Eastern Question

Eastern Question term designating the problem of European territory controlled by the decaying Ottoman Empire in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th cent. The Turkish threat to Europe was checked by the Hapsburgs in the 16th cent., but the Ottoman Turks still controlled the Balkan Peninsula. With the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699), the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire began, and Russia started to push toward the Black Sea.

In the 18th cent., France supported the Turks against Russia and Austria. The Eastern Question came into sharp focus during the reign of Czarina Catherine II with the first two of the Russo-Turkish Wars (1768-74, 1787-92), when Russia, in alliance with Austria, planned the partition of the Ottoman Empire. Constantinople was the chief prize coveted by Russia, which lacked an adequate warm-water outlet to the sea. These designs aroused alarm in Prussia and, more especially, in Great Britain, which saw its dominance in the Mediterranean threatened by Russian ambitions. (Later it was the strategic importance of the Suez Canal that most concerned Britain.) The formation of a diplomatic alliance by Great Britain, Prussia, and the Netherlands and the Austrian defeats at the hands of the Turks offset Russian successes; yet the first stage of the struggle, terminating with the Treaty of Jassy (1792), left Russia with a foothold on the north shore of the Black Sea.

During the Napoleonic era, when attention shifted elsewhere, Russia, after another war with Turkey, again secured favorable terms in the Treaty of Bucharest (1812). Russian conquests against Persia and in the Caucasus were confirmed in the treaties of Gulistan (1813) and Turkmanchai (1828). These developments and the outbreak of national aspirations among the oppressed peoples of the Balkans again made the Eastern Question a major European problem. The Holy Alliance was committed to defending the territorial integrity of Turkey, but the rival imperialistic interests of the Great Powers, each of which hoped to profit from Ottoman disintegration, soon caused the abandonment of this principle.

In the Greek War of Independence (1821-30), both England and Russia assisted the Greek insurgents, each trying to impose its influence on the newly formed state. The Russo-Turkish War of 1828-29, connected with the Greek war, ended successfully for Russia (see Adrianople, Treaty of ), but the subsequent Russian assistance to Turkey against Muhammad Ali of Egypt, followed by a Russo-Turkish alliance (1833), greatly disquieted Britain and France. Still, the five Great Powers (Britain, France, Russia, Austria, and Prussia) acted in concert in the final settlement of the Egyptian question, and a treaty signed (1840) in London offered international guarantees of the Ottoman Empire's integrity.

In 1853, however, rivalry among Britain, France, and Russia brought on the Crimean War . The treaty that ended it (see Paris, Congress of ) attempted to deprive Russia of pretexts for intervention, to check Russia's naval power on the Black Sea, and to place the empire under international protection. By this time, Turkey had become the "sick man of Europe," and its disintegration could not be arrested.

Events in Bosnia and Herzegovina once more led to a Russo-Turkish War (1877-78); the Treaty of San Stefano was so favorable to Russia that Britain went to the verge of war to compel a revision. The Congress of Berlin (see Berlin, Congress of ) revised the Treaty of San Stefano—a setback for Russian influence—but it created fresh problems. The new Balkan states, dissatisfied with their borders, turned to individual great powers to back their claims.

Austria, allied with Russia in the late 18th cent., had come to fear Russian influence in the Balkans; after its defeat by Prussia in 1866, it had joined in an alliance with Germany (see Triple Alliance and Triple Entente ). Germany, which had assumed the role of "honest broker" at the Congress of Berlin, became increasingly interested in extending its influence over the Ottoman Empire. The German-Austrian Drang nach Osten [drive to the East] policy became manifest in the reorganization of the Turkish army by German officers, the construction of Baghdad Railway , the crisis over Morocco , and the Austrian annexation (1908) of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Russian Pan-Slavism in the Balkans and the almost total disappearance of European Turkey in the Balkan Wars caused Turkey to seek German and Austrian support and to join the Central Powers after the outbreak of World War I . The war destroyed the Ottoman Empire and closed the old Eastern Question, but the problem of maintaining stability in the area once ruled by the empire remained.

Bibliography: See M. S. Anderson, The Eastern Question, 1774-1923 (1966); A. J. Toynbee, The Western Question in Greece and Turkey (1970); D. Djordjevic and S. Fischer-Galati, The Balkan Revolutionary Tradition (1981).

Eastern Question This was the problem created by the slow collapse of the Ottoman (Turkish) empire. Turkey's weakness became apparent in a series of wars with Russia in the late 18th cent. The British feared that, if the Turkish empire broke up, Russian power would threaten the British empire in India. The Crimean War of 1854–6, in which Britain, France, and Turkey fought Russia, was the result of miscalculations, arising from France and Russia's over‐vigorous championing of the rights of Turkey's catholic and orthodox Christians respectively, and Britain's fears that Russia wished to seize Constantinople (Istanbul). Nationalist feelings in the Balkans grew and the problem flared up again in the 1870s. The Bosnians rose in 1875, followed by the Bulgarians in 1876. Russia declared war on Turkey but the other powers thought the treaty of San Stefano (1877) too favourable to Russia and amended it at the Congress of Berlin (1878). European opinion wavered over the next 30 years between the comparative stability provided by the Ottoman empire and the volatility of the emerging Balkan states. It can be argued that the Eastern Question caused the First World War. Austria angered Serbia by annexing Bosnia in 1908. Russia helped to organize the Balkan League of Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Greece, which went to war with Turkey in 1912. Militarily they were successful but then fought between themselves. The situation was still unstable when the heir to the Austrian throne was assassinated in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, in 1914. The Austrians blamed the Serbs: Russia backed them. War followed within weeks.

Eastern Question. This was the problem created by the slow collapse of the Ottoman (Turkish) empire, which seemed likely to leave a power vacuum in the Balkans and lead to a general European war. Turkey's weakness became apparent in a series of wars with Russia in the late 18th cent. In 1783 Russia obtained the Crimea. Greece gained her independence, in an agreement brokered by Britain, France, and Russia, after an armed struggle (1821–30). European opinion was divided by anxiety for the balance of power, if Turkey ceased to be a great power, and sympathy for the Christian subjects of a Muslim and decayed empire, reinforced in the case of Greece by memories of her classical glories. The British feared that, if the Turkish empire broke up, Russian power would be enhanced and would become an increasing threat to the British empire in India. Russia gained some territory by the treaty of Adrianople at the end of the Russo-Turkish war of 1828–9 but Russian policy was thereafter governed by the conviction that an intact Turkish empire provided a buffer state which would be preferable to a partition. The Crimean War of 1854–6, in which Britain, France, and Turkey fought Russia, was the result of miscalculations, arising from France and Russia's over-vigorous championing of the rights of Turkey's catholic and orthodox Christians respectively, and Britain's misplaced fears that Russia wished to partition the empire and seize Constantinople (Istanbul). Nationalist feelings in the Balkans grew and the problem flared up again in the 1870s. The Bosnians rose in 1875, followed by the Bulgarians in 1876. The Bulgarians were repressed with particular brutality (the ‘Bulgarian Horrors’). Russia declared war on Turkey but the other powers thought the peace treaty (treaty of San Stefano, 1877) too favourable to Russia and amended it at the Congress of Berlin (1878). European opinion wavered over the next 30 years between the comparative stability provided by the Ottoman empire and the volatility of the emerging Balkan states. The situation was complicated by the rival ambitions of the latter. Serbia and Bulgaria, for example, fought each other in 1885. It was also feared that the emergence of Slav states in the Balkans would destabilize the Austrian empire. It can plausibly be argued that the Eastern Question caused the First World War. Austria angered Serbia by annexing Bosnia in 1908. Russia helped to organize the Balkan League of Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Greece, which went to war with Turkey in 1912. Militarily they were successful but they then fought between themselves over the spoils. The situation was still unstable when the heir to the Austrian throne was assassinated in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, in 1914. The Austrians blamed the Serbs. Russia, which had been unable to aid the Serbs in 1908, now backed them. Ultimatums, mobilizations, and war followed within weeks.

Muriel Evelyn Chamberlain