1.
American Revolutionary War
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From about 1765 the American Revolution had led to increasing philosophical and political differences between Great Britain and its American colonies. The war represented a culmination of these differences in armed conflict between Patriots and the authority which they increasingly resisted. This resistance became particularly widespread in the New England Colonies, especially in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. On December 16,1773, Massachusetts members of the Patriot group Sons of Liberty destroyed a shipment of tea in Boston Harbor in an event that became known as the Boston Tea Party. Named the Coercive Acts by Parliament, these became known as the Intolerable Acts in America. The Massachusetts colonists responded with the Suffolk Resolves, establishing a government that removed control of the province from the Crown outside of Boston. Twelve colonies formed a Continental Congress to coordinate their resistance, and established committees, British attempts to seize the munitions of Massachusetts colonists in April 1775 led to the first open combat between Crown forces and Massachusetts militia, the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Militia forces proceeded to besiege the British forces in Boston, forcing them to evacuate the city in March 1776, the Continental Congress appointed George Washington to take command of the militia. Concurrent to the Boston campaign, an American attempt to invade Quebec, on July 2,1776, the Continental Congress formally voted for independence, issuing its Declaration on July 4. Sir William Howe began a British counterattack, focussing on recapturing New York City, Howe outmaneuvered and defeated Washington, leaving American confidence at a low ebb. Washington captured a Hessian force at Trenton and drove the British out of New Jersey, in 1777 the British sent a new army under John Burgoyne to move south from Canada and to isolate the New England colonies. However, instead of assisting Burgoyne, Howe took his army on a campaign against the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia. Burgoyne outran his supplies, was surrounded and surrendered at Saratoga in October 1777, the British defeat in the Saratoga Campaign had drastic consequences. Giving up on the North, the British decided to salvage their former colonies in the South, British forces under Lieutenant-General Charles Cornwallis seized Georgia and South Carolina, capturing an American army at Charleston, South Carolina. British strategy depended upon an uprising of large numbers of armed Loyalists, in 1779 Spain joined the war as an ally of France under the Pacte de Famille, intending to capture Gibraltar and British colonies in the Caribbean. Britain declared war on the Dutch Republic in December 1780, in 1781, after the British and their allies had suffered two decisive defeats at Kings Mountain and Cowpens, Cornwallis retreated to Virginia, intending on evacuation. A decisive French naval victory in September deprived the British of an escape route, a joint Franco-American army led by Count Rochambeau and Washington, laid siege to the British forces at Yorktown. With no sign of relief and the situation untenable, Cornwallis surrendered in October 1781, Whigs in Britain had long opposed the pro-war Tory majority in Parliament, but the defeat at Yorktown gave the Whigs the upper hand
2.
Russian Empire
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The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until it was overthrown by the short-lived February Revolution in 1917. One of the largest empires in history, stretching over three continents, the Russian Empire was surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires. The rise of the Russian Empire happened in association with the decline of neighboring powers, the Swedish Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Persia. It played a role in 1812–14 in defeating Napoleons ambitions to control Europe. The House of Romanov ruled the Russian Empire from 1721 until 1762, and its German-descended cadet branch, with 125.6 million subjects registered by the 1897 census, it had the third-largest population in the world at the time, after Qing China and India. Like all empires, it included a large disparity in terms of economics, ethnicity, there were numerous dissident elements, who launched numerous rebellions and assassination attempts, they were closely watched by the secret police, with thousands exiled to Siberia. Economically, the empire had an agricultural base, with low productivity on large estates worked by serfs. The economy slowly industrialized with the help of foreign investments in railways, the land was ruled by a nobility from the 10th through the 17th centuries, and subsequently by an emperor. Tsar Ivan III laid the groundwork for the empire that later emerged and he tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horde, renovated the Moscow Kremlin, and laid the foundations of the Russian state. Tsar Peter the Great fought numerous wars and expanded an already huge empire into a major European power, Catherine the Great presided over a golden age. She expanded the state by conquest, colonization and diplomacy, continuing Peter the Greats policy of modernisation along West European lines, Tsar Alexander II promoted numerous reforms, most dramatically the emancipation of all 23 million serfs in 1861. His policy in Eastern Europe involved protecting the Orthodox Christians under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and that connection by 1914 led to Russias entry into the First World War on the side of France, Britain, and Serbia, against the German, Austrian and Ottoman empires. The Russian Empire functioned as a monarchy until the Revolution of 1905. The empire collapsed during the February Revolution of 1917, largely as a result of failures in its participation in the First World War. Perhaps the latter was done to make Europe recognize Russia as more of a European country, Poland was divided in the 1790-1815 era, with much of the land and population going to Russia. Most of the 19th century growth came from adding territory in Asia, Peter I the Great introduced autocracy in Russia and played a major role in introducing his country to the European state system. However, this vast land had a population of 14 million, grain yields trailed behind those of agriculture in the West, compelling nearly the entire population to farm. Only a small percentage lived in towns, the class of kholops, close to the one of slavery, remained a major institution in Russia until 1723, when Peter I converted household kholops into house serfs, thus including them in poll taxation
3.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
4.
Kingdom of Sardinia
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The Kingdom of Sardinia was a state in Southern Europe which existed from the early 14th until the mid-19th century. It was the state of todays Italy. When it was acquired by the Duke of Savoy in 1720, however, the Savoyards united it with their possessions on the Italian mainland and, by the time of the Crimean War in 1853, had built the resulting kingdom into a strong power. The formal name of the entire Savoyard state was the States of His Majesty the King of Sardinia and its final capital was Turin, the capital of Savoy since the Middle Ages. Beginning in 1324, James and his successors conquered the island of Sardinia, in 1420 the last competing claim to the island was bought out. After the union of the crowns of Aragon and Castile, Sardinia became a part of the burgeoning Spanish Empire, in 1720 it was ceded by the Habsburg and Bourbon claimants to the Spanish throne to Duke Victor Amadeus II of Savoy. While in theory the traditional capital of the island of Sardinia and seat of its viceroys was Cagliari, the Congress of Vienna, which restructured Europe after Napoleons defeat, returned to Savoy its mainland possessions and augmented them with Liguria, taken from the Republic of Genoa. In 1847–48, in a fusion, the various Savoyard states were unified under one legal system, with the capital in Turin, and granted a constitution. There followed the annexation of Lombardy, the central Italian states and the Two Sicilies, Venetia, in 238 BC Sardinia became, along with Corsica, a province of the Roman Empire. The Romans ruled the island until the middle of the 5th century, when it was occupied by the Vandals, in 534 AD it was reconquered by the Romans, but now from the Eastern Roman Empire, Byzantium. It remained a Byzantine province until the Arab conquest of Sicily in the 9th century, after that, communications with Constantinople became very difficult, and powerful families of the island assumed control of the land. Starting from 705–706, Saracens from north Africa harassed the population of the coastal cities, information about the Sardinian political situation in the following centuries is scarce. There is a record of another massive Saracen sea attack in 1015–16 from the Balearics, the Saracen attempt to invade the island was stopped by the Judicatus with the support of the fleets of the maritime republics of Pisa and Genoa, free cities of the Holy Roman Empire. Pope Benedict VIII also requested aid from the republics of Pisa. Even the title of Judices was a Byzantine reminder of the Greek church and state, of these sovereigns only two names are known, Turcoturiu and Salusiu, who probably ruled in the 10th century. The Archons still wrote in Greek or Latin, but one of the first documents of the Judex of Cagliari, their successor, was written in romance Sardinian language. The realm was divided into four kingdoms, the Judicati, perfectly organized as was the previous realm, but was now under the influence of the Pope. That was the cause of leading to a long war between the Judices, who regarded themselves as kings fighting against rebellious nobles
5.
Ottoman Empire
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After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries. With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, while the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians. The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society, however, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian Empires. While the Empire was able to hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent. Starting before World War I, but growing increasingly common and violent during it, major atrocities were committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. The word Ottoman is an anglicisation of the name of Osman I. Osmans name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān, in Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye, or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti. In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti, the Turkish word for Ottoman originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century, and subsequently came to be used to refer to the empires military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term Turk was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population, the term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish-speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. In Western Europe, the two names Ottoman Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favored both in formal and informal situations and this dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–23, when the newly established Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. Most scholarly historians avoid the terms Turkey, Turks, and Turkish when referring to the Ottomans, as the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman, osmans early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River and it is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the scarcity of the sources which survive from this period. One school of thought which was popular during the twentieth century argued that the Ottomans achieved success by rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam, in the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans. Osmans son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326 and this conquest meant the loss of Byzantine control over northwestern Anatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387, the Ottoman victory at Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe
6.
Osman Nuri Pasha
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Osman Nuri Pasha, also known as Gazi Osman Pasha, was an Ottoman field marshal and the hero of the Siege of Plevna in 1877. Although unsuccessful in defending the city, he was awarded the title Gazi as a result of that siege, in addition to his Adjutancy title, Osman received the Order of the Medjidie and the Imtiyaz Medal for his services to the Empire. The Ottoman military anthem called Plevna March was composed for his achievements, Osman Nuri was born into the prominent Yağcıoğulları family of the city of Tokat in Central Anatolia. His father was a worker who, soon after Osmans birth, was appointed to a position in the Ottoman capital. Osman attended the Beşiktaş Military High School and then graduated from the Ottoman Military College in 1852 as a lieutenant and he fought in Crimea, where his bravery secured him a promotion as first lieutenant. After the end of the war, Osman was appointed to the staff and. In 1859 he was appointed as a representative in the forming of the cadastral and census map of the Ottoman Empire. In 1861, Osman was sent to Lebanon where a rebellion had started by Yusuf Ekrem in Syria. In 1866 he was dispatched to another troubled area of the Empire, Crete and his efforts there were noticed by Serdar-ı Ekrem Omar Pasha, so he was promoted to colonel and was awarded with the Order of the Medjidie, third grade. His next appointment was Yemen, in 1868, where he was promoted to the rank of major general, after a few months of rest, he was placed in charge of the Third Army in Rumelia. In 1873 he became a lieutenant general and returned for a short while to Istanbul, before being sent to Iskodra and his appointment there didnt last long because he couldnt get along with the local governor, Derviş Pasha, so he was moved to the Fourth Army. In 1876, the Principality of Serbia proclaimed its independence and declared war on the Ottoman Empire, Osman Pasha, who had at that time his headquarters at Vidin, defeated the Serbian army, but in April 1877 Russia declared war on the Ottomans. The Russian troops crossed the Danube into Bulgaria and Osman, with his army of 15,000 men and 174 cannons, was tasked with protecting the important fortress of Nikopol, before he could get there, the city fell on 16 July after the battle of Nikopol. So he moved his army 20 miles south of Nikopol, at Plevna, the first Russian attack was easily repulsed on 20 July. After that, Osman set about preparing for the next attack and he took advantage of the natural landscape and built a strong network of forts, multiple trench lines and redoubts that enabled him to fully use his superior armament. He also received 5,000 soldiers as reinforcements, on 30 July the Russians attacked again only to lose over 7,000 soldiers. The Russians were quick to recover, grand Duke Nicholas, commander of the Russian troops, sent an urgent telegram to Prince Carol of the United Principalities asking for Romanian support. The Romanian army sent 40,000 soldiers with 112 guns, modern Krupp pieces equal to those of the Ottomans, by now, the Allied army numbered 80,000 soldiers against an Ottoman force of around 40,000
7.
Crimean War
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The Crimean War was a military conflict fought from October 1853 to March 1856 in which the Russian Empire lost to an alliance of France, Britain, the Ottoman Empire, and Sardinia. The immediate cause involved the rights of Christian minorities in the Holy Land, the French promoted the rights of Roman Catholics, while Russia promoted those of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The longer-term causes involved the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the unwillingness of Britain and France to allow Russia to gain territory and power at Ottoman expense. While the churches eventually worked out their differences and came to an agreement, Nicholas I of Russia, Nicholas issued an ultimatum that the Orthodox subjects of the Empire be placed under his protection. Britain attempted to mediate and arranged a compromise that Nicholas agreed to, when the Ottomans demanded changes, Nicholas refused and prepared for war. Having obtained promises of support from France and Britain, the Ottomans declared war on Russia in October 1853. The war started in the Balkans, when Russian troops occupied the Danubian Principalities, until then under Ottoman suzerainty and now part of modern Romania, led by Omar Pasha, the Ottomans fought a strong defensive campaign and stopped the advance at Silistra. A separate action on the town of Kars in eastern Anatolia led to a siege. Fearing an Ottoman collapse, France and Britain rushed forces to Gallipoli and they then moved north to Varna in June, arriving just in time for the Russians to abandon Silistra. Aside from a skirmish at Köstence, there was little for the allies to do. Karl Marx quipped that there they are, the French doing nothing, after extended preparations, the forces landed on the peninsula in September 1854 and fought their way to a point south of Sevastopol after a series of successful battles. The Russians counterattacked on 25 October in what became the Battle of Balaclava and were repulsed, a second counterattack, ordered personally by Nicholas, was defeated by Omar Pasha. The front settled into a siege and led to conditions for troops on both sides. Smaller actions were carried out in the Baltic, the Caucasus, Sevastopol fell after eleven months, and neutral countries began to join the Allied cause. Isolated and facing a bleak prospect of invasion from the west if the war continued and this was welcomed by France and Britain, as their subjects were beginning to turn against their governments as the war dragged on. The war was ended by the Treaty of Paris, signed on 30 March 1856, Russia was forbidden from hosting warships in the Black Sea. The Ottoman vassal states of Wallachia and Moldavia became largely independent, Christians there were granted a degree of official equality, and the Orthodox Church regained control of the Christian churches in dispute. The Crimean War was one of the first conflicts to use technologies such as explosive naval shells, railways
8.
Battle of Sinop
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The battle was part of the Crimean War, and a contributory factor in bringing France and Great Britain into the conflict. This was the last major battle between fleets of sailing ships, the battle is commemorated in Russia as a Day of Military Honour. The Battle of Sinop was a result of the gradual disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. By 1850, the Ottoman Empire was deeply in debt and relied exclusively on British, as a result, Ottoman leaders had no choice but to agree to drastic force reductions in both Army and Navy force tables. By 1853, Tsar Nicholas I saw the reductions as an opportunity to press Russian claims in the Trans-Caucasus, in July 1853, Russian forces occupied several Ottoman principalities along the Danube, as well as forts. When mediation broke down, Sultan Abdulmecid I responded with a declaration of war, fearing Russian expansion, the United Kingdom and France issued a concurrent ultimatum, Russia was to fight only defensively. As long as Russia stayed on the defensive the Anglo-French would remain neutral, hostilities began officially on 4 October, with a principal theater in Europe and another in the Caucasus. Sultan Abdulmecid ordered an offensive to drive back the Russians. The offensive along the Danube met with mixed success, but the Ottoman attack into the Russian Caucasus was relatively successful, by the end of October, the Russian Caucasus Corps was in danger of being surrounded. Unable to interdict the convoy, Russian naval elements remained in Sevastopol, Sultan Abdulmecid ordered a second convoy commanded by Osman Pasha, but by this time it was late November and the fleet was forced to seek winter quarters. The fleet ended up at Sinope, joining the frigate Kaid Zafer which had part of an earlier patrol. The Ottomans had wanted to send ships of the line to Sinope, but the British ambassador in Constantinople, Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe, had objected to this plan, and only frigates were sent. Initial Ottoman activity in the Black Sea had been allowed to proceed unhindered, Admiral Pavel Nakhimov was ordered to muster the Russian Navy and interdict the Ottomans. From 1 to 23 November, Russian squadrons were dispatched into the Black Sea to establish control of the sea, two Ottoman steamers, the Medzhir Tadzhiret and the Pervaz Bahri, were captured by the Russians in short engagements. Russia was able to establish control of the sea lanes. Left with only a frigate, a steamer and three ships of the line, Nakhimov continued the search for Osman and the convoy, on 23 November Osmans flag was sighted returning and then entering the harbor at Sinope. Nakhimov immediately deployed his ships into a blockade and sent his only frigate to retrieve as many reinforcements as could be found, on 30 November, Vice Admiral Fyodor Novosiliski rallied six more ships to Nakhimov, completing the blockade force in a loose semi-circle. Additional steamers were expected, but Nakhimov decided to act before the Ottomans could be reinforced by additional ships, Osman for his part had been well aware of the Russian presence since 23 November, but felt his ships were safe in harbor
9.
Battle of Alma
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The Battle of the Alma, which is usually considered the first battle of the Crimean War, took place just south of the River Alma in the Crimea. An Anglo-French force under Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud and FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan defeated General Aleksandr Sergeyevich Menshikovs Russian army, the Anglo-French forces landed on the western coast of the Crimean peninsula some 35 miles north of Sevastopol, on 13 September 1854, at Calamita Bay. Although disorganised and weakened by disease, the lack of opposition these landings met allowed a beachhead of four miles inland to be made, six days later,19 September 1854, the two armies headed south. The march involved crossing five rivers—the River Bulganak, the River Alma, the River Kacha, the River Belbek and the River Chernaya. At the River Alma, Prince Aleksandr Sergeyevich Menshikov, Commander-in Chief of the Russians forces in the Crimea, furthermore, the Russians had more than 100 artillery field guns on the heights which they could employ with devastating effect from the elevated position. The British and French bivouacked on the bank of the Bulganak. Ref>See map on the bottom of page XXVII of Orlando Figes, The Crimean War, to its east lay Kourgane Hill, a natural strongpoint with fields of fire covering most approaches, and the key to the whole position. Two redoubts had been constructed to protect Kourgane Hill from infantry assault, the Lesser Redoubt on the eastern slope, the French, however, had a plan. Positioned on the right, they would assault the cliffs across the river. In theory, such an attempt to turn the Russian flank would so concern the Russians that they would fail to notice a British attack on their centre. Bousquet could not continue the advance without reinforcements, reinforcements that would not arrive quickly, on Bousquets left, French troops under General Canrobert crossed the river but were unable to move their guns up the steep cliffs. To Canroberts left Prince Napoleons division were not even able to cross the river, in the face of heavy fire from Telegraph Hill their advance stalled and the troops took shelter in the vineyards outside the village of Bourliouk. Meanwhile, the British had moved forward, the army was arranged in two lines, the first had the Light Division on the left under Sir George Brown and the 2nd Division under Sir George de Lacy Evans on the right. Behind them on the right of the line, Sir Richard England led his 3rd Division while on his left the Duke of Cambridge commanded the 1st Division. The 4th division under Sir George Cathcart and the cavalry under Lord Lucan were held in reserve, unfortunately, the Light Division had not extended its line far enough to the left and as it advanced it did so at a slight angle. Sir George Brown was extremely shortsighted and he failed to notice that this had occurred, soon the troops on the right of the Light Division and the left of the 2nd Division were merging. The parade ground precision with which the British had set off had been lost, the Russians were now faced, not with a disciplined British formation, but by something with the outward appearance of a mob. Unable to reorganise their men into anything like their original makeup, the men charged, and as they struggled up the slope a densely packed mass of Russian infantry came towards them
10.
Battle of Malakoff
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The Battle of Malakoff was a major battle during the Crimean War, fought between French-British forces against Russia on 8 September 1855 as a part of the Siege of Sevastopol. The French army under General MacMahon successfully stormed the Malakoff redoubt, in one of the wars defining moments, the French zouave Eugène Libaut raised the French flag on the top of the Russian redoubt. The Battle of Malakoff resulted in the fall of Sevastopol on 9 September, until 1784 most of the fortifications around Sevastopol were dedicated to the protection of the harbour entrance, the city itself and its naval base and were positioned close to these features. To the south the central anchor of the system was the Malakoff-Kurgan ridge. Situated about 2.5 miles southeast of the city, it consisted of a stone tower of limestone on which the Russians had placed five heavy 18-pounder cannons at the beginning of the siege. There is some mystery surrounding this tower, additionally, there are different spellings and translations into or from Russian, including Малахова башня. What is known is that the tower was built or expanded by Sevastopol merchants. The tower had a diameter of about 14–15 metres and a height of 8 metres, in its centre the battery known as Lunette Kamchatka was placed. This was a fortification that was designed to protect several artillery pieces. At this time the Russian cartographers marked all landmarks in and around this ridge as Fort Malakoff and this included several large grave mounds and the same ridge lying in front known as Mamelon. The name Fortmortal Malakoff was retained after the war in Western literature covering the Crimean War, for the town itself and the Karabelnaya suburb the plans for the works had been laid down for years. The Malakoff Tower covered the suburb, flanked on either side by the Redan, the town was covered by a line of works marked by a flagstaff and central bastions, and separated from the Redan by the inner harbour. Lieutenant Colonel Eduard Totleben, the Russian chief engineer, had work on these sites early in the war. Through daily efforts to rebuild, re-arm and improve the fortifications, there were, however, many reasons against them doing so at the time, and it was not until 17 October that the first attack took place. Throughout 17 October, an artillery duel raged. The Russian artillery was initially successful, the French corps fell under siege, the advancing fleet engaging the harbour batteries also suffered a loss of 500 men and several ships were heavily damaged. As it was, by daybreak, Totlebens engineers had repaired and improved the damaged works, for months the siege of Sevastopol continued. During July the Russians lost on an average of 250 men a day, Gorchakov and the field army were to make another attack at the Chernaya, the first since the Inkerman
11.
Battle of Balaclava
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The Allies decided against an immediate assault on Sevastopol and instead prepared for a protracted siege. However, this committed the British to the defence of the right flank of the Allied siege operations. The battle began with a Russian artillery and infantry attack on the Ottoman redoubts that formed Balaclavas first line of defence, the Ottoman forces initially resisted the Russian assaults, but lacking support they were eventually forced to retreat. When the redoubts fell, the Russian cavalry moved to engage the second defensive line held by the Ottoman, the British and French fleets departed from the Bulgarian port of Varna on 5 September 1854, heading towards Kalamita Bay in the Crimea. By the 14th, the troops began to land, within four days the Allied force of 61,400 infantry,1,200 cavalry and 137 guns, was ashore. News of Menshikovs defeat was met with disbelief by Tsar Nicholas I in St. Petersburg – it seemed it would only be a matter of time before Sevastopol fell. It is frightful to think what might have happened, wrote Vice-Admiral Kornilov, had it not been for this error of the enemys. John Burgoyne, the British Armys most experienced engineer, advocated an attack on Sevastopol from the south which and this was a view shared by Saint-Arnaud who, having received his own intelligence of Russian reinforcements, had refused to agree to an attack from the north. Burgoynes proposed flank march required the Allies to go round the city to the east in order to attack the harbour from the south where the defences were weakest. Whilst Menshikov moved east, the Anglo-French-Turkish army, with the British in the vanguard, the heat was oppressive, the water sparse, and cholera rife, taking a heavy toll on the men including Saint-Arnaud who was already ill with cancer. The march had been a trial and was not without incident. By the 26th, however, Raglan had reached the village of Kadikoi and that same day Saint-Arnaud, now critically ill, surrendered his command to General Canrobert. The harbour at Balaclava was too small for both Allied armies to use, by rights the French, who had claimed the honour of holding the right of the line, should have occupied Balaclava whilst the British should have moved west to the ports of Kazatch and Kamiesh. The decision by Raglan was a bad mistake, and one for which the British Army was to pay a terrible price, for many, the only justification for the flank march was an immediate assault upon Sevastopol. George Cathcart, commander of the British 4th Division, pleaded with Raglan for instant action, I am sure I could walk into it, with scarcely the loss of a man, wrote Cathcart to Raglan on 28 September from the heights above the eastern approach to the city. We could leave our packs, and run into it even in open day … We see people walking about the streets in great consternation, but caution prevailed, and plans by Burgoyne for a formal siege, backed by Canrobert, were prepared. When Raglan told Cathcart that nothing would happen until the Allied siege trains had been landed, Cathcart could not hide his irritation, but my dear Lord Raglan, what the devil is there to knock down. Having decided upon which port they would occupy the Allies set about deploying their forces on the Chersonese Peninsula, the peninsula is bounded to the north by Sevastopol Harbour, at the head of which the River Chernaya flows from the south-east
12.
Battle of Inkerman
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The Battle of Inkerman was fought during the Crimean War on 5 November 1854 between the allied armies of Britain, France and Ottoman Empire against the Imperial Russian Army. The battle broke the will of the Russian Army to defeat the allies in the field, the role of troops fighting mostly on their own initiative due to the foggy conditions during the battle has earned the engagement the name The Soldiers Battle. The allied armies of Britain, France, Sardinia, and the Ottoman Empire had landed on the west coast of Crimea on 14 September 1854, intending to capture the Russian naval base at Sevastopol. The allied armies fought off and defeated the Russian Army at the Battle of Alma, instead, they resolved to march around the city, and put Sevastopol under siege. Toward this end the allies marched to the southern coast of the Crimean peninsula, however, before the siege of Sevastopol began, the Russian commander Prince Menshikov evacuated Sevastopol with the major portion of his field army, leaving only a garrison to defend the city. Balaclava revealed the weakness, their siege lines were so long they did not have sufficient troops to man them. Realising this, Menshikov launched an attack across the Tchernaya River on 4 November 1854, on 5 November 1854, the Russian 10th Division, under Lt. General F. I. Soymonov, launched an attack on the allied right flank atop Home Hill east from the Russian position on Shell Hill. The assault was made by two columns of 35,000 men and 134 field artillery guns of the Russian 10th Division, when combined with other Russian forces in the area, the Russian attacking force would form a formidable army of some 42,000 men. The initial Russian assault was to be received by the British Second Division dug in on Home Hill with only 2,700 men and 12 guns, both Russian columns moved in a flanking fashion east towards the British. They hoped to overwhelm this portion of the Allied army before reinforcements could arrive, the fog of the early morning hours aided the Russians by hiding their approach. Not all the Russian troops could fit on the narrow 300-meter-wide heights of Shell Hill, accordingly, General Soymonov had followed Prince Alexander Menshikovs directive and deployed some of his force around the Careenage Ravine. Thus, Soymonov could not effectively employ all of his troops in the attack, when dawn broke, Soymonov attacked the British positions on Home Hill with 6,300 men from the Kolyvansky, Ekaterinburg and Tomsky regiments. Soymonov also had a further 9,000 in reserve, the British had strong pickets and had ample warning of the Russian attack despite the early morning fog. The pickets, some of them at company strength, engaged the Russians as they moved to attack, the firing in the valley also gave warning to the rest of the Second Division, who rushed to their defensive positions. Pennefather did not know that he was facing a superior Russian force, thus he abandoned Evans plan of falling back to draw the Russians within range of the British field artillery which was hidden behind Home Hill. Instead, Pennefather ordered his 2,700 strong division to attack, when they did so, the Second Division faced some 15,300 Russian soldiers. Russian guns bombarded Home Hill, but there were no troops on the crest at this point, the Russians were forced into a bottleneck owing to the shape of the valley, and came out on the Second Divisions left flank
French Empire
Kingdom of Sardinia[1]
Ottoman Empire
Russian Empire
