]
13. _Germany, and Turkey_.
Let us begin with the Near East. The situation there, when Germany began
her enterprise, is thus summed up by a French writer[1]:--
Astride across Europe and Asia, the Ottoman Empire represented, for
all the nations of the old continent, the cosmopolitan centre where
each had erected, by dint of patience and ingenuity, a fortress of
interests, influences, and special rights. Each fortress watched
jealously to maintain its particular advantages in face of the rival
enemy. If one of them obtained a concession, or a new favour, immediately
the commanders of the others were seen issuing from their walls to claim
from the Grand Turk concessions or favours which should maintain the
existing balance of power or prestige.... France acted as protector of
the Christians; England, the vigilant guardian of the routes to India,
maintained a privileged political and economic position; Austria-Hungary
mounted guard over the route to Salonica; Russia, protecting the
Armenians and Slavs of the South of Europe, watched over the fate of
the Orthodox. There was a general understanding among them all, tacit
or express, that none should better its situation at the expense of
the others.
When into this precariously balanced system of conflicting interests
Germany began to throw her weight, the necessary result was a disturbance
of equilibrium.
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