title: Crimean War

text: Assistance from Western European powers or Russia had twice saved the Ottoman Empire from destruction, but the Ottomans also lost their independence in foreign policy. Britain and France desired more than any other states to preserve the integrity of the Ottoman Empire because they did not want to see Russia gaining access to the Mediterranean Sea. Austria had the same fears.


title: Crimean War

text: Russia, as a member of the Holy Alliance, had operated as the "police of Europe" to maintain the balance of power that had been established in the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Russia had assisted Austria's efforts in suppressing the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, and expected a free hand in settling its problems with the Ottoman Empire, the "sick man of Europe". However, Britain could not tolerate Russian dominance of Ottoman affairs, which would challenge its domination of the eastern Mediterranean.


title: Crimean War

text: Starting with Peter the Great in the early 1700s, after centuries of Ottoman northward expansion and Crimean-Nogai raids, Russia began a southwards expansion across the sparsely-populated "Wild Fields" toward the warm water ports of the Black Sea, which does not freeze over, unlike the handful of ports controlled by Russia in the north. The goal was to promote year-round trade and a year-round navy. Pursuit of that goal brought the emerging Russian state into conflict with the Ukrainian Cossacks and then the Tatars of the Crimean Khanate and Circassians. When Russia conquered those groups and gained possession of their territories, the Ottoman Empire lost its buffer zone against Russian expansion, and both empires came into direct conflict. The conflict with the Ottoman Empire also presented a religious issue of importance, as Russia saw itself as the protector of history of the Eastern Orthodox Church under the Ottoman Orthodox Christians, who were legally treated as second-class citizens. The Ottoman Reform Edict of 1856, promulgated after the war, largely reversed much of the second-class status, most notably the tax that only non-Muslims paid.


title: Crimean War

text: Britain's immediate fear was Russia's expansion at the expense of the Ottoman Empire. The British desired to preserve Ottoman integrity and were concerned that Russia might make advances toward British India or move toward Scandinavia or Western Europe. A distraction (in the form of the Ottoman Empire) on the British southwest flank would mitigate that threat. The Royal Navy also wanted to forestall the threat of a powerful Russian Navy. Taylor stated the British perspective:


title: Crimean War

text: Because of "British commercial and strategic interests in the Middle East and India", the British joined the French, "cement[ing] an alliance with Britain and... reassert[ing] its military power". Among those who supported the British strategy were Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. In his articles for the "New York Tribune" around 1853, Marx saw the Crimean War as a conflict between the democratic ideals of the west that started with the "great movement of 1789" against "Russia and Absolutism". He described the Ottoman Empire as a buffer against a pattern of expansionism by the Tsar. Marx and Engels also accused Lord Palmerston of playing along with the interests of Russia and being unserious in preparing for the conflict. Marx believed Palmerston to be bribed by Russia, and shared this belief with David Urquhart. Urquhart, for his part, was a British politician who was a major advocate for the Ottoman Empire.


title: Crimean War

text: Mikhail Pogodin, a professor of history at Moscow University, gave Nicholas a summary of Russia's policy towards the Slavs in the war. Nicholas's answer was filled with grievances against the West. Nicholas shared Pogodin's sense that Russia's role as the protector of Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire was not understood and that Russia was unfairly treated by the West. Nicholas especially approved of the following passage:


title: Crimean War

text: Russia was militarily weak, technologically backward and administratively incompetent. Despite its grand ambitions toward the south, it had not built its railway network in that direction, and its communications were poor. Its bureaucracy was riddled with graft, corruption and inefficiency and was unprepared for war. Its navy was weak and technologically backward. Its army, although very large, suffered from colonels who pocketed their men's pay, from poor morale, and from a technological deficit relative to Britain and France. By the war's end, the profound weaknesses of the Russian armed forces had become readily apparent, and the Russian leadership was determined to reform it.


title: Crimean War

text: However, no matter how great the problems of Russia were, Russia believed those of the Ottomans were greater. "In a one-to-one fight Nikolai (Tsar) had no doubt of beating the Ottoman armies and navy".


title: Crimean War

text: Russian foreign policy failed to understand the importance of Britain's trade interests and did not understand the changes in the situation after the conclusion of the Anglo-Ottoman Treaty in 1838 (see Treaty of Balta Liman). Russia attempted to "honestly" negotiate with Great Britain on the partition of the Ottoman Empire and made concessions in order to eliminate all objections from Great Britain.


title: Crimean War

text: "The Tsar Nicholas had always, as we have seen, been anxious to maintain a cordial understanding with England in regard to the Eastern Question, and early in the spring of 1853 he had a series of interviews with Sir Hamilton Seymour, then British ambassador at St. Petersburg." Emperor Nicholas I assured that he did not intend to seize Constantinople (Istanbul) and territories in the Balkans, he himself offered Britain to take over Egypt and Crete. Concessions at the conclusion of the London Straits Convention were made earlier in 1841. "By signing the convention, the Russians had given up their privileged position in the Ottoman Empire and their control of the Straits, all in the hope of improving relations with Britain and isolating France". But Britain after 1838 was interested in preserving the integrity of the Ottoman Empire and rejected all Russian proposals. "The fall of the Ottoman Empire was not, however, a requirement of British policy in the East. A weak Ottoman state best suited British interests".


title: Crimean War

text: French Emperor Napoleon III's ambition to restore France's grandeur initiated the immediate chain of events that led to France and Britain declaring war on Russia on 27 and 28 March 1854, respectively. He pursued Catholic support by asserting France's "sovereign authority" over the Christian population of Palestine, to the detriment of Russia (the sponsor of Eastern Orthodoxy). To achieve that, he in May 1851 appointed Charles, marquis de La Valette, a zealous leading member of the Catholic clericalists, as his ambassador to the Sublime Porte of the Ottoman Empire.


title: Crimean War

text: Russia disputed that attempted change in authority. Referring to two previous treaties (one from 1757 and the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca from 1774), the Ottomans reversed their earlier decision, renounced the French treaty and declared that Russia was the protector of the Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire.


title: Crimean War

text: Napoleon III responded with a show of force by sending the ship of the line "Charlemagne" to the Black Sea and thereby violated the London Straits Convention. The gunboat diplomacy show of force, together with money, induced Ottoman Sultan Abdülmecid I to accept a new treaty confirming France and the Catholic Church's supreme authority over Catholic holy places, including the Church of the Nativity, which had been held by the Greek Orthodox Church.


title: Crimean War

text: Tsar Nicholas I then deployed his 4th and 5th Army Corps along the River Danube in Wallachia, as a direct threat to the Ottoman lands south of the river. He had Foreign Minister Count Karl Nesselrode undertake talks with the Ottomans. Nesselrode confided to Sir George Hamilton Seymour, the British ambassador in Saint Petersburg:


title: Crimean War

text: The agreement referred to by the French was in 1740. At present most historians (except for the new Russian Orthodox nationalists) accept that the question of the holy places was no more than a pretext for the Crimean War. As conflict emerged over the issue of the holy places, Nicholas I and Nesselrode began a diplomatic offensive, which they hoped would prevent either British or French interference in any conflict between Russia and the Ottomans and prevent both from forming an anti-Russian alliance.


title: Crimean War

text: Nicholas began courting Britain by means of conversations with Seymour in January and February 1853. Nicholas insisted that he no longer wished to expand the Russia Empire but that he had an obligation to the Christian communities in the Ottoman Empire.


title: Crimean War

text: He next dispatched a highly-abrasive diplomat, Prince Menshikov, on a special mission to the Ottoman Sublime Porte in February 1853. By previous treaties, the sultan had committed "to protect the (Eastern Orthodox) Christian religion and its churches". Menshikov demanded a Russian protectorate over all 12 million Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire with control of the Orthodox Church's hierarchy. A compromise was reached regarding Orthodox access to the Holy Land, but the Sultan, strongly supported by the British ambassador, rejected the most sweeping demands.


title: Crimean War

text: Nicholas fumed at "the infernal dictatorship of this Redcliffe" whose name and political ascendancy at the Porte personified for him the whole Eastern Question, Stratford Canning, 1st Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe.


title: Crimean War

text: The British and the French sent in naval task forces to support the Ottomans, as Russia had prepared to seize the Danubian Principalities.


title: Crimean War

text: All the calculations of the Russian emperor turned out to be erroneous. England refused his proposals, it was not possible to prevent the Anglo-French rapprochement, Austria opposed his policy, the Ottoman Empire showed intransigence. On the contrary, a favourable situation was developing for England. England had great naval power and a powerful economy, but did not have a strong land army. The alliance with France, which had a strong land army, made it possible to strike at Russia. "With the help of French infantry, it was possible to overturn Russia's positions with one blow"


title: Crimean War

text: In February 1853, the British government of Prime Minister Lord Aberdeen reappointed Stratford Canning as British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. Having resigned the ambassadorship in January, he had been replaced by Colonel Rose as "chargé d'affaires". Lord Stratford then turned around, sailed back to Constantinople, arriving there on 5 April 1853 and convinced the Sultan there to reject the Russian treaty proposal as compromising Ottoman independence. The Leader of the Opposition in the British House of Commons, Benjamin Disraeli, blamed Aberdeen and Stratford's actions for making war inevitable, which started the process that would force the Aberdeen government to resign in January 1855 over the war.


title: Crimean War

text: Shortly after he had learned of the failure of Menshikov's diplomacy toward the end of June 1853, the Tsar sent armies under the commands of Field Marshal Ivan Paskevich and General Mikhail Gorchakov across the River Pruth into the Ottoman-controlled Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. Fewer than half of the 80,000 Russian soldiers who crossed the Pruth in 1853 survived. By far, nearly all of the deaths would result from sickness, rather than action, since the Russian Army still suffered from medical services that ranged from bad to none.


title: Crimean War

text: Russia had obtained recognition from the Ottoman Empire of the Tsar's role as special guardian of the Orthodox Christians in Moldavia and Wallachia. Russia now used the Sultan's failure to resolve the issue of the protection of the Christian sites in the Holy Land as a pretext for Russian occupation of those Danubian provinces. Nicholas believed that the European powers, especially Austria, would not object strongly to the annexation of a few neighbouring Ottoman provinces, especially since Russia had assisted Austria's efforts in suppressing the Hungarian Revolution in 1849.


title: Crimean War

text: The United Kingdom, hoping to maintain the Ottoman Empire as a bulwark against the expansion of Russian power in Asia, sent a fleet to the Dardanelles, where it joined a fleet sent by France.


title: Crimean War

text: The European powers continued to pursue diplomatic avenues. The representatives of the four neutral Great Powers (the United Kingdom, France, Austria and Prussia) met in Vienna, where they drafted a note, which they hoped would be acceptable to both the Russians and the Ottomans. The peace terms arrived at by the four powers at the Vienna Conference (1853) were delivered to the Russians by Austrian Foreign Minister Count Karl von Buol on 5 December 1853. The note met with the approval of Nicholas I, but Abdülmecid I rejected the proposal since he felt that the document's poor phrasing left it open to many different interpretations. The United Kingdom, France and Austria united in proposing amendments to mollify the Sultan, but the court of St. Petersburg ignored their suggestions. The United Kingdom and France then set aside the idea of continuing negotiations, but Austria and Prussia did not believe that the rejection of the proposed amendments justified the abandonment of the diplomatic process.


title: Crimean War

text: On 23 November, a small Russian naval force discovered the Ottoman fleet harbored in Sinop and began a blockade. Once the Russian blockade was reinforced, a squadron of 6 Russian ships of the line supported by 5 smaller warships, assaulted the harbor on 30 November 1853. During Battle of Sinop, the Russian squadron destroyed a patrol squadron of 11 Ottoman warships - mostly frigates - while they were anchored in port under defense of the onshore artillery garrison. The Ottoman fleet suffered a crushing defeat. The Russian victory in the naval battle in Sinope was called "the massacre of Sinope". Although Russia and the Ottoman Empire were already at war, and there was no evidence of Russian atrocities, the phrase was used as propaganda in the West. The press in both United Kingdom and France used Sinop as the "casus belli" ("cause of war") to shape the public opinion in favor of war against Russia. By 28 March 1854, after Russia ignored an Anglo-French ultimatum to withdraw from the Danubian Principalities, the United Kingdom and France had both declared war.


title: Crimean War

text: Britain was concerned about Russian activity and Sir John Burgoyne, a senior advisor to Lord Aberdeen, urged for the Dardanelles to be occupied and works of sufficient strength to be built to block any Russian move to capture Constantinople and gain access to the Mediterranean. The Corps of Royal Engineers sent men to the Dardanelles, and Burgoyne went to Paris and met with the British ambassador and the French emperor. Lord Cowley wrote on 8 February to Burgoyne, "Your visit to Paris has produced a visible change in the Emperor's views, and he is making every preparation for a land expedition in case the last attempt at negotiation should break down".


title: Crimean War

text: Burgoyne and his team of engineers inspected and surveyed the Dardanelles area in February. They were fired on by Russian riflemen when they went to Varna. A team of sappers arrived in March, and major building works commenced on a seven-mile line of defence, which was designed to block the Gallipoli Peninsula. French sappers worked on half of the line, which was finished in May.


title: Crimean War

text: Nicholas felt that because of Russian assistance in suppressing the Hungarian revolution of 1848, Austria would side with him or at the very least remain neutral. Austria, however, felt threatened by the Russian troops in the Balkans. On 27 February 1854, the United Kingdom and France demanded the withdrawal of Russian forces from the principalities. Austria supported them and, without declaring war on Russia, refused to guarantee its neutrality. Russia's rejection of the ultimatum proved to be the justification used by Britain and France to enter the war.


title: Crimean War

text: Russia soon withdrew its troops from the Danubian Principalities, which were then occupied by Austria for the duration of the war. That removed the original grounds for war, but the British and the French continued with hostilities. Determined to address the Eastern Question by putting an end to the Russian threat to the Ottomans, the allies in August 1854 proposed the "Four Points" for ending the conflict in addition to the Russian withdrawal:


title: Crimean War

text: Those points, particularly the third, would require clarification through negotiations, which Russia refused. The allies, including Austria, therefore agreed that Britain and France should take further military action to prevent further Russian aggression against the Ottomans. Britain and France agreed on the invasion of the Crimean Peninsula as the first step.


title: Crimean War

text: The Danube campaign opened when the Russians occupied the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia in July 1853, which brought their forces to the north bank of the River Danube. In response, the Ottoman Empire also moved its forces up to the river, establishing strongholds at Vidin in the west and Silistra in the east, near the mouth of the Danube. The Ottoman move up the River Danube was also of concern to the Austrians, who moved forces into Transylvania in response. However, the Austrians had begun to fear the Russians more than the Ottomans. Indeed, like the British, the Austrians were now coming to see that an intact Ottoman Empire was necessary as a bulwark against the Russians. Accordingly, Austria resisted Russian diplomatic attempts to join the war but remained neutral during the Crimean War.


title: Crimean War

text: After the Ottoman ultimatum in September 1853, forces under Ottoman General Omar Pasha crossed the Danube at Vidin and captured Calafat in October 1853. Simultaneously, in the east, the Ottomans crossed the Danube at Silistra and attacked the Russians at Oltenița. The resulting Battle of Oltenița was the first engagement since the declaration of war. The Russians counterattacked but were beaten back. On 31 December 1853, the Ottoman forces at Calafat moved against the Russian force at Chetatea or Cetate, a small village nine miles north of Calafat, and engaged it on 6 January 1854. The battle began when the Russians made a move to recapture Calafat. Most of the heavy fighting took place in and around Chetatea until the Russians were driven out of the village. Despite the setback at Chetatea, Russian forces on 28 January 1854 laid siege to Calafat. The siege would continue until May 1854 when it was lifted by the Russians. The Ottomans would also later beat the Russians in battle at Caracal.


title: Crimean War

text: In early 1854, the Russians again advanced by crossing the River Danube into the Turkish province of Dobruja. By April 1854, the Russians had reached the lines of Trajan's Wall, where they were finally halted. In the centre, the Russian forces crossed the Danube and laid siege to Silistra from 14 April with 60,000 troops. The defenders had 15,000 troops and supplies for three months. The siege was lifted on 23 June 1854. The British and the French could not then take the field for lack of equipment.


title: Crimean War

text: In the west, the Russians were dissuaded from attacking Vidin by the presence of the Austrian forces, which had swollen to 280,000 men. On 28 May 1854, a protocol of the Vienna Conference was signed by Austria and Russia. One of the aims of the Russian advance had been to encourage the Orthodox Christian Serbs and Bulgarians who were living under Ottoman rule to rebel. When the Russian troops crossed the River Pruth into Moldavia, the Orthodox Christians showed no interest in rising up against the Ottomans. Adding to Nicholas I's worries was the concern that Austria would enter the war against the Russians and attack his armies on the western flank. Indeed, after attempting to mediate a peaceful settlement between Russia and the Ottomans, the Austrians entered the war on the side of the Ottomans with an attack against the Russians in the Danubian Principalities which threatened to cut off the Russian supply lines. Accordingly, the Russians were forced to raise the siege of Silistra on 23 June 1854 and to begin abandoning the principalities. The lifting of the siege reduced the threat of a Russian advance into Bulgaria.


title: Crimean War

text: In June 1854, the Allied expeditionary force landed at Varna, a city on the Black Sea's western coast, but made little advance from its base there. Karl Marx was noted to have quipped that "there they are, the French doing nothing and the British helping them as fast as possible". In July 1854, the Ottomans, under Omar Pasha, crossed the Danube into Wallachia and on 7 July 1854 engaged the Russians in the city of Giurgiu and conquered it. The capture of Giurgiu by the Ottomans immediately threatened Bucharest in Wallachia with capture by the same Ottoman army. On 1854, Nicholas I, responding to an Austrian ultimatum, ordered the withdrawal of Russian troops from the principalities. Also, in late July 1854, following up on the Russian retreat, the French staged an expedition against the Russian forces still in Dobruja, but it was a failure.


title: Crimean War

text: By then, the Russian withdrawal was complete, except for the fortress towns of northern Dobruja, and Russia's place in the principalities was taken by the Austrians as a neutral peacekeeping force. There was little further action on that front after late 1854, and in September, the allied force boarded ships at Varna to invade the Crimean Peninsula.


title: Crimean War

text: The naval operations of the Crimean War commenced with the dispatch in mid-1853 of the French and the British fleets to the Black Sea region, to support the Ottomans and to dissuade the Russians from encroachment. By June 1853, both fleets had been stationed at Besikas Bay, outside the Dardanelles. With the Russian occupation of the Danube Principalities in July 1853, they moved to the Bosphorus, and on 3 January 1854, they entered the Black Sea.


title: Crimean War

text: Meanwhile, the Russian Black Sea Fleet operated against Ottoman coastal traffic between Constantinople and the Caucasus ports, and the Ottoman fleet sought to protect the supply line. The clash came on 30 November 1853, when a Russian fleet attacked an Ottoman force in the harbour at Sinop and destroyed it at the Battle of Sinop. The battle outraged British public opinion, which called for war. There was little additional naval action until March 1854, when after the declaration of war, the British frigate was fired on outside Odessa Harbour. In response an Anglo-French fleet bombarded the port and caused much damage to the town. To show support for the Ottomans after the Battle of Sinop, on 22 December 1853, the Anglo-French squadron entered the Black Sea and the steamship HMS "Retribution" approached the Port of Sevastopol. Its commander received an ultimatum not to allow any ships in the Black Sea.


title: Crimean War

text: In June, the fleets transported the Allied expeditionary forces to Varna to support the Ottoman operations on the Danube. In September they again transported the armies, this time to the Crimean Peninsula. The Russian fleet then declined to engage the allies but preferred to maintain a "fleet in being", a strategy that failed when Sevastopol, the main port and the base of most of the Black Sea fleet, came under siege. The Russians were reduced to scuttling their warships as blockships after they had stripped them of their guns and men to reinforce batteries on shore. During the siege, the Russians lost four 110- or 120-gun, three-decker ships of the line, twelve 84-gun two-deckers and four 60-gun frigates in the Black Sea, as well as a large number of smaller vessels. During the rest of the campaign, the allied fleets remained in control of the Black Sea and ensured that the various fronts were kept supplied.


title: Crimean War

text: In May 1855, the allies successfully invaded Kerch and operated against Taganrog in the Sea of Azov. In September, they moved against Russian installations in the Dnieper estuary by attacking Kinburn in the first use of ironclad ships in naval warfare.


title: Crimean War

text: The Russians evacuated Wallachia and Moldavia in late July 1854. Therefore, the immediate cause of war had now been withdrawn, and the war might have then ended. However, war fever among the public in both Britain and France had been whipped up by the press in both countries to the degree that politicians found it untenable to propose immediately ending the war. The coalition government of George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, fell on 30 January 1855 on a no-confidence vote, as Parliament voted to appoint a committee to investigate the mismanagement of the war.


title: Crimean War

text: French and British officers and engineers were sent on 20 July on HMS "Fury", a wooden "Bulldog"-class paddle sloop, to survey the harbour of Sevastopol and the coast near it. They managed to get close to the harbour mouth to inspect the formidable batteries. Returning, they reported that they believed that 15,000–20,000 troops were encamped. Ships were prepared to transport horses, and siege equipment was both manufactured and imported.


title: Crimean War

text: The Crimean campaign opened in September 1854. In seven columns, 360 ships sailed, each steamer towing two sailing ships. Anchoring on 13 September in the bay of Eupatoria, the town surrendered, and 500 marines landed to occupy it. The town and the bay would provide a fallback position in case of disaster. The ships then sailed east to make the landing of the allied expeditionary force on the sandy beaches of Calamita Bay, on the south-west coast of the Crimean Peninsula. The landing surprised the Russians, as they had expected a landing at Katcha. The last-minute change proved that Russia had known the original campaign plan. There was no sign of the enemy and so all of the invading troops landed on 14 September 1854. It took another four days to land all of the stores, equipment, horses and artillery.


title: Crimean War

text: The landing took place north of Sevastopol and so the Russians had arrayed their army in expectation of a direct attack. The allies advanced and on the morning of 20 September came up to the River Alma and engaged the Russian Army. The Russian position was strong, but after three hours, the allied frontal attack had driven the Russians out of their dug-in positions with losses of 6,000 men. The Battle of the Alma resulted in 3,300 Allied losses. Failing to pursue the retreating forces was one of many strategic errors made during the war, and the Russians themselves noted that if the allies had pressed south that day, they would have easily captured Sevastopol.


title: Crimean War

text: Believing the northern approaches to the city too well defended, especially because of the presence of a large star fort and the city being on the south side of the inlet from the sea that made the harbour, Sir John Burgoyne, the engineer advisor, recommended for the allies attack to Sevastopol from the south. The joint commanders, Raglan and St Arnaud, agreed. On 25 September, the whole army began to march southeast and encircled the city from the south after it had established port facilities at Balaclava for the British and at Kamiesch () for the French. The Russians retreated into the city.


title: Crimean War

text: The Allied armies moved without problems to the south, and the heavy artillery was brought ashore with batteries and connecting trenches built. By 10 October, some batteries were ready, and by 17 October, when the bombardment commenced—126 guns were firing, 53 of them French. The fleet meanwhile engaged the shore batteries. The British bombardment worked better than that of the French, who had smaller-calibre guns. The fleet suffered high casualties during the day. The British wanted to attack that afternoon, but the French wanted to defer the attack.


title: Crimean War

text: A postponement was agreed, but on the next day, the French were still not ready. By 19 October the Russians had transferred some heavy guns to the southern defences and had outgunned the allies.


title: Crimean War

text: Reinforcements for the Russians gave them the courage to send out probing attacks. The Allied lines, beginning to suffer from cholera as early as September, were stretched. The French, on the west, had less to do than the British on the east, with their siege lines and the large nine-mile open wing back to their supply base on the south coast.


title: Crimean War

text: A large Russian assault on the allied supply base to the southeast at Balaclava was rebuffed on 25 October 1854. The Battle of Balaclava is remembered in Britain for the actions of two British units. At the start of the battle, a large body of Russian cavalry charged the 93rd Highlanders, who were posted north of the village of Kadikoi. Commanding them was Sir Colin Campbell. Rather than "form square", the traditional method of repelling cavalry, Campbell took the risky decision to have his Highlanders form a single line two men deep. Campbell had seen the effectiveness of the new Minie rifles with which his troops were armed at the Battle of Alma, a month earlier, and he was confident that his men could beat back the Russians. His tactics succeeded. From up on the ridge to the west, "Times" correspondent William Howard Russell saw the Highlanders as a "thin red streak topped with steel", a phrase which soon became the "Thin Red Line".


title: Crimean War

text: Soon afterward, a Russian cavalry movement was countered by the Heavy Brigade, which charged and fought hand to hand until the Russians retreated. That caused a more widespread Russian retreat, including a number of their artillery units. After the local commanders had failed to take advantage of the retreat, Lord Raglan sent out orders to move up and to prevent the withdrawal of naval guns from the recently captured redoubts on the heights. Raglan could see those guns because of his position on the hill. In the valley, that view was obstructed, and the wrong guns were in sight to the left. The local commanders ignored the demands, which led to the British aide-de-camp, Captain Nolan, personally delivering the quickly-written and confusing order to attack the artillery. When Lord Lucan questioned to which guns the order referred, the aide-de-camp pointed to the first Russian battery that he could see and allegedly said "There is your enemy, there are your guns", because of his obstructed view, which were wrong. Lucan then passed the order to the Earl of Cardigan, which resulted in the charge of the Light Brigade.


title: Crimean War

text: In that charge, Cardigan formed up his unit and charged the length of the Valley of the Balaclava, under fire from Russian batteries in the hills. The charge of the Light Brigade caused 278 casualties of the 700-man unit. The Light Brigade was memorialised in the famous poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "The Charge of the Light Brigade". Although traditionally, the charge of the Light Brigade was looked upon as a glorious but wasted sacrifice of good men and horses, recent historians believe that the charge of the Light Brigade succeeded in at least some of its objectives. The aim of any cavalry charge is to scatter the enemy's lines and frighten the enemy off the battlefield. The Charge of the Light Brigade so unnerved the Russian cavalry, which had been routed by the Charge of the Heavy Brigade, that the Russians were set to full-scale flight.


title: Crimean War

text: The shortage of men led to the failure of the British and the French to follow up on the Battle of Balaclava, which led directly to the much bloodier Battle of Inkerman. On 5 November 1854, the Russians attempted to raise the siege at Sevastopol with an attack against the allies, which resulted in another allied victory.


title: Crimean War

text: Winter weather and a deteriorating supply of troops and materiel on both sides led to a halt in ground operations. Sevastopol remained invested by the allies, whose armies were hemmed in by the Russian Army in the interior. On 14 November, the "Balaklava Storm," a major weather event, sank 30 allied transport ships, including , which was carrying a cargo of winter clothing.


title: Crimean War

text: The storm and the heavy traffic caused the road from the coast to the troops to disintegrate into a quagmire, which required engineers to devote most of their time to its repair, including by quarrying stone. A tramway was ordered and arrived in January with a civilian engineering crew, but it took until March before it had become sufficiently advanced to be of any appreciable value. An electrical telegraph was also ordered, but the frozen ground delayed its installation until March, when communications from the base port of Balaklava to the British HQ was established. The pipe-and-cable-laying plough failed because of the hard frozen soil, but nevertheless of cable were laid.


title: Crimean War

text: The troops suffered greatly from cold and sickness, and the shortage of fuel led them to start dismantling their defensive gabions and fascines. In February 1855, the Russians attacked the allied base at Eupatoria, where an Ottoman army had built up and was threatening Russian supply routes. The Russians were defeated at the Battle of Eupatoria, leading to a change in their command.


title: Crimean War

text: The strain of directing the war had taken its toll on the health of Tsar Nicholas. Full of remorse for the disasters that he had caused, he caught pneumonia and died on 2 March.


title: Crimean War

text: The allies had had time to consider the problem, and the French were brought around to agree that the key to the defence was the Malakoff. Emphasis of the siege at Sevastopol shifted to the British left against the fortifications on Malakoff Hill. In March, there was fighting by the French over a new fort being built by the Russians at Mamelon, on a hill in front of the Malakoff. Several weeks of fighting resulted in little change in the front line, and the Mamelon remained in Russian hands.


title: Crimean War

text: In April 1855, the allies staged a second all-out bombardment, which led to an artillery duel with the Russian guns, but no ground assault followed.


title: Crimean War

text: On 24 May 1855, 60 ships, containing 7,000 French, 5,000 Turkish and 3,000 British troops, set off for a raid on the city of Kerch, east of Sevastopol, in an attempt to open another front on the Crimean Peninsula and to cut off Russian supplies. When the allies landed the force at Kerch, the plan was to outflank the Russian Army. The landings were successful, but the force made little progress thereafter.


title: Crimean War

text: Many more artillery pieces had arrived and had been dug into batteries. The first general assault of Sevastopol took place on 18 June 1855. There is a legend that the assault was scheduled for that date in favour of Napoleon III in the 40th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, but the legend is not confirmed by historians. However, the appearance of such a legend is undoubtedly symptomatic since the war in France was understood as a certain revanche for the defeat of 1812.


title: Crimean War

text: In June, a third bombardment was followed after two days by a successful attack on the Mamelon, but a follow-up assault on the Malakoff failed with heavy losses. Meanwhile, the garrison commander, Admiral Pavel Nakhimov, fell on 30 June 1855, and Raglan died on 28 June. Losses in those battles were so great that by agreement of military opponents short-term truces for removal of corpses were signed (these truces were described in the work of Leo Tolstoy "Sevastopol sketches"). The assault was beaten back with heavy casualties and in an undoubted victory of Russia. It is worth mentioning that the Russian Siege of Sevastopol (panorama) depicts the moment of the assault of Sevastopol on 18 June 1855.


title: Crimean War

text: In August, the Russians again made an attack towards the base at Balaclava, which was defended by the French, newly arrived Sardinian and Ottoman troops. The resulting Battle of the Chernaya was a defeat for the Russians, who suffered heavy casualties.


title: Crimean War

text: For months, each side had been building forward rifle pits and defensive positions, which resulted in many skirmishes. Artillery fire aimed to gain superiority over the enemy guns. The final assault was made on , when another French bombardment (the sixth) was followed by an assault by the French Army on and resulted in the French capture of the Malakoff fort. The Russians failed to retake it and their defences collapsed. Meanwhile, the British assaulted the Great Redan, a Russian defensive battlement just south of the city of Sevastopol, a position that had been attacked repeatedly for months. Whether the British captured the Redan remains in dispute: Russian historians recognise only the loss of the Malakhov Kurgan, a key point of defence, claiming that all other positions were retained. What is agreed is that the Russians abandoned the positions, blew up their powder magazines and retreated to the north. The city finally fell on 9 September 1855, after a 337-day-long siege.


title: Crimean War

text: Both sides were now exhausted, and no further military operations were launched in the Crimea before the onset of winter. The main objective of the siege was the destruction of the Russian fleet and docks and took place over the winter. On 28 February, multiple mines blew up the five docks, the canal, and three locks.


title: Crimean War

text: In early 1855, the allied Anglo-French commanders decided to send an Anglo-French naval squadron into the Azov Sea to undermine Russian communications and supplies to besieged Sevastopol. On 12 May 1855, Anglo-French warships entered the Kerch Strait and destroyed the coast battery of the Kamishevaya Bay. Once through the Kerch Strait, British and French warships struck at every vestige of Russian power along the coast of the Sea of Azov. Except for Rostov and Azov, no town, depot, building or fortification was immune from attack, and Russian naval power ceased to exist almost overnight. This Allied campaign led to a significant reduction in supplies flowing to the besieged Russian troops at Sevastopol.


title: Crimean War

text: On 21 May 1855, the gunboats and armed steamers attacked the seaport of Taganrog, the most important hub near Rostov on Don. The vast amounts of food, especially bread, wheat, barley and rye. that were amassed in the city after the outbreak of war were prevented from being exported.


title: Crimean War

text: The Governor of Taganrog, Yegor Tolstoy, and Lieutenant-General Ivan Krasnov refused an allied ultimatum by responding, "Russians never surrender their cities". The Anglo-French squadron bombarded Taganrog for 6 hours and landed 300 troops near the Old Stairway in the centre of Taganrog, but they were thrown back by Don Cossacks and a volunteer corps.


title: Crimean War

text: In July 1855, the allied squadron tried to go past Taganrog to Rostov-on-Don by entering the River Don through the Mius River. On 12 July 1855 HMS "Jasper" grounded near Taganrog thanks to a fisherman who moved buoys into shallow water. The Cossacks captured the gunboat with all of its guns and blew it up. The third siege attempt was made 19–31 August 1855, but the city was already fortified, and the squadron could not approach close enough for landing operations. The allied fleet left the Gulf of Taganrog on 2 September 1855, with minor military operations along the Azov Sea coast continuing until late 1855.


title: Crimean War

text: As in the previous wars, the Caucasus front was secondary to what happened in the west. Perhaps because of better communications, western events sometimes influenced the east. The main events were the second capture of Kars and a landing on the Georgian coast. Several commanders on both sides were either incompetent or unlucky, and few fought aggressively.


title: Crimean War

text: 1853: There were four main events. 1. In the north, the Ottomans captured the border fort of Saint Nicholas in a surprise night attack (27/28 October). They then pushed about 20,000 troops across the River Cholok border. Being outnumbered, the Russians abandoned Poti and Redut Kale and drew back to Marani. Both sides remained immobile for the next seven months. 2. In the centre the Ottomans moved north from Ardahan to within cannon-shot of Akhaltsike and awaited reinforcements (13 November), but the Russians routed them. The claimed losses were 4,000 Turks and 400 Russians. 3. In the south about 30,000 Turks slowly moved east to the main Russian concentration at Gyumri or Alexandropol (November). They crossed the border and set up artillery south of town. Prince Orbeliani tried to drive them off and found himself trapped. The Ottomans failed to press their advantage; the remaining Russians rescued Orbeliani and the Ottomans retired west. Orbeliani lost about 1,000 men from 5,000. The Russians now decided to advance. The Ottomans took up a strong position on the Kars road and attacked-only to be defeated in the Battle of Başgedikler, losing 6,000 men, half their artillery and all of their supply train. The Russians lost 1,300, including Prince Orbeliani. This was Prince Ellico Orbeliani, whose wife was later kidnapped by Imam Shamil at Tsinandali. 4. At sea the Turks sent a fleet east, which was destroyed by Admiral Nakhimov at Sinope.


title: Crimean War

text: 1854: The British and French declared war on 28 March. Early in the year on 3 January, the Anglo-French fleet appeared in the Black Sea, and the Russians abandoned the Black Sea Defensive Line from Anapa south. N. A. Read, who replaced Vorontsov, fearing an Anglo-French landing in conjunction with Shamil, 3rd Imam of Dagestan and the Persians, recommended withdrawal north of the Caucasus. For that purpose, he was replaced by Baryatinsky. When the allies chose a land attack on Sebastopol, any plan for a landing in the east was abandoned.


title: Crimean War

text: In the north, Eristov pushed southwest, fought two battles, forced the Ottomans back to Batum, retired behind the Cholok River and suspended action for the rest of the year (June). In the far south, Wrangel pushed west, fought a battle and occupied Bayazit. In the centre. the main forces stood at Kars and Gyumri. Both slowly approached along the Kars-Gyumri road and faced each other, neither side choosing to fight (June–July). On 4 August, Russian scouts saw a movement which they thought was the start of a withdrawal, the Russians advanced and the Ottomans attacked first. They were defeated and lost 8,000 men to the Russian 3,000. Also, 10,000 irregulars deserted to their villages. Both sides withdrew to their former positions. About then, the Persians made a semi-secret agreement to remain neutral in exchange for the cancellation of the indemnity from the previous war.


title: Crimean War

text: 1855: Siege of Kars: Up to May 1855, Ottomans forces in the east were reduced from 120,000 to 75,000, mostly by disease. The local Armenian population kept Muravyev well-informed about the Ottomans at Kars and he judged they had about five months of supplies. He therefore decided to control the surrounding area with cavalry and starve them out. He started in May and by June was south and west of the town. A relieving force fell back and there was a possibility of taking Erzerum, but Muravyev chose not to. In late September he learned of the fall of Sevastopol and a Turkish landing at Batum. This led him to reverse policy and try a direct attack. It failed, the Russians losing 8,000 men and the Turks 1,500 (29 September). The blockade continued and Kars surrendered on 8 November.


title: Crimean War

text: 1855: Georgian coast: Omar Pasha, the Turkish commander at Crimea had long wanted to land in Georgia, but the western powers vetoed it. When they relented in August most of the campaigning season was lost. In 8 September 000 Turks landed at Batum, but the main concentration was at Sukhum Kale. This required a 100-mile march south through a country with poor roads. In essence, it was a military demonstration in order to frighten the Russian command and force it to lift the siege of the fortress of Kars. "All luck depended on whether Muravyov (the Russian commander) would be scared or not". But the Russian command did not see a serious threat, the siege of Kars was continued.The Russians planned to hold the line of the Ingur River which separates Abkhazia from Georgia proper. Omar crossed the Ingur on 7 November and then wasted a great deal of time, the Russians doing little. By 2 December he had reached the Tskhenistsqali, the rainy season had started, his camps were submerged in mud and there was no bread. Learning of the fall of Kars he withdrew to the Ingur. The Russians did nothing and he evacuated to Batum in February of the following year.


title: Crimean War

text: The Baltic was a forgotten theatre of the Crimean War. Popularisation of events elsewhere overshadowed the significance of this theatre, which was close to Saint Petersburg, the Russian capital. In April 1854, an Anglo-French fleet entered the Baltic to attack the Russian naval base of Kronstadt and the Russian fleet that was stationed there. In August 1854, the combined British and French fleet returned to Kronstadt for another attempt. The outnumbered Russian Baltic Fleet confined its movements to the areas around its fortifications. At the same time, the British and French commanders Sir Charles Napier and Alexandre Ferdinand Parseval-Deschenes although they led the largest fleet assembled since the Napoleonic Wars, considered the Sveaborg fortress too well-defended to engage. Thus, shelling of the Russian batteries was limited to two attempts in 1854 and 1855, and initially, the attacking fleets limited their actions to blockading Russian trade in the Gulf of Finland. Naval attacks on other ports, such as the ones in the island of Hogland in the Gulf of Finland, proved more successful. Additionally, allies conducted raids on less fortified sections of the Finnish coast. These battles are known in Finland as the Åland War.


title: Crimean War

text: Russia depended on imports—both for its domestic economy and for the supply of its military forces: the blockade forced Russia to rely on more expensive overland shipments from Prussia. The blockade seriously undermined the Russian export economy and helped shorten the war.


title: Crimean War

text: The burning of tar warehouses and ships led to international criticism, and in London the MP Thomas Gibson demanded in the House of Commons that the First Lord of the Admiralty explain "a system which carried on a great war by plundering and destroying the property of defenceless villagers".


title: Crimean War

text: In fact, the operations in the Baltic sea were in the nature of binding forces. It was very important to divert Russian forces from the South or, more precisely, not to allow Nicholas to transfer to the Crimea a huge army guarding the Baltic coast and the capital. This goal Anglo-French forces have achieved. The Russian Army in Crimea was forced to act without superiority in forces.


title: Crimean War

text: In August 1854 a Franco-British naval force captured and destroyed the Russian Bomarsund fortress on Åland Islands. In the August 1855, the Western Allied Baltic Fleet tried to destroy heavily defended Russian dockyards at Sveaborg outside Helsinki. More than 1,000 enemy guns tested the strength of the fortress for two days. Despite the shelling, the sailors of the 120-gun ship "Rossiya", led by Captain Viktor Poplonsky, defended the entrance to the harbour. The Allies fired over 20,000 shells but failed to defeat the Russian batteries. The British then built a massive new fleet of more than 350 gunboats and mortar vessels, which was known as the Great Armament, but the war ended before the attack was launched.


title: Crimean War

text: Part of the Russian resistance was credited to the deployment of newly invented blockade mines. Perhaps the most influential contributor to the development of naval mining was a Swede resident in Russia, the inventor and civil engineer Immanuel Nobel (the father of Alfred Nobel). Immanuel Nobel helped the Russian war effort by applying his knowledge of industrial explosives, such as nitroglycerin and gunpowder. One account dates modern naval mining from the Crimean War: "Torpedo mines, if I may use this name given by Fulton to self-acting mines underwater, were among the novelties attempted by the Russians in their defences about Cronstadt and Sevastopol", as one American officer put it in 1860.


title: Crimean War

text: For the campaign of 1856, Britain and France planned an attack on the main base of the Russian Navy in the Baltic sea – Kronstadt. The attack was to be carried out using armoured floating batteries. The use of the latter proved to be highly effective in attacking the sea fortress of Kinburn on the Black sea in 1855. Undoubtedly, this threat contributed on the part of Russia the decision on the conclusion of peace on unfavourable terms.


title: Crimean War

text: In late 1854, a squadron of three British warships led by HMS "Miranda" left the Baltic for the White Sea, where they shelled Kola (which was destroyed) and the Solovki.


title: Crimean War

text: Minor naval skirmishes also occurred in the Far East, where at Petropavlovsk on the Kamchatka Peninsula a British and French Allied squadron including under Rear Admiral David Price and a French force under Counter-Admiral Auguste Febvrier Despointes besieged a smaller Russian force under Rear Admiral Yevfimiy Putyatin. In September 1854, an Allied landing force was beaten back with heavy casualties, and the Allies withdrew. The victory at Petropavlovsk was for Russia in the words of the future military Minister Milyutin "a ray of light among the dark clouds". The Russians escaped under the cover of snow in early 1855 after Allied reinforcements arrived in the region.


title: Crimean War

text: The Anglo-French forces in the Far East also made several small landings on Sakhalin and Urup, one of the Kuril Islands.


title: Crimean War

text: Camillo di Cavour, under orders of Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont-Sardinia, sent an expeditionary corps of 15,000 soldiers, commanded by General Alfonso La Marmora, to side with French and British forces during the war. This was an attempt at gaining the favour of the French, especially when the issue of uniting Italy would become an important matter. The deployment of Italian troops to the Crimea, and the gallantry shown by them in the Battle of the Chernaya (16 August 1855) and in the siege of Sevastopol, allowed the Kingdom of Sardinia to be among the participants at the peace conference at the end of the war, where it could address the issue of the "Risorgimento" to other European powers.


title: Crimean War

text: Greece played a peripheral role in the war. When Russia attacked the Ottoman Empire in 1853, King Otto of Greece saw an opportunity to expand north and south into Ottoman areas that had large Greek Christian majorities. Greece did not coordinate its plans with Russia, did not declare war, and received no outside military or financial support. Greece, an Orthodox nation, had considerable support in Russia, but the Russian government decided it was too dangerous to help Greece expand its holdings. When the Russians invaded the Principalities, the Ottoman forces were tied down so Greece invaded Thessaly and Epirus. To block further Greek moves, the British and French occupied the main Greek port at Piraeus from April 1854 to February 1857, and effectively neutralized the Greek Army. Greeks, gambling on a Russian victory, incited the large-scale Epirus Revolt of 1854 as well as uprisings in Crete. The insurrections were failures that were easily crushed by the Ottomans' allied Egyptian Army. Greece was not invited to the peace conference and made no gains out of the war. The frustrated Greek leadership blamed the King for failing to take advantage of the situation; his popularity plunged and he was forced to abdicate in 1862.


title: Crimean War

text: In addition, a 1,000-strong Greek Volunteer Legion was formed in the Danubian Principalities in 1854 and later fought at Sevastopol.


title: Crimean War

text: A peasant revolt that began in the Vasylkiv county of Kiev Governorate (province) in February 1855 spread across the whole Kiev and Chernigov governorates, with peasants refusing to participate in corvée labour and other orders of the local authorities and, in some cases, attacking priests who were accused of hiding a decree about the liberation of the peasants.


title: Crimean War

text: Dissatisfaction with the conduct of the war was growing with the public in Britain and other countries and was worsened by reports of fiascos, especially the devastating losses of the Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava. On Sunday, 21 January 1855, a "snowball riot" occurred in Trafalgar Square near St Martin-in-the-Fields in which 1,500 people gathered to protest against the war by pelting cabs and pedestrians with snowballs. When the police intervened, the snowballs were directed at the constables. The riot was finally put down by troops and police acting with truncheons. In Parliament, the Conservatives demanded an accounting of all soldiers, cavalry and sailors sent to the Crimea and accurate figures as to the number of casualties sustained by all British armed forces in Crimea, especially concerning the Battle of Balaclava. When Parliament passed a bill to investigate by the vote of 305 to 148, Aberdeen said he had lost a vote of no confidence and resigned as prime minister on 30 January 1855. The veteran former Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston became prime minister. Palmerston took a hard line and wanted to expand the war, foment unrest inside the Russian Empire and reduce the Russian threat to Europe permanently. Sweden–Norway and Prussia were willing to join Britain and France, and Russia was isolated.


title: Crimean War

text: France, which had sent far more soldiers to the war and suffered far more casualties than Britain had, wanted the war to end, as did Austria.


title: Crimean War

text: Negotiations began in Paris in February 1856 and were surprisingly easy. France, under the leadership of Napoleon III, had no special interests in the Black Sea and so did not support the harsh British and Austrian proposals.


title: Crimean War

text: Peace negotiations at the Congress of Paris resulted in the signing of the Treaty of Paris on 30 March 1856. In compliance with Article III, Russia restored to the Ottoman Empire the city and the citadel of Kars and "all other parts of the Ottoman territory of which the Russian troop were in possession". Russia returned the Southern Bessarabia to Moldavia. By Article IV, Britain, France, Sardinia and Ottoman Empire restored to Russia "the towns and ports of Sevastopol, Balaklava, Kamish, Eupatoria, Kerch, Jenikale, Kinburn as well as all other territories occupied by the allied troops". In conformity with Articles XI and XIII, the Tsar and the Sultan agreed not to establish any naval or military arsenal on the Black Sea coast. The Black Sea clauses weakened Russia, which no longer posed a naval threat to the Ottomans. The Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia were nominally returned to the Ottoman Empire, and the Austrian Empire was forced to abandon its annexation and to end its occupation of them, but they in practice became independent. The Treaty of Paris admitted the Ottoman Empire to the Concert of Europe, and the great powers pledged to respect its independence and territorial integrity.


title: Crimean War

text: Some members of the Russian intelligentsia saw defeat as a pressure to modernise their society. Grand Duke Constantine, a son of the Tsar, remarked:


title: Crimean War

text: The Treaty of Paris stood until 1871, when Prussia defeated France in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. While Prussia and several other German states united to form a powerful German Empire in January 1871, the French deposed Emperor Napoleon III and proclaimed the Third French Republic (September 1870). During his reign, Napoleon, eager for the support of the United Kingdom, had opposed Russia over the Eastern Question. Russian interference in the Ottoman Empire did not in any significant manner threaten the interests of France, and France abandoned its opposition to Russia after the establishment of the republic. Encouraged by the new attitude of French diplomacy after the surrenders of the besieged French Army at Sedan and later Metz and supported by the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Russia in October 1870 renounced the Black Sea clauses of the treaty agreed to in 1856. As the United Kingdom with Austria could not enforce the clauses, Russia once again established a fleet in the Black Sea.


title: Crimean War

text: After being defeated in the Crimean War, Russia feared that Russian Alaska would be easily captured in any future war with the British; therefore, Alexander II opted to sell the territory to the United States.


title: Crimean War

text: A Greek tortoise named Timothy was found on a Portuguese ship by Captain John Guy Courtenay-Everard on the HMS Queen in 1854. Serving as a mascot throughout the war, when she died in 2004 this made her the last living veteran of the Crimean war.


title: Crimean War

text: Historian Norman Rich argues that the war was not an accident, but was sought out by the determination of the British and French not to allow Russia an honourable retreat. Both insisted on a military victory to enhance their prestige in European affairs when a non-violent peaceful political solution was available. The war then wrecked the Concert of Europe, which had long kept the peace.


title: Crimean War

text: Turkish historian Candan Badem wrote, "Victory in this war did not bring any significant material gain, not even a war indemnity. On the other hand, the Ottoman treasury was nearly bankrupted due to war expenses". Badem adds that the Ottomans achieved no significant territorial gains, lost the right to a navy in the Black Sea, and failed to gain status as a great power.. Further, the war gave impetus to the union of the Danubian principalities and ultimately to their independence.


title: Crimean War

text: The treaty punished the defeated Russia, but in the long run, Austria lost the most from the war despite having barely taken part in it. Having abandoned its alliance with Russia, Austria remained diplomatically isolated following the war, which contributed to its disastrous defeats in the 1859 Franco-Austrian War that resulted in the cession of Lombardy to the Kingdom of Sardinia and later in the loss of the Habsburg rule of Tuscany and Modena, which meant the end of Austrian influence in peninsular Italy. Furthermore, Russia did not do anything to assist its former ally, Austria, in the 1866 Austro-Prussian War, when Austria lost Venetia and, more importantly, its influence in most German-speaking lands. The status of Austria as a great power, with the unifications of Germany and Italy, now became very precarious. It had to compromise with Hungary; the two countries shared the Danubian Empire. With France now hostile to Germany and gravitating towards Russia, and with Russia competing with the newly renamed Austro-Hungarian Empire for an increased role in the Balkans at the expense of the Ottoman Empire, the foundations were in place for building the diplomatic alliances that would shape the First World War of 1914.


title: Crimean War

text: The Treaty's guarantees to preserve Ottoman territories were broken 21 years later when Russia, exploiting nationalist unrest in the Balkans and seeking to regain lost prestige, once again declared war on the Ottoman Empire on 24 April 1877. In this later Russo-Turkish War the states of Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro gained international recognition of their independence and Bulgaria achieved its autonomy from direct Ottoman rule. Russia took over Southern Bessarabia, lost in 1856. The regions of Batum and Kars, as well as those inhabited by Adjarians (Muslim Georgians) and Armenians, were also annexed to Russia in the Caucasus. At the same time, "protectors" of the Ottoman Empire Britain received Cyprus as a colonial possession, while Austria-Hungary occupied and annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908. Finally, Ottoman rule in the Balkans ended after the First Balkan War of 1912, when the combined forces of the Balkan States defeated it.


title: Crimean War

text: The Crimean War marked the re-ascendancy of France to the position of pre-eminent power on the Continent, the continued decline of the Ottoman Empire and a period of crisis for Imperial Russia. As Fuller notes, "Russia had been beaten on the Crimean peninsula, and the military feared that it would inevitably be beaten again unless steps were taken to surmount its military weakness." To compensate for its defeat in the Crimean War, the Russian Empire then embarked in more intensive expansion in Asia, partially to restore national pride and partially to distract Britain on the world stage, intensifying the Great Game.


title: Crimean War

text: The war also marked the demise of the first phase of the Concert of Europe, the balance-of-power system that had dominated Europe since the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and had included France, Russia, Prussia, Austria and the United Kingdom. From 1854 to 1871, the Concert of Europe concept was weakened, leading to the crises that were the unifications of Germany and of Italy, before a resurgence of great power conferences.


title: Crimean War

text: In 1870, Prussia persuaded Russia to remain neutral in the Franco-Prussian war. Bismarck, having declared it impossible to keep 100 million Russians in a humiliated position without sovereign rights to their Black Sea coastline, supported Russia against the Treaty of Paris, and in return, Prussia achieved freedom of action against France in 1870–71 and inflicted a crushing defeat on it.


title: Crimean War

text: The view of "diplomatic drift" as the cause of the war was first popularised by A. W. Kinglake, who portrayed the British as victims of newspaper sensationalism and duplicitous French and Ottoman diplomacy.


title: Crimean War

text: More recently, historians Andrew Lambert and Winfried Baumgart have argued that Britain was following a geopolitical strategy in aiming to destroy the fledgling Russian Navy, which might challenge the Royal Navy for control of the seas, and that the war was also a joint European response to a century of Russian expansion not just southwards but also into Western Europe.


title: Crimean War

text: Documentation of the war was provided by William Howard Russell, who wrote for "The Times" newspaper, and by Roger Fenton's photographs. News from war correspondents reached all of the nations involved in the war and kept the public citizenry of those nations better informed of the day-to-day events of the war than had been the case in any earlier war. The British public was very well informed on the day-to-day realities of the war. After the French extended the telegraph to the coast of the Black Sea in late 1854, news reached London in two days. When the British laid an underwater cable to the Crimean Peninsula in April 1855, news reached London in a few hours. The daily news reports energised public opinion, which brought down the Aberdeen government and carried Lord Palmerston into office as prime minister.


title: Crimean War

text: Leo Tolstoy wrote a few short sketches on the Siege of Sevastopol, collected in "The Sevastopol Sketches". The stories detail the lives of the Russian soldiers and citizens in Sevastopol during the siege. Because of this work, Tolstoy has been called the world's first war correspondent.


title: Crimean War

text: Historian R. B. McCallum points out the war was enthusiastically supported by the British populace as it was happening, but the mood changed very dramatically afterwards. Pacifists and critics were unpopular but:


title: Crimean War

text: As the memory of the "Charge of the Light Brigade" demonstrates, the war became an iconic symbol of logistical, medical and tactical failures and mismanagement. Public opinion in Britain was outraged at the logistical and command failures of the war; the newspapers demanded drastic reforms, and parliamentary investigations demonstrated the multiple failures of the army. The reform campaign was not well organised, and the traditional aristocratic leadership of the army pulled itself together, and blocked all serious reforms. No one was punished. The outbreak of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 shifted attention to the heroic defence of British interest by the army, and further talk of reform went nowhere. The demand for professionalisation was achieved by Florence Nightingale, who gained worldwide attention for pioneering and publicising modern nursing while treating the wounded. Another nurse, a Jamaican named Mary Seacole, also made an impact providing care for wounded and dying soldiers. The "Times" war correspondent William Howard Russell spoke highly of Seacole's skill as a healer, writing "A more tender or skilful hand about a wound or a broken limb could not be found among our best surgeons."


title: Crimean War

text: The Crimean War also saw the first tactical use of railways and other modern inventions, such as the electric telegraph, with the first "live" war reporting to "The Times" by William Howard Russell. Some credit Russell with prompting the resignation of the sitting British government through his reporting of the lacklustre condition of British forces deployed in Crimea. Additionally, the telegraph reduced the independence of British overseas possessions from their commanders in London due to such rapid communications. Newspaper readership informed public opinion in the United Kingdom and France as never before.


title: Crimean War

text: The Crimean War was a contributing factor in the Russian abolition of serfdom in 1861: Tsar Alexander II (Nicholas I's son and successor) saw the military defeat of the Russian serf-army by free troops from Britain and France as proof of the need for emancipation. The Crimean War also led to the realisation by the Russian government of its technological inferiority, in military practices as well as weapons.


title: Derry Girls

text: Derry Girls is a British teen sitcom created and written by Lisa McGee that premiered on 4 January 2018 on Channel 4. The channel's most successful comedy since "Father Ted", the series was inspired by McGee's own experiences growing up in Derry, Northern Ireland, in the 1990s, during the final years of the Troubles. It stars Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Louisa Harland, Nicola Coughlan, Jamie-Lee O'Donnell, and Dylan Llewellyn as five teenagers living in mid-1990s Derry while attending Our Lady Immaculate College, a fictional girls' Catholic secondary school based on the real-life Thornhill College, where McGee herself studied. Produced by British production company Hat Trick Productions, "Derry Girls" is filmed in Northern Ireland, with most scenes shot on location in Derry and some in Belfast.


title: Derry Girls

text: Although the plot lines of "Derry Girls" are fictional, the series frequently references actual events of the Troubles and the Northern Ireland peace process, including the 1994 IRA ceasefire announcement, the 1995 visit to Northern Ireland of President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton, and the Good Friday referendum of 1998. Archival footage relating to key political figures such as Ian Paisley, Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness, John Hume and Mo Mowlam is shown via TV and radio broadcasts in family homes. The soundtrack features popular music of the era, by acts including Ace of Base, Blur, Cypress Hill, Salt-N-Pepa, Enya, the Corrs, and the Cranberries.


title: Derry Girls

text: The first series, broadcast on Channel 4 in January and February 2018, became the most-watched series in Northern Ireland since modern records began in 2002. The series was renewed shortly after the pilot episode aired, and the second series was broadcast in March and April 2019. A third and final series set in 1996 and 1997 was commissioned for 2020, although filming was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic impact on television production, and premiered in April 2022. A final special extended 45-minute episode titled "The Agreement", set in 1998 during the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, aired on 18 May 2022.


title: Derry Girls

text: "Derry Girls" has inspired a mural of its main characters painted on the side of Badgers Bar and Restaurant at 18 Orchard Street, Derry, which has become a popular tourist attraction.


title: Derry Girls

text: The series follows Erin Quinn (Saoirse-Monica Jackson), her cousin Orla (Louisa Harland), their friends Clare (Nicola Coughlan), Michelle (Jamie-Lee O'Donnell), and Michelle's English cousin James (Dylan Llewellyn) as they navigate their teenage years during the end of the Troubles in Derry, where they all attend a Catholic girls' secondary school. The friends frequently find themselves in absurd situations amid the political unrest and cultural divides of the times.


title: Derry Girls

text: Filming took place in Northern Ireland, with most scenes being shot in Derry and Belfast. The scenes onboard the train in S3 E3 took place at the Downpatrick and County Down Railway in Downpatrick, with the end of the episode being shot at the then-recently-closed Barry's Amusements in Portrush.


title: Derry Girls

text: The show was renewed for a second series shortly after the airing of the pilot episode of the first series. Production of the second series began on 8 October 2018. The second series began airing on 5 March 2019. On 9 April 2019, immediately after the second series finale, it was confirmed by Channel 4 that "Derry Girls" would return for a third series. Production of the third series was due to commence in the spring of 2020, but was suspended following the announcement of the COVID-19 lockdown. On 21 July 2021, Nicola Coughlan confirmed that filming for the third series was set to commence in late 2021, with a premiere in early 2022. On 23 September 2021, series creator and writer Lisa McGee confirmed Derry Girls would end with its third series, stating "it was always the plan to say goodbye after three series." On 21 December 2021, McGee and Coughlan announced on social media that filming of the final series had completed.


title: Derry Girls

text: The first series premiered on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom on Thursday nights at 10:00 pm, while the second series was moved to Tuesday nights at 9:15 pm, with the exception of the sixth episode, which was aired at 9:00 pm. The entire series is available to stream in the UK on All 4.


title: Derry Girls

text: The series was picked up by Netflix internationally, with series 1 being released on 21 December 2018. Series 2 was released on 2 August 2019. The international version of the first series is now available to stream on Netflix in the UK and Ireland. The second series was added on 9 July 2020, but was temporarily removed from the service as it was mistakenly released a year early.


title: Derry Girls

text: Located at 18 Orchard Street in Derry, a mural of the main cast of characters can be seen on the side of Badger's Bar. This popular tourist attraction was created by UV Arts and is one of many murals across the city. Derry is known for politically charged art, and the famed mural speaks to the popularity of the television programme and its relation to cultural change in the area.


title: Derry Girls

text: "Derry Girls" has received critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, the first series holds an approval rating of 100% based on reviews from 24 critics with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's critics consensus states: "A perfectly curated cast and raw writing drive "Derry Girls" dark humor as creator Lisa McGee makes frenetic light of teen life in 1990s Northern Ireland".


title: Derry Girls

text: The second series has an approval rating of 97%, based on reviews from 33 critics with an average rating of 8.3/10. The website's critics consensus states: "The sophomore season of "Derry Girls" doesn't lose any of its irreverent charms thanks to its predictably unpredictable romps and canny characterizations".


title: Derry Girls

text: The third series holds a "Certified Fresh" approval rating of 100%, based on reviews from 21 critics with an average rating of 8.9/10. The website's critics consensus states: "Parting is such sweet sorrow, but "Derry Girls"' final season promises to milk as many laughs as it can before viewers say a fond farewell to this lovable band of miscreants." On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, it received a score of 86 out of 100 based on five critic reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".


title: Derry Girls

text: "Derry Girls" was the most watched series in Northern Ireland since modern records began in 2002, with an average audience of 519,000 viewers and a 64.2 per cent share of the audience. Una Mullally of "The Irish Times" praised the series: "The writing in "Derry Girls" is sublime, the performances perfect, the casting is brilliant." On 11 January 2018, after the first episode had aired, the programme was renewed for a second series. Each episode was watched by over two million people. At the conclusion of the first series, Barbara Ellen of "The Guardian" wrote that "Derry Girls" evoked such programmes as "The Inbetweeners", "Father Ted" and "Bad Education".


title: Derry Girls

text: As there are slight political undertones to the show, responses have highlighted the comedic nature as keeping the material lighthearted enough to enjoy. Certain writers from various online articles have noted that their own Northern Irish family appreciated the way the show gave an honest portrayal of how life was for teens in the Troubles, and how much was endured by families during that time. The way it portrayed the events and circumstances with a sense of normality echoed the real lives of both Protestants and Catholics in that area.


title: Derry Girls

text: Lisa McGee based events in the programme on her own life, such as writing a letter to the Clintons' daughter, Chelsea. Adding real stories such as this to the episodes grounded the show in a way that allowed viewers to connect with the teenage attitudes of the characters, and served as a stark contrast to the events around them. The juxtaposition of the Troubles violence and teenage life resonated with many viewers and critics alike, making it one of the features of the show that made it so successful.


title: Derry Girls

text: "The Simpsons" episode "You Won't Believe What This Episode Is About – Act Three Will Shock You!", which aired on 13 March 2022, features an ice cream parlour called "Dairy Girls Ice Cream". "Simpsons" writer Matt Selman confirmed in a Tweet that it was a reference to "Derry Girls", adding it was "the least we could do".


title: Derry Girls

text: A "Derry Girls" book, titled "Erin's Diary: An Official Derry Girls Book", was released on 12 November 2020 by Trapeze Books.


title: Derry Girls

text: In April 2022, a relaunch of the now-defunct British magazine "Smash Hits", which ceased publication in 2006, issued a special, one-off edition, featuring "Derry Girls", in promotion for its third series.


title: Derry Girls

text: Cast members Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Jamie-Lee O'Donnell, Louisa Harland, Nicola Coughlan and Dylan Llewellyn appeared in a 2018 special episode of the British game show "The Crystal Maze". The episode raised money for Stand Up to Cancer UK and was well received by viewers and fans of the show.


title: Derry Girls

text: For the 2020 New Year holiday, the cast competed on a special episode of "The Great British Bake Off". Cast members Coughlan, O'Donnell, Llewellyn, Siobhán McSweeney, and Jackson all appeared for the special.


title: Derry Girls

text: In "GBBO" fashion, there were three challenges to be completed and tasted by judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith. The first challenge was a trifle, then blinis in the technical round, finishing with a showstopper tiered cake that each member had to design in a decades theme. At the end of the competition, Jackson was declared the winner.


title: The Expanse (TV series)

text: The Expanse is an American science fiction television series developed by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby for the Syfy network, and is based on the series of novels of the same name by James S. A. Corey. The series is set in a future where humanity has colonized the Solar System. It follows a disparate band of protagonists—United Nations Security Council member Chrisjen Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo), police detective Josephus Miller (Thomas Jane), ship's officer James Holden (Steven Strait) and his crew—as they unwittingly unravel and place themselves at the center of a conspiracy that threatens the system's fragile state of cold war, while dealing with existential crises brought forth by newly discovered alien technology.


title: The Expanse (TV series)

text: "The Expanse" has received critical acclaim, with particular praise for its visuals, character development and political narrative. It received a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and three Saturn Award nominations for Best Science Fiction Television Series. Syfy cancelled the series after three seasons. Amazon later acquired the series, producing three more seasons, with the sixth and final season premiering on December 10, 2021.


title: The Expanse (TV series)

text: Hundreds of years in the future, humanity has colonized the Solar System. The three largest powers are the United Nations of Earth and Luna, the Martian Congressional Republic on Mars, and the Outer Planets Alliance (OPA), a loose confederation of the asteroid belt and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn.


title: The Expanse (TV series)

text: Chrisjen Avasarala, a United Nations executive, works to prevent war between Earth and Mars. Ceres police detective Joe Miller is sent to find a missing young woman, Julie Mao. The space-freighter "Canterbury" and the Martian Navy flagship "Donnager" are destroyed by unknown stealth ships. James Holden, Naomi Nagata, Alex Kamal and Amos Burton survive both attacks and escape in the "Tachi", a Martian gunship. They rename the ship "Rocinante", which becomes the main setting of the series. The crew of the "Rocinante", with Miller's help, investigates and eventually discovers a biohazard that kills off most of the humans on the asteroid Eros, including Julie.


title: The Expanse (TV series)

text: The crew of the "Rocinante", along with members of the OPA, attack the station responsible for the biohazard on Eros. Learning that it is an extra-solar bio-weapon known as the protomolecule, they attempt to destroy Eros. Miller becomes trapped there and dies when it crashes into Venus. Martian Marine Bobbie Draper fights an inhuman figure on Ganymede and later, during peace talks between Earth and Mars, becomes a protégé of Avasarala. The crew tries to help a father, Prax, find his daughter. In the process, they encounter and kill a figure akin to the one that Draper fought, now known as a "protomolecule hybrid", developed by Jules-Pierre Mao. A research ship, sent to Venus to investigate the crash of Eros into the planet, is stopped dead in the atmosphere and dismantled by the protomolecule.


title: The Expanse (TV series)

text: The UN declares war, as Earth and Mars send science vessels to investigate what is happening on Venus. Political tensions soar as the OPA is recognized as the government of the Belters and Prax is reunited with his daughter. The protomolecule forms the Ring, a structure which takes an orbital position beyond Uranus, and all three governments race to send their ships through. After a Belter racing ship slingshots through the Ring at high speed, the ring believes the high speed humans and objects to be dangerous and activates defenses that threaten humanity. Through Holden, a projection of Miller tries to shut off the defenses of the ring and convince the protomolecule that humanity is not a threat.


title: The Expanse (TV series)

text: A land rush to other star systems with habitable worlds begins, with thousands of planets accessible via the Ring's wormholes. Refugee ships from the Belt and overcrowded Earth are stopped at the gateway. A ship runs the blockade, and the crew of the "Rocinante" are sent through the portal to investigate the situation on the exoplanet, called "Ilus". The settlers have been joined by an officially backed scientific expedition with private military support, leading to frequent violence between the two groups. The crew fails to ease tensions and decides to find out what is happening on the planet and where the previous civilization has gone. With the help of Miller, Holden reactivates an ancient structure, setting off a chain of cataclysmic events. Efforts to terraform Mars wane as habitable worlds are available.


title: The Expanse (TV series)

text: A deadly conspiracy threatens Earth, as the crew of the "Rocinante" pursue personal missions while their ship is in dry dock at Tycho Station. Draper and Avasarala investigate the Martian military's ties to a growing threat from a rogue faction of Belters. Marco Inaros, the rebel leader, assembles a Belter fleet and attacks Earth with stealth-shielded asteroids.


title: The Expanse (TV series)

text: Holden and the crew of the "Rocinante" fight alongside the Combined Fleet of Earth and Mars to protect the Inner Planets from Marco Inaros and his Free Navy. The combined fleet, allied with the ships of Camina Drummer and other Belter forces, defeats Marco and the Free Navy by antagonizing an unknown alien presence. On a distant planet, a young colonist discovers animals that can resurrect her dead sibling.


title: The Expanse (TV series)

text: "The Expanse" is based on the novel series of the same name by James S. A. Corey, a pen name of the authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, who also serve as writers and producers for the show. The first novel, "Leviathan Wakes" (2011), was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel and Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. On September 4, 2013, "The Expanse" was optioned for television by Alcon Television Group. On April 11, 2014, Syfy announced a straight-to-series commitment to a television adaptation of the book series, and ordered the production of 10 one-hour-long episodes for the first season. On that date Syfy President Dave Howe commented: ""The Expanse" is epic in scale and scope and promises to be Syfy's most ambitious series to date". Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby wrote the pilot and served as writers and showrunners alongside Naren Shankar.


title: The Expanse (TV series)

text: Terry McDonough was revealed to be directing the first two episodes of the series in October 2014. In May 2015, before the first season aired, writing commenced for a second season, which was ordered in December 2015. The second season of "The Expanse" premiered on February 1, 2017. On March 16, 2017, "The Expanse" was renewed by Syfy for a 13-episode third season to air in 2018. Four digital comics based on the books and tying into the television series have been published by ComiXology. The first focuses on the origin of James Holden and was released February 1, 2017. The next three, highlighting the origins of other characters are: Naomi Nagata, released April 19, 2017; Alex Kamal, released May 24, 2017; and Amos Burton, released July 12, 2017. The show's title sequence was animated and directed by Australian studio Breeder and its VFX team.


title: The Expanse (TV series)

text: Alcon Entertainment produces and finances the series. It sold three seasons to Syfy, which canceled the series in May 2018. Fans protested the cancellation, gathering over 100,000 signatures for an online petition. They lobbied Amazon Studios and Netflix to greenlight the fourth season and a crowdfunding campaign paid for an airplane to fly a "#SaveTheExpanse" banner around Amazon Studios. Celebrities including Wil Wheaton, George R. R. Martin, Patton Oswalt and Andreas Mogensen supported the campaign. Amazon Prime Video picked up the series for a fourth season, which was released on December 12, 2019. In July 2019, Amazon renewed "The Expanse" for a fifth season, which premiered on December 15, 2020.


title: The Expanse (TV series)

text: Ahead of the fifth season's release, Amazon renewed the series for a sixth and final season, on November 24, 2020. Filming started in late January 2021. However, the authors of the novels and writers on the series, Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, have stated that they view season 6 as a "pause" rather than a conclusion and that Alcon Entertainment "is very committed to the IP", Alcon's Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson said that they are "considering all kinds of interesting possibilities". On October 8, 2021, it was announced that the sixth and final season would premiere on December 10, 2021.


title: The Expanse (TV series)

text: In July 2014, Thomas Jane was cast as Joe Miller. In August 2014, Steven Strait and Shohreh Aghdashloo's attachment to the series as James Holden, and Chrisjen Avasarala was announced. October of that same year, Dominique Tipper, Cas Anvar, Paulo Costanzo, and Wes Chatham were cast as Naomi Nagata, Alex Kamal, Shed Garvey, and Amos Burton while Jonathan Banks and Jay Hernandez were announced to be guest starring in the series. One month later, Shawn Doyle was cast as Sadavir Errinwright, while Chad L. Coleman and Jared Harris were cast in the recurring roles of Fred Johnson and Anderson Dawes, respectively. Frankie Adams was cast as Bobbie Draper for the second season in April 2016. On January 21, 2020, Keon Alexander, Nadine Nicole, and Jasai Chase Owens (who portray Marco Inaros, Clarissa Melpomene Mao, and Filip Inaros, respectively), were promoted to the main cast for the fifth season. Later, Lily Gao was cast in a recurring role as Nancy Gao for the fourth and fifth seasons, a candidate for UN secretary-general. Additionally, Anvar did not return for the sixth and final season after receiving multiple sexual misconduct allegations.


title: The Expanse (TV series)

text: Produced by Alcon Television and The Sean Daniel Company, principal photography on the first season started on October 29, 2014, in Toronto and concluded on March 27, 2015. The second season filmed between April 13, 2016 and September 12, 2016. Filming for season 3 began on July 12, 2017. In February 2019, cast member Lyndie Greenwood announced that the fourth season concluded filming. Filming for the fifth season began on September 23, 2019 and ended on February 21, 2020. Production on the sixth season took place between January 27, 2021 and May 7, 2021.


title: The Expanse (TV series)

text: The title sequence of the series has been lauded by reviewers for its ability to elegantly and wordlessly convey important information about the worlds in which the series takes place. The title sequence was created by Breeder, a motion graphics design studio in Brisbane, Australia. Drawing comparisons to the opening sequence of "Game of Thrones", Jason Morehead of "Opuszine" notes that not only does it depict the development of Earth's expansion into the solar system, it introduces the viewer to the political dynamics within the series. "Earth is the old guard, intent on controlling the system and her former colonies; technologically advanced Mars is driven to become a paradise; and the Belt is fighting to keep from being treated as a second-class citizen by both Earth and Mars."


title: The Expanse (TV series)

text: While the title sequence does change visually as the series progresses, the lyrics that accompany Clinton Shorter's title theme – written and performed by Lisbeth Scott – remain the same. Scott noted in a post on Facebook that her words were drawn from Norwegian, though she apologized for any errors in syntax, grammar and pronunciation.


title: The Expanse (TV series)

text: The show's soundtrack was composed by Shorter. The first season's soundtrack dubbed "The Expanse Season 1 – The Original Television Soundtrack", consisting of nineteen tracks, was released by Lakeshore Records, on May 20, 2016, via iTunes, and on May 26, 2016, via Amazon.


title: The Expanse (TV series)

text: The series has been described as a space opera by critics. Emily VanDerWerff of "Vox" describes the first season of the series to be a "blend of science fiction and noir-infused detective drama, with a backdrop of political intrigue". "Vice" has referred to the series as a "sci fi noir mystery-thriller" and as hard science fiction. Prior to the series premiere, Mark Fergus spoke of the series's Western themes: "Everywhere is kind of back to the frontier rules so it gives us all that stuff back that we lost. Cellular technology. You can get a little more Western about it." The fourth season, according to the writers, also has "space Western vibes".


title: The Expanse (TV series)

text: The pilot episode was screened at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2015. In the United States, seasons 1 to 3 of "The Expanse" were broadcast by Syfy and streamed on Amazon Prime Video. In Canada, these seasons aired on Space and streamed on Crave. In New Zealand, these seasons aired on Sky. In all other countries where Netflix is available, seasons 1 and 2 were streamed until September 2018. On February 8, 2019, Prime Video took over exclusive distribution of the first three seasons worldwide in preparation for premier of the fourth season in 2019.


title: The Expanse (TV series)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season has a score of 78% with an average rating of 7.1 out of 10 based on 46 reviews. The site's consensus states: ""The Expanse" blends sci-fi elements and detective noir into a visually compelling whole, though it takes a few episodes for the story to capture viewers' intrigue." The first season received a rating of 65 out of 100 on Metacritic based on reviews from 23 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Reporting on the pilot screening, io9s Lauren Davis declared herself "blown away" by "The Expanse", appreciating its "incredible sense of scale" and its "deeply thought out future world that reflects on our present one, with high production values and characters who speak and act like real people". Max Nicholson of IGN characterized the pilot as "grim and dramatic", and a ""very" dense hour of television", with the terminology and large cast sometimes difficult to follow for viewers unfamiliar with the novels, but highlighted the pilot's "gorgeous" visuals and effects reminiscent of "Battlestar Galactica", "Dune" and "Firefly". Writing for "Variety", Maureen Ryan was unimpressed by the first four episodes "awkwardly linking a series of somewhat muddled stories" and the series's stereotypical characters but credited it with tackling "issues of class, representation and exploitation" and a convincing design. At "Tor.com", Justin Landon highlighted "The Expanse"s "bold and unique cinematography" and its claustrophobic, discomforting set designs, as well as the "extremely faithful" characterization, but remarked that the patois spoken by the Belters, the natives of the asteroid belt, made the series difficult to follow.


title: The Expanse (TV series)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has a score of 95% with an average rating of 9 out of 10 based on 21 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, ""The Expanse"s second season offers more of the show's excellent signature production values while increasing character development and politically thrilling narratives." On Metacritic, it has a score of 77 out of 100 based on 5 reviews. Writing for io9, Katherine Trendacosta noted how the show had become "shockingly prescient", insofar as many of the issues and ideas explored by "The Expanse" mirrored contemporary trends in global politics. Brian Tallerico, in "Why "The Expanse" Is the Best Sci-FI TV Show You're Not Watching" for "Rolling Stone", praised the show for its contemporary political relevance and called its willingness to mix tones, and its protagonists, laudable. He summarized that at its core, "The Expanse" was all about people responding to fear – fear of the other, fear of the new, fear of inequality, fear of death. Writing for 13.7: Cosmos & Culture, a blog hosted by NPR, astrophysicist Adam Frank praised the show and its writers for the scientific realism. He wrote that "more than any other TV space-themed show, it gets the science right".


title: The Expanse (TV series)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has a score of 100% with an average rating of 8.6 out of 10 based on 26 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, "Building on earlier potential and extending character arcs throughout a solidly crafted third season, "The Expanse" continues to impress – and shows no signs of abating." Michael Ahr of "Den of Geek" said the series "wowed fans with its complex characters, its political intrigue, its attention to scientific authenticity, and its stunningly good visual effects, and with several more books in the series that inspired the show, there’s plenty more source material for the adaptation to explore in future seasons." Liz Shannon Miller of "IndieWire" praised the performances of Coleman and Strait in the absence of the Joe Miller character, saying "In general, while the mid-Season 2 departure of Joe Miller (Thomas Jane) and his wonderful hats does leave a bit of a vacuum, the ensemble has coalesced nicely, with both established performers like Chad L. Coleman and relative newcomers like Strait settling into their roles." Speaking about the premiere, Kevin Yeoman said, "All in all ... season three begins by dramatically raising the immediate stakes of the story without drastically altering the dynamics of the show itself."


title: The Expanse (TV series)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has a score of 100% with an average rating of 9 out of 10 based on 34 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, "Smart and thrilling as ever, "The Expanse"s fourth season doesn't miss a beat, successfully navigating network changes without losing any of its rich character work or narrative complexities." The season received a rating 91 out of 100 on Metacritic based on reviews from 4 critics indicating "universal acclaim". Writing for "Den of Geek", Michael Ahr gave it a 5/5 review and wrote, "With its brilliantly crafted, multilayered plot, "The Expanse" season four proves itself worthy of Amazon's rescue in a nearly perfect season." Sadie Gennis of "TV Guide" also praised the fourth season, giving it a score of 4.5/5.


title: The Expanse (TV series)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has a score of 100% with an average rating of 8.7 out of 10 based on 32 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, ""The Expanse"s many threads come to a head in an excellent fifth season that expertly capitalizes on everything that makes the show work while setting the stage for an epic final season." The season received a rating 82 out of 100 on Metacritic based on reviews from 5 critics indicating "universal acclaim".


title: The Expanse (TV series)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has a score of 95% with an average rating of 8.6 out of 10 based on 20 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, ""The Expanse"s truncated final season honors the series' characters and themes with a graceful conclusion."


title: The Expanse (TV series)

text: Season four was the first season not to be broadcast on live TV and not get weekly viewership ratings. The season ranked fourth in most watched digital original in the United States in December 2019.


title: The Expanse (TV series)

text: Beginning December 16, 2020, Wes Chatham and Ty Franck started hosting weekly programs that feature behind-the-scenes information about the series, first as "The Expanse Season 5 Aftershow" after each season's episode. Upon the conclusion of Season 5 (after the airing of the season 5 finale), they continued on Wednesdays as "Ty & That Guy Podcast", covering each series' episode, from "The Expanse" S1E1, additionally discussing their inspirations from genre culture, and occasionally having guests both related and not to the series. "The Expanse Season 6 Aftershow" with Chatham and Franck, produced by Amazon Studios, was distributed by "Amazon Prime Video" and "Ty & That Guy Podcast" in video and audio formats.


title: Linkin Park

text: Linkin Park is an American rock band from Agoura Hills, California. The band's current lineup comprises vocalist/rhythm guitarist/keyboardist Mike Shinoda, lead guitarist Brad Delson, bassist Dave Farrell, DJ/turntablist Joe Hahn and drummer Rob Bourdon, all of whom are founding members. Vocalists Mark Wakefield and Chester Bennington are former members of the band. Categorized as alternative rock, Linkin Park's earlier music spanned a fusion of heavy metal and hip hop, while their later music features more electronica and pop elements.


title: Linkin Park

text: Formed in 1996, Linkin Park rose to international fame with their debut studio album, "Hybrid Theory" (2000), which became certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Released during the peak of the nu metal scene, the album's singles' heavy airplay on MTV led the singles "One Step Closer", "Crawling" and "In the End" all to chart highly on the US Mainstream Rock chart. The lattermost also crossed over to the nation's "Billboard" Hot 100. Their second album, "Meteora" (2003), continued the band's success. The band explored experimental sounds on their third album, "Minutes to Midnight" (2007). By the end of the decade, Linkin Park was among the most successful and popular rock acts.