Eastern Question is the name given primarily to the problem what is to become of the east of Europe—specifically, the area in Europe now or lately under the authority of the Turks. In the 18th century the western European powers were jealous of Russia and Austria in their wars with Turkey, and sympathised more or less openly with the Turks. England supported Turkey against Bonaparte in Egypt in 1798. The question has from time to time been raised by Russia's claim to be the protector of the Christian populations in the Turkish area, which till 1878 comprised more or less directly Roumanians, Montenegrins, and Servians, as well as Greeks (of Macedonia, &c.) and Bulgarians; as also by Russia's aim to be regarded and treated as the heir-in-chief of the 'sick man.' The question became acute in 1854, and the Crimean War (q.v.) was an attempt to solve or shelve it, France supporting England in the struggle to maintain the status quo. The Russo-Turkish war in 1877-78, the European diplomacy of 1876-78, and the Berlin Congress of 1878 were chapters in the history of the question. The area affected by the question has since 1854 been extended, and the phrase often means practically the question how to prevent the undue aggrandisement of Russia, especially as against England; and Asia Minor, Persia, Turkestan, Afghanistan, even Egypt and India, are treated as within the sphere of this complicated and formidable question, and not merely the Balkan Peninsula, as well the parts now independent of Turkey, as those still more or less completely under Turkish authority.
See BALKAN PENINSULA, RUSSIA, TURKEY; also Hagen, Gesch. der Orientalischen Frage (1877); Berner, Die Orientfrage (1878); Döllinger, Die Orientalische Frage (1879); Boulger, England and Russia in Central Asia; Vambéry, The Coming Struggle for India (1885); S. Lane-Poole, Life of Stratford de Redcliffe (1888); and A. Sorel, The Eastern Question in the 18th Century (trans. 1898).