Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/429

 CONCLUSION. 411 are that the Eastern Church had refused to accept the suprem- acy of the pope; that Constantinople was taken by the Cru- saders; that her popuhition was powerless to prevent the cap- ture of the city in 1453 by the Ottoman Turks. The facts that are forgotten are that if the Turks were unable to find a footing in Europe until one hundred and fifty years after 1204, it was because the Eastern empire had made so gallant a resistance during a like period before 1204 ; that she received a fatal blow from the huge expedition called the Fourth Cru- sade, but that, recovering for a while from this blow, she was yet able, unaided, to prolong the struggle long enough to pour forth a stream of learning and literature over the West ; and that the time gained while she kept back the Turks greatly dimin- ished their strength, delayed their arrival in Europe, and en- abled the West to grow strong enough to resist the Ottoman Turks when, two centuries after they had made good their hold upon Europe, they attained the period of their greatest strength, barely more than two centuries ago. That John Sobieski was able to drive back the Turks who were besiesrinir Vienna in 1683 was due to the fact that the Eastern empire had sacri- ficed itself as the vanguard of Europe. Nor must it be forgotten that the resistance of the empire had had a great effect upon the Seljukian Turks. The ter- rible blows inflicted on them had diminished their strength. They had already begun to show signs of weakness. Dur- ing the latter years of the century Chengiz Khan, the great leader of a Tartar tribe which had adopted the name of Mon- gol,^ had commenced his terrible career, and the attention of the Turks was, in 1204, already turned away from the empire to that of the more serious danger which threatened them in their rear. The capture of Constantinople by the Western Crusaders enabled the Turks to survive that danger. Had the empire not been destroyed there is good reason to believe that it would have shortly recovered its strength, have con- ^The soldiers of Chengiz Khan repudiated the name Tartars as that of a people they had conquered, and called themselvcs Mongols. Not- withstanding the repudiation, they were of Tartar origin.— Osborn's "Is- lam under the Khalifs of Baghdad," p. 372.