Part 27

Algiers developed from a small town to a city of 100,000 souls. Many of the captives gave up Christianity and won their freedom. With such elements it is not surprising that the hold of the Turks on the inhabitants became weakened, until finally, not long after Greece won its freedom, Algiers was conquered by the French in the reign of Louis Philippe.

After the death of Souliman the Ottoman Sultanate underwent an eclipse. The succession of strong rulers was broken, and the empire was largely under the direction of the women of the harem and slaves. Of the eight successors of Souliman, one only can be called a military leader; many were mere children when they were called to the throne. Even Murad IV (1623-40), the most active of all, took the title of Sultan when he was twelve years old, and his career ended when he was twenty-eight. But even under such unfavorable conditions the progress of Turkish conquests was not arrested.

Of the western powers, the chief rival of the Ottoman Empire, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, was Venice. At the cost of a yearly tribute of 236,000 ducats, she enjoyed great commercial privileges, was mistress of possessions in the Levant and on the Dalmatian coast, and blocked the way to complete Ottoman domination. Though Rhodes had been taken from the Knights, as we have seen, the large islands of Cyprus and Crete were still in the hands of the republic of the Adriatic, and her possessions in the Ægean Sea were a constant source of annoyance to the Turkish lords of the Morea. Piracy flourished in these ports, which became centers of retaliation for the excesses of the Barbary corsairs.

Aggressive measures were taken by Selim, Souliman’s successor, who, after long years of peace between the two powers, summoned Venice, in 1570, to surrender the Island of Cyprus. One hundred and seventy-one Ottoman galleys supported the demand. Venice had tried to get the Christian powers to coöperate against the Turks, even calling on the Persians and the Arab tribes of Yemen to aid her in the defense of the island. But the arms of the Turkish generals soon prevailed. The chief fortress of the island, Famagusta, capitulated in 1571; and with its fall the Turks began the occupation of the island, which only ended after the war between Turkey and Russia in 1878.

During the progress of the siege an anti-Turkish league had been completed, composed of Venice and the Papacy, Spain, the Knights of Malta, and many Italian states. The result was the despatch of a large fleet under the command of Don John of Austria, at this time a youth of only twenty-two years. The objective of the armada was Patras, because, in the Gulf of Lepanto, close at hand, all of the squadrons of the Turkish navy were assembled. In all, the allies had 208 ships of war, the Ottomans slightly more, but the weakness of the Turks was due to the lack of soldiers to defend their fleet. There were but 2500 Janitschars on their galleys, the rest were troops raised from continental Greece, 22,000 in all, who were either new recruits or were not trained for naval warfare. Among the Turkish captains were present many older men who desired to avoid conflict with the Christian armada. Of a different temper were Hassan Pasha, the son of the famous Kheir-ed-Din, and Ali-Muezzin-Zade, the new captain pasha of the whole fleet.

The Christian fleet was in an admirable state of preparation for the fight. It was composed entirely of armed vessels directed by skilful rowers; besides the 203 galleys there were six galiasses, great floating citadels carrying heavy artillery and 500 soldiers. Don John had also armed the Venetian vessels with contingents of Spanish infantry. On the side of the Christians there was the additional advantage of superior equipment in armor and weapons for the individual warrior. The soldiers wore helmets and breastplates, and were armed with arquebuses, while the Turks used lances and arrows. There were also superior numbers on the side of the allies, the fighting men numbering between 28,000 and 29,000.

The two fleets took up the same position and adopted the same tactics. In the center on each side were collected the largest ships under the command of the respective chief admirals. Some initial successes were won by the Ottomans over the division made up of the Venetian vessels, but in the center, after desperate fighting, the men under Don John, owing to their superior weapons, got the better of their enemies, and the captain pasha was killed. The Algerian vessels showed much tactical superiority to the Christian right wing, under the command of John Andrew Doria; but, although they inflicted much damage, they could not save the day for the Ottomans. The victory cost the Christians dear, for they lost 12 galleys and 7500 men. But the defeat of the Turks was overwhelming; 15 galleys were sunk, 177 were captured, and many pashas and governors of provinces lost their lives; 12,000 to 15,000 of the galley slaves on the Turkish vessels, Christian captives, were set free.

Such was the remarkable victory of October 7, 1571, remarkable not only for the heroism displayed, and the sensation caused by the success of the Christians, who had for so long been incapable of resisting Ottoman aggression, but also because of the small practical results produced. The Christian armada returned to Corfu, and from there made for the coast of Italy, where it disbanded. On the side of the vanquished, Euldj-Ali, gathering together eighty-seven ships as a nucleus for a new Ottoman fleet, sailed into the harbor of Constantinople, and was welcomed as a conqueror by the Sultan and the grand vizier, Sokoli. New honors were heaped upon him, not altogether undeserved, for during the winter a new fleet, larger and better armed than the one destroyed, was made ready for sea.

The recuperative energy of the Ottoman Empire was not lost on the Venetians, and their agent at Constantinople, Antonio Barbaro, saw that there was more than an empty boast in the words of the Vizier, who said to him, “There is a great difference between your loss and ours. By taking from you the Kingdom of Cyprus we have cut off your arm; by defeating our fleet you have only shaved our beard. A beard grows out thicker for being shaven.” This argument appealed to the republic, and in 1573 peace was made. The conditions were the cession of Cyprus, the payment of a heavy war indemnity by Venice, and a regulation of the frontier in Albania and Dalmatia, that secured to the Turks their ancient possessions there. The Venetians also were required to increase the annual tribute exacted for the Island of Zante, which was still in their hands.

Three generations after the taking of Cyprus the long-coveted island of Crete, or Candia, was annexed to the Ottoman Empire. Hostilities began between Venice and Sultan Ibrahim I, because of the seizure by the Knights of Malta of a Turkish vessel carrying high officials of the court to Egypt. The Maltese ships were received in the friendly harbors of Crete, where they took refuge. In April, 1645, a great fleet of 302 ships, and a large army of over 100,000 men, commanded by a Dalmatian, Pasha Joseph Markovitch, set sail for Crete. In June, one of the two chief fortresses of the island, Canea, was invested. After two months’ siege it surrendered. In 1648 began the first siege of Candia, but this stronghold proved as hard to capture as Rhodes. During the course of twenty-one years it was the objective of repeated attacks on the part of the Turks, and only fell into their hands in 1669.

As has been seen, the Ottoman Empire began to decay from the top. The Sultan finally became the mere figurehead of palace intrigues, and the effect of the rottenness in the supreme head of a centralized military despotism was widespread. Taxation became extravagantly burdensome; the royal domains were alienated, the coinage was debased, offices were sold to the highest bidder, and this general venality caused the disappearance of the military fiefs from which the armies of the empire had been recruited.

The Janitschars lost their characteristic qualities as warriors when the custom of recruiting them from the Christian population was abandoned. They finally degenerated into a mere rabble of turbulent blackguards, composed of the worst elements of all nationalities, Christian and Moslem, who disappeared from the ranks during a war, or fled from the battlefield and lived normally by blackmail or by illicit trading. The abandonment of this living tithe was due probably to the jealousy of the Moslem families, who objected to the monopolizing by men of Christian birth of the lucrative privileges attached to an élite corps. The last time the tithe was collected was in 1676, when 3000 youths were brought in as recruits. With the abolition of the Janitschars dates the rise of the bands of brigands among both the Slavic and Hellenic populations. The able-bodied members of the conquered races found in this sphere of activity a chance for developing their capacities in guerrilla warfare; with the training and traditions so acquired they were able in later years to act as the leaders in the national movements which, during the course of the nineteenth century, ended in the dismemberment of the Ottoman provinces in Europe.

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SPANISH CONQUERORS

I THE SPANIARD AND THE NEW WORLD

In the century which followed the discovery of America, not only was the lead in initiative taken by Spain never lost, but she practically had no competitors in the conquest and colonization of the New World. If the lines of medieval enterprise had been followed in the opening up of new territories for economic development, it should have fallen either to Venice or to Genoa to undertake the work of exploration and exploitation of these unknown regions. But times had changed, and the Italian republics had changed with them. Under the stress of the Turkish conquests, which had led to the organization of a great military and naval power in the East, Venice could follow nothing but a policy of self-protection that admitted neither of expansion nor of adventure. Internal changes in the Italian peninsula, indicated by the overlordship of Milan, had reduced the power of Genoa, which had already been weakened by her long contest with Venice for the naval mastery of the Mediterranean.

The rise of Spain was phenomenal; nothing exactly resembling it had been seen before, except in the case of those great tribal or national invasions that so often altered the face of Europe. For centuries, like Italy before the advent of Italian unity, Spain was only a geographical expression. Only fourteen years before Columbus’ first voyage, the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile had consolidated the royal power on the Iberian peninsula and made these two Spanish monarchs lords of the whole land south of the Pyrenees, except in the kingdoms of Granada in the south, of Portugal in the west, and of Navarre in the north. A steady policy of aggression and conquest soon brought about the disappearance of the small kingdom of Granada. Between 1486 and 1489 Loja, Malaga, and Baza had been taken; Granada alone held out a few years more. Ferdinand, a most astute monarch of the type of Louis XI of France and Henry VII of England, had already crushed the Portuguese faction in Castile, who had favored the alliance of their queen with the King of Portugal. His ideals were for an absolute monarchy, which, by the elimination of feudal traditions and by the accumulation of wealth, might become the predominant power in western Europe.

There was no reason for Spain to become a colonizing power in the modern sense, since the peninsula was a sparsely populated country, large tracts of land having been opened up for occupation by the Christian conquests of Moorish territory. In preceding centuries, when the Christian princes began to win back, piece by piece, the lands belonging to the Moslems, a conciliatory policy had been adopted towards the conquered race; the Moors had kept their personal liberties and had been encouraged to group themselves in autonomous communities in the suburbs of Christian cities. Even when Granada was taken, favorable terms were given to its inhabitants, although in the end the promises were broken. They were conceded liberty of person, trade, education, and worship, the protection of Mohammedan law, administered by Mohammedan judges, and the benefit of mixed tribunals. But here and elsewhere Ferdinand’s methods were a consistent application of the principles of an autocrat, and, when the New World fell as a prize to the Spanish conquerors, the usages of expansion by conquest at home in the Iberian peninsula were mercilessly applied. When Malaga was taken, the captive inhabitants were sold as slaves; one-third of the proceeds of the sale was taken for the redemption of Christian captives in Africa; another was given to those who had served in the army of occupation either as mercenaries or as officials, and the remaining portion was paid into the royal treasury. As to the land, it was laid out for a colony. The large tracts opened to colonization were offered on easy conditions to the Christian inhabitants of Spain.

It was not land hunger, therefore, which prompted the Spanish monarchs to accept Columbus’ scheme of a westward route to the rich empires of the Orient. Profit-bringing trade by which stores of specie could be accumulated attracted the founders of Spanish absolutism. The project itself was not viewed with skepticism; its scientific basis was cogent; there were besides widely circulated stories of land existing in the West. But the one practical difficulty in the way of fitting out the proposed expedition was the war with the Moors of Granada, by which the Spanish treasury had been exhausted. After the city fell in January, 1492, several months were spent in haggling over terms. Columbus had made up his mind that if the voyage were sucessful he should be adequately rewarded for his trouble. Apart from conditions as to offices and the administration of the newly acquired possessions, it was agreed that he was to receive one clear tenth of all merchandise, whether gold, silver, pearls, spices, or whatsoever else was gained or gotten for the crown in his new jurisdiction. Moreover, there was a further clause inserted that in case Columbus should choose to contribute to the equipment of vessels employed in the new trade to the extent of one-eighth, he was to be at liberty to do so, thereby entitling himself to one-eighth part of the profits.

The prospects of a great trading adventure seemed altogether alluring. It must be remembered that the discoverer carried with him a letter from the Catholic monarchs to the Grand Khan of Tartary; and that it was this opening up of a direct trade route, with enormous possibilities for commercial profit, that inspired the Spanish conquest of America. Even after the configuration of the new continent had been made out by later voyagers, the fascination of establishing a connection with the Orient remained a strong inducement. Then as it faded away as an immediate possibility, the opportunity of securing large hoards of the precious metals stimulated discovery and exploration. The lust of territorial conquest remained associated with the lust of gold. The Spanish adventurer had no ideal aims; he was not attracted by the American continent because it offered a new home or because it presented a chance for trying political experiments. There was the same single-mindedness in the conquistador ideal as is seen to-day in the trust magnate who is searching for oil wells. The sordid aims called forth by the success of Columbus’ expedition were not developed by the contest with the natives occupying the lands whose possession was coveted.

When the Spanish conquerors arrived in those unknown islands of the western sea the American continent was held by a number of the Turanian races which had one time peopled most of the Old World. Only a few relics of their predominance are seen in the Europe of to-day in the Basques, the Finns, and the Esthonians. Long before historical times the process of uniting Asia and Europe with America had begun. Probably thousands of years before the rise of Caucasian civilization along the Nile and the Euphrates, Turanian hordes found their way across the Behring Straits. Little capacity for attaining the arts of civilized life was shown by the American Turanians; there were, it is true, differences in social organization, but the general level of civilization was not far above the savage type, even in the Valley of Mexico or in Quito and Cuzco in South America.

Those who took part in the overthrow of the Aztec and Inca governments magnified their own achievements by describing themselves as the conquerors of great civilized empires. Such fictions were natural in men who desired to exalt the difficulties of a suddenly achieved fame, and the exaggeration was the more easily believed because of their seizure of large stores of those precious metals by which, in the Old World, progress in civilization was measured. From the point of view both of the home government and of those who took part in the first cycle of voyages, there was not much encouragement of profit to be derived in the islands and shores of the mainland touched by Columbus and by those who worked under his leadership and inspiration from 1492-1517--that is, during the first twenty-five years of Spanish conquest.

In the first voyage of Columbus much of the coast of Hayti was explored because of the stories told as to the existence of gold on the island. In the second expedition, made the following year, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico, Jamaica were discovered. The foundation of the first Spanish city on the island of Hayti was laid; then the explorer passed along the north coast of Cuba, which especially interested him because he took it to be the mainland of Cathay and Cipango not far from Malacca. In 1498, after discovering Trinidad, he reached the South American continent at the mouth of the Orinoco River, which was identified by him as one of the streams of the terrestrial paradise. Then followed complaints of administrative abuses which led to Columbus’ return to the Spanish peninsula as a prisoner.

There was a fourth voyage in 1502 which extended as far as Honduras. After showing a piece of gold to the natives Columbus inquired of them by signs where the metal could be found. They pointed to the east, and after some further communications Columbus was convinced that the land of Cathay lay in that direction. He spent many weeks afterward in tacking along the shore against adverse winds and currents. Finally he landed at a place called by the natives Veragua, where the signs of civilized life, indicated by the village communities and the numbers of temples and sepulchers constructed of stone and lime, and suitably decorated, and, above all, the abundance of gold demonstrated to him that he had reached the golden Chersonese of the East. This was the land, he was sure, that had furnished King Solomon with his famous treasures. He set out from Veragua certain of discovering after a few leagues’ journey the straits of Malacca. After that, to reach the mouth of the Ganges would only be a matter of a few days. When he found the peninsula larger than he expected, he turned back to Veragua, meaning to found a permanent settlement there; but the warlike natives forced him to take refuge on his ships. Disheartened, the explorer withdrew to Hayti, from whence he returned to Spain, where he died on May 20, 1506.

There was a curious vein of mysticism in Columbus’ character, which comes out in a quotation made by him in his later years, from the famous medieval Apocalyptic, Joachim of Calabria. “The Rabbi Joachim,” he writes, “says that out of Spain shall come he who shall rebuild the House of Mount Zion.” His discovery, the explorer explained, would bring about the recovery of the Holy City and of the Sepulcher of Christ by means of the gold which would be found in the Indies. When he returned the first time from Hayti to Spain, he wrote that those whom he left behind would easily collect a ton of gold while he was absent, and that, therefore, in less than three years the capture of the Holy Sepulcher and the conquest of Jerusalem could be undertaken. Later on, he provided that the accumulated income of his property, which was to be invested in shares of the Bank of St. George in Genoa paying six per cent., should to the extent of one-half go to aid the expenses of recovering the holy places in Palestine.

The constant quest for gold that stimulated the voyages of the great explorer had, therefore, its basis in this extraordinary and fanatical revival of the spirit which had once inspired the Crusades. It was almost a mania with Columbus, whose letters contain eulogies on gold: “Who hath this, hath all that can be desired in the world; gold can even bring souls into Paradise.” Though the metal could not be found in great quantities, he discovered nevertheless a way by which the New World might be made to yield the gold which was wanted. It was Columbus who started in America the traffic in human beings. The day after he arrived in the West Indies, he talked of the prospect of using the Indians for slave traffic, and he promised to send to Europe a whole shipful of these idolaters. He kept his promise also, for in 1495 he sent five hundred Indian captives to be sold at Seville. The next year three hundred more arrived at Cadiz. It has been not unnaturally supposed that the harsh treatment received later on by the explorer at the hands of the governor of Hayti had a close connection with Columbus’ persistent policy of recruiting slave gangs from the natives of the islands he had visited. It is certain that Isabella was so outraged by the constant stream of West Indian slaves which had its source in Columbus’ discoveries that she frequently directed their repatriation. It is significant also that Bobadilla, the man who sent Columbus back to Spain in irons, is spoken of by Las Casas as an upright and humane person.