Hamid II., succeeded to the throne. In July, 1896, Servia and Montenegro declared war against the Porte. Before the end of the year the Servians were utterly defeated, in spite of the help of many Russian volunteers. The state of affairs in the Turkish provinces seemed to call for a conference of the Great Powers at Constantinople. The proposals then made for the better government of the Christian subjects of Turkey were rejected by the Grand Council of the Turkish Empire. Simultaneously, however, with the assembly of the conference the Turkish Government had taken the extraordinary step of bestowing a parliamentary constitution on the Ottoman Empire. The Parliament assembled in March, 1877, but this ostensible remodeling of the political fabric of the Empire did not get beyond its incipiency. Russia took it upon herself to enforce on Turkey the demands made by the Powers, and on April 24, 1877, declared war. (See Russo-Turkish War.) The Turks made a brave stand, but at last succumbed, and at the close of January, 1878, the Russians were almost before the walls of Constantinople. The Treaty of San Stefano was signed on March 3d, but the European Powers intervened and readjusted the whole Eastern question at the Congress of Berlin, Russia being forced to content herself with a much less radical disruption of the Turkish Empire in Europe than she had sought to bring about. See Berlin, Congress of. For a few years under the settlement effected at Berlin, there was comparative quiet in the Ottoman dominions, although in 1883, in consequence of disturbances in Egypt, and the bad condition of the finances in that province, Great Britain established a control there which practically nullified what little was left of the Ottoman sovereignty. Following on a revolutionary movement at Philippopolis in September, 1885, the Prince of Bulgaria proclaimed the annexation of Eastern Rumelia, and after a decade the Porte was compelled to recognize the change which thus deprived it of its fairest province. In 1895-96 there were massacres of tens of thousands of Armenian Christians, which were connived at by the local officials of the Ottoman Government. The protests of Europe were of no avail, because Abdul-Hamid knew well how to play off the Powers against one another so as to prevent interference of an effective kind. A rising of the Christians against the Mohammedans in Crete (q.v.) followed in 1896, and was the signal for the outbreak of long-repressed hostilities in Greece, which recklessly entered upon war with Turkey in April, 1897. The campaign of a few weeks showed the utter futility of the Greek preparations. (See Greece.) Greece was forced to sue for peace, the terms of which provided for the payment to the Ottoman Government of an indemnity of $18,000,000, and the rectification of the Greco-Turkish frontier in favor of Turkey. Meanwhile Crete was taken in charge by Great Britain, Russia, France, and Italy, and a settlement was finally made in 1898 by which the suzerainty of Turkey was renewed, but the island was given an autonomous government for three years, its executive head being Prince George of Greece, as high commissioner of the four Powers. This settlement was renewed indefinitely upon its expiration in December, 1901. (See Crete.) The peoples of ancient Macedonia have long been restive under Turkish control, and in 1903 there were bloody conflicts and massacres over a large territory. The rivalry of Bulgaria and Greece and the influence of the Great Powers have made a successful revolt difficult.
Bibliography. Lejean, Ethnographie de la Turquie d'Europe (Gotha, 1861); Reclus, Géographie universelle, vol. i. (Paris, 1876); Von Samo, Die Völker des osmanischen Reiches (Vienna, 1876); Clark, The Races of European Turkey (Edinburgh, 1878); Geary, Asiatic Turkey (London, 1878); Keene, The Turks in India (ib., 1879); Isambert, Grèce et Turquie d'Europe (Paris, 1881); Lozer, Turkish Armenia and Eastern Asia Minor (London, 1881); Vámbéry, Das Türkenvolk (Leipzig, 1885); Ramsay, Historical Geography of Asia Minor (London, 1890); Garnett, The Women of Turkey and Their folklore (ib., 1890-91); Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie: Geographie administrative (Paris, 1891-98); Georgiadès, La Turquie actuelle (ib., 1892); Knight, Where Three Empires Meet (London, 1893); Latimer, Russia and Turkey in the Nineteenth Century (Chicago, 1893); Salmoné, The Fall and Resurrection of Turkey (London, 1896); Macoll, The Sultan and the Powers (ib., 1896); Lunay, Chez les Grecs de Turquie (Paris, 1897); Lobel, Hochzeitsgebräuche in der Türkei (Amsterdam, 1897); Steevens, With the Conquering Turk (London, 1897); Ramsay, Impressions of Turkey During Twelve Years' Wanderings (New York, 1897); Kaunenberg, Kleinasiens Naturschätze (Berlin, 1897); Bérard, La Turquie et l'Hellenisme contemporain (Paris, 1897); Davey, The Sultan and His Subjects (London, 1897); Fazy, Les Turcs d'aujourd'hui (Paris, 1898); La Barre de Nanteuil, L'Orient et l'Europe depuis le XVIIème siècle (ib., 1898); Bernard, Turquie d'Europe et Turquie d'Asie (Paris, 1899); Kaudor, Reisebilder aus Persien, Turkestan und der Türkei (Breslau, 1900); Percy, The Highlands of Asiatic Turkey (ib., 1901); Creasy, History of the Ottoman Turks (London and New York, 1877); Freeman, The Ottoman Power in Europe, Its Nature, Its Growth, and Its Decline (ib., 1877); Von Hammer-Purgstall, Geschichte des osmanischen Reichs (10 vols., Pesth, 1827-35, containing a great body of documents; a second revised edition, without the documents, 4 vols., Pesth, 1836), the standard authority; Zinkeisen, Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches in Europa (7 vols., Gotha, 1840-63), another standard work, better than Hammer for the general reader; Lane Poole, Story of Turkey (New York, 1888); Rosen, Geschichte der Türkei neuester Zeit (2 vols., Leipzig, 1866-67); Hecquard, La Turquie sous Abdoul Hamid II. (Paris, 1901); Seignobos, Political History of Europe Since 1814, translated by Maevane (New York, 1900).
TURKEY (abbreviation of Turkey-cock, Turkey-hen, so called as being supposed to come from Turkey, vaguely applied to Tartary or Asia in general). The turkeys are natives of North and Central America, and the only two species known are the common wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) with three subspecies and the beautiful Yucatan turkey (Meleagris ocellatus). They were once regarded as a distinct family, but are now considered the sole American representatives of the Phasianidæ. The wild turkey is like the domesticated one, but more brightly colored. The ocellated turkey of Central America is a smaller
