IV
THE RUSSIAN MENACE
HOW RUSSIA AND GREAT BRITAIN FOUGHT ACROSS
THE OLD OTTOMAN EMPIRE—HOW RUSSIA ENTERED
TRANS-CAUCASIA AND CAME INTO CONTACT
WITH THE ARMENIANS—HOW IT APPROACHED
THE BACK OF BRITISH INDIA THROUGH CENTRAL
ASIA—HOW GREAT BRITAIN FINALLY SURRENDERED
IN THE ANGLO-RUSSIAN TREATY OF 1907.
Old Russia was a great Eastern absolutism which had looked upon the modern West and faithfully copied the methods of its imperialism. These it utilized in its search for a secure outlet to the sea. It had reached the sea at Archangel on the Arctic, but Archangel is blocked by ice for nine months of the year. It had reached the sea along the Baltic shores, but its Baltic ports were as landlocked as the Lake ports in the United States. The Baltic was commanded by Germany and Germany in turn was commanded by Great Britain. It had touched salt water along the Black Sea, but its Black Sea ports were commanded by the Ottoman Empire astride the Bosphorus and Dardanelles.
It was unable to rectify its position in the Baltic without precipitating a European war and European wars are not only expensive but to Eastern Powers like Russia are sometimes disastrous. It spent the
