Vol. XIV, No. 2 WASHINGTON 



February, 1903^ 



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THE GREAT TURK AND HIS LOST 

 PROVINCES 



By William E. Curtis 



THE next, like the last, battle- 

 ground of Europe will be the 

 Balkan Peninsula, a group of 

 petty states lying in the southeastern 

 corner of Europe, bounded on the north 

 b3 r the Danube River, on the south by 

 Greece and the iEgean Sea, on the east 

 by the Black Sea, and on the west by 

 the Adriatic. It is one of the oldest, 

 yet one of the most primitive, portions 

 of Europe, comprising the ancient Mace- 

 donian Empire. The people are de- 

 scribed by Pliny and Herodotus. They 

 fought Darius the Persian, and Alex- 

 ander the Great. Julius Caesar was 

 planning a campaign against them when 

 he fell in the forum with the dagger of 

 Brutus in his breast. The story of the 

 adventures of the Emperor Trajan 

 among them is carved upon that mar- 

 velous column in Rome. Theirs was 

 the last province to be added to the 

 Roman Empire and the first to go to its 

 dissolution. They then fell into the 

 hands of the Turks, and for century 

 after century submitted to the yoke of 

 the Sultan, and were gradually sub- 

 merged in political, moral, intellectual, 

 and commercial oblivion. The exist- 



ence of this once powerful people was 

 almost forgotten until the Bulgarian 

 atrocities, as they were called, excited 

 universal horror twenty-five years ago 

 and Russia intervened on the pretext of 

 racial and religious relationship and 

 attempted to take them away from Tur- 

 key ; but the other powers of Europe 

 prevented the Czar from enjoying the 

 fruits of his victory over the Sultan and 

 refused to permit him to have a port 

 upon the Mediterranean. Ancient 

 Macedonia was cut in half. The upper 

 part was made an independent kingdom, 

 called Bulgaria. The lower half, famil- 

 iarly known as Macedonia, was restored 

 to Turkey upon solemn stipulations 

 that the people should have a Christian 

 governor and a just and liberal govern- 

 ment. That territory which appears 

 upon the map as Eastern Roumelia, has 

 recently attracted much attention from 

 the civilized world because of the kid- 

 napping of Miss Stone, an American 

 missionary. 



BOSNIA AS AN AUSTRIAN PROVINCE 



Bosnia, the westernmost of the Turk- 

 ish provinces, was placed under the pro- 



