Causes of the Crimean War
Mid-19th Century Europe was a mess. Coming hot off the heels of the Napoleonic Wars barely just a few decades prior, the major European powers were trying to avoid conflicts as best as they could. This century saw global control of European countries as they scrambled to claim what territories they could. Western Europe was heavily influenced by the countries of France and Great Britain and, as such, they held the most power in the region. However, Eastern Europe only had one major player, which was Russia. By the time the Crimean War broke out in 1853, Russia had become a key country on the world stage. Its ruler, Nicholas I, was a military fanatic who claimed the throne over a pile of dead Russian soldiers in 1825, known as the Decemberists. With his reign beginning with a globally minor, yet major Russian event of military action, it seems rather fitting that it would end during another military conflict. Nicholas’s death in 1855 at the height of the Crimean War, meant that he would not know how it would end. However, considering that, by this point, Russia was losing badly, one can speculate that he may have had an idea of how it would end as it concluded only about one year later. The “first modern war” would claim around 500,000 lives, with a large number of those being claimed by disease, rather than combat. How did it come to this, though? How did a small conflict between Turkey and Russia, lead to one of the deadliest wars of the 19th century? No war in history can definitively be traced to one specific cause, but there will always be one factor that heavily outweighs the others; for example, slavery was not the main cause of the American Civil War, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was not the main cause of WWI, and economic depression was not the main cause of the War of the Roses. When one looks at the Crimean War, it is important to note that, like every other war, a few different factors came into play. For starters, a major issue for the outbreak of war can be traced back to 1774 with the Russo-Turkish Treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji which guaranteed that Russia would be the protectorate of any Orthodox Christians in Muslim-controlled territory. The other major reason that the war escalated and grew to have Anglo-French intervention is simply due to their fear of Russia. These two factors are the predominant causes of the Crimean War.
Religious squabble in the holy lands has plagued it for centuries. Orthodox Christians from Russia constantly fought with Turkish Muslims and this caused great tensions between the growing Russian Empire and the declining Ottoman Empire. The two powers had been almost continuously at war since the mid-18th century and after the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774, a treaty was signed that would set the grounds for a war that occurred almost a century later. This treaty was the Treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji and while it gave Russia a lot of things, the most important for the topic is the fact that it declared that Russia is the protectorate of any Orthodox Christians that reside anywhere in the Ottoman Empire. This meant that at the time of the Crimean War breaking out in 1853, Russian Emperor Nicholas I was legally still the protectorate of Orthodox Christians in the empire. This does not sound like a major deal, except for one major Western country, France. France’s newly elected leader Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was hellbent on making a name for himself. The rise to power by another Napoleon in France sparked fear across Europe as the events caused by Napoleon Bonaparte still haunted the minds of many as it had only been less than half a century since it happened. Russia and France were already on bad terms stemming from the previous conflict from 1803 to 1815. French troops had fought their way across Russia and entered Moscow at the expense of a majority of its troops, but it had still managed to capture Russia’s capital. However, as the Russians had burned the city and pulled out of it, it is hard to argue that Napoleon had achieved victory and when his empire began to dwindle, Russian troops marched across eastern Europe and took Paris just two years after Moscow fell. The fact that the two country’s capitals had been under the control of the other nation caused many issues between the countries that would still be in play leading up to the Crimean War. One minor event that led up to the war was over the repairs needed on the roof of the Holy Sepulchre, which is believed to be the site of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion. The issue was that, under Turkish law, the roof belonged to whoever owned the house. Both, the French-backed Latins and the Russian-backed Greeks claimed they owned the building, and this was a problem. Whoever legally owned the building, in the eyes of the Turkish government, was to be declared the legal protector of Christians in the area and the site itself, which is one of the most important sites in Christianity. Russia immediately cited the Treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji, stating that it meant they were the protectorate and therefore the owners. The problem is that the actual treaty was heavily translated between French, Russian, Latin, and Italian, so a lot of it was worded poorly. This led to more issues when, in May of 1851, Louis Napoleon appointed Marquis Charles de Le Valette as ambassador to the Turkish capital. Le Valette was a devote Catholic and, using an 1849 event where French troops helped the pope reenter Rome after being expelled as evidence, made a pit stop at the Vatican on his way to Constantinople. On this visit, he attempted to persuade the pope to side with the Latin claims to the Holy Lands, and in 1851, the French and the Turks met to officially discuss who had the claims. At this meeting, Le Valette stated that it was established that the Latins had a claim to the lands and that the negotiations were unnecessary. He then made the argument that the Turks needed to recognize that authority. While Louis Napoleon cared little for religion, he was ecstatic at the news of Le Valette’s argument as he knew it would provoke a crisis with Russia and hopefully create a new alliance with Catholic Austria as he felt they could be convinced to join their side of the argument. Outraged by even the thought of the Turks recognizing France as the protectorate, Nicholas I issued an ultimatum to the Ottomans that threatened them if they did recognize French authority. However, the ultimatum was essentially ignored by Ottoman claims that the Treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji was invalid due to years of translations. Russia would march troops into Danubian territories and in October of 1853, Russia officially declared war on the Ottomans.
At first, the war was between Russia and the Ottomans, but after two years of warfare, more countries would join. A majority of European nations did not want another war as the memories of the Napoleonic Wars were still fresh in everyone’s minds. As such, with the declaration of war in 1853, no one would officially join, but Britain and France were aiding the Ottomans. Countries like Prussia immediately declared neutrality and others like Austria were torn between helping Russia as they assisted in putting down an 1848 revolt and stopping Russia from gaining too much power. By the time Great Britain and France officially joined in 1854, it is important to note the reasons why they waited and why they ultimately decided to join. For starters, by this time in history, Great Britain had the largest naval power in the world; however, Russia had begun the war with a successful naval victory and the British feared having a rival power of this size with the means of creating a strong navy. Size-wise, the British outnumbered the Russians, and even the French, but technologically, they were equally matched. Great Britain was once the most powerful military force on the planet, but it became less and less so and by 1850, France had the best-equipped and trained army, not only in Europe but the world. All Great Britain had now, was a powerful navy at its disposal. Even then, it was in an abysmal state. Ships were heavily undermanned causing impressment to still happen, the crews had little to no benefits, disciplinary actions were harsh, and, overall, the Royal Navy would see around 2,500 desertions a year. So, when the Russians began acquiring the means of creating a navy that would outmatch the British fleet, they decided to act. In September of 1853, the British fleet was ordered to Constantinople, as a precaution, but Russia saw this as a violation of the 1841 Treaty of the Straits which forbade warships to pass through the straits in peacetime. The British still sent a few ships, citing that the Russians broke peacetime as soon as they marched across their borders into Ottoman-controlled territory. The other main issue for British intervention was the idea of the “Eastern Question”; what would happen if Russia was free to march across Eastern Europe? The idea of Russia’s advancement to the West was a great fear among many Western powers, so much so that it was one of, if not the main reason for the involvement of the British in a war that they did not fully care about. What was the only thing standing between Russia and her want for European domination? Turkey. This meant that to ensure that the Eastern Question was never to be answered, Great Britain must, at the very least, support the Ottomans in their fight against Russia. The French intentions in the war were similar. The only exception was that Louis Napoleon was trying to get rid of the memory of his uncle and present himself as better. By the mid-19th century, the Ottoman Empire was commonly referred to as the “sick man of Europe” as its power on the global stage was declining. Due to this, by 1854, Britain and France were convinced that the Ottomans were going to lose the war. However, whereas the British were worried about the Russian Navy increasing in size, France was rather more concerned about the overall increasing presence of Russia.
Prussia’s neutrality was a problem for the Western allies. At the time, Prussia had an incredibly powerful military and if the Western powers could get them on their side, it would assure a swift victory. They did not want to get involved at all, but the idea of Russia’s victory was worrisome as the revolutionary ideas that had plagued Russia, for years, could very well leak into Germany and cause issues. Therefore, the solution was simple: to create an alliance, of some sort, with Austria to ensure the involvement of one, should the other be attacked. The issue, however, concerning Austria and Prussia’s neutrality, was when Russia occupied the Danubian Principalities. The Austrians were extremely concerned by this and the fact that Russia could gain a lot of influence in the Balkans. As a result, when a combined Anglo-French ultimatum was issued to Russia telling them to leave the area, Austria showed support for this, which challenged their neutrality. Furthermore, it was again challenged in March of 1854 when the British and French tried to open a new front in the Baltics, thus pulling Swedish Naval forces into the war on their side. The Swedes were adamant that they would assist against the Russians, but their ultimatum was that Austria must join with them. By June, the negotiations crumbled as Austria held firm to its neutral stance. Austrian foreign minister Count von Buol-Schauenstein even telegraphed to Stockholm “Should be very happy to join, if we respectively want each other, but till we do, silence”; this implied that Austria was fully willing to join against Russia, but that it wanted it to be on their terms. Anglo-French troops would not land until September of 1854 and all the while, tensions would grow to cause countries like Austria to join. While Ottoman and Russian troops were engaging each other on the battlefield, Russia was fighting in a political setting to keep some countries out of the war. While Austria was effectively remaining out of the war, they were still heavily preparing for it. So much so, that it scared Russia to the point of issuing an ultimatum to Austria that stated they would leave the Danube region as long as Austria promised to protect Russia’s rear. Austria refused and stated that Russia must leave the area unconditionally. Austria then issued its own ultimatum stating three demands: that Russia halt its advance in the Danube region, it told Nicholas I that this was his only way out, and it stated that Austria would advance on Russian troops should they not pull out voluntarily. Russia countered with an ultimatum a month later stating that Russia would evacuate the principalities on the condition that Austria promise not to ally with the Western power. Again, Austria refused and an angered Prussia, being upset at Austria’s intransigence, pushed to have Austria immobilized. This caused the French to mobilize 100,000 troops to move into the Danube. The war would rage on for two more bloody years and would ultimately end in a humiliating defeat for the Russians.
Overall, the main issues behind the Crimean War were two factors: one being over conflicting issues over who the real protectorate of Christians in Ottoman territories was, and the other simply being that the Western countries were concerned about Russia’s advance across Eastern Europe. The war would last a little over three years and result in 500,000 casualties. The fear behind Russian advancement is justified as today, it is known how often Russia likes to venture west where it has no business being. Looking back at the war and its players, Austria is undoubtedly the stubborn rock that the Allies needed to ensure a victory against the Russians. Their unwillingness to enter the war on either side meant that both were stripped of a major power that could have heavily swayed the outcome more than it was. Russia’s desperate attempts at trying to win Austria over were proof that they knew their intervention would be game-changing. However, with the causes of fear of Russia’s advancement and the issues of religious protectorates, it is a good thing that Austria held fast as the bloodshed would have been far greater.