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was a triumph of French diplomacy, in its regularsupport of the Sultan. In the end the Turks yieldednothing but Azov and maintained their veto on Russianships appearing in the Sea of Azov or the Black Sea.None the less, the Ottoman empire was now permanentlyon the defensive. The Russia of Catherinethe Great won the whole coast from the Dniester tothe Kuban (see map 4; 1768-74, 1787-92), including theCrimea (1783). Under Alexander I Bessarabia and thePrincipalities (Moldavia and Wallachia, the eastern halfof the present-day Roumania) were again conquered(1806-12), and, although owing to the imminence ofNapoleon's invasion Russia was unable to force Turkeyto cede more than Bessarabia, she was now establishedat the mouth of the Danube.The conquest of the Black Sea steppes was a greatachievement, studded with famous feats of arms, linkedwith famous commanders, Suvorov and Kutuzov in thevan. Three times Russia had Austria as an ally (1697-1700, 1735-39, 1787-91)- Three times Turkey hadactive assistance from the Poles (1768-72) or the Swedes(1711, 1788-90); once almost from Prussia (1790) orEngland (1791). Always she had aid, often to greateffect, from France. Yet in the main the struggle wasa Russo-Turkish contest.Distance, difficulties of supply and munitions, anddeficiencies of organization cost the Russians extra heavylosses and too often robbed them of the fruits of individualvictories. The resilience of Ottoman power andthe doggedness of Ottoman armies could not finally staythe Russian drive to the Black Sea, but they did preventthe Russian retention of the Principalities. It wasonly the northern steppe fringes of the Ottoman empirethat were as yet lost. A Russian soldiers' saying goes tothe bone: " The Turks are falling like skittles, but, thankGod, our men stand fast, though headless.''The eighteenth-century struggle for the Black Sea wasprimarily a struggle for its northern steppe lands, not forthe Balkans or Constantinople and the Straits, and onlylatterly for the Caucasus. The schemes and dreams ofsome partitioning of Turkey, of Catherine the Great's274