Eastern Southeast Europe (1684–1827 CE): Danubian Grains, Ottoman Reforms, and the Long Road to Revolt

Geography & Environmental Context

Eastern Southeast Europe comprises Turkey-in-Europe (including Istanbul/Constantinople and Thrace), Thrace-in-Greece, all of Bulgaria (except the southwest), northeastern Serbia, northeastern Croatia, extreme northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the entirety of modern-day Moldova and Romania. Anchors include the Danube (from the Iron Gates to the Delta), the Sava and Drava confluences, the Wallachian and Bărăgan plains, the Dobrudja steppe and lagoons, the Balkan Mountains (Stara Planina) and Rhodope foothills, and the Black Sea ports (Varna, Constanța/Kustendje, Galați, Brăila), with Istanbul and the Bosporus as the prime maritime choke point.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

In the tail of the Little Ice Age, hard winters and erratic summers (notably 1708–1709 and 1816–1817) brought frost, flood, and dearth. The Danube’s seasonal floods rebuilt levees yet periodically drowned fields; the Delta’s wetlands teemed with fish but harbored malaria. Maize (American) diffused widely, buffering grain shortfalls; vineyards in Bulgaria and hills of Moldavia/Wallachia recovered after cold snaps, while steppe droughts in Dobrudja pressed herders southward.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Plains & Lowlands (Wallachia, Bărăgan, Lower Danube, Banat margins): Export-oriented wheat, maize, and livestock; transhumant flocks moved between Danube grasslands and Balkan uplands.

• Bulgarian basins & Thrace: Mixed grain, vineyards, orchards; craft towns (Plovdiv/Filibe, Sofia, Ruse) tied guilds (esnaf) to regional trade.

• Moldavia & Bessarabia (after 1812): Grains, cattle, and timber funneled to Galați and Brăila; boyar estates expanded sown acreage.

• Istanbul & the Straits: An immense provisioning market drew cereals and meat from the Danube corridor; fishing and small gardens ringed the metropolis.

• Frontier belts (NE Serbia, Sava-Drava): Villages mixed stock-raising, beekeeping, and river fisheries under shifting military/fiscal regimes.

Technology & Material Culture

Ottoman timar landholding receded as çiftlik estate farming spread in fertile zones; water- and horse-mills multiplied along Danube tributaries. River barges (șăici/şayka) and keelboats moved bulk grain; Black Sea brigs and Greek-Ottoman shipping lifted exports to Istanbul and beyond. Orthodox presses in Bucharest (1688 Bible) and Iași seeded a Romanian literary sphere; Bulgarian manuscript culture persisted in monasteries, then quickened with late-18th-century printing. Urban crafts—leather, textiles, wood—clustered in guild halls; caravanserais and hans framed market life.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

The region’s arteries were riparian and maritime:

• Danube mainline: From Belgrade–Orșova (Iron Gates) through Vidin, Ruse, Giurgiu to  Brăila/Galați and the Delta, carrying grain, timber, salt, and troops.

• Black Sea arc: Varna and Constanța shipped cereals and hides to Istanbul; Bosporus tolls and provisioning linked Rumelia to the imperial capital.

• Overland passes: Shipka and other Balkan gates moved salt, wool, and migrants between Thrace and the Danubian plain.

• Diplomatic & military corridors: Habsburg and Russian lines pressed south along the Sava–Danube and from the Dniester.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

The Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople shaped Orthodox life; Phanariot governance in Wallachia and Moldavia (18th c.) fused Greek administrative culture with local boyar elites. The Bulgarian National Revival stirred with Paisius of Hilendar (1762, Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya), parish schools, and monastic scriptoria. Romanian Enlightenment salons in Iași and Bucharest debated law and language; urban guilds staged feast-day rites; Jewish, Armenian, and Muslim communities sustained rich mercantile and artisanal traditions. In Istanbul, mosques, markets, and millet courts organized a multi-confessional metropolis around the Hagia Sophia, Süleymaniye, and the harbors of Galata.

Climate & State Shocks (Wars in bold)

• Great Turkish War (1683–1699) → Treaty of Karlowitz (1699): Habsburg advance to the Sava–Tisza; Ottoman retrenchment in the Danube basin.

• Austro-Turkish War (1716–1718) → Treaty of Passarowitz (1718): Commercial openings and customs reforms ripple along the Danube.

• Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774) → Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca (1774): Russian Black Sea access; protection claims over Orthodox subjects reshape Danubian politics.

• Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792) → Treaty of Jassy (Iași): Russian frontier reaches the Dniester.

• First Serbian Uprising (1804–1813) and Second Serbian Uprising (1815): Autonomy consolidates upriver (affecting the NE Serbian fringe of this subregion).

• Russo-Turkish War (1806–1812) → Russian annexation of Bessarabia (1812).

• Wallachian revolt of Tudor Vladimirescu (1821) intersects with Filiki Eteria actions; Greek War of Independence (from 1821) sparks repression and reprisals across Thrace and the Straits zone.

• Famine years 1816–1817 (“Year Without a Summer”) depress yields; plague cycles (e.g., 1813–1814 in the central Balkans) slash populations.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

Households blended maize–wheat rotations, vines, and orchards; transhumance spread risk across altitude and season. River levees and drainage widened arable land; marsh hay and fish from Danube backwaters cushioned dearth. Urban provisioning contracts (avarız commutations, grain monopolies) tied estates to Istanbul markets; parish and monastery granaries, vakıf endowments, and guild charity buffered crises. After 1816–1817, seed-grain loans and earlier maize adoption hastened recovery.

Transition

Between 1684 and 1827, Eastern Southeast Europe shifted from an Ottoman heartland of Rumelia provisioning to a fractured frontier of Habsburg and Russian pressure, Danubian Principalities under Phanariot rule, and rising local national revivals. Treaties of Karlowitz, Passarowitz, Küçük Kaynarca, and Jassy re-drew rivers and ports; Istanbul remained the magnet for cereals, yet the Black Sea corridor opened to rival flags. By the 1820s, Serbian autonomy, uprisings in Wallachia, and revolutionary tremors in Thrace announced a new era—when grain barges, monastery schools, and millet courts would share the stage with consulates, insurgent bands, and modernizing reforms.

Southeast Europe (1684–1827 CE)

Danubian Granaries, Adriatic Gateways, and the Long Unraveling of Empire

Geography & Environmental Context

Southeast Europe—here combining Eastern (Istanbul/Thrace, Bulgaria, Wallachia, Moldavia/Bessarabia, Dobrudja, NE Serbia and fringes of Croatia/Bosnia) and Western zones (Greece, Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Kosovo, most of Bosnia and Herzegovina, SW Serbia, most of Croatia, Slovenia)—formed a linked system of Danubian plains and river-lake wetlands, Balkan and Dinaric uplands, and Adriatic–Aegean coasts. Anchors ranged from the Iron Gates to the Danube Delta, the Wallachian–Bărăgan steppes and Dobrudja lagoons, the Stara Planina–Rhodope corridors, and the port chains of Varna–Constanța–Galați/Brăila and Dubrovnik–Split–Kotor–Thessaloniki–Athens, with Istanbul/Bosporus as the prime choke point binding Black Sea, Aegean, and imperial provisioning.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

In the waning Little Ice Age, hard winters and erratic summers (notably 1708–1709; 1816–1817) brought frost, flood, and dearth. Danube floods rebuilt levees but drowned fields; delta marshes teemed with fish yet harbored malaria. Maize (American) diffused widely, buffering wheat shortfalls; vineyards in Bulgaria and the Moldavia/Wallachiahills recovered after cold snaps. Steppe droughts in Dobrudja pressed herders southward; upland transhumancespread risk across altitude and season.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Danubian lowlands & plains (Wallachia, Bărăgan, Lower Danube, Banat margins): Export-oriented wheat, maize, livestock; great estates and transhumant flocks fed Istanbul and Black Sea shipping.

• Bulgarian basins & Thrace: Mixed grains, vines, orchards; craft towns (Plovdiv/Filibe, Sofia, Ruse) tied esnafguilds to regional markets.

• Moldavia & Bessarabia (after 1812): Grains, cattle, timber funneled to Galați and Brăila; boyar estates expanded sown acreage.

• Istanbul & the Straits: An immense provisioning magnet drawing cereals and meat up the Danube; fisheries and gardens ringed the metropolis.

• Western Balkans & Greek lands: Olives, vines, figs, tobacco (Macedonia), cereals in valleys; Dalmatiancoasts balanced vines/olives with fishing; islands mixed citrus and smallholder vines.

Technology & Material Culture

The timar system receded as çiftlik estate farming spread on fertile plains. Water- and horse-mills multiplied along tributaries; river barges (șăici/şayka) and keelboats moved bulk grain; Greek–Ottoman brigs lifted exports along the Black Sea and Aegean arcs. Orthodox presses in Bucharest (1688 Bible) and Iași seeded a Romanian literary sphere; Bulgarian manuscript culture persisted in monasteries, quickening with late-18th-c. printing. Urban crafts—leather, textiles, woodwork—clustered in guild halls; caravanserais/hans framed market life. On the Adriatic, stone harbors, galleys, and small sailing craft linked town to terrace.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Danube mainline: Belgrade–Orșova–Vidin–Ruse–Giurgiu–Brăila/Galați–Delta carried grain, timber, salt, fish, and troops.

• Black Sea arc: Varna and Constanța/Kustendje shipped cereals and hides to Istanbul; Bosporus tolls and provisioning integrated Rumelia with the imperial capital.

• Balkan passes: Shipka and sister gates moved salt, wool, metals, and migrants between Thrace and the Danubian plain.

• Adriatic & Aegean littorals: Dubrovnik (Ragusa) mediated trade/diplomacy to 1808; Venetian Dalmatia and later French Illyrian Provinces (1809–1814) rechanneled coastal traffic; Thessaloniki–Athens–Peloponneseports tied Mediterranean commerce to inland markets.

• Frontier lines: Habsburg and Russian corridors pressed south along Sava–Danube and from the Dniester, reconfiguring customs, garrisons, and treaty borders.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

The Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople shaped Orthodox life; Phanariot governance in Wallachia and Moldavia fused Greek administrative culture with local boyars. The Bulgarian National Revival stirred with Paisius of Hilendar (1762) and parish schools; Romanian Enlightenment salons in Iași and Bucharest debated law and language. In Istanbul, mosques, bazaars, and millet courts organized a multi-confessional metropolis around Hagia Sophia and Süleymaniye; Jewish and Armenian quarters sustained mercantile/artisanal traditions. Westward, Orthodox monasteries, Catholic parishes, and Ottoman mosques coexisted from Sarajevo to Skopje and Athens; folk epics, dances, and feast-day rites preserved communal memory of resistance and kin.

Climate & State Shocks (Wars in bold)

• Great Turkish War (1683–1699) → Treaty of Karlowitz (1699): Habsburg advance to Sava–Tisza; Ottoman retrenchment in the Danube basin.

• Austro–Turkish War (1716–1718) → Passarowitz (1718): Commercial openings and customs reforms ripple along the Danube.

• Russo–Turkish War (1768–1774) → Küçük Kaynarca (1774): Russian Black Sea access; protection claims over Orthodox subjects reshape Danubian politics.

• Russo–Turkish War (1787–1792) → Treaty of Jassy (Iași): Russian frontier reaches the Dniester.

• Russo–Turkish War (1806–1812) → Russian annexation of Bessarabia (1812).

• First Serbian Uprising (1804–1813); Second Serbian Uprising (1815): Autonomy consolidates upriver, affecting the NE Serbian fringe.

• Wallachian revolt of Tudor Vladimirescu (1821) intersects with Filiki Eteria; Greek War of Independence (from 1821) drives repression and reprisals across Thrace and the Straits.

• “Year Without a Summer” (1816–1817) depresses yields; plague cycles (1813–1814) devastate central Balkans.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

Households blended maize–wheat rotations, vines, orchards; transhumance stabilized meat/dairy. Levees and drainage widened arable land; marsh hay and backwater fisheries cushioned dearth. Avarız commutations and provisioning contracts tied estates to Istanbul markets; parish/monastery granaries, vakıf endowments, and guild charity buffered crises. After 1816–1817, seed-grain loans and prior maize adoption hastened recovery.

Political & Military Shocks

Ottoman timar erosion and çiftlik consolidation altered rural power; Habsburg and Russian pressure militarized frontiers; Phanariot principalities balanced Porte demands with great-power diplomacy. In the west, Venice receded (1699→1797), Ragusa fell (1808), and Napoleonic interludes retooled the Adriatic. Popular uprisings—Serbian revolts, Vladimirescu’s movement, and the Greek Revolution—announced a new politics of national mobilization. Navarino (1827) crystallized foreign intervention and Ottoman naval eclipse.

Transition

Between 1684 and 1827, Southeast Europe moved from an Ottoman Rumelian heartland—feeding Istanbul with Danubian grain—to a fractured frontier where treaties (Karlowitz, Passarowitz, Küçük Kaynarca, Jassy) redrew rivers and ports, and where national revivals met great-power consulates along the Danube and the coasts. By the 1820s, Serbian autonomy, Wallachian unrest, and Greek revolution signaled the end of unquestioned imperial dominance. Grain barges, monastery schools, and millet courts still ordered daily life—but now shared the stage with insurgent bands, customs houses, and reforming viziers, foreshadowing the nation-state transformations of the nineteenth century.

The Near East (1684–1827 CE): Provincial Revolts, Pilgrimage Wars, and the Birth of Reform

Geography & Environmental Context

The Near East comprises Israel, Egypt, Sudan, western Saudi Arabia (the Hejaz), most of Jordan, southwestern Cyprus, southwestern Turkey, and—per our fixed scope—Yemen. Anchors include the Nile Valley and Delta, the Eastern Desert and Sinai, the Levantine coast (Gaza–Acre), the Jordan Valley/Dead Sea, the Hejaz Mountains with Mecca and Medina, southwestern Anatolia (Adana–Antalya arcs), southwestern Cyprus, and the Tihāmah–Yemeni highlands from Mocha to Sanaʽa. River corridors, oases, and pilgrimage routes bound these deserts and littorals to each other and to the wider Ottoman world.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

The waning Little Ice Age brought cooler winters and variable floods. In Egypt, low Nile years meant dearth and plague spikes; high floods burst dikes and washed fields. Hejaz and Jordan suffered drought pulses that stressed caravan wells. Yemen’s monsoon-dependent terraces endured irregular rains, while Red Sea coasts faced periodic storms. Earthquakes rattled Cyprus, the Levant, and Anatolia, disrupting urban fabric and ports.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Egypt & Sudan: Nile grains (wheat, barley), flax, sugar, and garden crops sustained Cairo and Alexandria; in Sudan, millet–sorghum belts, date groves, and pastoral corridors linked Sennar and Nubian river towns. After 1820–1821, Muḥammad ʿAlī’s forces conquered Nubia–Sennar, integrating the Blue/White Nile into Egypt’s provisioning sphere.

• Levant & Cyprus: Olives, vines, citrus, and wheat on terraces and plains; port towns (Acre, Jaffa, Larnaca) shipped oil, soap, and grain.

• Hejaz: Oases (Taʾif, Yanbuʿ, Jidda) supplied pilgrims with dates, wheat, and livestock; urban Meccan economies revolved around hospitality and ritual markets.

• Yemen: Terraced grain in the highlands; the coffee complex around Mocha peaked, then faced competition from new global plantings late in the period.

• Southwestern Anatolia: Mixed cereals, cotton patches, and pastoralism around Adana and the Antalya littoral tied uplands to Mediterranean export lanes.

Technology & Material Culture

Irrigation canals, dikes, and water wheels (sāqiya) maximized Nile yields; stone terrace walls conserved Yemeni and Levantine hillsides. Caravanserais and cisterns dotted hajj and trade routes. Urban crafts flourished: Cairene textiles and brassware; Damascene and Gazan soap; Cypriot silks; Yemeni metalwork and coffee ware. After 1798, the French Expedition introduced printing, surveying, and military workshops in Egypt; by the 1820s, Muḥammad ʿAlī pushed ginning presses and irrigation works that foreshadowed the cotton boom.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Pilgrimage highways: Annual hajj caravans from Cairo, Damascus, and Anatolia converged on Mecca. Warfare with the Wahhabi–Saʿūdī alliance (c. 1803–1812) disrupted these routes until Egyptian campaigns (1811–1818) under Tūsūn and Ibrāhīm Pasha restored the Hejaz to Ottoman control.

• Red Sea–Indian Ocean: Suez–Jidda–Mocha trunk linked Egypt and Hejaz to Yemen, India, and East Africa; Mocha coffee and Jidda pilgrimage trade knit together merchants from the Maghreb to Gujarat.

• Levantine–Mediterranean ports: Acre, Jaffa, Alexandria, Antalya, Larnaca funneled oil, grain, and cotton to European shippers; French and British consuls multiplied after 1750.

• Nile & Sudanese corridors: River convoys carried grain and troops; post-1821 Egyptian garrisons tied Khartoum/Sennar to Cairo’s revenue system.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

Sunni Ottoman frameworks dominated, but pluralism remained deep: Coptic Egypt; Greek Orthodox and Armeniancommunities in Levantine ports; Jewish quarters from Cairo to Safed; Zaydi imamate culture in Yemen. The hajj was the region’s supreme ritual artery, sustained by waqf endowments and market networks; scholars, Sufi lineages, and artisans circulated with caravans. In Egypt, chronicles and mosque-university life (al-Azhar) debated governance as Mamluk beys contested Ottoman governors; after 1798, the new Arabic press and translation bureaus under Muḥammad ʿAlī seeded a reformist literary public.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

Granary provisioning and price controls in Egypt buffered low Nile years; terrace maintenance in Palestine, Cyprus, and Yemen conserved soil and water. Pilgrims and caravaneers relied on zakat-funded wells, cisterns, and rationing. Pastoral groups in Sudan and the Hejaz shifted herds along rain and pasture gradients. After 1811–1818, restored Hejazi security revived water/food provisioning for pilgrims; in Egypt the expansion of controllable irrigation (canals, barrages-in-planning) aimed to tame flood variability and expand cash crops.

Political & Military Shocks

• Mamluk–Ottoman duopoly in Egypt: Factional warfare and tax farming culminated in the French occupation (1798–1801); British–Ottoman forces expelled the French.

• Rise of Muḥammad ʿAlī (1805): Centralization, army reform, and monopolies; massacre of the Mamluks (1811); Hejazi campaigns (1811–1818) crushed the first Saudi state; Sudan conquest (1820–1821) extended Egyptian revenue and slave-soldier recruitment.

• Levantine strongmen: Aḥmad Pasha al-Jazzār in Acre (late 18th c.) exemplified semi-autonomous Ottoman provincial power.

• Yemen: Zaydi imams held the highlands; Mocha’s fortunes fluctuated with global coffee competition and Red Sea politics.

• European pressure: Consular networks, naval visits, and commercial treaties deepened dependence on Mediterranean markets without formal colonization—yet.

Transition

Between 1684 and 1827, the Near East shifted from a stable Ottoman heartland—sustained by pilgrimage, terraces, and Nile irrigation—to a laboratory of coercive reform and imperial entanglement. Hajj wars and Egyptian campaigns bound the Hejaz back to Istanbul; French invasion jolted Egypt into an era of state-driven modernization; Sudan’s incorporation widened Cairo’s reach; Yemen’s coffee pole waned as global rivals rose. By 1827, caravans and canals still ordered life—yet Muḥammad ʿAlī’s armies, monopolies, and irrigation works signaled a new dispensation in which provincial power, not distant sultans, would set the rhythm of Near Eastern change.

Eastern Southeast Europe (1816–1827 CE): National Uprisings, Diplomatic Maneuvering, and Cultural Awakening

Settlement and Migration Patterns

Serbian Migrations and Military Resettlements

Continued unrest and harsh Ottoman reprisals in Serbia led to ongoing Serbian migrations into Austrian-controlled territories, particularly in Vojvodina and southern Hungary. These Serbian communities became vital centers of nationalist and cultural revival, reinforcing Serbian identity and Orthodox traditions.

Economic and Social Developments

Romanian Uprising and Greek Influence

In 1821, Tudor Vladimirescu, a Romanian military leader and nationalist, led an anti-Phanariot uprising in Wallachia, aiming to establish autonomous Romanian governance under Ottoman suzerainty. Vladimirescu was assassinated by Greek revolutionaries under Alexander Ypsilanti, leading to the collapse of the Romanian revolt and subsequent Ottoman retaliation. This period marked the end of the Phanariot regime in the Danubian Principalities and the restoration of native Romanian princes under greater Russian influence.

Ottoman Economic Decline and Social Unrest

Economic deterioration and internal strife within the Ottoman Empire deepened regional instability. The principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia suffered from administrative corruption, severe taxation, and exploitative practices under rapidly replaced Greek Phanariot rulers, causing widespread social distress.

Cultural and Artistic Developments

Bulgarian Cultural Revival

Bulgarian intellectuals and church leaders, particularly those influenced by figures like Sofronii Vrachanski, intensified their cultural revival efforts. Despite Ottoman oppression, Bulgarian monasteries continued to preserve and propagate Bulgarian language, literature, and national identity, significantly contributing to Bulgaria's future nationalist movements.

Intellectual and Religious Developments

Romanian Nationalist Ideologies

The nationalist revolt led by Tudor Vladimirescu was deeply rooted in Enlightenment ideals and nationalist rhetoric, underscoring Romania's aspirations for political and cultural autonomy. Despite its failure, the movement profoundly influenced future Romanian nationalist thought.

Russian Diplomatic Influence

Following the suppression of the Romanian and Greek revolts, Russia secured increased diplomatic influence over Wallachia and Moldavia. The Ottoman sultan's concessions to Russia in 1826, granting significant consultation rights in Romanian principalities, effectively confirmed Russia’s predominant diplomatic and strategic role in the region.

Political Dynamics and Regional Rivalries

Greek War of Independence and Regional Impact

The outbreak of the Greek War of Independence (1821) triggered regional unrest and diplomatic realignments. The involvement of foreign powers, particularly Russia, Britain, and France, significantly influenced political dynamics throughout Eastern Southeast Europe, amplifying the complexities of the "Eastern Question."

Ottoman Internal Crisis and Reforms

In response to nationalist movements and external pressures, the Ottoman Empire faced profound internal crises. The Auspicious Incident (1826), which abolished the Janissaries, initiated significant military and administrative reforms aimed at modernizing the empire, indirectly affecting its Balkan territories.

Key Historical Events and Developments

• Tudor Vladimirescu’s nationalist uprising in Wallachia (1821) and its suppression.

• Increased Russian diplomatic influence over the Danubian Principalities established by the Ottoman-Russian agreement of 1826.

• Bulgarian intellectual and cultural revival driven by monastic communities and nationalist leaders like Sofronii Vrachanski.

Long-Term Consequences and Historical Significance

The period 1816–1827 CE was marked by significant nationalist movements and diplomatic shifts that shaped the geopolitical landscape of Eastern Southeast Europe. The failed Romanian uprising, Greek War of Independence, and Ottoman reforms significantly influenced nationalist sentiments, intensified diplomatic tensions, and set the stage for further regional upheavals and independence movements in the nineteenth century.

Sultan Mahmud II, nicknamed “the Reformer”, wants to eliminate the ungovernable janissaries (elite corps), the throne’s most powerful enemy within the Ottoman empire.

Convinced that modernization is essential and aware that earlier attempts had met with resistance—Mahmud himself had come to the throne in the wake of the Janissaries Revolt of 1807-08—he gains the support of the grand mufti and quietly concentrates on improving the artillery in his own personal army before decreeing a “New Order”, with a difference: instead of dismissing the janissaries, he will place one hundred and fifty from each battalion into each division of his new corps, meanwhile explaining that he is reviving an old Ottoman order.

The Janissaries, with their usual stubborn disobedience, storm the palace, where Mahmud’s troops rake them with grapeshot.

Retreating to the barracks, the Janissaries find themselves there the targets of the sultan’s artillery, as well as the victims of Turkish mobs: four thousand Janissaries die in the capital, and thousands more are soon slain in the provinces, The term Janissary is proscribed, and their abettors, the Bektashi dervishes, are outlawed.

This internal crisis in 1826 forces the sultan to accede to Russia's demand for greater influence in the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia.

The Porte gives Russia the right of consultation regarding changes on the two thrones; this concession assures Russia predominant influence at Bucharest and ...

...Iasi.