Alexander II. was more successful in his foreign policy. He ascended the throne at a moment of great ex haustion and humiliation for Russia. The Paris treaty (1856) sub stituted European control for a Russian protectorate over Turk ish Christians; the Russian fleet in the Black sea ceased to exist; the portion of Bessarabia nearest to the Black sea was given to the Danubian principalities. However, Russia did not permit Na poleon III. to make an international question of the Polish up rising of 1863 ; Alexander then approached his relative William of Prussia, and helped him against France in the foundation of the German empire. Russia made use of the Franco-Prussian war to repudiate the provisions of the Paris treaty forbidding her to construct naval arsenals and to keep a fleet in the Black Sea (187o). In 1872 the German, Austrian and Russian emperors met at Berlin and concluded a "three emperors' league" (without any formal treaty being signed. See EUROPE) . However, Russia did not wish to strengthen Germany too much at the expense of France. In 1875 owing to Russia's insistence a Franco-German conflict was averted, to the great dissatisfaction of Bismarck who threatened Gorchakov with revenge. In the same year the Eastern question was reopened by a rising of Christian Slays in Bosnia and Hercegovina (see EUROPE and TURKEY) . In 1876 (summer) be gan the Bulgarian uprising. Russia proposed co-operative action to the powers, but meeting with hidden aid to Turkey from Dis raeli, Alexander decided to act alone. When Serbia and Montenegro declared war on Turkey he met Francis Joseph at Reichstadt and on July 8, 1876 concluded an agreement in which all possibilities of defeat, victory or the collapse of Turkey were foreseen. Austria was to receive Bosnia and Hercegovina for "occupation and ad ministration"; Russia was permitted to take back the lost portion of Bessarabia. A last attempt to formulate a European programme of pacification of the Balkans was made by the Powers at the Constantinople conference (Dec. 1876). After its failure Count Ignatiev visited the European capitals to discuss the possibility of war. Austria and England put as conditions of their neutrality : no attack on Constantinople, no Russian territorial acquisitions, no thrusting Serbia into war, Bulgaria, in case of its liberation, not to be under direct Russian control. Thus Russia was in advance de prived of possible gains in case of victory; as a matter of fact Disraeli looked for her defeat. Nevertheless Alexander went to
war (see Russo-TURKISH WARS ) . Close to the walls of Constan tinople the Russian army was stopped by the British fleet, and the Peace of San Stefano (March 3, 1878), favourable to the Bul garians, was emasculated at the Berlin conference. Russian public opinion, ignorant of the agreements concluded before the war, was much incensed against Bismarck, "the honest broker." Russia re ceived the lost part of Bessarabia, and Kars, Ardahan and Batum in Transcaucasia. Far more important were the acquisitions of Alexander in Central Asia. From 1864 his generals were active against Kirghiz and Turkoman tribesmen who raided the unpro tected frontier of Siberia. Russian soldiers marched up the Syr Darya, subjugated Bokhara, and from there, through the desert of Khiva reached the Caspian shore. In 1867 the territory be tween Issyk-Kul and the Aral sea was constituted into a province called Turkestan, and in 1874 another province under the title of Transcaspia was formed of territories betwen the Amu-Darya and the Caspian sea. Russia reached the frontiers of Afghanistan and Chinese Turkestan, while in the Far East by the Treaty of Aigun (1858) she obtained from China territory running east from the rivers Amur and Usuri to the Pacific seaboard, and the naval base of Vladivostok was founded. Japan ceded Sakhalin in 1875 in exchange for two Kurile islands. In 1867 Alaska was sold to the United States, for the ridiculous price of $7,200,000.
Industrial Progress.—Under Alexander II. Russia made de cisive steps towards industrialisation. The length of railway in creased from 671 versts (1857) to 3,408 (1867) and 56,700 (1876). Factory production grew from 352 (1863) to 909 millions of rubles (1879) ; number of workingmen from 419,000 to 769, coo; export of grain—from 8,859 chetverts (186o-62) to 21,080 (1872-74). In 1850 and 1857 Russia (for the second time since 1819) tried the experiment of free trade; but as it brought with it an excess of imports—a thing unusual in Russia—Reutern, the minister of finance in 1862-1878, returned to the protectionist sys tem of Kankrin (1822-1859). He also favoured the organisation, for the first time in Russia, of private credit institutions. The ten Land Banks which were in existence at the end of the 19th cen tury were all founded in 1871-73 ; there were also 28 commercial banks (founded 1864-1873), 222 municipal banks (1862-1873) and 71 societies of mutual credit (1877).