EAST HAM 



2774 



EAST INDIA COMPANY 



there she abhorred as incompatible 

 with her own ambitions. 



Ever since the time of Francis I 

 (d, 1547) France had maintained 

 an entente with Turkey, thus 

 checking Austria and helping 

 French power in the Mediter- 

 ranean. The 19th century saw 

 her aspiring to possess Algeria, 

 Morocco, and Tunis, and especially 

 Egypt, and investing huge sums in 

 Turkish enterprises. Both cash 

 and policy depended upon the pre- 

 servation of Turkish integrity. 



Between 1859 and 1870 Italy ex- 

 pelled the Austrians. Fearing Aus- 

 trian vengeance, she wished to 

 strengthen her frontier by acquir- 

 ing the Trentino and the Isonzo. 

 To check Austria in the Balkans, 

 to protect her exposed eastern 

 seaboard, and to enhance her 

 maritime supremacy, she dreamed 

 of regaining the ancient Venetian 

 dominion in Istria and the Dal- 

 matic coast, and establishing her- 

 self in the Albanian ports of 

 Durazzo and Valona, her policy 

 challenging Albanian sentiment 

 and Greek ambition. 



On every occasion the annihila- 

 tion of European Turkey was pre- 

 vented at the last moment by the 

 mutually destructive aims of the 

 Christian powers. They delayed 

 the evolution of the Balkan states, 

 tried to make them helots of Euro- 

 pean diplomacy, deprived them of 

 legitimate territory, and left them 

 with burning grievances. So the 

 end of the 19th century witnessed 

 a new phase the Balkan states 

 repudiating European patronage 

 and adopting an aggressive policy. 

 In 1881 Greece received Thessaly 

 and part of Epirus, and Rumania 

 became a kingdom. Milan of Ser- 

 bia became king in 1882. Rumelia 

 joined Bulgaria, 1885, under Alex- 

 ander of Battenberg, and subse- 

 quently under Ferdinand of Coburg, 

 1887, although recognition was 

 withheld by the Powers until 1896. 

 The Greco-Turkish war of 1897 ob- 

 tained autonomy for Crete in 1898. 

 Ferdinand Proclaimed Tdar 



Then followed a general at- 

 tack upon Mediterranean Turkey. 

 France allowed Britain sole sway 

 in Egypt, 1904. Serbia signalised 

 her independent attitude by mur- 

 dering the Austrophil Alexander 

 Obrenovitch, and enthroning Peter 

 Karageorgevich, 1903. The Bal- 

 kan states began to draw together, 

 the first sign being the Serbo-Bul- 

 garian customs union (1905-6). 

 Austria stimulated the movement 

 by taking advantage of Russian 

 preoccupation in Manchuria to 

 annex Bosnia and Herzegovina, 

 1908, although by abandoning 

 the sanjak of Novi Bazar, 1909, 

 she offered the apple of discord to 



Serbia, Greece, and Bulgaria. Bul- 

 garia repudiated Turkish suzer- 

 ainty, and Ferdinand proclaimed 

 himself tsar, 1909. 



The moment was favourable. A 

 military convention between Ser- 

 bia and Montenegro (1908) ex- 

 panded into the Balkan League, 

 1912, of Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, 

 and Montenegro, which drove 

 Turkey behind the Chatalja lines. 

 But woe to the conquerors ! The 

 treaty of London, May 30, 1913, 

 proved nothing, except that the 

 historical, ethnological, and geo- 

 graphical claims of the Balkan 

 states were so mutually confound- 

 ing that it was humanly impos- 

 sible to satisfy those claims and 

 delimit permanent frontiers. Bul- 

 garia, prompted by Austria, treach- 

 erously attacked Greece and Serbia. 



Her defeat, the Turkish reoccu- 

 pation of Adrianople, and the inter- 

 vention of Rumania forced her 

 into the treaty of Bukarest (Aug. 

 10, 1913) and a treaty with Tur- 

 key (Sept. 29, 1913). At Bulgaria's 

 expense Rumania took a further 

 strip of the Dobruja ; Bulgaria 

 expanded westwards by absorbing 

 territory as far as Strumitsa, and 

 southwards the seaboard from 

 Kavalla to Enos, with the port of 

 Dedeagatch and the Thracian 

 hinterland ; Greece took Epirus, 

 Southern Macedonia almost to 

 Monastir, and within a great curve 

 thence to Kavalla, including Sal- 

 onica, and lastly all the islands of 

 the Aegean save Imbros, Tenedos, 

 and the Sporades ; Serbia had Cen- 

 tral Macedonia with such disputed 

 towns as Monastir, Uskub, andNish, 

 and also the sanjak of Novi Bazar. 

 The Great War and After 



The new situation was pregnant 

 with trouble ; with the Balkan 

 entente dissipated ; Bulgaria dis- 

 graced, resentful, coveting Central 

 Macedonia and the Thracian har- 

 bours, and driven into intrigue 

 with Austria and Turkey ; Greece 

 coveting Bulgaria and Turkish 

 Thrace, Albania, and Crete ; Serbia 

 without a harbour and severed from 

 the Slavs of Bosnia, Herzegovina, 

 Croatia, and Carniola ; Montenegro 

 lamenting Scutari ; Italy intent 

 upon Istria ; Russia determined to 

 revenge Austrian treachery and 

 regain her Balkan footing ; while 

 Germany, with her dream of a 

 German Middle East, a corridor to 

 Constantinople, a Berlin to Bagdad 

 rly., and her economic exploita- 

 tion of the Near East, encouraged 

 mischief. The Eastern question, 

 together with the Serajevo murders 

 of June 28, 1914, produced the 

 Great War. 



The peace of Versailles, 1919, 

 brought no peace to the Near East, 

 nor is the Turk banished from Con- 



stantinople and Europe. A French 

 mandate for Syria was opposed by 

 the Arab Emir Feisul, who was de- 

 posed from his kingdom of Damas- 

 cus. Greece, firmly established in 

 Crete, and mandatory for the west- 

 ern coast of Asia Minor, including 

 Smyrna, 1919, was in 1920 fighting 

 irreconcilable Turks under Mus- 

 tapha Kernel. Granted Bulgarian 

 Thrace from Kavalla to Enos, 1919, 

 the Greeks claimed Turkish Thrace, 

 1920, and occupied Adrianople 

 (July 25, 1920). Serbia, with Bos- 

 nia, Herzegovina, Croatia, and 

 Carniola, formed a "Serb-Croat- 

 Slovene state," 1919, and with 

 Montenegro, a Yugo-Slav Con- 

 federation, 1920. Bulgaria, ex- 

 eluded from the Mediterranean, 

 has a valueless coast-line on the 

 Black Sea, and has lost large 

 populations to Greece and Serbia. 

 Austria and Russia are defunct as 

 Balkan powers, Constantinople is 

 the centre of an international zone 

 including the Bosporus, the Sea 

 of Marmora, and the Dardanelles. 

 Rumania, besides the Bukowina and 

 a huge slice of Hungarian Transyl- 

 vania, occupies Russian Bessarabia. 



Bibliography. The Balkans. W. 

 Miller, repr. 1899: Modern Europe, 

 W. A. Phillips, 1901, etc.; Turkey and 

 its People, E. Pears, 1911; History 

 of Serbia, H. VV. V. Temperley, 

 1917; Rise of Nationality in the 

 Balkans, R. W. Seton Watson, 1917. 



East Ham. Mun. bor. of Essex, 

 England. It is a populous district, 

 with stations on the London, Til- 

 bury, and Southend and G.E. 

 Rlys., 6 m. E. of London. The 

 residents are mainly of the in- 

 dustrial class, and work at the 

 docks or in the many factories and 

 workshops of the borough ; the in- 

 dustries include engineering works 

 and the making of chemicals, soap, 

 etc. There is an old church, the 

 parish church of S. Mary Magdalene. 

 The borough, which is outside the 

 county of London, is governed by 

 a mayor and corporation, having 

 been made a municipality in 

 1904. It sends two members to 

 Parliament. Pop. 156,500. 



East India Company. Name 

 of a trading corporation, authorised 

 by government to trade in the E. 

 Indies. The Dutch company, 1 602- 

 1798, the French company, 1664- 

 1794, and the Danish company, 

 1729-1801, followed the setting up 

 of the English company, which sur- 

 vived them all. On Dec. 31, 1GOO, 

 a charter was granted by Queen 

 Elizabeth to " The company of 

 Merchants of London trading to 

 the East Indies." The estab- 

 lishment of three factories or trad- 

 ing-stations was sanctioned : at 

 Surat, on the W. Coast, by the Mo- 

 gul Jehan Gir in 1612 ; at Fort St. 

 George, afterwards Madras, on the 



