Crimean War Research Paper

The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire, and a large alliance of France, Britain, Sardinia, and the Ottoman Empire. The Holy Land (Jerusalem) was part of the declining Ottoman Empire, and Britain and France wanted to see the roman Catholic church have power in Jerusalem instead of the Russian promoted Eastern Orthodox church. Prior to 1850, Russia had the right to protect Christians and their shrines in the Holy Land but Napoleon the third of France was desperate to gain prestige and repair relations with the Catholic Church. So, to achieve this, he demanded that the Ottomans give this authority to him instead. The Russians pointed to past treaties to reverse this decision but the French sent ships into the region anyway to get the authority again. Nicholas I of

The British and French were both very worried because they saw that the Ottoman empire was on the decline, and they saw that Russia was poised to take it over. So they pledged their support to the Turks and went to war. The Allies sent a fleet to attack Baltic Sea forts. Meanwhile, the Russians were halted in the Caucasus and were unable to drum up local support in the Balkans. Also Austrians were sent into the region to deter them from moving any further south. So it wasn't until late 1854 that the Allies landed in Crimea and drove the technologically inferior Russians across the river Alma. The Allies then lay siege to the port city of Sevastopol. The Russians try to break the siege a couple times with counter attacks in Balaclava. Balaclava became a very famous battle because of the doomed charge of the Light Brigade, the British soldiers who then became the characters of a famous poem. The siege continued throughout the cold winter which inflicted heavy casualties. It was during this time that Florence Nightingale was a nurse and became famous. On other fronts there were failed attempts to take Petropavlovsk in the East of Russia and Arkhangelsk in the