Adrianople, Treaty of

(1829)

   The peace treaty ending the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829. The war’s proximate cause was the sinking of the Turkish-Egyptian fleet at Navarino in October 1827. The fleet was moored there in support of operations that aimed at suppressing the Greek revolt in the Morea. An allied force of British, French, and Russian naval units had moved into the harbor to pressure the Turks into mediation, but under tense conditions fighting began and resulted in the annihilation of the Turko-Egyptian force. The Turks then repudiated the Convention of Akkerman, an earlier diplomatic agreement with the Russians, which had dealt with a number of outstanding issues between the powers.

   Fighting began in April of 1828, and although the Russians initially made little headway, by August 1839, Russian forces were in possession of Adrianople, an ancient Ottoman capital and strategic point within a few days march of Constantinople. The Turks were forced to sue for peace. Negotiations began on September 2, 1839. By September 14, the peace treaty was signed. The Turks recognized Russian territorial gains at the mouth of the Danube, Russian annexation of Georgia and eastern Armenia, Russian suzeraintry over Circassia; free and unfettered passage for Russian merchant ships through the Straits, freedom for Russian merchants to conduct trade throughout the Ottoman Empire, and renewed acceptance by the Ottomans of the autonomy of Moldova, Wallachia, Serbia, and Greece. Although Greek autonomy was included in the clauses of the treaty, it was outstanding friction between Russia and Turkey over the Caucasus and the Balkans generally, not the Greek drive for independence, which had caused the war and with which the peace was primarily involved. Although the conquest of Constantinople had perhaps been within Russia’s grasp, the Russian court decided at this time that the collapse of the Ottoman Empire was less in her interest than a predominant Russian influence at the Ottoman court in the future.

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   FURTHER READING:

    Anderson, M. S. The Eastern Question 1774-1923. London: Macmillan, 1966;

    Hale, William. Turkish Foreign Policy 1774-2000. London: Frank Cass, 2000;

    Jelavich, Barbara. A Century of Russian Foreign Policy 1814-1914. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1964;

    Karsh, Efraim, and Inari Karsh. Empires of the Sand: The Struggle for Mastery in the Middle East 1789-1923. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.

   ROBERT DAVIS