E32.5 – Bracket of Fails: The Final Four (Vote Now on Spotify!)
September 4, 2023
WWII: Battleship Yamato (Imperial Japan – The Pacific)
September 26, 2023
The Crimean War: October 16th, 1853 – March 30th, 1856
The Crimean War is the most important global conflict in recent history that you probably never even heard about. At least in American schools, it’s often a topic that is skimmed over at best, which is pretty wild considering it was basically the prequel to the First World War (1914-1918). Just as Europe was starting to recover from the chaos of the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) – all thanks to an anti-royalist revolutionary who crowned himself emperor (cough, cough, Napoleon) – a whole new conflict broke out, this time between Russia and an alliance of French, British, Sardinian, and Ottoman troops, over control of the Crimean peninsula, and the Black Sea. The war that followed would have far-reaching consequences, setting the stage for the 20th Century and the geopolitical events that forged our modern world…
The Origins of “World War Zero”
One of the reasons you may not have heard about it is because America was not directly involved. Another reason is because it deals with that ever controversial topic: religion. Just like The Crusades (1095-1272), the Hundred Years War (1337-1453), and the 30 Years War (1618-1648), it was all started over a somewhat silly dispute between religious factions, in this case: the Muslim Turks of the Ottoman Empire and the Eastern Orthodox Christians of the Russian Empire, all clamoring for control of Jerusalem aka “the Holy Land”.
The entire war was sparked by a disagreement over the rights of Christian minorities in Palestine – which at that point was part of the Ottoman Empire (see: The Fall of Constantinople, 1453) – with the French promoting the rights of Roman Catholics, while Russia backed the Eastern Orthodox Church. Despite the petty matter being solved, Russian Tsar, Nicholas I, and the French Emperor, Napoleon III, refused to back down. After the Ottomans refused an ultimatum, while Britain attempted to mediate a compromise, Russia made the first move by invading the Danubian Principalities (in current day Romania, which was then under Ottoman control). As a result, on October 16th, 1853, the Ottomans declared war on Russia.
Meanwhile, England and France decided to back the Ottoman Empire, because they were concerned about the growing influence of the Russian Empire, and figured that if the Ottoman Empire collapsed, they could swoop in and take over from there. The war that followed was a disastrous and bloody conflict for all parties involved, with over 700,000 dead on both sides, primarily civilians.
Previously in Crimea…
Prior to the war, the Crimean Peninsula already had a long, complicated history. First settled by the Cimmerians and later taken over by the Scythians in the 7th Century BCE, it was once occupied by both the Greeks and Romans. During the 10th Century, the Kievan Rus (aka Ukrainian Vikings) led by Prince Vladimir the First swept in and conquered Crimea’s coastal cities. One of the successor states to the Mongols (see: Genghis Khan), the Khanate of Crimea was formed in the 14th Century, by the “Golden Horde” led by Öz Beg, who converted to Islam and aligned with the Ottomans. Ivan the Terrible of Russia later decimated the Tartars in 1556, but failed to take hold of the peninsula. It wasn’t until 1783 that Crimea came under Russian rule, when Catherine the Great annexed the region.
The Charge of the Light Brigade
The Crimean War was the first major conflict to utilize the telegraph, and was the first to be documented by war correspondents with photography. It was also one of the last wars to heavily employ cavalry. On October 25th, 1854, during the Battle of Balaclava, a miscommunication led to one of the most infamous cavalry charges in history.
The British Light Brigade led by Lord Cardigan charged headfirst into a fully armed Russian artillery battery! The valiant British troops galloped down the hill, sabers drawn, straight into a valley of death where they were immediately met by a wall of bullets and a hail of cannonballs! A minute later, the Light Brigade was scattered and in a desperate retreat. Of 673 Dragoon Cavalrymen, it’s estimated that only 195 survived the failed attack.
The entire debacle was documented by a Time of London reporter, William Howard Russell, who wrote “Our Light Brigade was annihilated by their own rashness, and by the brutality of a ferocious enemy.” The event went on to inspire Alfred Tennyson who wrote a poem about the disastrous “Charge of the Light Brigade” just six weeks later. For the first time in history, thanks to the telegram, the press exposed the blunders of military commanders in real time, highlighting the staggering human cost, and put international pressure on the nations to put an end to the war. Russell’s correspondents also helped to convince the British government to allow nurses to join in the war effort…
Florence Nightingale
One of the few positive outcomes of this terrible war was the advancement of medicine, thanks in large part to Florence Nightingale. After hearing about the deplorable conditions of British hospitals outside of Constantinople / Istanbul, she gathered up 40 other nurses and made their way to the front. Florence Nightingale became known as ‘The Lady with the Lamp’ as she helped to fight diseases like typhoid, cholera, and dysentery. As a battlefield nurse, Nightingale pioneered strict hygiene and sanitation techniques (such as handwashing – which was not really a thing back then) that undoubtably saved countless lives. What’s even more amazing – this was all years before Louis Pasteur discovered Germ Theory in 1861!
The British nurse was just one of several medical heroes that saved lives throughout the war, Russian nurse, Daria Mikhailova aka “Dasha from Sevastopol” dressed solders’ wounds with her own supplies, while Dr. Nikolai Pirogov introduced field surgeons, and a Jamaican-born woman of Scottish and Creole descent, Mary Jane Seacole, known in the papers as “The Creole with the Tea Mug”, traveled to Crimea with supplies, medicine, food, and the comforts of home – in order to treat those wounded on the front lines!
The Crimean War was also the first time medics utilized Anesthesia on the battlefield –thanks to Horace Wells’s *accidental discovery* in 1846! Even with all of Nightingale’s reforms, infectious disease still managed to kill far more soldiers than the actual combat…
The Treaty of Paris
A year after the 11 month siege on Sevastopol, Russian battle casualties were over 100,000, while another 300,000 troops succumbed to malnourishment, exposure, and disease. One major contributor to Russia’s disastrous performance: alcohol. According to Professor Mark Lawrence Schrad, the Crimean War was a ‘booze fiasco’ – “While the allies besieged the Russian positions, the Russian soldiers——“in high spirits”——besieged the vodka.” – citing that at one point, a drunken commander, Lt. Gen. Vasily Kiryakov, “stumbled to his feet and, bottle of champagne in hand, ordered his Minsk regiment to open fire on his own Kiev Hussars”! Back in St. Petersburg, Tsar Nicholas lamented that his “beloved troops were cowards led by idiots.”
Russia finally admitted defeat, and the war came to a swift end on March 30th, 1856 with the Treaty of Paris. Under the treaty, Russia was forced to demilitarize the Black Sea, recognize the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire, cede territory in Moldavia, and give up its claims to the Danube delta. Unfortunately, the Treaty of Paris and the alliances that formed following the war directly led to the events of World War One (1914-1918).
The Legacy of the Crimean War
Ultimately, the Crimean War was a prelude to the world-changing events of the 20th Century, and set the stage for the two World Wars that would follow.
Despite being bitter rivals for centuries, England and France became close allies because of their mutual adversary in Russia.- Many of the weapons and tactics employed the Crimean War were then adopted during the American Civil War (1861-1865).
- Following the Civil War, in 1867, Russia sold the Alaskan territory to the US for $7.2 million, in an attempt to alleviate its war debts. (During President Andrew Johnson’s tenure)
- Leo Tolstoy, a Russian veteran of the Crimean War went on to write “War and Peace” in 1867.
- The Crimean War hastened the eventual collapse of the Ottoman Empire during WWI.
- During WWII, Crimea came under German occupation before being liberated by Soviet forces.
- After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, at the end of the (first?) Cold War, Crimea temporarily became a part of Ukraine.
- In 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded the Crimean peninsula as a prelude to the Invasion of Ukraine in 2022 – a conflict that (as of this blog) is still being fought to this day…
ERIK SLADER
—– More articles on Historic Failure:
WORLD WAR ONE: The “Great” War
WWII – The Maginot Line (France)
—Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_War
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Timeline-Crimean-War/
http://www.history.com/news/8-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-crimean-war
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/03/vodka-crimean-war-russia-disaster-104771/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charge_of_the_Light_Brigade
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45319/the-charge-of-the-light-brigade
https://www.biography.com/scientists/florence-nightingale-hygiene-handwashing
