Editing Crimean War (section)

===Danube campaign===
{{see also|Wallachian Revolution of 1848|Moldavian Revolution of 1848 |Convention of Balta Liman}}
[[File:Ottoman ship of the line Mahmudiye.png|thumb|upright|''[[Mahmudiye (ship)|Mahmudiye]]'' (1829) participated in numerous important naval battles, including the [[Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855)|Siege of Sevastopol]]]]

The Danube campaign opened when the Russians occupied the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia in July 1853,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Edgerton |first=Robert B |url=https://archive.org/details/deathorglory00robe/mode/2up |title=Death or glory : the legacy of the Crimean War |year=1999 |page=15}}</ref> which brought their forces to the north bank of the River Danube. In response, the Ottoman Empire also moved its forces up to the river, establishing strongholds at [[Vidin]] in the west and [[Silistra]]{{sfn|Figes|2010|pp=172–184}} in the east, near the mouth of the Danube. The Ottoman move up the River Danube was also of concern to the Austrians, who moved forces into [[Transylvania]] in response. However, the Austrians had begun to fear the Russians more than the Ottomans. Indeed, like the British, the Austrians were now coming to see that an intact Ottoman Empire was necessary as a bulwark against the Russians. Accordingly, Austria resisted Russian diplomatic attempts to join the war but remained neutral during the Crimean War.{{sfn|Taylor|1954|loc=[https://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.13016/page/n106 pp. 64]–81}}

After the Ottoman ultimatum in September 1853, forces under Ottoman General [[Omar Pasha]] crossed the Danube at Vidin and captured [[Calafat]] in October 1853. Simultaneously, in the east, the Ottomans crossed the Danube at Silistra and attacked the Russians at [[Oltenița]]. The resulting [[Battle of Oltenița]] was the first engagement since the declaration of war. The Russians counterattacked but were beaten back.{{sfn|Badem|2010|pp=101–109}} On 31 December 1853, the Ottoman forces at Calafat moved against the Russian force at Chetatea or [[Cetate, Dolj|Cetate]], a small village nine miles north of Calafat, and engaged it on 6 January 1854. The battle began when the Russians made a move to recapture Calafat. Most of the [[Battle of Cetate|heavy fighting took place in and around Chetatea]] until the Russians were driven out of the village. Despite the setback at Chetatea, Russian forces on 28 January 1854 laid [[Siege of Calafat|siege to Calafat]]. The siege would continue until May 1854 when it was lifted by the Russians. The Ottomans would also later beat the Russians in battle at [[Caracal, Romania|Caracal]].{{sfn|Figes|2010|pp=130–143}}

In early 1854, the Russians again advanced by crossing the River Danube into the Turkish province of [[Dobruja]]. By April 1854, the Russians had reached the lines of [[Trajan's Wall]], where they were finally halted. In the centre, the Russian forces crossed the Danube and laid [[Siege of Silistria (1854)|siege to Silistra]] from 14 April with 60,000 troops. The defenders had 15,000 troops and supplies for three months.{{sfn|Porter|1889|p=415}} The siege was lifted on 23 June 1854.<ref>{{Cite book |last=James J. Reid |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zgg6c_Ndtu4C&pg=PA242 |title=Crisis of the Ottoman Empire: Prelude to Collapse 1839–1878 |publisher=Franz Steiner Verlag |year=2000 |isbn=978-3515076876 |pages=242–262}}</ref> The British and the French could not then take the field for lack of equipment.{{sfn|Porter|1889|p=415}}
[[File:Осада Силистрии 1. Виллевальде.jpg|thumb|left|The Siege of Silistra]]
In the west, the Russians were dissuaded from attacking Vidin by the presence of the Austrian forces, which had swollen to 280,000 men. On 28 May 1854, a protocol of the Vienna Conference was signed by Austria and Russia. One of the aims of the Russian advance had been to encourage the Orthodox Christian [[Serbs]] and [[Bulgarians]] who were living under Ottoman rule to rebel. When the Russian troops crossed the River [[Prut]] into Moldavia, the Orthodox Christians showed no interest in rising up against the Ottomans.{{sfn|Figes|2010|pp=131, 137}} Adding to Nicholas I's worries was the concern that Austria would enter the war against the Russians and attack his armies on the western flank. Indeed, after attempting to mediate a peaceful settlement between Russia and the Ottomans, the Austrians entered the war on the side of the Ottomans with an attack against the Russians in the Danubian Principalities which threatened to cut off the Russian supply lines. Accordingly, the Russians were forced to raise the siege of Silistra on 23 June 1854 and to begin abandoning the principalities.{{sfn|Figes|2010|p=185}} The lifting of the siege reduced the threat of a Russian advance into Bulgaria.

In June 1854, the Allied expeditionary force landed at [[Varna, Bulgaria|Varna]], a city on the Black Sea's western coast, but made little advance from its base there.{{sfn|Figes|2010|pp=175–176}} [[Karl Marx]] was noted to have quipped that "there they are, the French doing nothing and the British helping them as fast as possible".{{sfn|Troubetzkoy|2006|p=192}} In July 1854, the Ottomans, under Omar Pasha, crossed the Danube into Wallachia and on 7 July 1854 engaged the Russians in the city of [[Giurgiu]] and conquered it. The capture of Giurgiu by the Ottomans immediately threatened [[Bucharest]] in Wallachia with capture by the same Ottoman army. On {{awrap|26 July}} 1854, Nicholas I, responding to an Austrian ultimatum, ordered the withdrawal of Russian troops from the principalities. Also, in late July 1854, following up on the Russian retreat, the French staged an expedition against the Russian forces still in Dobruja, but it was a failure.{{sfn|Figes|2010|pp=188–190}}

By then, the Russian withdrawal was complete, except for the fortress towns of northern Dobruja, and Russia's place in the principalities was taken by the Austrians as a neutral peacekeeping force.{{sfn|Figes|2010|p=189}} There was little further action on that front after late 1854, and in September, the allied force boarded ships at Varna to invade [[Crimea]].{{sfn|Figes|2010|p=198}}