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herself and Turkey alone. Now she admitted the Straitsas of European concern. Defeat in the Crimea and thetreaty of Paris (1856) compelled her to admit all Ottomanquestions as of European concern.Shortly before the Crimean War Nicholas I communingwith himself had sketched "the least bad of all badcombinations "; Constantinople might be a free city witha Russian garrison on the Bosphorus and an Austrian onthe Dardanelles. Later in the same year (1853) hesuggested to the emperor Francis Joseph Constantinopleas a free city and the razing of the fortifications at theBosphorus and the Dardanelles. The bitter arbitramentof war ended with the razing of fortifications; but theywere Russian not Turkish.The treaty of Paris (1856) signalized the nadir ofRussian influence in Turkey. Until Sedan (1870) Francewas preponderant at Constantinople, with Great Britainrunning a good second. The Russian naval stronghold,Sebastopol, had been captured and her fleet scuttled ordestroyed. The treaty forbade her to build another inthe Black Sea or to construct any arsenals on its coast.Turkey was similarly shackled in the Black Sea, but sinceshe could keep a fleet in the Sea of Marmara or theMediterranean and, in case of war with Russia, pass itthrough the Bosphorus, it was obvious that the shackleson Turkey were light. As regards the Straits, the Londonconvention of 1841 was renewed, but a secret alliancebetween Great Britain, France, Austria, and Turkey(known to the Russians) virtually opened them to theWestern powers in case of Turkish need. Russia wasforced back from the mouths of the Danube by thecession of southern Bessarabia. Over against Transcaucasia,the commanding fortress of Kars, which hadbeen brilliantly stormed for the second time (1855, 1829),had to be restored. Russia had to renounce all herprevious rights or claims in regard to the Principalities,Serbia, and the Orthodox subjects of the sultan.The neutralization of the Black Sea and the cessionof southern Bessarabia were specially onerous andhumiliating. Alexander II (1855-81) was determinedto rid himself of " these two nightmares," as he styled282

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