1512-1812 - Ottoman Bessarabia - Budjak
Bessarabia, a province of the Ottoman empire, was bounded on the east by the Black Sea and part of Rutoia, from which it is separated by the Dniester; on the south by the Danube ; and on the west and north by Moldavia from which it is separated by a chain of mountains. The breadth of this province from Akerman to Gretscheny was nearly 170 versts, and its length from Staraya Gangura, at the confluence of the Bottna and Botnitza, was sixteen versts.
During the second half of the fifteenth century, all of southeastern Europe came under increasing pressure from the Ottoman Empire, and despite significant military victories by Stephen the Great (Stefan cel Mare, 1457-1504), Moldova succumbed to Ottoman power in 1512 and was a tributary state of the empire for the next 300 years. In the second half of the fifteenth century, Stephen the Great, prince of Moldavia, took by conquest the land between the Pruth and Dniester from his southern neighbor; but even before the end of his reign the Turks snatched from him the southern half of the province. This southern Bessarabia, called by the Turks Budjak, stayed under direct rule from Stamboul until 1812; while the northern half remained part of Moldavia until the same year, though it was frequently raided and held for short intervals by Poles, Cossacks, and Crimean Tartars. In addition to paying tribute to the Ottoman Empire and later acceding to the selection of local rulers by Ottoman authorities, Moldova suffered repeated invasions by Turks, Crimean Tatars, and Russians. During the 16th century it was in the possession alternately of the Turks and the Nogais or Crimean Tatars.
From early in the 18th century it was a bone of contention between the Ottoman Turks and the Russians, the latter capturing it five times between 1711 and 1812. In virtue of a clause in the sixteenth article of the treaty of peace, concluded at Kainargik, on the twenty-first of July 1774, the court of Russia obtained a right of interference in the internal administration of government in both principalities, and the Russian ambassadors at the Porte were authorized to superintend, and to control by their representations, even the arrangements of the Turkish cabinet respecting Moldavia and Wallachia. The same, treaty granted to Russia, in like manner as to other favoured nations, the privilege of appointing consuls or commercial agents in any port or city throughout the sultan's dominions. The Ottoman Porte resisted, however, for a long time, the assumption, that this privilege extended to the inland provinces situated beyond the Danube.
The soil of Bessarabia is in general fertile, excepting a tract of land on the banks of the Danube and the steppe of Otschakov. The soil along the Dniester was in good cultivation, and supportrd a considerable number of orchards. Hemp and flax grew wild on extensive tracts of land, and the grass was in general seven or eight feet high. Near Tatar Bonnar were some salt water lakes, on the surface of which salt was formed by the heat of the sun. The revenue from this article, which once belonged to the Khan of Crimea, was drawn by the Pacha of Ismail since the conquest of that country by the Russians. The fruits of this province were large and of the best quality. The cucumbers grew to an immense size. The plumbs of Akerman, the apricots of Ismail, the peaches of Babahda, were much superior to those in the south of Europe ; melons and asparagus grew wild in the fields; and the grapes, which were of three kinds, afforded a wine of superior quality.
The peasants of Bessarabia lived on meal mixed with butter, fat, and milk, which was sometimes rendered more palatable by a few balls of boiled millet. Their bread was made of barley, and their drink was braga, a mixture of millet meal and water, which becomes acidulous by fermentation. In every cottage there was a loom on which the women wove linen, a colored stuff for gowns, and a kind of net-work used for veils. In the neighborhood of Kauscher were quaries of granite, of which the Turks formed their tombstones; and in different parts of the province there was a considerable quantity of lapis ollans. Lizards and tarantula were found here in great quantities.
In the year 1770, when Moldavia was occupied by the Russian troops under Field Marshal Count Romanzoff, her Imperial majesty, by her public letters which were read six times in all tlie churches, declared that the principality should remain eternally under her protection, and be no more subjected to the Turkish yoke. Circumstances, however, compelled her to desist from her pretensions, and Bessarabia, Moldavia, and Wallachia were restored, to the Ottoman Porte by the treaty of Kainargik. Some vague clauses were however inserted in order to guaranty to the inhabitants their ancient privileges, and to authorize the mediation of the Russian government in their behalf. These clauses were ratified, the rights and duties of the subjects were more fully explained, and the guarantee of Russia acknowledged, by a khatfy xherif, or proclamation signed by the sultan, dated in the year 1784. The treaty of Yassy stipulated a further abridgment of the sovereignty of the Porte over the princes and the tributary inhabitants ; but the Turks, who submitted with reluctance to the humiliation, eluded a strict compliance with their engagements, and by their continual infractions of the treaty furnished the Russians with endless subjects of complaint and remonstrance.
After long discussions the two Imperial courts of Vienna and St. Petersburg finally established their pretensions, and in the year 1781 obtained from the Porte a formal acknowledgment of their right to appoint resident ministers in the capitals of Moldavia and Wallachia. The princes themselves had secretly fomented the opposition made by the Porte, and had thrown obstacles in the way of the negociation, from an apprehension that they themselves would be restricted in the exercise of their prerogative over their subjects, by their conduct being thus submitted to the inspection and censure of foreigners.
Under the Ottomans Bessarabia was a Sandgiack or government, and the principal Sandgiack, who resided at Bender, had an annual revenue of three thousand pounds sterling. The principal towns were Bender, Ismail, Akerman, Kilia, and Kauscher. In 1792 the Treaty of Iasi forced the Ottoman Empire to cede all of its holdings in what is now Transnistria to the Russian Empire. An expanded Bessarabia was annexed by, and incorporated into, the Russian Empire following the Russo-Turkish War of 1806-12 according to the terms of the Treaty of Bucharest of 1812. In the latter year it was definitely annexed to Russia. Moldovan territory west of the Prut River was united with Walachia.
By 1830 Bender was the capital, though Kauscher was formerly the capital of the part of Bessarabia which belonged to the Khan of Tartarstan.
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