TURKEY'S LOST FEATHERS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 304, 19 December 1908, Page 4

TURKEY'S LOST FEATHERS

THE SULTAN ONCE OWNED NEARLY HALF EUROPE. The "Terrible Turk," who may be taken as typifying the Empire of the Sultans, holds one record at least, which he is not likely to be deprived of. He lias won and lost more territory than any other nation. There was a time when the Sultan was the bugbear of the world. Even little children in England shook in their shoes when they heard his name mentioned, and those people who lived anywhere near him dared aiot call their lives their own. Hut at last the tide turned. The' Turk began to lose, and one great misfortune followed another. Spain was the first big bit of the Turkish Empire to break free. The Moors, who were subject and paid tribute to the «Sultan, were driven from province after province, until at length they were cooped up in the solitaiy Kingdom of Granada. The last Moorish king to reign in Spain was Roabdil-el-Cliaco, or Boabdil the Unlucky. In 1482 Ferdinand and Isabella, the King and Queen of Arragon and Castile, declared war on him, and in 1402 he had to surrender everything.

'Hungary, which now forms half of the dual monarchy of the Emperor Francis Joseph, was a province of the Sultan for a hundred and fifty years. Then it was lorn from him by the sword. After this came the turn of the Tsars. The Russians, whom he once despised, have been the Turk's worst enemies. They have either robbed him themselves or encouraged others to rob him. ll'eter the Great set the example, but was not, on the whole, very successful in his wars against the Moslems. At one time the Turks could have captured anil massacred Peter and his army, but were frustrated .by the slave girl Catherine, whom Peter had married. Catherine the Great tore the Crimea

from the unhappy Turk, together with thousands of square miles of territory along tin- shores of this Caspian. In 1821 the Greeks, who hail been slaves of tin- Sultans for many centuries, rose in'rebellion ami drove the Turks out of the country. But the-.i the Greek leaders began to quarrel anion;? theniselves anil civil war followed. The Turk took the opportunity (» seize the country once more. But the. massacres and other honors which followed aroused Kurope. Jn 1527

the Turkish licet was destroyed at Xuvarino. The combined Heels of Britain, France, and ]in«s,ia took part in this operation. 'ln 1828 Greece was acknowledged as a free anil independent kingdom, with a king of its own. for nearly a century Kgypt. which the Turk conquered iii lUI. has been jpart of the Sultan's empire in little more than name, and since ISS2. when we occupied I'hiii'iiiili's cotinti v. after Arabi I'asha's rebellion, the Turk has had >practically nothing to do with Kgypt

The 'Moorish corsairs who had their lair hi the. pirate city of Algiers acknowledged the Sultan as their suzerain, but were defiantly independent as regarded all the rest of the world. 1 Their swift-sailing dhows preyed on the commerce of all Kurope, and, from start to finish, they seized many thousands of white captives, some of whom they ransomed, while others they doomed to slavery.

.When asked to keep his piratical subjects in order, the Sultan declared himself helpless to do anything. The freebooters went on doing as they liked for a long time. Then France became weary of patience, and forcibly took possession of the city in 18J10. Since then she has annexed 307.950, square wiles of Algerian territory once

subject to the Sultan. Then came the | Turk's worst time. Russia made war on him, and the Balkan States, which had been held as provinces by Turkey for hundreds of years, revolted, Hew to arms, and did everything they could on the side of Russia. Had the Tsar been left to himself the Turkish Umpire would have been practically destroyed. The other great Powers, however, were afraid to see ■Russia too powerful. They insisted on summoning the Congress of Berlin. By the terms of the Treaty of Berlin, the Turk was almost swept out of ■Europe. Bosnia a iicl Herzegovina were handed over to Austria to keep in order. Rouiniiuiii, Serviu, and Montenegro were declared absolutely independent of him. Bulgaria was created into a principality, nominally under the Sultan's suzerain, but in reality free. And now Austria has annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina.