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Russia's control of Constantinople would hold other obvious advantages, for with access to the Bosporus came enormous influence on the Balkan countries and Asia Minor, even extending to the eastern Mediterranean.

The Bosporus Straits were a vital military avenue. With control of the Bosporus, the Ottoman Turks could allow any enemy of Russia access to the Black Sea within striking position of sensitive and strategic places such as the Ukraine and Caucasus. With Russia in control, on the other hand, the defence of the entire Black Sea could be concentrated in a single small area, improving and simplifying defence strategy and conserving large numbers of forces and equipment.

Russia, pursuing this policy during the 19th century, often met with opposition from England and the Austria-Hungary; in the end, they prevented Russia from crushing the Ottoman Empire. Left to her own devices, Russia was mighty enough to crush the Ottoman Empire, but she was forced to take into account that the Turks might call on English assistance. In the other direction, the Austria-Hungarian ownership of the Galisi area and Transylvania gave them a vantage point for attack if Russia tried to advance over Romanian and Balkan territory toward Constantinople.

France, who in the interest of maintaining the balance in Europe at the end of the 18th century had defended the Ottoman Empire against Russia and Austria, altered its policy during the first half of the 19th century. 28 France not only supplied the Greeks with great assistance in their bid for independence, but also protected Egypt during the reign of Mohammed Ali, wielding a greater influence there than the Turks.

Napoleon was, of course, later drawn into the Crimea War against Russia (1854-1856). But in 1860, France was the traditional protector of Catholic Christians within the Ottoman Empire (in parallel with Russia's role towards the Orthodox Christians). In order to put a stop to the massacres of the Christian "Marunites" in Lebanon, France intervened militarily and forced the Ottoman rule to grant the Marunites a form of self-rule.

Two years later, in 1862, Napoleon III intervened successfully in the question regarding the Armenians in Zeytoun, an independent region consisting of Armenian military groups (an Armenian Montenegro, as it were) which the sultan wished to destroy completely. 29

This political line which France pursued during the July Monarchy and into the second empire, was in keeping with Guizot, who stated: "Each time a new nation emerges in the Orient, with a chance of survival, Europe should take its hand and lead it during its first steps." In this case, the magnanimous policy was aimed at not allowing the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire to result in the expansion of the other major powers, and rather to lend an advantage to the peoples of that part of the Orient whom France wished one day to be able to create independent nations of their own. 30

The events leading up to 1876 and the materialisation of the Eastern Question involved Europe as a whole. During the Greek struggle for independence (1821-1828), Russia, England and France stepped into the picture on the Greek side - the foundation of an independent Greek state could well be claimed as the result of the Russian victory against the Ottoman Empire (1828-1829).