Bessarabia

“ BASSARAB or Bassaraba, the name of a dynasty in Rumania, which ruled Walachia from the dawn of its history until 1658. The origin of the name and family has not yet been explained. It undoubtedly stands in close connexion with the name of the province of Bessarabia, which oriental chroniclers gave in olden times to the whole of Walachia. The heraldic sign, three heads of negroes in the Bassarab shield, seems to be of late western origin and to rest on a popular etymology connecting the second half of the word with Arabs, who were taken to signify Moors (blacks) . ”

“ On November 1, 1919, Rumania finally lost the last vestige of confidence in the good faith of her big allies; and she formally notified the Supreme Council of the annexation of Bessarabia. God helps those who help themselves. Since Cavour, statesmen of all small countries have learned in their dealings with the great powers that so long as one looks upon them as Dives crumbs and crumbs alone fall from the table. The union of Bessarabia with Rumania was approved by the Supreme Council in March, 1920, after the collapse of the Russian counter-revolutionary movements. ”

“ The Czar and the Sultan undertook not to establish or maintain upon its coasts any military or maritime arsenal. Russia ceded a portion of Bessarabia, accepting a frontier which excluded it from the Danube. The free navigation of this river, henceforth to be effectively maintained by an international Commission, was declared part of the public law of Europe. ”

“ The budget of that part of Bessarabia which lies between the Rivers Pruth and Dniester amounts to 250,000,000 lei, ($50,000,000,) or nearly as much as half of the entire budget of Rumania. But this wealth is not used for the benefit of the country which produces it. There are neither schools nor highways nor hospitals in Bessarabia. Ignorance and misery are the sole companions of that population, every national sentiment of which is smothered under the sway of Russian absolutism. ”

“ The fear of such reprisals forced many thousands of the poorer Jews of Bessarabia to migrate into the districts of Russian and Austrian Poland, which were already congested to a terrible degree, while those who possessed the necessary means determined to emigrate from the Czar’s dominions and seek a home in the West. ”

“ The Turks remained victorious, Moldavia was cleared of insurgents. About six hundred Arnouts were scattered over Bessarabia. Unable to obtain the means of subsistence, they still felt grateful to Russia for her protection. They led an idle though not a dissolute life. They could be seen in coffee-houses of half Turkish Bessarabia, with long pipes in their mouths sipping thick coffee out of small cups. Their figured Zouave jackets and red slippers with pointed toes were beginning to look shabby. But they still wore their tufted scull-cap on one side of the head ”

“ Large portions of Bessarabia are inhabited by Rumanians, and there are many indications that the Rumanian population there desires close union with Rumania. If Rumania will adopt a frank, cordial, friendly attitude toward us we will have no objections to meeting those tendencies in Bessarabia. Rumania can gain much more in Bessarabia than she lost in the war.
[Count Czernin said that he was anxious that the rectifications of the frontier should not leave any embitterment behind, and expressed the opinion that Rumania in her own interest must turn to the Central Powers.] ”

“ The southern part of Bessarabia, however, has few Rumanians, while the northern part is largely populated by them. Subsequent events have apparently changed the Austro-German plans, for the whole of Bessarabia has voted almost unanimously for union with Rumania. The event was officially announced at Washington on April 22 through the Rumanian Charge d'Affaires, N. H. Lahovary, as follows:
On April 9 the National Assembly of Bessarabia voted by 86 against 3 for union of Bessarabia to Rumania. ”

“ Other countries are covered by large rivers, either as a first line or as a second. It is, however, remarkable that such lines, apparently so well calculated to separate nations without interfering with trade and communication, are generally not part of the real frontier. It cannot be said that the Danube divides Bessarabia from the Ottoman empire as long as the Turks have a foothold in Moldavia. ”

“ Article 5 Within a period of two years from the date of the coming into force of the present Treaty, nationals of the former Russian Empire over the age of 18 years and settled in the territory of Bessarabia, as defined in Article 1, shall be allowed to opt for any other nationality which may be open to them. ”

“ It drops into the angle formed by the Black Sea and one of the three mouths of the Danube. Before the Crimean war it was a part of Russia, but in consequence of Russia’s defeat in that war she was compelled, in the treaty, to give it up to Turkey, and until six years ago it remained a part of the Turkish Empire. But in the late war between Russia and Turkey it was Russia’s time to win, and so she took back Bessarabia, and it again became a part of her dominions. It has always been the scene of a busy and peculiar life. ”

“ The addition of Bessarabia has brought 2,000,000 new citizens whose preponderant Rumanian element had never enjoyed political and economic conditions very different from those that prevailed in the old Kingdom. But the Rumanians of Hungary have had a radically different background. Taken as a whole, they are far more advanced than the Rumanians of the Kingdom. ”

“ But the Euxine was declared free to the trading vessels of all nations, and the Powers were at liberty to keep a few armed ships of light draught for police duty on the neutralised sea. The navigation of the Danube was declared free. Russia ceded Bessarabia to Turkey. The privileges and immunities of Wallachia, Moldavia, and Servia were guaranteed, but the Sultan was permitted to garrison the latter province. Russia and Turkey were bound to restore to each other the conquests they had respectively made in Asia. ”

“ They stipulated that Rumania should be independent and receive an increase of territory.
Peace between Russia and Turkey was signed at San Stefano on the 3rd of March. On the 29th of January the Rumanian The Berlin settlement. 1. Cession of Bessarabia. agent at St Petersburg was officially informed of the intention of the Russian government to regain possession of the Rumanian portion of Bessarabia, i.e. that portion which was ceded to Moldavia by Russia after the Crimean War. ”

“ Kagul, on the Pruth, and Reni on the Danube (the place to which Alexander of Bulgaria was carried when kidnapped by the Russians in 1886) , are small, but lively, river-ports.
The original inhabitants were Cimmerians, and after them came Scythians. During the early centuries of the Christian era Bessarabia, being the key to one of the approaches towards the Byzantine empire, was invaded by many successive races. In the 2nd century it was occupied by the Getae, a Thracian tribe, whom the Roman emperor Trajan conquered in 106; he then incorporated the region in the province of Dacia. ”

“ Then there were displacements effected by the tribes of Caucasus—Abasgi, in the classical times, Circassians under the Byzantine Empire. Then Greek colonies. Then Skolotic conquests. Then the other varieties of Turk occupancy. Besides this, comes that of the Goths of Lower Danube, and lastly, the Greeks of Byzantium, the Genoese of Kaffa, and the Mongols.
In Bessarabia, Turks and Moldavians are the predominant population. Divided between Getæ and Skoloti, at the beginning of the historical period, it has since had its full share of foreign invasion. ”

“ It is true we mobilized and concentrated the army in Bessarabia before the declaration of war, but we delayed so long in making this declaration that the Turks also had time for preparation. The severe reverses we [Pg 25] suffered after our initial successes showed that our opponents, who were now armed with the breech-loading rifle and organized on the European model, were no longer the foe that we had faced in 1828, whose mobs of armed men were easily routed by small bodies of our troops. As usual, we put too few men in the field at first ”

“ In the midst of this homogeneous Rumanian population we meet with Bulgarian colonists, whose number has increased recently in consequence of the persecutions of Turks and Greeks. The character of the Bulgarians born in the country has undergone considerable modifications. They are at present the most industrious tillers of the soil, and in the vicinity of large towns they occupy themselves principally with horticulture. Many of these Bulgarians live in that {164} portion of Bessarabia which was ceded by Russia in 1855. ”

“ Of his subsequent duties in delimiting the new Bessarabian frontier and his miraculous career in China we cannot speak in detail. By the consent of all, it was his [pg 464] soldierly spirit that helped to save that Empire from anarchy at the hands of the Taeping rebels, whose movement presented a strange medley of perverted Christianity, communism, and freebooting. There it was that his magnetic influence over men first had free play. ”

“ Bessarabba remained unmolested, but not without the fear of 36early vengeance. Eager to regain the favour of the Ottoman government, and to obtain the assurance of oblivion on the past, he sent large supplies of money, and considerable presents to the Turkish ministers, and to the public treasures; he repeated them so often, as to convince the court that he possessed immense wealth, and the Grand Vezier, Ally-Pashah, who was his personal enemy, obtained from the Sultan a formal order for his recall, and for the seizure of his treasures. ”

“ Between them and the Soudan the fierce veiled Touaregs of the desert were in arms, and in the direction of the coast the chief camel road was held by the braves of a tribe that was in open revolt against Morocco’s Sultan.
So, while Abdullah swore strange oaths by the Prophet’s beard, and declared that the men of the desert were descended from devils and the men of the western province from apes, little Basha grew strong and unshapely, and life was an affair of sunshine and good milk. Day by day the farmer spread his mother’s food before her on a cloth ”

“ The ‘Thunderer’ remains here, as the mountaineers belonging to the Tangier province have revolted against the Basha, and troubles are expected. I think the Sultan will remove the Basha, who is unfit to govern. Happen what may, I and mine are quite safe, for the Moors on mountains and plains look upon me as their friend; and so indeed have I been. I remained during the Spanish war, when every Christian and Jew bolted, and no barbarian harmed me or mine. . . .
Or, once more, the following written in February, 1892:—
When you arrive, all will be settled with the tribes. ”

“ While the Arabs, who had only arrived in time to reap the advantages of the conquest, had appropriated all the most smiling provinces of the peninsula, the Berbers found themselves relegated to the most unlovely parts, to the dusty plains of Estremadura, or to the icy mountains of Leon, where they had to contend with a climate which severely tried natures brought up in African heats, and where, too, they had the doubtful privilege of forming a buffer between their Arab allies and the Christians of the North. ”

“ As there were some thousands of Muslim prisoners in the city, this last threat induced the Sultan to reconsider his determination, and a council of war was called, at which it was resolved that the peaceable capitulation of the town should be received upon certain conditions. These were, that the Christians should pay ten dínars for every man, five for a woman, and two for a child, and that those who could not pay were to surrender as prisoners. There were said to be more than sixty thousand fighting men in the town, besides women and children and other non-combatants ”

“ That region of Ethiopia which was known to the Romans as the kingdom of Auxuma, was called by the Arabians Al Habesh, of which the modern name of Abyssinia is merely a corruption. Its eastern boundary is the Red Sea, and on the north it adjoins to Nubia; and in its physical geography it bears a great resemblance to the Arabian peninsula. It is described as a country of mountains. Like Arabia, it is characterized by its coast chains ”

“ Leading his own troops, dispensing justice, an after-type of those great Arabs who sprang from the sands of Arabia and Africa, shook Europe, and flourished in Spain, a basha should be no tyrant, but a courteous gentleman, a noble of "The Arabian Nights." But there was no aristocratic trace about Asydaibdalkdar. Carrying his rosary in his hand, clothed entirely in white, his features bore traces of servility and sensuality, the result of poisoning the Arab and Berber blood with the strain from Central Africa. Slavery is proving fatal to the Moorish race. ”

“ In the most ancient of these languages, tribes or assemblies of people are called Habesh, which appellation was therefore supposed to have been given to the whole country now known to us by the name of Abyssinia.
The inhabitants of Saba, Azab, or Azaba, all of which mean south, were a separate and distinct people from the Ethiopians or Arabs; and it was a custom among these Sabeans to have women for their sovereigns in preference to men. ”