MAHMUD II.
A Disintegrating Empire--An Energetic Sultan--Napoleon
and Alexander--Lord Stratford de Redcliffe--Greek War
for Independence--Russia’s Perfidy--Destruction of the
Janissaries--Reforms Attempted--Mehemet Ali of Egypt--Accession of
Abd-ul-Medjid.
The general situation at the commencement of the reign of Mahmud II is
thus clearly described by Sir Stratford Canning:
“The state of Turkey itself was anything but satisfactory in view
of those powers who did not wish the Porte to become the prey either
of Russia or of France. Both morally and materially the empire was
bordering on decrepitude. The old political system of Turkey had worn
itself out. The population was not yet prepared for the new order
of things. A depreciated currency, a disordered revenue, a mutinous
militia, dilapidated fortresses, a decreasing population, a stagnant
industry, and general misrule, were the monuments which time had left
of Ottoman domination in the second capital of the Roman Empire, and
throughout those extensive regions which had been the successive seats
of civilization, ever varying, generally advancing, from the earliest
periods of social settlement and historical tradition. A continual and
often a sanguinary antagonism of creeds, of races, of districts and
authorities within the frontier, and frequent wars of little glory and
much loss with the neighboring powers, had formed of late the normal
condition of the Porte’s dominions.
“Russia, France, Austria, and even Persia, had by turns contracted
the area and drained the resources of the empire. From the corrupt
monotony of his seraglio, the Sultan had to send forth his firmans,
his emissaries, his bands of irregular soldiery, or, it might be,
his naval armaments, against an invading enemy, a rebellious chief,
or an armed insurrection. Several great families, several unsubdued
tribes, and here and there an overpowerful pasha, had succeeded in
braving and circumscribing the imperial authority. The Mamelukes still
prevailed in Egypt. The most important part of Syria was under the
sway of a Christian Emir. Ali Pasha of Janina exercised royal power
in the provinces bordering on Greece, and Greece itself, excited by
Russia, was preparing to burst the fetters which had so long bound
her to the Ottoman throne. Servia, Montenegro, and the Danubian
Principalities were all more or less in league with Russia, and the
Porte, at war with that formidable power, had everything to apprehend
from the Russian forces concentrated upon her northern frontier.
The Sultan’s fleet was manned with Christian Greeks from the island
population of the Archipelago; the Barbary Powers were scarcely even in
nominal dependence on the Porte; and a sect of Mohammedans, called the
Wahhabis, and having a kind of analogy with our Puritans, had hoisted a
separate standard of religious belief in parts of Egypt and Arabia.”
Mahmud II was unquestionably the greatest monarch of the Osmanli
dynasty from Suleiman the Magnificent, 1566, to his enthronement. He
escaped assassination at the dethronement of Mustapha IV by concealment
in an old oven, and was called from dust and ashes to be girded with
the sword of Osman. He was then, by the death of Selim III and Mustapha
IV, the only heir of the throne. The Janissaries killed his faithful
and able grand vizier, who was bent upon reforming them, but Mahmud
was sacred even to them. He then resolved upon their destruction, for
sixteen years was slowly working towards it, and then the stroke fell
upon them like a thunderbolt, and they were no more.
He saw his empire going to ruin in every possible direction, and
enemies multiplying on every hand.
Napoleon and Alexander studied many schemes of dividing up the Turkish
Empire, but in every scheme Russia was to have Constantinople and the
Dardanelles, and to this France would never agree, and the whole scheme
of division fell through. In a few years Moscow was in flames to drive
out Napoleon, and France had twice been occupied by foreign armies,
while Constantinople remained intact.
Mahmud had plans of reform in all departments of government, and he,
first of all the Sultans of his dynasty, saw not merely the political
necessity of friendly relations with the Christian nations, but the
advantage to his own government of modeling his army and navy after
them. In 1809 he made a treaty with England to the disgust of the other
powers. In 1810 he had many bloody battles with the Russians on the
Danube, in which he lost Silistria and other valuable positions. But
the plans of Napoleon troubled Russia, and she was glad to make peace
with Turkey and withdraw her forces for other uses, giving up Silistria
and other places.
By the treaty of Bucharest, 1812, Moldavia and Wallachia were given
back to the Sultan. Servia, also, after a most devoted struggle
for freedom, was coldly surrendered to the Turks, who occupied the
fortresses and renewed their tyranny. A Servian historian accuses
Russia of this base abandonment for the purpose of finding, at some
future time, an occasion for intervention.
In the treaty of Bucharest, Sir Stratford Canning (quoted above), a
young man of twenty-three, first displayed that remarkable insight
and skill which made him during his long career the greatest diplomat
England has produced. France was earnestly seeking an alliance with
Turkey. Russia was disposed to peace because she had 22,000 of her
choicest troops on the Danube, which a favorable peace would enable her
to withdraw. Canning showed the Turks clearly the dangers they would
incur by mingling in the contests of France and Russia. All parties
acknowledged the consummate skill with which he cleared away objections
and effected a treaty useful to Turkey, Russia and England.
The embarrassment of the Sultan increased on every side, and his
reign became a struggle for existence rather than for reform. The
rebellious Janissaries were always a thorn in his side, but in Egypt
the Mamelukes were far worse than the Janissaries. The Wahabites had
raised a powerful insurrection in Arabia and would dominate the sacred
cities. Greece was also threatening rebellion, but, worst of all,
England, France, Austria and Russia were pressing upon him conflicting
claims which might result in war. The Ulema, the whole power of the
Mosques, were against all reforms, all innovations, and they backed
up the Janissaries in their rebellions. He faced all his enemies with
unflinching resolution. He committed to Mehemet Ali of Egypt the work
of subduing the Mamelukes and Wahabites. He performed his work with an
energy and success that amazed the world. The Sultan soon understood
that if two enemies had been destroyed, one had come forward more
powerful and dangerous than the two, one who was destined to wreck the
empire but for the intervention of Europe.
It was about this time that the famous _hetæria_ arose, an association
destined to have great influence among the Greeks, and to play an
important part in Greek independence. The Greeks, like most of the
Christians under Turkish rule, accepted that authority so long as
it did not affect their religion and general customs. Certain ones,
however, proved recalcitrant. Some mountaineers took refuge in the
rough country back from the coast of the Archipelago, and rivaled the
bandits of Macedonia, Servia and Sicily. Others turning to commerce,
sought to get the better of their Moslem rulers by shrewdness of
intellect. They profited by the struggle in the Mediterranean between
France and England, and under cover of the Turkish flag acquired great
commercial strength, owning, in 1815, 600 vessels. They sent their
children abroad, and established schools everywhere on the Islands of
the Archipelago, in Asia Minor and even in Constantinople. A few of
these men joined in a company called the _hetæria_, or association,
founded for the purpose of propagating religious instruction and the
publication of religious books. They claimed to have the support of
the Prime Minister of Russia, and secured the alliance of the chief
brigands of the Pindus, the head men of the interior Greek communities,
the merchants of the Archipelago and the heads of the Mainotes of the
Morea who had proved impervious to Russian advances. Their one object
was the independence of Greece, and they seized the opportunity offered
by the revolt of the famous Ali Pasha of Janina to make a strike for
that independence.
Ali Pasha, who had long had more or less intimate relations with
these Greeks, summoned them to his aid and proclaimed himself
their protector. They hesitated, but influenced by the report that
the Turkish Government had decided upon the extermination of the
Christians, joined hands with the Albanians, and Marco Bozzaris became
the ally of the “Lion of Janina.” In 1826 came the outrages at Patras
and Seres, and soon there was insurrection from the Danube to the Gulf
of Corinth. Russia again failed the very people who relied upon her,
the Sultan’s Government decreed the disarmament and massacre of the
Greeks, hung the Patriarch at the door of his palace in Constantinople,
and on Easter Day three archbishops, and eighty bishops, exarchs
and archimandrites shared his fate. Through Thrace, Macedonia and
Thessaly the massacre spread, peaceable and defenseless Greeks were
pillaged or slain, churches were destroyed, and women and children
were dragged into slavery. In Greece, however, and in Albania, Ali
Pasha and Ypsilanti held the Turks in check, captured several places,
and retorted upon the Moslems the terrors of massacre. Then came
treason, and Ali Pasha fell, but Greece refused to yield. The Turks
in fury avenged themselves on Scio, which had taken no part in the
insurrection, and out of 100,000 inhabitants scarcely 900 were left. It
was scarcely surprising that reprisals followed such a massacre, but
the utmost done by them was little in comparison with the atrocities
which the Christians of the whole empire had endured.
The insurrection went on. Appeals were made to the Christian nations
of Europe, and delegates sent to a Congress which met at Verona.
The great purpose of that Congress being, however, to stifle the
insurrections of Italy and Spain, it could hardly be expected to help
Greece. They even invited the Sultan to membership in the Congress.
Everywhere, however, there was popular enthusiasm. In France, England,
and Germany, societies of Phil-hellenes were formed, and America
lifted her voice in support of this effort for freedom. Many arms
and munitions were sent to the aid of the Greeks, and many men came
to share their fortunes, Lord Byron, Colonel Fabvier, Count Rosa and
others. The Greeks, however, could not agree among themselves, and
internal dissensions, including even war, prevented their securing the
results of their victories. The Turks profited by their misfortunes,
and weakened the power of the Greeks till Missolonghi fell and Athens
and Nauplia alone remained. The Greeks were almost disheartened, and
turned to England for help. What Sir Stratford Canning felt is evident
from the following extract from his Memoirs.
“In the port of Ipsera we gathered cruel evidence of what war is when
kindled by the antipathies of race and creed. It was little more than
dawn when we anchored before the town. The houses had every appearance
of undisturbed repose, and the early hour sufficed to account for the
want of movement in the streets. The admiral’s steward went ashore
with the full expectation of finding a market well stocked with all
the objects he required. Imagine his surprise when the truth broke
upon him. A death-silence indoors as well as without, not a voice, not
a footstep, not an inhabitant; the town was a mere shell, plausible
to the eye, but utterly void of life. Later in the day a party of us
landed with our guns and strayed among the vineyards in search of game.
At one spot near the coast we came upon a piteous sight, the bones of
many who had preferred a voluntary death to captivity, when their homes
became the prey of a Turkish squadron. Mothers in horror and despair
had slaughtered their children on the cliff, and thrown themselves
over on their bodies which had already found a resting-place below.
Scarcely less horrible than this scene of death was the apparition of
two survivors from the interior of the island. Worn nearly to skeletons
by fear and anguish and famine, the very types of hopeless misery,
with haggard eyes and loathsome beards, and tattered rags by way of
clothing, they told without language the history of their sufferings.
Heavens! how I longed to be the instrument of repairing such calamities
by carrying my mission of peace and deliverance to a successful issue!”
He, however, could not do much, as Russia refused to join heartily.
Mahmud persisted in forcing subjugation. Athens fell and at last a
sort of agreement was reached by which the Greeks gained somewhat.
Then came the battle of Navarino, when the Allied fleets under the
lead of the British Admiral repelled an attack by the Turks which
resulted in the destruction of the Turkish fleet. The responsibility
perhaps rested with the turbulent Ibrahim Pasha, but the inevitable
result was war with Russia which ended in the Treaty of Adrianople, by
which the independence of Greece was assured, although the completely
organized kingdom was not established for a few years. During the
negotiations between the five powers, which resulted in the coronation
of King Otho, Russian influence was predominant, but had to submit
to much of hostility from the people, who could not forget the way
in which they had been now encouraged, then left in the lurch by the
Monarch of the North. In the meantime the Sultan was training under
European drill-masters a body of 14,000 artillery for the destruction
of the Janissaries. When his arrangements were complete and he felt he
could trust the commander of the artillery, “Black Hell,” he obtained
from the Grand Council of State an order sanctioned by a fetva of the
Sheik-ul-Islam, requiring each company of the Janissaries to furnish
so many of their number to the artillery. It was rejected with scorn.
They turned their soup kettles upside down and beat upon them in sign
of rebellion. The palace gates were shut and they could not get at the
Sultan. The batteries were ready in barges on the Asiatic side and soon
to the consternation of the Janissaries every street leading from the
barracks was swept by shot and shell as soon as they appeared. They
made desperate rallies, but grape cut them down. The remnant retired
to their barracks to defend themselves to the last. “Black Hell” had
no intention to give them any chance to fight. He shelled the barracks
till he set them on fire and not a man escaped. The joy of the people
was unbounded. The Janissaries had become a terror to Moslems as well
as Christians. Their robberies and murders knew no law. The smaller
bodies scattered through the cities were hunted down like wild beasts,
the corps abolished and all its standards and emblems destroyed.
Mahmud was now, 1826, free to institute reforms. He resolved to have
a cabinet of prominent ministers, each of whom should be responsible
for his department, and to model his government after that of England.
He felt keenly the loss of Greece and the destruction of his fleet,
but did not abate one jot of his eagerness for reform. He had 40,000
soldiers under the discipline of the young Moltke, afterwards so
distinguished in German history. Russia caring little for Greece, but
never losing sight of Constantinople, saw her opportunity, came down
upon him with demands that stirred his wrath, but he was powerless
and she forced upon him the treaty of Akkerman with many stipulations
injurious to Turkey, such as increased privileges for the Danubian
Principalities and free passage of the straits.
After the destruction of the Janissaries and of the Turkish fleet
and the loss of Greece, Russia regarded Turkey as an easy prey, and
the next step by the Czar was to send into Bulgaria in 1828 an army
which he believed would march triumphantly across the Balkans, through
Eastern Rumelia to Constantinople. But the Turks fought with such
enthusiasm that the campaign of 1828 was a failure.
In 1829 Diebitsch crossed the Balkan with some hard fighting and came
down upon Adrianople, which he took with ease. A most destructive
cholera or plague was decimating his army, and if the Turks had only
maintained their positions two weeks longer Diebitsch would have had no
force left. He played a high game of bluff, declared he had 50,000 men
and that he would march immediately upon the city. The ambassadors all
joined in beseeching the Sultan to save his capital, which he did by an
indemnity of £5,000,000. When he found out the deception, and that the
Russian army was chiefly beneath the soil, his chagrin was so bitter
that he shut himself up, and for a whole week his officers could not
see him. The result was the Treaty of Adrianople, which added to the
previous agreements the demand for a heavy war indemnity to Russia.
The indemnity, which was manfully paid, swept off the gold and silver
of the empire, and Mahmud substituted a base coin of the same numerical
value, a kind of “fiat money” which was thought at first to be a grand
invention, but which played the mischief with commerce and with the
finances generally.
Undaunted by all these reverses he rebuilt his navy, employing one
American, Mr. Eckford, and his foreman, Mr. Rhodes, who produced some
of the most noble vessels of war then afloat.
He introduced reforms in the civil administration which were welcomed
by the people; the rajahs were treated with a justice and consideration
that was new to them. Many Armenians were introduced into offices never
before given to rajahs. One Armenian was at the head of the mint,
another was the Sultan’s architect and another chief of his powder
works and most of the construction of arms, and another was collector
of the port. The latter was a man of remarkable capacity, a friend
of learning and a good friend of the first American missionaries.
Could Mahmud have had a decade of peace after the destruction of the
Janissaries and the peace with Greece, with his iron will and wonderful
energy he might have brought up the old empire into some degree of
health and vigor. England had begun to favor his reforms; France was
friendly; but Russia and Austria were bent upon his ruin.
Another danger threatened the Sultan. Among the men sent to join
the Turkish contingent in Egypt in their contest with the French in
1801 was a young Albanian named Mehemet Ali. During the two years
that followed he gained increasing influence among the Albanians and
when soon there came a conflict between them and the Turks he took
the position of leader, and at last succeeded in securing a firman
of investiture as Pasha of Egypt. He was ambitious and successful,
advancing his arms until he secured the west coast of Arabia, and
although acknowledging the Sultan as Suzerain became, with his son
Ibrahim, a cause of much anxiety. It was Ibrahim who brought on the
battle of Navarino, and once feeling his power he did not hesitate
to use it, and the next step was to claim independence. The Egyptian
forces conquered Syria, Mahmud’s forces were defeated at Konieh and
there seemed nothing to prevent his march to Constantinople. Mahmud
sought in vain the intervention of England. He had next to turn to his
great enemy, Russia, who immediately landed an army on the Asiatic
shore of the Bosporus. England bit her lips too late. Russia had
eagerly seized the opportunity which England had slighted.
Thus Ibrahim’s course was stopped and he had to turn back. The treaty
of Hunkiar Iskelessi, July 8, 1833, was an offensive and defensive
alliance between Turkey and Russia, which closed the Dardanelles to
other powers and gave the right of intervening against the interior and
exterior enemies of the Porte. Some places of importance were yielded
to Mehemet Ali, who became an increasingly important factor even in
European politics. He had his eye on Bagdad and an arrangement by which
he should at least be Grand Vizier, perhaps Sultan.
With all these difficulties, Mahmud, unsubdued, continued his reforms,
and began to lean more upon England as opposed to Russia. He had
again a fleet and a disciplined army when again the great Viceroy of
Egypt rebelled. Mahmud was dying of consumption. One who saw him two
weeks before his death said that he had the looks of a caged eagle,
his spirit unsubdued. He sent his fleet against Alexandria, and his
army against Ibrahim. The fleet was basely betrayed into the hands
of Mehemet Ali, and the army was badly beaten at Nezib, near the
Euphrates. Mahmud died before the terrible news reached the capital.
Abd-ul-Medjid was girded with the sword of Osman, July, 1839. A
convention between Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia and Turkey
settled the affairs of Egypt and the Porte; in 1840 Mehemet Ali became
the hereditary viceroy, and was compelled to give up all the places he
had won. Indeed, the English navy had driven him out of all the ports
on the Syrian coast. He was to pay one-fourth of his revenue to the
Porte and acknowledge the suzerainty of the Sultan.
The young Sultan was inducted into his high office with unexampled
splendor. He had fully imbibed from his father the spirit of reform,
and a set of young men of marked ability had been educated in England
and France to co-operate with him. He had nothing of the lion-like
character of his father, but he had what his father never had, able and
faithful coadjutors. Fuad, Aali, Midhat, Ahmed Vefyk Pashas did honor
to his reign, and in part to his successors. His commander-in-chief,
Omar Pasha, was a man of great military skill and genius, and of
sound judgment. He kept European Turkey quiet in spite of Russian
revolutionists. But from 1842 to 1856 the controlling power was
unquestionably the English Ambassador, Sir Stratford Canning, better
known as Lord Stratford De Redcliffe.
Russia was having her own way, and the English Ambassador, Ponsonby,
was merely a nobleman of vast wealth. He could make a splendid show.
He had the finest “turn out” of any ambassador; beyond that he had
nothing. Canning had been three times at the Ottoman court, and he knew
the ropes when he came in 1842. The Czar hated and feared him, and he
feared if he did not hate the Czar. There were now to be fourteen years
of the most indefatigable labor to regenerate the Turkish Empire, and
equal effort on the Russian side to prevent and upset all Canning’s
plans. But the Czar had no man of such mighty personality to match him.
He recalled De Boutineff and sent Litoff.
Lord Stratford interested himself in everything that pertained to
the general welfare of the empire, especially in the betterment of
the situation of the Christians. He was greatly pleased with the
promulgation of the Hatti Sherif of Gulhané (described in the chapter
on the condition of the Christians), and was a cordial friend to the
missionaries. He also was interested in archæology. He obtained for
young Layard (Sir Austen Henry Layard) a firman for those researches
in Nineveh which gave him the name of Nineveh Layard. This was done at
Canning’s personal expense. He obtained from the Sultan the personal
gift of the frieze of the Mausoleum of Artemisia, at Budrum, and
presented the seventeen slabs, weighing twenty tons, to the British
Museum. One of his great diplomatic triumphs was obtained against the
united power of Austria and Russia, when the Hungarian Revolution
failed, and Kossuth and his three hundred companions fled to Turkey.
Every house, native and foreign, was opened to them. Russia and Austria
demanded that they be surrendered. It was an anxious time until the
Sultan’s reply came, that he would sooner surrender his throne than
give up any one who had fled to him for shelter. Both embassies
declared this equivalent to a declaration of war, pulled down their
flags, covered with black the national signs and monograms on the
ambassadorial buildings, and departed in a rout of warlike pomp.
England and France assured the Sultan of their support, and the proud
ambassadors had to come back and be laughed at. Russia and Austria
would not meet England, France and Turkey in a new war for the pleasure
and privilege of housing those few refugees.
The returned ambassadors tried every means to persecute the brave men,
but Canning met them at every point and baffled them. It is not strange
that Russian newspapers lavished ink upon Sir Stratford Canning, or
that they regarded him as the Arch Fiend of diplomacy.