rajpurkar/squad huggingface dataset:
Title: Near_East

The Ottoman Empire, believed to be about to collapse, was portrayed in the press as the sick man of Europe". The Balkan states, with the partial exception of Bosnia and Albania, were primarily Christian. Starting in 1894 the Ottomans struck at the Armenians on the explicit grounds that they were a non-Muslim people and as such were a potential threat to the Muslim empire within which they resided. The Hamidian Massacres aroused the indignation of the entire Christian world. In the United States the now aging Julia Ward Howe, author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, leaped into the war of words and joined the Red Cross. Relations of minorities within the Ottoman Empire and the disposition of former Ottoman lands became known as the "Eastern Question," as the Ottomans were on the east of Europe.

Question: How was the Ottoman Empire portrayed in the press?
Answer: as the sick man of Europe

Question: The Balkan states were primarily what religion? 
Answer: Christian

Question: When did the Ottomans strike at the Armenians?
Answer: 1894

Question: What are the grounds on which the Ottomans struck at the Armenians?
Answer: the explicit grounds that they were a non-Muslim people

Question: What aroused the indignation of the entire Christian world?
Answer: The Hamidian Massacres
Title: Near_East

It now became relevant to define the east of the eastern question. In about the middle of the 19th century "Near East" came into use to describe that part of the east closest to Europe. The term "Far East" appeared contemporaneously meaning Japan, China, Korea, Indonesia and Viet Nam; in short, the East Indies. "Near East" applied to what had been mainly known as the Levant, which was in the jurisdiction of the Ottoman Porte, or government. Those who used the term had little choice about its meaning. They could not set foot on most of the shores of the southern and central Mediterranean from the Gulf of Sidra to Albania without permits from the Ottoman Empire.

Question: When did "Near East" come into use to describe the part of the east closest to Europe?
Answer: middle of the 19th century

Question: In short, the term Far East appeared to name this area
Answer: the East Indies

Question: "Near East" applied to this mainly known area
Answer: the Levant

Question: What was the jurisdiction of the Levant in? 
Answer: the Ottoman Porte

Question: What was needed to set foot on most of the shores of the southern and central Mediterranean? 
Answer: permits from the Ottoman Empire
Title: Near_East

Some regions beyond the Ottoman Porte were included. One was North Africa west of Egypt. It was occupied by piratical kingdoms of the Barbary Coast, de facto independent since the 18th century. Formerly part of the empire at its apogee. Iran was included because it could not easily be reached except through the Ottoman Empire or neighboring Russia. In the 1890s the term tended to focus on the conflicts in the Balkan states and Armenia. The demise of the sick man of Europe left considerable confusion as to what was to be meant by "Near East". It is now generally used only in historical contexts, to describe the countries of Western Asia from the Mediterranean to (or including) Iran. There is, in short, no universally understood fixed inventory of nations, languages or historical assets defined to be in it.

Question: What was one region included that was occupied by piratical kingdoms?
Answer: North Africa west of Egypt

Question: Where were the piratical kingdoms from? 
Answer: Barbary Coast

Question: Why was Iran included in the collection of regions? 
Answer: because it could not easily be reached except through the Ottoman Empire or neighboring Russia

Question: What did the term Near East focus on in the 1890s?
Answer: the conflicts in the Balkan states and Armenia

Question: The demise of what left considerable confusion as to what was to be meant by "Near East" 
Answer: of the sick man of Europe
Title: Near_East

The geographical terms "Near East" and "Far East" referring to areas of the globe in or contiguous to the former British Empire and the neighboring colonies of the Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish and Germans, fit together as a pair based on the opposites of far and near, suggesting that they were innovated together. They appear together in the journals of the mid-19th century. Both terms were used before then with local British and American meanings: the near or far east of a field, village or shire.

Question: The terms "Near East" and "Far East" referring to areas of the globe in or contiguous to the former British Empire and the neighboring colonies fit together as a pair based on what? 
Answer: the opposites of far and near

Question: When do the terms "Near East" and "Far East" appear together in journals? 
Answer: the mid-19th century

Question: The term Near East and Far East were used in British and American meanings when referring to what? 
Answer: the near or far east of a field, village or shire.
Title: Near_East

There was a linguistic predisposition to use such terms. The Romans had used them in near Gaul / far Gaul, near Spain / far Spain and others. Before them the Greeks had the habit, which appears in Linear B, the oldest known script of Europe, referring to the near province and the far province of the kingdom of Pylos. Usually these terms were given with reference to a geographic feature, such as a mountain range or a river.

Question: Who used the terms near Gaul?
Answer: The Romans

Question: The appearance of what culture using the terms appears in Linear B?
Answer: the Greeks

Question: Usually the terms were given when referencing what?  
Answer: a geographic feature
Title: Near_East

Ptolemy's Geography divided Asia on a similar basis. In the north is "Scythia this side of the Himalayas" and "Scythia beyond the Himalayas." To the south is "India on this side of the Ganges" and "India beyond the Ganges." Asia began on the coast of Anatolia ("land of the rising sun"). Beyond the Ganges and Himalayas (including the Tien Shan) were Serica and Serae (sections of China) and some other identifiable far eastern locations known to the voyagers and geographers but not to the general European public.

Question: What divided Asia on a similar basis? 
Answer: Ptolemy's Geography

Question: "Scythia this side of the Himalayas" is located where? 
Answer: In the north

Question: "India on this side of the Ganges" is located where? 
Answer: To the south

Question: "Scythia beyond the Himalayas" is located where? 
Answer: In the north

Question: Where did Asia begin? 
Answer: on the coast of Anatolia
Title: Near_East

By the time of John Seller's Atlas Maritima of 1670, "India Beyond the Ganges" had become "the East Indies" including China, Korea, southeast Asia and the islands of the Pacific in a map that was every bit as distorted as Ptolemy's, despite the lapse of approximately 1500 years. That "east" in turn was only an English translation of Latin Oriens and Orientalis, "the land of the rising sun," used since Roman times for "east." The world map of Jodocus Hondius of 1590 labels all of Asia from the Caspian to the Pacific as India Orientalis, shortly to appear in translation as the East Indies.

Question: When was John Seller's Atlas Maritima?
Answer: 1670

Question: What had "India Beyond the Ganges" become? 
Answer: the East Indies

Question: China, Korea, southeast Asia and the islands of the Pacific were included in what? 
Answer: "the East Indies"

Question: What was only an English translation of Latin Oriens and Orientalis, "the land of the rising sun"?
Answer: "east"

Question: What year did Jodocus Hondius make his world map? 
Answer: 1590
Title: Near_East

Elizabeth I of England, primarily interested in trade with the east, collaborated with English merchants to form the first trading companies to the far-flung regions, using their own jargon. Their goals were to obtain trading concessions by treaty. The queen chartered the Company of Merchants of the Levant, shortened to Levant Company, and soon known also as The Turkey Company, in 1581. In 1582, the ship The Great Susan transported the first ambassador, William Harebone, to the Ottoman Porte (government of the Ottoman Empire) at Constantinople. Compared to Anatolia, Levant also means "land of the rising sun," but where Anatolia always only meant the projection of land currently occupied by the Republic of Turkey, Levant meant anywhere in the domain ruled by the Ottoman Porte. The East India Company (short for a much longer formal name) was chartered in 1600 for trade to the East Indies.

Question: Where was Elizabeth I from?
Answer: England

Question: What was Elizabeth primarily interested in? 
Answer: trade with the east

Question: Who did Elizabeth I collaborate with?
Answer: English merchants

Question: What was the goal of the first trading companies?
Answer: obtain trading concessions by treaty

Question: What company was charted in 1600 for trade to the East Indies?
Answer: The East India Company
Title: Near_East

It has pleased western historians to write of a decline of the Ottoman Empire as though a stable and uncontested polity of that name once existed. The borders did expand and contract but they were always dynamic and always in "question" right from the beginning. The Ottoman Empire was created from the lands of the former eastern Roman Empire on the occasion of the latter's violent demise. The last Roman emperor died fighting hand-to-hand in the streets of his capital, Constantinople, overwhelmed by the Ottoman military, in May, 1453. The victors inherited his remaining territory in the Balkans.

Question: What has pleased western historians?
Answer: to write of a decline of the Ottoman Empire

Question: What was always in question from the beginning of the Ottoman Empire? 
Answer: The borders

Question: What was the Ottoman Empire created from?
Answer: the lands of the former eastern Roman Empire

Question: How did the last Roman emperor die?
Answer: fighting hand-to-hand in the streets

Question: Where was the Roman emperor's capital?
Answer: Constantinople
Title: Near_East

The populations of those lands did not accept Turkish rule. The Turks to them were foreigners with completely different customs, way of life, and language. Intervals when there was no unrest were rare. The Hungarians had thrown off Turkish rule by 1688. Serbia was created by the Serbian Revolution, 1815–1833. The Greek War of Independence, 1821–1832, created modern Greece, which recovered most of the lands of ancient Greece, but could not gain Constantinople. The Ottoman Porte was continuously under attack from some quarter in its empire, primarily the Balkans. Also, on a number of occasions in the early 19th century, American and British warships had to attack the Barbary pirates to stop their piracy and recover thousands of enslaved Europeans and Americans.

Question: The populations did not accept what?
Answer: Turkish rule

Question: The Hungarians had thrown off Turkish rule by what year? 
Answer: 1688

Question: What created Serbia?
Answer: the Serbian Revolution

Question: When was the Serbian Revolution?
Answer: 1815–1833

Question: When was the Greek War of Independence?
Answer: 1821–1832
Title: Near_East

In 1853 the Russian Empire on behalf of the Slavic Balkan states began to question the very existence of the Ottoman Empire. The result was the Crimean War, 1853–1856, in which the British Empire and the French Empire supported the Ottoman Empire in its struggle against the incursions of the Russian Empire. Eventually, the Ottoman Empire lost control of the Balkan region.

Question: When did the Russian Empire begin to question the existence of the Ottoman Empire?
Answer: 1853

Question: When was the Crimean War?
Answer: 1853–1856

Question: During the Crimean War who did the British and French support?
Answer: the Ottoman Empire

Question: What was the Ottoman Empire's struggle against in the Crimean War?
Answer: the incursions of the Russian Empire

Question: The Ottoman Empire eventually lost control of what region?
Answer: the Balkan region
Title: Near_East

Until about 1855 the words near east and far east did not refer to any particular region. The far East, a phrase containing a noun, East, qualified by an adjective, far, could be at any location in the "far east" of the speaker's home territory. The Ottoman Empire, for example, was the far East as much as the East Indies. The Crimean War brought a change in vocabulary with the introduction of terms more familiar to the late 19th century. The Russian Empire had entered a more aggressive phase, becoming militarily active against the Ottoman Empire and also against China, with territorial aggrandizement explicitly in mind. Rethinking its policy the British government decided that the two polities under attack were necessary for the balance of power. It therefore undertook to oppose the Russians in both places, one result being the Crimean War. During that war the administration of the British Empire began promulgating a new vocabulary, giving specific regional meaning to "the Near East," the Ottoman Empire, and "the Far East," the East Indies. The two terms were now compound nouns often shown hyphenated.

Question: Until what year did the words near east and far east not refer to any particular region? 
Answer: 1855

Question: What brought a change in vocabulary?
Answer: The Crimean War

Question: The Russian Empire became more militarily active against who?
Answer: the Ottoman Empire

Question: Who decided the two polities under attack were necessary for the balance of power? 
Answer: the British government

Question: What empire began promulgating a new vocabulary?
Answer: the British Empire
Title: Near_East

In 1855 a reprint of a letter earlier sent to The Times appeared in Littel's Living Age. Its author, an "official Chinese interpreter of 10 years' active service" and a member of the Oriental Club, Thomas Taylor Meadows, was replying to the suggestion by another interpreter that the British Empire was wasting its resources on a false threat from Russia against China. Toward the end of the letter he said:

Question: When was a reprint of a letter sent to The Times appear in Littel's Living Age?
Answer: 1855

Question: Who was the author of the letter sent to the Times?
Answer: Thomas Taylor Meadows

Question: What was Thomas Taylor Meadows replying to?
Answer: the suggestion by another interpreter
Title: Near_East

Much of the colonial administration belonged to this club, which had been formed by the Duke of Wellington. Meadows' terminology must represent usage by that administration. If not the first use of the terms, the letter to the Times was certainly one of the earliest presentations of this vocabulary to the general public. They became immediately popular, supplanting "Levant" and "East Indies," which gradually receded to minor usages and then began to change meaning.

Question: What was one of the earliest presentations of this vocabulary?
Answer: the letter to the Times

Question: What was said must represent usage by that administration?
Answer: Meadows' terminology

Question: Who had formed the club that contained much of the colonial administration?
Answer: Duke of Wellington
Title: Near_East

"Near East" remained popular in diplomatic, trade and journalistic circles, but a variation soon developed among the scholars and the men of the cloth and their associates: "the Nearer East," reverting to the classical and then more scholarly distinction of "nearer" and "farther." They undoubtedly saw a need to separate the Biblical lands from the terrain of the Ottoman Empire. The Christians saw the country as the land of the Old and New Testaments, where Christianity had developed. The scholars in the field of studies that eventually became Biblical archaeology attempted to define it on the basis of archaeology.

Question: What remained popular in diplomatic, trade and journalistic circles?
Answer: "Near East"

Question: What variation soon developed among the scholars and the men of the cloth and their associates?
Answer: "the Nearer East,"

Question: There was a need to separate what from the terrain of the Ottoman Empire?
Answer: the Biblical lands

Question: What did the Christians see the country as?
Answer: the land of the Old and New Testaments

Question: How did the scholars attempt their definition? 
Answer: on the basis of archaeology
Title: Near_East

For example, The London Review of 1861 (Telford and Barber, unsigned) in reviewing several works by Rawlinson, Layard and others, defined themselves as making:

Question: When was the London Review?
Answer: 1861

Question: Rawlinson, Layard and others were reviewed in what?
Answer: The London Review of 1861

Question: Who wrote The London Review of 1861?
Answer: (Telford and Barber
Title: Near_East

The regions in their inventory were Assyria, Chaldea, Mesopotamia, Persia, Armenia, Egypt, Arabia, Syria, Palestine, Ethiopia, Caucasus, Libya, Anatolia and Abyssinia. Explicitly excluded is India. No mention is made of the Balkans.

Question: What region was explicitly excluded?
Answer: India

Question: What region has no mention?
Answer: the Balkans

Question: Assyria, Chaldea, Mesopotamia, Persia, Armenia, Egypt, Arabia, Syria, Palestine, Ethiopia, Caucasus, Libya, Anatolia, and Abyssinia were all what?
Answer: regions in their inventory
Title: Near_East

Hogarth then proceeds to say where and why in some detail, but no more mention is made of the classics. His analysis is geopolitical. His map delineates the Nearer East with regular lines as though surveyed. They include Iran, the Balkans, but not the Danube lands, Egypt, but not the rest of North Africa. Except for the Balkans, the region matches the later Middle East. It differs from the Ottoman Empire of the times in including Greece and Iran. Hogarth gives no evidence of being familiar with the contemporaneous initial concept of the Middle East.

Question: What does Hogarth say in detail?
Answer: where and why

Question: Hogarth makes no mention of what?
Answer: the classics

Question: How is Hogarth's analysis?
Answer: geopolitical
Title: Near_East

In the last years of the 19th century the term "Near East" acquired considerable disrepute in eyes of the English-speaking public as did the Ottoman Empire itself. The cause of the onus was the Hamidian Massacres of Armenians because they were Christians, but it seemed to spill over into the protracted conflicts of the Balkans. For a time, "Near East" meant primarily the Balkans. Robert Hichens' book The Near East (1913) is subtitled Dalmatia, Greece and Constantinople.

Question: When did the term "Near East" acquire considerable disrepute?
Answer: the 19th century

Question: The term "Near East" acquired considerable disrepute in whose eyes?
Answer: English-speaking public

Question: What was the cause of the onus?
Answer: the Hamidian Massacres of Armenians

Question: What was the cause of the Hamidian Massacres of Armenians?
Answer: they were Christians

Question: When was Robert Hickens' book wrote?
Answer: 1913)
Title: Near_East

The change is evident in the reports of influential British travellers to the Balkans. In 1894, Sir Henry Norman, 1st Baronet, a journalist, travelled to the Far East, afterwards writing a book called The Peoples and Politics of the Far East, which came out in 1895. By "Far East" he meant Siberia, China, Japan, Korea, Siam and Malaya. As the book was a big success, he was off to the Balkan states with his wife in 1896 to develop detail for a sequel, The People and Politics of the Near East, which Scribners planned to publish in 1897. Mrs. Norman, a writer herself, wrote glowing letters of the home and person of Mme. Zakki, "the wife of a Turkish cabinet minister," who, she said, was a cultivated woman living in a country home full of books. As for the natives of the Balkans, they were "a semi-civilized people."

Question: Reports from who made the change evident?
Answer: influential British travellers

Question: Where did Sir Henry Norman travel in 1894
Answer: the Far East

Question: What book did Sir Henry Norman write after traveling to the Far East?
Answer: The Peoples and Politics of the Far East

Question: What year did Sir Henry Norman's book come out? 
Answer: 1895
Title: Near_East

The book was never published. Instead the Normans whirled off to New York. Norman published the gist of his planned travel book curiously mixed with vituperation against the Ottoman Empire in an article in June, 1896, in Scribner's Magazine. The empire had descended from an enlightened civilization ruling over barbarians for their own good to something considerably less. The difference was the Hamidian Massacres, which were being conducted even as the couple traveled the Balkans. According to Norman now, the empire had been established by "the Moslem horde" from Asia, which was stopped by "intrepid Hungary." Furthermore, "Greece shook off the turbaned destroyer of her people" and so on. The Russians were suddenly liberators of oppressed Balkan states. Having portrayed the Armenians as revolutionaries in the name of freedom with the expectation of being rescued by the intervention of Christian Europe, he states "but her hope was vain." England had "turned her back." Norman concluded his exhortation with "In the Balkans one learns to hate the Turk." Norman made sure that Gladstone read the article. Prince Nicolas of Montenegro wrote a letter thanking him for his article.

Question: Where did the Normans go off to instead of publishing the book?
Answer: New York

Question: When did Norman publish parts of his planned travel book?
Answer: June, 1896

Question: What magazine did Norman publish his work in?
Answer: Scribner's Magazine

Question: Who were liberators of oppressed Balkan states?
Answer: The Russians

Question: Who did Norman say "turned her back"?
Answer: England
Title: Near_East

Throughout this article Norman uses "Near East" to mean the countries where "the eastern question" applied; that is, to all of the Balkans. The countries and regions mentioned are Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina (which was Moslem and needed, in his view, to be suppressed), Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Romania. The rest of the Ottoman domain is demoted to just "the east."

Question: What does Norman mean in the article when saying "Near East"?
Answer: the countries where "the eastern question" applied

Question: What is the rest of the Ottoman domain demoted to?
Answer: just "the east."

Question: "The East" refers to what?
Answer: The rest of the Ottoman domain
Title: Near_East

If Norman was apparently attempting to change British policy, it was perhaps William Miller (1864–1945), journalist and expert on the Near East, who did the most in that direction. In essence, he signed the death warrant, so to speak, of the Age of Empires. The fall of the Ottoman Empire ultimately enmeshed all the others as well. In the Travel and Politics in the Near East, 1898, Miller claimed to have made four trips to the Balkans, 1894, 1896, 1897 and 1898, and to be, in essence, an expert on "the Near East," by which he primarily meant the Balkans. Apart from the fact that he attended Oxford and played Rugby not many biographical details have been promulgated. He was in effect (whatever his formal associations if any) a point man of British near eastern intelligence.

Question: What was William Miller's life span?
Answer: 1864–1945

Question: What was William Miller an expert on?
Answer: the Near East

Question: So to speak, what did William Miller do?
Answer: signed the death warrant, so to speak, of the Age of Empires

Question: Where did Miller attend school?
Answer: Oxford
Title: Near_East

These were fighting words to be coming from a country that once insisted Europe needed Turkey and was willing to spill blood over it. For his authority Miller invokes the people, citing the "collective wisdom" of Europe, and introducing a concept to arise many times in the decades to follow under chilling circumstances:

Question: Miller's words were considered what?
Answer: fighting words

Question: It was considered Europe needed what country?
Answer: Turkey

Question: What was Miller citing?
Answer: the "collective wisdom" of Europe