What is the Crimean War? It was a conflict fought mainly between Russia and the Ottoman Empire from 1853 to 1856. Britain and France joined the Ottoman side in March 1854, and the Kingdom of Sardinia sent troops in 1855. Most of the major fighting took place on the Crimean peninsula and along the Black Sea coast, and the war ended with the Treaty of Paris, signed on 30 March 1856.
In five minutes: what the Crimean War was
The war grew out of the slow decline of the Ottoman Empire and the rival ambitions of its neighbours. Russia wanted more influence in the Balkans and the Black Sea, and it claimed a right to protect Orthodox Christians living under Ottoman rule. Britain and France did not want Russia to gain at Ottoman expense, because they feared the balance of power in Europe would tip. What followed was a naval battle at Sinop, a landing in Crimea, three major battles in 1854, a long siege of the Russian naval base at Sevastopol, and a peace conference in Paris.
If you remember only one thing, remember this: the war was fought over the future of Ottoman lands and the Black Sea, and it killed far more people through disease than through combat. The treaty that ended it barred Russia from basing warships in the Black Sea, a limit that stayed in force for fifteen years.
Who fought whom
- Russia fought the Ottoman Empire from October 1853, when the Ottomans declared war. Some sources date the start to 16 October 1853.
- France declared war on Russia on 27 March 1854, and Britain followed on 28 March. Their troops fought alongside the Ottomans in Crimea.
- Sardinia (the Kingdom of Sardinia) sent troops in 1855 and fought in the Crimea under General Alfonso La Marmora.
- Austria and Prussia did not fight, but they took part in the peace talks in Paris and shaped the outcome.
Causes: why the war started
Historians usually begin with the Eastern Question, the long-running problem of what would happen as the Ottoman Empire weakened. Russia wanted a stronger position on the Black Sea and in the Balkans. Britain and France wanted the Ottoman Empire to survive, partly so that no single power could dominate the region. These aims clashed, and the cooperation among the great powers that had kept the peace since 1815, known as the Concert of Europe, was under strain well before the first shots.
The immediate trigger was the Holy Places dispute. In Ottoman-ruled Jerusalem and Bethlehem, Orthodox and Catholic monks argued over rights at Christian sites. Russia used the dispute to press its claim to protect Orthodox Christians in Ottoman lands, while France backed the Catholic side. Most historians now treat the dispute as a pretext rather than the root cause, which was rivalry over Ottoman territory.
The decisive step came in July 1853, when Russian troops occupied Moldavia and Wallachia, the Danubian Principalities. They were under nominal Ottoman rule, and the Ottoman government refused to accept the occupation. The Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia in October 1853. The episode fits the longer story of Russia's push south, described in Russia's Southward Policy, and the wider context of The Russian Empire (1721–1917).
What happened
Sinop: the naval battle that changed the politics (November 1853)
On 30 November 1853 (18 November in the Julian calendar used in Russia), a Russian fleet under Admiral Pavel Nakhimov attacked the Ottoman squadron anchored in Sinop harbour on the Black Sea coast of Anatolia. The Ottoman fleet was almost destroyed, and Vice-Admiral Osman Pasha was taken prisoner. Russia lost 37 killed and 229 wounded. Ottoman deaths are estimated at about 2,700 to 5,000, and sources disagree on the figure. Many contemporaries saw Sinop as proof of Russian ambition, and it helped push Britain and France toward war.
The landing in Crimea and the Battle of the Alma (September 1854)
The allied army landed at Kalamita Bay, on Crimea's western coast, from 14 September 1854. Its aim was Sevastopol, the home port of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. On 20 September the allies met the Russian army on the River Alma. The Russian commander, Prince Alexander Menshikov, had about 35,000 to 37,500 men. The allies, a mix of British, French and Ottoman troops, numbered roughly 56,500 to 60,000.
The allies won. Their losses were about 4,100 killed and wounded, roughly 2,000 British, 1,600 French and 500 Ottoman. Russian losses were about 5,000 to 5,700. The victory cleared the road to Sevastopol, but it did not lead to a quick capture of the city, and the siege that followed became the war's longest and most costly struggle.
Balaclava and the Charge of the Light Brigade (25 October 1854)
On 25 October the Russians attacked British positions around Balaclava, the port that supplied the British army. In the North Valley, British light cavalry rode straight at Russian guns at the far end of the valley, while Russian batteries on the flanks fired across their line of advance. About 670 men of the Light Brigade took part under the Earl of Cardigan. Estimates put the dead at about 110 to 120 and the wounded at about 130 to 160, and many horses were lost too.
The order that sent the brigade forward has been debated ever since. The charge became one of the most famous episodes of the war, partly because of Alfred Tennyson's poem about it.
Inkerman (5 November 1854)
On 5 November the Russians attacked allied positions on the broken ground near Inkerman and were beaten back. The allies had about 16,000 men, roughly 8,500 British and 7,500 French, against an estimated 35,000 to 40,500 Russians. Allied losses were about 4,400 killed and wounded. Russian losses were about 12,000 killed and wounded, although accounts differ on the exact figure.
The siege of Sevastopol (October 1854 to September 1855)
The allies began bombarding Sevastopol on 17 October 1854 (5 October in the Russian calendar), and the siege lasted about eleven months. The Russian defence was led by Admiral Nakhimov and Vice-Admiral Vladimir Kornilov, who was killed during the first bombardment in October 1854. The engineer Eduard Totleben strengthened the defences. Nakhimov was himself mortally wounded by an allied sniper in 1855.
The siege was costly, and disease killed more men than shot and shell. According to the siege's figures, the French lost about 10,000 killed in action and about 70,000 who died of wounds or disease. The British lost about 2,800 killed in action and about 18,000 who died of wounds or disease. Russian losses are harder to pin down, and the sources checked do not give a firm total.
On 8 September 1855 French troops seized the Malakoff, the strongpoint that dominated the city's defences. The Russians abandoned the southern side of Sevastopol the next day. The fall of the south side did not end the war at once, but it strengthened the case for peace talks.
Florence Nightingale at Scutari (from November 1854)
In early November 1854 Florence Nightingale arrived at Scutari, now Üsküdar on the Asian side of Istanbul. She brought 38 women volunteer nurses to the Selimiye Barracks hospital, which was overcrowded and short of supplies. She worked to improve cleaning, supplies and care, and she collected statistics on deaths.
A figure often quoted is that the death rate fell from 42 per cent to 2 per cent under her care. That claim comes from a later account by Stephen Paget in the Dictionary of National Biography, and the period and method behind it are not clear. Treat it as the figure commonly attributed to her, not as a measured result.
The Sardinians and the Battle of the Chernaya (1855)
The Kingdom of Sardinia embarked about 18,000 men at Genoa in April 1855; one source gives 18,061. They landed at Balaclava between 9 and 14 May under General Alfonso La Marmora. On 16 August the Russians attacked the allied line across the Chernaya river. About 36,000 French and Sardinian troops held the line. The Sardinians engaged about 9,000 men and lost about 200. The Russian attack failed, and Sardinia's part in the fighting gave it a seat at the peace talks in Paris.
Congress and the Treaty of Paris (1856)
Representatives of seven powers met in Paris from late February 1856. The Treaty of Paris, signed on 30 March 1856, set out several points:
- The Black Sea was declared neutral and closed to warships. Russia could not build naval or military arsenals on its shores.
- A European commission was set up to guarantee freedom of trade and navigation on the Danube.
- Russia gave up its claim to a protectorate over Christians in Ottoman lands and lost part of southern Bessarabia, which went back to Moldavia.
- Moldavia and Wallachia stayed under nominal Ottoman rule but gained their own constitutions and national assemblies.
- The powers promised to respect the independence and territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire.
Why it mattered
The Black Sea. The most direct change was in the Black Sea. Russia could no longer keep a fleet or arsenal there, and the restriction stayed in force until the 1871 Treaty of London renounced it.
The Concert of Europe. Many historians argue that the war broke the Concert of Europe. Austria stayed out of the fighting, and Russia resented its position. Britain and France came to see Russia as a long-term threat. After 1856 the great powers found it much harder to act together, a pattern many historians link to the crises that followed.
The human cost. The allied dead numbered about 165,000, roughly 95,600 French, 45,400 Ottoman, 22,200 British and 2,200 Sardinian. Most of them died of disease rather than in combat. Estimates of Russian dead vary between about 450,000 and 630,000, and sources count them differently. Nightingale's work is often cited as an early example of how better hospital care could save lives.
Photography. The war was among the first to be recorded in photographs. Roger Fenton spent from March to June 1855 in the Crimea and produced more than 350 usable large-format negatives. Long exposure times meant his pictures were mostly posed scenes, and he avoided images of killed or wounded soldiers.
What exams ask
In world history exams, the Crimean War works well as a case study in great power politics. Focus on why it began, who fought whom and what the settlement changed. Exam formats vary, so check past papers for your target course.
- Why did the war begin? Link the Eastern Question, the Holy Places dispute and Russia's occupation of the Danubian Principalities.
- Who fought whom? The basic pairing is Russia against the Ottoman Empire. Britain and France joined in 1854, and Sardinia in 1855.
- What did it change? The Treaty of Paris neutralised the Black Sea. It also slowed Russia's southward expansion for a time.
- How to write it? Split your answer into cause, event and outcome. Give casualty figures as approximations or ranges, and say why sources differ.
Read next
For the push toward the Black Sea that lies behind the war, read Russia's Southward Policy. The next clash between Russia and the Ottoman Empire is covered in The Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), and the later crisis of the Russian state in The Russian Revolution of 1917.
