288 A. D. REMOVED FROM THE MAP OF EUROPE. Ch. 24 these powers with discontented parties at home; it could not inspire the slowly-moving machine of government with vigor, 1794 when the humblest partisan, corrupted with foreign money, to could arrest it with a word; it could not avert the entrance of 1832. foreign armies to support the factious and rebellious; it could not uphold, in a divided country, the national independence against the combined effects of foreign and domestic treason; finally, it could not effect impossibilities, nor turn aside the destroying sword which had so long impended over it." The blotting out of Poland, as an independent State, from the map of Europe, was fully accomplished in the year 1832, when it was incorporated into the great Empire of Russia. REFERENCES.-Fletcher's "History of Poland;" Rulhière's "Histoire de l'Anarchie de Pologne;" Coyer's "Vie de Sobieski;" Parthenay's "History of Augustus II.;" Hordynski's "History of the late Polish Revolution." Also see Lives of Frederic II., Maria Theresa, and Catharine II.; contemporaneous histories of Prussia, Russia, and Austria; Alison's "History of Europe;" Smyth's "Lectures;" Russell's "Modern Europe;" and Heeren's "Modern History." THE MOHAMMEDAN POWER. 289 CHAPTER XXV. RISE AND DECLINE OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. A. D. WHILE the great monarchies of Western Europe were Ch.25 struggling for pre-eminence, and were developing resources greater than had ever before been exhibited since the fall 900 of the Roman Empire, that power, which had alarmed and astonished Christendom in the sixteenth and seventeenth 950. centuries, began to show signs of weakness and decay. to Rise of power. Nothing, in the history of society, is more marvellous than Mohamthe rise of Mohammedan kingdoms. The victories of the medan Saracens were rapid and complete. In the tenth century they were the most successful warriors on the globe; they had planted the standard of the Prophet on the walls of Eastern capitals, and had extended their conquests to India on the east, and to Spain on the west. Powerful Mohammedan States had arisen in Asia, Africa, and Europe, and the Crusaders alone arrested the progress of these triumphant armies. The enthusiasm which the doctrines of Mohammed kindled Dis mem cenic cannot easily be explained; but it was fresh, impetuous, berment and self-sacrificing. Successive armies of Mohammedan in- of the vaders overwhelmed the ancient realms of civilization, and Sarareduced the people whom they conquered and converted to Empire. a despotic yoke. But success enervated the victors; and the great Empire of the Caliphs in the East was broken up. Mohammed perpetuated a religion, but not an Empire. Diferent Saracenic chieftains revolted from the "Father of the Faithful," and established separate kingdoms, or viceroyalties, nearly independent of the acknowledged successors of 290 RISE OF THE TURKS. Ch. 25 Mohammed. As early as the the tenth century the Saracenic Empire was dismembered; and the Sultans of Egypt, Spain, 950 and Syria then contested for pre-eminence. A. D. to of the But a new power arose on the ruins of the Saracen Empire, 1055. which was destined to become the enthusiastic defender of the religion of Islam. When Bagdad was the seat of a powerOrigin ful monarchy, the Turks were an obscure tribe of barbarians. Turks. Their origin has been traced to the wilds of Scythia, but they early deserted their native forests in search of more fruitful regions. When, about the ninth century, Apulia and Sicily were subdued by the Norman pirates, a swarm of these Scythian shepherds settled in Armenia, and, by their valor and simplicity, soon became a powerful tribe. Not long after they were settled in their new abode, the Sultan of Persia invoked their aid to assist him in his wars against the Caliph of Bagdad, his great rival. The Turks complied with his request, and their arms were successful. The Sultan then refused to part with such useful auxiliaries, and, fearing their strength, resolved to shut them up in the centre of his dominions, and to employ them in his wars against the Hindoos. The Turkmans rebelled, withdrew into a mountainous part of the country, became robbers, and devastated the adjacent countries. Their con quests. The band of robbers gradually swelled into a powerful army, gained a great victory over the troops of the Sultan Mohammed, and, in the year 1038, placed their chieftain upon the Persian throne. According to Gibbon, the new Monarch was chosen by lot; and Seljuk having the fortune to win the prize of conquest, became the founder of the dynasty of the Shepherd Kings. During the reign of his grandson, Togrul, the ancient Persian princes were expelled, and the Turks embraced the religion of the conquered. In 1055 the Turkish Sultan delivered the Caliph of Bagdad from the arms of the Caliph of Egypt, who disputed with him the title of Commander of the Faithful. For this service he was magnificently rewarded by the grateful successor of TURKISH CONQUESTS. 291 A. D. the Prophet, who, at that time, banqueted in his palace at Ch.25 Bagdad-a venerable phantom of power. The victorious Sultan was publicly commissioned as Lieutenant of the 1055 Caliph, and he was virtually seated on the throne of the Ab- to bassides. Shortly after, the Turkish conqueror invaded the 1402. falling empire of the Greeks, and its Asiatic provinces were irretrievably lost. In the latter part of the eleventh century the Turkish Masters power was established in Asia Minor, and Jerusalem itself Minor of Asia had fallen into the hands of the Sultan. He exacted two and Jerusa pieces of gold from every pilgrim, and treated Christians lem. with greater cruelty than the Saracens had ever done. The extortion and oppression of the Turkish masters of the Sacred City led to the Crusades, which terminated with the final possession of Western Asia by the followers of the Prophet. At last, the Seljukian dynasty, like that of the Abbassides at Bagdad, ran out, and Othman, a soldier of Othfortune, became Sultan of the Turks. He is regarded as the founder of the Ottoman Empire; and under his reign, succesfrom 1299 to 1326, the Moslems made rapid strides in sors. their course of aggrandizement. man and his Urkhan, his son, instituted the force of the Janizaries, completed the conquest of Bithynia, and laid the foundation. of Turkish power in Europe. Under his successor, Amurath I., Adrianople became the capital of the Ottoman Empire, and the rival of Constantinople. Bajazet succeeded Amurath, and his conquests extended from the Euphrates to the Danube. In 1396 he defeated, at Nicopolis, a confederate army of one hundred thousand Christians; and, in the intoxication of victory, declared that he would feed his horse with a bushel of oats on the altar of St. Peter, at Rome. Had it not been for the victories of Tamerlane, Constantinople, which contained within its walls the feeble fragments of a great empire, would also have fallen into his hands. He was, however, unsuccessful in his war with the great conqueror of Asia, vity of and, in the year 1402, was defeated at the Battle of Angora, Bajazet Capti 202 PROGRESS OF THE TURKS. Ch. 25 taken captive, and carried to Samarcand, by Tamerlane, in an A. D. 1402 to iron cage. The great Bajazet died in captivity, and Mohammed I. succeeded to his throne. He restored, on a firmer basis, 1500. the fabric of the Ottoman monarchy, and devoted himself to the arts of peace. His successor, Amurath II., continued hostilities with the Greeks, and laid siege to Constantinople. This magnificent city, the last monument of Roman greatness, was not able to offer any lengthened resistance to the Turkish Fall of armis. In the year 1453, it fell before an irresistible force of three hundred thousand men, supported by a fleet of nople. three hundred sail. The Emperor Constantine Palæologus was slain, the city was sacked, the people were enslaved, and the Church of St. Sophia, despoiled of the oblations of ages, was converted into a Mohammedan mosque. One hundred and twenty thousand manuscripts perished in the sack of Constantinople, and the palaces and treasure of the Greeks were transferred to semi-barbarians. Constanti of the Turks. From that time the Byzantine capital became the seat of the Ottoman Empire; and, for more than two centuries, Turkish armies excited the fears and disturbed the peace Power of the world. They gradually subdued and annexed Macedonia, the Peloponnesus, Epirus, Bulgaria, Servia, Bosnia, Armenia, Cyprus, Syria, Egypt, India, Tunis, Algiers, Media, Mesopotamia, and a part of Hungary, to the dominions of the Sultan. In the sixteenth century the Ottoman Empire was the most powerful in the world. Nor shall we be surprised at the great success of the Turks, when we remember their singular bravery, their absorbing ambition, their almost incredible obedience to the commands of the Sultan, and the unity which pervaded the national councils. They also fought to extend their religion, to which they were blind devotees. After the capture of Constantinople, a succession of great princes sat on the most absolute throne known in modern times; men disgraced by many crimes, but still singularly adapted to the position they occupied. |