1. The Crimean War (1853-1856) A Turning Point in European Affairs

2. The Crimean War ( )
By the onset of the Crimean War, the Russian empire had expanded in three directions: east into Manchuria (China), south into the Caucasus and central Asia (Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan) and southwest towards the Mediterranean.
This expansion, especially towards the Mediterranean, threatened to upset the balance of power in Europe.

3. The Crimean War ( )
For centuries, one central goal of Russian foreign policy was to obtain a warm water port in the south--namely, at the Bosporus Straits and the Strait of the Dardanelles, the small waterways connecting the Black Sea to the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas.
But since the 15th century, this territory was in Ottoman hands.

4. The Crimean War ( )
In 1853, Russia sought increased power in the Black Sea region and the Balkans by provoking the decaying Ottoman Empire.
Russian prestige had been damaged by the Ottoman sultan when the sultan assigned the care of certain holy places in Palestine to French Roman Catholics (and not Russian Orthodox clerics).

5. The Crimean War ( )
Control of access to religious sites in the Holy Land had been a cause of tension between Catholic France and Orthodox Russia for a number of years and in 1853, the conflict came to a head with rioting in Bethlehem, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire.
A number of Orthodox monks were killed during fighting with French monks. Russian Tsar Nicholas I blamed the Turks for these deaths.

6. The Crimean War ( )
But more important to Russia than the protection of holy land sites was the fate of the weak Ottoman Empire (what was known as the “Eastern Question”).
Russia wanted to absorb as much Ottoman territory as possible.

7. The Crimean War ( )
Looking for a way to provoke the Ottomans, and hoping to breakup their empire, Russia demanded that the Ottomans recognize Russia's right to protect Eastern Orthodox believers in Moldavia and Wallachia (today’s Romania).

8. The Crimean War ( )
When the Ottomans refused, Russia sent troops into Ottoman territory.
The Ottomans then declared war on Russia.
Sultan Abdulmecid.

9. The Crimean War ( )
The Russian fleet then engaged the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Sinope (where the Russians blasted the Ottoman’s wooden ships “to bits”).

10. The Crimean War ( )
The Russians, who could hold their own against the weak Ottoman and Qing (Chinese) empires, were going to be no match for the industrial powers of western Europe.
In March 1854, Great Britain and France, enemies for more than a century, together declared war on Russia.

11. The Crimean War ( )
The British and French entered the war because they feared that the weakness of the Ottoman Empire (the “sick man of Europe”) was inviting Russian adventurism in the Balkans and that Russia might capture Istanbul and gain access to the Mediterranean.
This would challenge British naval control in the eastern Mediterranean and perhaps British control of India.

12. The Crimean War ( )
France wanted military/diplomatic glory and wanted to break up the conservative Austro-Russian alliance that had held France in check since 1815.
Since France was in political turmoil (again) Napoleon III hoped an activist foreign policy would shore up domestic support for his regime (“wag the dog theory”).

13. The Crimean War ( )
In September 1854, allied forces (British, French, and Ottoman) mounted a campaign against the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet at Sevastopol (in the Crimea).
Unable to mobilize, equip, and effectively transport troops to defeat European forces who were led by mediocre commanders, Russian armies suffered devastating and humiliating defeats on their own land.

14. The Crimean War ( )
Fighting was at times ruthless and savage; both sides suffered high casualties.
The Crimean War was notable for the incredible incompetence of all participants, especially the Russians.
In some engagements, both sides quickly ran out of ammunition and soldiers resorted to throwing rocks at each other.

15. The Crimean War ( )
Not only did generals show their military incompetence, governments showed theirs as they failed to provide their soldiers with even minimal supplies, sanitation, or medical care.
Hospitals had no beds, no dishes, no clean bandages, and no fresh water.
Tennyson immortalized one case of battlefield stupidity with his Charge of the Light Brigade (from the Battle of Balaclava).

16. The Crimean War ( )
Most of the three-quarters of a million casualties did not die in battle, but perished due to disease in filthy field hospitals, something that inspired Florence Nightingale ( ) to revolutionize the nursing profession.

17. The Crimean War ( )
Mrs. Nightingale, at her own expense, escaped the confines of middle-class domesticity and organized the first battlefield nursing service.
Nightingale shamed the British government into improving the sanitary conditions for the troops.

18. The Crimean War ( )
Partially as a result of the medical ineptitude experienced in Crimea (and other places), a Swiss humanitarian founded the International Red Cross in 1864 (she received the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901). In honor of her country, the flag was a reversal of the Swiss flag.

19. The Crimean War ( )
A British soldier in full uniform and lightweight tent. These tents were fine when the weather was good, but totally inadequate for Russian winters.

20. The Crimean War ( )
The war came to an end in 1856 when the Russian fortress at Sevastopol fell.
Upon his father’s death (1855), Russia’s new tsar Alexander II sued for peace when Austria threatened to enter the war against him.

21. The Crimean War ( )
The main casualty of the war was that the Concert of Europe, the idea that the great powers (France, Britain, Prussia, Austria, and Russia) could work together—was finally shattered. Europe’s fragile unity had been destroyed.
As losers, the 1856 Peace of Paris took away the Russian naval bases on the Black Sea.

22. The Crimean War ( )
Most historians consider the Crimean War one of the most senseless in history because its issues could have been settled by diplomacy.
Yet this war was full of consequence for it contained many firsts:
First use of a railroad to transport men/supplies
First to use steam powered ships and ironclads
First use of shell firing cannons

23. The Crimean War (1853-1856) First wide scale use of bolt-action rifles
First wide scale use of Minie’ ball bullets

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Development of the modern field hospital.

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The relationship of the home front to the battlefront began to change for the new technology of the telegraph and press coverage gave home audiences the news quicker than ever before.

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This was the first war in Europe since the Napoleonic Era and the last major conflict until World War I.
The stresses of war can show a nation at its best or at its worst…in the case of Russia in the Crimea, it showed the backwardness of her agrarian society in comparison to the industrialized states of Western Europe.

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Previously Russia and Austria had worked together; now they were bitter enemies (and would remain so in World War I and II).
Russia clearly needed social reform and needed it quickly: serfdom had to end.

28. The Crimean War ( )
Tsar Alexander II launched a series of “Great Reforms,” starting with the emancipation of 50 million serfs in 1861.

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Emancipated but chained to enormous debt and particular plots of land, the serfs still couldn’t form the pool of labor Russia needed to industrialize like Western Europe.
Russia would continue to lag behind the West for several more decades.