Early European History Part 88

The empire which Baber established in India is known as that of the Moguls, an Arabic form of the word Mongol. The Moguls, however, were Turkish in blood and Mohammedans in religion. The Mogul emperors reigned in great splendor from their capitals at Delhi and Agra, until the decline of their power in the eighteenth century opened the way for the British conquest of India.

178. THE MONGOLS IN EASTERN EUROPE

MONGOL CONQUEST OF RUSSIA, 1237-1240 A.D.

The location of Russia [11] on the border of Asia exposed that country to the full force of the Mongol attack. Jenghiz Khan's successors, entering Europe north of the Caspian, swept resistlessly over the Russian plain.

Moscow and Kiev fell in quick succession, and before long the greater part of Russia was in the hands of the Mongols. Wholesale ma.s.sacres marked their progress. "No eye remained open to weep for the dead."

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE TAJ MAHAL, AGRA Erected by the Mogul emperor, Shah Jehan, as a tomb for his favorite wife, Muntaz Mahal. It was begun in 1632 A.D. and was completed in twenty-two years. The material is pure white marble, inlaid with jasper, agate and other precious stones. The building rests on a marble terrace, at each corner of which rises a tall graceful minaret. The extreme delicacy of the Taj Mahal and the richness of its ornamentation make it a masterpiece of architecture.]

INVASION OF POLAND AND HUNGARY BY THE MONGOLS, 1241 A.D.

Still the invaders pressed on. They devastated Hungary, driving the Magyar king in panic flight from his realm. They overran Poland. At a great battle in Silesia they destroyed the knighthood of Germany and filled nine sacks with the right ears of slaughtered enemies. The European peoples, taken completely by surprise, could offer no effective resistance to these Asiatics, who combined superiority in numbers with surpa.s.sing generalship.

Since the Arab attack in the eighth century Christendom had never been in graver peril. But the wave of Mongol invasion, which threatened to engulf Europe in barbarism, receded as quickly as it came. The Mongols soon abandoned Poland and Hungary and retired to their possessions in Russia.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map, RUSSIA AT THE END OF THE MIDDLE AGES]

THE "GOLDEN HORDE"

The ruler of the "Golden Horde," as the western section of the Mongol Empire was called, continued to be the lord of Russia for about two hundred and fifty years. Russia, throughout this period, was little more than a dependency of Asia. The conquered people were obliged to pay a heavy tribute and to furnish soldiers for the Mongol armies. Their princes, also, became va.s.sals of the Great Khan.

MONGOL INFLUENCE ON RUSSIA

The Mongols, or "Tartars" [12] are usually said to have Orientalized Russia. It seems clear, however, that they did not interfere with the language, religion, and laws of their subjects. The chief result of the Mongol supremacy was to cut off Russia from western Europe, just at the time when England, France, Germany, and Italy were emerging from the darkness of the early Middle Ages.

RISE OF MUSCOVY

The invasion of the Mongols proved to be, indirectly, the making of the Russian state. Before they came the country was a patchwork of rival, and often warring, princ.i.p.alities. The need of union against the common enemy welded them together. The princ.i.p.ality of Muscovy, so named from the capital city of Moscow, conquered its neighbors, annexed the important city of Novgorod, whose vast possessions stretched from Lapland to the Urals, and finally became powerful enough to shake off the Mongol yoke.

REIGN OF IVAN III, THE GREAT, 1462-1505 A.D.

The final deliverance of Russia from the Mongols was accomplished by Ivan III, surnamed the Great. This ruler is also regarded as the founder of Russian autocracy, that is, of a personal, absolute, and arbitrary government. With a view to strengthening his claim to be the political heir of the eastern emperors, Ivan married a niece of the last ruler at Constantinople, who in 1453 A.D. had fallen in the defense of his capital against the Ottoman Turks. Henceforth the Russian ruler described himself as "the new Tsar [13] Constantine in the new city of Constantine, Moscow."

179. THE OTTOMAN TURKS AND THEIR CONQUESTS, 1227-1453 A.D.

RISE OF THE OTTOMANS

The first appearance of the Ottoman Turks in history dates from 1227 A.D., the year of Jenghiz Khan's death. In that year a small Turkish horde, driven westward from their central Asian homes by the Mongol advance, settled in Asia Minor. There they enjoyed the protection of their kinsmen, the Seljuk Turks, and from them accepted Islam. As the Seljuk power declined, that of the Ottomans rose in its stead. About 1300 A.D. their chieftain, Othman, [14] declared his independence and became the founder of the Ottoman Empire.

OTTOMAN EXPANSION

The growth of the Ottoman power was almost as rapid as that of the Arabs or of the Mongols. During the first half of the fourteenth century they firmly established themselves in northwestern Asia Minor, along the beautiful sh.o.r.es washed by the Bosporus, the Sea of Marmora, and the Dardanelles. The second half of the same century found them in Europe, wresting province after province from the feeble hands of the eastern emperors. First came the seizure of Gallipoli on the Dardanelles, which long remained the princ.i.p.al Turkish naval station. Then followed the capture of Adrianople, where in earlier centuries the Visigoths had destroyed a Roman army. [15] By 1400 A.D. all that remained of the Roman Empire in the East was Constantinople and a small district in the vicinity of that city.

THE JANIZARIES

The Turks owed much of their success to the famous body of troops known as Janizaries. [16] These were recruited for the most part from Christian children surrendered by their parents as tribute. The Janizaries received an education in the Moslem faith and careful instruction in the use of arms. Their discipline and fanatic zeal made them irresistible on the field of battle.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MOHAMMED II A medal showing the strong face of the conqueror of Constantinople]

CONSTANTINOPLE BESIEGED

Constantinople had never recovered from the blow inflicted upon it by the freebooters of the Fourth Crusade. [17] It was isolated from western Europe by the advance of the Turks. Frantic appeals for help brought only a few ships and men from Genoa and Venice. When in 1453 A.D. the sultan Mohammed II, commanding a large army amply supplied with artillery, appeared before the walls, all men knew that Constantinople was doomed.

CAPTURE OF THE CITY

The defense of the city forms one of the most stirring episodes in history. The Christians, not more than eight thousand in number, were a mere handful compared to the Ottoman hordes. Yet they held out for nearly two months against every a.s.sault. When at length the end drew near, the Roman emperor, Constantine Palaeologus, a hero worthy of the name he bore, went with his followers at midnight to Sancta Sophia and there in that solemn fane received a last communion. Before sunrise on the following day the Turks were within the walls. The emperor, refusing to survive the city which he could not save, fell in the onrush of the Janizaries.

Constantinople endured a sack of three days, during which many works of art, previously spared by the crusaders, were destroyed. Mohammed II then made a triumphal entry into the city and in Sancta Sophia, now stripped of its crosses, images, and other Christian emblems, proclaimed the faith of the prophet. And so the "Turkish night," as Slavic poets named it, descended on this ancient home of civilization.

AN EPOCH-MAKING EVENT

The capture of Constantinople is rightly regarded as an epoch-making event. It meant the end, once for all, of the empire which had served so long as the rearguard of Christian civilization, as the bulwark of the West against the East. Europe stood aghast at a calamity which she had done so little to prevent. The Christian powers of the West have been paying dearly, even to our own time, for their failure to save New Rome from infidel hands.

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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 a.s.similating 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.

STUDIES

1. Locate these cities: Bokhara; Samarkand; Merv; Herat; Bagdad; Peking; Delhi; Kiev; Moscow; and Adrianople.

2. Who were Baber, Kublai Khan, Othman, Mohammed II, Constantine Palaeologus, and Ivan the Great?

3. Why should the steppes of central and northern Asia have been a nursery of warlike peoples?