Word: mediterranean
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Dates: during 1900-1909
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Morocco, M. Millet said, has an excellent position, commanding as it does the Mediterranean and the Atlantic; but, because of the weakness of the government, it has never played an important part in the history of the world. The sultan enjoys a semblance of power on the coast; but in the mountainous interior is not even recognized. This absence of a strong central government has often caused international trouble. To establish it, Spain, England and France have each tried to gain a foothold in Morocco, but all attempts to do so have failed...
...Millet then called attention to the keynote of his lectures--the necessity for Christian and Mohammedan states along the Mediterranean. France is now working to bring this understanding about in her African dependencies...
After making a short sketch of the life along the coast of the Mediterranean between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, the period in which the Barbary pirates were most active, M. Millet described Algiers-its soil, climate, productions and inhabitants. France had a long and difficult struggle before it conquered this barbarous country, and after finally subduing it, was confronted with the puzzling problem of conciliating two widely different races, the conquered and the conquerors. In the beginning, many mistakes were made, but the general condition of the country is steadily improving and the natives show by their increase...
...pointed out in his previous lecture the conflict between European and Asiatic customs and tendencies was largely responsible for breaking up the unity of the Mediterranean empire. A fanatical crisis in Bagdad at the end of the eighth century, M. Millet said, and a thorough reform of the Christian church in the eleventh century, coupled with the desire to restore the old Roman empire, was directly responsible for the Crusades. These served to subdue the Mohammedans--the "yellow peril" of the Middle Ages. With the decline of the Crusading spirit Europe came into contact with the luxury of the East...
Mohammedanism was still another factor responsible for the rupture of the Mediterranean empire. The people of Asia hated emperors who were always trying to maintain the balance between the Orient and the Occident; they hated Christianity because they had a horror of the metaphysical Trinity as being an inhuman conception...