Diplomatic relations between Russia and Great Britain in world history different periods

Государственное образовательное учреждение

Лицей-интернат «Центр одаренных детей»

Г. Нижний Новгород 
 

Научное общество учащихся 
 
 
 
 

Diplomatic relations between Russia and Great Britain in world history different periods. 

Научно-исследовательская  работа

 по  английскому языку. 
 
 
 

Работу  выполнила: Смирнова Ксения

Учащаяся 10 «Е» класса

Научный руководитель: Милютина М. В.  
 
 
 
 

г. Нижний Новгород

2010 год

Contents: 
 

1. Introduction. …………………………………………….……………………………………………………………3
2. The first diplomatic relations...….……………………………………………………………………….5
3. The history of wars:

3.1 Seven Years' War,……………………………………………………………………………………….8

3.2 The First World War,…………………………………………………………………………………12

3.3 The Second World War,……………………………………………………………………………15

4. Diplomatic marriages..…………………………………………………………………………..………….…18
5. Diplomatic relations nowadays..…………………...……………………………………………….….23
6. Conclusion..……………………………………………………………………………………………………………27
7. Bibliography.…………………………………………………………………………………………………………29
8. Appendixes.…………………………………………………………………………………………………….……..30

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Introduction. 

The world where I live is very huge. I consider that each person is a part of the Universe. We can compare the world with a large tree with its roots, branches and leaves. Leaves are people. They are born and bloom, but they are fall down, and then die. Roots of the tree are its history. Each country has its own history with culture. What does history mean? According to the dictionary, history describes us past events, all the things that happened in the past, especially the political, social, or economic development of a nation.

History is very important part in our life. There were so many great events, which happened in the past! But people try to keep them, write books about them and tell stories, so that our history will never die… Moreover, we can’t imagine our life without knowledge about the past.

The British are said to be keepers of their national history. I guess Russian people try to do the same. In my opinion, people are proud of their country, but it could be impossible without knowledge in history of the nation.

It is believed The United Kingdom of Great Britain is full of traditions and customs, which have historical roots. Yet recent changes are deeply rooted in British history.

Relations between different countries always made famous scientists, musicians, writers and just students pay attention to it. So, how could we get answers to all our questions? The answer is – history. I would like to know more about relations between two countries: Great Britain and Russia.

I need to expand my outlook in its culture and history. It is my main aim and duty, because I consider it will help me in future, I am going to be an interpreter and visiting Great Britain is my dream. More than that travelling is my hobby. Staying at one place is good, travelling broadens around the country is definitely better.

Also, I am fond of history and that’s why my research will be very exciting and useful for me.

So, the aim of my research is:

• to know more about the history of Great Britain and about diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and Russia in different periods.

The tasks are:

• to practice in working with books and in writing researches,
• to expand my outlook in history not only of Russia, but especially of Great Britain,
• to practice in English language.

 

Working at my research I have used some special literature: reference and historic books, dictionaries, linguistic and cultural guide. Most of them are about history and diplomatic relations between Great Britain and Russia, for example:    These books have helped me to know much about the history of our countries. I get pleasure from my work because I have learnt much about culture and history of United Kingdom and Russia and following them. 

   So, the topic of my work is: Diplomatic relations between Russia and Great Britain in world history different periods. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The first diplomatic relations. 

Every nation and every country has its own culture and history. Foreign relations always take the most important place in it. The first Diplomatic relations between Russia and Great Britain started more than four hundred years ago! It takes so great period of time that, unfortunately, a few people know about them. So, I decided to ask my schoolmates what they know about the relations. Here you can see the results, which are really sad. I have asked 65 pupils to comment on the problem. To my regret, most students don’t know anything about the history of the relations between the countries. On the diagram you see, how few students know about it. I enjoy studying history and my research, to my delight, is a helpful practice for me. So, I am determined to learn as much facts as I can to expand my outlook in the countries’ history.

   
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

First of all let me tell you something about the Structure of Government in Great Britain. Parliament is the most important authority in Britain. Parliament first met in the 13^th century. Britain does not have a written constitution, but a set of laws. The queen is officially head of all the branches of government, but she has little direct power in the country. The Prime Minister, who is chosen by the Parliament, is usually the leader of the political party.

Working at my research I have read lots of interesting and exciting books, which told me so many unexpected facts. Also there were some things, about which I have never heard before! For example, I have learnt about the first relations between Great Britain and Russia. It’s considered that the first important event in making the relations was in the sixteenth century, when Elizabeth I was the queen of England. The Kingdom of England and Tsarist Russia established relations in 1553 when English navigator Richard Chancellor arrived in Arkhangelsk – at which time Elizabeth I ruled England and Ivan the Terrible ruled Russia. He returned to England and was sent back to Russia in 1555, the same year the Muscovy Company was established. The Muscovy Company held a monopoly over trade between England and Russia until 1698.

The fact is that the Russian tsar, Ivan the Terrible or Ivan Grozny, was acquainted with Queen Elizabeth and also asked the queen to marry him, but she refused.  Elizabeth continued to maintain the diplomatic relations with the Tsardom of Russia originally established by her deceased brother. She often wrote to its then ruler tsar Ivan Grozny on amicable terms, though the tsar was often annoyed by her focus on commerce rather than on the possibility of a militairy alliance. The tsar even proposed to her once, and during his later reign, asked for a guarantee to be granted asylum in England should his rule be jeopardised. Upon Ivan's death, he was succeeded by his simple-minded son Feodor. Unlike his father, Feodor had no enthusiasm in maintaining exclusive trading rights with England. Feodor declared his kingdom open to all foreigners, and dismissed the English ambassador Sir Jerome Bowes, whose pomposity had been tolerated by the new tsar's late father. Elizabeth sent a new ambassador, Dr. Giles Fletcher, to demand from the regent Boris Godunov that he convince the tsar to reconsider. The negotiations failed, due to Fletcher addressing Feodor with two of his titles omitted. Elizabeth continued to appeal to Feodor in half appealing, half reproachful letters. She proposed an alliance, something which she had refused to do when offered one by Feodor's father, but was turned down.

During the Grand Embassy of Peter I in 1697–1698, Tsar Peter I of Russia visited Britain for three months. The Kingdom of Great Britain (1707—1800) and later the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1800–1922) had increasingly important ties with the Russian Empire (1721—1917), after Tsar Peter I brought Russia into European affairs and declared himself an emperor.

During the series of general European wars of the eighteenth century, the two empires found themselves as sometime allies and sometime enemies. The two states fought on the same side during War of the Austrian Succession (1740—1748), but on opposite sides during Seven Years' War (1756—1763).

The Seven Years' War was a major military conflict that lasted from 1756 until the conclusion of the treaties of Hubertusburg and Paris in 1763. It involved all of the major European powers of the period. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

See appendix 1.

Seven Years' War

The war pitted Prussia and Great Britain and a coalition of smaller German states against an alliance consisting of Austria, France, Russia, Sweden, and Saxony. Russia temporarily changed sides in the later stages of the war. Portugal (on the side of Great Britain) and Spain (on the side of France) entered the conflict later, and a force from the neutral Dutch Republic was attacked in India.

Fighting between Great Britain, France, and their respective allies in North America had broken out in 1754, two years before the general conflict, as part of an Imperial rivalry. The fighting in North America is a separate war, known in the United States as the French and Indian War.

War in Europe began in 1756 with the French siege of British Minorca in the Mediterranean Sea, and Frederick the Great of Prussia's invasion of Saxony on the continent which also upset the firmly established Pragmatic Sanction put in place by Charles VI of Austria. Despite being the main theatre of war, the European conflict resulted in a bloody stalemate which did little to change the pre-war status quo, while its consequences in Asia and the Americas were wider ranging and longer lasting. Because of its global nature, it has been described as the "first World War". It resulted in some 900,000 to 1,400,000 deaths and significant changes in the balance of power and territories of several of the participants.

The war was described by Winston Churchill as the first "world war", as it was the first conflict in human history to be fought around the globe, although most of the combatants were either European nations or their overseas colonies. As a partially Anglo-French conflict involving developing empires, the war was one of the most significant phases of the 18th century Second Hundred Years' War.

This war is often said to be a continuation of the War of the Austrian Succession that had lasted between 1740 and 1748, in which King Frederick II of Prussia, known as Frederick the Great, had gained the rich province of Silesia from Austria. Empress Maria Theresa of Austria had signed the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle only in order to gain time to rebuild her military forces and to forge new alliances, which she did with remarkable success. The political map of Europe had been redrawn in a few years as Austria abandoned its twenty-five year alliance with Britain. During the so-called Diplomatic Revolution of 1756, the centuries-old enemies of France, Austria and Russia formed a single alliance against Prussia.

All the participants of the Seven Years' War. Blue: Great Britain, Prussia, Portugal with allies. Green: France, Spain, Austria, Russia, Sweden with allies.

Prussia's only major assistance came from Great Britain, their newfound allies, whose ruling dynasty saw its ancestral Hanoverian possession as being threatened by France. In many respects the two powers' forces complemented each other excellently. The British had the largest, most effective navy in the world, while Prussia had the most formidable land force on continental Europe, allowing Great Britain to focus its soldiers towards colonial expeditions. The British hoped that the new series of alliances that had been formed during the Diplomatic Revolution would allow peace to continue, but they in fact provided the catalyst for the eruption of war in 1756.

The second cause for war arose from the heated colonial struggle between the British Empire and French Empire which, as they expanded, met and clashed with one another on two continents. Of particular dispute was control of the Ohio Country which was central to both countries' ambitions of further expansion and development in North America. The two countries had been in a de facto state of war since 1754, but these military clashes remained confined to the American theatre.

A large French force was assembled at Toulon, and the French opened the campaign against the British by an attack on Minorca in the Mediterranean. War between Britain and France had been formally declared on 18 May nearly two years after the first fighting had broken out in the Ohio Country.

The British had suffered further defeats in America, particularly at Fort William Henry. At home however stability had been established. Since 1756 successive governments led by Newcastle and William Pitt had both fallen. The next year the two men agreed to a political partnership and formed a coalition government which gave new, firmer direction to the British war effort. The new strategy emphasised both Newcastle's commitment to British involvement on the European continent particularly in defence of Germany and William Pitt's determination to use British naval power to launch expeditions to seize French colonies around the globe. The "dual strategy" would dominate British policy for the next five years.

In late 1757 thanks to the Prussian victories at Rossbach and Leuthen, the situation appeared to have swung in Frederick's favour and the sudden decision of Russia to withdraw its troops from East Prussia offered further relief. Frederick calculating that no further Russian advance was likely until 1758 then moved the bulk of his eastern forces to Pomerania to repel a Swedish invasion. Within a short period they had driven the Swedes back, occupied most of Swedish Pomerania and blockaded the capital Stralsund.

Into late 1758 the general tide of the war continued to be in favour of the Prussians and British. In 1758 in the east, at the Battle of Zorndorf in Prussia, a Prussian army of 35,000 men under Frederick fought to a standstill with a Russian army of 43,000 commanded by Count Fermor. The Russians withdrew from the field. In the undecided Battle of Tornow on 25 September, a Swedish army repulsed six assaults by a Prussian army.

The year 1759 saw some severe Prussian defeats. At the Battle of Kay, or Paltzig, the Russian Count Saltykov with 47,000 Russians defeated 26,000 Prussian troops commanded by General Carl Heinrich von Wedel. Though the Hanoverians defeated an army of 60,000 French at Minden, Austrian general Daun forced the surrender of an entire Prussian corps of 13,000 men in the Battle of Maxen. Frederick himself lost half his army in the Battle of Kunersdorf, the worst defeat in his military career, and one that drove him to the brink of abdication and suicide. The disaster resulted partly from his misjudgment of the Russians, who had already demonstrated their strength at Zorndorf and at Gross-Jägersdorf.

By 1763 Frederick had Silesia under his control and had occupied parts of Austria. The British subsidies had been withdrawn by the new Prime Minister Lord Bute, and the Russian Emperor had been overthrown by his wife Catherine the Great who now switched Russian support back to Austria and launched fresh attacks on Prussia. Austria, however, had been weakened from the war and like most participants they were facing a severe financial crisis. In 1763 a peace settlement was reached at the Treaty of Hubertusburg ending the war in central Europe.

The Anglo-French hostilities were ended in 1763 by the Treaty of Paris, which involved a complex series of land exchanges, which were very useful for the English and a bit helpful for the Russians.

The Seven Years' War was the last major military conflict on the European continent before the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1792.

The outbreak of the French Revolution and its attendant wars temporarily united constitutionalist Britain and autocratic Russia in an ideological alliance against French republicanism. Britain and Russia attempted to halt the French but the failure of their joint invasion of the Netherlands in 1799 precipitated a change in attitudes.

The two countries also fought each other during the Anglo-Russian War (1807-1812), after which Britain and Russia became allies against Napoleon in the Napoleonic Wars.

After the Russian Revolution, Britain sent troops to Russia in the failed Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War.Russian and British spheres of influence in Iran as agreed in 1907.