THE MEDITERRANEAN IN HISTORY.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 110, 19 November 1915, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE MEDITERRANEAN IN HISTORY.

The Mediterranean, the sea Loted above ail otners ior the beauty and lascination ot its snores and .elands, tho largest of all inland seas, is aim, by lai the most famous historically, none other having played so briiiiunv a part in the history of mankind. To the writers of sacred story, the sea on which the splendid argosies >t ancient Tyre traded to the limits of the known world was the " Great Sea, for to them the greater seas which we call oceans were practically unknown. To the apostle Paul, who crossed it so many times, the Mediterranean was "The Sea," for no other was of importance in comparison with it. And in modern times, looking back over many centuries from his view-point in the eighteenth, Dr. Johnson summed up ita glory and man's indebtedness thus: —" The grand object of travelling js to see the chores of the Mediterranean. On these shores were the four great empires ot the world —the Assyrian, the Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman. All our religion, almost all our law, almost all our arte, almost all that sets us above savages, has come from the shores of the Mediterranean. On or near these shores, in truth, are to be found tho scenes of all the greatest events in sacred and classic history, for the Mediterranean, as its name implies, was in the very heart and middle of the earth in the days when civilisation was confined to South-Western Asia, South-Eaetern Europe, and Northern Africa. For ages the known world was essentially the "W r orld of Mediterranean." On its borders nations prospered and advanced, while away from it were to be found generally only ancient decayed civilisations or backward, more or less primitive tribes not yet stimulated to mental activity or inspired by corporate ideals. "Like frogs a: ,und a swamp, so have we settled down on the shores of this sea," 6aid Plato; and so it was.

TYRE, SIDON, AND CARTHAGE. In the earliest times of which we have definite knowledge, Tyre and Sidon, in the Eastern Mediterranean, were great cities of the Phoenicians, the most enterprising and wealthy traders of ancient days. Phoenician merchant adventurers were probably the first people to sail beyond the Pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar Rock and

that of Ceuta on tho African side), and trade with uncivilised Britain and Gaul, and islands far away to the north. Along the coast of Northern Africa they had founded colonies—Carthage the most famous and splendid—and they and the ancient Greeks, their great rivals, had established themselves on all the borders of the great sea, and on its many beautiful islands.. In the meantime Rome had been founded by the union of two or three settlements, and gradually (during about 300 years 8.C.) by conquest it grew from a dominant city into ■• great Empire, including all tlio .Mediterranean lands, European, Asiatic, and African, all the civilised world ot the day. To the Romans the Mediterranean became "-Mare Nootruni, our sea, lor no other people could claim supremacy aloug a-iy part of its shores, iiven when the old Woman Empire crumbled to pieces, during the nltn to the eighth centuries, ana new States arose in which had been the iwids 01 Central and \\ ostern Europe, the .Mediterranean lost none ot its lmporcmcc as the world's chief sea. Later the Crusaders helped to maintain its supremacy by the impetus they gave to trade with the East. The growing demand for Oriental produce which tho Crusaders had introduced to their home countries led to the opening up of many new land routes, European and Asiatic, and as all these terminated on tne Mediterranean, its cit.es retained the monody of the world's commerce. Venice, which has played a great part in the business ot transporting the soldiers of the Cross to the Holy Land, became a chief ccutre for the distribution of Eastern produce through Western Europe, and in time rose to be not only tho •'Queen of the Adriatic," but one 01 tho greatest maritime rowers of the Middle Ages, Genoa being the next in importance of the Italian maritime States.

THE MIDDLE SEAS "DECLINE."

The last decade of the 15th century saw the beginning of the end of tho Mediterranean's pro-emincnce. Portu. gal, anxious to find a sea route, to tho Ea6t for trade purposes, sent Vasco da Gama round the Cape of Good Hope, which Diaz (also a Portuguese) uaa discovered in 1486, to 6eareh for such, and he reached India in U97. Meanwhile, Columbus, working for Spam and thinking that Portugal was not taking tho best way to attain what was the great ambition of both countries, started boldly westward to find India, and 60 discovered a new world. The changes brought about by these discoveries were among the greatest ever known, and their effects were very far-reaching. Tho chief trading enterprise of Europe was gradually transferred from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, and Western Asia and Italy, which had been the great intermediaries between tho Orient and the West, lost their international importance. Their day waa passing to sunset, and tho new day of the States of Western Europe was dawning. Other factors contributed to llic change. The Ottoman Turks had swept into Eastern Europe, and their inquest of Constantinople (1153) and gradual annexation of the Balkan Peninsula and ifcland«\. Syria, and Egypt

—all the Eastern Mediterranean lands —brought a blight upon these couuuus. At the sa-jj t.»i.j the Reformation was breaking up the old religious tyranny in Western, Central, and Northern Europe; the Revival of Leaning widened the whole held ol thought and knowledge, and taught them how to use tnese powers to advantage; and the Continental States that remained unaffected by the utionian conquests or threats of conquest awakened to a new and vigor jus nte. Spain and Portugal, France, the Netherlands, and England rose rapidly as maritime Powere, and lor supremacy. Sea-trade was exi-jndud to Guinea, India, and Brazil along Atlantic routes, and it is interesting to note that, to lessen England's dependence on foreign vessels, Henry VIII. gave special encouragement to shipbuilding, and brought the English Navy into being in the 16th century. Thus trade and power marched west. ward. New centres—Lisbon, Cadiz, Bordeaux, Nantes, Amsterdam, .London, Bristol—arose as time passed in connection with the new routes. The difficult and dangerous land routes tlirough Western Asa to the Orient were abandoned, and the Mediterranean, instead of being, as it had for so long been, the world's main thoroughfare, became a sort of cul de sac, leading only to its own ports. The old proud supremacy of the "Great Sea" was a thing of the past.

THE UNIMPORTANCE OF "GIB."

It was significant that the capture of Gibraltar for Britain, in 1704, was regarded as of no mportance whatever, and Sir George Rooke was displaced for having failed in other attacks which now appear as trifling compared with his splendid achievement at the old Pillars of Hercules. Gibraltar has proved an invaluable possession to us, giving command of the entrance to the Mediterranean, helping to protect our trade therein, serving as an outfitting and sheltering port for our warships when necessary and a coaling station for these and for our merchant and ships in modern times. But this is a digression, and has carried us beyond the point as regards Mediterranean history.

With the discovery of new lands and new routes came the extension of European empires by the acquisition of possessions abroad, and throug.t this, together with the great commercial and social progress which accompanied it, the new maritime Powers soon left the old States of Continental Europe far behind. Then followed an era of struggle for

colonial supremacy, in which Spain and Portugal were soon superseded, and Britain finally won the first place, holding sway over the newest land of ihe New AVorld and the oldest civilisations of the Old.

THE SUEZ ROUTE. As commercial and political reiat ; on3 with the East grew more and more important attention was focusseJ •ncreaslngly on the <( odd miles of Lv.d -the istnmus of Suez —which separated the navigable waters of the Eastern Mediterranean from those of the Red Sea, thus preventing a direct sea communication by the shortest route witn Oriental countres. In 1837 an attempt was made to overcome this natural disadvantage by the construction of a road from Alexandria through Cairo to Suez, the original "overland route." This solved the difficulty for passenger traffic, bringing Bombay 5000 miles or more nearer to England as compared With tho Capo route, but it was too expensive tor merchandise. Napoleon had termed the project ot a ship canal durlnii his Egyptian campaign, receiving an idea winch had been frequently considered m ancient and mediaeval times, Out his deleat prevented turther developments. >ot until ltfoG was tho present canal begun, and la years were requ.red tor tne undertaking. In itioy tne Suez Canal was opened tor navigation, and the land harrier which had made the Mediterranean a blind alley, as tar as shipping was concerned, was thus swept away. Once more tho world-importance ol the Great Sea of the Ancients was acknowledged, for again as in the past, it became a great highway, the most expeditious, and the most interesting route to the luxuriant East." But its beautiful cit'es and never again claim tho monopoly of world-commerce that they retained for long centuries. Civilisation and comerce have spread in the meantime to the utermost parts of the earth, and the days when men and nations nourished only on the shores of the Mediterranean belong to tho remoto past.