Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1921-01-06


throne OF King Alexander of Greece
turned world interest once more to
southeastern Europe. The changes
Greece has undergone territorially and
the part it has played in the wars and
crises Of its corner of the world, are
discussed in the following bulletin is
sued by the National Geographic So
ciety:
'What is Greece?
'In the light of the past the answer
might well be tentative, for a detlnl-
ton of Greece's area at any time dur
ing the thousands of years of its his
tory would have held good hardly for
a quarter century; and in latter years,
so swift have been the changes in the
new Greece, each decade has seen the
fixing of new boundaries.
"Not until modern times-except
during the mOmentary empire of Alex
ander-has Greece meant a nation.
In the Grecian Golden Age, as well
as before and since, Greece was a
house divided against itself. Its de-
tailed history would mean the history
of more than $50 separate states.
And yet there was at all times some
feeling of Hellenic nationality even
though the rivalries among the va
rious groups stood in the way of fu-
sion into a single nation.
"While Great Britain may be de-
scribed as a land surrounded by seas,
Greece may be said to be "a sea sur
rounded by land The Hellenes have
always been a sea-faring folk, and
| the Mediterranean sea, and more par
| ticularly the Aegean have been their
own particular herring ponds The
islands of the eastern Mediterranean
| became Greek territory in their en-
| tirety, and this was true also of the
island-like Peloponnesus and some
other portions of the Greek peninsula.
But an equally important part of
Greece-or better, of the land of the
Hellenes-were the settlements made
| by it's mariners on the shores of the
mainland that hem in the Mediter-
ranean. These settlements consti-
| tuted an unbroken fringe of Hellas
along the shores of Asia Minor, and
scattered communities on the shores
of Italy, in Sicily, even in northern
Africa and what is now southern
France. This was the loose Greece
or Hellas at it's greatest-a domain
of one people but of many states,
"Greece gave the world its first
League of Nations, the Delian league,
organized in Al B. G. by way of mu-
tual protection against the external
| aggression of Persia, which had a
sort of archaeological ambition of
it's own in those days. Athens was
the only principal power in this
league, and was the recognized leader
of the organization.
'Later came the hegemony of Ath-
ems by force, the paradOXical empire
of a democracy, bereft even Of the
trappingS of monarchy. At this pc
riod and under what may be termed
the empires of Sparta and Thebes, q
close approach to a Greek nation may
be said to have existed; but in none
of these eras were most of the terri
tories peOpled by Greeks included, and
even large parts of the Greek PENN
sula itself were governed by other
Hellenic states. For a brief period
under Alexander the Great, Greece
reached the status of a nation, but il
was a fusion forced by a virtual ont
slider and contained much territory in
habited by others than Greeks; ant
on the death of the great military
genius the Hellenes separated agair
into numerous governmental units.
"Greece, expanding from the city
state, had comprised for a moment
almost the whole civilized world; bu
the great dilatiOn was followed by ar
equally great contraction. Greece fel
under the rising power of Rome, ant
became a mere province in the west
ern empire.
"The military ability and power o.
the Greeks died under the Roman
yoke; but when the Eastern empire
was formed with Constantinople as it:
seat, Greek culture conquered where
Greek arms could not, and Byzantiun
became in reality a great Greek state
Once more the territory that, by con
struction at least, can be regarded a.
Greece, spread outward until it hell
within its boundaries much of south
eastern Europe. 1t is on reviving tht
glory of this period in Grecian histor,
that Greek ambition, when it coult
live at all, has dwelt."