Thande
Donor
Russian historical narratives of the 19th century (and indeed the late 18th century) tend to take the form of 'we were just on the verge of overthrowing the corrupt and failing evil Turk and liberating the Christians to avenge Byzantium, and we would have got away with it too if it hadn't been for those meddling French (and British, sometimes)'.
Now obviously that's not the whole story. But it got me thinking. What if Tsarist Russia ever did get the chance to go all-out against the Ottomans without any other great powers being able to intervene?
Here's a half-arsed scenario to suggest how this could happen:
It's the 1860s. America is in the middle of a civil war (not necessarily the exact OTL one, but similar) and something like the classic Trent Affair POD has happened - Britain has become embroiled in the war, with troops going to defend Canada and the Royal Navy engaging the USN. Fenian terrorism at home, perhaps American-backed, focuses public anger and paranoia on the conflict. At the same time, Austria-Hungary has collapsed into revolution after the assassination of the Emperor by a Hungarian nationalist. An ambitious Prussia mobilises its army to 'stabilise the situation' in Austria, but it's obvious to everyone that their real goal is to split up the Hapsburg empire and subsume its German-speaking parts into a new, Prussian-dominated German Confederation. France, realising this, demands Prussian withdrawal and when this fails to happen, declares war on Prussia. Italy also becomes involved as it did in OTL with the Austro-Prussian wars.
Not brilliant but you get the idea - the point is that all the western powers have other concerns and can't really do more than send strongly worded letters to St Petersburg if Russia starts up another war with the Ottomans.
The Ottoman Empire, of course, is not the tottering zombie that the Russians (and everyone else) painted it as, but it is still pretty weak, stuck in the middle of the tanzimat reforms and still recovering from the Crimean War. We'll assume Persia doesn't become involved on either side for simplicity's sake.
So, here is the question: the Russians have a clear run at the Ottoman Empire. What happens? And what will Europe look like afterwards?
Now obviously that's not the whole story. But it got me thinking. What if Tsarist Russia ever did get the chance to go all-out against the Ottomans without any other great powers being able to intervene?
Here's a half-arsed scenario to suggest how this could happen:
It's the 1860s. America is in the middle of a civil war (not necessarily the exact OTL one, but similar) and something like the classic Trent Affair POD has happened - Britain has become embroiled in the war, with troops going to defend Canada and the Royal Navy engaging the USN. Fenian terrorism at home, perhaps American-backed, focuses public anger and paranoia on the conflict. At the same time, Austria-Hungary has collapsed into revolution after the assassination of the Emperor by a Hungarian nationalist. An ambitious Prussia mobilises its army to 'stabilise the situation' in Austria, but it's obvious to everyone that their real goal is to split up the Hapsburg empire and subsume its German-speaking parts into a new, Prussian-dominated German Confederation. France, realising this, demands Prussian withdrawal and when this fails to happen, declares war on Prussia. Italy also becomes involved as it did in OTL with the Austro-Prussian wars.
Not brilliant but you get the idea - the point is that all the western powers have other concerns and can't really do more than send strongly worded letters to St Petersburg if Russia starts up another war with the Ottomans.
The Ottoman Empire, of course, is not the tottering zombie that the Russians (and everyone else) painted it as, but it is still pretty weak, stuck in the middle of the tanzimat reforms and still recovering from the Crimean War. We'll assume Persia doesn't become involved on either side for simplicity's sake.
So, here is the question: the Russians have a clear run at the Ottoman Empire. What happens? And what will Europe look like afterwards?