Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Hacettepe Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, cilt.43, sa.1, ss.203-221, 2026 (TRDizin)
This article examines the Ottoman-Russian contest over the Danubian frontier between 1700 and 1826 through the prism of Ottoman documents. It treats the Danube not merely as a geographic boundary but as a political and administrative frontier whose transformation reflected wider shifts in imperial governance and diplomacy. Seeking to secure its Balkan marches and maintain suzerainty over Wallachia and Moldavia, the Ottoman Empire faced an increasingly assertive Russia that, after joining the Holy League in the years following 1683, gained European support to challenge Ottoman power. Throughout the eighteenth century, Russia repeatedly allied with Austria in wars that eroded Ottoman authority along the Lower Danube, in the north threatening key fortress-cities such as Özi, Akkerman, and İsmail. The Treaty of Karlowitz (1699) marked a turning point, initiating systematic demarcations that redefined imperial borders and institutionalised new diplomatic and cartographic practices. Successive wars and treaties - including those of 1711, 1736-1739, 1768-1774, 1787-1792, 1806-1812, and 1828-1829 - consolidated Russia’s southward advance and reconfigured the balance of power in the region. Drawing on treaty protocols, Ottoman archival materials, and cartographic evidence, the study reconstructs how evolving border regimes enabled Russia’s strategic entrenchment in the Danubian basin and reshaped the spatial logic of Ottoman sovereignty.