History notes part three

British History notes
1851-2
The only places that hadn’t really had a revolution were England and the Russians. England because of democracy and Russia because of iron force.
At this point a Bonaparte was elected to power in France. Everything was hunky dory until Bonaparte overthrew the French govt and named himself emperor. England’s foreign minister Lord Palmerson gave Bonaparte England’s full support without consulting his govt or Monarch. Queen Victoria “asked” Palmerson to resign. England wasn’t going to interfere with Napoleon the Third but didn’t like it. Palmerson was even tempered and experienced. The new Foreign Minister was now inexperienced. They sent mixed signals over Russia moving in among the Ottomans.
Karl Marx and Frederik Engels had been predicting war between Russia and the Ottomans. They saw that the Ottomans were getting much weaker and that England and France wouldn’t allow the Russians to take Ottoman territory.
The war became more inevitable because of the comedy of errors by the foreign ministries.
Napoleon the third was supported by The army, The church, and the Middle class. In exchange for this support Napoleon had to scratch their back. The church didn’t like the Second Republic and figured Napoleon the Third would be a better power source. French troops were protecting the Pope in Rome and they wanted the French Army to take Holy sites in the Middle East. The French had an excuse for this because during the time of the Holy Roman Empire the French and the Ottomans had joined together in alliance. Suleman had given the French control of the holy sites. During the years of upheaval they had lost track of this and the Orthodox church had taken control. Russia and France had beefs because Russia had been holding France back for many years. Russia was seen as the police force of Europe because they moved in to stop revolutions.
The Ottoman Turks had allowed the Russians to represent the Orthodox people in the middle east. When the Catholics come in and remove the Orthodox people from power the Orthodox people scream their heads off. Czar Nicholas is outraged and sends his minister to the Ottomans and tells them that if they don’t take that treaty back then the Russians will invade. The French and British ministers tell the Ottomans they will defend them from the Russians. The British minister, Hugh Rose, commanded an admiral to sail his fleet through the area. The admiral refused and Rose was replaced. A more diplomatic minister Lord Stratford Canning (soon Stratford Redcliff) was placed in Constantinople.
Napoleon sends a ship of the line into the Black sea which was a violation of the London Straits Convention. Nicholas in St. Petersburg is seeing a wavering Ottoman, A determined France, Mixed Signals from the British. He turns to Austria who he had lent 200,000 troops to put down the Hungarian revolution. He believes they will refuse any diplomatic push from the West and help the Russians. The Austrian minister Schwarzenburg is famous for saying “We will shock the world with our ingratitude.” Russia gives the Turks and ultimatum. Kick the Catholics out of power and put the Orthodox back in charge of the holy sites, or the Russians will take Wallachia and Moldavia. The Sultan refused and the Russians sent troops into those places. The Turk commander wins a few battles and in the caucus regions the Chechen Muslims held back the Russians with Turkish help.
The other powers are searching for a diplomatic end to the war because the war hasn’t really heated up.
The war is agreed to end by all the powers except by the Turks. They declare Jihad against the Russians. The war will go on. The Russians unleash their Black Seas Fleet. At the battle of Sinope the modern Russian fleet destroy the old ottoman fleet. The French and the British take this as an excuse to declare war on Russia. 28 march 1854. The British and French figure it will be a good old fashioned knock em up in the usual area. Until Austria decides to join in the fight. They get nervous about these armies in their vicinity. Nicholas is happy to fight the Turks and the British and French who were at the end of a long supply line. When the Austrians tell him to get out of Wallachia and Moldavia or they will move in with a quarter of a million troops. Nicholas moves his troops out posthaste. Now the usual battlefield is removed. The West decides to attack the Crimean Penninsula. The British fleets blockaded Russian shipping in the Baltic.
The combined Allied fleet moves into the Black Sea. The Russian fleet moves their ships back takes off the guns and sinks all the ships in the harbor to keep the Allies out of Sevastopol. The allies land at upitoria and march south down towards Sevastopol. Their first battle was at the Alme river. Lord Raglin was the Overall commander of the British forces. William Russell was there as one of the world’s first war correspondents. He writes back via the telegraph. Russell writes back patriotic words of victory.
Lord Raglin is getting towards senility. This highlights the point of the problems in the British Command. His men know he is senile but can do nothing. They defeat the Russians and the Russians move back towards Sevastopol. Sept 30, 1854 battle of Alme River is a victory.
The Battle of Balaclava- famous for two things. Positive- The thin red line. The 93rd Highlanders are marching and a whole brigade of Russian cavalry comes over the hill at them. The Highlanders have no time to form square. Thanks to Breech loading rifled muskets the Highlanders were able to put out a greater rate of fire. They held their line and smashed up the cavalry due to their rate of fire.
Negative- Charge of the Light Brigade. Lord Raglin sitting on a hill sees Russian positions and behind one the Russians are moving their heavy naval guns. Lord Lucan is given a very vague order to use his cavalry to take the guns. Lord Lucan gives the order to Lord Cardigan in command of the Light Horse. Cardigan and Lucan hate each other. Cardigan lines up his cavalry and begins to charge the hill. The Russians had artillery with enfilading fire. A captain tried to stop the madness and gets blown up. Cardigan goes faster and chases away the gunners. But the light cavalry had nothing to spike the guns. They returned with heavy casualties. The heavy cavalry was supposed to support them but they never did. Lucan is eventually recalled back to London as the villain. Cardigan is promoted and made a hero. It didn’t really hurt Lucan’s career though.
Out of this politicians finally see that idiots are running the British army. After the war they start to examine the way officers are promoted. They would end the system of buying commissions.
The battle of Balaclava ended with the British and French not following up on their victory. Russia is allowed to bring their forces back into Sevastopol. After a siege the Russians try to break out of Sevastopol. Battle of Inkerman. The Russian troops are great but the Russian leadership are terrible. The outbreak is beaten back. Winter comes and shuts both sides down for a bit. The British army was woefully unprepared for Russian winter. The French knew and had brought supplies. The British suffer.
Ultimately the allies take Sevastopol on September 9th 1855.
The british used iron sided barges with cannon. The first use of iron ships in combat sort of(not against other ships, just to shoot at land).
Russell the war correspondent had started off gung ho, but after the battles started to change his tone. He questioned the slaughter and uselessness. Photos were sent back of battlefields to the unknowing public. The medical system was atrocious. Photos of medical tents with stacks of arms and legs outfront. More people died from sickness, exposure, and medical treatment died than from combat. Almost 2-3 times more. The medical service was very unprepared for such conflict. They will have to change their ways.
Florence Nightingale had come in with her medical outfit that would become the red cross. The british army tried to keep her out, but she was rich and well connected. The doctors became very happy that she came. She could get supplies in weeks where it took months for the army to get it. Called the Angels of the Battlefield.
Public opinion on the war swings to anti war after seeing all the evidence. The politicians responded to public outcry and began to question why they were in the fight. The beginning of “splendid isolation.” England will stay out of European conflicts and interact only diplomatically. The Russians also withdraw from Europe. England will be distracted by their colonies instead of a semi peaceful Europe.
The whigs and the torries start to fall by the wayside. The former torries become the conservatives mostly the torries who had followed Robert Peele away from the torries and the whigs mostly became the Liberals. Gladstone goes with the Liberals and D’Israeli goes with the Conservatives.
Negotiations begin in Paris in 1856. Nicholas the first dies and his son Alexander the second takes over. The economy and army of Russia were in shambles. The allies didn’t really push the invasion of Russia. So the Russian situation wasn’t sooo bad.
The british want to invade Russia but the French know better. They say they will help the british if they will re-establish Poland after the war. This would piss off the german factions so the British backed down.
The four terms of the peace of paris that ended the Crimean war.
1)Russia had to give up their rights as protector of Wallachia and Moldavia.
2) Russia had to abandom its claim as protector of the orthodox people in the ottoman empire.
3) The straits conventions were reaffirmed. The Russians couldn’t have a naval presence in the Black Sea.
4) Free access to the Danube River for trade. No country could put tariffs or taxes on trade on the Danube River.
The british have to make changes in their officer corps, their medical and commissary corps. The British admiralty finally realizes that steam ships are here to stay. Steam ships couldn’t be held back by the wind. Navies all over the world start looking at iron armored ships. England now had to deal with war correspondents and public opinion.
After the Crimean war England goes into its splendid isolation. 1856 to about the 1890’s.
In the 1860’s when Bismarck makes his first move in german unification a british minister says they should get involved but he is shouted down.
The Crimean war broke the quadruple alliance from the congress of Vienna (made after waterloo.) Diplomacy was now not taking precedence over war.
Right after the war the British made the Victoria Cross as an award for valor for their troops. Some were backdated for the Crimean actions.

The Sepoy Mutiny (The Indian rebellion, the Mutiny etc)
The East Indian company had taken control of most of the area in India and Pakistan. At first they just had trading posts, but then they used their army to fight and take more territory. They expand through conquest and alliance.
Getting into the 1850’s the sepoys are the native soldiers who have served in the army of the East India company. Just before the rebellion there were ober 200,000 sepoys divided into three sections. Bombay,Madrass, and Bengal. They supported the 50,000 british soldiers. (4 to 1)
The Bengal army recruited from the higher castes (rajhput and Brahmins) while the other two recruited any castes.
The british were Christian and their missionaries were battling up against the Indian Gods. They wanted to “civilize” India. They isolated themselves from the Indians. The general service enlistment act of 1856. The Bengal army could only be used in areas where they could march to within a couple of days. The british start wanting to use them farther and farther. The general service enlistment act revoked the Bengal distance rule. The Bengals got mad.
The british transport the weapons for the Indians in grease. Some of the grease is cow, some is pigs. The 200,000 sepoys are muslim or hindu. So either will piss off the sepoys. The british at first didn’t really care. Some officers realized that this was a problem and told the factories to not pack them in grease. The sepoy’s realize that the grease was pig fat and cow fat. The cartridges however are still made with pig and cow fat. The sepoys have to bite the cartridge open. So they are ingesting taboo animals. When a solider stood up and refused service, the situation got more serious. The civilian sector was also angry at the british. The nobles of the Indian system, The rural landlords, and the peasants. The doctrine of lapse. If the landlord left then he loses his land. The Nobility had fled the armies and were mad that they lost their stuff. The Rural landlords lost a lot of land due to land reform and redistribution from the east india company. The peasants followed their leaders.
(The rebellion failed because they couldn’t maintain leadership. The disparate Indian groups hated each other.)
Mangow Pandey, 29 year old member of the British Bengal army. Angered by the British decides to rebel against his commanders. The local officer walks out and mangow shoots at him. He misses. He shoots at another officer and it hits his horse. The officers order the sepoys to stop that man. Most of the sepoys realize mangow is just high so they refuse. One soldier sheikh paltu jumps out and restrains mangow. The commander of the regiment who had refused to help was brought up on charges and executed. Paltu was promoted as the new commander. The rest of that battalion was stripped of their uniforms and sent home. They think they have been mistreated so they decide to kick it off. The British commander of the Bengal army, General Anson, realizes that the ruckus is being caused by the cartridges. He says that they no longer have to bite the cartridges. It doesn’t work.
It all kicks off in meerut in 1857. They think it was a spontaneous outbreak instead of a planned plot. It starts as a disagreement and turns into a full fledged revolt. of a planned plot. It starts as a disagreement and turns into a full fledged revolt.