with Austria and England, after she had once lost her opportunity of occupying Constantinople. For the blunders of Russian policy, Prince Gortchakoff undoubtedly divided the responsibility with some of his younger adherents, but his freedom from blame is by no means proved.

When the great German chancellor concluded the alliance with Austria on October 7, 1879, and shortly afterwards the Triple Alliance (1883), the far-sighted Sultan at once recognised that the welfare of his State was conditional solely upon the support of these most powerful influences for European peace. In 1879 the deposition of Ismaïl had indeed been unable to restore the old supremacy of the Porte; the Nile valley fell into the hands of Great Britain in 1882 (Vol. III, p. 719), and the conquest of the Soudan immediately followed; on May 12, 1881, and June 8, 1883, France also declared her protectorate of Tunis (Vol. IV, p. 253). However, the Sultan loyally observed the conditions of the Berlin Congress, and attempted to increase the prosperity of his empire by a series of innovations. In 1880 he forced the Albanian League to give in its submission and to cede Dulcigno to Montenegro. The statesmen, Midhat, Mahmud Damad, and Nuri Pasha, who had hitherto gone unpunished, were condemned to death on June 9, 1881, and banished to Arabia. With the help of German officials, the Sultan secured in 1881 a union with the orthodox and a financial reform of high benefit to the empire. The revenue was increased by the introduction of the tobacco régie in 1883. The State was, however, chiefly strengthened by the Sultan's invitation to German officers to remodel the organisation of the army (1880), and to elaborate a military law, which came into force in 1887. From that date, all men capable of bearing arms were forthwith assigned to a certain arm of the service, and on attaining their majority were placed under control and incorporated in troops of the line for training. In the officers' schools, which were conducted in Constantinople by the Freiherr von der Goltz from 1883 to 1895, the number of pupils rose from 4,000 to 14,000. In 1880 the old museum of antiquities was built in the Serai gardens (Chinili Kiosk), while the new museum was constructed in 1891. In 1891 the School of Art (école des beaux arts) was founded close at hand by Hamdi Bey, where, notwithstanding the prohibition of the Koran against the representation of the human countenance, more than one hundred and thirty young Turks were permanently instructed in painting, sculpture, and architectural design.

The Sultan displayed even greater wisdom in holding aloof from the disturbances between the Balkan States, though Russian dissatisfaction with her Slavonic protectorates gave him every excuse for armed interference, and though his action on this occasion was stigmatised as "weakness" by the Young Turkish party. Roumania was proclaimed a kingdom on March 26, 1881, as also was Servia on March 6, 1882. On April 29, 1879, the Bulgarian Sobranje had chosen Prince Alexander of Battenberg as ruler of the country. On May 9, 1881, he overthrew, the radical government and the influence of the agitators for a larger Bulgaria in Eastern Roumelia and Macedonia by means of a coup d'état; however, on September 19, 1883, he restored the constitution of Trnovo and undertook the government of Eastern Roumelia, much against the will of Russia, on September 20, 1885. Thereupon the jealous Servians declared war upon the Bulgarians (November 13). After one temporary success at the Dragoman Pass, King Milan was defeated by Prince Alexander on November 18 and 19, at Slivnitza and Pirot,

driven back upon Tzaribrod, and was spared in the peace of Bucharest (March 3, 1886), only at the request of Austria. The reckless financial policy of a rapid succession of such ministers as Garashanin, Ristič, Gru(j)ič, Christič, Taushanovič, Simič, etc., the agitation fomented by the radicals, the domestic quarrels in the royal family, the divorce (1888), and the abdication of King Milan in favour of his son Alexander I (1889), the latter's coup d'état (1893), and his marriage with Draga Maschin (1900), were events which gave the unhappy country neither peace nor justice. The rise of Bulgaria and its union with Eastern Roumelia on October 5, 1886, aroused the jealousy and the anger of the Czar and of the Panslavists. On the night of August 21 Prince Alexander was surprised in his konak and forced to abdicate; upon his return he was unable to make his peace with the Czar, and was definitely banished from the country on December 7, 1886 (died November 17, 1893). After the short regency of Stambuloff and the disturbance caused by the appearance of the Russian general Baron Kaulbars, the Sobranje chose Prince Ferdinand of Koburg-Koháry as their ruler. Notwithstanding the aloofness of the Sultan, the anger of the Czar, and the outrages of the Panslavists in the country, this prince maintained his position, married Princess Louise of Parma in 1893, and from 1896 brought up his son Boris in the faith of the orthodox church. After the murder of Stambouloff, the prince secured a reconciliation with the Czar, his recognition by the Sultan, and was able even in Macedonia to bring about the investiture of Bulgarian bishops. Bulgaria responded by remaining neutral until 1897. However, this fruitful country was continually disturbed by its superfluity of ambitious parliamentarians and professional politicians; only in the Macedonian question was the Bulgarian preponderance decided, and this through the dissension between the Serbs and the Greeks. However, Servia and Greece displayed an attitude of greater hostility, and consequently obliged the Porte to make counter preparations and burdensome loans from the Ottoman bank. In 1889 a decision of the courts transferred the Turkish railways from the hands of Baron Hirsch (p. 187) to the possession of the Porte. German influence also secured the construction of the Anatolian railway, which had been pushed as far as Angora and Konia in 1896, and which, when continued to the Persian Gulf, will greatly strengthen the strategical and economic power of Turkey, and increase her influence upon international trade. After the failure of the unceasing efforts of the German Commercial Company for Eastern Trade, founded 1881, the company, founded at Hamburg in 1889, of the Deutsche Levante Linie was able to issue combined tariffs for maritime and railway traffic, and thus successfully to resume commerce with the East.

Before, however, this decaying empire had been surrounded by the iron girdle of the railroad beyond Bagdad, it was shaken to its depths by two disastrous events, the Armenian revolt and the war in Thessaly. Paragraph 61 of the Treaty of Berlin had demanded protection from the rapacious officials, the Kurds, and Cherkesses, and reforms in the administration to help the oppressed people of the Armenians, who had shown excellent capacity for trade and manual labor. Thanks to the indolence and corruption of the authorities, these reforms were introduced with extreme slowness. In 1894 disturbances broke out in Sassun, and the cruelty with which they were suppressed immediately gave the signal for revolt in Trebizond, Gümishhane, Samsun, Agja Gune, and the Armenian vilayets; Turkish soldiers and Kurds were massacred with the connivance of the authorities.

The Armenians, entrenched in the mountains of Cilicia at Zeitun, sustained a formal siege for a long period, and from London, Athens, Paris, Geneva, and Tiflis Armenian agents carried the seeds of revolt into the distressed highlands of Upper Armenia and of the Taurus. These very towns in Western Europe served as refuges not only for the Armenian agents who were favoured by England, but also for their deadly enemies, the Young Turks, of whom France made occasional use to put pressure on the Porte. On September 30, 1895, certain Armenians gathered before the Sublime Porte, demanding reforms; on August 26, 1896, these Armenian conspirators surprised the Ottoman Bank, and after their liberation a massacre, apparently led by the soldiers and police, was begun upon the Armenians in the capital. When the powers protested against this bloodshed, the massacres were stopped and reforms were promised; but the Armenian question remained one of the pieces upon the political chessboard, while attention was soon diverted to North America, Eastern Asia, and South Africa. The Greek campaign proved more disastrous to the Christians than to the once forbearing Sultan. Two visits from the German emperor increased and strengthened the reputation of Abd ul-Hamid II, and made German influence supreme with the Porte.

In Crete it had proved impossible to appease the animosity between the Christians and Turks, notwithstanding their common descent, and the breach of the convention of Halepa (1878) and the imposition of a constitution which limited their freedom (1889) led to a bloody revolt; this movement was increased from 1886 by the hopes of the incorporation of the island with the mother country, notwithstanding the blockade of the Greek harbours by the powers. On a fresh outburst of hostilities in 1896-1897 the Greek Colonel Vassos, with two thousand men, occupied Platania in Crete on February 15, 1897, and took possession of the island in the name of King George. The governor, George Berovitch Pasha, left Crete. The powers protested against this violation of international law, bombarded the rebels from their ships, and blockaded the island. When Greece declined to withdraw her troops, upon an ultimatum from the powers, the Porte declared war on April 17, 1897. The Turkish army advanced into Thessaly under Edhem Pasha, and defeated the Greek army, which was badly disciplined and organised, under the crown prince of Greece, Constantine, at Turnavos, Larissa, Phersala (Pharsalos), Domokos, and in Epirus. On May 19 an armistice was arranged by the intervention of the powers, and a peace was concluded at Constantinople on September 17, 1897, under the terms of which Greece lost certain frontier districts on the north of Thessaly, and undertook to pay a war indemnity of four million pounds Turkish, or seventy-five million marks. The heaviest punishment inflicted upon Greece was the control of the finances imposed at the proposal of Germany, as the Germans had been the chief sufferers from the financial crisis. withdrew her troops from Crete, and the island received complete independence under the suzerainty of the Sultan; Prince George of Greece was appointed as governor. In 1893 Greece at length completed the canal through the Isthmus of Corinth. She has not yet pushed forward her railway system to a junction with the more developed system of the Balkan States, but is now advancing towards a more prosperous development.

This short campaign had proved that the efforts of German instructors to improve the organisation, the training, mobilisation, leadership, and discipline of the Turkish troops had borne good fruit. Thus Turkey reached the close of the

century. Vambéry, Adolf Wahrmund, and Von der Goltz have prophesied a new life and power for the Osman State under certain conditions. From the intellectual renaissance in the best men of the nation, they anticipate a revival of the powers dormant in the country and a gradual replacing of Asiatic by European ideas, a reconciliation between Mohammedanism and Christianity, and the development of a modus vivendi for these two great religions. In view of the inexhaustible and in many cases highly gifted population of Asia, the protection of the empire, now limited to its own frontiers, is guaranteed by the organisation of the empire and the construction of railways and telegraphs. The weak spot in Turkey is the Bosphorus, which is unfortified on the land side, though the Dardanelles are strongly fortified. The source of all Turkish evils is to be found in the incapacity of the executive; the extensive spy system, which destroys all confidence; the lack of check upon the State expenditure; the permanent condition of insolvency which is only concealed by forced loans and reductions of the salaries of officials; the miserable condition of the population; the dishonourable taxation which is the natural consequence, and especially the autocracy of the Sultan, who has, with great shortsightedness, reduced the position of Grand Vizier to a shadow. The Arab Caliphate must come to some compromise with the Osman Sultanate. The centre of gravity in the Turkish Empire need not necessarily be looked for in the military force at Constantinople; much rather should it be found in a body of reliable crown advisers and capable officials. The pessimism of the Young Turkish party will remain justified until the ruler of the faithful is wise enough to abolish the seraglio government of his court favourites, and to intrust the administration to competent Europeans working side by side with capable Turkish officials. The Panislamite movement, represented by the secret society of the S(e)nussi (Vol. IV, p. 254), whose fiery ideas excite the populations of Asia and Africa, will never be dangerous, if the Christian missions are able to work against it by those deeds of mercy which alone impress the Moslem. It is not the verse of the third Sura of the Koran which is to decide the question, " Ye believers, form no friendship with those who are not of your religion," but rather the verse of the second Sura, "God is the East, God is the West. He leads all who will in the true path."

THE recent struggles for freedom on the part of the Armenians in Turkey, Russia, and Persia, which have been suppressed in blood and tears, can only be understood from an historical point of view. It was the fury of the Mohammedans and the aggressions of marauding Kurds which first turned the attention of Europe to the importance of this remarkable branch of the Indo-Germanic family of nations and of the Christian faith. Yet this little people, numbering about three million souls, can look back like the Greeks upon a great literature and history. It was at a comparatively late date that the foremost members of

the Armenian nation acquired some knowledge of this glorious past; the knowledge opened their eyes to the humiliation in which their citizens had existed for centuries. In Greece, during the nineteenth century, the war of liberation preceded the intellectual and moral renaissance, and it was not until the rise of the free kingdom of Hellas that a visible advance was made in the department of art and science; whereas Armenia can boast of no political freedom worthy of mention, nor is it likely that the Armenians will ever secure any constitutional independence and self-government within any district, however small, for the reason that they are far too widely scattered throughout Asia and Europe (see map facing page 203). At the same time, their reviving consciousness of a bygone unity in politics, literature, and above all in religion, has produced an intellectual solidarity which has its importance for the historian in view of the lack of a sharply defined geographical boundary. It was not until the close of the eighteenth century that the educated classes among the Armenians became conscious once again of the fact that they had their rights to an existence worthy of human beings, and corresponding in its main outlines to the civic life of other European nations. They could at least pride themselves upon three things, their possession of which can no longer be disputed: in the first place, upon the glorious history of a kingdom formerly united; secondly, upon the wide developments, both ecclesiastical and theological, of the Christian doctrine by which they tenaciously maintained and defended the monophysite dogma when once they had embraced it (p. 43; cf. also Vol. IV, p. 208); and, thirdly, upon their physical and intellectual connection. with the civilization of Western Europe.

The area within which this history of fame and suffering ran its course is included in the three provinces of Armenia Major, Armenia Minor, and Cicilian Armenia. To the population of this area we must add the Armenians of the Dispersion, who from ancient times have migrated into Asia Minor, Persia, Caucasus, Russia, Syria, Egypt, the Balkans, even to Poland, Galicia, Hungary, and Italy. Their chief primeval habitation has, however, always been Armenia proper, the central source of supply for which was the district at the sources of the Euphrates and Tigris, and of the Rion, Kur, and Araxes, in a wild but fruitful district of woods, meadows, gardens, and vineyards; while its central point was in the lofty mountains of Ararat and Alagoez, and its boundaries in the lakes of Van, Urmia, the Black and Caspian Seas, and the Caucasus. "No traveller will ever forget the effect," writes Max Friederichsen, "which is produced by the greatest of the giant mountains of the Armenian highlands, the twin peaks of Ararat, when seen for the first time, purple in the light of the setting sun." The impression made by the whole system of these volcanoes is enormously increased by their isolation and the great difference in elevation between the lowlands of the Araxes, which are but 800 metres in height, and the lofty peak of Mount Ararat, which is 5,211 metres. This relative difference in height of 4,400 metres is unparalleled throughout the world, except in east Africa, and may materially have contributed to secure the biblical reputation of Ararat as the mountain of the ark. At this point, on the boundary of three kingdoms, Turkey, Persia, and Russia, rises also the national sanctuary of the Armenia Etshmiadsin (to the west of Erivan).

The Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions of Van have, so recently as 1891 and 1898, thanks to the investigations of Wald. Belck and Friedr. Lehmann, given us more accurate information concerning the pre-Armenian empire of Urart(h)u, the