Auguste Gauvain Quotes

This vision, known as "The Third Rome" saw not only Moscow as the seat of Christianity for the world, but saw the Czar as the Head of the Christian unified Church. Constantinople had fallen to the Muslims and Rome to the Barbarians and the Pope had virtually no power at the time. Particularly interesting is his vision of transforming a civil Emperor to the head of the Church—one who was strong and wealthy enough to end the schism of the Eastern and Western Churches and command all. In this sense, he was following the Muslim concept of a single secular and religious, all powerful, leader—like the Caliph.

The Byzantine emissary had pointed out that Mehmed’s predecessors had signed a treaty agreeing to “consult” with Constantinople before building any fortified structure in the area surrounding Constantinople. Mehmed was only 19 years old at this time. His intention f building a fort was to have a platform from which to attack and capture Constantinople itself which he did 2 years later. Earlier, the Eastern Roman Empire was much stronger and the Ottoman sultans were more cautious in dealing with them. However, the various Christian factions were all feuding with each other, and Mehmed II, despite his youth, was much better organized and was a better leader than his predecessors.

The evidence pointed to the Emperor as being guilty of being responsible for war crimes. There were many who wanted to try the Emperor and if found guilty hang him. MacArthur was opposed to a trial for the Emperor as the practical consequence of a guilty verdict was too detrimental to his orderly occupation. The General’s view eventually prevailed, but only after material evidence and facts were withheld from Washington.

The Teutons were the Germanic tribes who were very warlike. His prediction of German war and aggression was demonstrated by WWI and WWII. The French Revolution diminished the influence of religion throughout Europe.

The Ottoman Turks had already conquered the Eastern Roman empire outside of Byzantium. They had overwhelming superiority and it was just a matter of time when they would take the city. Surrender would have been the sensible course, but religious passion against surrendering the holy city capital of Christendom to the Muslims was dominant in the Emperor and some of the leadership. But the morale of most was very low—and for good reason. The Ottomans soon captured the city.

The Turks could not take the city then, but they did 56 years later in 1453.

Ataturk was a young major at the time commanding troops of a weak and corrupt Ottoman regime. However a combined English and French (the strongest military powers in Europe) invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula threatened to capture the Turkish capital, Constantinople. Ataturk alone rallied the Turkish defenders and fought the invaders to a standoff in long drawn out battle with huge casualties on both sides. Ataturk became a national hero. Although Ataturk thereafter was very reluctant to use military force or endanger troops, the thing he always thought worth the supreme sacrifice (including his own) was the independence and sovereignty of the nation. See {584502} for his continuing belief in this type of sacrifice.

The Mamlukes were Turks from the Caucasus and Georgia who were taken prisoners of Genghis Khan, who sold them as slaves to the Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt. The Sultan trained them as soldiers, and eventually they became his palace guard. They actually took over Egypt at one point in the 13th century. When the Ottoman Turks took over the Middle East, they kept the Mamlukes as elite troops and they were a major political and military force in Egypt. Napoleon’s logic was that his Frenchmen had just as much right to control Egypt as did the Mamlukes.

He arrived in 1527, 7 years before De Soto and in a 6,000 mile ordeal, was the first white to cross the explore the interior of the continent. He was describing the Spanish slavers behavior with respect to the Indians of the New World.

The French army had crossed the border invading Tunisia. The Bey appealed to the English and others who had signed the Treaty of Berlin guaranteeing the independence of Tunisia. However, the Bey did not realize that the English and the French had already made a deal whereby France would invade Tunisia and England would take Cypress.

It was not uncommon for monarchs to be treated as gods. Most began to believe it themselves. Alexander, however, had no such delusions of grandeur and simply used it as a device to amass power and influence.

The Turkish Ottoman Empire controlled most of the Middle East and at times Arab areas and tribes would revolt. Egypt was considered the prize of the Middle East. The Ottomans not only controlled the Middle East militarily and civilly, but also religiously. The Turkish Sultan was the spiritual leader of almost all of the Middle Eastern Muslims.

1st Earl of Beaconsfield. The Dutch and British landed at Capetown, the Southern tip of Africa and gradually expanded North. The Zulus were equally expansionist in Africa. They started from Central Africa and expanded South. Both these expansionist powers seized the land from the indigenous Blacks. It was a race for who could dominate the land first. Eventually, these two powers ran into each other and there were two Zulu-English wars in which the Zulus not only held their own against the dominant white world power, but defeated them in several major battles. Many of the English clergy admired the Zulus, and the major political issues in Europe had to do with what was called the “Scramble or Africa”.

The city was besieged by the Ottoman Turks. The Emperor stayed and died in the siege. Ironically, if he had escaped earlier and allowed the city to surrender to the Sultan and his troops, very few of the city residents would have died, and the rapine and pillaging never would have occurred. The negative result is that the Muslims would have controlled what was regarded by many Christians as a holy Christian city. But that is exactly what occurred.

In 1453 the Ottoman Turks shocked Christendom by capturing Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Eastern Christian Empire. It was always perceived as a religious conflict between Christians and Muslims but that is an over simplification of a very complex sociological, religious, and political historical period. As this quotation shows us there were many Christians aiding the Muslim side. There were also many Muslims fighting on the Christian side.

In one of the most bizarre events in the History of Christianity, the Christian Crusaders of the 4th Crusade diverted from their destination in Egypt and attacked Constantinople—the Christian seat of the Eastern Roman Empire and the Eastern Orthodox Church. At the time Byzantium was a much larger city than any in France. (Istanbul still is.) This event is the major historical barrier that maintains the schism between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

This quotation illustrates that the Muslim conquest and attempt to destroy and desecrate the symbols of other religions was not limited to Christianity—it was ALL other religions. In that sense, Christianity and Islam of the period were very similar at the time—intolerance to the point of murder and destruction of any “heathen” religion.