Transcript XI. Crimean War

The Crimean War
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The Crimean War (1853 - 1856) was fought
between the Russian Empire on one side and an
alliance of France, Britain, the Ottoman Empire
and later Sardinia-Piedmont on the other. The
majority of the conflict took place on the
Crimean peninsula, with additional actions
occurring in the Caucasus, Northern Balkans, the
Baltic Sea region, and in the Russian Far East.
The war is generally seen as the first modern
conflict introducing some major technical
changes which affected the future course of
warfare in the rest of the 19th century and in
the 20th century.
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The original cause of the Crimean War was the
competition between the French Empire,
proclaimed in 1852 by the nephew of Napoléon
Bonaparte, crowning himself as Napoléon III,
and the Russian Empire, over the protectorate of
the “Holy Land” (Palestine with Jerusalem).
After its consecutive victories over the declining
Ottoman Empire in the 18th century, Russia had
obtained the status of a Christian “protector
power” over the Christian subjects of the Sultan
on the Holy Land.
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The newest treaty signed by the will and
insistance of Napoléon III between France and
the Ottomans, confirmed France and the
Catholic Church as the supreme Christian
organization in the Holy Land, and gave the
French Empire supreme control over the various
Christian holy places, and gave the keys of the
“Church of the Nativity”, previously in the hands
of the Greek Orthodox Church, to the Catholic
Church.
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Tsar Nicholas I naming the Ottoman Empire “the
sick man of Europe” dispatched one of his
talented diplomats, Prince Menshikov, on a
special mission to the Sublime Porte (Bab-ı Ali)
to threaten the weakening empire.
By previous Russo-Ottoman treaties, the Sultan
had already been committed "to protect the
Christian religion and its Churches", but
Menshikov attempted to negotiate a new treaty,
under which the Russian Empire would be
allowed to interfere whenever it judged the
Sultan's protection inadequate.
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Menshikov also demanded the replacement of
some high Ottoman bureaucrats in a clear
violation of the Ottoman sovereignty rights.
France and Britain, worried about the Russian
expansionism in the Near East, clearly showed
their supports to the Ottoman Empire by
sending war fleets to Istanbul.
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With the French and British support, Abdülmecit
refused Menshikov’s proposals and the Tsar
marched his armies into Moldavia and Wallachia
(Ottoman principalities in which Russia was
acknowledged as a special protector of the
Orthodox Church), using the Sultan's failure to
resolve the issue of the Holy Places as a pretext.
Nicholas I believed that the Great Powers,
especially Austria, would not resist to the
annexation of the Ottoman Danubian provinces,
especially given Russian involvement in helping
to suppress the Revolution of 1848 in Hungary.
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Nicholas I sent his powerful Black Sea war fleet
against the Ottoman navy and destroyed a
squadron of the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of
Sinop on 30 November 1853.
The destruction of the Ottoman fleet alarmed
both London and Paris.
In 1853, after Russia ignored an Franco-British
ultimatum to withdraw from the Danubian
principalities, Britain and France declared war on
the Russian Empire.
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Joint French, Ottoman and British expeditionary
forces landed on the Crimean peninsula
besieging the Russian fortified city of
Sebastopol.
Later the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont, hoping
to gain the French support in their future conflict
in Northern Italy against the Austrian Empire,
joined the conflict and sent also an
expeditionary corps to Crimea.
Some minor naval and military action also took
place on the Russian Pacific coast, the Caucasus,
the Baltic and White Seas.
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Peace negotiations began in 1856 under
Nicholas I's successor, Alexander II after the fall
of Sebastopol at the end of highly costful
battles.
By the Peace Treaty of Paris, the Tsar and the
Sultan agreed not to establish any naval or
military arsenal on the littoral of the Black Sea,
greatly diminishing the naval threat that Russia
posed to the Ottoman Empire.
Moreover, all the Great Powers pledged to
respect the independence and territorial integrity
of the Ottoman Empire.
Attention
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The Treaty of Paris stood until 1871, when the
French Empire was crushed by the Prussian led
German Confederation in the Franco-Prussian
War of 1870-1871. While Prussia and several
other German states united to form the mighty
German Empire, the Emperor of the French,
Napoleon III, was deposed and the III. French
Republic was proclaimed.
During his reign (1852-1871), Napoleon III,
willing to have the support of Britain, had
opposed Russia over the “Eastern Question”,
although Russian interference in the Ottoman
Empire, however, did not directly threaten the
French interests.
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So, the new French republic began to look for a
rapprochement with Russia against its new
hostile neighbour, the German Empire (II.
Reich).
Encouraged by the French attitude, and
supported by the German chancellor Otto von
Bismarck, Russia denounced the Black Sea
clauses of the Paris Treaty of 1856.
As Britain alone could not enforce the clauses,
Russia once again established a war fleet in the
Black Sea.
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Having abandoned its alliance with Russia in the
Crimean War, Austria was diplomatically isolated
following the war.
This isolation was one of the reasons of its
defeat in the 1866 Austro-Prussian War and loss
of influence in most of the German-speaking
lands. Soon after, Austria would ally with Prussia
as it became the new German Empire, creating
the conditions that would lead to the First World
War.