Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/679

Rh GEOGRAPHY.] TURKEY 653 PART II. GEOGRAPHY AND STATISTICS. Plate VI. Turkey, or the Ottoman empire (Osmanli Vilaieti], embraces extensive territories in south-eastern Europe, western Asia, and northern Africa, grouped mainly round the eastern waters of the Mediterranean, and along both sides of the Red Sea, the west coast of the Persian Gulf, and the southern and western shores of the Black Sea. These territories form an aggregate of provinces and states, some under the direct control of the sultan, some enjoying a large share of political autonomy, some practically independ ent, either administered by foreign powers or ruled by hereditary vassals or tributary princes. The present (1887) extent of the Ottoman empire is about 1,692,150 square miles, and its popula tion 42,346,000. EUROPEAN TURKEY. Bound- Since the Russo-Turkish War of 1878 (see above), the extremely aries. irregular frontiers of European Turkey are conterminous with Greece in the south, and in the north with Montenegro, Austria, Servia, and Roumania, being separated from the last country partly by the Danube, partly by a conventional line drawn from Silistria on that river to Mangalia on the Black Sea. By the Berlin congress Roumania and Servia, hitherto vassal states, were made absolutely independent kingdoms, Roumania at the same time receiving the district of Dobrudja between the lower Danube and the Black Sea, and Servia those of Nish and Leskovatz about the upper Morava river. Montenegro was also recognized as an independ ent principality, with an increase of territory, which gave it a sea frontier limited southwards by the river Boyana, and including the Albanian ports of Dulcigno and Autivari on the Adriatic. The Greco-Turkish frontier was also shifted north, Greece obtaining most of Thessaly and a strip of Epirus (south Albania), so that since 1881 the border line runs from near Mount Olympus on the Gulf of Saloniki (40 N. lat.) west to the Pindus range, then south west to the Gulf of Arta on the Ionian Sea. A still more serious step was taken towards disintegration by the withdrawal of Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia from the immediate jurisdiction of the Sub lime Porte. The former was constituted a tributary principality, with representative institutions, and Eastern Roumelia was erected into an autonomous province, both under the guarantee of the European powers. But in 1885 the latter province declared for union with Bulgaria, and since then these two territories have practically formed one state administered from Sophia, Europe assenting and Turkey consenting (imperial firman of 6th April 1886) on the retrocession to Turkey of the Moslem districts of Kirjali and the Rhodope. In the year 1878 Austria occupied and assumed the civil administration of the north-western provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, besides taking military possession of the contiguous strategical district of Area and Novi-Bazar. The direct possessions of the sultan have thus been popula- reduced in Europe to a strip of territory stretching continuously tion. across the Balkan Peninsula from the Bosphorus to the Adriatic (29 10 to 19 20 E. long.), and lying in the east mainly between 40 and 42 and in the west between 39 and 43 N. lat. It corre sponds roughly to ancient Thrace, Macedonia with Chalcidice, Epirus, and a large part of Illyria, constituting the present administrative divisions of Stambul (Constantinople, including a small strip of the opposite Asiatic coast), Edirneh (Adrianople), Saloniki with Kosovo (Macedonia), Janina (parts of Epirus and Thessaly), Shkodra (Scutari or upper Albania). To these must be added the Turkish islands in the jEgean usually reckoned to Europe, that is, Thasos, Samothrace, Imbros, and, in the extreme south, Crete or Candia, with estimated (1887) areas and populations as under : Physical geo graphy. Provinces. Area in Square Miles. Population. So also the just completed (1887) census for the Erzeroum vilayet gives 583,000, or 998,000 including the territory ceded to Russia in 1878, which is 45,000 higher than Mr Redhouse s estimate. Constantinople 1,100 12,800 32,000 14,000 13,000 3,800 1,200;000 560,000 1,900,000 1,440,000 390,000 230,000 Adrianople Natural Divisions. Provinces. Area in Square Miles. Population. Saloniki and Kosovo Janina Scutari Candia and other islands Asia Minor Armenia and Kurdistan Mesopotamia Syria and Palestine Arabia fBroussawith Bigaand Ismid Aidin (Smyrna) 32,000 23,000 21,000 27,000 39,000 16,000 26,000 12,000 40,000 38,000 100,000 31,000 46,000 35,000 200,000 (?) 1,700 210 3,670 1,900,000 1,610,000 1,260,000 860,000 1,280,000 470,000 1,770,000 1,010,000 ( 583,000 1 1,000,000 560,000 4,750,000 1,085,000 1,450,000 ( 1,560,000 J. 450,000 ( 390,000 j 720,000 t 830,000 525,000 41,000 235,000 Immediate possessions 76,700 24,300 14,000 23,570 5,720,000 2,008,000 975,000 1,504,000 J Angora i Konieh I Adana Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Novi-Bazar, occupied ^Trebizond Total European Turkey since 1878 . . Dobrudja, ceded to Roumania f E d V 138,570 10,207,000 ( Diarbekr with Aziz ( Baghdad 4,200 4,250 2,000 2,000 150,000 367,000 116,000 100,000 (?) Nish and Leskovatz, ceded to Servia ( Basra with El-Hasa Dulcigno, &c., ceded to Montenegro (Aleppo .... Parts of Thessaly and Epirus, ceded to Greece Total European Turkey before 1878. . Damascus ) Lebanon &amp;gt; 151,020 10,940,000 Jerusalem j f Heiaz ) For detailed accounts of the physical features, climate, fauna, and lora of these regions, the reader is referred to the articles ALBANIA, BOSNIA, BULGARIA, CONSTANTINOPLE, EPIHUS, HERZEGOVINA, MACEDONIA, and THRACE. Here it will suffice to remark in a general way that the territory still directly administered from ( Yemen ) Archipelago Samos Cyprus Total Asiatic Turkey 691,580 24,339,000 Stambul comprises one of the most favoured regions of the temperate zone. The extensive igneous and rnetamorphic system of the Great Balkans and Rhodope (Despoto-Dagh), culminating in the Bilo Dagh (9000 feet), interspersed in the Pindus range farther west by Permian formations of unknown age, and succeeded in the extreme east (both sides of the Bosphorus) by Lower Devonian sandstones and some more recent volcanic rocks, is pierced by the four rich alluvial valleys of the Maritza, Kara-su or &quot;Blackwater,&quot; Struma (Strymon), and Vardar. These rivers, flowing in nearly parallel south-easterly courses to the jEgean, collect most of the drainage of Roumelia, as Thrace and Macedonia are commonly called by the Turks. The whole region thus enjoys a somewhat southerly aspect, sheltered from the north by the lofty crests of the Rilo Dagh ami northern Pindus, and in every way admirably suited for the culti vation of most cereals, as well as of cotton, tobacco, madder, the mulberry, the vine, and fruits. Here maize yields such a bountiful harvest that, although originally introduced from America, it has long been regarded as indigenous, and for the Italians is simply the Turkish corn (&quot;gran turco &quot;) in a pre-eminent sense. The inhabit ants also, Greeks intermingled with Turks in the east, with Bul garians in the west, are intelligent and industrious, noted for their skill in the manufacture of carpets and other woven goods, of saddlery, arms, and jewellery. ASIATIC TURKEY. The mainstay of the Ottoman dynasty is the Asiatic portion of the Bound- empire, where the Mohammedan religion is absolutely predominant, aries. and where the naturally vigorous and robust Turki race forms in Asia Minor a compact mass of many millions, far outnumbering any other single ethnical element and probably equalling all taken collectively. Here also, with the unimportant exception of the islands of Samos and Cyprus and the somewhat privileged district of Lebanon, all the Turkish possessions constitute vilayets directly controlled by the Porte. They comprise the geographically distinct regions of the Anatolian plateau (Asia Minor), the Armenian and Kurdish highlands, the Mesopotamia!! lowlands, the hilly and partly mountainous territory of Syria and Palestine, and the coast- lands of west and north-east Arabia. The changes caused by the Russo-Turkish War of 1878 were the cession to Persia of the little district of Kotur on the eastern frontier and to Russia of the districts of Ears and Batoum on the north-east frontier, while to England were conceded the military occupation and administration of Cyprus. Asiatic Turkey is conterminous on the east with Russia and Persia ; in the south-west it encloses on the west, north, and north-east the independent part of Arabia. Towards Egypt the frontier is a conventional line drawn from Akabah at the head of the Gulf of Akabah north-westwards to the little port of El Arish on the Mediterranean. Elsewhere Asiatic Turkey enjoys the ad vantage of a sea frontage, being washed in the north-west and west by the Euxine, JEgean, and Mediterranean, in the south-west by the Red Sea, and in the south-east by the Persian Gulf. The above enumerated five natural divisions of Asiatic Turkey are divided for administrative purposes into about twenty vilayets, which, however, have been and still are subject to considerable fluctuations. The subjoined grouping, with areas and populations, Area and is based mainly on data lately communicated confidentially to the popula- British Government by Mr Redhouse. His estimates of population tion. have been strikingly confirmed by the official returns that have for the first time just been made for certain provinces in Asia Minor and the Armenian highlands. Thus the census of the Trebizond vila yet, completed in 1886, gave a total of 1,010,000, which differs only by 7000 from Mr Redhouse s estimate for 1878 (1,017,000).
 * Sivas with Janik