THE Crimean War 1853-1856 The "Eastern Question" began to emerge after the Napoleonic wars as a European balance

e of power problem revolving around the fate of the weakening Ottoman Empire. Following its victory over the Ottoman Empire in 1829 when it took the mouth of the Danube and the eastern coast of the Black Sea, Russia continued to seek warm water ports with access to the big seas, eyeing especially access to the Mediterranean through the Bosporus. Russia also continued expanding into the Caucasus and toward Persia. Britain was concerned about these possible threats to its own possessions and communications with the East. France entered the equation with the rise to power in 1848 of Louis Napoleon who sought to consolidate his position and increase 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 the Jerusalem and Bethlehem holy places since the sixteenth century, and this had been guaranteed in perpetuity by the Ottoman capitulations of 1740. Louis Napoleon, seeing the possibilities for political influence, sought reinstatement of the capitulations in 1852, and, after his coronation as Emperor, his concern about religion in the East became a rallying cry for French Catholics. The Sultan supported French claims of jurisdiction. Tsar Nikolai I objected that Russia was the true defender of Christianity in the East, that such a protectorate existed by the Treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji (1774), and that Greek Orthodox were by far the majority Christians (ten million) in the East. The dispute broke into violence in Jerusalem between Catholic and Orthodox monks, and the Muslim governor intervened in 1847 to prevent Christian killing Christian. More importantly, French imperial intrigues revived Russian proposals for dividing the Ottoman empire. The tsar secretly sounded out the British about dismembering the Ottoman empire, but the British, continuing Palmerstones policy of containing Russia, indicated they would do all they could to keep the dying empire alive. In March 1853 Russia issued an ultimatum that amounted to a demand for Ottoman unconditional surrender: recognition of exclusive Orthodox Christian rights in the Holy Land, Russian protection of those rights, restrictions on other Christians who

might interfere with Russian influence, and a new secret alliance to "protect" the Ottoman Empire from the French. The Sultan refused. In July Russia invaded the Ottoman Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. For five months the Turks 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 and sent an expedition to the East to protect the Ottoman Empire from Russian aggression The eventual main object was a punitive strike to destroy the Black Sea Fleet and its Crimean base at Sebastopol. In other theatres, the Turks fought Russian advances in Armenia, and the British and French sent fleets into the Baltic. There were also minor naval engagements in the White Sea and the north Pacific.
Results After a year-long siege, Britain captured the Russian naval base of Sebastopol and proceeded to destroy all its naval and military installations in December 1855 while preparing for a spring offensive. But the war had already exhausted the Allies, and both sides accepted an Austrian-mediated armistice. The subsequent Treaty of Paris did much to set back Russian expansionism by almost a hundred years, but Alexander I viewed this as a temporary reversal and a "blot on his reign". Britain, France and Austria guaranteed the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, but a degree of autonomy was granted to Serbia, Moldavia and Wallachia. The Black Sea and Bosporus Straits became a demilitarized zone with warships and naval arsenals on its shores denied. Tsar Aleksandr saw his first opportunity when in 1870 France was incapacitated by its war with Prussia. Chancellor Bismarck suggested a diplomatic compromise, and in 1871 the signatories of the 1856 treaty lifted the restrictions and allowed Russia to fortify Sebastopol and rebuild its Black Sea Fleet. The western powers did not foresee the disastrous results. Fomenting pan-Slavic insurrection in the Balkans in order to extend tsarist influence, Russia ignored British appeals for moderation and claimed that its own security was threatened. With the Turks on the verge of regaining control of its erstwhile Balkan provinces and tales of Turkish atrocities abounding, Russia mobilised 650,000 men and invaded Romania and Bulgaria in 1877, while simultaneously advancing once again against Kars in the east. The Ottoman empire was decisively beaten, and by the Treaty of San Stefano in 1878, it recognised the independence or autonomy of Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Romania

 Britain, feeling once again threatened by the altered status of the

Straits and Russian designs on the Mediterranean, concluded a defensive treaty with the Ottoman Empire which included the right to occupy and administer Cyprus. Taking on the role of "honest broker", Bismarck convened the Congress of Berlin in 1878 to peacefully revise the Treaty of San Stefano with a view to restoring the balance of power. Russia returned few territorial gains to the Ottoman empire, but some were divided between Russia and Austria-Hungary. Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro remained independent with additional territory. Greater Bulgaria was cut off from the Aegean and reduced to an Ottoman principality. Russia restored parts of Armenia, but retained Kars and other cities. The treaty also reconfirmed the demilitarization of the Bosporus Straits.