How Did The Changes In Russia Change In The Twenty Years From 1870-1890

The twenty years from 1870-1890 contained many changes in Russia. The great power found herself in numerous surprisingly promising situations, such as Eastern Crisis or the Three Emperors League. Though country attained many victories, in the end she lost more than she won.

After Crimean War Russia had been more or less isolated by the other great powers, until mid 1860s when she made an alliance with Prussia, on the contrary Empire’s rivalry with Austria-Hungary had not disappeared, rather deepened over the Balkans. This complex relationship became the main obstacle in constructing the Three Emperors League in 1873. Though Russia understood that the league was her best chance to avoid Crimean Coalition revival, the Empire was not ready to
However, in 1875 Russia gathered her main attention to Eastern Crisis. On 24 April in 1877 Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire. At first Russia’s victory seemed almost inevitable, but success in Central Asia had come with an expense, empire’s army was very weak. In January of 1878 Russia arrived at the gates of Constantinople, though Turkish armies were almost vanished away, Russia was not able to merge inside. Rumours of Russia’s weak military forces quickly reached to Britain and they did not hesitate on sending their fleet to Constantinople to end the war for once and for all. Russia’s main aim had been to protect Slavs, however, now she found herself in a place where she was not able to fight any more, so she agreed to work on peace terms. The British move to end the war deepened the rivalry with Russia and in 7 years a similar conflict would occur. At that moment Russia had no better choice than to give up on hope to rule Constantinople. Now the best she could do was to work on peace terms, she would benefit the most
The results of congress left Russia humiliated, instead of “Big Bulgaria” the Balkans area was divided into three parts, and none of these territories came under Russian command. Russia only gained a port of Batumi in nowadays Georgia and left being embarrassed. After the congress Russia felt isolated, her alliance with Germany was broken since Russia blamed her failure on Bismarck for not helping her when she asked. But this isolation did not stop her from continuing to expand in central Asia or reviving the Three Emperors