After the Crimean War, Russia pursued cautious and well-calculated foreign policies. Russia was hurt by the Treaty of Paris (1856), which had demilitarized the Black Sea and deprived Russia of the southern strip of Bessarabia, which controlled access to the Danube River. The treaty gave the West European powers, not Russia, the duty of protecting Christians living in the Ottoman Empire. The first phase of Alexander II's foreign policy had the primary goal of regaining Russian naval access to the Black Sea. Russian statesmen viewed Britain and Austria (redesignated as Austria-Hungary in 1867) as opposed to that goal, so foreign policy concentrated on good relations with France, Prussia, and the United States.