Austria Enters the Russo-Turkish War

Background. The Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792 began as an Ottoman attempt to regain lands lost to Russia in the previous war of 1768–1774. In 1787 the Ottomans demanded that Russia evacuate the Crimea and give up holdings near the Black Sea, which Russia treated as a casus belli; Russia declared war on 19 August 1787, and the Ottomans imprisoned the Russian ambassador Yakov Bulgakov.

Alliance Context. Russia and Austria were aligned before the fighting began: in May and June 1787 Catherine II of Russia made a triumphal procession through Novorossiya and annexed Crimea in the company of her ally, Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor. The Russo-Turkish War unfolded concomitantly with the Austro-Turkish War (1788–1791), the Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790), and the Theatre War.

Moldavia as a Theatre. Moldavia, a historical region and former principality between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester River, had been a target of Russian southward expansion since Peter the Great's war of 1710–1711. By 1789 the Ottoman Empire was being pressed back in Moldavia by combined Russian and Austrian forces, and in 1788 the Russian Army besieged and captured Iași during the war.