British-Turkish War (1807)
The British Ottoman war in 1807 was a non- declared military conflict between Great Britain and the Ottoman Empire and provides a secondary theater of the Napoleonic Wars . It involved a British navy operation against Konstantin Opel in support of the Russian Empire in the Russo-Turkish War and a landing in Egypt , when Alexandria was to be occupied and used as a base of operations and supplies. Both operations ended unsuccessfully; From a British perspective, the conflict is a complete failure.
background
Traditionally there was a friendly relationship between Great Britain and the Ottoman Empire, primarily because of the old mutual hostility towards Spain and France. At the end of the 18th century, the express route to British India ran via the Ottoman province of Egypt , which is why the British gained increasing influence here. For this reason, among other things, Napoleon tried in vain to conquer Egypt for France during his Egyptian campaign from 1798 to 1801 . As a result of the fighting but Ottoman rule in Egypt broke down largely and there was a power struggle between Muhammad Ali Pasha and several Mamelukes -Führern.
For the Ottoman Empire, the Russian Empire, which was expanding ever further south, represented the greatest threat. After the Russian defeat at Austerlitz , the French ambassador and general Count Sébastiani was therefore able to convince the Sublime Porte (the Ottoman government) of an alliance in the summer of 1806 . The Sublime Porte now deposed the pro-Russia princes in the Danube vassal states Moldavia and Wallachia , while French troops occupied Dalmatia . The Russian army then moved into Moldova and Wallachia, whereupon the High Porte again closed the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits to Russian ships at the end of the year and declared war ( Russo-Turkish War from 1806 to 1812 ).
The British government then sent a fleet under Vice Admiral Sir John Duckworth to the Eastern Mediterranean and withdrew its citizens (including the Ambassador Charles Arbuthnot ) from Constantinople . The Turks should be forced to end cooperation with France and expel the French ambassador and end the war with the Russians in favor of the latter. There were threats to bomb Constantinople and destroy the Ottoman fleet if they refused.
Dardanelles surgery
Admiral Duckworth united his fleet with the Vanguard Flotilla under Rear Admiral Sir Thomas Louis at the island of Ténedos at the entrance of the Dardanelles. The fleet now comprised eight ships of the line (flagship Royal George , Windsor Castle , Canopus , Ajax , Pompee , Repulse , Thunderer , Standard ), two frigates ( Endymion and Active ), two bombards ( Lucifer and Meteor ) and a few small escort boats. Louis on the Canopus (80 cannons) commanded the advance guard; Duckworth commanded the main fleet from the Royal George (100 cannons); Rear Admiral Sir W. Sidney Smith on the Pompee (74 guns) commanded the rearguard.
After the Ottoman Sultan had rejected a (factually unacceptable) British ultimatum , which provided for the cession of the Danube principalities to Russia and the handover of the fleet and Dardanelles fortresses to Great Britain, Duckworth began to take military action against the Ottomans. War was not officially declared, however, and Duckworth's mandate was not to start a widespread war. It was planned that the British ships should cooperate with a Russian fleet under Admiral Senjawin , but this did not happen because the Russian ships arrived later.
On 14./15. February Ajax was lost in a fire; 250 men lost their lives. On February 19, the British fleet sailed through the Dardanelles and was exposed to relatively little fire as the Turks did not expect an attack and the fortifications were poorly manned due to the end of Ramadan . After the British ships had reached the Sea of Marmara without loss, they sank the Turkish ships anchored here (including a 64-gun ship of the line) and shot at a fortification. The fleet then sailed through the Sea of Marmara to Constantinople, where, under the direction of Count Sébastiani, the gun emplacements had been significantly reinforced, so that the British, who also suffered from unfavorable wind conditions, could not do anything against the fleet in the port. The ships now anchored near the island of Prota and stayed in the Sea of Marmara for a week in the hope that the Ottoman fleet would venture out of the port, which did not happen.
When Turkish soldiers occupied the island of Prota on February 27 and began to mount guns, Duckworth ordered the island to be bombed. Then the few marines under Edward Nicolls occupied the island; After resisting, they withdrew to the ships.
On March 3rd the British sailed back through the Dardanelles, and now that the gun crews were prepared, they suffered higher losses. Even the centuries-old giant Dardanelles gun was fired. In total, the British lost 42 men to enemy action, 235 were wounded and 4 were missing.
Back on Ténedos, Duckworth met the Russians who had meanwhile arrived. However, even with Russian support, he did not dare to venture a second advance through the Dardanelles, possibly he thought the Ottoman Empire was already weakened enough. The British fleet now sailed on to Egypt. Senjawin stayed on site and won two major naval victories against the Ottomans in May and at the end of June .
Alexandria expedition
The main British target of the war was not the Dardanelles, but Egypt. It was hoped that this would secure an important base in the eastern Mediterranean, which was also on the strategic route to India. It also made sense to supply the British troops in Sicily with Egyptian grain. Since conditions were similar to civil war in Egypt, the British leadership expected to be able to occupy the country without major resistance. The Mediterranean commander, General Fox , dispatched the expeditionary army from Sicily in mid-February; Constantinople was named as a target for camouflage.
On March 17th, completely unexpectedly for the Ottomans, about 6,000 soldiers of the British Army under General Mackenzie-Fraser landed in front of Alexandria . The city, hostile to Muhammad Ali Pasha, opened its gates to the British on March 20.
In the meantime, in the face of the threat, Muhammad Ali managed to get most of the Egyptian leaders to his side, so that orderly resistance could be organized.
In order to ensure the permanent supply of Alexandria, the British planned next to occupy the Rosetta , which lies on an estuary of the Nile . A first careless advance with 1,500 men was ambushed in the narrow streets of the city, hundreds of casualties , and General Wauchope was among the dead . The severed heads of the dead were displayed on skewers in Cairo .
A second advance in April, this time 2,500 men under General Stewart , led to a fifteen-day battle against Umar Makram's troops , who fiercely defended the city. After more Egyptian troops arrived across the Nile, Stewart had to withdraw, but some of his troops did not receive the order, were surrounded and taken prisoner of war.
The British were so weakened by this defeat, in which they lost over 900 men, that they now threatened to be besieged even in Alexandria. However, Muhammad Ali was now intriguing against Ottoman rule and, from a position of strength, began negotiations with the British about the independence of Egypt (more precisely, about diplomatic recognition if he declared independence). As a token of his goodwill, he allowed the supply of Alexandria and released the prisoners of war.
End of war and consequences
At the end of May Sultan Selim III. Overthrown by the Janissaries , a rebellion of the Selim-loyal provinces was the result.
On July 7, Russia and France signed the Tilsit Peace Treaty , with which France betrayed the Ottoman Empire. Britain was now on its own in the war against France. The Ottomans, incapable of acting due to the internal power struggles, had no chance against the Russian offensive without allies and finally had to cede Bessarabia in 1812 .
In Egypt, General Mackenzie-Fraser gave up Alexandria on September 25, 1807; the troops withdrew to Sicily. The entire operation had been a catastrophic failure.
In order not to let the Ottoman Empire, which was now indirectly an ally again, disintegrate further, Muhammad Ali's demand for independence was not accepted. Muhammad Ali nonetheless became the only winner of the war as he used his strengthened position to massacre the Mamluks and became the undisputed ruler of Egypt by 1812.
Formally, the (never declared) state of war between Great Britain and the Ottoman Empire remained in place until 1809. On January 15, 1809, the two powers signed the Dardanelles Treaty negotiated by Robert Adair . In this treaty, the Ottomans guaranteed the British economic and diplomatic privileges, and in return the British guaranteed support against French attempts at annexing Ottoman territories. It was also recognized that no foreign warships were allowed to enter the Dardanelles without Ottoman permission. The latter point of the contract was regulated more precisely by the Straits Treaty in 1841 .
Individual evidence
- ^ For example, English and Turkish pirates worked together in the Mediterranean. See, for example, Lee W. Eysturlid: 'Where Everything Is Weighed in the Scales of Material Interest': Anglo-Turkish Trade, Piracy, and Diplomacy in the Mediterranean during the Jacobean Period , In: Journal of European Economic History 22, 1993, p. 613-26
- ^ William James : The Naval History of Great Britain, from the Declaration of War by France in 1793 to the Accession of George IV , Volume IV, London 1826, p. 296ff ( available online )
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↑ The Naval Chronicle For 1807, Containing a General and Biographical History of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, with a Variety of Original Papers on Nautical Subjects , Volume 17, Joyce Gold, London, pp. 426-432;
Joseph Allen: Battles of the British Navy: From AD 1000 to 1840 , Volume 2, AH Baily & Company, London 1842, pp. 195-199 ( available online );
David ST Blackmore: Warfare on the Mediterranean in the Age of Sail: A History, 1571-1866 , McFarland, 2011, pp. 254-258 - ↑ Sir John William Fortescue: A History of The British Army , Volume 6 (1807-1809), Macmillan, London 1910, Chapter XIV, pp. 5-27 ( available online )
- ^ Daniel E. Spector: "Dardanelles, Treaty of the (1809)" , In: Gale Encyclopedia of the Mideast & N. Africa , 2004 (quoted from encyclopedia.com, accessed March 2016)
