The first great blow to the integrity and independence of the Ottoman Empire was dealt in the war which was ended by the Peace of Carlowitz. We have seen how Hungary and Peloponnêsos were won back for Christendom; so was Podolia. We have seen too how at the next stage the Turk gained at one end and lost at the other, winning back Peloponnêsos, winning Mykonos and Tênos, but losing on the Save and the Danube. The next stage shows the Ottoman frontier again in advance; in our own day we have seen it again fall back. And the change which has given Bosnia and Herzegovina to the master of Dalmatia, Ragusa, and Cattaro has, besides throwing back the frontier of the Turk, redressed a very old geographical wrong. ♦Union of inland and maritime Illyricum.♦ Ever since the first Slavonic settlements, the inland region of northern Illyricum has been more or less thoroughly cut off from the coast cities which form its natural outlets. Whatever may be the fate of those lands, the body is again joined to the mouth, and the mouth to the body, and we can hardly fancy them again severed.
The same arrangements which transferred the ‘administration’ of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the King of Hungary and Dalmatia, have transferred another part of the Ottoman dominion to a more distant European power on terms which are still less easy to understand. ♦Cyprus. 1878.♦ The Greek island of Cyprus has passed to English rule; but it is after a fashion which may imply that the conquest of Richard of Poitou is held—not, it is to be hoped, by the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, but possibly by the Empress of India—as a tributary of the Ottoman Sultan.
During the former half of the eighteenth century the shiftings of the Ottoman territory to the north were all on the side of Austria or Hungary. ♦Relations of the Turk towards Russia.♦ But a new enemy of the Turk appeared towards the end of the seventeenth century, one who was, before the end of the eighteenth, to stand forth as his chief enemy. ♦Loss and recovery of Azof. 1696-1711.♦ Under Peter the Great Azof was won by Russia and lost again. Sixty years later great geographical changes took place in the same region. ♦Treaty of Kainardji. 1774.
Independence of Crim.♦ By the Treaty of Kainardji, the dependent khanate of Crim—the old Tauric Chersonêsos and the neighbouring lands—was released from the superiority of the Sultan. ♦Russian annexation of Crim. 1783.♦ This was a natural step towards its annexation by Russia, which thus again made her way to the Euxine. ♦Of Jedisan. 1791.♦ The Bug was now the frontier; presently, by the Russian annexation of Oczakow and the land of Jedisan, it fell back to the Dniester. By the treaty of Bucharest the frontier alike of the dominion and of the overlordship of the Turk fell back to the Pruth and the lower Danube. ♦Of Bessarabia. 1812.
Shiftings of the Moldavian frontier.♦ Russia thus gained Bessarabia and the eastern part of Moldavia. ♦Treaty of Hadrianople. 1829.♦ By the Treaty of Hadrianople she further won the islands at the mouth of the Danube. ♦Treaty of Paris, 1856;♦ The Treaty of Paris restored to Moldavia a small part of the lands ceded at Bucharest, so as to keep the Russian frontier away from the Danube. ♦of Berlin, 1878.♦ This last cession, with the exception of the islands, was recovered by Russia at the Treaty of Berlin. But changes of frontier in those regions no longer affect the dominion of the Turk.
§ 9. The Liberated States.
♦Lands liberated from the Ottoman.♦
The losses which the Ottoman power has undergone at the hands of its independent neighbours, Russia, Montenegro, and Austria or Hungary, must be distinguished from the liberation of certain lands from Turkish rule to form new or revived European states. We have seen that the kingdom of Hungary and its dependent lands might fairly come under this head, and we have seen in what the circumstances of their liberation differ from the liberation of Greece or Servia or Bulgaria. But it is important to bear in mind that the Turk had to be driven from Hungary, no less than from Greece, Servia, and Bulgaria. If the Turk has ruled at Belgrade, at Athens, and at Tirnovo, he has ruled at Buda no less. All stand in the same opposition to Tzetinje, where he has never ruled.
As the Servian people was the only one among the south-eastern nations of which any part maintained its abiding independence, so the enslaved part of the Servian people was the first among the subject nations to throw off the yoke. ♦The Ionian Islands.♦ But the first attempt to form anything like a free state in south-eastern Europe was made among a branch of the Greek nation, in the so-called Ionian Islands. But the form which the attempt took was no lessening of the Turkish dominion, but its increase. ♦Ceded to France. 1797.♦ By the peace of Campoformio, the islands, with the few Venetian points on the mainland, were to pass to France. ♦Septinsular Republic under Ottoman overlordship. 1798.♦ By the treaty of the next year between Russia and the Turk, the points on the mainland were to be handed over to the Turk, while the islands were to form a commonwealth, tributary to the Turk, but under the protection of Russia. ♦The Venetian outposts given to the Turk.♦ Thus, besides an advance of the Turk’s immediate dominion on the mainland, his overlordship was to be extended over the islands, including Corfu, the one island which had never come under his power. ♦Surrender of Parga. 1819.♦ The other points on the mainland passed, not so much to the Sultan as to his rebellious vassal Ali of Jôannina; but Parga kept its freedom till five years after the general peace. ♦All Albania and continental Greece under the Turk.♦ Thus the Turk made his last encroachment on Christendom, and held for a moment the whole of the Greek and Albanian mainland. ♦The Ionian Islands under English protection. 1815.♦ The islands meanwhile, tossed to and fro during the war between France and England, were at the peace again made into a nominal commonwealth, but under a form of British protection which it is not easy to distinguish from British sovereignty. Still a nominally free Greek state was again set up, and the possibility of Greek freedom on a larger scale was practically acknowledged.
♦The Greek War of Independence. 1821.♦
It was only for a very short time that the Turk held complete possession of all Albania and continental Greece. Two years after the betrayal of Parga began the Greek War of Independence. ♦Extent of the Greek nation.♦ The geographical disposition of the Greek nation has changed very little since the Latin conquest of Constantinople; it has changed very little since the later days of old Hellas. At all these stages some other people has held the solid mainland of south-eastern Europe and of western Asia, while the Greek has been the prevailing race on the coasts, the islands, the peninsular lands, of both continents, from Durazzo to Trebizond. ♦General Greek revolt.♦ Within this range the Greeks revolted at every point where they were strong enough to revolt at all. ♦Extent of the liberated territory.♦ But it was only in the old Hellenic mainland, and in Crete and others of the Ægæan islands, that the Greeks were able to hold their ground. ♦1829-1833.♦ Of these lands some parts were allowed by Western diplomacy to keep their freedom. ♦Kingdom of Greece.♦ A Kingdom of Greece was formed, taking in Peloponnêsos, Euboia, the Kyklades, and a small part of central Greece, south of a line drawn from the gulf of Arta to the gulf of Volo. But the Turk was allowed to hold, not only the more distant Greek lands and islands, but Epeiros, Thessaly, and Crete. ♦Ionian islands added to Greece. 1864.♦ The kingdom was afterwards enlarged by the addition of the Ionian islands, whose nominal Septinsular Republic was merged in the kingdom. ♦Treaty of Berlin. 1878.♦ By the Treaty of Berlin, Crete, which had twice risen, was thrust back into bondage, but parts of Thessaly and Epeiros were ordered to be set free and to be added to the kingdom. ♦Its promises unfulfilled.♦ But even this small instalment of Greek emancipation has not yet been carried out.
♦First revolt and deliverance of Servia. 1805-1812.♦