In 1453, after a thousand years as one of the major centres of Christianity, Constantinople, capital of the waning Greek Byzantine empire, fell to Mehmet II's Ottoman army. This feat undisputedly established the Ottomans, a Muslim people originating in the Anatolian part of Turkey, as a world power.
Subsequently the Ottoman or Turkish empire, by dint of a powerful army and navy exceptionally well equipped, trained and led, enjoyed a long period of expansion. By 1529 it controlled most of the Balkans and engaged in a protracted siege of Vienna. Although this had to be abandoned through lack of heavy siege guns, the psychological shock on West Europe was severe, and left it fearful of more far-reaching Turkish invasions. At its height under Sultan Suleyman, the Empire extended from Austria to Aden, from Morocco to the Caspian. Like the Roman Empire before it, it bestrode three continents. At different periods, it was courted for alliances by France and Britain.
However, by the second half of the 18th century, the Empire was showing signs of collapse. It had never been more than a grouping of military nomads, without a common political base or common civilised traditions. It was dangerously dependent on subjects whose loyalty it could not win. It practised decentralised rule through authorities specific to their own communities - in particular it respected non-moslem communities. Arrangements for supporting the military machine which was the heart of the Ottoman structure were often negotiated on a local basis. This led to inefficiency, inconsistency and corruption. It gave the Sultan's subjects no sense of identification with his rule, but rather alienation from it. Consequently other voracious adjacent powers had been allowed to knaw away substantially at its edges.
Chief amongst these was Russia, the up and coming new Great Power in the East. Her national identity had barely existed as late as 1500: in three centuries her progress had been phenomonenal. But this had been achieved in no small measure by the shortcut of territorial acquisition, presided over by strong visionary leaders. Initially the thrust had been North to the Baltic and to the East before Peter the Great had started the push Southwards aiming ultimately at access to the Mediterranean.
The policy was continued under Catherine the Great, aided by her advisor Potemkin, who fought and won two wars against the Turks in the latter half of the 18th Century. These successes against
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