinople from the AIediterra' mean, as the BoSphoruS guards the ap proach from the Black sea. They were first fortified by two castles, one or
 either shore, in the path of NerXe! and Alexander, built by Mohammed l in 1462. These have been often Temod eled. During the last century witt Turkish power on the wane. and tn
 Turk himself apparently acquiescent the remodeling and extending of tn old Notifications was brought abou by French, English and German prod ding, as temporary interests pointed toward the Golden Horn.