Count Karl Nesselrode, Russian foreign minister 1816-1856, was a controversial figure in the government of Nicholas I. The rapprochement with Britain, perhaps his finest achievement, was opposed at every step by Russians who regarded Britain as a rival. It was later condemned by tsarist historians as an example of the "cosmopolitan diplomacy" that weakened their country in competition with the Western powers. Soviet historians have followed their lead, asserting that it was against national interests. But Nesselrode did avoid war in a series of dangerous confrontations in Asia and the Near East, outmaneuvering opponents who wanted to meet Britain head-on, and he managed to extricate Russia from diplomatic isolation at the same time. Finally, he advanced bipartisanship in an agreement on the Eastern Question that led to the renewal of the European concert. He was working to extend the areas of cooperation, particularly by promoting freer trade and commerce, when his opponents more effectively countered his influence in the mid-1840s. - Jacket flap.

This book focuses on the Eastern Crisis of 1839-41, closely examining the first instance of coordinated Western intervention in the Middle East during the modern era. Readers can explore topics such as how culture, domestic politics, and ideology shaped diplomacy in this landmark crisis, and the importance role played by religion - including, alongside mainstream Christianity, the Protestant Zionist movement. Highly informative and fully researched, this book suggests that the Eastern Crisis - and its associated diplomatic and military efforts - marked the first of many modern-era attempts to “improve” the region by moulding it in a Western image, providing scholars with a new perspective on this period of history.

Explores how Russian politics and religion were instrumental in the shaping of modern Greece, providing a broad understanding of nineteenth-century Russian foreign policy and religious enterprise and the relationship between religion, nationalism, and state-building.

These essays arose out of lectures given in Oxford to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the 1848 revolutions in Europe. Authoritative, yet readable and colourful, they comprise judicicious summaries of the existing stte of knowledge, as well as new insights and unfamiliar information. Thebook also seeks to place the revolutionary events in their wider context: apart from chapters covering the main centres of disturbance in France, Germany, Italy, and the Habsburg lands, there are discussions of the situation in Britain and Russia, which were affected but not convulsed by thedisorders elsewhere; of reactions in the United States of America; of the symbolism of 1848 for the later democratic, radical, and socialist movements. 1848 marked the first breakdown of traditional authority across much of the continent, and as such is of profound significance in the developmentof modern European politics as a whole.

This book explores the Eurasian borderlands as contested 'shatter zones' which have generated some of the world's most significant conflicts. Analyzing the struggles of Habsburg, Russian, Ottoman, Iranian and Qing empires, Alfred J. Rieber surveys the period from the rise of the great multicultural, conquest empires in the late medieval/early modern period to their collapse in the early twentieth century. He charts how these empires expanded along moving, military frontiers, competing with one another in war, diplomacy and cultural practices, while the subjugated peoples of the borderlands strove to maintain their cultures and to defend their autonomy. The gradual and fragmentary adaptation of Western constitutional ideas, military reforms, cultural practices and economic penetration began to undermine these ruling ideologies and institutions, leading to the collapse of all five empires in revolution and war within little more than a decade between 1911 and 1923.

1837 was a critcal moment in Russia's history. The year's noteworthy occurrences extend from the realms of culture, religion, and ideas to those of empire, politics, and industry. This book argues that the 1830s in Russia were a period of dynamism and culture, and that 1837 was pivotal for the country's entry into the modern age.