Russian Wars With Turkey

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Excerpt from Russian Wars With Turkey Man of the South.' The Eastern question will still be unanswered, and there will still be a dormant volcano which one day will convulse Europe. Ever since the year 1453, when the Turks conquered Constantinople, it may be said that they have been in almost a chronic state of dissension or war with their Christian neighbours. Up to 1683, when Mahomet the Fourth besieged Vienna, the tide of their conquest was advancing; since then it has been slowly but certainly receding. On three successive occasions their naval power has been destroyed by the combined fleets of other nations, and twice has England participated in this de struction. In 1571, at Lepanto, the fleets of Spain, Genoa, Malta, Venice, and Pius V., combined to destroy their navy; again in 1770 they were defeated by the fleet of Russia aided by Englishmen, in the passage of Scio; once more, fifty-seven years later, in 1827, at N avarino the Turkish navy was annihilated by the united fleets of England, Russia, and France. The Turks have not un frequently been called our ancient allies; it will be found on referring to history that they might with greater truth be called 'our ancient enemies, ' as up to 1840 we were nearly always allied against them. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Chesney served in the British Royal Artillery forces. In 1829, he accompanied supplies to the Turkish forces to support their fight against Russian invasion; though the conflict was over by the time he arrived, he subsequently travelled in the region and interviewed a number of participants involved. Due to the tense relations between the Ottoman Empire and Russia in the 1850s, Chesney revisited the people he met in 1829 and the early 1830s and convinced officers from both Turkey and Russia to reminisce about the campaign.

*Includes pictures *Includes a bibliography for further reading In terms of geopolitics, perhaps the most seminal event of the Middle Ages was the successful Ottoman siege of Constantinople in 1453. The city had been an imperial capital as far back as the 4th century, when Constantine the Great shifted the power center of the Roman Empire there, effectively establishing two almost equally powerful halves of antiquity's greatest empire. Constantinople would continue to serve as the capital of the Byzantine Empire even after the Western half of the Roman Empire collapsed in the late 5th century. Naturally, the Ottoman Empire would also use Constantinople as the capital of its empire after their conquest effectively ended the Byzantine Empire, and thanks to its strategic location, it has been a trading center for years and remains one today under the Turkish name of Istanbul. In the wake of taking Constantinople, the Ottoman Empire would spend the next few centuries expanding its size, power, and influence, bumping up against Eastern Europe and becoming one of the world's most important geopolitical players. It was a rise that would not truly start to wane until the 19th century, and in the centuries before the decline of the "sick man of Europe," the Ottomans frequently tried to push further into Europe. Some of those forays were memorably countered by Western Europeans and the Holy League, but the Ottomans' most frequent foe was the Russian Empire, which opposed them for both geopolitical and religious reasons. From negotiations to battles, the two sides jockeyed for position over the course of hundreds of years, and the start of the fighting may have represented the Ottomans' best chance to conquer Moscow and change the course of history. By the 19th century, the tsar was notoriously referring to the Ottoman Empire as the "sick man of Europe," and by the start of World War I, the Ottoman Empire was often described as a dwindling power, mired by administrative corruption, using inferior technology, and plagued by poor leadership. The general idea is that the Ottoman Empire was "lagging behind," likely coming from the clear stagnation of the empire between 1683 and 1826. Yet it can be argued that this portrayal is often misleading and fails to give a fuller picture of the state of the Ottoman Empire. The fact that the other existing multicultural empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, also did not survive World War I should put into question this "accepted narrative." Looking at the reforms, technological advances and modernization efforts made by the Ottoman elite between 1826 and the beginning of World War I, one could really wonder why such a thirst for change failed to save the Ottomans when similar measures taken by other nations, such as Japan during the Meiji era, did in fact result in the rise of a global power in the 20th century. During the period that preceded its collapse, the Ottoman Empire was at the heart of a growing rivalry between two of the competing global powers of the time, England and France. The two powers asserted their influence over a declining empire, the history of which is anchored in Europe as much as in Asia. However, while the two powers were instrumental in the final defeat and collapse of the Ottoman Empire, their stance toward what came to be known as the "Eastern Question" - the fate of the Ottoman Empire - is not one of clear enmity. Both England and France found, at times, reasons to extend the life of the sick man of Europe until it finally sided with their shared enemies. Russia's stance toward the Ottoman Empire is much more clear-cut; the rising Asian and European powers saw the Ottomans as a rival, which they strove to contain, divide, and finally destroy for more than 300 years in a series of wars against their old adversary.