Eastern Question: Crimean War
The Crimean War (1853–1856) remains one of the most significant episodes of the Eastern Question in UPSC History Optional (World History), both for its immediate diplomatic outcomes and for the far-reaching, often unintended consequences it set in motion — from the emancipation of Russia’s serfs to the unification of Italy and Germany. This article examines the motives of the major powers involved, the results of the war, the case for calling it a “useless war,” and the profound unintended consequences that followed, before closing with Turkey’s decline into the “sick man of Europe.”
Motives of the Different Powers in the Crimean War
England
- England took part in the Crimean War because she feared that an aggressive Russia, expanding into regions too close to the route to India, would pose a serious menace to British interests in the East.
- It was a cardinal principle of British policy to maintain the integrity of the Turkish Empire as a barrier against Russia.
France
- As explained in the background to the war, the French Emperor Napoleon III was influenced by a variety of motives in turning his arms against Russia.
- A war with Russia in support of the Latin monks would please the French clericals, whose support he considered valuable.
- By avenging the humiliation of Moscow, the war would gratify French national pride, win glory for France and popularity for himself, and thereby help stabilise his somewhat shaky throne.
Sardinia-Piedmont
- Sardinia-Piedmont joined the Allies in the hope of securing the goodwill and active support of an influential Power to help realise the nationalistic ambitions of Cavour.
Austria
- Although Austria did not take part in the war itself, her attitude was one of hostile neutrality.
- She was alarmed by the Russian occupation of Wallachia and Moldavia, since it interfered with the freedom of navigation on the Danube, upon which the bulk of her commercial traffic depended.
- Austria therefore joined the Allies in applying diplomatic pressure upon Russia, demanding the evacuation of the Principalities.
- When Russia complied with this demand, Austria herself occupied the Principalities, thereby preventing Russian armies from advancing on Constantinople.
- It was, in fact, an Austrian ultimatum which forced the Russians, after the fall of Sebastopol, to sue for peace.
- Thus, Austria’s hostile neutrality was an important factor contributing to Russia’s defeat.
- It should be noted that Nicholas I had counted upon Austrian support, in return for the services Russia had rendered Austria in suppressing the Hungarian revolt of 1849. To his great disappointment, however, he found that political considerations outweighed Austria’s gratitude — and in future, Austria would pay dearly for this selfish conduct.
Results of the Crimean War
Russia Was Checked
- The Peace of Paris, which closed the Crimean War, checked Russian schemes upon Turkey, at least for a time.
- Russia had to abandon all claims to a protectorate over the Orthodox Christian subjects of Turkey. She was kept back from the Danube by the cession of Bessarabia to Moldavia, and from the Black Sea, which was neutralised.
- Moreover, the creation of two autonomous states — Wallachia and Moldavia — placed a barrier between Russia and Turkey, temporarily preventing Russia from pursuing further aggrandisement.
Turkey Was Temporarily Saved
- In a sense, Turkey was the greatest gainer from the Crimean War.
- She obtained a new lease of life under the joint protection of the Powers, her territorial integrity was guaranteed, and she was admitted as a member of the Concert of Europe, from which she had previously been excluded.
- She thus received a fine opportunity to set her house in order and develop into a respectable power — and it is said that this war ultimately helped the Balkan states achieve their independence later on.
- Viewed from this perspective, the Peace of Paris may be regarded as offering a satisfactory solution to the Eastern Question, at least for the time: Russia was checked, and the “sick man” was set back on his feet.
The Crimean War as a “Useless War”
- Robert Morier famously remarked: “The Crimean War was the only perfectly useless war that has been waged.” Many historians consider it an unnecessary, largely futile, and extravagant conflict.
- The war began over what seem, in retrospect, trivial reasons — a quarrel over control of religious places.
- After the war, there was an uneasy feeling that the results obtained were not commensurate with the heavy sacrifices involved, and that whatever little was accomplished was unlikely to endure — a premonition that future events would go on to confirm, reinforcing the view of the Crimean War as the most senseless conflict of the 19th century.
- The Crimean War did not solve the Eastern Question permanently.
- The war was followed by the Treaty of Paris, whose provisions could not remain permanent.
- The Sultan of Turkey never carried out the promised reforms for the condition of the Christian population living within the Ottoman Empire, reforms he had pledged at Paris after the war.
- The hopes placed in Turkey’s self-reform proved deceptive, and the “integrity of Turkey,” which the war had sought to bolster, became little more than a diplomatic fiction.
- The main aim of the war had been to weaken Russia and check her expansion — but Russian expansion, checked in Europe, simply transferred itself to Central Asia, and Britain soon realised that the Russian danger had merely shifted from Europe to Asia, threatening British India directly.
- Just fourteen years later, Russia threw to the winds the provisions of the Treaty of Paris concerning the neutrality of the Black Sea, and, in 1878, completely wiped away the memory of the Crimean humiliation by recovering Bessarabia.
- The cost of the war, meanwhile, was enormous, without any enduring result: 25,000 British and 100,000 French soldiers died in the conflict.
- Russia suffered even more heavily, losing half a million men, with her resources thoroughly drained.
The Crimean War’s Unintended Consequences
- The true importance of the Crimean War should be measured not by its immediate, tangible results, but by the far-reaching political developments to which it served as a prelude. Many historians therefore consider the Crimean War the watershed of European history.
- It disturbed the states system established by the Congress of Vienna, and let loose forces that secured the eventual triumph of liberalism and nationalism in Europe.
- It swept aside Metternich’s policy of maintaining the status quo, and its first fruit was the unification of Italy.
The War and Italian Unification
- Out of the “mud of the Crimea,” a new Italy was made — and, less obviously, a new Germany as well.
- Cavour, the Piedmontese-Sardinian Prime Minister and diplomat, believed that Italian unification could be achieved only with foreign assistance.
- While developing Piedmontese resources to the utmost in preparation for the inevitable struggle, he actively sought allies — and when the Crimean War broke out, it proved to Cavour a heaven-sent opportunity.
- Though Piedmont had no real interest in the Eastern Question, and no quarrel with Russia, Cavour sent 17,000 men to fight on the side of the Allies, with a view to winning the sympathy of England and France.
- He seized this opportunity to join England and France against Russia, calculating that an alliance with these great powers would improve Piedmont’s international standing and place them under a moral obligation to assist Piedmont at some later time — as France indeed reciprocated by offering help against Austria.
- It was a bold political gamble, but nonetheless a masterstroke of policy: the Sardinian troops fought brilliantly and returned home covered with glory.
- The immediate gain to Piedmont was the admission of Cavour to the Congress of Paris, which met in 1856 to discuss the terms of peace.
- There, in the face of considerable opposition from Austria, Cavour raised the whole Italian question before the assembled diplomats, giving a damaging account of Austrian rule, enlisting the sympathy of the Powers, and winning over Napoleon III to the cause of Italian independence — a relationship that proved immensely valuable in his subsequent work for Italian unification.
- The anomalous and unhappy condition of Italy was thereby exposed to Europe, and was discussed no longer merely by revolutionaries, but by the accredited representatives of the Great Powers, converting the Italian question into a matter of European concern.
- The prestige of Piedmont rose considerably, and she won the sympathy of Europe. Though this gain was chiefly a moral one, it was enormous, and it later led directly to Italian unification — without this foreign backing, Cavour could never have driven Austria out of Italy.
The War and German Unification
- The Crimean War also led to an important regrouping of Powers, which in turn made the unification of Germany possible.
- During the war, Austria’s hostile neutrality irritated Russia, who had, after all, saved the Austrian Empire from dissolution during the Hungarian revolt of 1848–49.
- As a result, the old alliance of the three despotic powers — Russia, Austria, and Prussia — which had been the cornerstone of Metternich’s policy and had, until then, preserved the Austrian Empire from disruption, was now broken.
- Furious at Austrian ingratitude, Russia turned instead to Prussia, whose friendly neutrality she appreciated. This new state of affairs led to an important regrouping of Powers, with significant consequences for the future.
- Bismarck took advantage of Russia’s estrangement from Austria and began courting the friendship of the Czar, in order to further his own project of ousting Austria from Germany.
- The result was that Austria found herself completely isolated during the Austro-Prussian War that followed, with Russia remaining neutral just as Austria herself had done during the Crimean War.
- Austria was defeated, and the German Empire, subsequently built up by Prussia after unification, rested in large part upon this Russian neutrality.
Reform in Russia
- In Russia, defeat in the war led to far-reaching reforms that lifted her out of medieval stagnation.
- The corruption of the Tsarist regime became public knowledge across Europe, discrediting the Tsar widely and, in the long run, fuelling popular discontent among the Russian people.
- The war led to a series of reforms carried out by Czar Alexander II, the most important of which was the emancipation of the serfs.
A New Turn of Russian Expansion
- The war gave a new turn to Russian expansion. Checked in Europe, this expansionist energy was redirected towards Central Asia, where it began to threaten the British position in India.
Rise of Nationalistic Forces in the Balkans
- The war also fostered the rise of nationalist forces in the Balkans, which in turn produced a variety of repercussions across European politics in the decades that followed.
Improvement in Camp Sanitation and the Health of Soldiers
- An unexpected but positive outcome of the Crimean War was the improvement in camp sanitation and the health of soldiers, brought about by Florence Nightingale.
- She organised a nursing team to care for the sick and wounded soldiers on the battlefield.
- This effort also marked the nascent beginning of the movement that would later become known as the Red Cross.
Turkey as the “Sick Man of Europe”
- In 1853, in the run-up to the Crimean War, Czar Nicholas I of Russia famously remarked that the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire was “a sick man — a very sick man.”
- The reason for this decline lay in the fact that the Ottoman Empire was increasingly falling under the financial control of the European powers, and had lost significant territory across a series of disastrous wars.
- By 1914, the once-powerful Ottoman Empire was crumbling, and Turkey came to be popularly known as “the sick man of Europe.”
- The empire finally fell apart in 1922, giving rise to a number of smaller states — including Serbia, Bulgaria, and Albania — alongside the present-day Republic of Turkey.
