Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/133

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The history of Greece from the fall of Constantinople to the present day suggests a problem of profound historic interest. From the year 1453 till the end of the 18th century almost all the occasions on which the Greek people appear on the page of the historian are occasions on which we read of them that they were butchered or sold into slavery. Records tell only of their annihilation or disper sion. Yet in the commencement of the 19th century this apparently annihilated and dispersed people can summon energy enough to resist the Turks, and although in all pro bability they would have failed to overcome their oppres sors if they had been compelled to struggle unaided, yet the courage and self-devotion which they showed in the conflict were such as to gain for them the sympathies of Europe, and they came forth triumphant. But in reading even of their war for independence we are astonished that a remnant was left. Thousands upon thousands perished, and their victory seemed only less terrible than utter defeat. Yet the spirit of life remained. The kingdom of Greece was established, and within forty years, notwithstanding deplorable mistakes in its management, the population is doubled, and the country becomes consolidated into a con stitutional realm. To trace how these events were possible and how they actually came to pass is the task of the historian of Modern Greece.

The external events in this history are necessarily few. Greece was during the most of these centuries under the sway of foreigners, and the external history of Greece is formed merely by episodes in the history of these foreigners. When Mahomet II. became master of Constantinople, he did not thereby become master of the Greek empire. The Pakeologi had held only a small portion of the territory which had constituted the Greek empire. Most of the islands of the ^Egean were under the rule of Italian princes who acted as independent rulers. Rhodes was governed by the knights of St John. But especially the Venetians owned large possessions in Greece and were also powerful by ssa. The external history of Greece is occupied mainly with the efforts of Mahomet II. and his successors to spread their conquests. Mahomet himself conquered the kingdoms of Trebiznncl, Albania, Eubiea, Greece proper, and part of the Peloponnesus. He was also successful in expeditions against several of the islands of the ^Egean, but he failed in his attack on Rhodes. It was not till the end of 1522 that the knights of St John capitulated to Suleiman I. after standing a siege in which they showed the greatest bravery, and in which the Ottomans, it is said, lost about 100,000 men. On the 1st of January the knights left the island, to go first to Crete and then to Malta. Cyprus and Crete remained still longer in the hands of the Westerns. In 1489 Catherine Cornara ceded the island of Cyprus to the Venetians, who retainei possession of it till, in 1570, Piali and Lala Mustipha attacked it. Nikosia fell in September 1570, and Famagosta in August 1571, after a brave defence conducted by Marcantonio Bragadino. The Turks received a severe defeat at Lepanto from Don Juan d Austria in command of the combined fleets of Spain and Italy, in which they lost 130 ships and 30.000 men. But the blow was merely temporary. The helpers of Venice were no! united among themselves. Again the Turks became the rulers of the vEgean Sea, and in 1573 Venice had to conclude a humiliating treaty in which she gave up Cyprus. In the case of Crete Venice had to pay for her own severity. That island remained for a long time undisturbed in the possession of the queen of the seas, as far as the Ottomans were concerned. But internal commotions agitated it, The Sphakiots or mountaineers of the south west of Crete a bold, brave, and independent race of men rebelled against the rule of the Westerns; and the Venetians had recourse to the most shameful cruelties and atrocities on all their Greek subjects in order to crush the rebellious spirit. The result was that the Greeks hated the Venetians with the bitterest hatred, and would have gladly welcomed a change to the rule of the Turks. The Venetians saw that they had gone too far, and sent a wise politician, Giacomo Foscarini, to bring matters to a better state. Many prudent reforms were inaugurated, the Sphakiots were reconciled, and all seemed to promise well. But Foscarini died before his reforms got firm hold of the people. The Sphakiots indeed from that day to this have never submitted to the Turkish yoke, but the rest of the people were far from willing subjects of the Venetians and favoured an invasion by the Turks. The Turks knew their opportunity, and began an effort to possess the island which, though the I Venetians resisted with great perseverance and were backed by other Italians and by the French, ended in the treaty of 6th September 1669, in which they ceded Crete to the Turks. This last acquisition rendered the whole of Greece subject to the Turks with the exception of the Ionian and a few other small islands, which still remained in the hands of the Venetians. The Venetians, however, did not resign their hold on Greece without a final effort to recover possession of it. For this purpose they not only levied soldiers from their own and other Italian communities, but also hired generals and soldiers from Germany. The war began in 1689. The management of it was en trusted to one of the greatest men whom Venice produced, Francesco Morosini, who was ably assisted by a Swedish general, Konigsmark. The contest was carried on with great vigour until at length the Turks were driven from the Peloponnesus. The Venetians wished also to regain possession of Euboea, but in this they were unsuccessful. The war was brought to an end by the peace of Carlowitz, which left Venice in possession of the Peloponnesus, and the islands of ^Egina and Santa Maura. One incident in this war has especially attracted the attention of the civilized world. Morosini, finding his efforts successful in the Morea, resolved to advance towards Euboea. Athens lay in his way. It was garrisoned by the Turks, who, however, on his approach quitted the lower city and, occupying the Acropolis, prepared to defend it at all hazards. They planted one of their batteries in a breach of the temple of Nike Apteros, and they placed a portion of their powder and many of their valuables in the Parthenon. The Venetians showed no respect for the most beautiful of all buildings; and one of their bombs, falling on the powder in the Parthenon, blew many of the masterpieces of art into a thousand fragments, and utterly defaced the noble building which had remained up till that time very nearly in the condition hi which the original architect and sculptor had left it. The Venetians tried to introduce reforms into the Peloponnesus, and had marls considerable progress when in 1715 AH Kumurgi, at the head of a very large Ottoman army, entered the Peloponnesus. The Venetians were unprepared, and they could not easily get assistance from others. The con sequence was that in a very short time Kumurgi drove them out of the whole of the peninsula. The Turks got involved at this time in war with Austria ; and when peace was finally concluded at Passarowitz, Venice had to give up the Morea as well as the island of ^Egina, and practically she dis appears from the history of Greece except as the possessor of Santa Maura. But a great change had now begun to take place in European politics. At an early period after the capture of Constantinople the Turks came into collision with their neighbours on the north, the empires of Austria and Russia, and we find these two powers united in resisting the inroads of the Ottomans. Even so late as 1683 the Turks were so bold as to advance as far as Vienna and lay 