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After restoring order to the the Principalities of Moldova and Wallachia, Tsar Nicholas I demanded for his services a new convention with the Ottoman Empire to increase Russian control over the territories. Suspecting that the Russians intended to annex the principalities, Stratford Canning urged the Ottomans to stand firm against the Russians. Canning called on Foreign Secretary Palmerston to send the fleet to demonstrate British support for the Ottoman Empire, but Palmerston trusted the that the Tsar would not annex the principalities. Without British support the Ottomans were forced to negotiate with the Russians, but what if Palmerston had sent the fleet and the British had supported the Ottomans? It's clear by Nicholas's actions that led to the Crimean War and by his lecture of the British envoy to St Petersburg a year later that if the British had supported the Ottomans it would have led to war between Britain and Russia. How different might this war have been from the the Crimean War? What consequences might this war have on the revolutions in Europe? The Austrians need the Russians in order to put down the Hungarian revolution, might this mean Austrian involvement in the War? Is France in any kind of position to aid Britain?
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