Crimean War

   The Crimean War (1854-55) was a conflict between Russia and a coalition consisting of Turkey, Great Britain, France, and Sardinia that ended with the defeat of Russia and the signing of the Treaty of Paris (1856). The rival ambitions of Russia and Great Britain in the east and the pretext of the quarrel between napoléon III and Czar Nicholas I regarding the religious sites in the Holy Land, mixed with the Eastern Question, were the causes of this war. In response to the refusal of the Turkish sultan to recognize the czar's protectorate over Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire, Russia occupied the Moldavian principalities and destroyed a Turkish fleet at Sinope (185 3), thus provoking the Franco-British alliance with Turkey and the intervention in the Crimea. The allied powers landed at Eupatoria (September 14, 1854); led by Marshal saint-arnaud and Lord Raglan, they defeated the Russians at Alma (September 20) and besieged Sevastopol for a year. Meanwhile, the Franco-British fleet destroyed the fortress of Bomarsund in the Baltic (1854), while odessa, on the Black Sea, was bombarded. The campaign, marked by the battles of Balaklava, Inkerman, and Tchernaia, continued with the victorious assault on Malakoff (September 1855), which led to the fall of Sevastopol. The Crimean War, in which a number of French military figures, including Generals mac-mahon and canrobert, served with distinction, helped to consolidate the second empire and brought a number of social reforms to Russia under Czar Alexander II, who began his reign in 1855.