We have already seen the weakness of the empire of Constantinople at
the time of the Crusades; we have seen the city sacked and the
government seized by the champions of the cross. The Greeks regained
their empire in the year 1261, but in a mangled and impoverished
condition. For nearly two centuries it continued in a similar state.
Andronicus, son of Michael Palæologus, who had restored the Greek
empire, allowed himself to be persuaded that as God was his protector,
all military force was unnecessary; and the superstitious Greeks,
regardless of danger, employed themselves in disputing about the
transfiguration of Jesus Christ, when their unfortunate situation made
it necessary that they should have been studying the art of war, and
training themselves to military discipline.
In the meantime, the Turks had become a powerful people. They had
embraced the Mohammedan religion long before the time of the Crusades,
and proved powerful obstacles to the success of those expeditions.
About the beginning of the fourteenth century they established an
empire of their own in Asia Minor, under Othman or Ottoman, and to
this day the Ottoman Empire is a name given to the dominions of their
descendants. By degrees they encroached on the borders of the empire
of Constantinople, and they were only prevented from subverting it at
a much earlier period than they did, by being called upon to defend
themselves from the arms of an Eastern conqueror who arose at this
time. Tamerlane, otherwise called Timerbek, was a prince of the Usbek
Tartars, and a descendant from Ghenghis Khan. After having overrun
Persia, and a great part of India and Syria, this great conqueror was
invited by some of the minor princes of Asia, who were suffering under
the Ottoman tyranny, to come and protect them. Tamerlane was flattered
by the request, and having brought a great army into Phrygia, he was
there met by Bajazet, the Ottoman emperor, who readily gave battle,
but was defeated and made prisoner (1402). Tamerlane made Samarcand
the capital of his empire, and there received the homage of all the
princes of the East. Illiterate himself, he was solicitous for the
cultivation of literature and science in his dominions; and Samarcand
became for a while the seat of learning, politeness, and the arts, but
was destined to relapse after a short period into its ancient
barbarism. The Turks, after the death of Tamerlane, resumed their
purpose of destroying the empire of the East. The honor, or disgrace,
as it may be thought, of effecting this, fell to the lot of Mohammed
II, commonly surnamed the Great. At the early age of twenty-one,
Mohammed projected this conquest. His countrymen had already passed
into Europe; they had possessed themselves of the city of Adrianople,
and indeed had left nothing of all the empire of the East to the
Greeks but the city of Constantinople itself. The preparations made
for defense were not such as became the descendants of Romans, and the
powers of Europe now looked upon the East with the most supine
indifference. The Turks assailed the city both on the land side and on
that of the sea; and battering down its walls with their cannon,
entered sword in hand, and massacred all who opposed them (1453).
Mohammed, like many other ambitious conquerors, showed himself
unwilling to destroy unnecessarily. The imperial edifices were
preserved, and the churches were converted into mosques; the exercise
of their religion was freely allowed to the Christians, and this
privilege they have never been deprived of. Constantine (for that was
the name of the last, as well as the first emperor of the East) was
slain in battle. From the time that it was founded by Constantine the
Great, the city had subsisted 1123 years. Mohammed liberally
patronized the arts and sciences. He was himself not only a
politician, but a scholar, and he invited both artists and men of
letters to his capital from the kingdoms of Europe. But the taking of
Constantinople had an effect contrary to his wishes: it dispersed the
learned Greeks, or Greeks who were _called_ learned, all over Europe;
and this, among other things, may be looked upon as a help to the
great revival of letters which the fifteenth century witnessed. The
taking of Constantinople was followed by the conquest of Greece and
Epirus; and Italy might probably have met with a similar fate, but for
the fleet of the Venetians, who opposed the arms of Mohammed with
considerable success, and even attacked him in Geece; but the
contending powers soon after put an end to hostilities by a treaty. By
this time Europe was trembling at Mohammed’s success, and was afraid,
not without reason, that he might pursue his conquests westward. It
was relieved from fear by his death, which took place in 1481. His
descendants have continued to our own day to occupy one of the finest
countries in Europe; and it was only in the present age that Greece
was liberated from their dominion.