Posted on 12/26/2019 7:20:12 AM PST by Perseverando
Catherine the Great of Russia (1729-1796) rebuffed King George III's requests and bribes to have Russia side with Britain during the Revolutionary War.
Instead, Russia continued trading with the American colonies, providing much needed supplies.
Catherine even attempted to negotiate a peace with France and Britain to bring an early end to the war in America's favor.
Catherine the Great had earlier deposed her husband, Tsar Peter III, in a coup.
She then fought the Russo-Turkish War (1768-1774), against the Muslim Ottoman Turkish Empire.
Her General, Alexei Grigoryevich Orlov destroyed the Ottoman navy at the Battle of Chesma, July 5-7, 1770 -- it was the worst defeat for Ottoman navy since the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.
The same time, 38,000 Russians defeated 80,000 Muslim Tatar cavalry and infantry at the Battle of Larga, July 7, 1770.
Ottoman Sultan Mustfa III (1717-1774), who titled himself Cihangir "World Conqueror," is said to have died upon receiving the news of the defeats.
Two weeks later, Russia defeated another 175,000 Turks at the Battle of Kagul.
Russian military leaders began talk of a campaign to emancipate oppressed Christians under Ottoman rule, and free Constantinople, which had been the capital of the Christian world for nearly a thousand years.
Their plans, though, were interrupted by the French Revolution.
America's first minister to the Russian Court of Catherine the Great was Francis Dana, a member of the Continental Congress, being assisted 1781-1783 by the young John Quincy Adams -- the future 6th US President.
(Excerpt) Read more at myemail.constantcontact.com ...
Thanks for the great history lesson.
I and my wife never heard of the Russian support in our war for survival with the Brits.
The US and Russia have a peculiar history of partial friendship and partial enmity. In the Civil War, for example, a good part of the Russian fleet was just parked in NY harbor and was a potent deterrent to the British and French intervening on he side of the Confederacy. All of this says the DemonShits are being particularly evil in their evil Russians hacked the 2016 election fraud because theyre just preventing us and the Russians from solving a lot of international problems where we actually have a lot of mutual interests.
One thing you have to remember :
Russia (like France) was assisting the American Revolution to help THEMSELVES against the British and its expanding power.
They didn’t believe in the freedom the Americans sought - just in screwing their geopolitical enemies.
I did not know the British courted her help against the Americans, but I'm not surprised she ignored them. No percentage in that for Mother Russia.
Thanks for the link! :-)
I think I had an audiobook about The Revolution out of the library once, the British navy had to be shifted out of American duty because C the G made a sort of flanking bluff with the Russian navy.
Catherine was willing to play hardcore realpolitik using the American rebels to weaken the British Empire, like the French. It was a dangerous game because the principles of the Declaration of Independence were a threat to both absolute monarchies.
Beautiful post, but you are preaching to the choir here. Our high schools and colleges should be reading this.
Um, no.
That was the Christmas truce of 1915, Americans didn’t get to Europe until 1917 at the earliest.
So, British, not American? Thanks for the correction.
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