Crimean War - End of The War

End of The War

Dissatisfaction with the conduct of the war was growing with the public in Britain and in other countries. On Sunday, January 21, 1855, a "snowball riot" occurred in Trafalgar Square near St. Martin-in-the-Field in which 1,500 people gathered to protest the war by pelting buses, cabs, and pedestrians with snow balls. When the police intervened, the snowballs were directed at them. The riot was finally put down by troops and police acting with truncheons. Public dissatisfaction with the conduct of the war, aggravated by reports of fiascos like the Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava, led to questions being raised in Parliament about the war. On Thursday, February 1, 1855, Edward Law, Earl of Ellenbrough, a Tory member of parliament, pushed the Aberdeen Coalition government for an accounting of all soldier, cavalry and sailors sent to the Crimea and accurate figures as to the number of casualties that had been sustained by all British armed forces in the Crimea. Following this two more opposition Tory MPs, the Earl of March and Charles Philip Yorke, Earl of Hardwicke, raised questions about the war and about the Battle of Balaclava in particular. Lord Aberdeen a Peelite, was heading up a Coalition (Whig-Peelite) government, with the Protectionist Conservatives in opposition. The Peelites - who were still technically Conservatives - had sided with the Whigs on religious and free trade issues and especially the repeal of the protectionist "Corn Laws", which repeal had hurt the land-owning interests traditionally represented by the Tory party, but benefitted the rising urban, manufacturing, commercial and financial sectors. Karl Marx argued that the war had become the scapegoat in the continued battle between free trade and protectionism.

Another attempt to question British involvement in the war was introduced on January 29, 1855, in the form of a bill authored by radical MP John Arthur Roebuck, asking for a Parliamentary investigation into the conduct of the war. Parliament passed this bill with 305 in favour and 148 against. Aberdeen chose to view the vote on this bill as a "vote of no confidence" on the Coalition government. Aberdeen resigned as prime minister on January 30, 1855, and after the official party leaders Lord Derby and Lord John Russell had declined Queen Victoria's request to form a new government, the veteran former Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston formed a Whig government with backing from the Irish MPs. Roebuck eventually became the chairman of the select committee conducting the investigation.

Peace negotiations began in 1856 under Nicholas I's son and successor, Alexander II, through the Congress of Paris. Furthermore, the Tsar and the Sultan agreed not to establish any naval or military arsenal on the Black Sea coast. The Black Sea clauses came at a tremendous disadvantage to Russia, for it greatly diminished the naval threat it posed to the Ottomans. Russian protectorates of Moldavia and Wallachia acquired in the previous war were returned to Ottoman Empire. Moreover, all of the Great Powers pledged to respect the independence and territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire.

The Treaty of Paris stood until 1871, when France was defeated by Prussia in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871. While Prussia and several other German states united to form a powerful German Empire, the Emperor of the French, Napoleon III, was deposed to permit the formation of a Third French Republic. During his reign, Napoleon III, eager for the support of Great Britain, had opposed Russia over the Eastern Question. Russian interference in the Ottoman Empire, however, did not in any significant manner threaten the interests of France. Thus, France abandoned its opposition to Russia after the establishment of a republic. Encouraged by the decision of the French and supported by the German minister Otto von Bismarck, Russia renounced the Black Sea clauses of the treaty agreed to in 1856. As Great Britain alone could not enforce the clauses, Russia once again established a fleet in the Black Sea.

Having abandoned its alliance with Russia, Austria was diplomatically isolated following the war, which contributed to its defeat in the 1866 Austro-Prussian War and its loss of influence in most German-speaking lands. With France, now hostile to Germany, allied with Russia, and 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 creating the diplomatic alliances that would lead to World War I.

Notwithstanding the guarantees to preserve Ottoman territories specified in the Treaty of Paris, Russia, exploiting nationalist unrest in the Ottoman states 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 achieved independence and Bulgaria its autonomy.

The Crimean War was one of the main causes of the demise of The Concert of Europe, the balance of power that had dominated Europe since the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and which had included France, Russia, and The British Empire.