Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/74

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62 TURKEY Pasha and others, the Turco-Egyptian fleet was destroyed by the English, French, and Russian squadrons at Navarino, Oct. 20, 1827. Hostili ties virtually ceased in 1829. Greece achieve( her independence, and after a victory by ttu Russians under Diebitsch, who had crossed the Balkan, the treaty of Adrianople, Sept. 14 1829, restored peace between Russia and Tur- key. In 1832 began the contest of the Porte with Mehemet Ali, the viceroy of Egypt. The sultan was repeatedly defeated, and the strug- gle was not ended at the time of his death (1839), and only a year after the accession of his son Abdul-Medjid, through the interven- tion of England and her allies in behalf of the Porte, whose admission into the political sys- tem of European states was for the first time officially conceded by the treaties of July 15, 1840, and July 14, 1841. The integrity of Turkey became a cardinal principle of Euro- pean diplomacy, and was strengthened by the coalition of England, France, and Sardinia with Turkey in the Crimean war (1853-'5), which resulted in the discomfiture of Russia, and the neutralization of the Black sea by the treaty of Paris (1856). A French army and an Eng- lish fleet again interfered in 1860 to terminate the conflict between the Druses and Maronites, after fearful massacres of Christians at Da- mascus and in the Lebanon, and great loss of life on both sides. The reign of Abdul-Medjid was also troubled by conflicts with Montene- gro, and a rising in Herzegovina. He died June 25, 1861, and was succeeded by his bro- ther Abdul- Aziz. In December of the same year the Danubian principalities were permanently united under the name of Roumania, and in 1866 Charles I. of the house of Hohenzollern was elected hereditary prince. A Cretan in- surrection broke out in the same year, and led to serious collisions with Greece, which were finally terminated by a conference of the great powers at Paris, Jan. 9, 1869. In the mean time Servia had taken advantage of these com- plications to obtain (1867) the independence of all her fortresses ; while Egypt, after codpor- ating with Turkey in Crete, made extravagant pretensions which would have resulted in war but for the influence of foreign powers. The Franco-German war (1870-71) impaired the prestige of the Forte's steadiest ally, and enabled Russia to recover her former vantage ground in the East by insisting npon a modifi- cation of the treaty of Paris of 1856 (November, 1870), and its provisions which had neutralized the Black sea ports and other articles restrict- ing Russia were abrogated by a conference in London, January, 1871. The grand vizier Aali 1-asha died in the same year, and Fuad Pasha having died two years before, Abdul-Aziz was deprived of his most influential advisers. Af- ter vain attempts to check the ambition of hgypt, the sultan finally granted (June 1873) important privileges to the present khedive, Ismail Pasha, making him almost an absolute ruler. In July, 1875, the Turkish port of Zei- TURKEY BUZZARD lah,. in the gulf of Aden, was added to Egypt, bringing the entire African coast of the Red sea under her domination. In November the khe- dive transferred all his shares in the Suez ca- nal to England, without apparently asking the consent of the Porte or any other government. In the summer of 1875 an insurrection broke out in Herzegovina, and in October Turkey declared her partial insolvency. Other grave complications threatening a dismemberment of the empire, the six powers who had signed the treaty of Paris of 1856 proposed a scheme of reforms in February, 1876, which the sul- tan mainly accepted ; but the insurgents, re- fused to lay down their arms, and his situation became more and more critical, and was great- ly aggravated by the opposition of the Turkish fanatics to Christian equal rights, and the massacre of the French and German consuls at Salonica in May. A conference at Berlin between Russia, Austria, and Germany contem- plated more exacting terms for the protection of the Christians and restoration of tranquillity, but England took no part in it. The adver- saries of Abdul- Aziz, prominent among whom were the softas, comprising about 20,000 stu- dents in Constantinople, who were alienated by his alleged subserviency to Russia, his refusal to restore his spoils (which were afterward con- fiscated), and his attempted change of the order of succession, brought about his deposition on May 30, and the accession of his nephew as Amurath V., who on June 4 announced his pre- decessor's alleged suicide. The new sultan is beset by formidable financial and other diffi- culties. Herzegovina is s^ill in revolt (June, 1876) ; Servia, Montenegro, and Bosnia main- tain a threatening attitude ; and Bulgaria and other provinces are disaffected. But the Eu- ropean powers, and especially England in her antagonism to Russia, strive to prevent the dismemberment of Turkey, although the gen- eral confidence in the stability of Ottoman domination over Christian communities has never since the conquest of Constantinople been so low as now. See ffeschichte des os- manischen Reich*, by Haramer-Purgstall (10 vols., Pesth, 1827-'84) ; " History of the Otto- man Empire," by E. Upham (2 vols., Edin : >urgh, 1829) ; Geschichte des osmanischen Reiclis in JEuropa, by Zinkeisen (7 vols., Gotha, 1840- 63) ; VAsie Mineure, by P. Tchihatcheff (8 vols., Paris, 1853-'69); "The Turkish Em- pire," by E. Joy Morris (Philadelphia, 1854) ; Vutoire de la Turquie, by Lamartine (0 vols.. 3 aris, 1854) ; " History of the Ottoman Turks," by E. S. Creasy (2 vols., London, 1854) ; Ge- chichte der Turlcei neuester Zeit, by Rosen, 2 vols., Leipsic, 1866-'7) ; fitudes historigues ur les populations cJiretiennes de la Turquie d 1 Europe, by Ubicini (Paris, 1867); "Modern Turkey," by J. Lewis Farley (London, 1872) ; md Der Islam im neumehnten Jahrhundert, V Vambery (Leipsic, 1875). TfBKEY BUZZARD, the popular name of one f the common American vultures, cathartes