Page:The Russian Review Volume 1.djvu/66

50 In 1828, in the reign of Nicholas I., a new war against Turkey was begun. The war was entirely successful, and the Adrianople treaty of peace gave Russia free passage for her commercial ships through the Straits. This success led Nicholas to adopt a very bold plan of placing the weakened Turkey in a position of partial vassalage to Russia.

The state of affairs in the other European countries was favorable to a successful carrying out of this plan. France was busy with her July Revolution. England was already in the throes of the Reform Bill agitation. Thus, Russia considered herself free to seize the first suitable opportunity. In January 1833 this opportunity presented itself. The Egyptian Pasha mutinied, and the Sultan begged Russia for aid. A Russian fleet was immediately sent to the Bosphorus and 5000 marines were landed in Turkey.

In April of the same year, Count Orloff was sent to Constantinople. He was entrusted with extraordinary powers, and three months after he had landed he signed the famous Unkiar-Iskelessi Treaty, which virtually established a Russian protectorate over Turkey. The treaty contained six provisions, whereby a defensive league was formed between the two Empires, and a secret provision, in accordance with which Turkey was to refuse passage through the Straits to the fleet of any nation with which Russia would find herself in the state of war. The Russian warships were to be permitted to pass through the Straits into the Mediterranean.

The Treaty was to be in force for the period of eight years, but it lasted only until 1839. In that year, the Egyptian Pasha mutinied again. England and France immediately expressed their desire to take part in protecting Turkey. Austria also joined the league, with the obvious purpose of aiding to destroy the Russian protectorate over Turkey. The league succeeded in this, and the treaty of July 15, 1840, amended on July 13, 1841, virtually abrogated the treaty of 1833.

In accordance with the new treaty, England, France, Russia, and Austria assumed a joint protectorate over Turkey, and Russia's hope of achieving her purpose peacefully was shattered.

In 1848 came the great European Revolution. France was no longer to be considered, and Nicholas decided that the time was ripe for a definite understanding with England. He was already dreaming even of a division of the "spheres of influence." But England was suspicious of Russia and distrusted her. The Anglo-French coalition, consummated largely by Napoleon III.,