Russia's policy of rapprochement with the Ottoman Empire in the era of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1792-1806

This thesis examines the Ottoman-Russian relations in late 18th – early 19th centuries. Chronologically it covers the years between the two Ottoman-Russian wars, the starting and final points of the thesis being the Peace Treaty of Jassy (1792) and the proclamation of war against Russia by the Porte in late 1806. These years not only became an inter-war period in relations between the two empires, but also faced a short-lived phenomenon of cooperation and a defensive alliance between the Sultan’s and the Tsar’s governments. The primary aim of this work was to study the circumstances of the Ottoman-Russian rapprochement at the time and the diplomatic strategies of the Porte and St. Petersburg within a wider context of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. The thesis argues that during the time under discussion Russia conducted towards the Ottoman Empire the policy of preserving a ‘weak neighbour’, trying to prevent the domains of the Sultan from falling into the hands of a strong European power.