Russia initially has to balance the southern war against its struggle with France, but Ottoman hopes for an easy opportunity quickly collapse. The main Ottoman advance toward Russian-occupied Bucharest is stopped by a much smaller force, while a 20,000-man secondary attack in Armenia is destroyed by roughly 7,000 opponents. The Imperial Russian Navy then blockades the Dardanelles and wins the preceding battle there. Ottoman traditionalists blame Selim rather than the forces and methods that suffered the defeats, using wartime failure to attack the reform program. Land operations, naval pressure, and domestic military politics reinforce one another before Athos.
Notable Point · 26:28-30:16
Land defeats push the war toward the Dardanelles
Failed Ottoman offensives and the Russian blockade of the Dardanelles turn military defeats into a political crisis for Selim III's reform program.