Dr.

Katyayani Singh,
Assistant Professor.
The Crimean War, 1856

Katyayani Singh, Assistant Professor

Ottoman Empire
• Turkey
• Greece
• Bulgaria
• Egypt
• Hungary
• Macedonia
• Romania
• Jordan
• Palestine
• Lebanon
• Syria
• Some of Arabia
• A considerable amount of the North
African coastal strip

Katyayani Singh, Assistant Professor

• The Crimean War was another chapter in the story of the
Eastern Question, or who would be the chief beneficiaries
of the disintegration of the Turkish or Ottoman Empire.
The Ottoman Empire had long been in control of much of
southeastern Europe, but by the beginning of the
nineteenth century, it had begun to decline

Katyayani Singh, Assistant Professor

• As Ottoman authority over the outlying territories in
southeastern Europe waned, European governments
began to take an active interest in the empire’s apparent
demise. Russia’s proximity to the Ottoman Empire and the
religious bonds between the Russians and the Greek
Orthodox Christians in Ottoman-dominated southeastern
Europe naturally gave it special opportunities to enlarge
its sphere of influence.
Katyayani Singh, Assistant Professor
• Other European powers not only feared Russian
ambitions but had ambitions of their own in the area.
Austria craved more land in the Balkans, a desire that
inevitably meant conflict with Russia, and France and
Britain were interested in commercial opportunities and
naval bases in the eastern Mediterranean.

Katyayani Singh, Assistant Professor

 Belligerents and Reasons
• The Crimean war was a military conflict from 1853 to 1856
• The Russian Empire lost to an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France,
Britain and Sardinia
• The immediate cause involved the rights of Christian minorities in the Holy
Land, which was a part of the Ottoman Empire. The French promoted the
rights of Roman Catholics, while Russia promoted those of the Eastern
Orthodox Church
• The longer-term causes involved the decline of the Ottoman Empire and
the unwillingness of Britain and France to allow Russia to gain territory and
power at Ottoman expense.
Katyayani Singh, Assistant Professor
Katyayani Singh, Assistant Professor
• The war arose from the conflict of great powers in the
Middle East and was more directly caused by Russian
demands to exercise protection over the Orthodox
subjects of the Ottoman sultan.
• Another major factor was the dispute between Russia and
France over the privileges of the Russian Orthodox and
Roman Catholic churches in the holy places in Palestine

Katyayani Singh, Assistant Professor

 The War
• The war started in the Balkans (part of Ottoman Empire) in July 1853,
when Russian troops occupied the Danubian Principalities which were
under Ottoman suzerainty.
• Near Sinope a Russian fleet attacked and destroyed a Turkish naval
squadron.
• In Britain such behaviour seemed intolerable both to Palmerston (British
P.M.)& to an excited public opinion susceptible to the popular press.
• In France Napoleon III felt impelled to meet clericalist demand for
action and to live up to the militarist tradition of his name.

Katyayani Singh, Assistant Professor

• In March, Britain and France Declared war on Russia.
• To satisfy Austria and avoid having that country also enter the war, Russia
evacuated the Danubian principalities. Austria occupied them in August
1854.
• In September 1854 the allies landed troops in Russian Crimea, on the north
shore of the Black Sea, and began a yearlong siege of the Russian fortress
of Sevastopol.
• Major engagements were fought at the Alma River on September 20, at
Balaklava on October 25 and at Inkerman on November 5. On January 26,
1855, Sardinia-Piedmont entered the war and sent 10,000 troops

Katyayani Singh, Assistant Professor

Katyayani Singh, Assistant Professor
• Finally, on September 11, 1855, three days after a
successful French assault on the Malakhov, a major
strongpoint in the Russian defenses, the Russians blew up
the forts, sank the ships, and evacuated Sevastopol.
Secondary operations of the war were conducted in the
Caucasus and in the Baltic Sea.

Katyayani Singh, Assistant Professor

 End of War
• After Austria threatened to join the allies, Russia accepted
preliminary peace terms on February 1, 1856.
• The Congress of Paris worked out the final settlement from
February 25 to March 30. The resulting Treaty of Paris, signed on
March 30, 1856, guaranteed the integrity of Ottoman Turkey and
obliged Russia to surrender southern Bessarabia, at the mouth of
the Danube.
• The Black Sea was neutralized, and the Danube River was opened
to the shipping of all nations.
Katyayani Singh, Assistant Professor
 War Effects
• The Crimean War was managed and commanded very poorly on both
sides.
• Disease accounted for a disproportionate number of the approximately
250,000 casualties lost by each side.
• When news of the deplorable conditions at the front reached the
British public, nurse Mary Seacole petitioned the War Office for passage
to Crimea. When she was refused, Seacole financed the trip to Balaklava
herself and established the British Hotel, an officer’s club and
convalescent home that she used as a base to treat the sick and
wounded on the battlefield.
Katyayani Singh, Assistant Professor
• Improvements made to the field hospital at Üsküdar by British
nurse Florence Nightingale revolutionized the treatment of
wounded soldiers and paved the way for later developments in
battlefield medicine.
• The war did not settle the relations of the powers in eastern
Europe. It did awaken the new Russian emperor Alexander II
(who succeeded Nicholas I in March 1855) to the need to
overcome Russia’s backwardness in order to compete
successfully with the other European powers
Katyayani Singh, Assistant Professor
• A further result of the war was that Austria, having sided
with Great Britain and France, lost the support of Russia
in central European affairs. Austria became dependent on
Britain and France, which failed to support that country,
leading to the Austrian defeats in 1859 and 1866 that, in
turn, led to the unification of Italy and of Germany.

Katyayani Singh, Assistant Professor