EASTERN QUESTION. The complicated problem of international politic, growing out of the relations of Turkey and the Balkan na tionalities to the great of Europe and to each other. The problem has occupied the atten tion of Europe. in more or degree, since the second half of the eighteenth century, when the rapid curtailment of the Ottoman power through the Russian advance southward seemed to threaten the establishment of supremacy in the southeast of Europe at the expense of Austria. In the beginning the decline of Tur key chiefly concerned only these two powers. Subsequently. however. the interests of Great Britain beeanie more closely bound up with the fortunes of the Turkish Empire as the importance of the British in India increased. and with it the necessity of pre serving a safe and short line of communication betmeen England and the Far orient. France, too. was involved in the web of diplomacy, first and naturally, as one of the great powers. see ondly because of its ancient connection with the Porte. and. thirdly, because of the developments resulting from the ambitious schemes of Ale hemet Ali of Egypt. Germany, until the very last years of the nineteenth century. disclaimed all in terest in the Eastern Question, but at that time Gernmn capital had not yet entered extensively into railroad and other business enterprises in Syria, which at present have resulted in estab lishing close relations with the Ottoman Govern went. The Eastern Question entered upon its modern phase in the Crimean War (q.v.). and as sumed definite form at the Congress of Paris in 1856, whose work was slightly modified by the London Protocol of 1871. The opening of a new highway to the East by the Suez Canal and the English occupation of Egypt have helped to com plieate the Eastern Question. A new phase of it
developed when Russia decided to break the old arrangements and began a war with Turkey in IS77. The new status created by this war, the full results of which Russia was 114A allowed to reap. was embodied in the treaty arrangements of the Congress of Berlin. This arrangement still holds so far as the signatory powers are concerned, but considerable changes have taken place through the of Eastern Thomelia to Bulgaria in 1S35, the shifting of the boundary line between Greece and Turkey as a result of the war of 1897. and the establishment of auton omy in Crete.
Though affairs iu Eastern Asia have tended to divert attention from the Eastern Question proper. the problem is still a vital one and fraught with great importance to the future de velopment of international relations. Russia bas her eye still fastened upon Constantinople: Great Britain must still defend her position in Egypt: above all. ,Sustria-lhingary must, in very self-preservation, seek to retain her influ ence among the Slav peoples of the Balkans. The balance of adjustment in that peninsula at present is delicate, with Austrian influence pre dominant in Servia. with Russian influence pow erful in Bulgaria. and Greece still anxious to restore, in sonic measure at least. the ancient Byzantine or Greek Empire. Consult: Holland. Studies in International Lau. li)xf.)rd. S9R : id.. The European Concert and the Eastern Ones• lion (Oxford. 1-1'451 : de Slonicault. La question d'orient (Paris. 1S9s). See BuLGAta.‘; Gatice; SloNTENE(,no; In. MANIA; Et sstA ; Russo-Tutu:- 1st' WAR; TURKEY; BERLIN, CONC,RESS Hr.