John Bright, with ponderous Victorian wit, called the Crimean War "a crime"; most historians have presented it as a bewildering series of diplomatic and military blunders. With the experience of the last five years to enlighten us, we should do better: we know that the diplomatic tangles since 1945, which may seem bewildering to the future historian, conceal the reality of "the cold war". The Crimean War was the cold war in an earlier phase. Two world-systems, mutually uncomprehending, lurched against each other, each convinced of its defensive good-faith. The struggle between them was fought in a ragged way at the edges. Both sides shrank from the head-on collision hich would have produced a war to remake the world â?? Russia from lack of strength, the Westem Powers from lack of conviction, Though the Crimean War seemed indecisive, great decisions followed from it. Without the Crimean War neither Germany nor Italy could have been united; without the Crimean War Europe would never have known "the liberal era ", that halcyon age which ended in 1914 and which, for centuries to come men will regard as "normal times ", just as the barbarians looked back to the peace and security of Augustan Rome.
The Crimean War is often treated in England as a war over the Eastem Question, a war to secure the route to India, and thus a rehearsal for Disraeliâ??s "peace with honour" campaign in 1878. This is to err both in time and place. The war had little or nothing to do with the security of India. The Suez Canal was not built; the overland route catered for a few travellers in a hurry; for that matter Russiaâ??s land- route to India was still in the future. The Crimean War was fought for essentially European considerations â?? against Russia rather than in favour of Turkey. It was fought for the sake of the Balance of Power and for "the liberties of Europe": more positively, it aimed to substitute diplomacy by agreement, the Concert of Europe, for the settlement of affairs at the dictation of a single Great Power. Disraeli was a consistent disciple of Metternich when he criticized the Crimean War and yet opposed Russia in 1878 the Crimean War had general altruistic motives, the crisis of 1878 was caused solely by the defence of Imperial interests. In other words, 1878 was a Tory affair; the Crimean War, with all its muddle, sprang from Whig principles, the last fling of a dying party.
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