Indonesian Caliphate
14. The Russian Empire With A myriad of Conflicts

The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 was fought between Russia, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, and Bulgaria against the Ottoman Empire. The war resulted from the rise of nationalism in the Balkans as well as Russian efforts to prevent the loss of territory as a result of the Crimean War and re-establish power in the Black Sea. The result of this war was the independence of Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro from the Ottoman Empire. Actually before this war happened the beginning of the problem like this.

In the 16th century, Russia was just a small empire in Eastern Europe. Because of the small size of the territory owned, the Russian kingdom always tried to hold the expansion of the territory by doing some military expansion. The expansion was successful and resulted in a large area to the land of alaska.

Although it has a large area, but the Russian kingdom does not have many beaches that have the potential for trade and shipping. The beach that was then owned by the kingdom will freeze when winter arrives, and leave the Black Sea which can still be used as a place for merchant ships to dock.

The position of the Black Sea is slightly jutting to the mainland, making many ships that have to go through the Bosphorus Strait. The Bosphorus Strait itself was part of the rule of the Ottoman empire (Turkey), which at that time was not very good relations with Russia.Then to get a guarantee of power over the Bosporus Strait, the, Russia is aiming to annex Ottoman territory in the Balkan Peninsula.

The Russian emperor, Tsar Nicholas I, had high confidence that Russia would win and gain Ottoman territory. He reasoned that many people in the Balkans embraced Orthodox Christianity, the official religion of the Russian Empire. So that there will be many Balkan residents who support Russia.

Tsar Nicholas I also said that the Ottoman military was not as strong and powerful as before. He said if the rapid development of military technology countries in Europe is difficult to be followed by the Ottomans. In other words, the Russians believe their military equipment is far more sophisticated and sophisticated.

To gain control of the Ottomans, Russia then had brief discussions with France, Great Britain, and Austria to form a coalition. But instead of agreeing, these three countries actually support the Ottomans. This was done because the United Kingdom and the Ottomans had good trade cooperation, France still had a grudge against Russia, and Austria feared it could no longer use the Danube River.

Rejection of these three countries, did not make Russia to undo its intention to expand the Ottoman. Eventually, the war broke out around Crimea and the Balkan Peninsula. In this war, the allies of the Ottomans increased with the joining of the kingdom of Sardinia whose mission was to unify the Italian Peninsula through the help of Great Britain and France. Not only that, one of the kingdoms in Nusantara turned out to also participate in this war, namely the Indonesian caliphate.

Not the help of soldiers or war equipment, the Indonesian Caliphate provided assistance of 2,000 Indonesian dinars or about 1,000,000 Spanish dollars to the Ottomans. Because of this assistance, the relationship of the Indonesian Caliphate with the ottoman became better. The Indonesian caliphate was allowed to fly the Ottoman flag on each of its merchant ships, as well as earning a star award from an ottoman named Majidie.

In the war that became the beginning of modern warfare, Russia suffered defeat on various fronts. Knowing Russia was in a state of urgency and was on the edge of defeat, the Ottomans had ambitions to control Sevastopol belongs to Russia. Despite several obstacles, the Ottomans and their colonists managed to conquer Sevastopol.

Peace negotiations conducted in Paris, France successfully resulted in a treaty known as the Treaty of Paris on March 30, 1856. And with the agreement, it ended the Crimean war that has lasted for approximately 3 years and killed more than 350,000 people.

After the end of the Crimean war, the countries involved in the war made several improvements on various fronts. The United Kingdom improved its nursing and sanitation systems with the help of Florence Nightingale, Sardinia which united the Italian Peninsula, and Russia which made major improvements in the military sector.

War does not benefit all parties involved. But from the war, the parties involved should also be able to take lessons. Hopefully, whatever conflicts that occur between countries in the present and present, war is not the final path that must be taken.

In theory, the Russian monarchy was unlimited, and indeed there were no guarantees, neither legal nor economic, against the arbitrary power of the tsar. However, in practice, the degree of control he could exert over the empire was effectively limited by the size of the state, the lack of administration, and the generally non-modern political conception . As a result, most of the population rarely feels the heavy burden of the state, which limits its own authority on the maintenance of order and the collection of taxes. Some real subjects of the tsar, such as the Siberian and Cossack inhabitants, lived in fully autonomous communities, only nominally under the authority of the tsar.

Expansion policies to the east such as Asia, causing Russia after a conflict with Turkey, must be in conflict with Japan. The Russo-Japanese War (10 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was a very bloody conflict that grew out of a rivalry between the imperialist ambitions of Russia and Japan in Manchuria and Korea. The war was primarily fought over the capture of the cities of Port Arthur and the Liaodong Peninsula, plus the railway from the port to Harbin.

24,844 killed; 146,519 wounded; 59,218 prisoners of war; unknown Chinese civilian population on the Russian side. 47,387 killed; 173,425 wounded; unknown Chinese civilian population on the Japanese side.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, various Western countries competed for influence, trade and territory in East Asia while Japan struggled to become a large modern nation. The location of Japan prompted him to focus on the Choson Dynasty of Korea and the Qing Dynasty of northern China, thus making the country rival to its neighbor, Russia. Japanese attempts to occupy Korea led to the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War.

The defeat of China in the war led to the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki (17 April 1895). With the treaty China relinquished its claim to Korea, and ceded Taiwan and Lushunkou (often called Port Arthur). However, the three Western powers (Russia, the German Empire and the French Third Republic) through the Three-State Intervention on 23 April 1895 pressured Japan to surrender Port Arthur, and later Russia (in 1898) negotiated the lease of a 25-year Navy base with China. Meanwhile, Russian forces occupied most of Manchuria, and both Russia and Japan attempted to take over Korea.

After failing to secure an agreement in his favor with Russia, Japan sent an ultimatum on December 31, 1903, severed diplomatic relations on February 6, and began attacking two days later. The two sides issued a declaration of war on February 10. Under international law, a Japanese attack cannot be considered a hidden attack, as an ultimatum has been issued. Nevertheless, after the Pearl Harbor attack, it is often said that this is one example of how much Japan likes to make surprise attacks.