Bilgiler > 6 Mart 1878 Gazetesinde Osmanlı Tarihi Özeti
6 Mart 1878 Gazetesinde Osmanlı Tarihi Özeti
Osmanlı Tarihi: http://temelelektronik.info/de...ad/06031978.pdf
Rus Tarihi: http://temelelektronik.info/de...ad/13031978.pdf
orjinal Kaynak: https://nyshistoricnewspapers....-06/ed-1/seq-2/
İlgili dersi veren hoca'nın biyografisi: https://books.google.com.tr/bo...storian&f=false
İNGİLİZCE TAM METİN
THE CRESCENT
The Ottoman Power in Europe
Rev. Dr. Storrs First Lecture Upon the Ottoman and the Muscovite- Their Long Duel- The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire- Causes of its Prosperity and its Decadence – An Outline of Turkish History
THE LECTURE
Ladies and Gentlemen- I thank you sincerely and profoundly for your most cordial greeting, and I will do whatever I may in the discussion this evening not to reward it or to deserve it, but to acknowledge your kindness. The subject is a large one, and I know that at the end of our discussion I will think of many things that I wished I had said, but which will be passed over in the speed of thought, as we pass from point to point. We have become accustomed during the past twenty-five years to the frequent, almost constant reverberations of great wars from Europe. Up to 25 years ago it seemed as though the long era of peace which had lasted so long might go on continuously for many years longer. After the battle of Waterloo there were almost 40 years of profound peace, broken only by the war between Russia in 1829-which was brought to a close on August 28, 1829, by the peace of Adrianople- and the insurrectionary crackling of 1848-9. In 1853, on the 3rd of July, the Russian army crossed the Pruth, and then came the war between Russia on one side and England, France, Turkey and Sardinia on the other, which centered in the Crimea, and which came to an end by the peace of Paris in March, 1856. It then looked as though there might be another long interval of peace, but instead of that there has been a constant succession of wars ringing in our ears. Look at the wars that have occurred since that date. The war between England and the revolted Sepoys in India. The war of the same power in Abyssinia. The bloody and apparently fruitless war of Garabaldi, in Italy, the war of France and Sardinia against Austria in the same country, in 1859; the Schleswig-Holstein war in 1864, our own great civil conflict, the war between Austria and Prussia in 1866 and the war of United Germany, under the leadership of Prussia, against France, in 1870. And now again we have recently been listening for many months to the accounts of the great war between Russia and Turkey. So we have had in Europe an almost uninterrupted struggle for over twenty-five years, and although the treaty which has just been transmitted to the Czar at St. Petersburg may still the conflict for a time, yet the probabilities are that a permanent peace will not be established, and that it will yet a long time before the doors under the arch of Janus will be permanently closed. These wars have been intently watched in this country to see what would be the influence they would exert upon the fortunes of mankind and the advancement of civilization and of liberal and enlightened influences among the people of the earth. The war that, apparently, has just closed has excited a great deal of interest in this country and has been closely watched with considerable vacillation of feeling as it has progressed. At first, no doubt, the general feeling in this country was against Turkey, the “unspeakable Turk” as Carlyle has called him, and there was a general sentiment that his expulsion from Europe was a punishment all too small for his atrocious character, as shown forth in the bloody and cruel massacres in which he has been concerned, and for the barbarities which he has inflicted upon one of the fairest portions of the earth. But as the war progressed and his resources were developed, and defeat and suffering awarded all his efforts, there grew up a sort of passive sympathy. He was shown to be the weaker party, and our sympathy naturally went out toward him because of that fact. Then he fought with great bravery not only in the open, but even better behind intrenchments, and showed himself to be possessed of those soldierly qualities of bravery and endurance which command the respect and admiration of all, and how after all his terrible struggles he is forced to humble himself before the conqueror and accept the most humiliating conditions of peace. We heard, therefore, with gladness the news that the British fleet had sailed up the Bosphorus, and although we had a high regard for the Russian power, as exemplified by Alexander I. , a man worthy of all honor [applause], still there was a feeling that perhaps, after all, he was too intent on territorial aggrandizement and the extension of his own power at the expense of the interests of other nations, and therefore it was well that the conflict should be concluded. There was at least throughout the country a revolt against the horror and disgust which was at first accorded to Turkey in this country.
I AM NOT A PARTISAN OF EITHER POWER
But would sketch this evening the events which have led up to these results. But to interpret rightly the causes which have produced the present condition of affairs we must turn to the records of history and see what has gone before and what were the occurrences that have produced these results. Such is the proper method to study history, and thus can we gather the influences which have led to the fruitage of the present, A man standing upon the brink of the whirlpool at Niagara, and watching the whirl and tumult of the waters might think that ere long they would run themselves out, and that ere long the supply would cease or the sun dry up the flood, or that it would run itself away to the sea. But when he knows the secret of the four great lakes that lie behind the whirlpool and behind the fall, when he understands the problem of those great bodies of water which comprise fully one-half the fresh water of the planet, and knows that they are pouring their united floods through that hell of waters, he will realize that no matter how swift the rush of the waters, the supply will never run dry, and then the mystery of the whirlpool and its violence is a mystery no longer. I think that we must read history in the same way. The events behind the present must be studied if we would comprehend the results we see before us. We must go behind Plevna and Varna and Shipka pass; we must go behind Andrassy note and Berlin memorandum and London protocol; behind the Crimean war and preceding struggles, and thus get at the meaning of the events of today, and ascertain that this is not a recent struggle, and that the slopes of centuries have been tracked with the rushing currents that have gathered in the seething bloody whirlpool that we have witnessed during the past few months. We will realize that this is not a struggle of emperors, nor merely of one nation against another, but that it is a struggle of races and religions. We will see that while the conflict might have been stayed off for a time by diplomatic arrangements, still it was a struggle that must come, and that it will not cease until it is brought to a conclusion that is satisfactory to Russia, and to the powers of Central Europe, and thus is our investigations will show us that previous events and influences gathered from many sources have been converging to this point, as the Mohawk and the Hudson converge and flow to the sea.
We must take the subject up and consider it from different standpoints, and first, therefore, comes the consideration of .
THE THEATRE OF THE WAR
We say that it comprises the old Byzantine empire in Europe, but we do not realize from that description what the country really is, and does not show that the different provinces of the empire are classic ground. All of the provinces of modern Turkey were known in the classic history under other names. Romania was the ancient Dacia which was settled by the Latins and Thrace and Macedonia and Thessaly formed parts of the Grecian confederation. Parts of the country were conquered by the Romans before the Christian era, and old Dacia was colonized by Trajan and fortified, and the present inhabitants are descendants of those old Latin colonies. After the fall of the Empire in the Fifth Century, these provinces remained under the dominion of the Eastern emperors. They were then small principalities and have so continued under the Greek emperors. The country covers about 200,000 square miles. You see it is not large; but it is not extent that makes a province noteworthy. Alaska, with its 500,000 square miles, which we bought a few years ago for seven and a quarter millions from Russia, does not weigh in importance according to its size, but only as to its position. Turkey is one of the richest and most fertile portions of Europe. From rich Bulgaria, with its plenteous wheat fields, to the vine-clad slopes and olive-shaded valleys of the South, it blossoms and buds with the most exuberant fertility over all its length and breadth, save Montenegro, and of that mountainous principality, it is said that, in the general distribution of all things at the creation, the angel was passing over Montenegro when the bag of Stones broke, and they all came tumbling out in that locality. The soil of the country is rich, and yields in abundance grains and cotton, silk, tobacco of fine quality- so those say who use it- wine and oil, and the other fruits of the earth in abundant measure, and the aggregate production, it is said, could be increased fivefold if the soil was placed under improved cultivation. The mountains are heavily timbered, and the mineral wealth is great, though not well developed. Indeed, Turkish iron is not easily matched for strength and toughness. It has mines of coal, though not of a very good quality, while its water power would drive all the machinery in the world. It is a country whose material sources only need to be developed by energy and enterprise to make it one of the wealthiest countries on the globe. It has a superb line of sea coast stretching out for hundreds of miles and indented with bays and harbors, admirably adapted for commerce. It was this coast which made it famous in ancient times and brought the commerce which made it rich, and its relation to commerce of the world will come again, and the land will again take its place among the countries of the earth to which it is entitled. Here Christianity was first preached in Europe. Here Constantine ruled, and elegant and learned scholars lived and enriched the world with their genius. Here also Justinian built and codified laws. Here reigned Leo, who beat back Saracens. Here Chrysostom preached and taught and Jerome studied and fitted himself in a large measure for his great work of translating the Scriptures. Here met the great councils of the church, far from the Council of Nice in 325 to the Council of 787, all but four were held in Constantinople, and from that city came the famous Greek manuscripts now of priceless value. Indeed, it is not possible to comprehend our indebtedness to that ancient and fated land. The gold coin of Byzantium was current all over Europe, and it never changed its Standard fineness or weight[Great Applause]. It was a monument to the honor and thrift of the Eastern Empire. It was great and rich and civilized when Western Europe was still peopled with savages. The pages of Gibbon are stiff with the crimson threads of the wars that have drenched the land with blood. If all of the blood that has been shed over the land were collected the channels of the Danube would not hold it, and it would overflow the land knee deep. It is so rich that it has always been a prey. That is the land, with Constantinople at its head, the city which is nearest the center of the most populous portion of the globe, placed where two seas join and two continents come together.
THE OTTOMAN TURKS
How came they to achieve such a sudden accession of enormous power in Southeastern Europe? How came they to lose it, and what were the causes that brought them to this present position? These are the questions which we will attempt to outline with your permission Who are they? The Osmanlis, as they call themselves, for they object to the name of Turk, are a people of the Turanian race, and are cousins of the Mongols, the Huns and the Tartars, a distinct stock from the Aryan races. The Turanians were a pastoral people in very early times, while the Aryans were devoted to agriculture from the beginning, and the lines of their consequent development are widely divergent and led to very different results. Agriculture trains men to patience, endurance and industry. It leads to settlement and the sacredness of home. It tends to the development of civilization and to commerce, the medium of Exchange and intercourse with other people. It leads to the building up of institutions, and gives permanency to all that is best and noblest in man’s nature. Pastoral life leads to a nomadic and wandering condition of existence. The life of a shepherd, and the consequent roving, takes away the sense of locality and the sacredness of home. It makes men predatory and fierce and leads to a despotic government. It trends away from civilization to semi- barbarism and generates race characteristics that are never eradicated. The Aryan races have made history splendid and the world rich, while the history of the Turanian races shows how little they have done to make the world better, but rather to cause misery and woe. They must not be confounded with the Saracen, which is a Semitic race, and is only allied to the other by the tie of a kindred religion. The conflicting stories of travelers and missionaries have made it doubtful what really is the nature of the Turk, so far, at least, as the middle classes are concerned. As to the upper classes, we know they are corrupt. The Turk of the middle class seems to be grave and slow of speech, and honest and truthful as a general thing. He is singularly kind to animals, but that does not establish a criterion as to his kindness to human beings. He is not fond of agriculture or of the mechanical arts, save as they are connected with articles of war or luxury. He is proud and overbearing to those he deems his Christian subjects and is capable of a fierce fanaticism in religious affairs but is not altogether devoid of the better sentiments and promptings of humanity. Although the Koran allows polygamy, it is not so prevalent among them as has been supposed, and slavery, although permitted, does not exist to any great extent. In other ways, they are very different from us, but their career in history has been marked out and cannot be erased.
RISE OF THE OTTOMAN POWER
They first came into prominence in the Thirteenth Century, and their first great leader and the founder of the dynasty was Ottoman, who flourished in the latter half of that century. He was a far –sighted leader and a great military genius. A dream is reported of him wherein he saw a tree growing out of his body which shadowed over the whole earth when its leaves turned to sabre blades, all pointing toward Constantinople. He saw the importance of that Capital and would have turned his energies toward it had he lived. Orchan, his son, succeeded him, and organized the first standing army ever seen in Europe and created the Corps of Janissaries from a thousand Christian youths, and this corps became famous throughout the world. It was recruited from the sons of Christian parents who were taken from their homes and trained to the faith of Islam, and in all manly exercises and feats of arms. They were thus without the ties of kindred and were fanatically devoted to their adopted faith. At times this corps has amounted to twenty, thirty, and forty thousand men. Bursa was the Capital, and from its lofty and magnificent gateway came the name of the Ottoman government - the Sublime Porte. Süleyman I, the son of Orchan, crossed the Bosphorus with forty men and landed at Gelibolu, crossing on a raft. That was the first trickle of the great deluge of conquest that in later years swept over Eastern Europe. It was in 1353 that this crossing was made. He was succeeded by Murat I. Who captured Adrianople in 1361 and also took Philippopolis and now began that career of conquest. Murat captured Macedonia and Thrace and took Shuula, never since wrested from the Turkish hands. In 1389, he was killed by a Serbian assassin after the battle of Kosovo, and was succeeded by Bayezid in the government. There is no throne in Turkey, and the coronation is the simple girding of the sword of Ottoman, the founder of the race. Bayezid had his brother killed immediately upon his accession to avoid any disputes as to who should succeed his father, and thus established a horrid and bloody custom that has frequently been followed by the Sultans of Turkey. He conquered Wallachia, and by the prowess of his arms aroused the attention of Western and Central Europe. A great army of French and Hungarians was sent against him, but they were overthrown at Nicopolis in September 1396, and nearly all the prisoners murdered. He conquered Greece and took Athens and sent an army into Hungary. Constantinople was besieged, but at this juncture, Bayezid was called away to fight against Timur, The Tatter, who conquered him, overran his Asiatic empire, and put him to death.
THE CAPTURE OF CONSTANTINOPLE
Was made by Mohammed II. On the 29th of May 1453, and then the dream of Ottoman was fulfilled. The city was sacked and 120,000 manuscripts disappeared, ten of them were offered for sale in the street for a ducat. The beautiful Church of St. Sophia was turned into a morgue, and the Imperial Palace into a seraglio. Muhammed landed his troops in Italy and captured Otranto and laid siege to Rhodes. He prosecuted his conquest in other directions, and it seemed as though he would fulfill the boast of Bayezid that he would feed oats to his horse upon the high altar at Rome. What was the cause of this wonderful career of conquest? Doubtless, the division of the eastern and western churches had much to do with it, and a difference of creeds caused that division. It will not do to say that the Turks met only the effeminate Greeks. They met the fierce and intrepid warriors of Western Europe and overcame them, so it cannot be said that it was a debased and unwary population that gave them their conquests. One reason was their immense military enthusiasm and the wonderful completeness and efficiency of their armies. They had the best commissariat in Europe; their cavalry was the best, and their artillery the best in use at that age. They invented the Howitzer gun and first used bombs at the siege of Rhodes. War was their business and their pastime, and they came into the country as an armed nation. They were skillful in their treatment of a conquered nation, absorbing them into their armies and turning them against other foes. Renegades from other people were always received by them, and there was no limit to the power and position to which rich adherents might attain. At the siege of Rhodes, there were 60,000 Bulgarians engaged. Commanders of armies, admirals of fleets, and prime ministers were often renegade Christians. Barbarossa, the ablest admiral in their service, was of Christian birth, and so it has gone on through all their history. Even now the present Turkish Minister at Washington is a Greek by birth and religion. The sultans were despotic to a degree that we cannot comprehend. There was an old law that did not allow the Sultan to kill more than fourteen men a day without giving a reason therefore, but to whom should he give the reason, for he was supreme above all. Murat I. is said to have caused the death of 100,000 persons in eight years to keep the power in his own hands and suppress disobedience to his authority. One Sultan killed a favorite musician for singing a Persian song, And the same man surprised a company of young women dancing in a meadow and caused them all to be drowned because the mirth displeased him. With this despotic power over life or death, there were no divided councils, and his orders were implicitly obeyed. The Sultans were nearly all men of great ability. The line of Ottoman has been continued down in direct descent, and the present Sultan is a lineal descendant of the founder of the race. They were organizers as well as conquerors. Of them, it might be said that "dominion was a bribe to him whose lips do not blanch at the touch of the saber." Mehmet II killed nineteen brothers to avoid any question as to his succession, and Suleyman the Illustrious killed two of his sons for fear they would excite civil war in the empire. Selim I killed 40,000 of his subjects and had a plan arranged to kill every Christian, man, woman, and child, in his dominions but was dissuaded from ordering the butchery. Women had no influence in the affairs of the empire. The ferocity of the Turk was inflamed by opposition and was bred deep in the temper of the people. Their religion was also an immense power. It taught them to destroy the infidel and gave a promise of happiness to all that followed the will of the prophet. A sensual heaven awaited them, and believing they were the chosen people of God, they felt to the fullest extent that they were fated to succeed. Their fatalism was a very strong incentive and gave them the assurance of success in all they undertook, and at the same time, it increased with every new success. Thus, when all Western Europe was frightened by a comet, the Turk looked upon it as the sword of God and accepted it as a sign that he was fighting their battles. They came into the countries which they overran as naughty conquerors and would accept no terms of peace which they did not dictate.
THE DECLINE OF THE OTTOMAN POWER
Their power was at its zenith during the time of Suleyman. Selim captured Egypt, and on August 29, 1522. In 1529, Vienna was invested with a quarter of a million of men and 300 cannon, and although the city was not captured, it was laid under tribute. The Admiral Barbarossa ravaged the coasts of the Mediterranean and captured town after town. Soliman called himself the Lord of the Age and said that as there was only one God in heaven, so there was only one Emperor on the earth. Then came a change, and from the summit of power, the empire began to decay, and under the reign of Selim II, the drunkard, the empire went steadily downward. At the naval battle of Lepanto, the Turkish fleet was destroyed by the combined Christian fleet under the command of Don John, of Austria. When the Pope heard of it, he burst into tears and exclaimed: "There was a man sent from God and his name was John." In 1569, the Turks first met the Russians, and an army of 60,000 men was defeated by their new enemy in the North. Defeat followed defeat in other parts of the Empire. The Turkish power was in wane, never to be strong again. How came this? First, the Sultans had deteriorated. The Sultan had no real wife, but a crowd of favorites filled the harem, and each son was the son of a slave, and this was a condition of affairs not favorable to vigorous descent. Then they were trained up to manhood in the harem, surrounded by eunuchs and concubines, the prey of the most disgusting vices, and they were launched into power, utterly unprepared, like a man coming suddenly from a dark room into the sunshine. The army deteriorated, and corruption permeated the entire administration of civil and military affairs. Ignorance and vice everywhere prevailed, and they would not learn, even from disaster and defeat. There was no coherency, no force in the government. Then, their fatalism, which had helped to make them great, now came in to help destroy them, and when once they felt they were decaying, they believed it to be the will of God and made no effort against it. In 1653, a Turkish army of half a million invested Vienna but was beaten back, foiled, and defeated. In 1790 Ismall was captured and then came the succession of disasters until 1829 when the Russians humiliated them and dictated peace at Adrianople.
CAN THEY REFORM
Sultan after Sultan has promised reform in Turkey, and a fair chance has been given them, but what use have they made of it? The whole sentiment of that people, the real desire of the Government, and their religious belief are against it. Taxation has been somewhat reduced but is still onerous. They have introduced European manners and customs to some extent. There are 18,000 miles of telegraph and 1,000 miles of railway and a few carriage roads. Christians hold high offices, and there is more tolerance in religious affairs, but all this has been done by outside pressure and not from within, and is, therefore, half-hearted and is not as great in fact as in appearance. They have enjoyed 500 years of despotic government, but have nothing to show for it that civilization will accept. Compare them with the Saracens who ruled in Spain for nearly 800 years. Under their rule Spain was the home of every free and liberal influence. Art, letters, science flourished and were fostered, and when they left Spain, she was poorer for their going. At Baghdad, under Harun al-Rashid, learning and civilization flourished and made great strides forward, while all that the Ottoman Empire can show for its 500 years of power is the bloody saber of Ottoman. Remember too, that after the Crimea, they had every chance. It was determined that Turkey should have the opportunity to prove herself worthy of a place among the nations of the earth. Her debt was only 10 million $. Now what has she but a number of discontented provinces, eager to shake off her yoke! The bitter uprising in Herzegovina two years ago against oppressive tax gatherers has culminated in the ruin that this great war has wrought. In 1865 the debt was 367 million $. In 1874 the debt was 925 million $ and the borrowed Money was nearly all squandered and nothing to show for it, and added to this in 150 million $ internal debt. The interest per annum amounts to 55 million $ and the annual expenses to 140 million $. There can be no end to this but ruin and bankruptcy. The reforms promised are not made, and the nations that have been betting on that reforms have only worthless claims against the bankrupt State. There are only two and one-quarter million Turks to 14 million of Christians. The English protectorate terminated at the Constantinople Conference in 1876. She is only interested in having the Hellespont and the Bosphorus a highway for the commerce of the world. There has been an idea that the Turkish power might suddenly show some sudden and unexpected resources, but that idea is fallacious. It will never be restored, although it may last in its dismantled condition some time longer. What shall be done with her? There is one power in Europe immense, organized, adjacent, which has very clear ideas of what should be done with Turkey, which has known for 300 years what is to be done with her, and of that power, I propose to speak to you, with your permission, next Tuesday evening. (Applause)
Dr. Storrs spoke for nearly two hours, and at the close of the lecture was nearly congratulated by many of the gentlemen present, upon the success of his address. He held the close attention of the vast audience throughout and was only interrupted two or three times by applause. The interest was too intense to be broken by demonstrations of pleasure. The second lecture will be given next Tuesday evening, the 12th Instant.