Nikitas wrote:The Ottomans did not slaughter and annihilate because they could not tax corpses. The taxation system was the way to reward the ruling classes and the empire. The machinations of officials for a posting to a rich tax bearing area are legion since the lord kept some of the tax for himself. Conquest for the Ottomans was nothing more than milking a ready made system, it hardly ever advanced to the creatin of wealth.
Compare Rhodos under the centuries of Ottoman rule with the thrity years of Italian rule. The Italians did more for the island in thirty years than the Ottomans ever did. The same goes for the rest of the Dodecanese islands. The difference is not found in the wealth of each colonial power, but more in its creativity and its concept of its own role towards their subjects.
And the Orthodox Church in Rhodes did just fine under the Italians.
I know that. Tell the likes of Piratis who continually refers to his magic numbers of slaughtered.
