HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: Home of Britain’s bestselling history magazine and award-winning podcast
date: 2024-12-05T14:59:58.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: War and military history podcast episodes
items: Big questions of the Crimean War: aftermath and legacy
items: Big questions of the Crimean War: into the Valley of Death
items: How much do you know about the Crimean War?
items: Why did the Crimean War start?
items: What was the legacy of the Crimean War?
items: The major innovations of the Crimean War
items: How did the Crimean War end?
items: 8 battles that shaped the Crimean War
items: A timeline of the Crimean War

War and military history podcast episodes
type: item
subject: General History
subject: Period
subject: Hundred Years War
subject: Second World War battles
subject: The Crimean War
subject: Viking warfare
subject: Wartime Britain
description: Browse our archive of HistoryExtra podcasts on war and military history, from Nelson’s demise at Trafalgar to the role of Indian soldiers in World War One...

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Big questions of the Crimean War: aftermath and legacy
type: item
date: 2023-07-13T06:43:04.000Z
creator: Rachel Dinning
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: The Crimean War
description: Professor Andrew Lambert considers the legacy of the Crimean War, as well as some of the key innovations and technological advancements that came out of it
encoded: From advances in weaponry and warships to the use of telegraphs and photography, the Crimean War produced a whole host of innovations. In the final episode of our three-part series exploring the conflict, Professor Andrew Lambert takes Rachel Dinning through some of the key innovations that came out of the Crimean War. Plus, they consider some of the main misconceptions about the conflict, as well as the parallels with the Russia-Ukraine war today.

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Big questions of the Crimean War: into the Valley of Death
type: item
date: 2023-07-06T06:19:24.000Z
creator: Rachel Dinning
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: The Crimean War
description: Professor Andrew Lambert traces the key battles and encounters that shaped the Crimean War
encoded: You may be familiar with Alfred Lord Tennyson poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade, which famously – though not entirely accurately – describes the events of the 1854 battle of Balaclava, a key clash in the Crimean War. But how much do you know about the first confrontation along the Danube or the fierce fight to take Sevastopol? In this second episode of this new series charting the key moments in the Crimean War, Professor Andrew Lambert talks to Rachel Dinning about the key battles and encounters that shaped the conflict, as well as the military strategy that informed its outcome.

How much do you know about the Crimean War?
type: item
date: 2023-03-14T10:29:13.000Z
creator: Lauren Good
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: The Crimean War
description: How much do you know about the Crimean War? Test your knowledge with this quiz on the Victorian conflict...
encoded: View Riddle on the source website How did you score? Share your result on social media to see how your knowledge compares with other HistoryExtra readers! Don't forget to check back next week for our next weekly quiz – and in the meantime browse our other history quizzes here

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Why did the Crimean War start?
type: item
date: 2023-02-25T08:47:57.000Z
creator: Spencer Mizen
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: The Crimean War
description: Religious tensions and Russian ambitions shattered the system that had long prevented war between Europe’s major powers
encoded: Mention the Crimean War to most people, and many will immediately think of the Light Brigade charging into a blizzard of Russian bullets and Florence Nightingale tending stricken British troops. Yet the incident that made this brutal 19th-century conflict all but inevitable involved monks not Redcoats, crucifixes not sabres – and there wasn’t a nurse in sight. Just a few years before the Crimean War broke out, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, believed by many to sit on the very spot where Jesus Christ was crucified, found itself at the centre of a vicious brawl between two sets of opposing holy men. On one side stood Jerusalem’s Orthodox monks; on the other its Catholics clerics. The issue over which these two rival branches of Christianity butted heads was the question of who wielded ultimate control over the most sacred sites in Palestine. Read more | A timeline of the Crimean War For years, tensions had been escalating at churches across the holy land. It was at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, however, that the rivalry turned physical, with the two groups coming to blows with fists, knives, candlesticks and crucifixes. Such was the level of violence that, in 1852, Lord Malmesbury, British foreign secretary, commented on “the melancholy spectacle” of “rival churches contending for mastery in the very place where Christ died for mankind”. Melancholy it might have been but the dispute was hugely consequential – for both sets of monks had powerful backers. The Orthodox clerics were supported by the Russian empire; their Catholic foes championed by France, which had recently allied itself with Britain. For more than a decade these European superpowers had engaged in an increasingly dangerous dance of diplomatic brinkmanship. The monks’ battle in Jerusalem set them on a seemingly irreversible course for war. To understand why, we need to leave Palestine and travel back to the city of Vienna in 1815. For it was here, in the Austrian capital, that a treat…

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What was the legacy of the Crimean War?
type: item
date: 2023-02-24T09:17:28.000Z
creator: Professor Andrew Lambert
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: The Crimean War
description: What was the impact of the Crimean War? Professor Andrew Lambert explains...
encoded: For many years, the Crimean War was remembered as a distant and chaotic conflict of no great importance. But when, in 2014, Vladimir Putin seized the Crimea and then followed that in 2022 with his invasion of Ukraine, he reminded the world that Russian empires have pushed south and west for the past 500 years, subjugating other peoples to enhance their own security. It had been the unprovoked seizure of two Turkish provinces in 1853 that started the first great power conflict in Europe since 1815. British ministers had long anticipated the attack, and supported the victim, so along with France they gave Russia one last chance to avoid war. This was ignored, so the Anglo-French declaration of war came in late March 1854. In the end, Russia was defeated in a war that stretched across four theatres – the Pacific, the Black and White Seas, and the Baltic – with the allies relying on British maritime strategy, combining economic warfare with coastal attacks. The Crimean campaign was intended to destroy Russia’s Black Sea fleet and naval base at Sevastopol, thus preventing them from seizing Constantinople (now Istanbul). Read more | A timeline of the Crimean War The conflict was a clash of cultures: on one side was an autocratic military state built on conscript armies, censorship and internal surveillance, which was defeated by a coalition of progressive western states, relatively inclusive politics and technologically advanced economies. While Russia suppressed news of defeats, incompetence and casualties, Britain’s war was conducted with maximum disclosure through the House of Commons and a free press. An upshot of this resulting war of words was an enduring, if misleading, impression of failure in Britain – widely attributed to amateurish aristocratic leaders – while highlighting the contribution of figures such as Florence Nightingale. It is high time the grotesque caricature of the Crimean War as restricted to a series of blundering military operations outside Sevas…

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The major innovations of the Crimean War
type: item
date: 2023-02-23T10:38:01.000Z
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: The Crimean War
description: Thanks to a host of 19th-century innovations, the Crimean conflict became the first truly ‘modern’ war
encoded: Weaponry When the Crimean War broke out in 1853, fewer than 40 years had passed since the Napoleonic Wars. Yet the methods and technology used by both sides were a world apart from those in that earlier conflict, which had pockmarked Europe in the opening decades of the 19th century. Many new weapons and technologies were deployed for the first time, hence Crimea later being defined by many observers as the ‘first modern war’. One major advance was in rifle technology. The Enfield Pattern 1853 rifle-musket had been swiftly approved by the British government and put into mass production. In combination with the Minié musket ball, a hollow-based bullet that expanded when fired, Enfields put the allies at a distinct advantage over the Russians when it came to accuracy and inflicting casualties. The navies of both sides, however, adopted shell-firing guns – a technology that the Russians had utilised during the early naval battles against the Ottomans before the British and French joined proceedings. The war was also the first to see widespread use of mines, both on land and at sea. The Russian navy particularly favoured their deployment, setting more than 1,500 sea mines in the Gulf of Finland to deter any sorties by the Anglo-French fleets towards St Petersburg. The rules of engagement – or, at least, the methods of engagement – were now changed forever. Warships The Crimean War is undeniably the point in military history at which the irresistibility of steam power in naval battles is universally acknowledged. Although the fleets of both sides were a mixture of sailing ships and steam-powered vessels, the greater number of modern ships built by the allies put them in control of the waters of the Black Sea. With the Russians only in possession of seven steam frigates, the rest of its more antiquated fleet were easily outmanoeuvred and outflanked by the allies’ speedier and more agile steam-driven vessels. Read more | 8 battles that shaped the Crimean War Along with the…

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How did the Crimean War end?
type: item
date: 2023-02-22T10:15:27.000Z
creator: Professor Andrew Lambert
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: The Crimean War
description: Professor Andrew Lambert explains how the Crimean War came to an end, and the effect it had on Europe and beyond
encoded: After a siege that lasted nearly 11 months, the fate of Sevastopol was settled when the Royal Navy occupied the Sea of Azov, cutting Russian supply lines to the Crimea. Without food, ammunition and fodder for the cavalry, Russia could no longer hold the fortress. It fell on 9 September 1855 after a brilliant French assault. This triumph was enough for Napoleon III: having restored military glory, he wanted to end the conflict and focus on redrawing the map of western Europe and expanding the borders of the French empire. Also, among his subjects, the war had become deeply unpopular as the human cost had mounted. Read more | A timeline of the Crimean War As for the British, they concentrated on destroying Sevastopol dockyard to ensure that Russia would not command the Black Sea for a generation. With Sevastopol lost, and Russia facing bankruptcy, domestic unrest and further defeats, the new tsar Alexander II was forced to admit defeat. Russia could not resist a sophisticated maritime-economic offensive that left the coast open to further attacks, including a widely publicised plan for the Royal Navy to escalate the war by bombarding St Petersburg the following spring. The pressure on Russia increased when Sweden joined the allied coalition in November 1855, and Austria threatened to follow. By early 1856, the tsar was ready to talk. Coming to terms With the resulting Treaty of Paris, Russia recognised the political and territorial integrity of the Ottoman empire; demilitarised the Black Sea; gave up its claims to guarantee the civil rights of Christians in Ottoman areas; and opened the Danube River for international trade. Britain then demanded the demilitarisation of the Åland Islands, which enabled the Royal Navy to dominate the Baltic. The peace, however, came just as industrial mobilisation was transforming British strategic power. Prime Minister Lord Palmerston was left to regret lost opportunities to push Russia out of recently conquered regions in the Caucasus…

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8 battles that shaped the Crimean War
type: item
date: 2023-02-21T14:55:43.000Z
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: The Crimean War
description: From the first clash along the Danube to the fierce fight to take Sevastopol, we examine the conflict’s most important encounters
encoded: The battle of Oltenița – 4 November 1853 8,000 Ottomans v 6,000 Russians Killed: 30 Ottomans, 600–700 Russians The war’s first military engagement came several months before Britain and France joined the hostilities. Near the village of Oltenița in the region of Wallachia (now part of Romania), the Ottomans established fortified positions on the banks of the River Danube, ready to defend their territory against the steadily advancing Russians under the command of General Peter Dannenberg. As his troops approached these defences, Dannenberg moved his infantrymen to the front. However, despite some of them managing to breach the fortifications’ moat, the Russians suffered heavy losses and were recalled, clearly unprepared for the level of artillery required to destabilise the Ottomans’ defences. Perhaps surprisingly, the Ottomans didn’t pursue the retreating Russians, content to have merely contained the opening battle of what would be a drawn-out war. But while not a crucial victory militarily, Oltenița’s impact was more to do with psychology and morale. The battle of Sinop – 30 November 1853 12 Ottoman ships v 11 Russian ships Killed: 3,000 Ottomans, 37 Russians Less than a month after Russian progress on land had been derailed at Oltenița, the first naval battle of the war gave Russia a significant victory. At the port of Sinop on the Black Sea’s southern shore, a Russian fleet – including six battleships – attacked a dozen smaller Ottoman ships in the town’s harbour, all but one of which were sunk or run aground. The Russian squadron remained intact. As well as benefitting from the element of surprise, this dominant victory was testament to the Russians’ deployment of explosive shells which, far more destructive than cannonballs, decimated the wooden hulls of the Ottoman vessels. Not content with demobilising these ships in such a brutal and unrelenting manner, the Russians then turned their aim on Sinop itself, shelling the town and claiming the lives of a great …

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A timeline of the Crimean War
type: item
date: 2023-02-20T12:33:48.000Z
creator: Danny Bird
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: The Crimean War
description: Discover the most important moments in the story of the Crimean War with our handy timeline...
encoded: Follow the events of the Crimean War with our timeline: 1821–29 The Ottoman empire’s rule over Greece comes to an end following the Greek War of Independence, serving to highlight the once-mighty empire’s decline. 1829 The Russo-Turkish War of 1828–29 ends in Russian protection of the Ottoman-held Danubian Principalities (Moldavia and Wallachia) in the Balkans. The Treaty of Edirne also grants Russia access to shipping through the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits. On the podcast | The Crimean War: everything you wanted to know September 1833 Russia’s Tsar Nicholas I labels the Ottoman empire the “sick man of Europe” while meeting with Prince Metternich of Austria. 1852 French president Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte (later Napoleon III) lobbies the Ottoman empire to recognise France as the protector of Christian monks and pilgrims in Jerusalem. In response, Nicholas I insists that Russia be named protector of the city’s Holy Places and of all Orthodox Christians across the Ottoman empire. February 1853 On a mission to Constantinople, Russia’s Prince Menshikov echoes Nicholas I’s earlier demands, again calling for a Russian protectorate over the Ottoman empire’s 12 million Orthodox Christians. July 1853 Russia occupies the Ottoman-held Danubian Principalities, threatening Austria’s economic lifeline along the Danube. 4 October 1853 The Ottoman empire declares war on Russia, leading to the conflict’s first battle at Olteniţa, Wallachia, exactly one month later. 30 November 1853 The Russian Black Sea fleet obliterates 15 Ottoman warships anchored in the harbour at Sinop, northern Anatolia, killing nearly 3,000 Turks. 28 March 1854 Britain and France declare war on Russia after their ultimatum demanding that Russia withdraws its forces from the Danubian Principalities expires. The British and French, along with the Ottomans, will later become collectively known as the allies. August 1854 Anglo-French supremacy over the Baltic Sea is secured following the destruction of the B…

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