and sixty-five feet above sea-level, in the fertile but treeless plain
of the small, sluggish Dambovitza. By rail it is seven hundred and
sixteen miles southeast of Vienna, forty miles north of Giurgevo on the
Danube, and one hundred and seventy-nine miles northwest of Varna on the
Black Sea. Viewed from the hills which lie to the west and southwest,
Bucharest presents a most striking appearance. It is sprawled out on
both banks of the river, occupying more than twenty square miles of
territory in the slight depression through which the stream makes its
way.
Most of its houses are low, not more than two stories, with flat roofs
that shimmer in the sun. High above them rise almost innumerable towers,
cupolas and minarets of churches, in which the city abounds. The
Catholic Cathedral is a fine edifice, built 1875-1884.
Great spots and stretches of greenery mark the spacious parks and
gardens and the great boulevards, some of which extend along the river
bank, others out to the distant sections of the city.
Three of these thoroughfares skirt the river on the left, where the
greater part of the city lies. They are the Plevna, Lipscani and
Vacaresci, in order. From the Lipscani extend the Elizabeth Boulevard
and Calea Victorie, the avenue of Victory, which connect with another
broad highway extending nearly around the city on its outskirts.
Parks and drives are frequent. Then there are the botanical and
zoological gardens, and a racecourse, where meets are held at least
twice a year.
In these streets the East meets the West. Women gowned in the latest
Paris creations and men in perfect European dress are in contrast with
the wandering bands of gypsies, the brilliant-clad Roumanian country
folk come in to market, the fez-topped Turk, and the distinctly dressed
Russian cabmen.
Besides the parkways and busy thoroughfares there are many beautiful
buildings--the National Bank, the Athenaeum, with its collection of rare
antiques dating back to the days of the Roman conquest; the National
Library and Theater; the University of Bucharest, founded in 1864; the
many other schools and academies; the great home for the blind
established by the late Queen Elizabeth, better known by her pen name
“Carmen Sylvia”; a hundred-and-one other places that go to make the city
notable as a center of learning, culture and modern progress.
Nearly all of these institutions have homes that are masterpieces of
architecture. The Treasury Building and the Postoffice are notable
examples. It is said that the Roumanian government has the finest home
for its foreign ministry of any country in Europe.
Bucharest is the center for trade between Austria and the Balkan
Peninsula, the chief articles of commerce being textile fabrics, grain,
hides, metal, coal, timber, and cattle. It has been several times
besieged; and between 1793 and 1812 suffered twice from earthquakes,
twice from inundations, once from fire, and twice from pestilence.
=History.=--The Roumanians are descended from the ancient
inhabitants--probably Thracians or Dacians--of the country, modified by
elements derived from the Roman, Gothic, Bulgarian, and Slavonic
invaders. Dacia was a Roman colony from 101 A.D. till 274, when it
became the prey of successive swarms of wandering tribes.
Out of numerous small states, two, Wallachia and Moldavia, had become
dominant, when they had to bow to the Turkish yoke, and became tributary
to the Porte. They were governed by rulers nominated by the Porte, who
were generally extortionate Greeks of Constantinople. Russian
intervention during the eighteenth century somewhat improved the
condition of the downtrodden principalities, which at times were wholly
under Russian influence. In 1859 they elected the same prince, Couza. He
ruled till he was deposed for misgovernment in 1866, and was succeeded
by Prince Charles of Hohenzollern.
The Roumanians fought bravely on the Russian side in the Turkish war of
1877-1878, and at the end obtained complete independence, though they
had to give Russia part of Bessarabia for the Dobruja. In 1881 the
prince was recognized as a king.
Roumania is not a Balkan state, and took no part in the operations of
the Balkan League (Bulgaria, Servia, Montenegro, and Greece) against the
Ottoman Empire in 1912-1913; but during the second war (1913), when
Bulgaria was in opposition to the remaining members of the League,
Roumania was able to exact terms from Bulgaria at the Treaty of
Bucharest, by which Bulgarian territory amounting to 7,609 square miles,
with a population of 285,000, was surrendered to Roumania.
=SERVIA= (_ser´vi-ä_), a kingdom in the Balkan peninsula, southeastern
Europe, is bounded by Austria-Hungary (separated by the Save and Danube)
on the north, Roumania (separated by the Danube) and Bulgaria on the
east, Turkey and Bosnia on the south, and Bosnia (mainly separated by
the Drina) on the west.
=Surface.=--The greater part of the country is mountainous and wooded;
it is full of forests and hills, hedged fields, and fresh meadows,
forming pretty but never very grand landscapes. The principal river
(besides the frontier rivers) is the Morava.
=Production and Industry.=--Nearly nine-tenths of the land is left under
its primitive woods and pastures. The principal crops are maize for home
consumption, and wheat for export; flax, hemp, and tobacco are also
grown, and silk-culture is carried on to a limited extent. The exports
consist of dried prunes, pigs, and wool, besides wheat, wine, hides,
cattle, and horses. The bulk of the trade is with Austria. The mineral
treasures of Servia are considerable; gold, copper, and zinc occur in
the hills which reach towards the “Iron Gates” of the Danube, and coal
beds extend along the river.
Fruit trees exist in very great abundance, especially plums, from which
the brandy of the Servians (_slovovitza_) is extensively made.
=People.=--The Servians are a well-built, stalwart Slavonic (or perhaps
in part Slavonized Albanian) race, proud and martial by temperament; the
most striking feature of their social life is the family community or
_Zadruga_. Their literature is rich in poetry, especially lyrics. The
population, about 3,000,000 at the outbreak of the war of 1912-1913, was
raised by conquests to about 5,000,000. Besides these the Montenegrins
(450,000) are almost all pure Servians by race, as are also the Bosnians
and Herzegovinians (2,000,000), not to speak of over 3,700,000 Servians
in other parts of Austria-Hungary.
The people of Servia belong to the Greek Catholic Church. Education does
not reach a very high standard, although a school exists in every
commune. There is a university at Belgrade.
=Government.=--Servia is a constitutional and hereditary monarchy. The
legislative power is vested in the king and the National Assembly. This
last, called the _Skupshtina_, consists of one hundred and sixty
deputies. Besides this body there is a senate of sixteen members, eight
chosen by the king and eight by the National Assembly; this body acts as
a permanent state council.
=Cities.=--Capital, Belgrade (_Biograd_, “White Fortress”) at the
confluence of the Save and Danube, is now a modern city, with electric
railways and light, and wide streets, containing the university,
national museum and library, and the old Turkish citadel. Population
(1910) 91,000. It lies opposite Semlin, at the confluence of the Save
and Danube, two hundred and fifteen miles southeast of Budapesth. The
walls disappeared in 1862; the last and finest of the five gates was
demolished in 1868. Year by year the town is losing its old Turkish
aspect, becoming more modern, more European. The royal palace, the
residence of the metropolitan, the national theater (1871), and the
public offices are the principal buildings. Opposite the theater is a
bronze monument to the murdered Prince Michael III.
Belgrade has but trifling manufactures of arms, cutlery, saddlery, silk
goods, carpets, etc. It is, however, an entrepôt of trade between Turkey
and Austria.
Other towns are Nish, 25,000; Kragojevatz, 19,000; Leskovatz, 15,000;
Podjeravatz, 14,000; Shabatz, 12,000; Vranya, 11,500; Pirot, 11,000; and
Krutchevatz, 10,000.
The principal towns in the territories acquired in 1913 are Monastir,
60,000; Prisrend, 42,000; Uskub, 32,000; Prilip, 24,000; Istip, or
Shtip, 21,000; Kalkandelen, or Tetovo, 20,000; Koprili, or Veles,
20,000; Dibra, 16,000; Pristina, 16,000; Kumanovo, 15,000; Ochrida,
15,000; and Novi Bazar, 13,000.
=History.=--The Servians came from the Carpathians in the seventh
century, and founded a great state, which, about 1350, embraced Albania
and much of Bulgaria and Macedonia; but at Kossovo in 1389 the Turks
crushed the Servian power and made Servia first tributary and then a
province of the Ottoman empire.
A national rising had some success under Kara George in 1807-1810 and
through Russian influence it was arranged that Servia should have some
measure of internal autonomy. Still more successful was a rising in 1815
under Obrenovich. Under his successors there was considerable progress;
and after the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878 Servia obtained complete
independence and became a kingdom. King Milan abdicated in 1889.
In 1903 a party of officers, representing a wide conspiracy,
assassinated King Alexander and Queen Draga, and Peter Karageorgevitch
was proclaimed king. In 1913 Servia, as a member of the Balkan League
(Bulgaria, Greece, Servia, and Montenegro), waged a successful war
against Turkey. In August, 1913, Servia and Greece were attacked by
Bulgaria, their former ally, owing to disputes concerning the division
of the spoils. The second war collapsed in a few weeks through the
threatened intervention of Roumania, and ended in the Treaty of
Bucharest. Servia also became involved with the Austro-Hungarian
monarchy on a question of the Albanian frontier, where desultory
fighting had taken place for some months, but eventually the smaller
power withdrew from the disputed area. The outcome of the military
operations was the inclusion of the whole of “Old Servia” (the greater
part of Macedonia) within the Servian boundaries, which thus embrace an
area (1914) of close on thirty-four thousand square miles, with a
population estimated at five million.
The assassination of the Austrian heir presumptive, in June, 1914,
brought about an invasion of Servia by the forces of Austria-Hungary,
and started the Pan-European war that is still in progress.
=SPAIN= (Span. _España_), occupying the larger part of the southwestern
peninsula of Europe, is bounded on the south and east by the
Mediterranean, on the west by the Atlantic and Portugal, and on the
north by the Bay of Biscay and France, from which it is separated by the
Pyrenees. Its coast line extends 1,317 miles--712 formed by the
Mediterranean and 605 by the Atlantic--and it comprises a total area of
196,700 English square miles, and a population (1910) of 19,588,688.
=Surface.=--The interior of the peninsula consists of an elevated
tableland, surrounded and traversed by mountain ranges. The uniform
coast line and the great elevation of its central plateau give Spain a
more continental character in its extreme range of temperature than any
of the other peninsulas of Europe.
Outside the plateau lie the highest summits in the country, the Pic de
Néthou, in the Pyrenees, Mulhacen and Veleta in the Sierra Nevada, while
the Picos de Europa in the Cantabrian Range attain over eight thousand
feet. The plateau itself is traversed by four mountain ranges which
separate the valley of the Ebro from that of the Douro; and the whole
of it has a general slight inclination from east or northeast to
southwest. Hence all the considerable rivers except the Ebro flow
westward to the Atlantic.
These include the Guadalaviar, Júcar, and Segura, important rivers of
the eastern watershed. The Minho, Douro, Tagus, Guadiana, and
Guadalquivir drain the western valleys, which are formed between the
mountain ranges of the Peninsula. The Tagus is the largest river of the
Peninsula, the estuary of which forms a magnificent harbor. The
Guadalquivir, though the shortest of the larger streams, is the most
important on account of its fullness and its course through the most
extensive lowland of the Peninsula. The effect of the tide in it is felt
for several leagues above Seville, to which city it is navigable, eighty
miles from the sea.
The configuration of the country renders the climate very varied. In
parts of the northwest the rainfall is among the heaviest in Europe. In
the east and southeast occasionally no rain falls in the whole year. The
rainfall in the western Pyrenees is very great, yet on the northern
slope of the valley of the Ebro there are districts almost rainless. The
western side of the great plateau, speaking generally, is more humid and
much colder than the eastern, where irrigation is necessary for
successful cultivation.
=Production and Industry.=--Galicia is almost a cattle country;
Estremadura possesses vast flocks of sheep and herds of swine. The
country is generally fertile, and well adapted to agriculture and the
cultivation of heat-loving fruits--as olives, oranges, lemons, almonds,
pomegranates, and dates. The agricultural products comprise wheat,
barley, maize, oats, rice, with hemp and flax of the best quality. The
vine is cultivated in every province; in the southwest, Jerez, the
well-known sherry and tent wines are made; in the southeast, the Malaga
and Alicante.
Spain is rich in iron, copper and lead, but the mines have been only
partially developed.
The seat of the manufacturing industries is chiefly Catalonia. Cotton
and woolen manufactures engage many hands, and there are also
considerable silk, paper, and cork industries.
The principal exports are wine, copper and copper ores, lead, iron ores,
olive oil, raisins, oranges, cork, esparto grass, wool, salt,
quicksilver, grapes, etc.
=People.=--The basis of the population of the whole Peninsula is that of
the old Iberians, modified by the admixture of Celtic, Phœnician, Roman,
Germanic, and Moorish (Arab) invaders who from time to time gained
ascendency in the land and became intermixed with the ancient
inhabitants.
Until lately the only religion tolerated was that of the state, the
Roman Catholic; now a certain toleration is allowed to other
denominations.
Education varies greatly among different classes and in different
provinces. In the large towns and in some of the provinces a great
effort is made to keep the higher and the technical schools on a level
with the best in other European countries. In other parts the neglect
is very great. There are ten universities: Madrid, Barcelona, Granada,
Oviedo, Salamanca, Seville, Santiago, Valencia, Valladolid, and
Saragossa. Primary education is by law compulsory, but the law is not
strictly enforced, which accounts for the large percentage of
illiterates.
=Government.=--The government of Spain is an hereditary monarchy founded
on the constitution of 1876. The Cortes consists of two bodies--the
Senate, of about three hundred and sixty members (one-half elected), and
a Congress of Deputies, elected at the rate of one member to every fifty
thousand inhabitants.
=Cities.=--The principal cities are Madrid, population 597,573;
Barcelona, 587,219; Valencia, 233,348; Seville, 155,366; Malaga,
136,192; Murcia, 125,380; Saragossa, 111,701; Carthagena, 96,983;
Bilbao, 93,536; and San Sebastian, 92,514; and there are also twelve
towns with over 50,000 inhabitants.
[Illustration: =THE ROYAL PALACE, MADRID,=
one of the finest in Europe, has a frontage of four hundred and seventy
feet, is one hundred feet high, and built of white stone. Among the
thirty rooms on the first floor, the largest and finest is the Hall of
the Ambassadors. The vault was painted by Tiepolo, and represents the
exaltation of the Spanish monarchs. The walls are draped with velvet
embroidered with gold, and twelve immense mirrors also decorate it. On
the right of the throne, which is guarded by four gilded bronze lions,
is a statue of Prudence, and on the left that of Justice. The chapel is
extremely rich, but not very handsome. There is also a library, a
theatre, and the magnificent collection of Flemish tapestries.]
=Madrid= (Span. pron. _Madh-reedh´_), the capital of Spain, is situated
in the department of Madrid (part of the ancient province of New
Castile), eight hundred and eighty miles by rail from Paris. It is built
on a treeless, ill-watered plateau, on the left bank of the Manzanares,
two thousand and sixty feet above the sea-level.
The Manzanares is merely a mountain-torrent falling into the Jarama, a
tributary of the Tagus; water is brought from the Guadarrama Mountains
by an aqueduct forty-two miles in length.
The general aspect of the city is clean and gay, while the older parts
are picturesque; no trace now remains of the mediæval city. The new
streets are generally fine, broad, and planted with trees; the houses
well built, lofty, and inhabited by several families living in flats. A
great feature is the magnificent open spaces, chief of which is the
Prado, running north and south through the eastern part of the city,
and, with its continuations, three miles long. It contains four handsome
fountains with groups of statuary, a fine obelisk to commemorate the
gallant struggle with the French (May 2, 1808), monuments to Columbus,
Isabel the Catholic, etc.
The picture-gallery here, founded by Charles III., is one of the finest
in Europe, and contains many of the masterpieces of Velasquez, Murillo,
Raphael, Tintoretto, Rubens, Teniers, and Van Dyck. Two other parks are
the Buen Retiro, the fashionable promenade on the east of the city, and
the Casa de Campo on the west. Midway between its extremities the Prado
is crossed at right angles by the Calle de Alcala, the finest street in
the city, about a mile in length, and leading from outside the fine
triumphal arch rebuilt by Charles III. to the Puerta del Sol, the square
which is the heart of Madrid; here converge the principal electric
lines, and in it and the streets branching off from it are situated the
principal shops and places of business.
The finest square is the Plaza Mayor, formerly the scene of bull-fights;
it contains a gigantic equestrian statue of Philip III., its founder. On
the west of the city are the new cathedral and the royal palace; the
latter, commenced in 1738 to replace the ancient Alcazar, which had been
burned down, was finished in 1764 at a cost of fifteen million dollars.
Other fine buildings are the palace of justice, formerly a convent; the
houses of parliament; Buena Vista Palace, now the ministry of war, and
the new national bank.
Besides a flourishing university, founded by Cardinal Ximenes, and two
high schools, Madrid contains numerous municipal schools. Madrid is
well provided with newspapers and public libraries, the chief being the
National Library, with more than half a million volumes, and the library
of the university.
The opera house is one of the finest in the world; all the theaters must
by law be lighted by electricity. The bull ring, situated outside the
gates on the east, is a solid structure seating fourteen thousand.
Iron founding and the manufacture of furniture, carriages, and fancy
articles are carried on on a small scale. The manufacture of tobacco
employs many persons, chiefly women. The publishing trade is important,
and books are well printed and cheap. The old tapestry factory still
turns out beautiful work, as do the potteries at Moncloa.
[Illustration: =THE ESCURIAL=
is thirty-two miles from Madrid. It is called by the Spaniards the
eighth wonder of the world. Philip II. built it in 1685 to commemorate
the taking of St. Quentin, and to accomplish a vow which he made to St.
Lawrence. This vast building has fifteen principal entrances, and more
than one thousand one hundred windows. It is entirely built of granite,
and its appearance is monotonous and cold. It contains a church, the
Capilla Mayor, filled with royal monuments, the sacristy, a vast vaulted
hall with a marble altar ornamented with bronze, the choir, and the
pantheon or vault, where the kings of Spain are buried. The pantheon is
reached by a magnificent staircase of colored marbles. The urn
containing the remains of Charles V. was opened in 1870, and the body
was even then in perfect preservation. The library of books and the
manuscript library attracts the attention of scholars. The main entrance
to the palace is in the middle of the north façade. The Hall of Battles,
is covered with frescos representing Spanish conquests; and the
apartments in which Philip II. lived and died. The Pavilion of Charles
IV., called the Casa del Principe, is a charming little museum of
paintings, sculptures, and mosaics. The King’s Seat, where Philip II.
came to sit when presiding over the work of the palace, is also to be
seen.]
=History.=--Spain was originally occupied by Iberian tribes (akin to the
present Basque inhabitants of the north), who were partially overlaid by
invading Celts. The Carthaginians established themselves in the south of
Spain in the third century B. C. The Romans appeared in force in the
next century, but it was not till after a fierce and prolonged
resistance from Iberians and Celtiberians that, under Augustus, the
Roman conquest was complete. Soon Spain, thoroughly Romanized, was
contributing largely to Latin literature and Roman culture.
The Germanic invaders from the north, Suevi, Vandals, and Visigoths,
crushed the Roman power in the fifth century A. D., and Spain became a
province of the Visigothic kingdom (573 A. D.). Then followed the
Moorish conquest, which was very rapid (714-732) and complete, except in
the north and northwest. The several Christian kingdoms of Spain:
Castile, Leon, Navarre, Aragon, etc., as well as Portugal--were formed
by the gradual depression of the Moors; but Moorish Granada was not
conquered till 1492, and Spain was not united under one rule till 1512.
Spain became a European state with the union of Ferdinand of Aragon and
Isabella of Castile in 1469, and the New World was discovered for them.
Under the Emperor Charles V., in the sixteenth century, Spain was the
most important country in Europe; but the population was unequal to the
drain upon it caused by constant warfare, emigration, and adverse
economical and industrial conditions.
With Philip II., Charles’s son, the decline of Spain set in, though now
for sixty years Portugal was under the Spanish crown. The Bourbon
dynasty brought complication in the wars of Louis XIV., and little
advantage from the recovery of Naples and Sicily. The nadir of Spanish
history is in the time of Napoleon, when Spain, in spite of some
national efforts, was nominally a kingdom, but really a mere province of
the French empire.
In spite of the valiant patriotism shown in resisting the French, and
the ultimate recovery of national independence through the overthrow of
Napoleon, the history of Spain in the nineteenth century was in the main
inglorious. In Cuba there had been trouble since 1895, the final outcome
of which was the disastrous Spanish-American war, leading to the loss of
the greater colonies. The twentieth century has seen gradual recovery,
growing toleration, a breach with the Vatican, revolutionary and
repressive movements, and ambitions in northwest Africa.
In June, 1911, the situation in Morocco led to the dispatch of a Spanish
force to Alcazar. But the indignation aroused in France at this action
was quite overshadowed by the sensation caused when it became known that
Germany had sent a warship to Agadir. Labor troubles in Spain broke out
in September, 1911. Martial law was proclaimed throughout the country,
and a royal decree suspended the constitutional guarantees, which were
not re-established until October 22. In March, 1912, the ministry was
reconstituted, but, in 1916, during the European war, again gave way
over grave questions over neutrality and internal conditions.
=SWEDEN= (Swedish _Sverige_), a kingdom of northern Europe, occupies the
eastern side of the Scandinavian peninsula. From 1814 till the amicable
but definitive separation in 1905, it was associated with Norway under
one crown. Its greatest length, north to south, is close to 1000 miles,
its greatest breadth 300; its area 170,970 square miles; and its coast
line 1550 miles. Besides many skerry islands, Sweden owns Gothland and
Œland.
=Surface.=--The country may be generally described as a broad plain
sloping southeastward from the Kjölen Mountains to the Baltic. The only
mountainous districts adjoin Norway; the peaks sink in altitude from
seven thousand feet in the north to three thousand eight hundred feet at
the southern end of the chain. Immediately south of this point a
subsidiary chain strikes off to the southeast, and, threading the lake
region of central Sweden, swells out beyond into a tableland with a mean
elevation of eight hundred and fifty feet and maximum of twelve hundred
and forty feet. Fully two-thirds of the entire surface lies lower than
eight hundred feet, and one-third lower than three hundred feet, above
sea level.
Sweden is separated popularly and geographically into three great
divisions--Norrland, Svealand, and Gothland. Norrland, in the north, is
a region of vast and lonely forests and rapid mountain streams, often
forming fine cascades and ribbon-like lakes before they reach the Gulf
of Bothnia.
The central division of Svealand, or Sweden proper, is a region of big
lakes, and contains most of the mines. Lakes occupy nearly fourteen
thousand square miles, or eight and two-tenths per cent of the total
area; several of the largest, as Vener, Vetter, Hjelmar, Mälar, are
connected with one another and the sea by rivers and canals. Lake Mälar
contains some thirteen hundred islands, many beautifully wooded, with
royal palaces or noblemen’s castles; and its shores are studded with
prosperous towns, castles, palaces, and factories.
Gothland, the southern division, contains a much higher proportion of
cultivated land, and its wide plains are all under agriculture.
=Climate.=--The climate of Sweden is continental in the north, along the
Norwegian frontier, and on the southern plateau. The lakes in the colder
districts of the north are ice bound for some two hundred and twenty
days in the year; in the south only for about ninety days. The rainfall
is greatest on the coast of the Cattegat.
=Production and Industry.=--The principal articles of cultivation are
the various cereals--oats, rye, barley, wheat--and potatoes. The forests
are very extensive, covering one-half of the surface of the country, and
consisting of pine, birch, fir; these are of great importance, supplying
timber, pitch, and tar, and also the chief fuel.
The mineral products are extremely rich: iron of excellent quality, that
known as the Dannemora iron, being converted into the finest steel; gold
and silver in small proportions; copper, lead, nickel, zinc, cobalt,
alum, sulphur, porphyry, and marble. There is a railroad opening up the
rich iron ore districts of Lapland, and mineral trains run from
Gellivare and Kiruna to Lulea on the Gulf of Bothnia and to Narvik on
the Atlantic. Considerable mines of coal are worked in Scania.
The chief articles of export are timber, butter, iron, steel, wood pulp,
paper, matches, stone, iron and zinc ores, etc.
=People.=--The Swedes are a Germanic people, tall and strong, but with
more variety of characteristics than the Norwegians. The Swedish
language, allied closely to Norse and Danish, appears in very many
dialects. It has had, especially since the sixteenth century, an
extensive literature.
Almost the whole population is Protestant, adhering to the Lutheran
Church, members of which alone are permitted to hold public offices.
Education is well advanced in both countries, public instruction being
gratuitous and compulsory. Sweden has the Universities of Upsala, which
dates from 1477, and of Lund, founded in 1668, besides the many
scientific and educational institutions of Stockholm.
=Government.=--The constitution of Sweden dates from 1809, but in 1866,
when the separate meetings of the four estates--nobles, clergy,
burghers, and peasants--were done away, the legislative system was much
modified. The executive power is vested in the king, acting under the
advice of a Council of State; the legislative in the two Chambers of the
Diet, both of which are elected by the people--the first for nine years
from proprietors, the second for three years from a lower class. The
administration of justice is entirely independent of the government.
=Cities.=--The capital, Stockholm, has a population (1913) of 382,085.
In addition to the capital, there are fourteen towns with above 20,000
population, viz.: Göteborg, 178,030; Malmö, 95,821; Norrköping, 46,180;
Gefle, 35,736; Helsingborg, 37,385; Örebro, 33,182.
Malmö, on the sound opposite Copenhagen, is the outlet of the corn
granary of the southern plain; Norrköping, on an inlet of the Baltic,
after Stockholm, is the busiest manufacturing town of Sweden, its mills
being driven by the rapids of the Motala; Gefle lies north of Stockholm,
and is second only to it as a seaport on the Baltic side of the country;
and Karlskrona, on the south coast, is the naval arsenal and
headquarters of the fleet of Sweden.
[Illustration: =PANORAMA OF STOCKHOLM, CAPITAL OF SWEDEN=]
Within recent years a network of railways has been formed over southern
Sweden and Norway, connecting the capital towns with the ports of
Göteborg, Malmö, and many other points.
=Stockholm= (_l_ pronounced), stands on several islands and the adjacent
mainland, between a bay of the Baltic and Lake Mälar, in a situation
that is accounted one of the most picturesque in Europe.
Its nucleus is an island in mid-channel called “the Town”; on it stand
the imposing royal palace; the chief church (St. Nicholas), in which the
kings are crowned; the House of the Nobles; the town house; the
ministries of the kingdom; and the principal wharf, a magnificent
granite quay, fronting east.
Immediately west of the central island lies the Knights’ Island
(_Riddarholm_); it is almost entirely occupied with public buildings as
the old Houses of Parliament; the old Franciscan church, in which all
the later sovereigns of Sweden have been buried; the royal archives, and
the chief law-courts.
North of these two islands lie the handsomely built districts of
Norrmalm, separated from them by a narrow channel, in which is an islet
with the new Houses of Parliament. In Norrmalm are the National Museum
with valuable prehistoric collections, coins, paintings, sculptures; the
principal theaters; the Academy of Fine Arts; the barracks; the Hop
Garden, with the Royal Library, two hundred and fifty thousand volumes
and eight thousand manuscripts, and with the statue of Linnæus; the
Academy of Sciences; the Museum of Northern Antiquities; the
Observatory, etc.
Ship Island (_Skeppsholm_), immediately east of “the Town” island, is
the headquarters of the Swedish navy, and is connected with a smaller
island on the southeast, that is crowned with a citadel. Beyond these
again, and farther to the east, lies the beautiful island of the
Zoological Gardens. Immediately south of “the Town” island is the
extensive district of Södermalm, the houses of which climb up the steep
slopes that rise from the water’s edge. Handsome bridges connect the
central islands with the northern and southern districts; quick little
steamboats go to the beautiful islands in Lake Mälar on the west, and
eastward toward the Baltic Sea, forty miles distant.
Sugar, tobacco, silks and ribbons, candles, linen, cotton, and leather
are produced, and there are large iron foundries and machine shops.
Though the water approaches are frozen up during winter, Stockholm
exports iron and steel, oats and tar.
Stockholm was founded by Birger Jarl in 1255, and grew to be the capital
only in modern times.
=History.=--Sweden was originally occupied by Lapps and Finns, but
probably (1500 B. C.) Teutonic tribes drove them into the forests of the
north, and at the dawn of history we find Svealand occupied by Swedes
(Svea) and Gothland by the Goths.
Gothland was christianized and also conquered by the Danes in the ninth
century, while Svealand remained fanatically heathen till the time of
St. Eric (twelfth century), who conquered Finland, henceforth a Swedish
possession. For a century Goths and Swedes had different kings, but
gradually melted into one people toward the end of the thirteenth
century.
Now arose bitter feuds between king, nobility, peasants, and universal
turbulence prevailed; agriculture, industry, literature and culture
progressed not at all or hardly existed. Even after the union of Sweden,
Norway, and Denmark under one monarch (1397), Sweden was torn by
conflicts which lasted down to the expulsion of Danish oppressors, and
the restoration of Swedish autonomy by the national rising under
Gustavus Vasa (1524), the ablest prince who had yet ruled the Swedes.
Under him the reformation was heartily accepted. Gustavus Adolphus and
the Swedes were its bulwark, not merely at home but in Germany in the
Thirty Years’ war; and by the acquirement of Bremen, Verden, and
Pomerania, Sweden became (1648) a member of the empire.
[Illustration: =GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS PLACE AND THE ROYAL THEATER,
STOCKHOLM=]
[Illustration: =NEW UNIVERSITY, UPSALA, SWEDEN=
Upsala is best reached by boat from Stockholm. Here the celebrated
university, founded 1477, by Jacob Ulfson, now magnificently housed,
stands in the Drottninggatan. Library, the largest in Sweden, with three
hundred thousand volumes, including the Codex Argenteus, or Gothic
Gospel of Bishop Ulphilas (318-388), written in silver letters on purple
vellum, also the Atlantica of Rudbeck, and the sacred book of the
Druses, with the Edda Manuscript. An Observatory is attached to the
University. The Botanical Garden has many rare plants and a bust of
Linnæus (Linné), who was professor and physician here, living at
Hammarby.]
Under Charles XII. and his successor, the enmity of Denmark, Poland, and
Russia wrested her new conquests from Sweden, and gave Livonia,
Esthonia, Ingermanland, and Karelia (which had long been Swedish) to
Russia; thus reducing Sweden from the rank of a first-rate European
power. After a bloody struggle Sweden had to cede Finland (1809) to
Russia. Norway was united by a personal union (i. e., by the monarch)
with Sweden in 1810; and in 1818 the French general Bernadotte was
elected king (as Charles XIV.).
Norway’s demand for a larger measure of home rule led in 1905 to a
complete separation.
=SWITZERLAND= (Ger. _Schweiz_; Fr. _Suisse_), is a confederation of
twenty-two cantons, lying practically in the very center of Europe,
between France, Germany, Austria, and Italy. No part of it is within one
hundred miles of the sea. It is also a very small country (sixteen
thousand square miles), not much larger than the half of Scotland. The
greatest length from east to west is two hundred and sixteen miles, the
width from north to south being one hundred and thirty-seven miles. The
population in 1910 was 3,741,971.
=Surface.=--The southern boundary lies for the most part along the
highest crests of the Alps, which descend by the Italian valleys to the
plain of Lombardy; the summits of the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa rise on
the boundary line, which is crossed by the Great St. Bernard, Simplon,
and Splügen passes. North of this mass of heights the deep valleys of
the Upper Rhone flowing west to the Lake of Geneva, and of the Upper
Rhine flowing northeast to that of Constance, mark a deep trench all
across the country. In the heart of the country rises the mass of the
Bernese Alps or Oberland, the Alps of Uri and Glarus, with the summits
of the Finsteraarhorn and Jungfrau. Still farther north the country
descends gradually by less elevated mountains and hills to the
undulating lowland of Switzerland (still one thousand five hundred feet
above the sea), which extends in a curve from the Lake of Constance on
the northeast along the Valley of the Aar, by the Lakes of Biel (Bienne)
and Neuchâtel to that of Geneva. Beyond this the long parallel ranges of
the Jura close in the country on the northwestern frontier.
More than half of the whole country is covered by rocks, glaciers,
forest, and mountain pasture, and cannot be permanently inhabited.
=Rivers and Lakes.=--All the northern part of the country belongs to the
basin of the Rhine flowing to the North Sea. That river, having purified
its waters in its passage through the Boden-See or Lake of Constance
(partly in Switzerland), is joined by the Aar, which rises near the
Grimsel, and flows through the lakes of Brienz and Thun. To this basin
also belong the lakes of Zürich and Zug, Luzerne, Neuchâtel, and Biel or
Bienne. The southwestern district drains by the Rhône to the
Mediterranean, through the Lake of Geneva or Leman, which is partly in
Switzerland, partly in France.
The smaller part of the southern boundary that laps over the Italian
valleys of the Alps includes the head of Lake Maggiore, in Switzerland,
and the upper Ticino, which flows through it to the plain of Lombardy
and the Adriatic. In the east the boundary embraces only one valley,
which drains to the Danube, the Engadine, through which the Upper Inn
flows northeastward.
From the elevation at which they rise, and their rapids, the rivers of
Switzerland are of no value in navigation. The Rhine only begins to be
freely navigable at Basel, where it leaves the country. The larger
lakes, however, have little steamers plying from shore to shore; that of
Geneva, forty-seven miles long, has a considerable traffic.
=Climate and Scenery.=--The climate naturally varies with the elevation
above the sea level, from that of the perennial snows at an elevation of
about nine thousand feet, downward through the pastoral alpine region
and the tall pine forests, to the lower lands in which the chestnut
flourishes, and where orchard fruits, the vine, mulberry, and wheat can
be grown. There is a variation of about thirty-four and one-half degrees
in the mean temperature--between fifty-four and one-half degrees
Fahrenheit at Bellinzona, and twenty degrees on the Theodule Pass.
Switzerland has been called the playground of Europe, and is visited by
large numbers of tourists from all parts of the world, attracted by its
magnificent mountain and lake scenery.
The amount of money brought annually by tourists is estimated at twenty
million dollars.
[Illustration: =STATUE OF TELL, ALTDORF, SWITZERLAND=
Altdorf, near the southern end of Lake Luzerne, and capital of the
canton of of Uri, is in the mountain-walled valley, and is the reputed
scene of Tell’s shooting the apple. The side is marked by a fountain.
The colossal statue of Tell is near by. His birthplace, near Bürglen, is
occupied by a frescoed chapel.]
Geneva and Lausanne, on the beautiful lake of Geneva, Interlaken
(between the lakes of Thun and Brienz), Luzerne and the Rigi,
Schaffhausen at the Rhine fall, Zermatt beneath Monte Rosa, Lugano in
the heart of the Italian lake district, are notable tourist stations;
St. Moritz in the Engadine, and Leuk (Louèche) in the Rhone Valley,
Pfäffers in that of the Upper Rhine, are famous for their baths.
Switzerland as a whole--with its mountains, lakes, glaciers, waterfalls,
valleys and cities--has been described by an American poet as a “cluster
of delights and grandeurs.”
=Production and Industry.=--The forests, which cover about a sixth of
the surface, are of immense value to the country, where most of the
houses are built of wood. The mountain pastures give the characteristic
employments of the people of the Alps and Jura, as herdsmen and
shepherds, tending their cattle and making cheese in the mountain
châlets during summer.
Agriculture is followed chiefly in the valleys, where wheat, oats,
maize, barley, flax, hemp, and tobacco are produced.
The textile industries are the most important, the chief centers being
Zürich, Basel, Glarus, and St. Gall. The chief are silk, cotton, and
linen fabrics, besides raw silk. Next comes the clock and watchmaking
industry, established at Geneva in 1587, which spread to the cantons of
Neuchâtel, Berne and Vaud.
Wood carving was introduced in the Oberland about 1820. Other
manufactures are chemicals, chocolate, and condensed milk.
Salt, obtained on the banks of the Rhine, is the only valuable mineral
of the country.
=People.=--Three-fourths of the population of Switzerland, occupying all
the center and north of the country, are Germanic; the remaining fourth
belongs to three branches of the Romanic family--the French in the west,
the Italian in the south, and the Rhæto-Romanic in the southeast. A
little more than half of the population is Protestant, the remainder,
chiefly in the mountain region, Roman Catholic.
Education is widely diffused, especially in the Protestant districts of
the northeast, where the law of compulsory education is rigidly
enforced. There are universities at Basel, Berne, Zurich, Geneva, and
Lausanne.
=Government.=--At the close of the political storms which raged in
Europe from 1789 till 1815, the affairs of Switzerland were re-arranged
by the Congress of Vienna, which provided for the perpetual neutrality
and independence of Switzerland in its twenty-two cantons. Since 1848
the independent states or cantons of Switzerland have become a united
confederacy (Bundes Staat), the supreme legislative and executive
authority of which is vested in a parliament of two chambers, sitting at
Berne--the Stände Rath or States Council, and the National Rath, the
first composed of two members for each canton, the second of
representatives of the people according to numbers. The cantons are
still, however, in a great measure, independent democracies, each making
its own laws and managing its local affairs.
_Referendum and Initiative._--These are two political institutions
peculiar to Switzerland, the furthest developments of democracy yet
attained.
The referendum, which has now spread throughout the whole Confederation,
and by means of which all legislative acts passed in the Federal or
Cantonal Assemblies may be referred to the people _en masse_, was fully
developed in 1874, and it has been put in operation on an average once a
year. The decisions have generally shown a conservative rather than a
radical tendency on the part of the people.
_Initiative_ is the exercise of the right granted to voters to initiate
proposals for the enactment of new laws or for the alteration or
abolition of the old ones.
=Cities.=--The capital of the Swiss Confederation is Berne, population
(1910) 85,650. In 1910 there were twelve communes with populations
exceeding 20,000: Zürich, 190,733; Bâle, 132,280; Geneva, 123,160;
Berne, 85,650; Lausanne, 63,296; St. Gall, 37,657; Chaux-de-Fonds,
37,626; and Luzerne, 39,152.
[Illustration: =THE BERNE CATHEDRAL=
was built in 1421-1573, and restored in 1850, with a richly sculptured
portal, some good stained glass of the fifteenth century, and a famous
organ. From the Terrace in the rear of the Cathedral, the snowy peaks of
the Bernese Alps are seen in a glorious panorama.]
=Berne=, since 1849 the capital of Switzerland, sixty-eight miles by
rail southwest of Basel, is situated on a lofty sandstone promontory
formed by the winding Aar, which surrounds it on three sides. It is one
of the best and most regularly built towns in Europe, as it is the
finest in Switzerland. The houses are massive structures of freestone,
resting upon shop-lined arcades. Rills of water flow through the
streets. The view of the Alpine peaks from the city is magnificent.
The principal public buildings are a Gothic cathedral, the magnificent
Federal Council Hall, the mint, the hospital, and the university. Berne
has an interesting museum, and a valuable public library of fifty
thousand volumes.
It was founded in 1191, was made a free imperial city in 1218, under
Frederick II.; and between 1288 and 1339 successfully resisted the
attacks of Rudolf of Hapsburg, Albert, his son, and Louis of Bavaria.
The “Disputation of Berne” between Catholics and Reformers in 1528
prepared the way for the acceptance of the reformed doctrine.
On account of the traditionary derivation of its name (Swabian _bern_,
“a bear”), bears are maintained in a public bear-pit.
=History.=--The original inhabitants of Switzerland were the Celtic
Helvetii, and the Rhætii of doubtful affinity. Both were conquered by
Julius Cæsar and the generals of Augustus, and Romanized. Overrun by the
Burgundians in the west, and their Germanic kinsmen the Alemannians in
the east, Helvetia became subject to the Frankish kings and were
christianized in the seventh century.
Most of the country was subsequently part of the Holy Roman Empire; and
in 1273 a Swiss noble, Rudolf of Hapsburg in Aargau, became German
emperor. Soon after his death (in 1291) the inhabitants of Uri, Schwyz,
and Unterwalden formed a league to defend their common interests, and in
1315 crushed an Austrian army at Morgarten. In 1332 Luzerne joined the
alliance, and in 1353, Berne, Zürich, Glarus, and Zug. The Austrians
were again routed in Sempach in 1386, and in 1388 at Näfels.
The Swiss next had a fierce but triumphant struggle with Charles the
Bold of Burgundy, whom they routed at Grandson and Morat in 1476, and
finally at Nancy (where Charles was slain) in 1477.
When the Reformation began there were thirteen cantons, and the cantons
took opposite sides from the beginning, not without serious turmoil and
bloodshed. The treaty of Westphalia in 1648 recognized Switzerland as an
independent state. Some of the cantons were strictly aristocratic and
some highly democratic, and there was much discontent long before the
French Revolution, when, in 1798, between civil strife and French
armies, the old republic (or rather alliance) came to an end.
The Helvetic Republic of nineteen cantons, under French auspices,
endured till 1805; then a new republican constitution was adopted, the
Federal Pact of twenty-two cantons. On Napoleon’s downfall, Valais,
Neuchâtel, and Geneva, which had been incorporated with France, were
restored, and Swiss neutrality and inviolability were recognized by the
treaty of Vienna in 1815. Religious troubles led to a Catholic league in
1844, which was suppressed by the Federal forces in 1847. The present
constitution was adopted in 1848, but revised in 1874. In 1891 a demand
for popular initiative for measures was carried. In 1908 Switzerland
entered into an international convention for compulsory arbitration at
the court of the Hague.
[Illustration: =BERNE CLOCK TOWER,=
famous for its Bear Chimes--figures which perform every time the clock
strikes.]
=TURKEY, or Ottoman Empire=, comprises the wide but heterogeneous
territories really or nominally subject to the Osmânlî Sultan, in
Europe, Asia, and Africa. These territories, which once extended from
the Danube to the cataracts of the Nile, and from the Euphrates to the
borders of Morocco, have been greatly reduced in the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries.
_Asiatic Turkey_ is now the true center of gravity of the empire; it
includes Anatolia (the great plateau of Asia Minor), the lowlands of
Mesopotamia, the highlands of Kurdistan and Armenia, and the island of
Samos. The total area of the empire has been estimated as follows:
=Area in Square Miles=
Turkey in Europe 12,000
Turkey in Asia:
Anatolia 193,800
Armenia and Kurdistan 72,600
Mesopotamia and Syria 244,460
Turkish Arabia 172,000
-------
Total 694,860
=Estimated Population=
Turkey in Europe 2,755,000
Turkey in Asia:
Anatolia 9,175,000
Armenia and Kurdistan 2,500,000
Mesopotamia and Syria 4,650,000
Turkish Arabia 1,100,000
----------
Total 20,150,000
Of the above totals only 700,000 square miles (with a population of
21,000,000) are directly under Turkish government.
_European Turkey_ consists of the provinces of Adrianople,
Constantinople and Chatalja, and is separated from Asia by the Bosphorus
at Constantinople and by the Dardanelles (Hellespont), the only
political neighbor being Bulgaria, on the northwest.
[Illustration: =PANORAMA OF THE BOSPHORUS AT THE NARROWEST PART=
The Bosphorus, the straight connecting the Sea of Azov with the Black
Sea, is so-called after Io, who swam over it in the shape of a heifer.
On the western shore is the city of Constantinople. The Bosphorus at
this point is about five hundred and fifty yards wide.]
=Physical Features.=--Turkey in Europe is a mountainous country and the
chief physical features as it is now limited is the strait of Bosphorus
and the Dardanelles. The Bosphorus, which guards the approach to the
Black Sea from the Sea of Marmora, is at the same time the focus of all
maritime trade between the Mediterranean and Russia, etc., as well as of
the overland routes from Europe into Asia Minor. It has fitly been
likened to a tortuous river valley over whose wooded banks are scattered
forts and towers, cities and villages, castles and parks. The southern
gate of the Sea of Marmora is the Dardanelles, which gives an opening
into the Ægean.
Turkey in Asia is still more mountainous. The two almost parallel
ranges, Taurus and Anti-Taurus, which are the basis of its mountain
system, cover almost the whole of the peninsula of Asia Minor or
Anatolia with their ramifications and offshoots, forming the surface
into elevated plateaus, deep valleys, and enclosed plains. From the
Taurus chain the Lebanon range proceeds southwards parallel to the coast
of Syria, and, diminishing in elevation in Palestine, terminates on the
Red Sea coast at Sinai.
The Euphrates, Tigris, Orontes, and Kizil-Ermak are the chief rivers.
(See Asia Minor.)
=Climate.=--The climate of Turkey in Asia is as varied as the physical
features. The great plateau on the north has a distinctly continental
climate, rigorous severe winters with intense scorching heat in summer;
in the eastern part of the plateau region the mountains are covered with
snow for two-thirds of the year, and some of the principal ranges are
capped with perpetual snow; here the peasants build their dwellings
underground to escape the severity of the seasons. Towards the west the
winters are not quite so severe, but the variations of temperature are
excessive.
=Products and Industry.=--The soil of European Turkey is for the most
part very fertile, and the cultivated products include most of those
usual in central and southern Europe--maize, rice, rye, barley, millet,
besides tobacco madder, and cotton. The mineral products are iron in
abundance, argentiferous lead ore, copper, sulphur, salt, alum, and a
little gold; some deposits of coal have been found, but none are worked.
Sheep-breeding is largely carried on.
In Asiatic Turkey the mineral wealth is great; coal and iron are found
together in considerable quantities; rich mines of copper exist in the
mountains on the south of the Black Sea, and in the Taurus near
Diarbekir lead and silver are found at intervals along a line connecting
Angora, Sivas, and Trebizond in the north, and the eastern Taurus in the
south; green, black, and white marble, and the finest quality of
granite, are to be had in many parts of the mountain section.
With a fertile arable soil and a suitable climate, nearly every
agricultural product flourishes. Oats, barley, and wheat are produced in
great abundance. Almost all kinds of garden produce and orchard fruits
abound, grapes and oranges are to be had all round the Mediterranean
coast, as well as the choicest tobacco, opium, valonia and madder.
The mulberry is everywhere cultivated for feeding the silkworms, and
cotton is grown in most of the western valleys. Vast groves of boxwood
and other valuable trees clothe the seaward slopes of the hills. Dates
are produced for export in the Babylonian plain, where wheat is
indigenous. Petroleum and bitumen springs are found in the Euphrates
valley.
Angora is famous for its flocks of goats, which produce the mohair of
commerce, and enormous quantities of wool come from the countless flocks
of sheep tended by the wandering Bedouin and Kurd shepherds.
There are at present no manufactures worth mention. The sponge fisheries
of the Mediterranean are a source of great wealth.
=Commerce.=--The exports include tobacco, cereals, fruits, silk, opium,
mohair, cotton, coffee, skins, wool, oil-seeds, valonia, carpets, etc.,
and are largely derived from the Asiatic provinces. Recently large
quantities of wine and of raisins for the manufacture of wine have been
exported. Since the establishment of the Anatolian railway by German
enterprise the export of cereals, chiefly malting barley, has largely
increased.
=People.=--The population consists of a singular mixture of races.
Turks, Greeks, Slavs, and Albanians are largely represented, besides
Armenians, Kurds, Arabs, Tartars, Jews, Circassians, and Frank
residents. (See Book of Races.)
The established religion is Islam or Mohammedanism, but most other
creeds are recognized and tolerated. The Protestant religion was for the
first time officially recognized in 1845.
Education in all departments has of late been notably improved and has
largely contributed to the complete overthrow of the antiquated and
despotic system of government.
=Government.=--Until 1908 the government of Turkey was a pure despotism.
An amazing change was swiftly and peacefully carried through in the
autumn of that year. In connection with the troubles in Macedonia
between Christians and Moslems, Greeks and Bulgarians, a Turkish
military revolt took place, which, under the guidance of the
“Young-Turkish” party (mostly educated abroad), became a great national
movement. The sultan, overawed, had to acquiesce; parliamentary
government was planned and carried out; equality before the law
proclaimed to all races and religions of the empire; and a large measure
of local self-government promised not merely to Turks but to Greeks,
Bulgarians, Albanians, Armenians, Syrians, Kurds and Arabs.
The enormous difficulties of the crisis were complicated by Bulgaria
proclaiming its independence, and Austria-Hungary annexing the provinces
of Bosnia and Herzegovina. But government by a national assembly has
taken root in Turkey.
The term “Sublime Porte,” sometimes given to the Turkish government, is
derived from the name of the chief gate of Constantinople.
=Cities.=--Of the towns by far the most populous is the capital,
Constantinople (1,200,000), while after it come Adrianople (83,000),
which by reason of its central position in the Maritza valley, commands
an extensive inland commerce, Midia, and Gallipoli, the chief port on
the Dardanelles.
The principal towns of Asiatic Turkey are Smyrna, 260,000; Bagdad,
150,000; Damascus, 150,000; Aleppo, 125,000; Beyrout, 120,000; Scutari
in Anatolia, 80,000, and Broussa, 80,000.
=Constantinople= was founded in 330 A. D. by Constantine the Great, from
whom it derives its name, on a site partly occupied by the ancient Greek
colony of Byzantium. The Turks call it Istambol or Stambol.
The city stands on a hilly promontory of triangular shape, having the
Sea of Marmora and the Bosphorus on the south and east, and on the north
the Golden Horn, an arm of the Bosphorus. It is thus surrounded by water
on all sides but the west, where a strong wall shuts the city off, from
the mainland. Like Rome, the city is built on seven hills, six of them
being separated portions of one long ridge.
As in the case of all great cities, Constantinople has spread far beyond
its original bounds, and may be said to include towns originally quite
separate from itself.
Constantinople is excellently situated, more advantageously, perhaps,
than any European city but Naples.
From the outside its appearance is most picturesque and imposing. At the
taking of the city in the fifteenth century most of the churches were
destroyed, and mosques were erected in the most prominent situations.
Cupolas and minarets, with graceful curves and soaring spires, combine
with lofty cypresses to give the city an air of unique grace, and to
invest it with the mysterious glamour of the oriental world.
Within, however, the appearance is not so pleasing. The streets form a
labyrinth of dirty, crooked, and ill-paved alleys, while most of the
houses are low and are built of wood or rough stone. During the last
half century the aspect of things has become much more European. The
streets, under western influence, have been widened and improved,
lighting at night is common, and a European style of building has been
introduced, even for the sultan’s palace. Cabs and electric cars are to
be seen in most parts, while the old camel service has entirely
disappeared. The dress of the people has changed in the same direction.
The streets are generally dull in appearance, almost all animation being
concentrated in the bazaars.
Constantinople consists of two distinct parts, besides more distant
suburbs--Constantinople proper or Stambol, and what may be termed
Christian Constantinople because it is there that the Christian colonies
chiefly congregate. The two are separated by the Golden Horn, a safe
harbor, capable of accommodating twelve hundred vessels, and so deep
that the largest ironclads of the Turkish navy find enough water for
their draught quite close to the shore.
Stambol or Turkish Constantinople lies on the south side of the Golden
Horn, and Christian Constantinople lies on the north side; the two are
connected by bridges. Stambol is on the site of Byzantium, and the old
walls run a circuit of fourteen miles from the grim but now ruined and
disused castle of the Seven Towers--where many sultans met their deaths
at the hands of their mutinous soldiery, and where foreign ambassadors
were imprisoned upon declaration of war--to the Golden Horn, then along
its south shore to Seraglio Point, and so back to the Seven Towers,
close along the margin of the Propontis. Here are nearly all the
monuments and antiquities worth seeing in Constantinople.
First, next the Seraglio, stands Agia Sophia, Saint Sophia, the church
dedicated by Constantine to “Eternal Wisdom,” and rebuilt with added
splendor by Theodosius and by Justinian, and now converted into a
cathedral mosque. Outside it is not worth a second glance, but within,
the airy grace of its stupendous dome, and the beauty of its marbles and
mosaics fascinate and amaze the vision.
[Illustration: =PANORAMA OF CONSTANTINOPLE=
As the steamer runs up the Bosphorus, the white buildings and glittering
minarets of Constantinople come into view; with the mosque of Santa
Sophia, Galata Tower and Pera, the Sultan’s Palaces at Beshiktash, with
Scutari Suburb on the right, and then, rounding Seraglio Point, it
glides at half speed into the Golden Horn, or harbor of Constantinople.
At this moment, if the weather be fine and clear, a striking panorama
opens to the eye of the voyager. The Golden Horn divides the city into
two sections; Stamboul to the left, and Galata and Pera to the right. It
is a bay, or amphitheater, surrounded by hills which are covered with
buildings, domes, minarets, and palaces, embosomed by cypress groves,
with hundreds of vessels and caiques skimming in all directions.]
Next, but not less beautiful, is the Suleymaniya, the mosque which the
Great Suleyman and his architect Sinan erected on the model of St.
Sophia, but with Saracenic ornament and a loftier though not quite so
expansive dome. Some of the monolithic columns are remarkable for their
size and beauty, and the general effect is even more imposing than that
of St. Sophia.
Scarcely less stately is the Mosque of Sultan Ahmed I. in the
Hippodrome; distinguished without by its six minarets (instead of the
usual four), and within by the four gigantic columns which support the
dome. Here the official celebrations and formal processions take place
at the great festivals.
The mosque of the conqueror, Mohammed II., is also notable, though it
has been greatly altered in restoration.
There are altogether some eight hundred mosques in Constantinople, and
numerous chapels; but very few of them present features of special
interest, except sometimes in the beauty of their wall tiles, of the
Rhodian style, for the manufacture of which the suburb of Eyyûb was
famous.
The remains of the Greek churches are more interesting, and the Fanar,
or Greek quarter of Stambol, recall the memories of many distinguished
Fanariote statesmen; but among the relics of ancient Constantinople none
is more striking than the Hippodrome or “Horse Manège”, originally a
circus surrounded by marble seats, long since removed, but still showing
remains of antiquity, such as the famous column of the Three Serpents
which once stood at the Temple of Delphi, and supported a gold tripod
made out of the spoils taken by the Greeks at the battle of Platæa, but
was removed to his new capital by Constantine.
Christian Constantinople, on the north side of the Golden Horn,
comprises Galata, Pera, and Tophâna. Galata is pre-eminently the
merchant quarter, founded by a colony of Genoese merchants in 1216. The
Tower of Galata, a Genoese erection, serves the same purpose as the
Seraskier’s Tower on the opposite side in giving alarms of fires. A
tunnelled railway drags passengers up the steep ascent to Pera.
Pera is the aristocratic quarter; here are all the embassies and
consulates. The steep and badly paved Grande Rue is lined with fair if
expensive shops, and has an opera house, many cafés and restaurants,
besides most of the principal hotels. Turks preponderate at Tophâna,
which is so named from its cannon foundry.
The magnificent palace of Dolmabagché is on the brink of the Bosphorus.
Other suburbs are Kâsim Pasha, on the Golden Horn, the seat of the
admiralty; Hasköi, and the picturesque village of Eyyûb.
Along the European shore of the Bosphorus are the summer resorts of
Therapia and Biyukderé.
The Asiatic shore is also lined with settlements from Scutari to
Candili. The new palace of Yildiz Köshki stands at the top of the hill
of Beshiktâsh, beyond Pera.
The commerce of Constantinople is increasing rapidly, though most of it
is in the hands of foreigners, especially of Greek and Armenian
merchants. Exports are chiefly cereals, carpets, silk, wool, hides, and
all kinds of refuse and waste materials such as horns, hoofs, skins,
bones, old iron, etc. Several hundreds of tons of the sweetmeat known as
“Turkish delight” are also sent yearly to countries of Europe and
America.
The manufactures have all taken their rise during the last twenty years
or so, and even now only that of cloth making has made much headway.
[Illustration: =ENTRANCE TO DOLMA-BAGTCHE PALACE=
This palace, on the shore of the Bosphorus, was built and inhabited by
Abdul-Medjid (1839-1861), is beautifully decorated in the interior and
has a splendid throne room.]
=History.=--The Osmanlis or Ottoman Turks sprang from a small clan of
the Oghuz, who assisted the Seljûk sultan of Iconium, early in the
thirteenth century, to resist the Mongol avalanche.
In the fourteenth century, the Turks under Osmân or Othmân conquered the
Seljûk kingdom, and became known as Osmânlis or Ottomans. By 1336 they
pushed their way to the Hellespont; under Murâd I. (Amurath) they
occupied Adrianople and Philippopolis, received homage from the kings of
Servia and Bulgaria, and practically held all the Balkan peninsula
except Constantinople, which, after much fighting, fell before Mohammed
II. in 1453. In the same century they conquered Albania, Greece, and the
Crimea; and in the sixteenth century Syria, Egypt, Tunis, Hungary, and
South Russia, and had wars with the Russians, Persians, and Venetians.
Their star began to decline in the seventeenth century; in 1682 they
were driven back from Vienna, and lost Hungary, Transylvania, and
Podolia. In the eighteenth century the Russians were their most
successful enemies, wresting from them the territories from the Dniester
to the Caspian. Greece attained independence in 1828, though Egypt
failed to throw off its allegiance. The Crimean war (1854-1857) was
fought in aid of the Turks against the Russians.
The next great crisis was the Russian war of 1877-1878. The worst
Armenian massacres were in 1895-1896. Turkey held her own against Greece
in 1897.
Abdul Hamid was deposed and constitutional government nominally
established in 1908. But unrest and intrigue still prevent settled
conditions.
Until the disastrous war of 1912-1913 with the States of the Balkan
League (Bulgaria, Greece, Servia, and Montenegro) the European dominions
of Turkey extended westwards to the Adriatic and northwards to
Bosnia-Herzegovina (Austria). Under the Treaty of London in 1913 the
northwest portion of Turkey was a line drawn from Enos, in the Ægean, to
Midia, in the Black Sea, thus excluding Adrianople, which had
capitulated to the Bulgarians after a prolonged siege.
During the second Balkan war (Bulgaria against the other members of the
Balkan States) Turkey took advantage of the military difficulties of
Bulgaria and reoccupied Adrianople, thus recovering a considerable
portion of the province of that name. In 1911-1912 Turkey lost the
remaining portion of her African possessions through the occupation by
Italy of Tripoli and Cyrenaica, which were ceded under the Treaty of
Ouchy(1912).
Turkey joined forces with the Austro-Germans in November, 1914, and
attacked Russia and invaded Egyptian territory. Far more important than
any of the Turkish operations, however, was the attempt of England and
France, in 1915, to force the passage of the Dardanelles, so as to take
much needed supplies of arms and ammunition to Russia and in turn enable
her to export the enormous stocks of wheat which had piled up at her
Black Sea ports.
[Illustration: =EGYPTIAN OBELISK, CONSTANTINOPLE=
This Obelisk from Thebes, of rose colored granite, sixty feet high, was
transported hither by Theodosius the Great, A. D. 390-395, and shows
traces of bas-reliefs of that date, and Egyptian hieroglyphs thirty
centuries old.]
A combined English and French fleet, therefore, attempted to force the
passage of the Dardanelles, battering at the Turkish forts from February
21 to March 18, when they attempted to force the Narrows, but were
repulsed, with the loss of the British battleships _Irresistible_ and
_Ocean_, and the French battleships _Bouvet_ and _Gaulois_, in addition
to serious injury to a number of other warships engaged.
[Illustration: =YILDIZ PALACE AND THE BEAUTIFUL HAMIDIEH MOSQUE,=
in the Beshiktash suburb, some distance north of Galata. The present
Sultan resides in the Palace of Yildiz.]
A joint land and sea expedition was subsequently sent to accomplish what
the fleets had failed to achieve.
The most desperate fighting continued there from the beginning of May.
The allies employed British and French regulars--the famous Foreign
Legion of France, British colonials from Australia and New Zealand, and
troops from Egypt, the Soudan and North Africa--but they failed to
capture the summits of the hills that command the Narrows and the great
Turkish forts.
The land forces had the constant support of British and French fleets,
which engaged the defenses at close range.
On May 11 the British battleship _Goliath_ was sunk, and two weeks later
a German submarine made its way through the straits of Gibraltar,
succeeded in torpedoing the British battleship _Triumph_ and the
_Majestic_ and _Agamemnon_.
On January 9, 1916, the British and French forces entirely withdrew from
the Gallipoli Peninsula, and the attempt to force the Dardanelles was
abandoned.
INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS.--The railways of Turkey have made great strides
in recent years. Constantinople is now in direct communication with
Salonica and Monastir by means of a coastal line, and with Sophia,
Nisch, and Belgrade, by means of a line passing up the Maritza Valley,
through Adrianople and Philipopolis, and thence over a pass between the
Balkans and Rhodope Mountains. Salonica is further united with Uskub and
Mitrevitza.
The postal and telegraphic services are a long way behind those of other
European countries, and foreign nations still find it necessary to
maintain their own post-offices in the large towns and ports.
BAGDAD RAILROAD.--The most important step in the industrial progress of
Turkey in modern times is the concession for the construction of the
Bagdad Railroad, which, when completed, will connect the Mediterranean
with the Persian Gulf.
By a provisional convention, preference was given to a German company in
1903. England had a particular interest in the proposed scheme, as the
line suggested would provide a short route to India; accordingly, in
1903, the British government objected to the railway being placed under
German control, and discussion followed with a view to putting the line
under international control. By the agreement of 1903 it was decided the
German group should control forty per cent of the capital, the French,
through the Imperial Ottoman Bank, thirty per cent, the Austrian,
Italian, Swiss, and Turkish twenty per cent, and the Anatolian Railway
ten per cent. In 1904, one hundred and twenty-four miles of the line
were completed, from Konieh, through Eregli, to Bugurlu. In 1908
sanction was given to extend the line eastwards from Bugurlu across the
Taurus to Adana.
The total length of the line will be one thousand five hundred and fifty
miles and will run through Aintab and Berejik to Mosul, thence along the
right bank of the Tigris to Bagdad.