Chapter VI: “The Terrible Turk”

The Greek Empire at Constantinople.—The invading Mohammedans.—The
Ottoman Turks.—The fall of Constantinople.—The enslaving of the
Bulgars, Serbs, Greeks, Albanians, and Roumanians.—One little
part of Serbia unconquered.—The further conquests of the
Turks.—The attack on Vienna.—John Sobieski to the rescue.—The
waning of the Turkish empire.—The Spanish Jews.—The jumble of
languages and peoples in southeastern Europe.

In the last chapter, we referred briefly to the Greek empire at
Constantinople. This city was originally called Byzantium, and
was a flourishing Greek commercial center six hundred years
before Christ. Eleven hundred years after this, a Roman emperor
named Constantine decided that he liked Byzantium better than
Rome. Accordingly, he moved the capital of the empire to the
Greek city, and renamed it Constantinopolis (the word _polis_
means “city” in Greek). Before long, we find the Roman empire
divided into two parts, the capital of one at Rome, of the other
at Constantinople. This eastern government was continued by the
Greeks nearly one thousand years after the government of the
western empire had been seized by the invading Germanic tribes.

For years, this Greek empire at Constantinople had been obliged
to fight hard against the Mohammedans who came swarming across
the fertile plains of Mesopotamia (mĕs′ō pō tā′ mĭ ā) and
Asia Minor. (Mesopotamia is the district lying between the Tigris
(tī′grĭs) and Euphrates (ūfrā′tēz) Rivers. Its name in Greek
means “between the rivers.”) The fiercest of the Mohammedan
tribes, the warlike Ottoman Turks, were the last to arrive. For
several years, they thundered at the gates of Constantinople,
while the Greek Empire grew feebler and feebler.

At last in 1453, their great cannon made a breach in the walls,
and the Turks poured through. The Greek Empire was a thing of the
past, and all of southeastern Europe lay at the mercy of the
invading Moslems (another name for “Mohammedans”). The Turks did
not drive out the Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbians, and Albanians,
but settled down among them as the ruling, military class. They
strove to force these peoples to give up Christianity and turn
Mohammedans, but were successful only in the case of the
Skipetars of Albania. The Albanians, Serbians, Bulgarians,
Greeks, and Roumanians remained where they had been, but were
oppressed by the newcomers.

For more than two hundred years after the capture of
Constantinople, the Turks pushed their conquests farther and
farther into Europe. The entire coast of the Black Sea fell into
their hands. All of Greece, all of Bulgaria, and all of Roumania
became part of their empire. Of the kingdom of Serbia, one small
province remained unconquered. Up in the mountains near the coast
of the Adriatic gathered the people of one county of the Serbian
kingdom. As the Turks attacked them, they retreated higher and
higher up the mountain sides and rolled huge stones down upon the
invaders. Finally, the Turk became disgusted, and concluded that
“the game was not worth the candle.” Thus the little nation of
Montenegro was formed, composed of Serbians who never submitted
to the Ottoman rule. (The inhabitants of this small country call
it Tzernagorah (tzẽr nä gō′ra); the Italians call it
Montenegro. Both of these names mean “Dark Mountain.”)

Not satisfied with these conquests, the Turks pushed on, gaining
control of the greater part of the kingdom of Hungary. About
1682, they were pounding at the forts around Vienna. The heroic
king of Poland, John Sobieski (sō bĭ ĕs′kĭ), came to the
rescue of the Austrian emperor with an army of Poles and Germans
and completely defeated the Turks. He saved Vienna, and ended any
further advance of the Turkish rule into Europe. (The map on page
82 shows the high water mark of the Turkish conquests.)

It must be remembered that the original inhabitants of the
conquered lands were still living where they always had lived.
The Turks were very few in number compared with the millions of
people who inhabited their empire and paid them tribute. Many
wars were caused by this conquest, but it was two hundred and
thirty years before the Christian peoples won back their
territory.

By the year 1685, the Hungarians had begun to win back part of
their kingdom. By 1698, almost all of Hungary and Transylvania
was free from Turkish rule. It will be recalled that a certain
Count of Hapsburg had become Emperor of Germany, and when we say
Germany, we include Austria, which had become the home of the
Hapsburgs. It was shortly after this that the Hapsburg family
came to be lords of Hungary also, through the marriage of one of
their emperors with the only daughter of the king of that
country. (See page 69.)

In this way, when the province of Bukowina and the territory
known as the Banat, just north of the Danube and west of what is
now Roumania, were reconquered from the Turks, it was the joint
kingdom to which they were attached. (Bukowina has never been a
part of Hungary. It is still a crown land, or county subject to
the emperor of Austria personally.)

During the 15th century, the southeastern part of Europe came to
be inhabited by a still different people. Not long after
Ferdinand and Isabella, the king and queen of Spain, had
conquered the Moorish kingdom of Granada (see Chapter II) that
used to stretch across the southern half of Spain, the Spaniards
decided to drive out of their country all “unbelievers,” that is,
all who were not Christians of the Catholic faith. (This happened
in 1492, the same year that they sent Columbus to America.) The
Moors retreated into Africa, which was their former home, but the
millions of Spanish Jews had no homeland to which to return. In
the midst of their distress, the Sultan of Turkey, knowing them
to be prosperous and well-behaved citizens, invited them to enter
his land. They did so by hundreds of thousands.

The descendants of these people are to be found today throughout
the Balkan peninsula, though mainly in the large cities. They are
so numerous in Constantinople that four newspapers are published
there in the Spanish language, but printed in Hebrew characters.
The city of Salonika, a prosperous seaport of 140,000 people,
which used to belong to Turkey but now is part of Greece, has
over 50,000 of these Jews. They readily learn other tongues, and
many of them can talk in four or five languages besides their
native Spanish, which they still use in the family circle.

Constantinople (called Stamboul by the Turks) is a polyglot city,
that is, a place of many languages. Greeks, Turks, Armenians,
Jews, Italians are all found mingled together.

The main source of trouble in the Balkan peninsula is that the
races and nationalities are so jumbled together that it is almost
impossible to say which land should belong to which nation. Take
the case of Macedonia (the district just northwest of the Aegean
Sea). It is inhabited largely by Bulgarians, and yet there are so
many Greeks and Serbs mixed in with the former that at the close
of the last Balkan war in 1913, Greece and Serbia both claimed it
as belonging to them because of the “prevailing nationality of
its inhabitants!” In other words, the Serbians claimed that the
inhabitants of Macedonia were largely Serbs, the Greeks were
positive that its people were largely Greeks, while Bulgaria is
very resentful today because the land was not given to her, on
the ground that almost all its inhabitants are Bulgarians!

Religious and racial hatreds have had a great deal to do with
making the Balkan peninsula a hotbed of political trouble. Right
in the center of Bulgaria, for example, speaking the same
language, dressing exactly alike, doing business with each other
on an equal footing, are to be found the native Bulgarian and the
descendant of the Turkish conquerors; yet one goes to the Greek
Orthodox Church to worship and the other to the Mohammedan
Mosque. With memories of hundreds of years of wrong and
oppression behind them, Bulgarians and Turks hate and despise
each other with a fierce intensity. Let us now leave the Balkan
states, with their seething pot of racial and religious hatred,
and turn to other causes of European wars.

Questions for Review

What became of the Greeks when the Turks captured
Constantinople?

Why could one county of Serbia resist the Turks?

How long after the fall of Constantinople were the Turks
threatening Vienna?

Explain how Constantinople has people of so many different
nationalities.

Why have the Turk and Bulgarian never been friendly?