Crimean War
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2008-07-16T20:49:42Z
AlexiusHoratius
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rv last edit, in the wrong place, looked like an outline for a school paper. Article summaries aren't usually used outside of the introduction
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{{Infobox Military Conflict
|conflict=Crimean War
|partof=
|image=[[Image:Malakhov1.jpg|300px]]
|caption=Detail of [[Franz Roubaud]]'s [[panoramic painting]] ''The Siege of Sevastopol'' (1904).
|date=1853–1856
|place=[[Crimea|Crimean Peninsula]],<br /> [[Balkans]],<br /> [[Black Sea]],<br /> [[Baltic Sea]],<br /> [[Pacific Ocean]]
|casus=
|territory=
|result=Allied victory, [[Treaty of Paris (1856)|Treaty of Paris]]
|combatant1=Allies:<br />{{flagicon|France}} [[Second French Empire|French Empire]]<br />{{flagicon|Ottoman Empire}} [[Ottoman Empire]]<br />{{flagicon|UK}} [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|British Empire]]<br />{{flagicon|Italy|1861-state}} [[Kingdom of Sardinia]]
|combatant2=[[Image:Flag of Russia.png|23px]] [[Russian Empire]]<br />{{flagicon|Bulgaria}} [[Bulgarian Legion|Bulgarian volunteers]]
|strength1=300,000 Turks <br /> 400,000 French <br /> 250,000 British <br /> 18,000 Sardinian
|strength2=700,000<ref>Военная Энциклопедия, М., Воениздат 1999, т.4, стр.315</ref> Russians <br /> 4,000 Bulgarians
|casualties1= over 500.000 total dead<ref>Военная Энциклопедия, М., Воениздат 1999, т.4</ref><br />'''French''': total dead ca 100,000<ref>[http://www.canalacademie.com/1854-la-Guerre-de-Crimee.html '''Napoleon III''', Pierre Milza, Perrin edition, 2004]</ref><br />of which 10,240 killed in action; 20,000 died of wounds; ca 75,000 died of disease<br />'''British''': 2,755 killed in action; 2,019 died of wounds; 16,323 died of disease<br />'''Sardinians''': 2,050 died from all causes<ref>John Sweetman, ''Crimean War, Essential Histories 2'', Osprey Publishing, 2001, ISBN 1 84176 186 9, p.89</ref><br />'''Turks''' total dead and wounded 200,000 est.<ref>Военная Энциклопедия, М., Воениздат 1999, т.4, стр.317</ref><br />total dead est. 50,000<ref>Clive Pointing, ''The Crimean War: The Truth Behind the Myth'', Chatto & Windus, London, 2004, ISBN 0 7011 7390 4, p.344</ref>
|casualties2= ca 522,000<ref>Военная Энциклопедия, М., Воениздат 1999, т.4, стр.317
</ref> <ref>The Osprey Companion to Military History, R Cowley and G Parker (eds.), Osprey Publishing, 1996, ISBN 1 85532 663 9, p.116 </ref> killed, wounded and died of disease <ref>Dupuy and Dupuy The Encyclopedia of Military History, Macdonald and Jane's, 1970, p.829 gives the following figure for the Russian casualties: 256,000 total, of which 128,000 battle casualties</ref><br /> of which dead 60,000<ref>Royle. The Books "Crimea" and The Great crimean war"</ref> to 110,000<ref>John Sweetman, ''Crimean War, Essential Histories 2'', Osprey Publishing, 2001, ISBN 1 84176 186 9, p.89</ref><ref>Clive Pointing, ''The Crimean War: The Truth Behind the Myth'', Chatto & Windus, London, 2004, ISBN 0 7011 7390 4, p.344 gives the number of Russian dead as 475,000 which is much too high, probably a result of confusing the number of dead and wounded with the number of dead</ref>
}}
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{{Campaignbox Crimean War}}
{{Campaignbox Russo-Ottoman Wars}}
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The '''Crimean War''', also known in Russia as the '''Eastern War''' ({{lang-ru|Восточная война}}, ''Vostochnaya Vojna'') (March 1854–February 1856) was fought between [[Russian Empire]] on one side and an alliance of [[France]], the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]], the [[Kingdom of Sardinia]], and the [[Ottoman Empire]] on the other. Most of the conflict took place on the [[Crimea|Crimean Peninsula]], with additional actions occurring in western [[Turkey]], and the [[Baltic Sea]] region.
The Crimean War is sometimes considered to be the first "modern" conflict and "introduced technical changes which affected the future course of warfare."<ref name=royle1>Royle. Preface</ref><br><br>
==Build-up to war==
===Conflict over the Holy Land===
The chain of events leading to Britain's and France's declaring war on Russia on [[28 March]] [[1854]] can be traced to the 1851 [[coup d'état]] in France. [[Napoleon III of France|Napoleon III]] had his ambassador to the Ottoman Empire force the Ottomans to recognize France as the "sovereign authority" in the [[Holy Land]].<ref name='royle2'>Royle. Pg 19</ref>
Russia disputed 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 [[Orthodox Christians]] in the Ottoman Empire.
Napoleon III responded with a show of force, sending the [[ship of the line]] ''Charlemagne'' to the [[Black Sea]], a violation of the [[London Straits Convention]].<ref name='royle2'/> France's show of force, combined with aggressive diplomacy and money, induced Sultan [[Abdülmecid I]] to accept a new treaty, confirming France and the [[Roman Catholic Church]] as the supreme Christian authority in the Holy Land with control over the Christian holy places and possession of the keys to the [[Church of the Nativity]], previously held by the [[Orthodox Church of Jerusalem|Greek Orthodox Church]].<ref name='royle3'>Royle. Pg 20</ref>
Tsar [[Nicholas I of Russia|Nicholas I]] then deployed his 4th and 5th Army Corps along the River [[Danube]], and had [[Count]] [[Karl Nesselrode]], his foreign minister, undertake talks with the Ottomans. Nesselrode confided to Sir [[Hamilton Seymour]], the British ambassador in [[St. Petersburg]]:
<blockquote>
[The dispute 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.<ref name=royle4>Royle. Pg 21</ref>
</blockquote>
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's or France's interfering in any conflict between Russia and the Ottomans, as well as to prevent their allying together.
[[Image:Cornet Wilkin 11th Hussars.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[Cornet (military rank)|Cornet]] Henry Wilkin, [[11th Hussars]], British Army. Photo by [[Roger Fenton]]]]
Nicholas began courting Great Britain through Seymour. Nicholas insisted that he no longer wished to expand Imperial Russia, but that he had an obligation to Christian communities in the Ottoman Empire.
The Tsar next dispatched a diplomat, [[Aleksandr Sergeyevich Menshikov|Prince Menshikov]], on a special mission to the [[Sublime Porte|Porte]]. By previous treaties, the Sultan was committed "to protect the Christian religion and its churches." 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]], [[1853]] on the steam-powered warship ''Gromovnik''. Menshikov broke protocol at the Porte when, at his first meeting with the Sultan, he condemned the Ottomans' concessions to the French. Menshikov also began demanding the replacement of highly-placed Ottoman civil servants.
The British embassy at Constantinople at the time was being run by [[Hugh Rose, 1st Baron Strathnairn|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 Sea|Mediterranean]] cruise and head for Constantinople. However, Rose's actions were not backed up by [[James Whitley Deans Dundas|Whitley Dundas]], the British admiral in command of the squadron, 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.{{clr}}
===First hostilities===
[[Image:Sinope aivaz.jpg|thumb|350px|''[[Battle of Sinope]]'', by [[Ivan Aivazovsky]]]]
At the same time, however, the British government of Prime Minister [[George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen|Aberdeen]] sent [[Stratford Canning, 1st Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe|Lord Stratford]]. Lord Stratford convinced the Sultan to reject the treaty, which compromised the independence of the Turks. [[Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield|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 along the [[Danube]] 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 [[Austrian Empire|Austria]], would not object strongly to the annexation of a few neighbouring Ottoman provinces, especially given Russian involvement in suppressing the [[Revolutions of 1848]].
When the Tsar sent his troops into 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 [[Kingdom of Prussia|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 Abdülmecid, 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 St 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 formally declared war on [[4 October]] [[1853]] and proceeded to the attack, his armies moving on the Russian army near the Danube later that month.<ref name="EB">{{cite book|title=Encyclopædia Britannica: Crimean War|date=1994|accessdate=2008-05-29}}</ref> Nicholas responded by dispatching warships, which [[Battle of Sinop|destroyed a patrol squadron of Ottoman frigates and corvettes]] while they were anchored at the port of [[Sinop (Turkey)|Sinop]] in northern Turkey on [[November 30]] [[1853]]. The destruction of the Turkish ships provided Great Britain and France the [[casus belli]] for declaring war against Russia, on the side of the Ottoman Empire. On [[28 March]] [[1854]], after Russia ignored an Anglo-French ultimatum to withdraw from the Danubian Principalities, Great Britain and France formally declared war.<ref name=EB/>
[[Image:Mahmudiye (1829).jpg|thumb|right|275px|''Mahmudiye'' (1829), ordered by the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] Sultan [[Mahmud II]] and built by the Imperial Naval Arsenal on the [[Golden Horn]] in [[Istanbul]], was for many years the largest warship in the world. The 62x17x7 m [[ship-of-the-line]] was armed with 128 cannons on 3 decks. She participated in many important naval battles, including the [[Siege of Sevastopol (1854-1855)]] during the Crimean War (1854-1856). She was decommissioned in 1875]]
===Peace attempts===
Nicholas felt that because of Russian assistance in surpressing the [[Lajos Kossuth|Hungarian revolt]] of 1848, Austria 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:
# Russia was to give up its protectorate over the Danubian Principalities;
# It was to abandon any claim granting it the right to interfere in Ottoman affairs on the behalf of the Orthodox Christians;
# The [[London Straits Convention|Straits Convention of 1841]] was to be revised;
# All nations were to be granted access to the River [[Danube]].
When the Tsar refused to comply with these Four Points, the Crimean War commenced. {{clr}}
==Crimean War==
[[Image:Fall of Sevastopol.jpg|thumb|right|340px|French [[zouave]]s and Russian soldiers engaged in hand-to-hand combat at [[Malakhov Kurgan]]]]
===Siege of Sevastopol===
{{main|Siege of Sevastopol (1854)}}
During 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 [[scuttling|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 [[ship of the line|ships of the line]], twelve 84-gun 2-deckers and four 60-gun [[frigate]]s in the Black Sea, plus a large number of smaller vessels. [[Pavel Nakhimov|Admiral Nakhimov]] suffered a fatal bullet wound to the head and died on [[30 June]] [[1855]]. The city was captured in September 9, 1855, after about a year-long siege.
In the same year, the Russians [[Siege of Kars|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).
===Azov Campaign ===
{{main|Siege of Taganrog}}
In spring 1855, the allied British-French commanders decided to send an expedition corps into the [[Azov Sea]] to undermine Russian communications and supplies to besieged [[Sevastopol]]. On May 12, 1855 British-French war ships entered the [[Kerch Strait]] and destroyed the coast battery of the [[Kamishevaya Bay]]. On [[May 21]], [[1855]] the gunboats and armed steamers attacked the seaport of [[Taganrog]], the most important hub in terms of its proximity to [[Rostov on Don]] and due to the vast amounts of food, especially bread, wheat, barley and rye that were amassed in the city after the breakout of Crimean War that put an end to its exportation.
[[Image:Firing-at-Taganrog.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Bombardment of [[Taganrog]] from a British raft during the first siege attempt]]
The [[Governor of Taganrog]], [[Yegor Tolstoy]] and lieutenant-general [[Ivan Krasnov]] refused the ultimatum, responding that ''Russians never surrender their cities.'' The British-French squadron bombarded [[Taganrog]] for 6 1/2 hours and landed 300 troops near the [[Depaldo stone stairs|''Old Stairway'']] in the downtown Taganrog, but they were thrown back by [[Don Cossacks]] and a volunteer corps.
In July 1855, the allied squadron tried to go past Taganrog to [[Rostov on Don]], entering the [[Don River]] through the [[Mius River]]. On [[July 12]], [[1855]] H.M.S. ''Jasper'' grounded near Taganrog thanks to a fisherman, who repositioned the buoys into shallow waters. The [[Cossacks]] captured the gunboat with all of its guns and blew it up. The third siege attempt was made August 19-31, 1855, but the city was already fortified and the squadron could not approach close enough for landing operations. The allied fleet left the [[Gulf of Taganrog]] on September 2, 1855, with minor military operations along the [[Azov Sea]] coast continuing until late autumn 1855.
===Baltic theatre===
The [[Baltic Sea|Baltic]] was a forgotten theatre of the war. The popularisation of events elsewhere has overshadowed the significance of this theatre, which was close to the [[St Petersburg|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 [[Charles Napier (naval officer)|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 blockading Russian trade and conducting raids on less fortified sections of the [[Grand Duchy of Finland|Finnish]] coast.
[[Image:Sveaborg bombed.jpg|thumb|left|350px|Bombardment of [[Battle of Bomarsund|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, Åland|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, MP [[Thomas Milner Gibson|Thomas Gibson]] demanded in the [[British House of Commons|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 (1851)|HMS ''Miranda'']] left the Baltic for the [[White Sea]], where they shelled [[Kola (town)|Kola]] (which was utterly destroyed) and the [[Solovki]]. Their attempt to storm [[Arkhangelsk]] proved abortive, as was the [[Siege of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky|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 [[Battle_of_Suomenlinna|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. [[Image:Napadka.jpg|thumb|350px|"Bombardment of the [[Solovetsky Monastery]] in the [[White Sea]] by the [[Royal Navy]]". A [[lubok]] (popular print) from 1868]]
Part of the Russian resistance was credited to the deployment of newly created blockade mines. Perhaps the most influential contributor to the development of naval mining was inventor and civil engineer Immanuel Nobel, the father of Alfred Nobel, who is widely recognized for being the inventor of dynamite and a founder of the Nobel Prize. Immanuel helped the war effort for Russia by applying his skilful knowledge of industrial explosives such as nitroglycerin and gunpowder. Modern [[naval mine|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 Sevastopol", as one American officer put it in 1860.<ref name=mines>[http://www.exwar.org/Htm/8000PopH2.htm Mining in the Crimean War]</ref>
===Genitchi Strait===
The Russians had built a large floating pontoon bridge across the Genitchi Strait, [[Sea of Azov]], to connect the town of Genitchi to the [[Arabat Spit]], and it served as the main supply route to reinforce their troops at Sevastopol. The destruction of the bridge would force the Russians to travel an extra 192 km (120 miles) to deliver supplies, and it therefore became a strategic objective for British forces. Two attacks to cut the floating bridge's hawsers had proved unsuccessful and alerted the Russian garrison. The British made a third attempt on 3 July 1855 using ''HMS Beagle'''s four-oared gig, commanded by Gunner John Hayles, and a small paddle-box steamer with one gun, under Midshipman Martin Tracy. The paddle-box steamer moored where the crew could see Russian soldiers marching about on shore and fired the first round in the breech, which drew the gun's securing bolts and made it useless. That left six men in a four-oared boat (including [[Joseph Trewavas]]), one rifle, ten rounds of ammunition, and a cutlass apiece to face two hundred enemy on shore behind heaps of coal.
[[Image:FNLave1854.jpg|thumb|275px|left|The French [[ironclad]] [[floating battery]] ''[[Lave]]'', destroyed Russian batteries at the [[Battle of Kinburn (1855)]].]]
In Trewavas's own words, "As we paddled out of sight of our ship, on a little mound we could see the Russians motioning the soldiers on shore to keep down and our man in the bow with a loaded rifle wanted to have a 'go' at them but the gunner gave him orders not to do so. I was pulling the bow oar and when we were near the floating bridge, I leapt onto it, cut the hawsers and jumped back in the boat again and shoved off. During this time the Russians, who were only 80 metres off, had not fired a shot, and our man in the bow fired his rifle at them swearing he hit his man. The Russians then let fly. For some time we could not get away as the water was so shallow, and the shot came at us like hailstones, wounding three men and riddling the boat with shot. Reaching safety and the protection of our ship, our boat was sinking and full of water."
(Trewavas wondered why the Russians had not fired upon the British as they approached the pontoon bridge at Genitchi, but later a Russian officer explained that they had no idea the sailors planned to destroy the bridge, believing rather that they intended to destroy shipping, and therefore held fire with the intention of taking them prisoner.){{clr}}
===Pacific===
Minor naval skirmishes also occurred in the Far East, where a strong British and French Allied squadron (including [[HMS Pique (1834)|HMS ''Pique'']]) under Rear Admiral David Price and Contre-admiral Febrier-Despointes [[Siege of Petropavlovsk|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===
Peace negotiations began in 1856 under Nicholas I's son and successor, [[Alexander II of Russia|Alexander II]], through the [[Congress of Paris (1856)| Congress of Paris]]. 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 (1856)|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 Third Republic|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 von Bismarck|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]].
==Criticisms and reform==
[[Image:Balaklava-camp.png|thumb|left|250px|Photograph of the British army camp at [[Balaklava]] during the Crimean War. [[Albumen print|Albumen silver print]] by "Robertson & Beato", 1855]]
The Crimean War was infamously known for military and logistical incompetence. However, it highlighted the work of women who served as army nurses. War correspondents for newspapers reported the scandalous treatment of wounded soldiers in the desperate winter that followed and prompted the work of [[Florence Nightingale]], [[Mary Seacole]], and others and led to the introduction of modern nursing methods.
The Crimean War also saw the first tactical use of [[railway]]s and other modern inventions such as the [[telegraph]]. The Crimean War employed modern military tactics, such as trenches and blind artillery fire. The use of the [[Minié ball]] for shot, coupled with the rifling of barrels, greatly increased Allied rifle range and damage.
The [[British Army]] system of [[sale of commissions]] came under great scrutiny during the war, especially in connection with the [[Battle of Balaclava]], which saw the ill-fated [[Charge of the Light Brigade]]. This scrutiny eventually lead to the abolition of the sale of commissions.
The Crimean War was a contributing factor in the Russian [[Emancipation reform of 1861|abolition of the serfdom]] in 1861: Alexander II saw the military defeat of the Russian serf army by free troops from Britain and France as proof of the need for emancipation.<ref>{{cite book
| last = Moon
| first = David
| authorlink =
| coauthors =
| title = The Abolition of Serfdom in Russia, 1762-1907
| publisher = Pearson Education
| date = 2001
| location = Harlow, England
| pages = pp 49-55
| url =
| doi =
| id =
| isbn = 058229486X}}</ref>{{clr}}
==Major events of the war==
[[Image:CrimeaWarMemorialLondon.jpg|thumb|200px|Crimean War Memorial near Regent Street, [[St James's Park]], [[London]]]]
* Some action also took place on the Russian Pacific coast, [[Anatolia|Asia Minor]], the [[Baltic Sea|Baltic]] and [[White Sea]]s
* 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
** [[Battle of Sinop|Destruction of the Ottoman Fleet at Sinop]] - [[30 November]] [[1853]]
** The [[Siege of Petropavlovsk]] - 30-31 August 1854, on the Pacific coast
** The [[Battle of Alma]] - [[20 September]] [[1854]]
** [[Siege of Sevastopol (1854-1855)|Siege of Sevastopol]] (also known as, "[[Sevastopol|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 naval campaign|Sea of Azoff]] (Azov), May to November 1855
** [[Siege of Kars]], June to [[28 November]] [[1855]]
* It was the first war where the electric [[telegraphy|telegraph]] started to have a significant effect, with the first 'live' war reporting to ''[[The Times]]'' by [[William Howard Russell]]. Indeed, some credit Russell with prompting the resignation of the sitting British government through his reporting of the lacklustre shape of the British forces deployed to the Crimea. Additionally, the telegraph reduced the independence of British overseas possessions from their commanders in [[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.
==Prominent military commanders==
[[Image:Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky-Chapel.jpg|thumb|225px|Chapel in [[Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky]], commemorating the [[Siege of Petropavlovsk]] in 1854]]
* [[Russian Empire|Russian]] commanders
** [[Gorchakov|Mikhail Dmitriyevich Gorchakov]]
** [[Ivan Paskevich|Ivan Feodorovich Paskevich]]
** [[Pavel Stepanovich Nakhimov]]
** [[Eduard Ivanovich Totleben]]
** [[Aleksandr Sergeyevich Menshikov]]
* [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|British]] commanders
** [[James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan|Earl of Cardigan]]
** [[Fitzroy Somerset, 1st Lord Raglan|Lord Raglan]]
** [[Sir Thomas James Harper]]
** [[Edmund Lyons, 1st Baron Lyons|Sir Edmund Lyons (later 1st Lord Lyons)]]
* [[Second French Empire|French]] commanders
** [[Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud]]
** [[François Certain Canrobert]]
** [[Aimable Pélissier]]
* [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] commanders
** [[Abdülkerim Nadir Pasha]]
** [[Omar Pasha]]
* [[Kingdom of Sardinia|Sardo-Piedmontese]] commanders
** [[Alfonso Ferrero La Marmora]]
==Last Veterans==
*Yves Prigent (1833-1938). Was in French Navy.<ref>http://derniersveterans.free.fr/crimee.html</ref>
*Charles Nathan (1834-1934). Last French soldier, also saw action in Italy, Syria, Mexico and the Franco-Prussian War.
*Edwin Hughes (1830-1927). Last survivor of the [[Charge of the Light Brigade]]. May also have been the last British veteran of the Crimean War.<ref>http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/307381</ref>
==Crimean War in fiction==
* ''[[The Charge of the Light Brigade (poem)|The Charge of the Light Brigade]]'' by [[Alfred Lord Tennyson|Alfred, Lord Tennyson]] depicted a disastrous but brave [[cavalry]] [[charge (warfare)|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.
* [[Garry Kilworth|Garry Douglas Kilworth]]'s series of Fancy Jack Crossman novels, 5 in all, also deal with the Crimean War. ''Battle of the Alma'', ''The Valley of Death'', ''Soldiers in the Mist'', ''The Winter Soldiers'', ''Battle for the Redan''.
* [[George MacDonald Fraser]]'s novel ''[[Flashman at the Charge]]'' (1986) is also set in the Crimean War. Fraser uses his anti-hero [[Harry Flashman]] to provide a first-person perspective of the events leading up to the disastrous Charge of the Light Brigade, as well as the Charge itself.
* [[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 era|Victorian times]]?
* ''Jack Archer: A Tale of the Crimea'' by [[G.A. Henty]], 1883, a historical novel, details the adventures of two sailors in the Crimean War.
* "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 [[Psychological trauma|traumatised]] veteran of the Crimean War and contains a number of references and [[flashback]]s to this conflict.
* The [[Brazil]]ian novelist [[Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis]] used the [[Crimean War]] as the subject of a polemic between the protagonist Bento and his sickly neighbour in his masterpiece ''[[Dom Casmurro]]''. The neighbour concludes every letter he writes in support of the Anglo-French alliance with the statement, "The Russians will never enter Constantinople!" prompting Bento to reflect, years after the neighbour's death, on the sense of permanency created by his use of the word "never", wondering when the statement would become invalid or if the Russians would ever enter Constantinople, though the war ended long ago.
* 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 [[Michael Crichton]] novel ''[[The Great Train Robbery (novel)|The Great Train Robbery]]'' revolves around the theft of a gold shipment that was to pay the troops in the Crimea.
* The Crimean War is mentioned as the time in which the background events to the Sherlock Holmes Adventure of the "Gloria Scott" took place.
* In chapter 34 of Anna Sewell's novel ''[[Black Beauty]]'' an old war horse called Captain tells Black Beauty of his experiences in the cavalry during the Crimean war.
* In William Golding's novel ''[[The Pyramid (Golding)|The Pyramid]]'' the advances in [[turnip]] production during the Crimean war are referenced throughout, with the novel possibly being a metaphor for farm life.<ref name=turnip>[http://freeshells.ch/~cimex/crim/turnip.html The Pyramid and the Crimean War]</ref>
* The novel ''The Rose of Sebastapol'' by Katherine McMahon is set in Victorian England during the Crimean War, with the latter part of the book being set in the Crimea itself.
* The song "[[Abdul Abulbul Amir]]" by Irish music hall performer [[William Percy French|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.
* The [[Irish music]] song "[[The Kerry Recruit]]" deals with the experiences of a young man from [[County Kerry|Kerry]] who fights in the war.
* The music video for [[Kasabian]] song "[[Empire (song)|Empire]]" is set during the Crimean War - with the band members as British infantrymen. It was shot on location outside of Bucharest, Romania.
* The song "[[The Trooper]]" by English metal band [[Iron Maiden]] is about the Crimean War.
*[[Kevin J. Anderson]]'s novel ''Captain Nemo: The Fantastic History of a Dark Genius'' includes a number of [[Jules Verne]]'s characters, including [[Captain Nemo]] and [[Robur the Conqueror]], as being involved in the Allied side of the Crimean War.
*[[James Joyce]]'s [[Finnegans Wake]] includes an episode known as "How Buckley Shot the Russian General" which is based on a story from the Crimean War and contains innumerable references to the war, its locales, the languages spoken there, and the literature inspired by the war, including "The Charge of the Light Brigade."
*In the television series [[Charmed]], [[The Charmed Ones]], while fighting the Lords of War in Season 1, read from the Book of Shadows that their great-great-great aunt, Brianna Warren, a witch with the power of telekinesis, fought the Lords of War during the Crimean War.
==See also==
* [[Florence Nightingale]]
* [[Mary Seacole]]
* [[Roger Fenton]], Crimean War photographer
* [[Timothy (tortoise)]], naval mascot
* [[History of the Balkans]]
* [[Crimean War Memorial]]
* [[Anglo-Russian War (1807-1812)]]
* [[Crimean War medals]]
* [[List of Crimean War Victoria Cross recipients]]
* [[Fort Queenscliff]]
==References==
===Notes===
{{reflist|2}}
===Bibliography===
* Bridge and Bullen, ''The Great Powers and the European States System 1814-1914'', (Pearson Education: London), 2005
* Bamgart, Winfried ''The Crimean War, 1853-1856'' (2002) Arnold Publishers ISBN 0-340-61465-X
* Ponting, Clive ''The Crimean War'' (2004) Chatto and Windus ISBN 0-7011-7390-4
* Pottinger Saab, Anne ''The Origins of the Crimean Alliance'' (1977) University of Virginia Press ISBN 0-8139-0699-7
* Rich, Norman ''Why the Crimean War: A Cautionary Tale'' (1985) McGraw-Hill ISBN 0-07-052255-3
* Royce, Simon ''The Crimean War and its place in European Economic History'' (2001) University of London Press ISBN 0-3825-2868-6
* Royle, Trevor ''Crimea: The Great Crimean War, 1854-1856'' (2000) Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 1-4039-6416-5
* Schroeder, Paul W. ''Austria, Great Britain, and the Crimean War: The Destruction of the European Concert'' (1972) Cornell University Press ISBN 0-8014-0742-7
* Wetzel, David ''The Crimean War: A Diplomatic History'' (1985) Columbia University Press ISBN 0-88033-086-4
===Further reading===
* Hamley, ''The War in the Crimea'', (London, 1891)
* Kinglake, ''The Invasion of the Crimea'', (nine volumes, London, 1863-87)
* Russell, ''The War in the Crimea, 1854-56'', (London, 1855-56)
* Marx, ''The Eastern Question, 1853-56'', (translated by E. M. and E. Aveling, London, 1897)
* Lodomir, ''La guerre de 1853-56'', (Paris, 1857)
* Kovalevski, ''Der Krieg Russlands mit der Türkei in den Jahren'' 1853-54'', (Leipzig, 1869)
* Rein, ''Die Teilnahme Sardiniens am Krimkrieg und de öffentliche Meinung in Italien'', (Leipzig, 1910)
==External links==
{{Portal|Military history of the Ottoman Empire|image=Topcu_arma.jpg}}
{{Commons|Crimean War}}
* [http://www.militaryheritage.com/enfield1853.htm Loading and Firing British Muskets in the Crimean War 1854-1856]
* [http://www.datesofhistory.com/Crimean-War-Austria.general.html Austria Chronology Crimean War]
* [http://www.datesofhistory.com/Crimean-War-France.general.html France Chronology Crimean War]
* [http://www.datesofhistory.com/Crimean-War-Great-Britain.general.html Great Britain Chronology Crimean War]
* [http://www.datesofhistory.com/Crimean-War-Italy.general.html Italy Chronology Crimean War]
* [http://www.datesofhistory.com/Crimean-War-Russia.general.html Russia Chronology Crimean War]
* [http://www.datesofhistory.com/Crimean-War-Turkey.general.html Turkey Chronology Crimean War]
* [http://www.crimeanwar.org/ Crimean War Research Society.]
* [http://www.victorianweb.org/history/crimea/immcauses.html Immediate causes of the War detailed in context.]
* [http://dl.lib.brown.edu/libweb/collections/askb/ Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University Library] Prints, drawings, and watercolours
* [http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/19thcentury/articles/tunisiacrimea.aspx The Tunisian Army in the Crimean War: A Military Mystery] by Dr. Andrew McGregor
* [http://www.britishembassy.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1044360079988 The Baltic Campaign of the Crimean War]
* [http://www.john-leech-archive.org.uk/keyword/crimean-war.htm Punch Sketches on Crimean War]
* [http://allworldwars.com/index.php/Balaclava_and_the_Sevastopol_Inquiry Commander W. Gordon, R.N. (H.M.S Sansapareil). Balaclava and the Sevastopol Inquiry, 1855]
* [http://www.closebracket.com/genealogy/hastingsintro.html The Army Service of Hastings McAllister]
* [http://boar.org.uk/abiwxo3Bournedoc001.htm A small peace celebration: 19th May 1856]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062790/ The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968 Movie)]
[[Category:Crimean War| ]]
[[Category:Wars involving France]]
[[Category:Wars involving Russia]]
[[Category:Wars involving the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:19th century in France]]
[[Category:19th century in the United Kingdom]]
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