British naval weakness in 1832 pushed the Ottomans into Tsarist Russia’s embrace

Evidence

This he was forced to do not out of lack of conviction, but because his colleagues in the cabinet thought that the navy could not be spared to leave the European theater of operations where it was needed to enforce economic sanctions against Holland. The Sultan therefore was left with no option other than to ask for Russian assistance. Palmerston’s worst fears came true: instead of seeing British ships in Istanbul, it was the Russian fleet that was allowed to moor there in February 1833. As if this was not enough Russia and the Ottoman Empire together signed the Hünkar Iskelesi Treaty in July which had a secret clause changing the traditional policy of the Porte of excluding all foreign ships from the Sea of Marmara, by excepting Russian ships from that stipulation. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1574

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader balance-of-power theme in the reader’s study of Ottoman, British, and Egyptian actors.
• QUESTION: Worth checking exactly what economic sanctions against Holland required the navy in 1832-33.