Turkey in Europe, generally undulating, is traversed by a mountain-system which has its origin in the Alps, enters Turkey at the northwest corner, and runs nearly parallel to the coast, under the names of the Dinaric Alps and Mount Pindus, as far as the Greek frontier. This range sends numerous offshoots east and west; the great eastern offshoot being the Balkan (q. v.) range. The Balkans are no longer included in Turkey proper, and the highest peaks of modern European Turkey are now in the Despoto Dagh or Rhodope range (7474 feet) and the Skar Dagh (10,000 feet) on the Albanian frontier. The rivers of Turkey are chiefly, to the north of the Balkans, the Morava and numerous other tributaries of the Danube; and to the south, the Maritza, Karasu, Struma, and Vardar, which flow into the Aegean, and drain Roumelia (Macedon and Thrace): the Narenta, Drin, and Voyutza fall into the Adriatic. On the high lands the cold is excessive in winter, and the heat of summer is almost insupportable in the western valleys. Violent climatic change. is, on the whole, the rule in European Turkey; but those districts which are sheltered from the cold winds, as the Albanian valleys and parts of Roumelia, enjoy a comparatively equable temperature. The soil is for the most part very fertile; but owing to oppressive taxation little progress has been made in agriculture. The cultivated products include maize, rice, rye, barley, millet, besides tobacco, madder, and cotton. The mineral products are iron in abundance, argentiferous lead ore, copper, sulphur, salt, alum, and a little gold; coal has been found, but is not worked.

Turkey in Asia is still more mountainous. The two almost parallel ranges, Taurus and Anti-Taurus cover almost the whole of the peninsula of Asia Minor (q.v.) or Anatolia with their ramifications and offshoots. From the Taurus chain the Lebanon range proceeds southwards parallel to the coast of Syria, diminishing in elevation in Palestine. The Euphrates, Tigris, Orontes, and Kizil-Ermak are the chief rivers. Turkey in Asia is ill supplied with water; and though the mountain-slopes afford excellent pasture, the plains, and many of the valleys, especially those of the Euphrates, Tigris, and Jordan (in ancient times kept very fertile by artificial irrigation), are reduced by the parching droughts of summer to the condition of sandy deserts. The fertile portions produce abundance of wheat, barley, rice, maize, tobacco, hemp, flax, and cotton; the cedar, cypress, and evergreen oak flourish on the mountain-slopes, the sycamore and mulberry on the lower hills, and the olive, fig, citron, orange, pomegranate, and vine on the low lands. The mineral products are iron, copper, lead, alum, silver, rock-salt, coal (in Syria), and limestone. Turkey in Africa is described at Tripoli; see also Egypt.

The exports of Turkey include cereals, tobacco, raisins, dried figs, olive-oil, silk, wool, mohair, red cloth, dressed goat-skins, excellent morocco, saddlery, swords of superior quality, shawls, carpets, dyestuffs, embroidery, essential oils, attar of roses, opium, plum-brandy, meerschaum clay, honey, sponges, drugs, madder, gall-nuts, various gums and resins, and excellent wines. The imports are manufactured goods of all kinds, glass, pottery, arms, paper, cutlery, steel, amber, and especially cotton goods. The total annual value of exports is about £14,000,000, and of imports £23,000,000; Great Britain imports to a value of £5,800,000, and exports to Turkey about £6,000,000. The principal ports are Constantinople, Trebizond, and Smyrna. There are over 1269 miles of railway open in European Turkey, and in Asiatic Turkey 1820 (Anatolian, 640; Smyrna-Cassaba, 321; Bagdad line, 125, &c).

The government of Turkey has always been a pure despotism; for the constitution promulgated in 1876 and revoked in 1878 was merely nominal. The sultan is represented in all matters spiritual by the Grand Mufti or Sheykh-el-Islam, who enjoys considerable influence as head of the Ulema, and in temporal affairs by the Grand Vezir (or Sadr-A'zam), under whom are the members of the cabinet or divan. Governmental crises are frequent; and palace intrigues have always been a powerful factor in Turkish politics. The governors of the vilayets or provinces are styled valis; each vilayet is divided into sanjaks, or livas, ruled by inferior officers. The established religion is Islam or Mohammedanism, but most other creeds are tolerated. Since 1847 schools have been established, and colleges for the teaching of medicine, agriculture, naval and military science, etc.

Long before the Russo-Turkish war of 1877 the Turkish exchequer was evidently on the brink of insolvency. The enormous expenditure of the war, and the loss of valuable provinces, added to the utter disorganisation of Turkish finances. The revenue is about £17,000,000, the expenditure £18,000,000, the deficit being an unfailing feature. The external debt in 1904 was £123,730,000, besides the balance of the war indemnity to Russia (£23,000,000). The navy consists of 6 armoured cruisers, about 30 torpedo vessels (various), and 2 submarines. The empire has an army of 700,000 men, well armed and fairly equipped. In case of war the total force of all arms could be raised to 1,500,000.

A small tribe of Turks forced their way into Armenia in the 13th c, and helped the Seljuks against the Mongols; in the 14th c. the Turks under Osman or Othman conquered the Seljuk kingdom, and became known as Osmanlis or Ottomans. By 1336 they pushed their way to the Hellespont; under Murad I. (Amurath) they occupied Adrianople and Philippopolis, received homage from the kings of Servia and Bulgaria, and practically held all the Balkan peninsula except Constantinople, which, after much fighting, fell before Mohammed II. in 1453. In the same century they conquered Albania, Greece, the Crimea, etc.; and in the 16th Syria, Egypt, Tunis, Hungary, and south Russia, and had wars with the Russians, Persians, and Venetians. Their star began to decline in the 17th century; in 1682 they were driven back from Vienna, and lost Hungary, Transylvania, and Podolia. In the 18th century the Russians were their most successful enemies, wresting from them the territories from the Dniester to the Caspian. Greece attained independence in 1828, though Egypt failed to throw off its allegiance. The Crimean war (1854-57) was fought in aid of the Turks against the Russians. The next great crisis, after risings in Herzegovina, Bulgaria, and Servia, was the Russian war of 1877-78. The worst Armenian massacres were in 1895-96. Turkey held her own against Greece in 1897; Crete was put under an autonomous government in 1898. But the Macedonian question was acute in 1903-6.

See works by Tozer (2 vols. 1869), Baker (1877), 'A Consul's Daughter' (1878), E. L. Clark (New York, 1883), Sutherland Menzies (3d ed. 1883), Rudler and Chisholm (1885), Laveleye (1887), and 'Odysseus' (Sir Charles Elliot, 1900); also, for Asiatic Turkey, by Geary (1878), Davis (1879), W. M. Ramsay (i890), and Cuinet (Paris, 1891): see also other works cited at Syria, Bulgaria, etc. For the history, see Creasy (1854) and S. Lane-Poole (1888). For the literature of the Osmanli, written in Turkish, in which the original Ural-Altaic dialect has been modified by Persian influence, see works on Turkish poetry by Red-house (1878) and Gibb (1882).