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The Pulse of Asia : vol.1 |
374 THE PULSE OF ASIA
attempts on their part to occupy better lands. I cannot state positively that prolonged drought was the cause of the rebellions, but it cannot fail to have contributed to the discontent which finally broke out in war.
In Persia, the three periods of deficient rainfall were marked by destructive famines, one of which, in the seven-
ties, has been referred to in the chapter on that country.
Farther west in Turkey, it is notable that these periods were times of especial commotion in that always troubled land.
Between 1829 and 1833, all the Balkan states were in an
uproar, there were rebellious risings in Asiatic Turkey, and war broke out with Egypt and Russia. During the later
sixties and in 1874, fresh disturbances of the same sort once
more led to war with Russia in 1877. Lastly, the middle of the nineties was characterized by some of the most atro-
cious massacres of all times, when Armenians were killed
by scores of thousands. It is true that similar famines, insurrections, wars, and massacres have often occurred in the in-
termediate periods when in most places there was no special
scarcity of rain, but they have almost invariably been less severe than those during the dry periods. The synchronism
between the greatest disasters and the most pronounced lack of rainfall indicates a causal relation between the two, a relation which is unmistakable in the case of famines.
The connection of insurrections, wars, and massacres with deficiency of rain is less direct than that of famines, but no less real. It depends upon the state of irritability which prevails when scanty crops make it hard to sustain life and to pay taxes. Few people in more favored regions realize the distress which may arise from lack of the expected rain in
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