In 1904 a small, distant war brought Russia to the brink of internal collapse – and yet within ten years the russian foreign policy 1900 embroiled itself in an incomparably larger conflict close to home. Не удалось найти ни одного отзыва. Peter the Great officially renamed the Tsardom of Russia the Russian Empire in 1721, and became its first emperor. The Foreign policy of the Russian Empire covers Russian foreign relations down to 1917.
Russia played a small role in the Napoleonic Wars until 1812, when Napoleon’s huge army was destroyed in the French invasion of Russia. Russia played a major role in defeating Napoleon and in setting conservative terms for the restoration of aristocratic Europe during the period of 1815 to 1848. Russia expanded in all directions at 18,000 square miles per year, becoming by far the largest power. China had more people but far less military or economic or diplomatic power. The expansion brought in many minorities who had their own religions and languages. Russia entered the World War in 1914 against Germany, Austria and the Ottoman Empire to defend the Kingdom of Serbia, and to gain access to the Mediterranean Sea at the expense of the Ottoman Empire. Financial help came from its allies Britain and France.
Geographical expansion by warfare and treaty was the central strategy of Russian foreign policy from the small Muscovite state of the 16th century to World War I in 1914. To the northwest, Russia engaged in a century long struggle against Sweden for control of the Baltic Sea. The Empire succeeded by the 1720s, obtaining not just access to the sea but ownership of Finland and the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. To the south, the conflict with the Ottoman Empire lasted for centuries. To the southeast, Russia seized power in large swaths of territory in Central Asia inhabited by Muslims of Turkic ethnicity. Although some Russian settlers were sent into Kazakhstan, generally leading local elites were left in power as long as it was clear that Russia controlled foreign and military policies. Finally, there was expansion to the Far East, as Russian settlers moved into the mining and agricultural districts of Siberia, taking control of local tribes and building towns, mines, prison camps along the Trans-Siberian Railway.
It sent in settlers and prisoners, so that its holdings from Vladivostok north along the Sea of Japan reached 310,000 in 1897. The tsar so shaped foreign policy that a transition could mean an overnight radical turnabout. During the Middle Ages several wars were fought between the Swedes and Russians and 11 wars have been fought between Russia and Sweden since the 15th century. 1725 era was the struggle between Sweden and Russia for control of the Baltic, as well as territories around it. Russia was ultimately the winner, and Sweden lost its status as a major power.
