Quotes4study

No matter what other nations may say about the United States,

>immigration is still the sincerest form of flattery.

Fortune Cookie

>Immigration is the sincerest form of flattery.

        -- Jack Paar

Fortune Cookie

Illegal aliens have always been a problem in the United States. Ask any Indian.

        -- Robert Orben

>Immigration is the sincerest form of flattery.

        -- Jack Paar

Fortune Cookie

In the course of 1551 one of the factions of Kazan offered the whole khanate to the young tsar, and on the 20th of August 1552 he stood before its walls with an army of 150,000 men and 50 guns. The siege was long and costly; the army suffered severely; and only the tenacity of the tsar kept it in camp for six weeks. But on the 2nd of October the fortress, which had been heroically defended, was taken by assault. The conquest of Kazan was an epoch-making event in the history of eastern Europe. It was not only the first territorial conquest from the Tatars, before whom Muscovy had humbled herself for generations; at Kazan Asia, in the name of Mahomet, had fought behind its last trench against Christian Europe marshalled beneath the banner of the tsar of Muscovy. For the first time the Volga became a Russian river. Nothing could now retard the natural advance of the young Russian state towards the east and the south-east. In 1554 Astrakhan fell almost without a blow. By 1560 all the Finnic and Tatar tribes between the Oka and the Kama had become Russian subjects. Ivan was also the first tsar who dared to attack the Crimea. In 1555 he sent Ivan Sheremetev against Perekop, and Sheremetev routed the Tatars in a great two days' battle at Sudbishenska. Some of Ivan's advisers, including both Sylvester and Adashev, now advised him to make an end of the Crimean khanate, as he had already made an end of the khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan. But Ivan, wiser in his generation, knew that the thing was impossible, in view of the immense distance to be traversed, and the predominance of the Grand Turk from whom it would have to be wrested. It was upon Livonia that his eyes were fixed, which was comparatively near at hand and promised him a seaboard and direct communication with western Europe. Ivan IV., like Peter I. after him, clearly recognized the necessity of raising Muscovy to the level of her neighbours. He proposed to do so by promoting a wholesale immigration into his tsardom of master-workmen and skilled artificers. But all his neighbours, apprehensive of the consequences of a civilized Muscovy, combined to thwart him. Charles V. even went so far as to disperse 123 skilled Germans whom Ivan's agent had collected and brought to Lübeck for shipment to a Baltic port. After this, Ivan was obliged to help himself as best he could. His opportunity seemed to have come when, in the middle of the 16th century, the Order of the Sword broke up, and the possession of Livonia was fiercely contested between Sweden, Poland and Denmark. Ivan intervened in 1558 and quickly captured Narva, Dorpat and a dozen smaller fortresses; then, in 1560, Livonia placed herself beneath the protection of Poland, and King Sigismund II. warned Ivan off the premises. Entry: IVAN

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 15, Slice 1 "Italy" to "Jacobite Church"     1910-1911

KIZILBASHES (Turkish, "Red-Heads"), the nickname given by the Orthodox Turks to the Shiitic Turkish immigrants from Persia, who are found chiefly in the plains from Kara-Hissar along Tokat and Amasia to Angora. During the wars with Persia the Turkish sultans settled them in these districts. They are strictly speaking persianized Turks, and speak pure Persian. There are many Kizilbashes in Afghanistan. Their immigration dates only from the time of Nadir Shah (1737). They are an industrious honest folk, chiefly engaged in trade and as physicians, scribes, and so on. They form the bulk of the amir's cavalry. Their name seems to have been first used in Persia of the Shiites in allusion to their red caps. Entry: KIZILBASHES

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 15, Slice 8 "Kite-Flying" to "Kyshtym"     1910-1911

_Population._[2]--The Australian people are mainly of British origin, only 3¼% of the population of European descent being of non-British race. It is certain that the aborigines (see the section on Aborigines below) are very much less numerous than when the country was first colonized, but their present numbers can be given for only a few of the states. At the census of 1901, 48,248 aborigines were enumerated, of whom 7434 were in New South Wales, 652 in Victoria, 27,123 in South Australia, and 6212 in Western Australia. The assertion by the Queensland authorities that there are 50,000 aborigines in that state is a crude estimate, and may be far wide of the truth. In South Australia and the Northern Territory a large number are outside the bounds of settlement, and it is probable that they are as numerous there as in Queensland. The census of Western Australia included only those aborigines in the employment of the colonists; and as a large part of this, the greatest of the Australian states, is as yet unexplored, it may be presumed that the aborigines enumerated were very far short of the whole number of persons of that race in the state. Taking all things into consideration, the aboriginal population of the continent may be set down at something like 180,000. Chinese, numbering about 30,000, are chiefly found in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, and the Northern Territory. Of Japanese there were 3500, of Hindu and Sinhalese 4600, according to recent computation, but the policy of the Commonwealth is adverse to further immigration of other than whites. South Sea Islanders and other coloured races, numbering probably about 15,000, were in 1906 to be found principally in Queensland, but further immigration of Pacific Islanders to Australia is now restricted, and the majority of those in the country in 1906 were deported by the middle of 1907. Entry: POLITICAL

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 8 "Atherstone" to "Austria"     1910-1911

That point was reached between 1835 and 1840, when a powerful party came into existence in New South Wales, pledged to bring about the abandonment of transportation. A strongly hostile feeling was also gaining ground in England. In 1837 a new committee of the House of Commons had made a patient and searching investigation into the merits and demerits of the system and freely condemned it. The government had no choice but to give way; it could not ignore the protests of the colonists, backed up by such an authoritative expression of opinion. In 1840 orders were issued to suspend the deportation of criminals to New South Wales. But what was to become of the convicts? It was impossible to keep them at home. The hulks which might have served had also failed; the faultiness of their internal management had been fully proved. The committee had recommended the erection of more penitentiaries. But the costly experiment of Millbank had been barren of results. The model prison at Pentonville, in process of construction under the pressure of a movement towards prison reform, could offer but limited accommodation. A proposal was put forward to construct convict barracks in the vicinity of the great arsenals; but this, which contained really the germ of the present British penal system, was premature. The government in this dilemma steered a middle course and resolved to adhere to transportation, but under a greatly modified and it was hoped much improved form. The colony of Van Diemen's Land, younger and less self-reliant than its neighbour, had also endured convict immigration but had made no protest. It was resolved to direct the whole stream of deportation upon Van Diemen's Land, which was thus constituted one vast colonial prison. The main principle of the new system was one of probation; hence its name. All convicts were to pass through various stages and degrees of punishment according to their conduct and character. Some general depot was needed where the necessary observation could be made, and it was found at Millbank penitentiary. Thence boys were sent to the prison for juveniles at Parkhurst; the most promising subjects among the adults were selected to undergo the experimental discipline of solitude and separation at Pentonville; less hopeful cases went to the hulks; and all adults alike passed on to the Antipodes. Fresh stages awaited the convict on his arrival at Van Diemen's Land. The first was limited to "lifers" and colonial convicts sentenced a second time. It consisted in detention at one of the penal stations, either Norfolk Island or Tasman's Peninsula, where the disgraceful conditions already described continued unchanged to the very last. The second stage received the largest number, who were subjected in it to gang labour, working under restraint in various parts of the colony. These probation stations, as they were called, were intended to inculcate habits of industry and subordination; they were provided with supervisors and religious instructors; and had they not been tainted by the vicious virus brought to them by others arriving from the penal stations, they might have answered their purpose for a time. But they became as bad as the worst of the penal settlements and contributed greatly to the breakdown of the whole system. The third stage and the first step towards freedom was the concession of a pass which permitted the convict to be at large under certain conditions to seek work for himself; the fourth was a ticket-of-leave, the possession of which allowed him to come and go much as he pleased; the fifth and last was absolute pardon, with the prospects of rehabilitation. Entry: DEPORTATION

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 2 "Demijohn" to "Destructor"     1910-1911

BAHIA, an Atlantic state of Brazil, bounded N. by the states of Piauhy, Pernambuco and Sergipe, E. by Sergipe and the Atlantic, S. by Espirito Santo and Minas Geraes, and W. by Minas Geraes and Goyaz. Its area is 164,650 sq. m., a great part of which is an arid barren _chapada_ (plateau), traversed from S. to N. and N.E. by the drainage basin of the São Francisco river, and having a general elevation of 1000 to 1700 ft. above that river, or 2300 to 3000 ft. above sea-level. On the W. the _chapada_, with an elevation of 2300 ft. and a breadth of 60 m., forms the western boundary of the state and the water-parting between the São Francisco and the Tocantins. East of the São Francisco it may be divided into three distinct regions: a rough limestone plateau rising gradually to the culminating ridges of the Serra da Chapada; a gneissose plateau showing extensive exposures of bare rock dipping slightly toward the coast; and a narrower plateau covered with a compact sandy soil descending to the coastal plain. The first two have a breadth of about 200 m. each, and are arid, barren and inhospitable, except at the dividing ridges where the clouds from the sea are deprived of some of their moisture. The third zone loses its arid character as it approaches the coast, and is better clothed with vegetation. The coastal plain varies in width and character: in some places low and sandy, or swampy, filled with lagoons and intersecting canals; in others more elevated, rolling and very fertile. The climate corresponds closely to these surface features, being hot and dry throughout the interior, hot and humid, in places unhealthy, along the coast. Cattle-raising was once the principal industry in the interior, but has been almost extinguished by the devastating droughts and increasing aridity caused by the custom of annually burning over the campos to improve the grass. In the agricultural regions sugar, cotton, tobacco, cacáo, coffee, mandioca and tropical fruits are produced. The exports also include hides, mangabeira rubber, piassava fibre, diamonds, cabinet woods and rum. The population is largely of a mixed and unprogressive character, and numbered 1,919,802 in 1890. There is but little immigration and the vegetative increase is low. The capital, São Salvador or Bahia (_q.v._), which is one of the principal cities and ports of Brazil, is the export town for the Reconcavo, as the fertile agricultural district surrounding the bay is called. The principal cities of the state are Alagoinhas and Bom Fim (formerly Villa Nova da Rainha) on the main railway line running N. to the São Francisco, Cachoeira and Santo Amaro near the capital in the Reconcavo, Caravellas and Ilheos on the southern coast, with tolerably good harbours, the former being the port for the Bahia & Minas railway, Feira de Santa Anna on the border of the _sertão_ and long celebrated for its cattle fairs, and Jacobina, an inland town N.W. of the capital, on the slopes of the Serra da Chapada, and noted for its mining industries, cotton and tobacco. The state of Bahia includes four of the original captaincies granted by the Portuguese crown--Bahia, Paraguassú, Ilheos and Porto Seguro, all of which reverted to the direct control of that government in 1549. During the war with Holland several efforts were made to conquer this captaincy, but without success. In 1823 Bahia became a province of the empire, and in 1889 a state in the republic. Its government consists of a governor elected for four years, and a general assembly of two chambers, the senators being elected for six years and the deputies for two years. Entry: BAHIA

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 "Baconthorpe" to "Bankruptcy"     1910-1911

_Government._--The present constitution of Idaho was adopted in 1889. The government is similar in outline to that of the other states of the United States. The executive officials serve for a term of two years. Besides being citizens of the United States and residents of the state for two years preceding their election the governor, lieutenant-governor and attorney-general must each be at least thirty years of age, and the secretary of state, state auditor, treasurer and superintendent of education must be at least twenty-five years old. The governor's veto may be overridden by a two-thirds vote of the legislature; the governor, secretary of state, and the attorney-general constitute a Board of Pardons and a Board of State Prison Commissioners. The legislature meets biennially; its members, who must be citizens of the United States and electors of the state for one year preceding their election, are chosen biennially; the number of senators may never exceed twenty-four, that of representatives sixty; each county is entitled to at least one representative. The judiciary consists of a supreme court of three judges, elected every six years, and circuit and probate courts, the five district judges being elected every four years. Suffrage requirements are citizenship in the United States, registration and residence in the state for six months and in the county for thirty days immediately before election, but mental deficiency, conviction of infamous crimes (without restoration to rights of citizenship), bribery or attempt at bribery, bigamy, living in "what is known as patriarchal, plural or celestial marriage," or teaching its validity or belonging to any organization which teaches polygamy,[2] are disqualifications. Chinese or persons of Mongolian descent not born in the United States are also excluded from suffrage rights. Women, however, since 1897, have had the right to vote and to hold office, and they are subject to jury service. An Australian ballot law was passed in 1891. The constitution forbids the chartering of corporations except according to general laws. In 1909 a direct primary elections law was passed which required a majority of all votes to nominate, and, to make a majority possible, provided for preferential (or second-choice) voting, such votes to be canvassed and added to the first-choice vote for each candidate if there be no majority by the first-choice vote. The right of eminent domain over all corporations is reserved to the state; and no corporation may issue stock except for labour, service rendered, or money paid in. The waters of the state are, by the constitution of the state, devoted to the public use, contrary to the common law theory of riparian rights. By statute (1891) it has been provided that in civil actions three-fourths of a jury may render a verdict, and in misdemeanour cases five-sixths may give a verdict. Life insurance agents not residents of Idaho cannot write policies in the state. Divorces may be obtained after residence of six months on the ground of adultery, cruelty, desertion or neglect for one year, habitual drunkenness for the same period, felony or insanity. There are a state penitentiary at Boisé, an Industrial Training School at St Anthony, an Insane Asylum at Blackfoot, and a North Idaho Insane Asylum at Orofino. The care of all defectives was let by contract to other states until 1906, when a state school for the deaf and blind was opened in Boisé. No bureau of charities is in existence, but there is a Labor Commission, and a Commissioner of Immigration and a Commissioner of Public Lands to investigate the industrial resources. The offices of State Engineer and Inspector of Mines have been created. Entry: IDAHO

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 14, Slice 3 "Ichthyology" to "Independence"     1910-1911

The result of trans-border surveys to the north and west of India has been to establish the important geographical fact that it is by two gateways only, one on the north-west and one on the west of India, that the central Asiatic tides of immigration have flowed into the peninsula. The Kabul valley indicates the north-western entrance, and Makran indicates that on the west. By the Kabul valley route, which includes at its head the group of passes across the Hindu Kush which extend from the Khawak to the Kaoshan, all those central Asian hordes, be they Sacae, Yue-chi, Jats, Goths or Huns, who were driven towards the rich plains of the south, entered the Punjab. Some of them migrated from districts which belong to eastern Asia, but none of them penetrated into India by eastern passes. Such tides as set towards the Himalaya broke against their farther buttresses, leaving an interesting ethnographical flotsam in the northern valleys; but they never overflowed the Himalayan barrier. Later most of the historic invasions of India from central Asia followed the route which leads directly from Kabul to Peshawar and Delhi. Entry: ETHNOLOGY

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 7 "Arundel, Thomas" to "Athens"     1910-1911

The British portion of Borgu has an area of about 12,000 sq. m. Up to the period of inclusion within the protectorate of Nigeria little or nothing was known of the country, though there were interesting legends of the antiquity of its history. The population was entirely independent, and resisted with success not only the Fula from the north but also the armies of Dahomey and Mossi from the south and west. Travellers who attempted to penetrate this country had never returned. Since 1898 the country has been opened, and from being the most lawless and truculent of people the Bariba have become singularly amenable and law-abiding. Provincial courts are established, but there is little crime in the province. The British garrisons have been replaced by civil police. The assessment of taxes under British administration was successfully carried out in 1904, and taxes are collected without trouble. In south Borgu the people are agricultural but not industrious or inclined for trade. In the north there are some pastoral settlements of Fula. The Bariba themselves remain agricultural. Cart-roads have been constructed between the town of Kiama and the Niger. The agricultural resources of Borgu are great, and as the population increases with the cessation of war and by immigration the country should show marked development. Shea trees are abundant. Elephants are still to be found in the fifty-mile strip of forest land which stretches between the Niger and the interior of the province. The forest contains valuable sylvan products, and there are great possibilities for the cultivation of rubber. There are also extensive areas of fine land suitable for cotton, with the waterway of the Niger close at hand. Labour might be brought from Yorubaland close by, and a Yoruba colony has been experimentally started. (See NIGERIA and BUSSA.) Entry: BORGU

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Slice 3 "Borgia, Lucrezia" to "Bradford, John"     1910-1911

HAWFINCH, a bird so called from the belief that the fruit of the hawthorn (_Crataegus Oxyacantha_) forms its chief food, the _Loxia coccothraustes_ of Linnaeus, and the _Coccothraustes vulgaris_ of modern ornithologists, one of the largest of the finch family (_Fringillidae_), and found over nearly the whole of Europe, in Africa north of the Atlas and in Asia from Palestine to Japan. It was formerly thought to be only an autumnal or winter-visitor to Britain, but later experience has proved that, though there may very likely be an immigration in the fall of the year, it breeds in nearly all the English counties to Yorkshire, and abundantly in those nearest to London. In coloration it bears some resemblance to a chaffinch, but its much larger size and enormous beak make it easily recognizable, while on closer inspection the singular bull-hook form of some of its wing-feathers will be found to be very remarkable. Though not uncommonly frequenting gardens and orchards, in which as well as in woods it builds its nest, it is exceedingly shy in its habits, so as seldom to afford opportunities for observation. (A. N.) Entry: HAWFINCH

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 1 "Harmony" to "Heanor"     1910-1911

LODZ (_Lódz_; more correctly _Lodzia_), a town of Russian Poland, in the government of Piotrków, 82 m. by rail S.W. of Warsaw. It is situated on the Lodz plateau, which at the beginning of the 19th century was covered with impenetrable forests. Now it is the centre of a group of industrial towns--Zgerz, Leczyca, Pabianice, Konstantinov and Aleksandrov. Chiefly owing to a considerable immigration of German capitalists and workers, Lodz has grown with American-like rapidity. It consists principally of one main street, 7 m. long, and is a sort of Polish Manchester, manufacturing cottons, woollens and mixed stuffs, with chemicals, beer, machinery and silk. One of the very few educational institutions is a professional industrial school. The population, which was only 50,000 in 1872, reached 351,570 in 1900; the Poles numbering about 37%, Germans 40% and Jews 22½%. Entry: LODZ

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 16, Slice 7 "Liquid Gases" to "Logar"     1910-1911

3. _Ancient Egyptian_, as we have seen, does not form the connecting link between Libyan and Cushitic which its geographical position would lead us to expect. It represents a third independent branch, or rather a second one, Libyan and Cushitic forming one division of Hamitic. A few resemblances with Libyan (M. de Rochemonteix in _Mémoires du congrès internat. des orientalistes_, Paris, 1873; elementary) are less due to original relationship than to the general better preservation of the northern idioms (see above). Frequent attempts to detach Egyptian from Hamitic and to attribute it to a Semitic immigration later than that of the other Hamites cannot be proved. Egyptian is, in many respects, more remote from Semitic than the Libyan-Cushitic division, being more agglutinative than the better types of its sister branch, having lost the most characteristic verbal flection (the Hamito-Semitic imperfect), forming the nominal plural in its own peculiar fashion, &c. The advantage of Egyptian, that it is represented in texts of 3000 B.C., while the sister tongues exist only in forms 5000 years later, allows us, e.g. to trace the Semitic principle of triliteral roots more clearly in Egyptian; but still the latter tongue is hardly more characteristically archaic or nearer Semitic than Beja or Kabylic. Entry: 3

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 8 "Haller, Albrecht" to "Harmonium"     1910-1911

_History._--The great Slavonic immigration, which changed the ethnographic face of the Peninsula, began in the 3rd century A.D. and continued at intervals throughout the following four centuries. At the beginning of this movement the Byzantine empire was in actual or nominal possession of all the regions south of the Danube; the greater part of the native Thraco-Illyrian population of the interior had been romanized and spoke Latin. The Thracians, the progenitors of the Vlachs, took refuge in the mountainous districts and for some centuries disappeared from history: originally an agricultural people, they became nomad shepherds. In Albania the aboriginal Illyrian element, which preserved its ancient language, maintained itself in the mountains and eventually forced back the immigrant race. The Greeks, who occupied the maritime and southern regions, were driven to the sea-coast, the islands and the fortified towns. Slavonic place-names, still existing in every portion of the Peninsula, bear witness to the multitude of the invaders and the permanency of their settlements. In the 6th century the Slavs penetrated to the Morea, where a Slavonic dialect was spoken down to the middle of the 15th century. In the 7th the Serbo-Croats invaded the north-western regions (Croatia, Servia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro and northern Albania); they expelled or assimilated the Illyrian population, now represented in Dalmatia by the slavonized Morlachs or Mavro-Vlachs, and appropriated the old Roman colonies on the Adriatic coast. At the end of the 7th century the Bulgars, a Turanian race, crossed the Danube and subjected the Slavonic inhabitants of Moesia and Thrace, but were soon assimilated by the conquered population, which had already become partly civilized. Under their tsar Krum (802-815) the Bulgars invaded the districts of Adrianople and central Macedonia; under Simeon (893-927), who fixed his capital at Preslav, their empire extended from the Adriatic to the Black Sea. In 971 "the first Bulgarian empire" was overthrown by the emperor John Zimisces, but Bulgarian power was soon revived under the Shishman dynasty at Ochrida. In 1014 Tsar Samuel of Ochrida, who had conquered the greater part of the Peninsula, was defeated at Belasitza by the Greek emperor Basil II., and the "western Bulgarian empire" came to an end. In the 10th century the Vlachs reappear as an independent power in Southern Macedonia and the Pindus district, which were known as Great Walachia ([Greek: Megalê Blachia]). The Serbs, who owing to the dissensions of their zhupans or chiefs, had hitherto failed to take a prominent part in the history of the Peninsula, attained unity under Stephen Nemanya (1169-1195), the founder of the Nemanyich dynasty. A new Bulgarian power, known as the "second" or "Bulgaro-Vlach empire," was founded at Trnovo in 1186 under the brothers Ivan and Peter Asên, who led a revolt of Vlachs and Bulgars against the Greeks. In 1204 Constantinople was captured by the Latins of the Fourth Crusade, and Baldwin of Flanders was crowned emperor; the Venetians acquired several maritime towns and islands, and Frankish feudal dynasties were established in Salonica, Athens, Achaea and elsewhere. Greek rule, however, survived in the despotate of Epirus under princes of the imperial house of the Angeli. The Latin tenure of Constantinople lasted only 57 years; the imperial city was recaptured in 1261 by Michael VIII. Palaeologus, but most of the feudal Latin states continued to exist till the Turkish conquest; the Venetians retained their possessions for several centuries later and waged continual wars with the Turks. In 1230 Theodore of Epirus, who had conquered Albania, Great Walachia and Macedonia, was overthrown at Klokotnitza by Ivan Asên II., the greatest of Bulgarian monarchs (1218-1241), who defeated Baldwin at Adrianople and extended his sway over most of the Peninsula. The Bulgarian power declined after [v.03 p.0261] his death and was extinguished at the battle of Velbûzhd (1330) by the Servians under Stephen Urosh III. A short period of Servian predominance followed under Stephen Dushan (1331-1355) whose realm included Albania, Macedonia, Epirus, Thessaly and northern Greece. The Servian incursion was followed by a great Albanian emigration to the southern regions of the Peninsula. After Dushan's death his empire disappeared, and Servia fell a prey to anarchy. For a short time the Bosnians, under their king Stephen Tvrtko (1353-1391), became the principal power in the west of the Peninsula. The disorganization and internecine feuds of the various states prepared the way for the Ottoman invasion. In 1356 the Turks seized Gallipoli; in 1361 the sultan Murad I. established his capital at Adrianople; in 1389 the fate of the Slavonic states was decided by the rout of the Servians and their allies at Kossovo. The last remnant of Bulgarian national existence disappeared with the fall of Trnovo in 1393, and Great Walachia was conquered in the same year. Under Mahommed II. (1451-1481) the Turks completed the conquest of the Peninsula. The despotate of Epirus succumbed in 1449, the duchy of Athens in 1456; in 1453 Constantinople was taken and the decrepit Byzantine empire perished; the greater part of Bosnia submitted in 1463; the heroic resistance of the Albanians under Scanderbeg collapsed with the fall of Croia (1466), and Venetian supremacy in Upper Albania ended with the capture of Scutari (1478). Only the mountain stronghold of Montenegro and the Italian city-states on the Adriatic coast escaped subjection. In the 16th century under Solyman the Magnificent (1520-1566) the Ottoman power attained its greatest height; after the unsuccessful siege of Vienna (1683) it began to decline. The period of decadence was marked in the latter half of the 18th century by the formation of practically independent pashaliks or fiefs, such as those of Scutari under Mahommed of Bushat, Iannina under Ali of Tepelen, and Viden under Pasvan-oglu. The detachment of the outlying portions of the empire followed. Owing to the uncompromising character of the Mahommedan religion and the contemptuous attitude of the dominant race, the subject nationalities underwent no process of assimilation during the four centuries of Turkish rule; they retained not only their language but their religion, manners and peculiar characteristics, and when the power of the central authority waned they still possessed the germs of a national existence. The independence of Greece was acknowledged in 1829, that of Servia (as a tributary principality) in 1830. No territorial changes within the Peninsula followed the Crimean War; but the continuance of the weakened authority of the Porte tended indirectly to the independent development of the various nationalities. The Ionian Islands were ceded by Great Britain to Greece in 1864. The great break-up came in 1878. The abortive treaty of San Stefano, concluded in that year, reduced the Turkish possessions in the Peninsula to Albania, Epirus, Thessaly and a portion of southern Thrace. A large Bulgarian principality was created extending from the Danube to the Aegean and from the Black Sea to the river Drin in Albania; it received a considerable coast-line on the Aegean and abutted on the Gulf of Salonica under the walls of that town. At the same time the frontiers of Servia and Montenegro were enlarged so as to become almost contiguous, and Montenegro received the ports of Antivari and Dulcigno on the Adriatic. From a strategical point of view the Bulgaria of the San Stefano treaty threatened Salonica, Adrianople and Constantinople itself; and the great powers, anticipating that the new state would become a Russian dependency, refused their sanction to its provisions. The treaty of Berlin followed, which limited the principality to the country between the Danube and the Balkans, created the autonomous province of Eastern Rumelia south of the Balkans, and left the remainder of the proposed Bulgarian state under Turkish rule. The Montenegrin frontier laid down at San Stefano was considerably curtailed, Dulcigno, the district north-east of the Tara, and other territories being restored to Turkey; in addition to Nish, Servia received the districts of Pirot and Vranya on the east instead of the Ibar valley on the west; the Dobrudja, somewhat enlarged, was ceded to Rumania, which surrendered southern Bessarabia to Russia. Bosnia and Herzegovina were handed over to Austrian administration; under a subsequent convention with Turkey, Austria sent troops into the sanjak of Novibazar. The complete independence of the principalities of Servia, Rumania and Montenegro was recognized. The claims of Greece, ignored at San Stefano, were admitted at Berlin; an extension of frontier, including Epirus as well as Thessaly, was finally sanctioned by the powers in 1880, but owing to the tenacious resistance of Turkey only Thessaly and the district of Arta were acquired by Greece in 1881. Rumania was proclaimed a kingdom in that year, Servia in 1882. In 1880, after a naval demonstration by the powers, Dulcigno was surrendered to Montenegro in compensation for the districts of Plava and Gusinye restored to Turkey. In 1886 the informal union of Eastern Rumelia with Bulgaria was sanctioned by Europe, the districts of Tumrush (Rhodope) and Krjali being given back to the sultan. In 1897 Crete was withdrawn from Turkish administration, and the Greco-Turkish War of that year was followed by the cession to Turkey of a few strategical points on the Thessalian frontier. In 1908 Bosnia and Herzegovina were annexed to the Dual Monarchy, and Bulgaria (including Eastern Rumelia) was proclaimed an independent kingdom. Entry: 187

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 "Baconthorpe" to "Bankruptcy"     1910-1911

Index: