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Crimean War

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Pre 1900 Military

   Crimean War
   Detail of Franz Roubaud's panoramic painting The Siege of Sevastopol
   (1904).

     Date   1854 - 1856
   Location Crimean Peninsula,
            Balkans,
            Black Sea,
            Baltic Sea,
            Pacific Ocean
    Result  Allied victory
   Combatants
   Allies:
   Second French Empire
   United Kingdom
   Ottoman Empire
   Kingdom of Sardinia Russian Empire
   Bulgarian volunteers
   Casualties
   90,000 French
   35,000 Turkish
   17,500 British
   2,050 Sardinian
   killed, wounded and died of disease ~134,000
   killed, wounded and died of disease
                                    Crimean War
   Sinop – Petropavlovsk – Alma – Sevastopol – Balaclava – Inkerman –
   Eupatoria – Taganrog – Chernaya River – Kars – Malakhoff – Kinburn -
   Kurekdere

   The Crimean War ( 1854– 1856) was fought between Imperial Russia on one
   side and an alliance of France, the United Kingdom, the Kingdom of
   Sardinia, and the Ottoman Empire on the other. The majority of the
   conflict took place on the Crimean peninsula, with additional actions
   occurring in western Turkey, the Baltic Sea region, and in the Russian
   Far East.

   The war is generally seen as the first modern conflict and "introduced
   technical changes which affected the future course of warfare."

Buildup to war

Conflict over the Holy Land

   The chain of events leading to Britain and France declaring war on
   Russia on March 28, 1854 can be traced to the 1851 coup d'état in
   France. Napoleon III had his ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Marquis
   de Lafayette, force the Ottomans to recognize France as the "sovereign
   authority" in the Holy Land.

   Quickly, the Russians made counterclaims to this newest change in
   "authority" in the Holy Land. Pointing to two more treaties, one in
   1757 and the other in 1774, the Ottomans reversed their earlier
   decision, renouncing the French treaty and insisting that Russia was
   the protector of the Christian faith in the Ottoman Empire. Napoleon
   III responded with a show of force, sending the ship of the line
   Charlemagne to the Black Sea, a "clear violation" of the London Straits
   Convention. France's startling show of force, combined with aggressive
   diplomacy and money, changed Sultan Abdülmecid I's mind on the matter
   of the Holy Land and its protection. The newest treaty, between France
   and the Ottomans, confirmed France and the Catholic Church as the
   supreme Christian organization in the Holy Land, supreme control over
   the various Christian holy places, and gave the keys to the Church of
   the Nativity, previously in the hands of the Greek Orthodox Church, to
   the Catholic Church.

   Due to his stunning diplomatic success in Constantinople, Napoleon
   III's support in France grew tremendously. However, Napoleon appeared
   to misjudge the religious convictions of Tsar Nicholas I. Angry over
   losing the diplomatic war to France in the Porte, the Russian tsar had
   his 4th and 5th Army Corps mobilized and deployed along the Danube
   River and had Count Karl Nesselrode, his foreign minister, begin a
   diplomatic war to regain Russian prestige with the Ottomans. As
   Nesselrode, a veteran diplomat, began forming his strategy for the
   tsar, he privately confided to the British ambassador in Saint
   Petersburg, Sir Hamilton Seymour:

     [The row over the Holy Places] had assumed a new character - that
     the acts of injustice towards the Greek church which it had been
     desired to prevent had been perpetrated and consequently that now
     the object must be to find a remedy for these wrongs. The success of
     French negotiations at Constantinople was to be ascribed solely to
     intrigue and violence - violence which had been supposed to be the
     ultima ratio of kings, being, it had been seen, the means which the
     present Ruler of France was in the habit of employing in the first
     instance.

   As conflict loomed over the question of the Holy Places, Nicholas I and
   Nesselrode began a diplomatic offensive which they hoped would prevent
   either Britain or France from interfering in any conflict between
   Russia and the Ottomans, as well as to prevent them from allying
   together.

   Nicholas began courting Britain through Seymour. Nicholas insisted that
   he no longer wished to expand Imperial Russia further, but that he had
   an obligation to Christian communities in the Ottoman Empire.

   The Tsar next dispatched a diplomat, Prince Menshikov, on a special
   mission to the Porte. By previous treaties, the Sultan was committed
   "to protect the Christian religion and its Churches", but Menshikov
   attempted to negotiate a new treaty, under which Russia would be
   allowed to interfere whenever it deemed the Sultan's protection
   inadequate. Further, this new synod, a religious convention, would
   allow Russia to control the Orthodox Church's hierarchy in the Ottoman
   Empire. Menshikov arrived at Constantinople on 16 February on the
   steam-powered warship Gromovnik. Menshikov wasted no time in breaking
   protocol at the Porte when, at his first meeting with the Sultan, he
   condemned the Ottoman's concessions to the French. Menshikov also began
   demanding the replacement of highly-placed Ottoman civil servants.

   The British embassy at Istanbul at the time was being run by Hugh Rose,
   chargé d'affaires for the British. Using his considerable resources
   within the Ottoman Empire, Rose gathered intelligence on Russian troop
   movements along the Danube frontier, and became concerned about the
   extent of Menshikov's mission to the Porte. Rose, using his authority
   as the British representative to the Ottomans, ordered a British
   squadron of warships to depart early for an eastern Mediterranean
   cruise and head for Istanbul. However, Rose's actions were not backed
   up by the British admiral in command of the squadron, Whitley Dundas,
   who resented the diplomat for believing he could interfere in the
   Admiralty's business. Within a week, Rose's actions were cancelled.
   Only the French sent a naval task force to support the Ottomans.

First hostilities

   At the same time, however, the British government of Prime Minister
   Aberdeen sent Lord Stratford. Through skillful diplomacy, Lord
   Stratford convinced the Sultan to reject the treaty, which compromised
   the independence of the Turks. Benjamin Disraeli blamed Aberdeen and
   Stratford's actions for making war inevitable, thus starting the
   process by which Aberdeen would be forced to resign for his role in
   starting the war. Shortly after he learned of the failure of
   Menshikov's diplomacy, the Tsar marched his armies into Moldavia and
   Wallachia (Ottoman principalities in which Russia was acknowledged as a
   special guardian of the Orthodox Church), using the Sultan's failure to
   resolve the issue of the Holy Places as a pretext. Nicholas believed
   that the European powers, especially Austria, would not object strongly
   to the annexation of a few neighbouring Ottoman provinces, especially
   given Russian involvement in suppressing the Revolutions of 1848.
   Battle of Sinope, by Ivan Aivazovsky
   Battle of Sinope, by Ivan Aivazovsky

   When the Tsar sent his troops into Moldavia and Wallachia (the "
   Danubian Principalities"), Great Britain, seeking to maintain the
   security of the Ottoman Empire, sent a fleet to the Dardanelles, where
   it joined another fleet sent by France. At the same time, however, the
   European powers hoped for a diplomatic compromise. The representatives
   of the four neutral Great Powers—Great Britain, France, Austria and
   Prussia—met in Vienna, where they drafted a note which they hoped would
   be acceptable to the Russians and Ottomans. The note met with the
   approval of Nicholas I; it was, however, rejected by Abd-ul-Mejid I,
   who felt that the document's poor phrasing left it open to many
   different interpretations. Great Britain, France and Austria were
   united in proposing amendments to mollify the Sultan, but their
   suggestions were ignored in the court of Saint Petersburg.

   Great Britain and France set aside the idea of continuing negotiations,
   but Austria and Prussia did not believe that the rejection of the
   proposed amendments justified the abandonment of the diplomatic
   process. The Sultan proceeded to war, his armies attacking the Russian
   army near the Danube. Nicholas responded by dispatching warships, which
   destroyed a squadron of Ottoman frigates in northern Turkey at the
   Battle of Sinop on November 30, 1853. The destruction of the Turkish
   fleet and heavy Ottoman casualties alarmed both Great Britain and
   France, which stepped forth in defence of the Ottoman Empire. Late in
   March of 1854, after Russia ignored an Anglo-French ultimatum to
   withdraw from the Danubian Principalities, Great Britain and France
   declared war.

Peace attempts

   Nicholas felt that because of his services rendered in 1848, Austrians
   would side with him, or at the very least remain neutral. Austria,
   however, felt threatened by the Russian troops. When Great Britain and
   France demanded the withdrawal of Russian forces from the
   principalities, Austria supported them; and, though it did not
   immediately declare war on Russia, it refused to guarantee its
   neutrality.

   Though the original grounds for war were lost when Russia withdrew its
   troops, Great Britain and France continued with hostilities. Determined
   to address the Eastern Question by putting an end to the Russian threat
   to the Ottoman Empire, the allies proposed several conditions for a
   peaceful resolution, including:
    1. Russia was to give up its protectorate over the Danubian
       Principalities;
    2. it was to abandon any claim granting it the right to interfere in
       Ottoman affairs on the behalf of the Orthodox Christians;
    3. the Straits Convention of 1841 was to be revised;
    4. all nations were to be granted access to the Danube River.

   When the Tsar refused to comply with the Four Points, the Crimean War
   commenced.

Crimean War

Siege of Sevastopol

   French zouaves and Russian soldiers engaged in hand-to-hand combat at
   Malakhov Kurgan
   French zouaves and Russian soldiers engaged in hand-to-hand combat at
   Malakhov Kurgan

   The following month, though the immediate cause of war was withdrawn,
   allied troops landed in the Crimea and besieged the city of Sevastopol,
   home of the Tsar's Black Sea fleet and the associated threat of
   potential Russian penetration into the Mediterranean.

   The Russians had to scuttle their ships, and used the naval cannons as
   additional artillery and the ships' crews as marines. During the siege
   the Russians lost four 110- or 120-gun 3-decker ships of the line,
   twelve 84-gun 2-deckers and four 60-gun frigates in the Black Sea, plus
   a large number of smaller vessels. Admiral Nakhimov suffered a mortal
   bullet wound to the head, inflicted by sniper Benjamin Schneider, and
   died on 30 June 1855. The city was captured in September 1855, after
   about a year-long siege.

   In the same year, the Russians besieged and occupied the Turkish
   fortress of Kars (the Battle of Kurekdere had been fought between the
   two in the same general area the year before).

Baltic theatre

   Åland during the war
   Åland during the war

   The Baltic was a forgotten theatre of the war. The popularisation of
   events elsewhere has overshadowed the overarching significance of this
   theatre, which was close to the Russian capital. From the beginning,
   the Baltic campaign turned into a stalemate. The outnumbered Russian
   Baltic Fleet confined its movements to the areas around fortifications.
   At the same time, British and French commanders Sir Charles Napier and
   Parseval-Deschènes – although they led the largest fleet assembled
   since the Napoleonic Wars – considered Russian coastal fortifications,
   especially the Kronstadt fortress, too well-defended to engage and
   limited their actions to blockade of Russian trade and small raids on
   less protected parts of the Finnish coast.
   Bombardment of Bomarsund during the Crimean War
   Bombardment of Bomarsund during the Crimean War

   Russia was dependent on imports for both the domestic economy and the
   supply of her military forces and the blockade seriously undermined the
   Russian economy. Raiding by allied British and French fleets destroyed
   forts on the Finnish coast including Bomarsund on the Åland Islands and
   Fort Slava. Other such attacks were not so successful, and the poorly
   planned attempts to take Hanko, Ekenäs, Kokkola and Turku were
   repulsed.

   The burning of tar warehouses and ships in Oulu and Raahe led to
   international criticism, and in Britain, a Mr Gibson demanded in the
   House of Commons that the First Lord of the Admiralty explain a system
   which carried on a great war by plundering and destroying the property
   of defenceless villagers. In the autumn, a squadron of three British
   warships led by HMS Miranda left the Baltic for the White Sea, where
   they shelled Kola (which was utterly destroyed) and the Solovki. Their
   attempt to storm Arkhangelsk proved abortive, as was the siege of
   Petropavlovsk in Kamchatka. Here, an Anglo-French naval squadron
   successfully shelled the town but a Naval Brigade of 800 sailors and
   marines landed the next day was repulsed.

   In 1855, the Western Allied Baltic Fleet tried to destroy heavily
   defended Russian dockyards at Sveaborg outside Helsinki. More than
   1,000 enemy guns tested the strength of the fortress for two days.
   Despite the shelling, the sailors of the 120-gun ship Rossiya, led by
   Captain Viktor Poplonsky, defended the entrance to the harbour. The
   Allies fired over twenty thousand shells but were unable to defeat the
   Russian batteries. A massive new fleet of more than 350 gunboats and
   mortar vessels was prepared, but before the attack was launched, the
   war ended.

   Part of the Russian resistance was credited to the deployment of newly
   created blockade mines. Modern naval mining is said to date from the
   Crimean War: " Torpedo mines, if I may use this name given by Fulton to
   self-acting mines underwater, were among the novelties attempted by the
   Russians in their defenses about Cronstadt and Sebastopol", as one
   American officer put it in 1860.

Pacific

   Minor naval skirmishes also occurred in the Far East, where a strong
   British and French Allied squadron under Rear Admiral David Price and
   Contre-admiral Febrier-Despointes besieged a smaller Russian force
   under Rear Admiral Yevfimy Putyatin at Petropavlovsk on the Kamchatka
   Peninsula. An Allied landing force was beaten back with heavy
   casualties in September 1854, and the Allies withdrew. The Russians
   escaped under snow in early 1855 after Allied reinforcements arrived in
   the region.

Italian Involvement

   With the Italian Unification campaign going on at the time in the
   Italian states, Camillo di Cavour under orders by Victor Emmanuel II of
   the Kingdom of Sardinia sent troops to side with French and British
   forces during the war. This was an attempt at gaining the favour of the
   French especially when the issue of uniting Italy under the Sardinian
   throne would become an important matter. The deployment of Italian
   troops to the Crimea allowed Piedmont to be represented at the peace
   conference at the end of the war, where it could address the issue of
   the risorgimento to other European powers.

End of the war

   Ottoman losses after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 (in yellow)
   Ottoman losses after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 (in yellow)

   Peace negotiations began in 1856 under Nicholas I's son and successor,
   Alexander II. Furthermore, the Tsar and the Sultan agreed not to
   establish any naval or military arsenal on the Black Sea coast. The
   Black Sea clauses came at a tremendous disadvantage to Russia, for it
   greatly diminished the naval threat it posed to the Turks. Moreover,
   all the Great Powers pledged to respect the independence and
   territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire.

   The Treaty of Paris stood until 1871, when France was crushed by the
   German states in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871. Whilst Prussia
   and several other German states united to form a powerful German
   Empire, the Emperor of the French, Napoleon III, was deposed to permit
   the formation of a French Republic. During his reign (which began in
   1852), Napoleon III, eager for the support of Great Britain, had
   opposed Russia over the Eastern Question. Russian interference in the
   Ottoman Empire, however, did not in any significant manner threaten the
   interests of France. Thus, France abandoned its opposition to Russia
   after the establishment of a Republic. Encouraged by the decision of
   the French, and supported by the German minister Otto, Fürst von
   Bismarck, Russia denounced the Black Sea clauses of the treaty agreed
   to in 1856. As Great Britain alone could not enforce the clauses,
   Russia once again established a fleet in the Black Sea.

   Having abandoned its alliance with Russia, Austria was diplomatically
   isolated following the war. This led to its defeat in the 1866
   Austro-Prussian War and loss of influence in most German-speaking
   lands. Soon after, Austria would ally with Prussia as it became the new
   state of Germany, creating the conditions that would lead to World War
   I.

Characteristics of the war

   Photograph of an army camp at Balaklava during the Crimean War. Albumen
   silver print by "Robertson & Beato", 1855
   Photograph of an army camp at Balaklava during the Crimean War. Albumen
   silver print by "Robertson & Beato", 1855

   The war became infamously known for military and logistical
   incompetence. However, it is important to note the work of women who
   served as army nurses. The scandalous treatment of wounded soldiers in
   the desperate winter that followed was reported by war correspondents
   for newspapers, prompting the work of Florence Nightingale and others
   and introducing modern nursing methods.

   Amongst the new techniques used to speed the treatment of wounded
   soldiers, a primitive form of ambulance was used for the first time
   during this conflict.

   The Crimean War also introduced the first tactical use of railways and
   other modern inventions such as the telegraph. The Crimean War is also
   credited by many as being the first modern war, employing trenches and
   blind artillery fire (gunners often relied on spotters rather than
   actually being on the battlefield). The use of the Minié ball for shot,
   coupled with the rifling of barrels, greatly increased Allied rifle
   range and damage. This was the second war ever photographed, after the
   Mexican-American War.

   The Crimean War occasioned the introduction of hand rolled "paper
   cigars" — cigarettes — to French and British troops, who copied their
   Turkish comrades in using old newspaper for rolling when their
   cigar-leaf rolling tobacco ran out or dried and crumbled.

   It has been suggested that the Russian defeat in the Crimean War may
   have been a factor in the emancipation of Russian serfs by Tsar
   Alexander II in 1861.

   The British Army abolished Sale of commissions as a direct result of
   the disaster at the Battle of Balaclava, which saw the ill-fated Charge
   of the Light Brigade.

Major events of the war

   Crimea War Memorial near Regent St, St. James's Park, London
   Crimea War Memorial near Regent St, St. James's Park, London
     * Some action also took place on the Russian Pacific coast, Asia
       Minor, the Baltic and White Seas
     * The roots of the war lay in the existing rivalry between the
       British and the Russians in other areas such as Afghanistan ( The
       Great Game). Conflicts over control of holy places in Jerusalem led
       to aggressive actions in the Balkans, and around the Dardanelles.
     * Major battles
          + Destruction of the Ottoman fleet at Sinop - 30 November 1853
          + The Battle of Alma - 20 September 1854
          + Siege of Sevastopol (also known as, " Sebastopol") - 25
            September 1854 to 8 September 1855
          + The Battle of Balaclava - 25 October 1854 (see also Charge of
            the Light Brigade)
          + The Battle of Inkerman - 5 November 1854
          + Battle of Eupatoria, 17 February 1855
          + Battle of Chernaya River (aka "Traktir Bridge") - 25 August
            1855
          + Highly successful Anglo-French naval campaign in the Sea of
            Azoff (Azov), May to November 1855
          + Siege of Kars, June to 28 November 1855

     * It was the first war where the electric telegraph started to have a
       significant effect, with the first 'live' war reporting to The
       Times by William Howard Russell, and British generals' reduced
       independence of action from London due to such rapid
       communications. Newspaper readership informed public opinion in the
       United Kingdom and France as never before.
     * Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole came to prominence for their
       contributions in the field of nursing during the war.

Prominent military commanders

   Chapel in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, commemorating the Siege of
   Petropavlovsk in 1854
   Chapel in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, commemorating the Siege of
   Petropavlovsk in 1854
     * Russian commanders
          + Mikhail Dmitriyevich Gorchakov
          + Ivan Feodorovich Paskevich
          + Pavel Stepanovich Nakhimov
          + Eduard Ivanovich Totleben
          + Aleksandr Sergeyevich Menshikov
     * British commanders
          + Earl of Cardigan
          + Lord Raglan
          + Sir Thomas James Harper
          + Sir Edmund Lyons (later 1st Lord Lyons)
     * French commanders
          + Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud
          + François Certain Canrobert
     * Ottoman commanders
          + Abdülkerim Nadir Pasha
          + Omar Pasha

Crimean War in fiction

     * The song " The Trooper" by English metal band Iron Maiden is about
       the Crimean War.
     * The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred, Lord Tennyson depicted a
       disastrous but brave cavalry charge during the Battle of Balaclava.
     * Leo Tolstoy wrote a few short sketches on the Siege of Sevastopol,
       collected in The Sebastopol Sketches. The stories detail the lives
       of the Russian soldiers and citizens in Sevastopol during the
       siege. Because of this work, Tolstoy has been called the world's
       first war correspondent.
     * In the Thursday Next series of novels by Jasper Fforde, which are
       set in an alternative reality, the Crimean War lasts 132 years from
       1853 to 1985, and creates sour relations between Imperial Russia
       and England. The protagonist of the series, Thursday Next, fought
       in the conflict.
     * Beryl Bainbridge's novel Master Georgie is set in the Crimean War.
     * George MacDonald Fraser's novel Flashman at the Charge (1986) is
       also set in the Crimean War.
     * Stephen Baxter's novel Anti-Ice starts with the siege of
       Sevastopol, which is shortened dramatically by a new Anti-Ice
       weapon. The book asks the question - what if nuclear weapons had
       existed in Victorian times?
     * The song " Abdul Abulbul Amir" by Irish music hall performer Percy
       French was inspired by the Crimean War and reduces it to two
       fighters, the Turk Abdul and the Russian soldier Ivan Skavinsky
       Skivar, who duel over a triviality and both die, accomplishing
       nothing.
     * "Luck", by Mark Twain, mentions the Crimean War in connection with
       a celebrated war hero.
     * The Great Stink by Clare Clark, debut novel published 2006, tells
       the story of a traumatized veteran of the Crimean War and contains
       a number of references and flashbacks to this conflict.
     * The Irish music song " The Kerry Recruit" deals with the
       experiences of a young man from Kerry who fights in the war.
     * Crime Fiction author Anne Perry's William Monk novels include
       commentaries on the Crimean War through the eyes of the character
       Hester Latterly, 'one of Miss Nightingale's nurses'.
     * "Hope" by Lesley Pearse describes the experiences of a nurse in the
       Crimean War as part of a wider and longer plot.
     * The music video for Kasabian song Empire is set during the Crimean
       War - with the band members as British infantrymen. It was shot on
       location outside of Bucharest.

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