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The article discusses the fall of the Byzantine city Constantinople, or modern-day Istanbul, Turkey, to the Ottoman Turks in May of 1453. It comments on the roles of Constantine XI Palaeologus, Emperor of Byzantium, and Mohammed II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, also called the Lawgiver and the Conqueror. The author reflects on Constantinople's relations with the West and efforts to secure help from the Italian city-states of Venice and Genoa. The author also addresses the sack of the city, which led to its partial destruction, and explores the treatment of its residents by the Turkish forces.

In Greece, during the centuries between the decline of the Western Empire and the revival of Neo-Hellenism, there is no history of any importance except Byzantine, and Greece proper under the Byzantine rule is so completely unknown that the existence of the Parthenon was a discovery of modern times, and it has been possible to rediscover Byzantine colonies whose existence had never been suspected, on the ruins of the oldest Greek cities, and even to attribute to them a prehistoric origin&mdsh;although one begins to find that there was scarcely an ancient site which was not occupied during the latter years of the Byzantine supremacy.

Comments that there is no better evidence of the extent of the war that the fashion in which the periods of Greek history are being brought to mind by incidents that fill the newspapers. Origin of the whole Balkan problem; Proposition presented to Greek statesman Eleutheorios Venizelos; Crisis in the history of Greece; View of the author that every Greek has inherited the desire to revive the Byzantine Empire, to restore Greek rule at the Golden Horn and carry the Hellenic frontiers to the Halys and the Taurus.

The article comments on the British policy in the East. For generations British policy, guided by the India and the Foreign Offices, has been largely directed by the desire to protect the British Eastern Empire, stretching from Egypt to India and on to the Straits Settlements and China, against the encroachments of other Imperialist Powers. The Anglo-Japanese treaty, whoever originally proposed it, was calculated, in the conception of the British Foreign Office, to set back Soviet Union from the northern frontiers of China, against which she had steadily been pressing since her occupation of Port Arthur, and in its revised form it contained specific provisions by which Japan was called on to assist in maintaining the security of India.

After having conquered Byzantine, the Turkmen were bent upon destroying all traces of pre-existing civilizations. For centuries, the demon of destruction held high carnival, though to this day the destruction and defacement of ancient monuments is still going on. After the first fury of the storm of devastation had passed, the Turks, who were then pure nomads, and are still partial nomads, found it necessary to accommodate themselves to their enlarged circumstances. Accordingly, they abandoned their nomadic habits and became residents in fixed abodes for at least the most inclement part of the year.

The article focuses on the fate of Crete in partition of Eastern Empire. Crete fell to Boniface of Montferrat, who sold it to Venice and from Venice, after twenty four year of bitter resistance, in 1669, Turks wrested it. There was a great insurrection in 1821, lasting some years; in 1830, France, England, and Russia intervened to place Crete under the rule of Méhemet Ali, viceroy of Egypt. In the book "Outrages in Crete in the Year 1867," by Hilary Skinner, one may read stories like those of Armenia -- the usual incidents of Turkish warfare, insult, rape, and massacre.

This article presents information on the book "Italy and Her Invaders," vol. 1, "The Visigothic Invasion," vol. 2, "The Hunnish Invasion," by Thomas Hodgkin. It is informed that the period discussed in the above mentioned volumes is that of the hundred years preceding the event which one used to know as the Fall of the Western Empire. It is opined that the narrative is so continuous and so graphic, the relation of events is so well brought out, and the rottenness of the Empire made so clear, that at the end one hardly looks for a separate chapter upon the causes of the Fall. The Empire fell because it could not stand, the reader says to himself ; it is a wonder it did not fall before, and if the causes of anything need to be analyzed, one should wish rather to know why the Eastern Empire did not fall than why the Western Empire did fall. The persistence of the Byzantine Empire for another thousand years is one of the marvels of history.

The article features several books including "Moscow," by Theodor Plievier, "The Night of the Hunter," by Davis Grubb, and "The Greek Passion," by Nikos Kazantzakis.

The article discusses the meaning and origin of the term Sublime Porte. It says that the term originated during the Ottoman Empire which means an elevated, lofty door or Deri Alieh in Turkish language. It notes that the Sublime Porte was used following the construction of the Imperial Gate or the Babi Humayoon in the republican city of Byzantium.

The article discusses the life and works Constantine, the first Christian emperor. Constantine has founded the city of Constantinople, now Istanbul, Turkey, and the Byzantine empire. He was considered one of the successful Roman emperors, and the first representative to impose the idea of Christian theocracy. He represents himself as an undiscriminating and harmful conjunction of Christianity with politics.