Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 10.djvu/58

LEFT TTTRKEY 40 TURKEY tion of a new Parliament and a constitu- tional government was restored on July 23, 1908. Following the armistice in 1918, Turkey was practically under con- trol of the Allied Powers, especially Great Britain, although the Sultan had nominal rule. History. — The earliest notice of the Turks, or Turcomans, in history is about the year 800, when, issuing from various parts of Turkestan, they obtained posses- sion of a part of Armenia, called from them Turcomania. They afterward ex- tended their conquests over the adjacent parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe, oc- cupying Syria, Egypt, and eventually the territory that remained to the Greek empire. In 1453 Constantinople was taken by Mohammed II., and became the capital of the empire. The Morea and the islands were afterward overrun, with parts of Hungary, the Crimea, and the shores of the Black Sea. They next took the whole of the country now form- ing Turkey in Asia, the Hezja in Egypt, and the regencies of Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers. From the accession of Moham- med IV. in 1648, the Turkish empire began rapidly to decline, the vice and profligacy of the harem and seraglio being reflected in every branch of the state. The shelter given to Charles XII. of Sweden, in 1711, led to the first war with Russia, which must have ended in the ruin of that empire but for the cupidity of the grand-vizier, who ac- cepted a bribe to allow Peter the Great and his army to escape. From that time till 1774 the war with Russia was frequently renewed, and, by the peace of the latter year, a large ex- tent of territory and the Black Sea were ceded by the Porte to Russia. In the campaign of 1787 the Turks were still more unfortunate, and, though in 1789, under Selim III., they retook Belgrade, they were elsewhere defeated. In 1807 the Emperor Alexander declared war against the Porte, and in the campaign advanced his frontier to the Fruth by the conquest of Bessarabia; the next severe loss the Turks sustained was from the revolt of the Greeks and the sub- sequent independence of their country. In 1854 war was once more declared against Turkey by Russia, when Eng- land, France, and Sardinia joined the Porte to enable the Sultan to resist the threatened invasion of his dominions; the burning of the Turkish fleet off Sinope, the campaign on the Danube, the battles of Alma, Inkerman, Balak- lava, and the bombardment and capture of Sebastopol, were some of the results of the two years' war with Russia ; Tur- key, for the first time in nearly a cen- tury, sheathing the sword without the loss of a foot of territory. Subsequently, Turkey engaged in a war with the Mon- tenegrins, who sought to cast off her yoke; and, later, was concerned in sup- pressing revolutionary tendencies in the Danubian principalities. In 1875, an insurrection broke out in Herzegovina, and in October, Turkey declared her partial insolvency. In February, 1876, the six great Eu- ropean Powers proposed a scheme of reform which was largely accepted by the Sultan. On May 30 Sultan Abdul- Aziz was deposed. His nephew, Murad v., succeeded him, but was also deposed and followed, Aug. 31, by his brother, Abdul-Hamid II. On Jan. 18, 1877, the Grand Council of Turkey refused all in- terference by the European Powers and Russia declared war on April 21. Tur- key was badly beaten and an armistice was signed in February, 1878. The terms of the treaty of peace at San Stephano (March 3) were subsequently modified at the Congress of Berlin. On April 19, 1897, Turkey was forced by Greece to declare war. The war was short and ended in Turkey's favor on June 3, Greece agreeing to pay a war indemnity of $2,000,000. In 1898 Crete was taken in charge by the Great Powers and the island was handed over for government to Greece. In the first decade of the 20th cen- tury, Turkey seemed on the point of collapse. There were revolts in Arabia and conditions of anarchy prevailed in Albania and Macedonia. In the latter country conditions led to foreign inter- vention, and the Sultan, much against his will, acceded to new reform schemes, which, however, were never carried out. In the meantime, the public debt was in- creasing and the railways, mines, and banks were falling into the hands of the foreign capitalists. Just as Turkey ap- peared on the point of collapse, a move- ment for the rejuvenation of the country was started by a body called the Young Turks, who for many years had been working to bring about reform measures. On July 23, 1908, the central body, called the Committee of Union and Progress, headed by Enver Pasha, proclaimed the restoration of the constitution of 1876. An attack on Constantinople was threat- ened and the Sultan, greatly terrified, issued a decree restoring parliamentary government. Taking advantage of these disturbances, Austria, in October, 1908, annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina and at the same time Ferdinand of Bulgaria proclaimed the independence of that country. The new Turkish Government was obliged to agree. Albania became