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TURKEY—ITS RISE AND FALL

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Tuesday, April 21, 1885

FromAdvent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 62, No. 16

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TURKEY—ITS RISE AND FALL.

By D. H. Lamson

BY ELD. D. H. LAMSON.
The twenty-ninth day of May, 1453, the Eastern Rome ceased to exist. It had existed by sufferance and favor of Amurath II. since the 1st of July, 1449. At that time Deacozes, brother of John Paleologus,—Constantine ascended the throne after gaining the consent of Amurath II. This may, in some degree, be accounted for on the ground of a former treaty of peace and alliance between John and Amurath, to some extent, the separate action of each being of interest to the other. Constantine I. and Constantine XIII. were respectively the first and last emperors of Eastern Rome.
When Constantinople fell, in 1453, the empire that once held the world in subjection was reduced to its walls. Its fall resulted from the unnatural alliance that was ever formed, that of Christian Rome with the Mohammedan power, the one in her weakness, the other in her strength; by this time the territory of Rome, as far north as the Carpathian Mountains, and extending east along the 47th parallel of latitude, was under the rule of the Turkish Sultan, Mohammed II., claimed by him when Rome became subject to his authority. For nearly a hundred years, under the succession of Bajazet II., Selim, and Soliman, the conflict raged, till all of Hungary yielded to the sway of Mohammed’s successors.
A comparison of the present map of Turkey in Europe, especially, with that of the early part of the 15th century, will show most wonderful territorial changes. From the 27th of July, 1449, the Ottoman Empire was to last 391 years and 15 days. Rev. 9:15. Her supremacy was to cease at the close of that period marked by the prophecy. Supremacy was obtained, first, by treaty which greatly restricted the territory of Rome; secondly, by an alliance which only proved a source of weakness to Rome; thirdly, by the reign of Constantine XIII., only by consent of Amurath II.; and finally, the usurpation of the Empire itself by Mohammed II.
From these various physical causes resulted the gradual weakening of Rome and the strengthening of the Ottoman power, so the empire of the Greeks will be taken piece by piece, till Constantinople and its environs alone are left; and even that will finally be yielded to the assaults of its enemies.
Who is the outspoken enemy of Turkey, and what power has designs upon her capital? What power has already not only menaced her authority in Europe, but by force of arms taken largely of her territory both in Europe and Asia? What power is still pressing her with the expressed determination of utterly extinguishing her right to reign on European ground? By what means will it be accomplished? The fixed application of Rev. 11:15 to the Turkish power in Europe, establishes the act and fact of her final dispossession of European territory. The consensus of the political mind of all enlightened peoples of both hemispheres is upon the great and colossal empire of Russia, to accomplish what God has before determined to be done. The “Will of Peter the Great” seems almost an inspiration. His foresight laid the foundation of an empire covering one twenty-fourth part of the globe, more than eight million square miles of territory, one-sixth of all the dry land of the earth; and the attention of the world is even now more than ever arrested by the consecution of events which point unmistakably to the ultimate fulfillment of that Will in the dismemberment of Turkey.
“Take,” says the great ruler, “every possible means of gaining Constantinople and the Indies (for he who rules there will be the sovereign of the world); excite war continually in Turkey and Persia; establish fortresses in the Black Sea; get control of this sea by degrees, and also of the Baltic, which is a double point necessary to the realization of our project; accelerate as much as possible the decay of Persia; penetrate to the Persian Gulf; re-establish, if possible, by way of Syria, the ancient commerce of the Levant; advance to the Indies, which are the great depot of the world. Once there, we can do without the gold of England. . . . Interest the House of Austria in the expulsion of the Turks from Europe, and quiet their dissensions at the moment of the conquest of Constantinople (having excited war among the old States of Europe), by giving to Austria a portion of the conquest, which afterward will or can be reclaimed.”
An examination of the map of Europe in the days of Peter the Great (who ascended the throne in 1689), with the map of to-day, will show how faithfully he and his successors have carried out his policy. He took from Sweden, Finland and the Neva, where he built St. Petersburg, his northern capital. He extended his conquests south to Azov, and gained control of the sea by that name in 1696. Then Turkey included all south of the Carpathian Mountains; westward to the eastern Alps, near Vienna; eastward, Moldavia; and all southward including Servia, Bosnia, Wallachia, Roumania, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Roumelia, and Greece. The total area of Turkey in Europe to-day is 56,868 square miles, a little more than the area of the State of Michigan. She lost in the treaty of 1878 alone 81,396 square miles of territory, a large percentage more than half of what she then had.
As Rome had her enemies in the followers of Mohammed, both Saracens and Turks, until she was compelled to an ignominious treaty, and the loss of her territory outside of Constantinople, and a final alliance with a remorseless foe who would not be content but with the last remnant of Roman power, and the seat of the kingdom; so Turkey must sometime, and that soon, yield to the arms of her constant foe, who never has repented and never will repent of what will bring nearer and finally secure the jewel of empire, the key of the Bosporus, and the control of the destinies of the world. England, a few days ago, was all ablaze with excitement when was wired the news that Turkey had made a secret treaty with Russia, giving to Russia complete control of the Black Sea and the Dardanelles. And why not? Does not history sometimes repeat itself? If Rome, in the days of her peril, when tied hand and foot by her implacable enemy, and ground into the dust, when all Christian Europe could render no aid, did embrace the only opportunity of a few more days of peace by throwing herself into the arms of Amurath II., why shall not Turkey do the same with Russia when in her last extremity?
The reasons for the stability of the Turkish Empire exist no longer; the help she has in late years been able to command, will appear no more; the changes on the map of Europe have entirely obviated the necessity; only England is interested in the continuance of her power, and England with her only ally cannot prevail against the arms or the indifference of the rest of Europe. The Indies are at present the apparent object of Russia’s ambition, but Stamboul is the stake for which she is playing. Should Russia gain the strategic points in Afghanistan, Khyber, and the Bolan Pass, England might well tremble for her possessions in India. It would not be a strange thing, in view of such alarming contingencies, if England should trade her interests in European Turkey for peace in India.
The world is stirred over this truly great question. The certainty of the final result is admitted by nearly all who can have an interest in it. The editorials in all the leading journals in this country and on the European continent speak of what must be the result as a foregone conclusion, and, apparently, the situation is accepted by the most of continental Europe with the profoundest apathy. Would to God the nations might know the awful vortex into which they soon must plunge; that this almost final act in this world’s tragedy does not mean alone that the Turk be driven out of Europe and that “he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain,” but that the whole Turkish power shall be “dried up” that the way of the kings of the East shall be prepared, and the nations gathered to the battle of that great day of God Almighty, the battle of Armageddon.
“The cry is up, the strife’s begun, And Armageddon’s day rolls on,”
may soon be sung with an awful emphasis by the people of God.