In the competition between the Black Sea and Tsarist Russia, why did the Ottomans become weaker and weaker?

At that time, there was also a Crimean Khanate established by the Tatars on the Crimean Peninsula.

The controlling party behind the khanate is the Ottoman Empire on the other side of the Black Sea, the predecessor of Turkey.

Under the instigation of the Ottoman Empire, the Crimean Khanate spread across the Eastern European steppes and plundered various areas of Tsarist Russia.

It even invaded Moscow, posing a very serious threat to Tsarist Russia.

For this reason, the conflict between Russia and Turkey laid the groundwork as early as the 17th century.

At that time, the Ottoman Empire was still using the Crimean Khanate to fight proxy wars in the Eastern European grasslands. In 1783, after the fifth Russo-Turkish War, the Crimean Khanate was destroyed by Tsarist Russia. From then on, the relationship between Russia and Turkey

, there is only a head-on confrontation.

So how will the two companies perform next?

In fact, Tsarist Russia continued to go uphill, while the Ottoman Empire became increasingly weak until it became unacceptable to Tsarist Russia.

Everyone is a hegemon who dominates one side. Why did the Ottoman Empire gradually lose to Tsarist Russia?

1. The Ottoman Empire has too many enemies to take care of.

The Ottoman Empire was a place spanning three continents, Europe, Asia and Africa. At its peak, its land area reached 5.5 million square kilometers.

At that time, the Ottoman Empire was simply a nightmare for Europeans.

At the beginning of the 16th century, during the reign of Emperor Suleiman the Magnificent, he led his army across the Turkish Straits and captured a large area of ??territory in the Balkan Peninsula. Later, he conquered Hungary and besieged Vienna, which scared the Habsburg dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire to tremble.

If the Habsburg family hadn't found a lot of reinforcements because of their extensive connections, they wouldn't have been able to defend Vienna.

If Vienna is lost, Central and even Western Europe will be doomed.

At the same time, the Ottoman Empire also developed an interest in Egypt in North Africa.

In 1517, the Ottoman Empire destroyed the Mamluk dynasty of Egypt. This powerful dynasty that once stopped the Mongols from their western expedition came to an end in front of the Turks.

This is not over yet. The Ottoman Empire was not polite at all to the Safavid dynasty of Persia in the east.

In 1514, the Ottoman Empire defeated the Safavid dynasty of Iran and captured the Azerbaijan region.

In addition, the Ottoman Empire continued to encroach on Arab territories, including the Mesopotamia and the Arabian Peninsula.

It can be said that the Ottoman Empire has always made enemies on all sides. The surrounding Iran, Arabia, North Africa, Central and Western Europe, including Tsarist Russia, are all targets that the Ottoman Empire wants to deal with.

2. Within the jurisdiction of the Ottoman Empire, the rule was very fragile.

It looks like a powerful empire, but in fact there are many internal disputes.

The Ottoman Empire was like a loose confederation of organizations, and it was the Turks who forced the group together.

There are Arabs, Turks, Kurds, Persians, Yugoslavs, Germans and more.

Each of them had their own small group or family business, and they were simply unwilling to obey the orders of the Ottoman Empire.

Take the Ottoman Empire's rule over the Arab world. In fact, it can be divided into three levels.

First, areas with absolute dominance.

In the Mesopotamia area, the Ottoman Sultan had absolute power to rule here and could appoint governors of the area at will.

This includes current Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Jordan and other places.

Second, there are areas with only tax collection power and no administrative power.

North Africa is actually a typical example. Although the Ottoman Empire conquered this place, there are still quite a few princely forces here.

Because the distance was too far and it was not cost-effective to station heavy troops, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire adopted a compromise approach.

Egypt, Libya and other North African regions only needed to pay certain taxes to the Ottoman Empire.

As for local jurisdiction, it belongs to the local princes.

Third, it is enough to surrender in name only, and it is important to save face rather than arrogance.

This is actually the case in the Arabian Peninsula. The Hejaz region where Mecca and Medina are located, of course the Ottoman Empire attaches great importance to, after all, this is the location of the holy city of Islam.

The Ottoman Empire was very indifferent to the Najd region, which was mainly desert.

At that time, oil could not be exploited, and the return on investment was too low to spend great efforts to conquer such a large desert.

For this reason, the Ottoman Empire only needed the local Arab tribes to admit their submission to the Sultan, and almost no taxes or administrative powers were required.

Why bother with these camel sellers?

It can be seen that the internal governance of the Ottoman Empire is relatively loose.

This caused a very serious situation, that is, the princes supported their own troops and respected themselves.

In the process of historical development, there will often be several disobedient and prickly heads. Sometimes they are princes in North Africa, sometimes they are Arab chiefs, or Yugoslav national heroes.

These people led their tribes to unite and fight endlessly against the Ottoman Empire, which made the Ottoman Empire miserable.

With so many uneasy factors internally, where do you think the Ottoman Empire still has the energy to continue fighting with Tsarist Russia?

On the contrary, it is relatively simple for Tsarist Russia. Although they have annexed a lot of territory, they have one principle: leave no land but no people.

They only need territory. As for the people, if they are obedient, they will keep them. If they are disobedient, they will be sent to Siberia for mining.