40 Catherine the Great’s Foreign Policies
Catherine’s Foreign Policy Goals
During Catherine the Great’s reign, Russia significantly extended its borders by absorbing new territories, most notably from the Ottoman Empires and the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania, as well as attempted to serve as an international mediator in disputes that could, or did, lead to war.
Learning Objective
Describe Catherine the Great’s foreign policy efforts and to what extent she achieved her goals
Key Points
- During her reign, Catherine extended the borders of the Russian Empire southward and westward to absorb New Russia, Crimea, Northern Caucasus, Right-bank Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, and Courland at the expense, mainly, of two powers – the Ottoman Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Under her rule, some 200,000 square miles (520,000 km2) were added to Russian territory.
- Catherine made Russia the dominant power in south-eastern Europe after her first Russo-Turkish War against the Ottoman Empire (1768–74), which saw some of the heaviest defeats in Ottoman history. In 1786, Catherine conducted a triumphal procession in the Crimea, which helped provoke the next Russo–Turkish War. This war, catastrophic for the Ottomans, legitimized the Russian claim to the Crimea.
- Catherine’s triumph in Crimea is linked to a concept of Potemkin villages. In politics and economics, Potemkin villages refer to any construction (literal or figurative) built solely to deceive others into thinking that a situation is better than it really is.
- Although the idea of partitioning the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania came from Frederick the Great of Prussia, Catherine took a leading role in carrying it out (in three separate partitions of 1772, 1793, and 1795). Russia completed the partitioning of Poland-Lithuania with Prussia and Austria and the Commonwealth ceased to exist as an independent state.
- Catherine longed for recognition as an enlightened sovereign. She pioneered for Russia the role that Britain later played through most of the 19th and early 20th centuries as an international mediator in disputes that could, or did, lead to war.
- In 1780, she established a League of Armed Neutrality, designed to defend neutral shipping from the British Royal Navy during the American Revolution. After establishing a league of neutral parties, Catherine the Great attempted to act as a mediator between the United States and Britain by submitting a ceasefire plan.
Key Terms
- Potemkin villages
- In politics and economics, a term referring to any construction (literal or figurative) built solely to deceive others into thinking that a situation is better than it really is. The term comes from stories of a fake portable village, supposedly built only to impress Empress Catherine II during her journey to Crimea in 1787.
- the Confederation of Bar
- An association of Polish nobles formed at the fortress of Bar in Podolia in 1768 to defend the internal and external independence of the Po