So I just started reading into the Crimean War, was this war the last of its kind to ever be fought?
>rank and file formation
>muskets and cannon
>old military tactics and school of thought
>happened before most major technological developments
It seemed like a real shit sandwich for everyone involved, why was this war really fought for? I understand there were some religious reasons concerning the Turks but there had to be more to it than that
Russia was getting too big
So it was just a land grab on Russia's part and England and France trying to stop their expansion?
Not to mention ironclad steamers with exploding shot putting a fiery rough end to the age of sail wooden, solid-shot ships of the line.
England and France wanted to keep the "balance of Europe" Russia was extending towards the Balkans and western powers felt threatened
>was this war the last of its kind to ever be fought?
the American civil war had all those things too, intermixed with more modern tactics and technology, which is what made it so deadly. Soldiers were marching rank and file into gatling guns and minie ball rounds from muskets, as well as rifled cannon.
I guess you could say it was different, but there was still the old tactics and aging philosophies of leadership similar to the Crimean War. Pickett's Charge is sort of like the American version of the Charge of the Light Brigade.
I know I'm entering "What If?" territory but what would've happened if the Russians somehow managed to win the war?
>There is your enemy! There are you guns!
What did he mean by this?
I would argue that Alex 2 would still more or less do as he did historically. Even if Russia did win, it would still show massive flaws in their army that needed reform. Diplomatically however, Russia winning against Britain and France combined would have serious effects with the balance of power clearly not working. Austria, Prussia, Britian, and France would probably team up a few years later to put Russia back in it's place and revert any gains they would have made from the Crimean War.
Balkans would have been definitely under Russian influence. The war was motivated religiously, pan slavism was another movement at the time
>I would argue that Alex 2 would still more or less do as he did historically.
Forgive me if I sound repetitive but could expand on that? I'm still learning about the era in European history, I didn't really know about the Crimean War until I randomly picked up a book about it at my college library
Not him, but the Crimean war had many disasters, and citizens/government demanded military professionalism afterwards.
So the charge of the light brigade was one of many disasters that happened during the war? From what I had read it seemed that England was really lacking in experienced officers and NCOs at home and that it would've taken too long to bring in experienced leaders from all the colonies.
Alexander the second was the Russian monarch that ascended in 1855, during the second Crimean war. When he ascended, he realized that the war was going to shit and eventually pulled out. Alexander would then go on to dedicate his reign to trying to reform Russia in pretty much every aspect; from abolishing outright serfdom in 1861 [spoiler]the system that replaced it was weird inbetween complete freedom and serfdom[/spoiler], to reforming the army, to creating a new judicial system based off the French system, and trying to expand political representation though Zemstvos. Alexander the Second was actually pretty close to creating a Russian constitution and potentially liberalizing Russia, but was assassinated by anarchist/socialists causing the next monarch to be completely reactionary and dismiss any further attempts at liberalization in fear of them getting killed like Alexander.
Yes, the war had many disasters since there were new technologies that people were inexperienced with, and medically everything was shit. This was also one of the first wars with broad documentation.
> potentially liberalizing Russia, but was assassinated by anarchist/socialists causing the next monarch to be completely reactionary
Man what a shit deal
I read about the state of medicine during that war, must've been terrible to have been wounded during that war
to expand on the abolition of serfdom in Russia, it was sort of like the reconstruction era of the US where they were technically free but still tied to the land and had to do involuntary labor. The Serfs in Russia were freed and given their former masters land, however the government didn't want the aristocratic serf-owners to rebel so they made it so that the serfs would have to pay their former master for the land they now "owned". They could either pay through an upfront set amount of money or they would have to work on their former masters land to pay off this debt. Since like none of the freed serfs had money, pretty much all of them had to work on their masters land a few days a week instead of their own land effectively recreating the previous system when they were still serfs. This system would not be fully phased out until about 1900 when the government forced the remaining peasants to just give the land owners money for their complete freedom.
Were Serfs forced to fight in the war too or were they purely a labor force? Now I'm curious as to how the whole serfdom thing got started
If you haven't already, I would recommend looking up Florence Nightingale who was a nurse during the Crimean War and revolutionized the nurse profession and sanitary procedures.
This user is correct. Alexander firsthand realized how backwards Russia was compared to the West.
Yes. Medicine was a complete chaos at the time, and amputation methods were poor until a Russian 'perfected' it.
I've heard of the name because its synonymous with nurses but I never really knew the story behind it, let alone that she operated during the Crimean War, I'll read up on her.
Did you just get it from your ass? Such a huge effort to write long post and it is completely wrong.
>the American version of the charge of the light brigade
Exactly! Thus we were culturally prepared for the horrors of the WW's.
No