| |
|
|
 |
4
OF 8 |
 |
 In
the Balkans and Anatolia local rulers solidified their positions
by taking advantage of currents of local nationalism that were arising
among the Balkan Christians. The notables formed private armies
of mercenaries and slaves, which they sometimes used to provide
important contributions to the Ottoman armies in return for recognition
of their autonomy by the sultans. These rulers were able to exercise
almost complete authority, collecting taxes for themselves and sending
only nominal payments to the treasury, thus further increasing its
problems.
France now occupied Algeria. Mehmet Ali Pasha,
the Governor of Egypt, rebelled and advanced as far as Kutahia Sultan
Mahmoud asked Russia for help and this was agreed in 1833. As part
of the agreement Mehmet Ali Pasha was made Governor of Syria and
Governorship of Adana was abandoned to Ibrahim Pasha.
 The
Ottoman Empire fought two more wars with Russia in the nineteenth
century. The Crimean War (1854-56) pitted France, Britain, and the
Ottoman Empire against Russia. Under the Treaty of Paris, which
ended the war, Russia abandoned its claim to protect Orthodox Christians
in the Ottoman Empire and renounced the right to intervene in the
Balkans
The first major Ottoman war, the Crimean War (1854-1856), came with
Russia. Like so many of the later conflicts with Europe, this one
was initiated not by the Ottomans, but by the Europeans. Russia
was primarily interested in territory. Throughout the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, Russia had slowly been annexing Muslim
states in Central Asia. By 1854, Russia found itself near the banks
of the Black Sea. Anxious to annex territories in Eastern Europe,
particularly the Ottoman provinces of Moldavia and Walachia (now
in modern day Czechoslovakia), the Russians went to war with the
Ottomans on the flimsiest of pretexts: the Ottomans had granted
Catholic France the right to protect Christian sites in the Holy
Land (which the Ottomans controlled) rather than Orthodox Russia.
That, according to the Russians, justified going to war with the
Ottomans.
|
4
OF 8 |
|
|
|
