Mediæval and modern history (1920) (14793719123)

Identifier: medivalmodernh00myer (find matches)
Title: Mediæval and modern history
Year: 1920 (1920s)
Authors: Myers, P. V. N. (Philip Van Ness), 1846-1937
Subjects: Middle Ages History, Modern World War, 1914-1918
Publisher: Boston, New York (etc.) Ginn and company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation



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ed herhatred of Great Britain, which had taken the side of France inthe international convention, to become more intense and bitter. 702. Some Factors of the Balkan Problem. Our attention isnow directed to southeastern Europe, where was laid the trainwhich started the frightful conflagration of the World War. Thesituation here at the opening of the twentieth century was be-wildering in the variety of the motives, interests, and aspirationsof the peoples and governments concerned, but it will become in ameasure intelligible if we bear in mind the following dominantfacts: First, the situation was one which concerned the relations ofthe several small Balkan states to Turkey. The Turkish provinces 1 The French Premier, Delcasse, who had carried on the negotiations with the Britishgovernment, was by Germanys threat of war forced to resign. 2 The Convention of Algeciras, 1906. It was suggested by President TheodoreRoosevelt. WO » g c e 92 J 1 C ^ 1 a 1 5 gSi- Mfc; ■>>oei;5Si<) w
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§ 702) FACTORS OF THE BALKAN PROBLEM 627 adjoining these little states contained more than two million Chris-tian Greeks, Bulgarians, and Serbians who longed for liberationfrom Ottoman oppression and for union with their emancipatedbrethren. Racial and religious antagonisms among the Christiansthemselves, especially in Macedonia, aggravated the disorder andwretchedness. Second, the situation was one which concerned more or lessclosely several of the great powers. Russias old ambition to con-trol the waterways leading from the Black Sea to the iEgean wasnot only still active but was now more urgent than ever before,because her defeat by Japan had denied her a warm-water port onthe Pacific. Great Britain no longer barred her way, but Germanywas now interested in keeping these waterways out of her hands,since the Muscovite seated on the Bosphorus would imperil Ger-man interests in Asia Minor and defeat the great German projectof a Berlin-Bagdad Railway. Then the ambition of the Slav sta