Trace the military conquests of Peter the Great. What impact did they have on the surrounding states and empires?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

ANSWER:
To secure a port on the Black Sea, he constructed a small but formidable navy. Describing his wars with the Ottoman Empire as a new crusade to liberate Constantinople from the Muslim sultans, Peter fancied himself the legal protector of Orthodox Christians living under Ottoman rule. His forces seized the port of Azov in 1696 but lost it again in 1713, thus calling a halt to southward expansion. In the winter of 1697–1698, after his Black Sea campaign, Peter traveled in disguise across Europe to discover how western European societies were becoming so powerful and wealthy. He paid special attention to ships and weapons, even working for a time as a ship’s carpenter in the Netherlands. Upon his return to Russia, Peter resolved to expand and reform his vast but backward empire. In the long and costly Great Northern War (1700–1721), Peter’s modernized armies broke Swedish control of the Baltic Sea, making possible more direct contacts between Russia and Europe. This victory forced the European powers to recognize Russia as a major power for the first time, just as the Ottoman Empire was then being viewed as past its prime. On land captured from Sweden at the eastern end of the Baltic, Peter built St. Petersburg, his window on the West. In 1712 the city became Russia’s capital. To demonstrate Russia’s new sophistication, Peter ordered architects to build St. Petersburg’s houses and public buildings in the baroque style then fashionable in France.