THE EASTERN QUESTION: RUSSIA WWW.EXPLAININGHISTORY.

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Why did Britain feel threatened by Russia?
Britain for much of the 19th Century had a very difcult relationship with Russia. The autocratic nature of Russias rulers was very alien to Britains parliamentary democracy and British newspapers and pamphlets enamed public opinion with anti Russian rhetoric. There was a bigger issue at stake, however, and it was Russias imperial ambitions. She had her eyes on Britains empire in India and constantly tried to encroach on Afghanistan and Persia, two natural buffer states between Russia and British India. After the Crimean War Russia had been forced out of the Black Sea and was no longer a naval threat If the Russians controlled the Balkans, they could gain easy access to the Mediterranean. This would threaten the route to India

Why did Britain want to keep Russia out of the Balkans and the Mediterranean?

GREAT GAME? The Great Game was the name given to the secret battle between British and Russian spies in the Himalayas over India.

CRIMEAN WAR: `The British and French had fought the Crimean War to break the power of Russia in the Ottoman Empire and to prop up the Ottoman Empire

NICHOLAS I AND HIS DESCENDANTS British public opinion was often warlike when the question of Russia was raised. The British disliked the idea of autocratic rulers, viewing it as despotism and tyranny.

THE EASTERN QUESTION: THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. WWW.EXPLAININGHISTORY.COM Why did Britain care what happened to the Turks?
The Ottoman Empire had been crumbling since the 18th Century and by the mid 19th Century it was in terminal decline. Having a weak power in South East Europe and the Middle East suited the British because it gave them easy access to markets that were once dominated by the Turks. The British did not want to see the empire collapse, because it would either lead to a powerful Russia controlling what was left, or a newly resurgent Turkish state. British ships traded up and down the Ottoman controlled River Danube, and even before the Suez Canal was created, much British trade had to cross the Sinai peninsula to the Red Sea on the way to India. Britain from the 1880s onwards became far more interested in exporting Christianity and wished to protect missionaries traveling in Arabia and beyond.

What was Britains main interest in the Ottoman Empire?

TRADING ON THE DANUBE: British ships used the River Danube as a major trading route, eventually the Ottoman Empire became Britains biggest market

CURBING RUSSIAN INFLUENCE: The Crimean War had been fought to keep the Russians from gaining any further control over the Ottoman Empire

PROTECTING CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES IN THE BALKANS AND MIDDLE EAST: This became much more of a priority later in the 19th Century.

THE EASTERN QUESTION: SUEZ WWW.EXPLAININGHISTORY.COM

ST DAVIDS COLLEGE 19.6.13

Why was this waterway so important to Britain?

The Suez Canal was opened in 1869, but by 1875 a controlling stake in the canal had been bought by British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. The British were keen to protect Suez as it connected them directly with their empire in India, which was the source of much of Britains wealth and power. The Russians had for decades wanted to seize part of British India and if they controlled the Mediterranean and blocked off the canal they could make it much harder for Britain to get to India in the event of an uprising or a Russian invasion. There had been a mutiny in India against the British in 1857 and Britain was concerned there might be another. Britain was developing her empire and trade in China from 1842 onwards and needed the canal to reach other parts of Asia.

Why would Britain threaten war over Suez?

INDIAN MUTINY The British needed constant and speedy access to India in the case of future uprisings.

BRITISH CONTROL IN CHINA Britains control of the canal was also based around the fact that she waged several wars in China for trade.

THE COTTON INDUSTRY Cheap cotton from India was woven into clothes and sold at a prot back to India. Weaving was forbidden in India, making the rural poor dependent on the British cloth trade.