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The Russian Empire in the Nineteenth Century 555 inhabitants of the land of Plato, Aristotle, and Demosthenes were, it is true, scarcely to be regarded as descendants of the Greeks, and the language they spoke bore little resemblance to the ancient tongue. At the opening of the nineteenth century, however, the national spirit once more awoke in Greece, and able writers made modern Greek a literary language and employed it in stirring appeals to the patriotism of their fellow countrymen. 1004. Independence of Greece. England and France combined with Russia to settle the question of Greek independence. Their combined fleets destroyed that of the Sultan in the battle of Navarino in 1827. Russia then compelled the Sultan to recog- nize the independence of Greece in 1829. She also freed from the Sultan's control the two provinces at the mouth of the Danube which were later to be combined into the kingdom of Rumania. 1005. Origin of the Crimean War. A fresh excuse for inter- fering in Turkish affairs was afforded the Tsar in 1853. Com- plaints reached him that Christian pilgrims were not permitted by the Turks (who had long been in possession of the Holy Land and Jerusalem) freely to visit the places made sacred by their associations with the life of Jesus. Russia seemed the natural protector of those, at least, who adhered to her own form of Christianity, and the Russian ambassador rudely demanded that the Porte should grant the Tsar a protectorate over all the Chris- tians in Turkey. When news of this situation reached Paris, Napoleon III, who had recently become emperor, declared that France, in virtue of earlier treaties with the Porte, enjoyed the right to protect Catholic Christians. He found an ally in England, who was fearful that Russia might wrest Constantinople from the Turks and so get control of the Dardanelles and the eastern Medi- terranean. When the Tsar's troops marched into the Turkish dominions, France and England came to the Sultan's assistance and declared war upon Russia in 1854. 1006. Results of the Crimean War (1354). The war which followed was fought out in the southern part of the Crimean peninsula. Every victory won by the allies was dearly bought.