Western Civilization - History Of European Society

494 Chapter 25

among the great powers since the defeat of Napoleon.
The Crimean War, was fought around the Black Sea
(chiefly on the Russian peninsula of the Crimea). It
demonstrated two important changes in the post-
Metternichian world. First, the public discussion of inter-
national politics had changed. Ideology no longer defined
relations—the politics of self-interest did. The Metter-
nichian system had (in theory) united the great powers to
defend the status quo; during the Crimean War, the great
powers were candidly motivated by national interests,
and they were willing to fight for them. As the nationalist
foreign secretary of Britain, Lord Palmerston, told Parlia-
ment, “We have no eternal allies and we have no perpet-
ual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and
these interests it is our duty to follow.”
The second change in post-Metternichian power
politics had more frightening implications: The

Crimean War gave the world its first glimpse of war in

the industrial age, teaching lessons that were amplified

during the 1860s by the American Civil War and the

wars of German unification. Metallurgical advances, the

factory system using interchangeable parts, and steam-

powered transportation industrialized war.

The Crimean War originated in the eastern ques-

tion, the complex issue of the survival of the Ottoman

Empire. In the late seventeenth century, the Ottoman

Empire had encompassed all of southeastern Europe, al-

most to the gates of Vienna (see map 25.2). By the end

of the Napoleonic Wars, the Ottomans had lost vast

territories to the Habsburg Empire (including both

Hungary and Transylvania) and to the Russian Empire

(which annexed the Crimea in 1783 and Bessarabia in

1812). In the 1850s Sultan Abdul Mejid ruled the east-

ern Mediterranean, the Balkans, the Middle East, and

Caesarea

Palmyra

Dura-Europus

Tyrus Seleucia

Rome

Arretium

Puteoli

Ostia

Carnuntum

Apulum

Brundislum

Aquileia

Salonae

Colonia Agrippina

Augusta Treverorum

Arelate

Alexandria

Ancona

Carthage

Cyrente

Corinth

Syracuse

Rhegium

Pergamum

Ephesus

Nicomedia

Sinope

Byzantium Trapesus

Antiochia

Tarsus

Jerusalem

Gaza

LUX. Nuremberg

ITALY

SWITZ.

Bern

Locarno

Fiume

Rome

ROMANIA

HUNGARY

(AUSTRIA)

SLOVAKIA

GERMANY

Belgrade

Sofia

Bucharest

Prague

Istanbul

(CZECH.)

Sava

R.

THESSALYAthens

SLOVENIA

CROATIA

PERSIA

IRAQ

TRANS-

JORDAN

PALESTINE

LEBANON

SYRIA

CYRENAICA

Po R.

Black Sea

Red

Sea

Caspian

Sea

Me

dite

rran

ean

Sea

Danube

R.

.

iN

le

R.

Rh

on

e

R.

Dniep

erR.

Tigr

isR

.

Euphr

ates

R.

Alp

s

Mts.

Sardinia

Corsica

Sicily

Crete

Rhodes

Cyprus

Balearics

Athens

Vienna

Kiev

Sevastopol

Jerusalem

Cairo

Baghdad

Constantinople

Algiers

Venice

Budapest

BOSNIA

BULGARIA

SERBIA

(1817)

HUNGARY

(1699)

TRANSYLVANIA

(1699)

BUKOVINA

(1775)

BANAT

(1718)

DALMATIA

(1699)

MONTENEGRO

ALBANIA

MACEDONIA

MOLDAVIA

(1828)

WALLACHIA

(1829)

BESSARABIA

(1812)

EMPIRE

OTTOMAN

EGYPT

(1811)

CRIMEAN

(1774)

JEDISAN

(1792)

TRIPOLI

TUNIS

ALGERIA

(1830)

GREECE

(1830)

0 200 400 Miles

0 200 400 600 Kilometers

Ottoman Empire

Regions winning

Independence

Regions winning

Autonomous Government

Regions lost to Russia

Regions lost to Austria

Regions lost to France

MAP 25.2

The Decline of the Ottoman Empire to 1853