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Extract

Crimean War: The Empire Strikes Back

From the Danube to the Caucasus, conflict raged. The Ottomans were fighting for their territories and their lives, but the full story of their courage is only now being told, says the military historian Mesut Uyar 

  • Roger Fenton's portrait of Ömer Pasha, 1854. With him is [Lt Col John Linthorn Simmons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lintorn_Simmons), identifiable by his distinctive moustache. Lintorn had been inspector of railways in Britain, but was on leave in Istanbul in 1853 when war between Turkey and Russia broke out. The British government asked him to assess the Ottoman defenses and chances against Russia, then appointed him the military representative to Ömer Pasha and eventually British Commissioner to the Turkish army for the duration of the war (photo: library of congress 3g09257u)

The political crisis that led to the Crimean war was the outcome of continuous Russian aggression and plans to control strategic parts of the Ottoman Empire, ambitions only thinly disguised as concern for the Holy Places in Jerusalem and the protection of Orthodox Christians. The Ottoman government was fully aware of the horror and military humiliations of the series of Ottoman–Russian wars of the past hundred years but, against this legacy and all odds, stood firm against the new Russian demands. The Russian general staff prepared bolder plans, but in the end the tsar approved the safest: the occupation of the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia and an attack on the Caucasian front.

Mesut Uyar is associate professor at the University of New South Wales and the co-author with Edward J Erickson of ‘A Military History of the Ottomans: From Osman to Atatürk’ (Praeger/ABC-Clio $75)

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Issue 49, April 2013 Travels in Tartary
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