The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1915-04-06
TURKEY FORMERLY
A WORLD POWER


the fate of Turkey hangs in the bal
ance, her destruction threatened by
the alliance of two countries whose
past rivalries preserved to her what
she has in Europe today" says state
ment just issued by the National Geo.
graphic Society. 1T is interesting to
go back and follow her down through
the centuries that mark the waxing
and the waning of the Crescent in
Southeastern Europe.
I'm 1890 the map of Europe was
vastly different from what it is today.
Practically all of what is now Greece
and European Turkey was then the
Eastern Roman Empire. Constanti-
nople was its capital, and it was in
control of the Dardanelles and the
Bosphorus as much as Turkey has
been recently Russia at that time did
not approach nearer than $50 miles of
the Black Sea.
ACROSS in Asia, south of the eastern
half of the Black Sea, was the Sultan
ate of Iconium, and east of the Medi-
terranean and in eastern Africa were
the dominions of Saladan.
LAS the years went by the forces OF
the Crescent gradually extended them
selves through Asia Minor, and before
the passing of many generations they
were laundering at the gates of Eu-
rope across the Bosphorus and the
Dardanelles. In vain did Emperor
John vi appeal to Europe to help stay
the tide, and in 1853 the cloud that
had doomed up across the horizon of
the East for several centuries, de-
scended upon Constantinople and
southeastern Europe.
with a foothold in Europe, the
Turks realized that they could main
tain it only by a process of expansion.
And European politics at that time,
just as in all the centuries that have
succeeded until now, prevented Christ
ian Europe from uniting against Mo
Turkey.
But the several countries of Eu-
rope were too busy with their own
particular affairs and too jealous OF
one another to unite In checking the
Ottoman invasion. The result was
that by the middle of the sixteenth
century Turkey included all of the
Balkan peninsular, Greece, Moldavia,
Transylvania, Bosnia, Herzegovina,
and that part OF Hungary east of
line drawn north and south half way
between Budapest anod Vienna.
LAS the generations passed, how
ever, Turkish power in Europe began
to wane In her stock-taking after the
treaties Of Utrecht and Rastadt, Tur-
key found her European dominions
shrunkep considerably as compared
with what they were in the middle of
the sixteenth century. Hungary had
pushed back the invader several hun
dred miles to the east and south, and
Russia had crowded him out of one
Of his footholds on the Black Sea-
formerly the Turk controlled
the entire region around the Black
Sea, Russia had now driven him out
Of the land of the Georgians and had
gotten a short stretch of the coast of
The Black Sea.
"But Turkey was still left in posses
sion Of the mouth of every river enter
ing that sea, including the Don, the
Dnieper, the Dniester and the DAN
lbe. She had lost Greece, but at the
same time had a sort of recombense
IN Crete and Cyprus.
TN the century that followed many
things happened. BY 1910 Russian had
ost control of the Georgian coast of
he Black Sea, but she secured in ex-
change the section of the coast occu
pied by the mouth of the Don, the
Onieper and the Dniester. In the
lext five years there was still another
story to tell-Russia had forced her
way around the Black Sea to the |
mouth of the Danube on the west, and
almost to it's farthest extremity on the
,ast
And then came the century that
las passed since the remaking Of the |
nap of Europe after Napoleon had |
ent it to the scrap-pile. Everything +.
vent fairly well with the Turk until |
he middle Seventies, When Servia |
md Montenegro revolted against Turk
sh rule Russia, then in a secret al
lance with Austria for the division OF
he spoils, encouraged the revolt
after many negotiations between
he powers, Russia finally went to war |
With Turkey, with the understanding |
hat If she won, Austria was to get