When the Sultan’s demands to withdraw were rejected, the Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia. Overconfident and ambitious, Czar Nicholas sent Russian troops to occupy Turkey’s Danubian principalities. Keeping the Mediterranean sea lanes open and free of Russian domination became a cornerstone of British foreign policy. Waghorn’s Mediterranean-Egypt-Suez route was only 6,000 miles and took around 40 days. Before 1843, the route to India was around Africa via the Cape of Good Hope, a journey of 16,000 miles that could take as long as six months. From there, passengers could board steamers that took them to India.Īlmost overnight India and the rest of Asia were more accessible. In 1843 Thomas Waghorn blazed a trail across the Egyptian desert to Suez. Although the Suez Canal had not yet been built, the Mediterranean was Britain’s lifeline to India and beyond. British prosperity, power, and prestige depended on maintaining, and even expanding, its overseas markets. The Industrial Revolution had transformed Britain into the leading economic power of Europe. Great Britain had its own reasons for opposing the Russian Czar. A prisoner of climate and geography, landlocked Russia long coveted access to the Mediterranean. Turkey’s Danubian principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia (today’s Romania) seemed ripe for the plucking, and the Czar expressed an interest in establishing a “protectorate” in Serbia and what is now Bulgaria. Calling Turkey the “sick man of Europe,” he eagerly anticipated the spoils that would come to Russia when the patient finally drew his last breath. The Ottoman decline aroused Czar Nicholas I’s predatory instincts. What had brought about this startling reversal of alliances? Miscalculation, power politics, and ambition all played their part in the coming tragedy, but the catalyst was the Ottoman Empire’s rapid decay throughout the course of the 19th century. These salvoes were the first shots in what would become known to history as the Battle of Balaklava.īritain and Russia had been staunch allies against France during the Napoleonic Wars 40 years earlier. The booming report echoed through the gray-tinged dawn, the gradually fading sound soon followed by a succession of other cannon reports. The Ottoman Decline Aroused Czar Nicholas I’s Predatory Instincts It was firing on Russian infantry on the other side of the hill, and as yet unseen by the British officers. “Are you quite sure?” Paget and Paulet replied almost in unison, but their chorus of doubts was cut off by a large cannon blast from Redoubt No. “Holloa,” cried Sir William, “there are two flags flying-what does that mean?” “Why, that surely is the signal that the enemy is approaching,” answered McManon with an air of confidence. 1’s flagstaff was flying two flags, but their significance was a subject of much debate. 1, now strongly silhouetted against the lightening sky. Blissfully ignorant of his chief’s concerns, Paget caught sight of the looming mass of Canrobert’s Hill, named after an allied French general. Lord Lucan had received disturbing reports that the Russians were massing troops to the northwest, ominous indications that the Czar’s forces might launch an offensive against Balaklava. Britain had come into the war in part to protect Turkey from Russian encroachments, but few Britons had any confidence in the Turkish Army. The small knot of British officers rode across a broad plain past a series of hastily constructed Turkish redoubts. Lord William Paulet and Major McManon joined Paget in this nocturnal excursion. Paget decided to follow his chief, though at a respectful distance of some 50 yards. In fact, it was his custom to inspect the outposts that guarded the British supply base at Balaklava. Lucan was the commander of the entire cavalry division, but his presence at such an early hour caused no concern. Lord Lucan commanded the British cavalry at Balaklava. George Bingham, Third Earl of Lucan, and his staff. Suddenly, movement stirred the predawn darkness, shadowy, spectral figures that Paget identified as Lt. A pale gray smear brought the Crimean hills into sharp relief, harbinger of the morning sun, but at this early hour all else was plunged into gloom. It was about an hour before daybreak, and as usual the whole British Cavalry Division turned out and were standing by their horses. Lord George was also brevet colonel and the head of the 4th Light Dragoons. Lord George Paget rose early in the morning of October 25, 1854, he had no inkling of, as he later put it, “the day’s work in store for us.” Paget was part of an Anglo-French expeditionary force now besieging the Russian naval base at Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula.
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