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Description

Fine old color example of this rare map illustrating the Theater of Russo-Turkish War (1768-1774).

The map emphasizes the territories located on the north and west coasts of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea and Crimea, namely Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine (then part of Poland) and Russia, extending to Atracan and the Caspian Sea.

The map is drawn from handwritten maps drawn up since the last Russian-Turkish war which took place between 1735 and 1739, most notably New Servia, territory bordering the new Russian-Turkish border in Ukraine, which was won by the Russians during this war. At the top right is detailed accounting of the prior war, setting for the important dates, battles and other factors leading to the current map.

The map illustrates the new cities and forts built by the Russians, along the Dnieper and the Don, and in the cities of Orel and Samara.  

The dates of battles and battle lines are shown (dating back to the Battle of Poltava in 1709), along with a note that the City of Azof was destroyed in 1740 and a note regarding the Zaporowski Cossacks.

Russo-Turkish War

The Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774 was a major armed conflict between the forces of Russia and the Ottoman Empire.

Russia's victory resulted in its bringing the regions of Kabardia, part of Moldavia, the Yedisan between the rivers Bug and Dnieper, and Crimea into the Russian sphere of influence. However, despite Russian victories in wider parts of the Ottoman Empire, including direct conquest over much of the Pontic–Caspian steppe, European politics prevented the Russian from further territorial gains.

Nonetheless, Russia was able to take advantage of the weakened Ottoman Empire, the end of the Seven Years' War, and the withdrawal of France from Polish affairs to assert itself as one of the continent's primary military powers. The war left the Russian Empire in a strengthened position to expand its territory and maintain hegemony over the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, eventually leading to the First Partition of Poland. Turkish losses included diplomatic defeats that saw its decline as a threat to Christian Europe, loss over its exclusive control over the Orthodox millet, and the beginning of European bickering over the Eastern Question that would feature in European diplomacy until the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of World War I.

Rarity

The map is very rare.  We note only the 2 examples in the Bibliotheque National de France and the Biblioteca Nacional de España.