Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Abbreviations
- Preface
- 1 Peter Mikhailov Travels to England
- 2 The First Entente Cordiale
- 3 Naval Collaboration
- 4 Harmony in Trade
- 5 Growing Naval Affinity under Three Empresses
- 6 Trade, Aid and Logistical Support
- 7 The Onset of Total War
- 8 The French Revolutionary War
- 9 The War Against Napoleon
- 10 Endgame
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
7 - The Onset of Total War
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 January 2024
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Abbreviations
- Preface
- 1 Peter Mikhailov Travels to England
- 2 The First Entente Cordiale
- 3 Naval Collaboration
- 4 Harmony in Trade
- 5 Growing Naval Affinity under Three Empresses
- 6 Trade, Aid and Logistical Support
- 7 The Onset of Total War
- 8 The French Revolutionary War
- 9 The War Against Napoleon
- 10 Endgame
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
… that God and Nature have tied England and Russia together in the surest of all commercial bonds, those in which both nations must gain, and neither can lose.
Sir John Dalrymple, 5th Earl of Stair, 1789Over the twenty-eight-year period from 1787 to 1815 the Russian Empire, sometimes with and sometimes without the implicit support of Great Britain, engaged in a series of increasingly bitter wars, broken only by relatively short periods of peace. War broke out with the Ottoman Empire in August 1787 and upon its conclusion in 1792 Russia was confirmed in her possession of Odessa and the Crimea Kharnate. Sweden declared war on Russia in June 1788, the Russo-Swedish War, with this continuing until August 1790. The outbreak of war against Sweden had a serious impact on the conflict still being fought against the Ottoman Empire: Catherine was forced to cancel a projected sailing of the Baltic fleet into the Mediterranean. Here, once again, the intended purpose was that of the Russian fleet inciting a Greek revolt combined with an assault on Istanbul. Shortly after the ending of the Russo-Swedish War, in May 1792, Catherine sent a large army into Poland, on the pretext of opposing constitutional reforms that she argued had opened up Poland to radical Jacobinism. From this, Russia gained further territory to the west, followed by further acquisition of Polish territory in 1795, which was to be administered as the Minsk and Izyaslav Viceroyalties. Also, in 1795 Catherine launched her Oriental Project, an assault to the south upon Persia that was ultimately designed to acquire strategic territory between Anatolia and Tibet, but which was curtailed on the accession of her son, who reigned as Paul I (r.1796–1801). In the end it was the entry of Russia into various coalitions fought initially against Revolutionary France that was to have the most wide-ranging effect on Russia. The turning fortunes of those wars saw Russia closely allied with Great Britain for the greater part of that period, but with this closeness interspersed with periods of neutrality of even outright hostility. While Russia under Catherine was, at the outset of these wars, in alliance with Great Britain, her son, shortly after his accession, began to favour France, becoming hostile towards Britain, a state of affairs that was quickly terminated upon his assassination and the accession of Catherine’s grandson, Alexander I (r.1801–25).
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- Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2022