Crimean War

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Crimean War, 1853–6. Known to contemporaries as ‘the Russian War’, this arose from long-term Russian ambitions to expand westward and southward, resisted by Britain as a matter of policy. The immediate cause was a petty struggle between Russia and France over rights in Ottoman Turkey. This produced an ultimatum from Russia to Turkey in March 1853, followed by Russian occupation of the Ottoman Danubian provinces (modern Romania) and a naval victory over Turkey at Sinope on 27 November. Britain and France (later joined by Sardinia as well as Turkey) issued their own ultimatum on 27 March 1854.

The Black Sea theatre dominated contemporary perspectives of the war. Britain supplied a field army of about 28,000, which, with a French contingent of equal size, landed in May 1854 at Varna to defend it against Russian forces crossing the Danube. When this threat failed to materialize, the allied armies were transferred to the Crimean peninsula, landing north of the main Russian naval base of Sebastopol on 14 September. Their first victory, at the Alma six days later, enabled them to continue south around Sebastopol from the landward side to Balaclava, so establishing a partial siege of the base.

Through the autumn the Russians tried to break the siege of Sebastopol, the two major attacks being at Balaclava in October and Inkerman in November. After surviving a bad winter, for which they were not equipped, the allies launched naval expeditions against the smaller Russian bases of Kerch at the eastern end of the Crimea in May and Kinburn (near Odessa) in October 1855. Meanwhile, the Russians made one final attempt to relieve Sebastopol in August at the Tchernaya (in which the British were hardly involved). Repeated British and French attacks on Sebastopol finally led to the base becoming untenable and the Russians abandoned it in October.

Modern historical study pays at least as much attention to the purely naval campaign fought in the Baltic as to the Crimean theatre. The end of the war came about not through the fall of Sebastopol but through the British victory in August 1855 in destroying by bombardment the Russian dockyard at Sweaborg (outside modern Helsinki). Together with Kinburn, this demonstrated the vulnerability of Russian naval bases to British ships, a threat made explicit that winter with the building of the ‘Great Armament’, a floating siege train of over 360 vessels intended to capture the main Russian naval base in the Baltic at Cronstadt. Rather than face the loss of Cronstadt as well as Sebastopol, the Russians agreed to moderate allied peace terms in the treaty of Paris of 30 March 1856, with the Black Sea declared neutral and the Danube an open waterway.

The result of the Crimean War has been much debated. By pursuing a realistic limited aim the Allies held Russia in check for a generation, rather than destroying themselves by marching on Moscow. Equally, although British performance in the Crimea was a contemporary byword for incompetence, it is recognized that the army did not perform much worse than at the start of the Napoleonic wars, was as much a victim of government parsimony as of its own faults, and that by the winter of 1855 most of its problems were solved.

Stephen Badsey

Crimean War, 1853–6. Known to contemporaries as ‘the Russian War’, this arose from long‐term Russian ambitions to expand westward and southward. The immediate cause was a petty struggle between Russia and France over rights in Ottoman Turkey. This produced an ultimatum from Russia to Turkey in March 1853, followed by Russian occupation of the Ottoman Danubian provinces (modern Romania) and a naval victory over Turkey at Sinope on 27 November. Britain and France (later joined by Sardinia as well as Turkey) issued their own ultimatum against Russia on 27 March 1854.

The Black Sea theatre dominated contemporary perspectives of the war. Britain supplied a field army of about 28, 000, which, with a French contingent of equal size, landed in May 1854 at Varna to defend it against Russian forces crossing the Danube. When this threat failed to materialize, the allied armies were transferred to the Crimean peninsula, landing north of the main Russian naval base of Sebastopol on 14 September. Their first victory, at the Alma six days later, enabled them to continue south around Sebastopol to Balaclava, so establishing a partial siege of the base.

Through the autumn the Russians tried to break the siege of Sebastopol, the major attacks being at Balaclava in October and Inkerman in November. After surviving a bad winter, the allies launched naval expeditions against the smaller Russian bases of Kerch in May and Kinburn (near Odessa) in October 1855. Meanwhile, the Russians made one final attempt to relieve Sebastopol in August at the Tchernaya. Repeated British and French attacks on Sebastopol finally led to the base becoming untenable and the Russians abandoned it in October.

Modern historical study pays as much attention to the naval campaign fought in the Baltic as to the Crimean theatre. The end of the war came about not through the fall of Sebastopol but through the British victory in August 1855 in destroying the Russian dockyard at Sweaborg (outside modern Helsinki). Rather than face the loss of Cronstadt as well as Sebastopol, the Russians agreed to moderate peace terms in the treaty of Paris of 30 March 1856, with the Black Sea declared neutral and the Danube an open waterway.

The result of the Crimean War has been much debated. By pursuing a limited aim the allies held Russia in check for a generation, rather than destroying themselves by marching on Moscow. Equally, although British performance in the Crimea was a contemporary byword for incompetence, it is recognized that by the winter of 1855 most of its problems were solved.

Crimean War , 1853–56, war between Russia on the one hand and the Ottoman Empire, Great Britain, France, and Sardinia on the other. The causes of the conflict were inherent in the unsolved Eastern Question . The more immediate occasion was a dispute between Russia and France over the Palestinian holy places. Challenging the claim of Russia to guardianship of the holy places, France in 1852 secured from Sultan Abd al-Majid certain privileges for the Latin churches. Russian counterdemands were turned down (1853) by the Ottoman government.

In July, 1853, Russia retorted by occupying the Ottoman vassal states of Moldavia and Walachia, and in October, after futile negotiations, the Ottomans declared war. In Mar., 1854, Britain and France, having already dispatched fleets to the Black Sea, declared war on Russia; Sardinia followed suit in Jan., 1855. Austria remained neutral, but by threatening to enter the war on the Ottoman side forced Russia to evacuate Moldavia and Walachia, which were occupied (Aug., 1854) by Austrian troops.

In Sept., 1854, allied troops landed in the Crimea, with the object of capturing Sevastopol . The Russian fortress, defended by Totleben , resisted heroically until Sept., 1855. Allied commanders were Lord Raglan for the British and Marshal Saint-Arnaud, succeeded later by Marshal Canrobert, for the French. Military operations, which were marked on both sides by great stubbornness, gallantry, and disregard for casualties, remained localized. Famous episodes were the battles of Balaklava and Inkerman (1854) and the allied capture (1855) of Malakhov and Redan, which preceded the fall of Sevastopol. On the Asian front the Russians gained advantages and occupied Kars.

The accession (1855) of Czar Alexander II and the capture of Sevastopol led to peace negotiations that resulted (Feb., 1856) in the Treaty of Paris (see Paris, Congress of ). The Crimean War ended the dominant role of Russia in SE Europe; the cooling of Austro-Russian relations was an important factor in subsequent European history. The scandalous treatment of the troops, particularly the wounded, depicted by war correspondents, prompted the work of Florence Nightingale , which was perhaps the most positive result of the war.

Bibliography: See studies by D. Wetzel (1985), A. Palmer (1987), T. Royle (2000), S. Markovitz (2009), and O. Figes (2011).

Crimean War (1853–56) A war fought by Russia against Turkey, Britain, France, and Piedmont. The immediate cause was the dispute between France and Russia over the Palestinian holy places. War became inevitable after the Russians, having failed to obtain equal rights with the French, occupied territories of the OTTOMAN EMPIRE in July 1853. In a bid to prevent Russian expansion in the Black Sea area and to ensure existing trade routes, a conference was convened in Vienna. Turkey was pressed by the Powers to make some concessions to placate Russia, but it refused, and declared war. In November 1853 the Russians destroyed the Turkish fleet at Sinope, in the Black Sea. This forced the hand of Britain and France, who in March 1854 declared war, expecting, with their naval supremacy, a quick victory. Austria did not join the Allies but, by mobilizing its army, obliged the Russians to evacuate the provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia which they had occupied. The Allied forces were at first mustered at Varma, but in August 1854 they were transported to Eupatoria on the Crimea with Lord RAGLAN, commander-in-chief of an ill-prepared army which had been ravaged by cholera. They were able to defeat the Russian army, skilfully led by Menschikov, at the battle of the River Alma (20 September 1854) and began bombarding the strongly armed fort of Sevastopol. Following the Battle of BALAKLAVA, a long winter of siege warfare ensued, aggravated by lack of fuel, clothing, and supplies for the Allied armies. Public opinion in Britain became critical of the war after reading eyewitness reports in The Times, sent back by the Irishman W. H. Russell, the first journalist in history to write as a war correspondent using the telegraph. Florence NIGHTINGALE received permission to take nurses to the Crimea. Sevastopol fell on 8 September 1855; by that time the Russians, with a new emperor, ALEXANDER II, were already seeking peace. This was concluded at the Congress of PARIS in 1856.

Crimean War (1853–56) Fought by Britain, France, and the Ottoman Turks against Russia. In 1853, Russia occupied Turkish territory and France and Britain, determined to preserve the Ottoman Empire, invaded the Crimea (1854) to attack Sevastopol. The war was marked on both sides by incompetent leadership and organization. The Charge of the Light Brigade is the best-known example. Sevastopol was eventually captured (1855). At the Treaty of Paris (1856) Russia surrendered its claims on the Ottoman Empire.

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Crimean War a war (1853–6) between Russia and an alliance of Great Britain, France, Sardinia, and Turkey. Russian aggression against Turkey led to war, with Turkey's European allies intervening to destroy Russian naval power in the Black Sea in 1854 and eventually capture the fortress city of Sebastopol in 1855 after a lengthy siege. In Britain the war was chiefly remembered for the deficiencies in the British army's medical services exposed by the work of Florence Nightingale and others.