Imperial confrontation or regional cooperation?: Bulgarian migration and Ottoman-Russian relations in the Black Sea region, 1768-1830s

Abstract

The Black Sea region from 1768-1830s has traditionally been characterized as a theater of warfare and imperial competition. Indeed, during this period, the Ottoman and Russian empires engaged in four armed conflicts for supremacy in the Balkans, the Caucasus, and on the Black Sea itself. While not discounting geo-strategic and ideological confrontation between the Ottoman and Russian empires, this article - by adopting the Black Sea region as its primary unit of historical and political analysis - will emphasize the considerable amount of exchange that took place between the Ottoman and Russian empires in the Black Sea region in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Building upon a case study of Bulgarian migration between the Ottoman and Russian empires and as part of a broader discussion on Ottoman-Russian Black Sea diplomacy this article will detail joint Ottoman-Russian initiatives to control their mutual Black Sea borderland.