Alternate Treaty of Tilsit

Saepe Fidelis

So, in 1807, Alexander and Napoleon get together and hash out their differences. They carve up Prussia and promise to be friend forever etc. etc.

But, what if Alexander proposes a coalition against the Ottomans? Nappy was fascinated by the Middle East, as we can see through his Egyptian campaign. Alexander himself was about to fight the Ottomans in the Third Russo-Turkish War. So what if they team up and attack the Ottomans? Would it really happen? Would it work out well for them? What would Britain do? Would Napoleon still invade Russia?
 

Monty Burns

Saepe Fidelis said:
So, in 1807, Alexander and Napoleon get together and hash out their differences. They carve up Prussia and promise to be friend forever etc. etc.

But, what if Alexander proposes a coalition against the Ottomans? Nappy was fascinated by the Middle East, as we can see through his Egyptian campaign. Alexander himself was about to fight the Ottomans in the Third Russo-Turkish War. So what if they team up and attack the Ottomans? Would it really happen? Would it work out well for them? What would Britain do? Would Napoleon still invade Russia?
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But carving up Prussia will benefit the French more than the Russians, IMHO. And there's the danger of Austria joining and strengthening.

A war against the Ottomans is possible. The French would likely go for Egypt again. But that's the problem: they are still naval inferior to Britain, so how could they go the Egypt and hold it? Other than Egypt and maybe some islands, the French have no real interest in Ottoman territories, whereas again the Russians will benefit more. Such a war has the potential of destroying the Ottomans altogether, including Russia gaining the straits - which I doubt Nappy would be happy about.
 

Orko

The poor Ottoman empire...
Selim III was assasinated by reactionaries the same year for his reforms. I fear that with such a war, the chaos in the Ottoman empire will be too great + the empire will never modernise.
 

Faeelin

Banned
Saepe Fidelis said:
So, in 1807, Alexander and Napoleon get together and hash out their differences. They carve up Prussia and promise to be friend forever etc. etc.

But, what if Alexander proposes a coalition against the Ottomans? Nappy was fascinated by the Middle East, as we can see through his Egyptian campaign. Alexander himself was about to fight the Ottomans in the Third Russo-Turkish War. So what if they team up and attack the Ottomans? Would it really happen? Would it work out well for them? What would Britain do? Would Napoleon still invade Russia?
Click to expand...

They did propose this, and Russia did invade the Ottoman Empire. But...

1) To everyone's surprise, the Ottomans continued to resist their inevitable extinction at the hands of enlightened Europeans like the Russians and did pretty damn well on the battlefield.

2) Napoleon wasn't willing to sign off on the idea of the Russians taking Constantinople.
 

Falecius

Actually France and Turkey were allies at the time. IIRC, when news of Tilsit reached Constantinople, the Ottomans were dismayed at being abandoned by france, though the treaty actually forced Russia to leave the Danubian Principalities. Tilsit provided the eventuality that France and Russia might join against Turkey, after a French attempt to mediate the ongoing Russo-Turkish war (that already had started) had failed. But Nappy knew better than destroying the Ottomans for Russia's sake.
 
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