i The great object of the Genoese in making this settlement was to exercise a control over the extensive and lucrative trade which was then carried on with the East, by way of the Caspian Sea and the Volga, and thence, after a short land carriage, down the Tanais or Don into the Sea of Azov. This trade and a large busi ness in slaves so increased the importance of this settlement that the Genoese, who had come as simple traders, began to aspire to be masters. The jealousy of their great rivals, the Vene tians, was excited, and open hostilities were carried on, each party contending for an ex clusive monopoly of the whole trade of the Black Sea. In this contest the Genoese gained the advantage, and they continued to follow it up by forming permanent settlements and erecting strong fortifications. In this way they obtained possession of Soldaia, now Soudak, in 1365, and about the same time made themselves masters of Cembalo, which afterward exchanged its name for that of Balaklava. The old castles at both these places are Genoese. While Genoa was thus a rising power, the khans were rapidly declining. To complete their downfall, the ter rible Timur appeared, and early in the 15th century the great empire of Kaptschak or the Golden Horde was broken up into fragments. Early in the 15th century the Crimea thus be came an independent khanate, and continued so to exist under the line of Gherai, descended from Genghis-Khan, for a succession of reigns. The Genoese in the meantime were growing in power, and succeeded, by interfering in a disputed suc cession, in gaining complete ascendency over the khanate. The Tartars invited the interfer ence of Turkey, and 1475 an Osman fleet appeared in the Bay of Kaffa. The Genoese offered an ineffectual resistance; and Kaffa, along with all their other settlements, was soon in the possession of the invaders and the Crimea became a province of the Ottoman Empire. The Turks, not satisfied with the Crimea, extended their conquests far into Russia and provoked Russians reprisals, and soon Russia turned to the Crimea as a possible and valuable maritime province. In 1736 a Russian army of 50,000 men broke through the Isthmus of Perekop and made its way into Crimea itself. But the terri ble climate forced the speedy return of less than half of the army, all that was left. The contest for the Crimea, thus begun, was steadily per sisted in; and the conquest was virtually com pleted by the troops of Prince Dolgorouki in 1771. In 1783 the Crimea was united to the Russian Empire.
The Crimean The progress of Rus sia in this direction naturally held out to her more tempting objects of ambition and it was generally believed by the western powers of Europe, who were jealous of the growth of her gigantic power and particularly by England, of whose policy, in consequence of her possessions in the East, the preservation of the Turkish Empire had become a primary object, that she aimed at the dismemberment of that empire and the conquest of Constantinople itself. Among other indications of aggressive tenden cies, the great naval arsenal of Sebastopol, oc cupying the most commanding position in the Black Sea, at the extremity of the Crimean peninsula, begun by Catharine II in 1786, was completed on a scale of which the world has yet seen few examples and provided to an un limited extent with all the means both of of fensive and of defensive warfare. One main object of this arsenal undoubtedly was to hold out a standing menace against Turkey and make her destruction certain whenever an opportune period for striking the final blow should have arrived. The Emperor Nicholas I, one of the ablest as well as most ambitious of the tsars who have ever swayed the Russian sceptre, had satisfied himself that this period was actually at hand. In February 1852 the Porte had given a decision on a dispute between the Latin and Greek churches, the former protected by France, the latter by Russia, as to the protection of the holy places in Palestine, which was deemed fa vorable to Russia. A new demand, however, was made by this power, which in November claimed, in virtue of the Treaty of Kainardji, a protectorate over the Greek Church through out the Turkish Empire. After complicated ne gotiations, the Porte, under pressure from France, vacillated toward the side of the Latins, and on 22 December delivered the key of the church of Bethlehem to the Latin patriarch. The diplomacy of England, France, Russia, Aus tria, Prussia and Turkey exhausted itself in ne gotiations over this dispute and at length, in May 1853, Prince Menschikoff delivered an ultima tum to the Porte, which being rejected, the Rus sian troops, which had been advanced to the Pruth at the close of the previous crossed it and occupied the Danubian principalities. The Porte declared war on 23 Oct. 1853; France on the 27th and England 28 March 1854. On 26 Jan. 1855 the allies were joined by Sardinia. Happily the common danger had dissipated all the misunderstandings which had arisen between Great Britain and France. Nicholas had selected the Danubian principalities as the scene of war fare and here the allied army was first con veyed; but after remaining inactive for some time at Varna and suffering great losses through cholera, it was determined that the Crimea should be made the great battlefield. Accord ingly, in the beginning of September 1854, the combined fleets of Great Britain and France, forming up till then, if efficiency as well as vastness are considered, the mightiest arma ment ever conveyed by sea, appeared off the west coast of the Crimea, about 30 miles north of Sebastopol. The disembarkation having been completed on the 16th, the army began to move southward on the 19th and early on the 20th approached the banks of the Alma. Here the
Russian army was found occupying a position which Prince Menschikoff, its commander, be lieved to be unassailable. After a sharp strug gle the Russians were forced to give way at every point, leaving the allies in possession of a victory which is destined to hold an honorable place in military annals. Two days after the allied army continued its march for Sebastopol, the real object of attack; but for strategical reasons, instead of proceeding directly to the north side of the fortress, made a circuit which brought it considerably to the south, in the vicinity of Balaklava. This small harbor, near which the British were stationed, furnished them with facilities for landing the munitions of war, while the same object was gained, per haps more advantageously, by the French at Kamiesch Bay. It has been alleged that an as sault upon Sebastopol, had it been made imme diately after the victory of the Alma, would probably have been successful. The defenses were, toward the sea, justly deemed all but im pregnable, but those on the land side, from which the tsar had never dreamed of the pos sibility of an attack, were very incomplete. The allies, however, doubting the success of an as sault, resolved to proceed in more regular form; and thus commenced one of the most remark able sieges of modern times. The greatest skill, courage and perseverance appear to have been displayed both by the besiegers and the be sieged. The latter were, however, in almost every respect the more favorably situated. The commissariat arrangements of the allies were deplorable; cholera decimated their ranks. Their munitions of war were almost unbound ed; the northern side of the harbor was never invested, so that their communication with the country always remained open; and, contrary to the rule established in regard to siege opera tions, the number of troops within the town nearly equaled, and at one time greatly ex ceeded, the number of those who were attempt ing to take it. The consequence was that not only were defensive works constructed rapidly while the siege made comparatively little prog ress; but the besieged, who had also the assist ance of an army without the walls, were able to assume the aggressive. On 25 October took place the famous battle of Balaklava, distin guished by the heroic charge of the Light Bri gade, when, in consequence of the misinterpre tation of an order, 600 cavalry rode headlong against the Russian army. On 5 November fol lowed the battle of Inkermann, in which an overwhelming force of Russians was gallantly repulsed. Both Great Britain and France now became more alive to the magnitude of the struggle in which they were engaged. While the siege continued, other important positions in the Crimea were occupied and the possession of Eupatoria on the west, and of Kertch on the east, both seriously threatened the communica tions of the Russians and furnished the means of destroying a large portion of their supplies. The peninsula was thus virtually conquered and a successful issue of the siege began to be con fidently anticipated. At an early period the Rus sians, by sinking a number of large ships across the mouth of the harbor, had rid themselves of the danger of an attack by sea. The remainder of the fleet within the harbor was still available for defense and from its powers of locomotion enabling it to change its position so as to meet emergencies, was able greatly to retard the be siegers. Decided progress, however, continued to be made. On 7 June 1855 the Mamelon, a commanding height, was taken; and on 8 Sep tember the flag of the allies waved on the tower of the Malakoff. The Russians on the night of the above day, aware that further defense was impossible, withdrew to the northern side of the harbor, after sinking their ships and blowing up the defenses of the town, which was now taken possession of by the allies. There is no reason to doubt that in another campaign the Russians might have been driven entirely out of the Crimea; but overtures of peace were made and they gladly availed themselves of them. A treaty of peace was concluded at Paris on 30 March 1856 by which the independence of the Ottoman Empire was guaranteed and her ad mission to the society (concert) of European powers declared by the other contracting par ties, namely, Great Britain, Austria, France, Prussia, Russia and Sardinia; the Christians in Turkey to remain under the protection of the Sultan, who, by a firman, allowed them religious liberty; Russia renounced her protectorate over the Danubian principalities; the Black Sea was neutralized; the navigation of the Danube was to be free to all nations. The total casual ties in the Crimean War have been estimated at half a million; the costs — Great Britain, L69, 000,000; France, 03,000,000; Russia, £142, 000,000. Taking advantage of the Franco-Ger man War, Russia, on 31 Oct. 1870, denounced the Treaty of Paris so far as it related to the neutralization of the Black Sea, and in a con ference held in London in January 1871 this part of the treaty was given up, while the remainder of the treaty was confirmed. Con sult
du Bosphore Crimmerien) (Saint Petersburg 1854) ; Beaulieu,
Em pire of Czars and Russians) (New York 1893) ; Telfer, J. B., The Crimea and Trans
(1872) ; Wood, F..,