I fell into a bizarre and ancient newsletter
I came across this by falling down the rabit whole looking at the history of
CGI, L.A., San Diego, and The Bay Area....
from this rabit whole
https://people.well.com/user/abs/https://people.well.com/user/abs/Writing__/Fiction/ShortStories/BA/( it is interesting how many ancient web sites , written by hand, still contain
viable public "index.html" and one can follow them with impunity....)
the author is one "Alan B.Scrivener" ( an amusing psuedonym, I expect)
a sort of Rennaisance Man of the Interweb age...
this is about the "Eastern Question"
which is directly connected to "The Great Game"
and how during the end of the Victorian period, Europe, especially
Great Britain , was playing "gawd" and determining the fate of the Middel East,
The Balkans, Et Al.
snip-----------------------------------------
More recently I've learned that this "Eastern Question" dealt with
the planned division of the Middle East and the Balkans among European
powers following the anticipated breakup of the Ottoman Empire of
Turkey, which had ruled those regions for a millennium. At last I
have dived into the subject matter, begin a read of the turgid
history "Disraeli, Gladstone, and the Eastern Question; A Study in
Diplomacy and Party Politics" (1935) by Robert William Seton-Watson.
(
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393005941/hip-20 )
The author looks back with the hindsight gained from having personal
papers from leaders of the several sides available for study.
One thing I am learning is that in London, Disraeli believed
that keeping Turkey strong and Serbia in the hands of the Turks
(along with the rest of the Balkans) would prevent Russia from
overrunning the region (and gaining a Mediterranean military port),
while his political rival Gladstone believed that the Serbs and
other Balkan nations could defend themselves from Russia (with
the help of British allies) if they became self-governing, and
would be loyal and stable allies as well. Nearly everyone in
British foreign policy underestimated the loyalty and aid (by
way of espionage) given to Russia by Christians in the Ottoman
Empire, who were persecuted by the Turks and often helped by the
Tzar of Russia, sometimes at a great sacrifice. This all came
to a head in 1875, when the Serbs revolted and later that year
a Sultan sold to Britain his minority stake in the otherwise-
French-owned Suez canal in Egypt, which connected the Persian
Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. (When the text gets too dense
for me to bear, I imagine it being read aloud by Colonel
Critchlow Suchbench.)
endsnip-----------------------------------------
The author also wrote
A Survival Guide for the Traveling Techie
https://www.amazon.com/Survival-Guide-Traveling-Techie/dp/0974996815
