Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights Part 32

[Ill.u.s.tration: GENERAL TOWNSHEND.

The British officer who was taken prisoner at Kut-el-Amara, and who afterwards became the peace negotiator.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: OFFICE OF A FIELD CAs.h.i.+ER.

This spot was formerly one of the pillbox strongholds of the famous switch in the Hindenburg line. It was afterwards run by the Canadians.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Negro Band of the 814th Infantry Leaving the Celtic After Her Arrival.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 8th Reg., FRENCH WAR-CROSS WINNERS.

Top Row: 1st-Lieut. Hurd, Lieut-Col. Duncane, Major White, Capt.

Crawford, 1st-Lieut. Warfield and Capt. Smith. Bottom Row: Capt. Allen, Lieut. Browning, Capt. Warner and 1st-Lieut. Tisdale.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Captain John H. Patton, 370th U.S. Infantry (formerly 8th Illinois Infantry).

Regimental Adjutant to September 11, 1918. Commanding 2nd Battalion from September 11, 1918 to December 17, 1918. Saint Mihiel Sector from June 21, 1918 to July 3, 1918. Argonne Forest from July 16, 1918, to August 15, 1918. Battles for Mont des Signes September 16 to September 30, 1918. Oise-Aisne offensive September 30 to November 11, 1918. Awarded the French Croix de Guerre (Division Citation for meritorious service covering the period September 11 to November 11, 1918.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Homecoming of 370th (old 8th Regiment), parade pa.s.sing the reviewing stand, Michigan ave., opposite Art Inst.i.tute, Chicago Ill.

Line of march broken by the great ma.s.s of people eager to march with the soldiers, the greatest gathering ever a.s.sembled on Chicago's great boulevard.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Officers of the 370th (old Illinois 8th Regiment)

Reading left to right: 2nd-Lieut. Lawson Price, 2nd-Lieut. L.W. Stearls, 2nd-Lieut. Ed. White, 2nd-Lieut. Elia.s.s F.E. Williams, 1st-Lieut. Oaso Browning, Capt. Louis B. Johnson, 1st-Lieut. Frank Bates and 1st-Lieut.

Binga Desmond.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Left to right: Col. Franklin Dennison, Col. J. Roberts and Lieut. Col. Otis B. Duncan of 370th (old Illinois 8th Regiment).]

The population is a motley a.s.sortment of races, nationalities and creeds. About 38 per cent being Ottomans or Turks. The Slavic and Rouman races come next in importance, then the Arabs, the remaining population consisting of Moors, Druses, Kurds, Tartars, Albanians, Circa.s.sians, Syrians, Armenians, and Greeks, besides Jews and Gypsies.

PHOENIX OF THE GREEK EMPIRE.

The Ottoman Empire arose from the ruins of the old Greek Empire, early in the fifteenth century, Constantinople being made its capital in 1453, after its capture by Mohammed II. At the accession of Mohammed IV, in 1648, the Turkish Empire was at the zenith of its power. Internal corruption caused loss of power, and in 1774, a large slice of territory was ceded to Russia. In 1821 Greece became independent. The Crimean War, in 1854-56, checked Russia for a while, but in 1875 the people of Herzegovina rebelled. A year later the Servians and Montenegrins revolted, and in 1877 Russia began hostile operations in both parts of the Turkish Empire. At this time Roumania declared her independence.

After the fall of Kars and of Plevna, the Turkish resistance completely collapsed, and in 1878 Turkey was compelled to agree to the Treaty of San Stefano.

Within the year the Treaty of Berlin declared Roumania, Servia and Montenegro independent; Roumanian Bessarabia was ceded to Russia, Austria was empowered to occupy Bosnia and Herzegovina; and Bulgaria was made a princ.i.p.ality. The main events in the history of the Ottoman Empire since the Treaty of Berlin were the French invasion of Tunis in 1881, the Treaty with Greece, executed under pressure of the Great Powers in 1881, by which Greece obtained Thessaly and a strip of Epirus; the occupation of Egypt by Great Britain in 1882; the revolution of Philippopolis in 1885, by which eastern Roumelia became united with Bulgaria. In 1908 Bulgaria declared its independence and the Young Turk Party extorted a const.i.tution and a parliament from Abdul-Hamud II, who was deposed in 1909 by the unanimous vote of the national a.s.sembly.

Mohammed V, eldest brother of the deposed Sultan succeeded to the throne.

Russia, "the Great Bear," whose part in the war brought on internal strife and revolution which robbed Czar Nicholas of his throne, traces its history back for more than ten centuries, when the Norse invaded the territory and founded Veliki Novgorod, for many years one of the chief Russian cities. The Norse, to use the modern vernacular, "put Russia on the map" when the Russian army fought its way to the very walls of Constantinople. Much of the early history of the country is legendary, and one of the famous stories is that after Igor, who commanded the great armies, was put to death by rebellious subjects, his widow sought out the territory where her husband had lost his life and pretending to make peace with them, requested every householder to give her a pigeon.

WINGED FIREBRANDS.

When they gladly complied with her request she sent the tame birds back home with flaming firebrands tied to their tails, and they entered their lofts or rests and started fires which destroyed the city of Korosten.

The ascendancy of the Romanoff dynasty, which maintained in Russia through the centuries, was established through the atrocities of Ivan the Terrible, who is said to have absolutely destroyed the descendants of the Rurik, the first Norse chieftain. Ivan the Terrible was the first Czar of Russia. He conquered Servia and his domestic infamies and intrigues are among the historical scandals of the country.

Through every reign in Russian history there ran stories of terrible crime, cruelties, infamies, immoralities and degradation. Following the death of Ivan the Terrible came Fedor, one of his sons, who was a weakling in the hands of the Duma of five, one of whom was Boris G.o.dounoff. Fedor reigned but a few years, and G.o.dounoff was elected Czar. He was ambitious, and was founder of the system of serfdom, and also of the Russian State Church, and like many of the other rulers of Russia, met death through infamy, supposedly having been poisoned.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OUTLINE MAP OF THE BALKAN STATES.

This drawing shows the boundary lines as they were at the beginning of the war. It also shows the location of the princ.i.p.al city of each country. This part of the world has always been of great importance since the earliest history of man and nations--a continuous struggle between nations to control this gateway into southwestern Asia.]

BASE IMPOSTER SLAIN.

Boris G.o.dounoff was succeeded by his son Feodor, but he was seized by a pretender, and with his mother, thrown into prison, where they were murdered. The discovery of the plot, which was laid at the door of the King of Poland, produced an uprising and Czar Dimitry the Impostor was slain. Vasili Shouyskie, leader of the mob that slew Dimitry, was proclaimed Czar, but pretenders sprang up, and one of these, who posed as a false Dimitry, invaded Russia from Poland, and established a rival imperial court at Tous.h.i.+n, and some of the Russian cities swore allegiance to him.

Vasili Shouyskie held out at Moscow, and after a time Dimitry's cause failed, whereupon Sigsmund, of Poland, invaded Russia, and put forward his son Vladislav. Vasili, roused to anger, committed acts which provoked Moscow, and in 1610 he was compelled to abdicate, and a council of n.o.bles was formed to run the government until a Czar could be chosen.

Vladislav was finally selected, but Feodor Romanoff sought to prevent his being crowned. There was a period of anarchy, cities were burned, and chaos was complete.

The dignitaries of the church and state finally set to work and supported the candidacy of Mikhial Feodorovitch Romanoff, who was the first Romanoff Czar. He reorganized the empire, and reigned for thirty-three years. His successor, Alexis, the direct heir, reigned for thirty-one years, and cultivated friendly relations with Ukraine and the Cossack country. He was followed by Feodor II, and then came Peter the Great. There were two claimants to the throne, Ivan and Peter, both sons of Alexis by separate wives, and the difficulty was settled by letting the two reign jointly under the regency of Sophia, a sister of Ivan.

When Ivan died Peter a.s.sumed the reins, and it was he who gave Russia a frontage on the Black Sea, and on the Baltic, and built St. Petersburg.

He did much for the development of Russia, creating a navy and a merchantile marine.

Catherine the First, his widow, followed him in reign, and at her death, Peter II occupied the center of the stage. At his death there was chaos again and counter claims. Anna of Courtland, a daughter of Ivan, brother of Peter the Great, was finally elected sovereign, but she was a mere puppet, vesting her authority in a High Council.

FAMILY'S WRETCHED CAREER.

During her reign her lover, named Biren, held sway and distinguished himself by sending thousands of political exiles to Siberia. At the death of Anna, Ivan IV, her grandnephew, reigned, but was deposed and sent to prison for life, while Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Peter the Great, succeeded him. She permitted the government to be run on comparatively honest lines by favorites, and while they ruled she drank herself to death.

Her nephew, Peter III, succeeded her. He was incompetent and a tool in the Prussian hands. His wife was a German princess, and led a movement which ended in his being deposed, imprisoned and murdered.

Catherine, widow of the murdered Peter, succeeded. She was known as Catherine the Great, and is credited with having been the most infamous of women in all history. Catherine was succeeded by Paul, who was a.s.sa.s.sinated by his own courtiers when he was on the point of joining Napoleon Bonaparte in his conquest of India.

His son was Alexander I, who added Finland and Poland to Russia, and founded the Holy Alliance. He was followed by his son Nicholas, who ruled for 30 years, and crushed the Poles and Hungarians, but died of a broken heart in the Crimean War.

Next came Alexander II, who gained fame as liberator of the serfs, and died the victim of a Nihilist bomb thrower. Alexander III succeeded him, and then came Nicholas II, the last Czar, whose reign lasted 22 years.

The beginning of the end was marked by the request of the workingmen in 1905 for an increase in civil rights. They were fired upon, and there was general disorder, until the Czar proclaimed a const.i.tution, and established a Duma, or national parliament, which met for the first time in 1906.

BETRAYAL OF RUSSIA'S MILITARY PLANS.

The outbreak of the war was marked by the personal decree of the Czar to change the name of the capital, St. Petersburg, to Petrograd, but his evident intent to eliminate evidences of German influence did not stop the betrayal of Russia's military plans by German spys within the court circles, and it was charged that supplies were withheld from the Russian army by those within the charmed circle, who were friendly to Germany.

Russia was a party to the Franco-Russian and Anglo-Russian agreement, which const.i.tuted the basis of the Triple Entente, but conditions were such that the soldiers refused to fight, and the situation culminated in the uprising which ended with the abdication of the Czar, in behalf of his brother, who, however, declined to accept the throne, unless he should be elected by the votes of the Russian people. The Duma thereupon decided to organize a republican form of government, and so the Russian Republic came into being in March, 1917.

Spain, a fertile country in the southwestern part of Europe, has played a prominent part in the development of the world. She has a coastline extending nearly 1500 miles, and there are about 200,000 square miles included in her territory. The coastlands and the southern section of the country are especially rich in fruits and agriculture. Although watered by many rivers, the land, for the most part, is artificially irrigated.

Up until 1898 Spain held possession of magnificent colonies in Cuba and Porto Rico and the Philippines, but now her colonial possessions are confined to a strip on the west coast of the Sahara, and the island of Fernando Po, with some smaller possessions on the Guinea coast in Africa. Their total area is about 434,000 square miles, the total population being 10,000,000.

SPAIN, PAST AND PRESENT.

Spain formerly composed the ancient provinces of New and Old Castile, Leon, Asturias, Galicia, Estremadura, Andalusia, Aragon, Murcia, Valencia, Catalonia, Navarre and the Basque Provinces. These, since 1834, have been divided into 49 provinces. The capital of Spain is Madrid, and the present const.i.tution dates from 1876. There is a Congress, which is composed of deputies, each one representing 50,000 of the population.

The Roman Catholic faith is the established form of religion, and the priesthood possesses considerable wealth and power, although the dominant influence once possessed has been curtailed of recent years.