Crimean War

The Crimean War was named for the Crimean peninsula, in what is now Ukraine, which was the main site of the war. The immediate cause of the war was a religious quarrel. In 1853 Czar Nicholas I of Russia demanded the right to protect Christian shrines in Jerusalem, then part of the Turkish empire. As a first step, his troops moved into the Turkish Balkans.

The Turkish sultan, counting on the support of Great Britain and France, refused the czar's demands. Great Britain feared its route to India would be cut off if Russia took Constantinople. Napoleon III, emperor of France, was eager to show that he was the true successor to his uncle, Napoleon I. War finally began in March 1854. By August, Turkey, with the help of Britain, France, and Sardinia, had driven the Russian forces out of the Balkans.

In order to bring the war to a decisive end, the allied fleets proceeded to the Crimean peninsula. There their troops landed on Sept. 16, 1854, and laid siege to the Russian fortress of Sevastopol'. Severe battles were fought in the Crimea at the Alma River, at Balaklava (immortalized in Tennyson's poem ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade'), and at Inkerman. During the siege of Sevastopol' disease took a dreadful toll of French and British troops. Florence Nightingale's heroic work as head of the hospital service did much to improve conditions (see Nightingale, Florence). Not until September 1855 was the smoking ruin of Sevastopol' in allied hands.

In 1856 the powers signed a treaty at Paris. The new czar, Alexander II, withdrew all claims to Balkan territory. The Black Sea was neutralized. Turkey was admitted to the family of European powers, the sultan promising to treat his Christian subjects according to the public law of Europe. At the peace conference the powers agreed also to the Declaration of Paris, abolishing privateering on the sea and allowing trade in neutral goods in time of war. But the Balkan problem was not settled.

The sultan soon proved unwilling to treat the Christians as he had promised, and Russia took the first opportunity of resuming its advance to the south. Not until after World War II would the Balkan region become fairly stabilized.

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Source: Encyclopedia Britannica