ABSTRACT
The Eastern Question centered on whether Russia would gobble up Turkey's European possessions, especially the Straits, or be stopped from doing so by the other Great Powers. The Habsburg emperors pursued commercial interests, but they also saw themselves as carrying on the old crusading traditions against the Muslim Turks. The first, Mehmet was taken from his Albanian Christian parents by the devshirme and started his career working in the imperial kitchen. Popular histories say that the Ottoman rulers cared nothing for their empire's fate. Beguiled by their harems, dulled by wine or hashish, hamstrung by janissary revolts or court intrigues, the sultans lost interest in maintaining their regime or defending their lands. Weak and incompetent rulers inherited power. Russian encouragement of pan-Slavism even helped cause the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913 and the outbreak of World War I in 1914. It is easy to blame incompetent or impotent sultans.
