The
War So Far…
As the
Ottoman Empire waned, the Russian Empire grew, pulling the carefully maintained
balance of power off kilter. The Great Powers of Europe worriedly watched,
pondering “the Eastern Question” of whether or not and how to prop up the
failing Ottoman Empire against the Empire of Russia. Russia’s Czarina coveted
the trading power of the Bosporus strait, and badly needed to secure her
empire’s southern border. If her forces could take Constantinople, Russia would
own the Bosporus Strait, connecting their Empire with the Mediterranean and the
Danube, two critically important waterways. The Czarina just needed a reason
for war.
As a
diplomatic courtesy, the Ottoman Empire gave the Roman Aluminat Church
authority over the churches in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and the other Aluminat
pilgrimage sites of their empire, and in 1740 they let Roman Aluminat monks
protect the sites. By the 1840s, the
number of Russian pilgrims traveling in the Holy Land gave the Czarina the
excuse she needed to challenge the Sultan’s authority. As the head of the
Russian Aluminat Church, she demanded the right to protect her subjects in the
Ottoman Empire.
Hoping to
ingratiate his rule among his Roman Aluminat subjects, the Emperor of France challenged
the demands of the Czarina. The threat of Russia’s empire extending into the
Mediterranean and cutting off it’s over land connection with the Indian
colonies spurred England into a military alliance with its traditional enemy,
France. In the ensuing political chaos France, Britain, and Russia sent martial
forces to the Black sea in anticipation of war.
In July of
1853, Russian forces seized Ottoman territory, the Danubian Principalities,
leading to a declaration of war from the invaded Ottoman Empire. After a year
of attempted diplomacy, France declared war on Russia on March 27, and England
followed one day later. Their allied armies invaded the Crimean Peninsula in
September ‘54. Since then, both sides lost thousands of young men in a series of
battles and skirmishes with too few victories. Mismanagement and incompetence
seems to kill more soldiers through disease, and starvation than the enemy.
Since October of ’54, the advances of both sides ground to a halt around the
Siege of Sevastopol, a strategic port town.
Hoping to gain prestige with France, the Kingdom
of Sardinia joined the war in January ‘55, sending 18,000 troops to the Crimea.
January also brought changes to the British government. Public opinion turned
against the badly mismanaged war effort. Riots, protests, and parliament’s
demands for accountability ushered in a new government lead by its Prime Minister
Lord Palmerston. Only time will tell if fresh allies and leadership can bring
an end to this war of attrition.
The
War in Constantinople
Despite
the over 300 miles separating Constantinople and the battles in the Crimea
peninsula, even the most ignorant traveler sees signs of war all over the city:
-Ships of
the English and Ottoman navies choke the Golden Horn. Men-of-War dock along the
shore and fire salutes to the departing flotillas full of soldiers headed for
battle. Ships damaged from naval skirmishes and storms on the Black Sea limp
back to Constantinople. Every available shipwright and carpenter earns their
wages scrambling over broken hulls and repairing toppled masts.
-European
officers fill every available room in the hotels of Pera, while their soldiers
and sailors spend their money in Galata’s dives on alcohol, women, and
fraudulent magical charms. Most of the soldiers and officers in Constantinople belonging
to European Armies are convalescing after a stay in an army hospital. Some can barely walk, or feed themselves,
while others determinedly ignore their doctor’s order of bed rest.
-In the
bazaars, looters sell spoils scavenged on the battlefield from the bodies of
dead soldiers. Their stalls openly display the wares of the war dead, such as
signet rings, boots, spurs, medals, pistols,
snuff boxes, and knives available for any
interested party to purchase.
-The
English army practically took over Scutari on the Asian shore. Soldiers,
gathered in barracks or in houses with their loved ones, await orders to
deploy. Much like French hospitals in Pera, soldiers suffering from dysentery,
war wounds, and frostbite overcrowd the English hospitals in Scutari. Outbreaks
of typhus and cholera in the wards add more bodies to the nearby English
cemetery. In the barrack’s hospital, the famous Florence Nightingale and her
team of nurses tend to the soldiers in their care and support the hospital’s
overworked doctors. Sometimes the hospitals are
full, so ships bearing the wounded must take their suffering passengers all the
way to the British Hospitals in Malta for treatment.
-Constantinople’s
diverse population and its connections to continental trade routes created a
perfect hive of spies. In the midst of a continental war, the great nations
value secrecy and security more than ever. Many followers of the Eastern
Aluminat Faith, such as the Greeks and Bulgarians, sympathize with the
Russians, and a few keep their eyes and ears open for helpful information. The
Ottoman government closed the Russian Embassy, but certain charities started by
the Russian Aluminat church still help those in need.
-The
military authorities in Constantinople don’t just worry about Russia, but each
other as well. Many Englishmen
worry
France entered the war as a stepping stone to an empire in the Middle East, and
consider their alliance with France “unnatural”. Others feel the same way about
siding with the Ottomans against another Aluminat country.
-The Ottoman Empire supplements their armies with mercenaries called
“Bashi-Bazouks”. The name means “crazy head” or “free head”, and the name fits
the ill-disciplined and treacherous mercenaries. Some previously lived as bandits in the hills of Constantinople, and continue to rob and murder until
they leave for the Crimea. Not all are Turkish and not all are criminals. Bashi-Bazouks
come from all over the empire and beyond. One highly-decorated Bash-Bazouk
major, Nessim Bey, was born Washington Carroll Tevis in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania.
