Master manipulator Soros--"Ve haff vays of controlling your currency." |
The First Crimean War (as it will surely be called, once the neo-con/PC-Prog war machine gets things cooking soon) was, just as this one is, purely about European intranecine power struggles.
Specifically, it was about today's EU (France, UK) grabbing for power and influence at the expense of the Turkish Ottoman Empire (Sharia! Run away!) and the Russian Empire.
Glorious War! Stop that grasping Russian Empire! Charge! |
Why the hell wasn't President James Buchanan cracking down on those nasty__________ (fill in the blank for your preferred minute-of-hate religion/nationality/empire)! American prestige was at stake! There was as much American interest at stake in 1856 Crimea as there is in 2014 Crimea.
James Buchanan, Focused on American Interests |
"War sparked by what on first glance appears to be a trivial disagreement over the Christian shrines of Jerusalem, but that was actually the result of long term European tensions. Russia had long been expanding south at the expense of various Muslim states, and the Ottoman Turks, slowly gaining ground, while the ever weaking Ottoman empire still controlled large areas of the Balkans. The Russians were the guardians of the Christian shrines within the Ottoman Empire, and when a dispute broke out between Orthodox and Catholic Christians in Jerusalem, France decided to intervene as protector of the Catholics, gaining special status from the Turks in 1852.
"Tsar Nicholas I of Russia decided to use the tension in an attempt to gain control of Constantinople and with it direct access to the Mediterranean. This alarmed France, long term allies of Turkey, and enemies of Russia, and Britain, who objected to any change in the balance of power, and also had rivalries with Russia further east. Russia issued demands in May 1853, which were soon refused, and Russian troops began to occupy Turkish Moldavia and parts of Rumania in July. The Turks declared war on Russia in October, and a Turkish army crossed the Danube, defeating the Russians at the battle of Oltenitza (4 November 1853), in southern Rumania.
"On 30 November the Russians defeated a Turkish fleet at Sinope, in an encounter most significant for the introduction of shell guns by the Russians, although their control of the Black Sea was short lived, and a Franco-British fleet entered the Black Sea in January 1854. On 28 March 1854, Britain and France declared war on Russia, and moved to help the Turks."
http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_crimean.html