The developments in Greece occasion panic in Constantinople, for they seem to indicate that the seditious and atheistic doctrines of the French Revolution have arrived at the very borders of the empire.

Napoleon's invasion of Egypt drives Selim into alliance with Great Britain and Russia.

The Ottoman Empire is labeled universally by 1800 as "The Sick Man of Europe."

The empire is precariously near total collapse and ready to be dismantled by a powerful neighbor, just as the Ottomans had dismantled the Byzantine Empire.

The logical successor in this case is Russia, an expanding empire with strong religious and cultural ties to the captive Slavic groups, and a continuing desire to achieve access to the Mediterranean Sea.