Episode 1 of 3
Reports of the massacre and path to war
- When
- 1768
- Where
- Balta, subject of reports received by the Sultan
- Part of
- Massacre at Balta
Mustafa III learned that Balta had been massacred by Russian-paid Cossacks, ending Ottoman peace and helping precipitate war.
In the summer of 1768, Mustafa III received reports that the town of Balta had been massacred by Russian-paid Zaporozhian Cossacks; Cossacks had followed fleeing Polish enemies into the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire had enjoyed its longest period of peace with Europe (1739–1768). The resulting Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774 saw Russian armies victorious against the Ottoman Empire.
Sources
- Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774) Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-25
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.