Russo‐Turkish Wars (pre‐1878)

Abstract The Russians and Ottomans fought seven major wars after 1700 before the climactic confrontation in the Balkans in 1877–1878: 1710–1711, 1736–1739, 1768–1774, 1787–1792, 1806–1812, 1828–1829, and the Crimean War (1853–1856). First under Peter the Great, then under Catherine and her successors, the aim of the “southern project” of Russian ambitions was the acquisition of a Black Sea port, an outlet to the Mediterranean and the expansion …