What were the most important successes and failures in Catherine the Greats foreign policy - Essay Example

? What were the most important successes and failures in Catherine the Greats foreign policy? Task: What were the most important successes and failures in Catherine the Greats foreign policy? Throughout history, Russia gets the picture of a regressive horde of barely enlightened people on the border of barbarism. Before the nineteenth century, dreams of secularism and science grasped Europe, and Russian Czars, coming to senses of how behind Muscovite culture was, hunted for knowledge, attempting to transform Russian society. Catherine II was one of these heroes. Born in 1729, she faced various challenges, which propelled to her, to pursue various aspirations. She got acknowledgment from her father due to her bright abilities such, as reading and being able to remember the ideas taught. As a qualification, she received formal education after, which she got married to the Grand Duke Peter of Holstein, an heir of Russian throne. This is because during the time women faced negativity to gain education with only few allowed. Catherine was successful in her foreign policies particularly the friendly relations with Prussia. (Madareaga 1998, pp. 44). It is in this regards that the paper attempts to analyze various achievements and failures Catherine demonstrated and experienced in the process of applying her foreign policy. Catherine the great reigned from 1762 to 1996 and during the period, her foreign policies made various changes to both Russia and other countries. Her reputation, which did not only make her earn the name, “enlightened despot” also made get the name of the, “great”. In her quest to control international trade among neighbor countries, she signed a treaty. The British were aggravated in 1787 by the Franco-Russian business treaty that destabilized Britain’s longstanding dominance of the Russian trade; William Pitt additionally distressed by the Empress’s gains at the Turks’ outlay. In 1791, spurred on by his envoy in Berlin, the prime minister wanted an end to the war and a come back to the status quo ante. Catherine remained adamant; Pitt threatened to fling a flotilla to the Baltic with Prussian sustain. Catherine held her own and public judgment in Britain optimistic by Pitt’s challenger Charles Fox as well as the Russian envoy obligated the prime minister to back down. This becomes one of Catherine’s most achievements in the application of foreign trade policies. Consequently, she was able to conduct two Turkish wars with the help of able diplomats and generals (Donnels 1997, pp. 79). This was a considerable considering her feminine nature as well as the economic depression the country faced by the time. Another foreign policy employed by Catherine was in Poland in conjunction with Austria and Prusia. During the time, of her ruling Poland lay midst of the three powers. The country suffered from many problems in the 18thcentury mainly connected to poor leadership. This is because they had an elected king rather than a hereditary king, which caused fractious nobility of the population. In addition, the country developed multinational and multi-confessional masses dividing the population into various groups that one could conquer easily. Settling on the weaknesses, Catherine employed her foreign policy teaming up with other stakeholders to control a third of Poland’s population. She got this extraordinary achievement during the time by conquering Poland. Despite a constitution, arising which protected Poland as a state she did not relent dividing Poland out of existence in 1793 and 1791 (Madareaga 1998, pp. 24). When the Turks declared war on Russia, 25 September/6 October 1768, the Russian envoy refused to remove Russian troops from Poland and got locked in the Castle of the Seven Towers. Thus, Catherine’s policy in Poland led to a civil war that irritated was with Ottoman Turkey. Though Catherina articulated her surprise at the Turkish pronouncement of war, she was eager for soldierly glory against what she painstaking a feeble rival. In July 1774, Rumiantsev and the Turkish legislature signed a peace accord at an incomprehensible Bulgarian village, recognized as Kuchuk-Kainardji. Authorization of the treaty formally ended the first foreign policy catastrophe of Catherine’s reign. She had blundered into it by her interfering in shine politics, which had aggravated her dependence on Prussia and inititaed war with the Turks. It gave to Russia more boundary than Catherine did had ever dared to vision of, breaching the Black Sea to Russian trade and control. The Ottoman sultan confirmed war on Russia in 1768, and Catherine’s army ascended to overpower Ottoman Turkey on land. Her war fleet, maritine from the Baltic, entered the Mediterranean, as well as Aegean port of Chesme, took possession of Ottoman fleet (Donnels 1997, pp. 89). The terms of the peace agreement in 1774, approved the erection of a Russian Orthodox Church in Istanbul, a prerequisite the Russians would gradually develop into a right to defend the sultan’s Orthodox (Madareaga 1998, pp. 50). The treaty also affirmed the sovereignty of the Crimean Khanate from the Ottomans and subjugated by Russia. Catherine’s troops maintained strategic points on the Crimean peninsula, which khanate to abolish it, by transforming the peninsula and its adjoining littoral into a new Russian province. With great pleasure, in 1787, Catherine in the company of Austrian ruler, Emperor Joseph II 1780, took control of a glide down Dniepr River, to show off her new province. In spite of the credit, Catherine gets from various philosophers who gave her acclaim based on the various methodological applications she used during her regime, her policies is also enlightened in cultural affairs (Donnels 1997, pp. 92). She was able to mend various rules fearing nobody, but the rule of the book making her one of the bravest women in the world. For instance, she scorned laws regulating censorship, which only limited particular individuals to enjoy the right. Instead, she allowed freedom of publication in all art institution as a means of allowing free flow of artistic features. The invasion of the Crimea revealed a double dream the tsars had esteemed for several centuries. The once hazardous Tatar hosts were now fully subdued, and Russian ships had unobstructed admittance to the Black Sea. Above all, the war demonstrated Russia’s indisputable military and naval pre-eminence over the rival Ottoman Empire. Moreover, Catherine visualized resurrecting Constantinople as an Orthodox Christian conurbation, the center of a fresh kingdom lined by her second grandson, who got christened Konstantin Pavlovich. Her personal endeavor seemed to go past acquiring lands, to the assortment of souvenirs. On land, Russian armies were strong to undertake a march through the Balkans to Istanbul. Engineers and architects had constructed renowned marine base of Sevastopol, only a few days’ sailing from the Bosphorus, the Ottoman capital. However, Catherine’s idealistic dream was malformed, in the minds of more pragmatic European statesmen, into the outlandish of a dismembered Ottoman Empire. In June 1788, Gustavus III of Sweden confirmed war on Russia. Thinking that Russia got too occupied in the south with Turkey he sophisticated his troops into St. Petersburg only to be met by the Russian navy, which kept aloof in the Baltic. Denmark in harmony with her accord with Russia confirmed war on Sweden. At this time, Britain put force on Denmark forcing her to agree to a ceasefire with Sweden. There was a scheme against Gustavus by a faction of officers in the Swedish army, a conspiracy that was clandestinely encouraged by Catherine. The Swedish fleet got destroyed, and Gustavus III was nervous for peace. The two powers signed a peace treaty in August 1790. (Madareaga 1998, pp. 58). Catherine refused; Pitt endangered to send a flotilla to the Baltic with Prussian sustain. Catherine held her own and public judgment in Britain sanguine by Pitt's contender Charles Fox, and the Russian Ambassador obligated the prime minister to change his position. Catherine II denied the title of “the Great” during her era, but she step onward and in so doing brought her adopted country into the modern era. In so doing, she more than deserves the title. She was the protector of her motherland for over thirty-four years. The gloom of French revolution hung around the last years of Catherine reign. This is because during his reign she conducted various attacks and rebellions especially the beheading of Louis XVI from 1774 to 1792. This was a move conducted by Catherine aimed at elimination the ruthless power of King Louis who was ruling with disparity and ruthlessness. In the process, he was taking the life of people and encouraging forced labour. In contrary to this, Catherine also wanted an extension of her control and boundaries to gunner more resources for Russia. In addition, she facilitated the assassination of Swedish King Gustav III, which reined from 1771 to 1792. This got driven by zeal to control states and have leadership over the many states, which were arising (Madareaga 1998, pp. 61). This also contributed to her political achievements she enabled while in power. Land expansion increased drastically because of land captivation from wars. Catherine’s foreign social policies get seen best in the question of the clone charters to the towns. The license to the Towns dealt with self-government and set of laws of the urban expertise guilds. It also set up an intricate arrangement of town government, Duma tranquil of representatives from the six registered groups. It was their obligation to supervise the behavior of the community in trade, public order and food. The Charter to the aristocracy established a number of personal rights, which had never appeared before in a distinct law. It granted no new civil liberties to the graciousness, simply redesigning the ones they had always celebrated. It reinstated their privileges to possess serfs, but went no auxiliary on that matter (Marc 1993, pp. 1123). People like attributing themselves to greatness, however, only a few a few people conduct the changes. Catherine is in memory for using her independent mind while applying her foreign policies to administer and establishes an empire, which only existed for male occupants during the time. In the justice arena, she introduced reforms whereby she purchased the Hermitage a court museum etched to the winter palace in Petersburg. After seizing the throne in 1762, she made social reforms in an attempt to improve the life of many people who were suffering. Before her accession to power, she was in favor of emancipating reforms of Russia serfs (Chubarov 1999, pp. 39). Considering the many achievements Catherine made using foreign policies, various reasons lie behind the success. Some of the reasons include the lacerating pace Russian people employed to internalize various revolutions. In addition, various loop holes prevailed in foreign countries such as Russia and Poland. The strategic matter of the black sea also contributed to the enormous achievements Catherine managed to gather, passing the imperial line. Despite intelligence and ambitions, Catherine depicted using the foreign policies, she face several challenges, which led to her failures. Catherine ruled through corruption, political reforms, scandals and land expansions. She consolidated power from feudal warlords and the serfs, in order to continue the political reforms from the previous Peter the magnificent. Her government blossomed sculptures and educational systems used by the Russians to date. By the end of her regime, she had catapulted Russia into a world scene as a significant, stable and developed empire. There are various failures Catherine demonstrated by the use of foreign policies. Using her foreign policies, she employed heavy taxation to Russian people in order to finance the wars, which were equally prominent. In addition, the heavy recruitment of army created dissatisfaction among people becoming as a failure in the process of implementing her policies (Charles 1970, pp. 102). Consequently, the attempt to replace the Byzantine Empire destroyed in 1453 by the Ottoman Turks taking a cover as protector of Christians face criticism as a result of ambiguity and foolhardy of the project. The despotic policies suffered moral failures suggesting her ideas were egalitarianism in implementation, which were not consistent with feudalism. With a mind that she had expanded her territory and acquired economical sustainability, she gained laxity. Instead of exporting finished goods, Russia was exporting raw materials a fail in policy implementation. Considering the economical viability of Russia at the time, her policies could well implemented could raise Russia to a more economically viable position. It is in this regards that Catherine failed. This is because, refining of the raw materials was a chance to create jobs for the public and revenue. In addition, selling of finished goods offered high stakes for gaining more revenue, which could be used to finance other government operations. In the process of implementing various policies on education, she gained pretentious pride, which made her over perform policies. While creating freedom of education, she wrote various articles signing them, “lover of wisdom”. Moreover, her process of extending Russian boundary accosted with various negative actions. For instance, she ignored agriculture in Russia concentrating in exportation of raw materials (Chubarov 1999, pp. 43). For example, peasants had no right in Catherine’s government, but instead got recruited into military institutions, which could sustain the country in terms of food security. This gets evidenced by the evacuation of the Mennonites from Ukraine, which deprived Russia the much-needed food. Allowing the boyars to increase their stranglehold on peasant Russians was another failure Catherine’s regime faced. She took firm action to repress many peasants when they complained against the harsh conditions of serfdom. As a result, conditions got tighter and tighter for farmers. The worse conditions further led to serfdom a fact, which made Russia a disadvantage of world affairs. Russia annexed Crimea, which gave access to the black sea. This was a humble opportunity to facilitate trade and amass wealth; however, this was not the case with Catherine’s government as it relented, concentrating mainly domination of Poland. In addition, she proceeded to westernize Russia improving various educational conditions. However, unlike peter, the formidable Catherine scorned and focused on individualistic endeavors meant to satisfy personal gain. Her reforms failed peasant revolt in 1773, which caused Yemelian Pugachev to threaten eastern Russia. In addition, Catherine instituted various drastic reforms within the Russian society, which made opened the Russian economy susceptible to problems. For instance, it is the free market economy, which encouraged pressing of Russian farmers. This provided an avenue for unfair competition where foreigners flourished smoothly than the locals (Marc 1993, pp. 1123). Under her leadership, she completed various programmes left by peter III, demonstrating proficient leadership qualities. However, failures came when endowment from the government replaced income from privately owned lands. This was a problem as the endowments were much less than the intended amount. This reduced revenue of the government creating more problems for the Catherine’s government (Chubarov 1999, pp. 41). She closed 569 of the 954 monasteries with only 161 remaining for government operation. In the process, only 400,000 rubbles got repaid puttying the company into restricted government expenditure. In summary, Catherine’s reign included remarkable successes and failures. In particular, the use of foreign policies demonstrated outstanding talent, intelligence as well as proficiency in achieving various goals. She had a humble background forcing herself to get an education during the time when women had a little chance. Some of the achievements she brought into Russia during her reign included conquering of Poland as well as control of trade in the neighbor countries. She extended Russian boundaries creating stability in trade and other economic activities. These included autocracy she developed as well as religious injustices, manifested during her reign. She, therefore, gets remembered for achieving many things instead of winning many wars through her foreign policies. References Chubarov, A 1999, The Fragile Empire ‘Catherine the Great, Rutledge, New York. Madareaga, I 1998, Catherine the Great and Enlightened Absolutism, in Politics and Culture in Eighteenth-Century Russia, Yale University Press, London. Kaplan, H 1995, Overseas Commerce with Great Britain during the Reign of Catherine the Great, Happer, Philadelphia. Madareaga, I 1998, Politics and Culture in Eighteenth-Century Russia, Yale University press, London. Madareaga, I 1981, Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great, Yale University Press, London. Ragsdale, H 1993, Russian Projects of Conquest in the Eighteenth Century, in Imperial Russian Foreign Policy, Cambridge, Hugh Ragsdale. Alexander, T 1989, Catherine the Great: Life and Legend, Rutledge, New York. Marc, R 1993, “Autocracy Tempered by Reform or Regicide”, The American Historical Review, October 1993, 1143-55 Donnels, O. L 1997, "Masks of the Empress." Comparative Drama, Spring, 65-85. Charles, M 1970, Secret Memoirs of the Court of Petersburg. 2nd edition. Arno Press, New York. Read More