Article: The Balkans and the Peace of Europe
THE BALKANS AND THE PEACE OF EUROPE
Roumania, Bulgaria, Servia, Montenegro, European Turkey and Greece, occupying the southeastern peninsula of Europe, comprise the Balkan States. On three sides the peninsula is washed by four seas. The Transylvanian Alps and Danube River form natural boundaries on the north. East and west the Balkan Mountains traverse the region and send outlying peaks and ranges southward, making three-fourths of the peninsula mountainous. While few of the granite ridges are over seven thousand feet high, they are rugged and broken, with difficult passes. Montenegro (Black Mountains) is a knot of bare and jagged peaks, dangerous gorges and wild torrents. The nature of the country goes far to explain its tragic history and the character of its hardy, liberty-loving people. In the entire peninsula, in 1900, was a population of only 17,000,000. Half of these were Turkish Mohammedans. The other half were of [[../Slavs|Slavic]] and Greek origin, of different languages, customs and degrees of progress and independence, but united as Christians of the Greek Catholic Church of [[../Russia, Empire of|Russia]].
To understand the Balkan war of 1912–13, which changed every boundary line in the peninsula, and the vital interest of six great European powers in the terms of peace, it is necessary to go back to a time before [[../Columbus, Christopher|Columbus]]. When the Turks took Constantinople, in 1453, after having occupied Adrianople for a century, the old [[../Byzantine Empire|Roman Empire of the East]] was abandoned to Moslem hordes. The Christian peoples of the Balkans were left to defend themselves. Dividing along racial lines they fought under their native leaders. Even after they were conquered, they continued to resist Turkish misrule and religious persecution. For three hundred years Bulgaria, and Servia which then included Montenegro and Northwestern Turkey, stood as a bulwark between the Turk and Western Europe. Montenegro separated from Servia, and its 250,000 mountaineers maintained their independence. In 1830 England, France and Russia helped Greece in her struggle for freedom, chiefly because of the sympathy for the ancient glory of Athens. With Russia’s assistance Roumania became an independent kingdom.
In 1876 the Turks entered upon a series of massacres of Christians in Bulgaria. Russia, coming to the defense of the Greek Catholics, made war on Turkey, and would have taken Constantinople had she not been stopped by the other powers. The
Image: PALACE OF THE SULTAN, CONSTANTINOPLE
Image: TURKISH INFANTRY
Image: MONTENEGRIN ARTILLERY AND EARTHWORKS
Image: MONTENEGRIN GENERAL WATCHING BATTLE
