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132 CHRISTIAN GREECE AND LIVING GREEK. government secured for the Greeks the possi- bility of remaining a united nation until this day. The union under the Osmanic rule was due in the first instance to the gradual de- struction of all the Prankish rulers on Greek soil, and in the second place to the misrule of the Turks, which, being to all Greeks worse than death, made them risk their lives in a struggle for liberty. Western Europe for centuries forgot the exist- ence of a Greek people; not so the Osmans. The unfortunate Greek people, for centuries excluded from all active participation in politics, living only as members of their respective com- munities, did not enjoy the modest satisfaction of being enabled to accumulate wealth. The Turks had only one thing in view in re- gard to the Greeks: to govern and to tax them. According to Turkish law the Sultan was the real owner of all conquered soil. The vast ma- jority of the Greek peasants were therefore sim- ply tenants or common laborers. The Greeks had to pay the kharadsh ; further- more they were obliged to contribute a tenth, which in reality meant often as much as a fifth or even a third, of all that they raised or produced in natura; they had also to pay rent, and if this