EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY

H >> HUTTON WEBSTER >> EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45

MONGOL EMPIRE UNDER JENGHIZ, 1206-1227 A.D.

Jenghiz first sent the Mongol armies, which contained many Turkish allies,
over the Great Wall [5] and into the fertile plains of China. All the
northern half of the country was quickly overrun. Then Jenghiz turned
westward and invaded Turkestan and Persia. Seven centuries have not
sufficed to repair the damage which the Mongols wrought in this once-
prosperous land. The great cities of Bokhara, Samarkand, Merv, and Herat,
[6] long centers of Moslem culture, were pillaged and burned, and their
inhabitants were put to the sword. Like the Huns the Mongols seemed a
scourge sent by God. Still further conquests enlarged the empire, which at
the death of Jenghiz in 1227 A.D. stretched from the Dnieper River to the
China Sea.

MONGOL EMPIRE UNDER THE SUCCESSORS OF JENGHIZ

The Mongol dominions in the thirteenth century were increased by the
addition of Korea, southern China, and Mesopotamia, as well as the greater
part of Asia Minor and Russia. Japan, indeed, repulsed the Mongol hordes,
but at the other extremity of Asia they captured Bagdad, sacked the city,
and brought the caliphate to an end. [7] The Mongol realm was very loosely
organized, however, and during the fourteenth century it fell apart into a
number of independent states, or khanates.

[Illustration: Map, THE MONGOL EMPIRE]

TIMUR THE LAME, DIED 1405 A.D.

It was reserved for another renowned Oriental monarch, Timur the Lame, [8]
to restore the empire of Jenghiz Khan. His biographers traced his descent
from that famous Mongol, but Timur was a Turk and an adherent of Islam. He
has come down to us as perhaps the most terrible personification in
history of the evil spirit of conquest. Such distant regions as India,
Syria, Armenia, Asia Minor, and Russia were traversed by Timur's soldiers,
who left behind them only the smoking ruins of a thousand cities and
abominable trophies in the shape of columns or pyramids of human heads.
Timur died in his seventieth year, while leading his troops against China,
and the extensive empire which he had built up in Asia soon crumbled to
pieces.

[Illustration: TOMB OF TIMUR AT SAMARKAND
Samarkand in Russian Central Asia became Timur's capital in 1369 AD. The
city was once a center of Mohammedan wealth and culture, famous for its
beautiful mosques, palaces, and colleges. The Gur-Amir, or tomb of Timur,
consists of a chapel, crowned by a dome and enclosed by a wall. Time and
earthquakes have greatly injured this fine building. The remains of Timur
lie here under a huge block of jade.]

177. THE MONGOLS IN CHINA AND INDIA

MONGOL SWAY IN CHINA

The Mongols ruled over China for about one hundred and fifty years. During
this period they became thoroughly imbued with Chinese culture. "China,"
said an old writer, "is a sea that salts all the rivers flowing into it."
The most eminent of the Mongol emperors was Jenghiz Khan's grandson,
Kublai (1259-1294 A.D.). He built a new capital, which in medieval times
was known as Cambaluc and is now called Peking. While Kublai was on the
throne, the Venetian traveler, Marco Polo, [9] visited China, and he
describes in glowing colors the virtues and glories of the "Great Khan."
There appears to have been considerable trade between Europe and China at
this time, and Franciscan missionaries and papal legates penetrated to the
remote East. After the downfall of the Mongol dynasty in 1368 A.D. China
again shut her doors to foreign peoples. All intercourse with Europe
ceased until the arrival of the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. [10]

TIMUR AND BABER IN INDIA

Northern India, which in earlier ages had witnessed the coming of Persian,
Macedonian, and Arabian conquerors, did not escape visitations by fresh
Asiatic hordes. Timur the Lame, at the head of an innumerable host, rushed
down upon the banks of the Indus and the Ganges and sacked Delhi, making
there a full display of his unrivaled ferocity. Timur's invasion left no
permanent impress on the history of India, but its memory fired the
imagination of another Turkish chieftain, Baber, a remote descendant of
Timur. In 1525 A.D. he invaded India and speedily made himself master of
the northern part of the country.

EMPIRE OF THE MOGULS

The empire which Baber established in India is known as that of the
Moguls, an Arabic form of the word Mongol. The Moguls, however, were
Turkish in blood and Mohammedans in religion. The Mogul emperors reigned
in great splendor from their capitals at Delhi and Agra, until the decline
of their power in the eighteenth century opened the way for the British
conquest of India.

178. THE MONGOLS IN EASTERN EUROPE

MONGOL CONQUEST OF RUSSIA, 1237-1240 A.D.

The location of Russia [11] on the border of Asia exposed that country to
the full force of the Mongol attack. Jenghiz Khan's successors, entering
Europe north of the Caspian, swept resistlessly over the Russian plain.
Moscow and Kiev fell in quick succession, and before long the greater part
of Russia was in the hands of the Mongols. Wholesale massacres marked
their progress. "No eye remained open to weep for the dead."

[Illustration: THE TAJ MAHAL, AGRA
Erected by the Mogul emperor, Shah Jehan, as a tomb for his favorite wife,
Muntaz Mahal. It was begun in 1632 A.D. and was completed in twenty-two
years. The material is pure white marble, inlaid with jasper, agate and
other precious stones. The building rests on a marble terrace, at each
corner of which rises a tall graceful minaret. The extreme delicacy of the
Taj Mahal and the richness of its ornamentation make it a masterpiece of
architecture.]

INVASION OF POLAND AND HUNGARY BY THE MONGOLS, 1241 A.D.

Still the invaders pressed on. They devastated Hungary, driving the Magyar
king in panic flight from his realm. They overran Poland. At a great
battle in Silesia they destroyed the knighthood of Germany and filled nine
sacks with the right ears of slaughtered enemies. The European peoples,
taken completely by surprise, could offer no effective resistance to these
Asiatics, who combined superiority in numbers with surpassing generalship.
Since the Arab attack in the eighth century Christendom had never been in
graver peril. But the wave of Mongol invasion, which threatened to engulf
Europe in barbarism, receded as quickly as it came. The Mongols soon
abandoned Poland and Hungary and retired to their possessions in Russia.

[Illustration: Map, RUSSIA AT THE END OF THE MIDDLE AGES]

THE "GOLDEN HORDE"

The ruler of the "Golden Horde," as the western section of the Mongol
Empire was called, continued to be the lord of Russia for about two
hundred and fifty years. Russia, throughout this period, was little more
than a dependency of Asia. The conquered people were obliged to pay a
heavy tribute and to furnish soldiers for the Mongol armies. Their
princes, also, became vassals of the Great Khan.

MONGOL INFLUENCE ON RUSSIA

The Mongols, or "Tartars" [12] are usually said to have Orientalized
Russia. It seems clear, however, that they did not interfere with the
language, religion, and laws of their subjects. The chief result of the
Mongol supremacy was to cut off Russia from western Europe, just at the
time when England, France, Germany, and Italy were emerging from the
darkness of the early Middle Ages.

RISE OF MUSCOVY

The invasion of the Mongols proved to be, indirectly, the making of the
Russian state. Before they came the country was a patchwork of rival, and
often warring, principalities. The need of union against the common enemy
welded them together. The principality of Muscovy, so named from the
capital city of Moscow, conquered its neighbors, annexed the important
city of Novgorod, whose vast possessions stretched from Lapland to the
Urals, and finally became powerful enough to shake off the Mongol yoke.

REIGN OF IVAN III, THE GREAT, 1462-1505 A.D.

The final deliverance of Russia from the Mongols was accomplished by Ivan
III, surnamed the Great. This ruler is also regarded as the founder of
Russian autocracy, that is, of a personal, absolute, and arbitrary
government. With a view to strengthening his claim to be the political
heir of the eastern emperors, Ivan married a niece of the last ruler at
Constantinople, who in 1453 A.D. had fallen in the defense of his capital
against the Ottoman Turks. Henceforth the Russian ruler described himself
as "the new Tsar [13] Constantine in the new city of Constantine, Moscow."

179. THE OTTOMAN TURKS AND THEIR CONQUESTS, 1227-1453 A.D.

RISE OF THE OTTOMANS

The first appearance of the Ottoman Turks in history dates from 1227 A.D.,
the year of Jenghiz Khan's death. In that year a small Turkish horde,
driven westward from their central Asian homes by the Mongol advance,
settled in Asia Minor. There they enjoyed the protection of their kinsmen,
the Seljuk Turks, and from them accepted Islam. As the Seljuk power
declined, that of the Ottomans rose in its stead. About 1300 A.D. their
chieftain, Othman, [14] declared his independence and became the founder
of the Ottoman Empire.

OTTOMAN EXPANSION

The growth of the Ottoman power was almost as rapid as that of the Arabs
or of the Mongols. During the first half of the fourteenth century they
firmly established themselves in northwestern Asia Minor, along the
beautiful shores washed by the Bosporus, the Sea of Marmora, and the
Dardanelles. The second half of the same century found them in Europe,
wresting province after province from the feeble hands of the eastern
emperors. First came the seizure of Gallipoli on the Dardanelles, which
long remained the principal Turkish naval station. Then followed the
capture of Adrianople, where in earlier centuries the Visigoths had
destroyed a Roman army. [15] By 1400 A.D. all that remained of the Roman
Empire in the East was Constantinople and a small district in the vicinity
of that city.

THE JANIZARIES

The Turks owed much of their success to the famous body of troops known as
Janizaries. [16] These were recruited for the most part from Christian
children surrendered by their parents as tribute. The Janizaries received
an education in the Moslem faith and careful instruction in the use of
arms. Their discipline and fanatic zeal made them irresistible on the
field of battle.

[Illustration: MOHAMMED II
A medal showing the strong face of the conqueror of Constantinople]

CONSTANTINOPLE BESIEGED

Constantinople had never recovered from the blow inflicted upon it by the
freebooters of the Fourth Crusade. [17] It was isolated from western
Europe by the advance of the Turks. Frantic appeals for help brought only
a few ships and men from Genoa and Venice. When in 1453 A.D. the sultan
Mohammed II, commanding a large army amply supplied with artillery,
appeared before the walls, all men knew that Constantinople was doomed.

CAPTURE OF THE CITY

The defense of the city forms one of the most stirring episodes in
history. The Christians, not more than eight thousand in number, were a
mere handful compared to the Ottoman hordes. Yet they held out for nearly
two months against every assault. When at length the end drew near, the
Roman emperor, Constantine Palaeologus, a hero worthy of the name he bore,
went with his followers at midnight to Sancta Sophia and there in that
solemn fane received a last communion. Before sunrise on the following day
the Turks were within the walls. The emperor, refusing to survive the city
which he could not save, fell in the onrush of the Janizaries.
Constantinople endured a sack of three days, during which many works of
art, previously spared by the crusaders, were destroyed. Mohammed II then
made a triumphal entry into the city and in Sancta Sophia, now stripped of
its crosses, images, and other Christian emblems, proclaimed the faith of
the prophet. And so the "Turkish night," as Slavic poets named it,
descended on this ancient home of civilization.

AN EPOCH-MAKING EVENT

The capture of Constantinople is rightly regarded as an epoch-making
event. It meant the end, once for all, of the empire which had served so
long as the rearguard of Christian civilization, as the bulwark of the
West against the East. Europe stood aghast at a calamity which she had
done so little to prevent. The Christian powers of the West have been
paying dearly, even to our own time, for their failure to save New Rome
from infidel hands.

180. THE OTTOMAN TURKS IN SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

CONTINUED OTTOMAN EXPANSION

Turkey was now a European state. After the occupation of Constantinople
the Ottoman territories continued to expand, and at the death of Mohammed
II they included what are now Bulgaria, Rumania, Serbia, Albania, and
Greece. Of all the Balkan states only tiny Montenegro, protected by
mountain ramparts, preserved its independence.

NATURE OF TURKISH RULE

The Turks form a small minority among the inhabitants of the Balkans. At
the present time there are said to be less than one million Turks in
southeastern Europe. Even about Constantinople the Greeks far outnumber
them. The Turks from the outset have been, not a nation in the proper
sense of the word, but rather an army of occupation, holding down by force
their far more numerous Christian subjects.

THE TURKS A MIXED PEOPLE

The people who thus acquired dominion over all southeastern Europe had
become, even at the middle of the fifteenth century, greatly mixed in
blood. Their ancestors were natives of central Asia, but in Europe they
intermarried freely with their Christian captives and with converts from
Christianity to Islam. So far has this admixture proceeded that the modern
Turks are almost entirely European in physique.

[Illustration: Map, EMPIRE OF THE OTTOMAN TURKS AT THE FALL OF
CONSTANTINOPLE, 1453 A.D.]

ISOLATION OF THE TURKS

The Bulgarians, who came out of Asia to devastate Europe, at length turned
Christian, adopted a Slavic speech, and entered the family of European
nations. The Magyars, who followed them, also made their way into the
fellowship of Christendom. Quite the opposite has been the case with the
Turks. Preserving their Asiatic language and Moslem faith, they have
remained in southeastern Europe, not a transitory scourge, but an abiding
oppressor of Christian lands. Every century since 1453 A.D. has widened
the gulf between them and their subjects.

TURKISH INFLUENCE IN SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

The isolation of the Turks has prevented them from assimilating the higher
culture of the peoples whom they conquered. They have never created
anything in science, art, literature, commerce, or industry. Conquest has
been the Turks' one business in the world, and when they ceased conquering
their decline set in. But it was not till the end of the seventeenth
century that the Turkish Empire entered on that downward road which is now
fast leading to its extinction as a European power.

STUDIES

1. Locate these cities: Bokhara; Samarkand; Merv; Herat; Bagdad; Peking;
Delhi; Kiev; Moscow; and Adrianople.

2. Who were Baber, Kublai Khan, Othman, Mohammed II, Constantine
Palaeologus, and Ivan the Great?

3. Why should the steppes of central and northern Asia have been a nursery
of warlike peoples?

4. What parts of Asia were not included in the Mongol Empire at its
greatest extent?

5. Trace on the map on page 486 the further expansion of the Mongol Empire
after the death of Jenghiz Khan.

6. "Scratch a Russian and you will find a Tartar." What does this mean?

7. Why did the Mongol conquest of Russia tend to strengthen the sentiment
of nationality in the Russian people?

8. How did the tsars come to regard themselves as the successors of the
Eastern emperors?

9. Compare the Janizaries with the Christian military-religious orders.

10. How was "the victory of the Crescent secured by the children of the
Cross"?

11. Why were the invasions of the Mongols and Ottoman Turks more
destructive to civilization than those of the Germans, the Arabs, and the
Northmen?

12. Enumerate the more important services of the Roman Empire in the East
to civilization.

13. On an outline map indicate the extent of the Ottoman Empire in 1453
A.D.

FOOTNOTES

[1] See pages 241, 247, 314, 316, 334.

[2] Mongolia has long been a part of the Chinese Empire, but in 1912 A.D.,
when China because a republic, Mongolia declared its independence.

[3] Herodotus, iv, 46.

[4] "The Very Mighty King."

[5] See page 20.

[6] For the location of these cities see the map on page 486.

[7] See page 381.

[8] Commonly known as Tamerlane.

[9] See page 616.

[10] See page 622.

[11] For the early history of Russia see page 400.

[12] The name Tartar (more correctly, Tatar) was originally applied to
both Mongol and Turkish tribes that entered Russia. There are still over
three millions of these "Tartars" in the Russian Empire.

[13] The title Tsar, or Czar, is supposed to be a contraction of the word
Caesar.

[14] Whence the name Ottoman applied to this branch of the Turks.

[15] See page 242.

[16] A name derived from the Turkish _yeni cheri_, "new troops."

[17] See page 478.

CHAPTER XXII

EUROPEAN NATIONS DURING THE LATER MIDDLE AGES [1]

181. GROWTH OF THE NATIONS

THE NEW NATIONALISM

The map of western Europe, that is, of Europe west of the great Russian
plain and the Balkan peninsula, shows this part of the continent at
present divided into no less than thirteen separate and independent
nations. Most of them arose during the latter part of the Middle Ages.
They have existed so long that we now think of the national state as the
highest type of human association, forgetting that it has been preceded by
other forms of political organization, such as the Greek republic, the
Roman Empire, and the feudal state, and that it may be followed some day
by an international or universal state composed of all civilized peoples.

THE NATIONAL STATE AND FEUDALISM

These national states were the successors of feudalism. The establishment
of the feudal system in any country meant, as has been seen, its division
into numerous small communities, each with a law court, treasury, and
army. This system of local government helped to keep order in an age of
confusion, but it did not meet the needs of a progressive society. In most
parts of Europe the feudal states gradually gave way to centralized
governments ruled by despotic kings.

THE NEW MONARCHIES

A feudal king was often little more than a figurehead, equaled, or perhaps
surpassed, in power by some of his own vassals. But in England, France,
Spain, and other countries a series of astute and energetic sovereigns
were able to strengthen their authority at the expense of the nobles. They
formed permanent armies by insisting that all military service should be
rendered to themselves and not to the feudal lords. They got into their
own hands the administration of justice. They developed a revenue system,
with the taxes collected by royal officers and deposited in the royal
treasury. The kings thus succeeded in creating in each country one power
which all the inhabitants feared, respected, and obeyed.

THE SENTIMENT OF NATIONALITY

A national state in modern times is keenly conscious of its separate
existence. All its people usually speak the same language and have for
their "fatherland" the warmest feelings of patriotic devotion. In the
Middle Ages, however, patriotism was commonly confounded with loyalty to
the sovereign, while the differences between nations were obscured by the
existence of an international Church and by the use of Latin as the common
language of all cultivated persons. The sentiment of nationality arose
earlier in England than on the Continent, partly owing to the insular
position of that country, but nowhere did it become a very strong
influence before the end of the fifteenth century.

182. ENGLAND UNDER WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, 1066-1087 A.D.; THE NORMAN
KINGSHIP

THE LAST INVASION OF ENGLAND

The Normans were the last invaders of England. Since 1066 A.D. the English
Channel, not more than twenty-one miles wide between Dover and Calais, has
formed a watery barrier against Continental domination. The English
people, for eight and a half centuries, have been free to develop their
ideals, customs, and methods of government in their own way. We shall now
learn how they established a strong monarchy and at the same time laid
deep and firm the foundations of constitutional liberty.

WILLIAM'S DESPOTIC RULE

William the Conqueror had won England by force of arms. He ruled it as a
despot. Those who resisted him he treated as rebels, confiscating their
land and giving it to Norman followers. To prevent uprisings he built a
castle in every important town and garrisoned it with his own soldiers.
The Tower of London still stands as an impressive memorial of the days of
the Conquest. But William did not rely on force alone. He sought with
success to attach the English to himself by retaining most of their old
customs and by giving them an enlightened administration of the law. "Good
peace he made in this land," said the old Anglo-Saxon chronicler, "so that
a man might travel over the kingdom with his bosom full of gold without
molestation, and no man durst kill another, however great the injury he
might have received from him."

WILLIAM AND FEUDALISM

The feudal system on the Continent permitted a powerful noble to gather
his vassals and make war on the king, whenever he chose to do so. William
had been familiar with this evil side of feudalism, both in France and in
his own duchy of Normandy, and he determined to prevent its introduction
into England. William established the principle that a vassal owed his
first duty to the king and not to his immediate lord. If a noble rebelled
and his men followed him, they were to be treated as traitors. Rebellion
proved to be an especially difficult matter in England, since the estates
which a great lord possessed were not all in any one place but were
scattered about the kingdom. A noble who planned to revolt could be put
down before he was able to collect his retainers from the most distant
parts of the country.

[Illustration: THE "WHITE TOWER"
Forms part of the Tower of London. Built by William the Conqueror]

DOMESDAY BOOK, 1085 A.D.

The extent of William's authority is illustrated by the survey which he
caused to have made of the taxable property of the kingdom. Royal
commissioners went throughout the length and breadth of England to find
out how much farm land there was in every county, how many landowners
there were, and what each man possessed, to the last ox or cow or pig. The
reports were set down in the famous Domesday Book, perhaps so called
because one could no more appeal from it than from the Last Judgment. A
similar census of population and property had never before been taken in
the Middle Ages.

[Illustration: A PASSAGE FROM DOMESDAY BOOK
Beginning of the entry for Oxford. The handwriting is the beautiful
Carolingian minuscule which the Norman Conquest introduced into England.
The two volumes of this compilation and the chest in which they were
formerly preserved may be seen in the Public Record Office, London.]

THE SALISBURY OATH, 1086 A.D.

Almost at the close of his reign William is said to have summoned all the
landowning men in England to a great meeting on Salisbury Plain. They
assembled there to the number, as it is reported, of sixty thousand and
promised "that they would be faithful to him against all other men." The
Salisbury Oath was a national act of homage and allegiance to the king.

183. ENGLAND UNDER HENRY II, 1154-1189 A.D.; ROYAL JUSTICE AND THE COMMON
LAW

HENRY II, PLANTAGENET
Henry II, who ascended the English throne in 1154 A.D., was a grandson of
William the Conqueror and the first of the famous Plantagenet [2] family,
Henry spent more than half of his reign abroad, looking after his
extensive possessions in France but this fact did not prevent him from
giving England good government. Three things in which all Englishmen take
special pride--the courts, the jury system, and the Common law--began to
take shape during Henry's reign.

THE KING'S COURT

Henry, first of all, developed the royal court of justice. This had been,
at first, simply the court of the king's chief vassals, corresponding to
the local feudal courts. [3] Henry transformed it from an occasional
assembly of warlike nobles into a regular body of trained lawyers, and at
the same time opened its doors to all except serfs. In the king's court
any freeman could find a justice that was cheaper and speedier than that
dispensed by the feudal lords. The higher courts of England have sprung
from this institution.

CIRCUIT JUDGES

Henry also took measures to bring the king's justice directly to the
people. He sent members of the royal court on circuit throughout the
kingdom. At least once a year a judge was to hold an assembly in each
county and try such cases as were brought before him. This system of
circuit judges helped to make the law uniform in all parts of England.

TRIAL BY "PETTY JURY"

The king's court owed much of its popularity to the fact that it employed
a better form of trying cases than the old ordeal, oath-swearing, or
judicial duel. Henry introduced a method of jury trial which had long been
in use in Normandy. When a case came before the king's judges on circuit,
they were to select twelve knights, usually neighbors of the parties
engaged in the dispute, to make an investigation and give a "verdict" [4]
as to which side was in the right. These selected men bore the name of
"jurors," [5] because they swore to tell the truth. In Henry's time this
method of securing justice applied only to civil cases, that is, to cases
affecting land and other forms of property, but later it was extended to
persons charged with criminal offenses. Thus arose the "petty jury," an
institution which nearly all European peoples have borrowed from England.