EASTERN QUESTION 



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EASTERN QUESTION 



THE EASTERN QUESTION 



Arthur Jones, M. A., Lecturer in History, Birkbeck College, London 



The origin and nature of this perplexing problem is here described. 



Related information will be found in such articles as Beaconsfield ; 



Bulgaria ; Constantinople ; Turkey. See also Europe : History 



The Eastern Question deals with the Danube under an international 



and freed Moldavia 



the disintegration of the Ottoman 

 or Turkish Empire in the Balkans 

 and Mediterranean basin. That 

 empire was acquired during the 

 period extending from the fall of 

 Constantinople in 1453 to the 

 death of Solomon the Magnificent 

 in 1566. Despite the follies of de- 

 generate sultans, Turkey survived 

 the 17th century intact, excepting 

 that Austria gained Transylvania, 

 Slavonia, and Croatia, 1698, and 

 Turkish Hungary, 1718. 



The treaty of Kutschuk Kai- 

 nardji, 1774, whereby the Russians 

 forced the Turks to tolerate 

 Christianity in Moldavia and 

 Wallachia (modern Rumania), 

 inaugurates a new phase in the 

 Eastern Question in which the 

 tsars project the subjugation of 

 entire European Turkey. They 

 coveted the Mediterranean ports 

 and the Levantine commerce. As 

 heads of the Orthodox Church 

 they would emancipate an Ortho- 

 dox majority in the Balkans from 

 the domination of a Moslem 

 minority. As monarchs of a Sla- 

 vonic empire, their nascent Pan- 

 Slavonic sentiment fostered a desire 

 to embrace the Slavs of the Bal- 

 kans within their political in- 

 fluence. Catherine II clinched the 

 matter by inscribing in 1774, over 

 the entrance to the Crimea, "The 

 way to Constantinople." 



The period 1821-78, from the 

 war of Greek Independence to 

 the congress of Berlin, sufficed for 

 the establishment of autonomous 

 Balkan states. The former ended 

 in the establishment of an attenu- 

 ated Greek kingdom in 1832, 

 while by the Russo-Turkish treaty 

 of Adrianople, 1829, the Danube 

 and Dardanelles were opened 

 freely to navigation ; Moslems were 

 banished from Moldavia and Wal- 

 lachia, whose hospodars ruled for 

 life with sovereign powers inde- 

 pendent of the Porte; Serbia be- 

 came autonomous but tributary, 

 and in 1830 elected its own prince. 

 Mehemet Ali revolted, and in 1840 

 received the pashalik of Egypt, 

 practically as an hereditary do- 

 minion. The quarrel over the 

 Holy Places in 1850 led Czar 

 Nicholas I boldly to propose a 

 partition of the " sick man's " 

 possessions, the Balkan states to 

 have autonomy under Russia, 

 England to compensate herself in 

 Egypt, Cyprus, and Crete. In- 

 stead, came the Crimean War. 



The peace of Paris, 1856, placed 



commission, 

 and Wallachia (now increased by a 

 strip of Bessarabia) from Russian 

 influence. Despite European diplo- 

 macy, these two principalities 

 united quietly, 1866, to form the 

 kingdom of Rumania. Christian 

 Turkey was in a condition of 

 latent insurrection, which became 

 active in the revolt of Bosnia 

 and Herzegovina hi 1875 and 

 Bulgaria, in which Serbia and 

 Montenegro participated. Tur- 

 key's ferocious retaliation pro- 

 duced " the Bulgarian atrocities " 

 and the victorious intervention of 

 Russia. The congress of Berlin, 

 1878, transferred the Dobruja to 

 Rumania in exchange for Bessar- 

 abia, and founded the independent 

 principality of Bulgaria, shorn, 

 however, of Rumelia and without 

 Nish and Mitrovitza, claimed by 



Bulgaria but allotted to Serbia. 

 Montenegro obtained the ports of 

 Antivari and Dulcigno. Austria 

 was entrusted by the Powers with 

 the guardianship of Bosnia and 

 Herzegovina and the sanjak of 

 Novi Bazar. 



Russia was the driving force 

 that emancipated the Balkans, but 

 from the beginning she found that 

 it was not, as she conceived, a Rus- 

 sian domestic question, but one 

 involving the interests and ac- 

 tivities of all Europe. Britain 

 dreaded that a powerfully aggres- 

 sive Russia predominant in Tur- 

 key would destroy her Levantine 

 trade and menace Indian com- 

 munications, a dread intensified 

 by the opening of the Suez Canal 

 in 1869. Liberal opinion cham- 

 pioned the national aspirations of 

 the Balkans; Conservatives re- 

 garded Turkey as a buffer against 

 Russia to be preserved at all costs. 



Austria after 1866, expelled from 

 Germany, and by the Zollverein cut 

 off from the ports of the Baltic 

 and North Sea, wanted to assimi- 

 late the Balkans. Russian influence 



EASTERN QUESTION 



English Miles 



s State 1878 

 dependent!908 



MONTENE6ROV 



ADRIATIC 



Dura 



Boundary of Turkey after 

 \fienno tf 



the Congress of 



Treaty of Berlin IB 78 



Treaty of Bucharest 1913 



Territory ceded by Russia, 

 Treaty of Paris ISSS.but restored 

 by Treaty of Berlin 1878 Wl 



BALKAN STATES 1920 

 Rumania EZIBular 



Eastern Question. Map of the Balkan States, showing the territorial changes 

 between 1815 and 1920, and, in addition, Turkey's 1923 boundary 



