On October 7, 1866, the Sultan Government delivered an ultimatum to the Russian envoy, demanding that the Russians hand over Constantinople within forty-eight hours, or it would mean war.
Without waiting for the forty-eight hours to pass, the Tsarist envoy who received the ultimatum replied directly: "Then let it be war!"
The Ottoman Empire's preparations for war were so conspicuous that there was no way they could have escaped the Russians' notice. As old enemies, the Tsarist Government had never relaxed its surveillance of the Ottoman Empire.
The Russian Foreign Ministry had also tried to win over the Ottomans, but they had no benefits to offer, so the effort naturally came to nothing.
The moment Alexander II saw the Sultan Government mobilizing, he knew war was inevitable.
One look at the map made that clear. The Ottoman Empire had few choices; it had only three neighboring countries.
Geography made Persia difficult to attack, and even victory would bring little profit. There was no need for the Sultan Government to wage war over such a tasteless morsel.
They did not dare attack Austria—or rather, they could not even reach it. They only bordered each other at the Sinai Peninsula, with a vast desert lying between them. They lacked both the will and the strength to launch a seaborne attack on the Balkan Peninsula; they did not even have a chance to land.
That left only Russia. During the Near East War, the Black Sea Fleet had been wiped out, and constrained by finances, it had still not recovered after all these years.
With British and French support, they could attack either the Caucasus region or Constantinople. Blocking the Bosphorus Strait, only a few hundred meters wide, was far too easy—shore batteries alone could settle it.
The war pretext so painstakingly prepared