Indifference of Europe to the growth of the Turkish power--Resistance to it local--Inherent defects of the Turks--Causes of their early successes--Beginning of their decline--The struggle for the Danube valley--Their antagonism to the House of Austria--Turkish misgovernment at the beginning of the century--Mohammed Kiuprili, grand vizier--Revival of Turkish power under the Kiuprili--Attack upon Hungary--Capture of Candia--Condition and institutions of Poland--Decline of its power--War with the Cossacks--Election of Michael--War with the Turks--Victories of John Sobieski--Election of John Sobieski--Risings in Hungary against the Emperor--War between the Emperor and the Turks--Relief of Vienna by John Sobieski--The Holy League--Conquest of the Danube valley and the Morea--The peace of Carlovitz--Reconquest of the Morea--Peace of Passarovitz. [Sidenote: =Indifference of Europe to the establishment and growth of the Turkish power.=] Few facts about European history are so strange as the want of interest shown by the great powers in the empire of the Ottoman Turks until the present century. The Eastern Question as a serious problem of European politics, affecting the peace and welfare of the world, has sprung into existence in consequence of the decay of the Ottoman empire. When the Ottoman Sultans were in the zenith of their power, when Turkish armies were marching up the Danube, when Turkish corsairs were plundering the coasts of Italy and Spain, when Christian communities were being enslaved, and compelled to pay to their conqueror a yearly tribute of children, Christian and civilised Europe took very little heed about the matter. Opposition to the advance of the infidel was mainly local. The Popes occasionally were enabled to fit out some small expeditions. Charles V. endeavoured to root out a troublesome nest of corsairs at Algiers. From time to time small contingents of French or German or Burgundian soldiers were sent to the assistance of the Emperor or the king of Hungary. But such efforts were at the best but fitful and self-interested, and the real work of stemming the tide of the Turkish advance was left to the half civilised tribes, mainly of Sclavonic blood, scattered along the valley of the Danube and the hill country of Bosnia and Albania. The Wallach and the Serb, the Albanian and the Magyar were the people who jeoparded their lives and sacrificed their liberty for the salvation of Europe, while the Roman Emperor was waging a death duel with the most Christian king, and the Vicar of Christ was dallying with pagan philosophy. Statesmen and princes of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries could not bring themselves to realise the danger of the crisis, could not understand that the East was about to avenge the days of the Crusades, and that the rude threat of Mohammed II., that he would stable his horses in S. Peter’s, might at any moment be translated into fact. [Sidenote: =Resistance to the Turks mainly local.=]