Russo-Turkish wars

Russo-Turkish Wars, a series of conflicts between the Russians and the Ottoman Turks. Among the causes for the disputes were Russia's desire for a trade route to the Mediterranean Sea; Ottoman abuses of Christians living in the empire; and the weakness of the Ottoman government, which encouraged European powers to whittle away at its empire.

The Russo-Turkish conflicts were complicated by the desire of the other European powers to prevent Russia from becoming too powerful. France, Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Sardinia, for example, joined the Ottoman Empire to fight the Crimean War against Russia (1853–56). Bitterness between the Russians and the Turks also brought the Ottoman Empire into World War I on the side of Germany.

At the beginning of the 18th century, the Ottoman Empire ruled southeastern Europe to the borders of Austria and Hungary, and the Black Sea provinces of Crimea and Azov. In 1736 the Turks attacked Russia. Russian armies were victorious, but French diplomatic efforts helped the Ottoman Empire keep most of its territory when a peace treaty was signed in 1739. In 1769 the Turks encouraged the Crimean Tatars to raid southern Russia. The armies of Catherine the Great threw back the Tatars and drove on into the Ottoman Empire. By the Treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji (1774) Russia won the right to intervene in Ottoman domestic affairs to protect Christian subjects.

Catherine the Great pressed her victories. In 1783 her annexation of the Crimea and the area around Azov gave Russia territory bordering the Black Sea. When the Ottomans struck back in 1787, Russian armies were again victorious and Catherine won additional territory and the neutralization of the Dardanelles, through which Russia gained an outlet to the Mediterranean Sea.

Russia won Bessarabia after the war of 1806–12 and further concessions during the short war of 1828–29. In 1828 the Russians attacked the Ottoman Empire while the Greeks were struggling to win independence, and took the eastern coast of the Black Sea and the Danube delta. But the concern felt by other European countries at Russia's expansion eventually led to the Crimean War.

Another Russo-Turkish war (1877–78) was precipitated by conflict in the Balkans. During 1876 the Turks crushed revolts in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Bulgaria and defeated Serbia and Montenegro in a short war. The following year Russia declared war and dealt the Ottoman Empire a crushing defeat. At the Congress of Berlin (1878), Russia gained Turkish lands in Armenia and Bulgaria won autonomy.