Why an Atheist Thinks the Shroud of Turin is the Real Deal

Just Before the Twentieth Century

By the time Pia took his picture the political picture of the world was changing dramatically. Italy and Ethiopia had just ended a devastating war with Ethiopia gaining independence after the battle of Adowa was the worst defeat of the century by a European nation. Italy lost about half of all of its African forces.  The Ottoman Empire was in decline having lost control of primarily Christian regions throughout its empire, particularly among Armenian Christians in the East part of the Anatolia. The 1878 Treaty of Berlin mandated protection for Armenian Christians but this was ignored. Between 1894 and 1896, Turkish forces slaughtered tens if not hundreds of thousands of Armenians. A year later, civil unrest in Crete by the Greek majority who sought alignment with the Kingdom of Greece led to warfare. Though the Turks technically won the war, it put the weakened Ottoman Empire into financial difficulty. In 1898, Spain would surrender the Philippians, Guam, Cuba and Puerto Rico to the United States. Europe was poised for warfare. Historians have sometimes characterized Europe at this time as a tinderbox awaiting a spark. It was more like an overgrown, dry forest awaiting a lighting strike.