Russo-Turkish War

The Russo-Turkish Wars refer to a long sequence of armed conflicts between the Tsardom (later Empire) of Russia and the Ottoman Empire, traditionally counted as twelve major wars stretching roughly from 1568 to 1918. Together they reshaped the political map of the Black Sea basin, the Caucasus, and the Balkans, and they form one of the central storylines of the so-called Eastern Question in 19th-century European diplomacy.

Recurring drivers included Russian ambitions for warm-water access through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles, control of Crimea and the northern Black Sea coast, protection (or claimed protection) of Orthodox Christian subjects of the Sultan, and rivalry over influence in the Danubian Principalities, the Caucasus, and the Balkans.

Several of the wars are particularly significant for IR and treaty history:

• 1768–1774, ended by the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, which gave Russia a foothold on the Black Sea and a controversial claim to protect Orthodox Christians in Ottoman lands.
• 1787–1792, ended by the Treaty of Jassy, confirming Russian annexation of Crimea (taken in 1783).
• 1828–1829, ended by the Treaty of Adrianople, expanding Russian influence in the Caucasus and the Danubian Principalities.
• 1853–1856, the Crimean War, in which Britain, France, and Sardinia joined the Ottomans; ended by the Treaty of Paris (1856), which neutralised the Black Sea.
• 1877–1878, ended by the Treaty of San Stefano and revised at the Congress of Berlin (1878), which produced an independent Serbia, Montenegro, and Romania, and an autonomous Bulgaria.
• 1914–1918, fought as part of the First World War on the Caucasus front, ending with the collapse of both empires.

For Model UN and IR students, the wars are a key case study in great-power competition, nationalism in the Balkans, and the use of multilateral congresses to manage territorial change.