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THE Crimean War 1853-1856

The "Eastern Question" began to emerge after the Napoleonicwars as a European balance of power problem revolving aroundthe fate of the weakening Ottoman Empire.

Following its victory over the Ottoman Empire in 1829 when ittook the mouth of the Danube and the eastern coast of the BlackSea, Russia continued to seek warm water ports with access tothe big seas, eyeing especially access to the Mediterraneanthrough the Bosporus.

Russia also continued expanding into the Caucasus and towardPersia. Britain was concerned about these possible threats to itsown possessions and communications with the East.

France entered the equation with the rise to power in 1848 ofLouis Napoleon who sought to consolidate his position andincrease national prestige by declaring the Second Empire in

1852. The catalyst for war was a growing dispute from 1840s over the

religious custody of Christian Holy Places in Palestine.

Catholic monks under French protection had tended theJerusalem and Bethlehem holy places since the sixteenthcentury, and this had been guaranteed in perpetuity by theOttoman capitulations of 1740.

Louis Napoleon, seeing the possibilities for political influence,sought reinstatement of the capitulations in 1852, and, after hiscoronation as Emperor, his concern about religion in the Eastbecame a rallying cry for French Catholics.

The Sultan supported French claims of jurisdiction. Tsar Nikolai Iobjected that Russia was the true defender of Christianity in theEast, that such a protectorate existed by the Treaty of KuchukKainarji (1774), and that Greek Orthodox were by far themajority Christians (ten million) in the East.

The dispute broke into violence in Jerusalem between Catholicand Orthodox monks, and the Muslim governor intervened in1847 to prevent Christian killing Christian. More importantly,French imperial intrigues revived Russian proposals for dividingthe Ottoman empire.

The tsar secretly sounded out the British about dismemberingthe Ottoman empire, but the British, continuing Palmerstonespolicy of containing Russia, indicated they would do all theycould to keep the dying empire alive.

In March 1853 Russia issued an ultimatum that amounted to ademand for Ottoman unconditional surrender: recognition ofexclusive Orthodox Christian rights in the Holy Land, Russianprotection of those rights, restrictions on other Christians who

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might interfere with Russian influence, and a new secret allianceto "protect" the Ottoman Empire from the French.

The Sultan refused. In July Russia invaded the Ottoman DanubianPrincipalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. For five months theTurks held the upper hand, encouraged by a British and French

naval show of force around the Dardanelles. When in November the Russian Black Sea Fleet destroyed the

Turkish fleet off Sinope, Britain and France were alarmed andsent an expedition to the East to protect the Ottoman Empirefrom Russian aggression

The eventual main object was a punitive strike to destroy theBlack Sea Fleet and its Crimean base at Sebastopol. In othertheatres, the Turks fought Russian advances in Armenia, and theBritish and French sent fleets into the Baltic. There were alsominor naval engagements in the White Sea and the north Pacific.

Results

After a year-long siege, Britain captured the Russian naval base ofSebastopol and proceeded to destroy all its naval and militaryinstallations in December 1855 while preparing for a spring offensive.

But the war had already exhausted the Allies, and both sides acceptedan Austrian-mediated armistice. The subsequent Treaty of Paris didmuch to set back Russian expansionism by almost a hundred years,but Alexander I viewed this as a temporary reversal and a "blot on hisreign".

Britain, France and Austria guaranteed the integrity of the OttomanEmpire, but a degree of autonomy was granted to Serbia, Moldavia andWallachia. The Black Sea and Bosporus Straits became a demilitarizedzone with warships and naval arsenals on its shores denied.

Tsar Aleksandr saw his first opportunity when in 1870 France wasincapacitated by its war with Prussia.

Chancellor Bismarck suggested a diplomatic compromise, and in 1871the signatories of the 1856 treaty lifted the restrictions and allowedRussia to fortify Sebastopol and rebuild its Black Sea Fleet.

The western powers did not foresee the disastrous results. Fomentingpan-Slavic insurrection in the Balkans in order to extend tsaristinfluence, Russia ignored British appeals for moderation and claimedthat its own security was threatened.

With the Turks on the verge of regaining control of its erstwhile Balkanprovinces and tales of Turkish atrocities abounding, Russia mobilised650,000 men and invaded Romania and Bulgaria in 1877, whilesimultaneously advancing once again against Kars in the east.

The Ottoman empire was decisively beaten, and by the Treaty of SanStefano in 1878, it recognised the independence or autonomy ofSerbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Romania

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Britain, feeling once again threatened by the altered status of theStraits and Russian designs on the Mediterranean, concluded adefensive treaty with the Ottoman Empire which included the right tooccupy and administer Cyprus.

Taking on the role of "honest broker", Bismarck convened theCongress of Berlin in 1878 to peacefully revise the Treaty of SanStefano with a view to restoring the balance of power. Russia returnedfew territorial gains to the Ottoman empire, but some were dividedbetween Russia and Austria-Hungary.

Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro remained independent withadditional territory. Greater Bulgaria was cut off from the Aegean andreduced to an Ottoman principality. Russia restored parts of Armenia,but retained Kars and other cities. The treaty also reconfirmed thedemilitarization of the Bosporus Straits.

http://www.regiments.org/nations/europe/cyprus.htmhttp://www.regiments.org/nations/europe/cyprus.htm