[4] Nonetheless, Russia was able to take advantage of the weakened Ottoman Empire, the end of the Seven Years' War, and the withdrawal of France from Polish affairs to assert itself as one of the continent's primary military powers.

[5] The war left the Russian Empire in a strengthened position to expand its territory and maintain hegemony over the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, eventually leading to the First Partition of Poland.

The war followed internal tensions within Poland which indirectly challenged the security of the Ottoman Empire and its ally, the Crimean Khanate.

Rising unrest led to the massive revolt of the Bar Confederation, which became an alliance of noble, Roman Catholic, and peasant rebels.

In addition to this decentralization of the Empire the Ottomans were also faced with the revival of a unified Persia, which rose to oppose the Turks in Iraq.

Nevertheless, the Ottoman Empire faced internal division, rebellion and corruption compounded by the re-emergence of a unified Persian leadership, under Nader Shah.

[18] After her victories in the war, Catherine II was depicted in portraits dressed in the military uniforms of Great Britain, initially a willing ally because of the trade between the two countries.

Great Britain needed bar iron to fuel its nascent Industrial Revolution, as well as other products such as sailcloth, hemp, and timber for the construction and maintenance of its Navy; Russia could provide all these.

[13] In January 1769, a 70-thousand man Turkish-Tatar army led by Crimean Khan Qırım Giray invaded the lands of central Ukraine.

[15] From the capital of Bucharest, the Russians fanned out through the principality, only later being challenged by Grand Vizier Mehmed Emin Pasha at Kagul on Aug 1, 1770.

The Russians routed the Grand Vizier's forces and allegedly one-third of the Ottoman troops drowned in the Danube trying to escape.

The Siege of Poti on the Black Sea coast by a joint Russo-Georgian force in 1771 failed and Russian troops were withdrawn in the spring of 1772.

Despite their naval success, though, the Russians were unable to capture Constantinople because of Ottoman fortifications, as well as European concerns that it would upset the balance of power.

In 1771, Ali Bey al-Kabir, the Mamluk usurper of Egypt, allied with Zahir al-Umar, the autonomous sheikh of Acre, against their Ottoman overlords.

The Egyptian general Abu al-Dhahab marched on Damascus, but the Ottoman governor, Uthman Pasha al-Kurji, convinced him to turn on his erstwhile master.

She secretly agreed to return the captured principalities back to the Ottomans, thereby removing Austria's fear of a powerful Russian Balkan neighbour.

On April 8, 1772, Kaunitz, the Austrian equivalent of Minister of Foreign affairs, informed the Sublime Porte that Austria no longer considered the treaty of 1771 binding.