180. THE OTTOMAN TURKS IN SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
CONTINUED OTTOMAN EXPANSION
Turkey was now a European state. After the occupation of Constantinople the Ottoman territories continued to expand, and at the death of Mohammed II they included what are now Bulgaria, Rumania, Serbia, Albania, and Greece. Of all the Balkan states only tiny Montenegro, protected by mountain ramparts, preserved its independence.
NATURE OF TURKISH RULE
The Turks form a small minority among the inhabitants of the Balkans. At the present time there are said to be less than one million Turks in southeastern Europe. Even about Constantinople the Greeks far outnumber them. The Turks from the outset have been, not a nation in the proper sense of the word, but rather an army of occupation, holding down by force their far more numerous Christian subjects.
THE TURKS A MIXED PEOPLE
The people who thus acquired dominion over all southeastern Europe had become, even at the middle of the fifteenth century, greatly mixed in blood. Their ancestors were natives of central Asia, but in Europe they intermarried freely with their Christian captives and with converts from Christianity to Islam. So far has this admixture proceeded that the modern Turks are almost entirely European in physique.
[Illustration: Map, EMPIRE OF THE OTTOMAN TURKS AT THE FALL OF
CONSTANTINOPLE, 1453 A.D.]
ISOLATION OF THE TURKS
The Bulgarians, who came out of Asia to devastate Europe, at length turned Christian, adopted a Slavic speech, and entered the family of European nations. The Magyars, who followed them, also made their way into the fellowship of Christendom. Quite the opposite has been the case with the Turks. Preserving their Asiatic language and Moslem faith, they have remained in southeastern Europe, not a transitory scourge, but an abiding oppressor of Christian lands. Every century since 1453 A.D. has widened the gulf between them and their subjects.
TURKISH INFLUENCE IN SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
The isolation of the Turks has prevented them from assimilating the higher culture of the peoples whom they conquered. They have never created anything in science, art, literature, commerce, or industry. Conquest has been the Turks' one business in the world, and when they ceased conquering their decline set in. But it was not till the end of the seventeenth century that the Turkish Empire entered on that downward road which is now fast leading to its extinction as a European power.