The Voice of England in the East: Stratford Canning and Diplomacy with the Ottoman Empire [Paperback]

In the age of the Great Powers, with Russia and France at war, and the Ottoman Empire at the height of its influence and majesty, the British diplomat, Stratford Canning, arrived in Constantinople. The cousin of George Canning, he would be Britain's representative in the power politics of the Middle East for almost two decades, and was instrumental in the events which led up to the Crimean War and the events surrounding the eastern question of the nineteenth century. In The Voice of England in the East, Steven Richmond reconstructs the diplomatic priorities of the period through the private papers and letters of a key British statesman, comparing them with Ottoman accounts written in the Sultan's court for the first time. The result is a new analytical history of the late Ottoman Empire, British diplomacy in the era of Palmerston and the reality of politics in the great game of the nineteenth century.Steven Richmond received his doctorate in Russian history from the University of Chicago in 1996. He taught history in Istanbul, Turkey for more than ten years. He is presently a Research Fellow of the Netherlands Institute of Turkey, and an Associate of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago.

Contents
Prologue. 'The Stratford Legend' 1-30

I. BRITISH-OTTOMAN PEACE, 1808-10
1. Apprenticeship in Diplomacy 32-52
2. The Treaty of the Dardanelles 53-74
3. Stranded at Constantinople 75-111

II. RUSSIAN-OTTOMAN PEACE, 1810-12
4. Chief of Mission 113-149
5. Piracy on the Aegean, War on the Danube 150-188
6. The Treaty of Bucharest 189-209

III. GREEK-OTTOMAN PEACE, 1824-32
7. Return to Constantinople 211-235
8. The Destruction of the Janissaries 236-259
9. The Battle of Navarino 260-304
10. Final Negotiation 305-331

IV. OTTOMAN REFORM: THE APOSTASY CONTROVERSY, 1843-44
11. The Case of Armenian Avakim 333-357
12. Disputation on Koranic Theology 358-374
13. Advocate of Ottoman Pr