In the century between 1806 and 1914 tsarist Russia was drawn into five wars due to its deep involvement, based on treaty rights and established traditions, in Balkan affairs. This book examines the reason for the Russian involvement in the Balkan peninsula and attempts to explain at least partially the connection that drew the Russian government into entanglements that were not only dangerous to its great power interests, but that were difficult to control. The wars, waged at a high human and economic cost, limited the resources that could be spent on internal development and, in particular...

This book has a double emphasis: it examines the role played by tsarist Russia in the formation of an independent Romanian national state, and it discusses the reaction of a Balkan nationality to the influence of a neighboring great power that was both a protector and a menace. In the early nineteenth century the centers of Romanian political life were the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, which were both under Ottoman rule but which had separate, autonomous administrations. Although welcoming Russian aid against the Ottoman Empire, the Romanian leadership at the same time...