Editing Crimean War (section)

===First hostilities===
[[File:The Allied Fleets anchored in the Bosphorus, 1853.jpg|thumb|British warships anchored in the [[Bosporus|Bosphorus]], late 1853; the prelude to the Crimean War. Painted by [[Amedeo Preziosi]].]]
In February 1853, the British government of Prime Minister [[George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen|Lord Aberdeen]] reappointed Lord Stratford as British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.{{sfn|Figes|2010|p=110}} Having resigned the ambassadorship in January, he had been replaced by [[Hugh Rose, 1st Baron Strathnairn|Colonel Rose]] as ''[[chargé d'affaires]]''. Lord Stratford then turned around, sailed back to Constantinople, arriving there on 5 April 1853 and convinced the Sultan there to reject the Russian treaty proposal as compromising Ottoman independence. The [[Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom)|Leader of the Opposition]] in the British [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]], [[Benjamin Disraeli]], blamed Aberdeen's and Stratford's actions for making war inevitable, which started the process that would force the [[Aberdeen ministry|Aberdeen government]] to resign in January 1855 over the war.

Shortly after the Tsar had learned of the failure of Menshikov's diplomacy toward the end of June 1853, he sent armies under the commands of Field Marshal [[Ivan Paskevich]] and General [[Mikhail Dmitrievich Gorchakov|Mikhail Gorchakov]] across the River [[Prut]] into the Ottoman-controlled [[Danubian Principalities]] of Moldavia and Wallachia. Fewer than half of the 80,000 Russian soldiers who crossed the Prut in 1853 survived. By far, nearly all of the deaths would result from sickness, rather than action,{{sfn|Figes|2010|pp=118–119}} since the Russian Army still suffered from medical services that ranged from bad to none.

Russia had obtained recognition from the Ottoman Empire of the Tsar's role as special guardian of the Orthodox Christians in Moldavia and Wallachia. Russia now used the Sultan's failure to resolve the issue of the protection of the Christian sites in the Holy Land as a pretext for Russian occupation of those Danubian provinces. Nicholas believed that the European powers, especially Austria, would not object strongly to the annexation of a few neighbouring Ottoman provinces, especially since Russia had assisted Austria's efforts in suppressing the Hungarian Revolution in 1849.

The United Kingdom, hoping to maintain the Ottoman Empire as a bulwark against the expansion of Russian power in [[Asia]], sent a fleet to the Dardanelles, where it joined a fleet sent by France.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lawrence Sondhaus |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aYcUQ4XRqOoC&pg=PA1852-IA16 |title=Naval Warfare, 1815–1914 |publisher=Routledge |year=2012 |isbn=978-1134609949 |pages=1852–1855}}</ref>

====Battle of Sinop====
{{main|Battle of Sinop}}
[[File:Battle of Sinop.jpg|thumb|The Russian destruction of the Ottoman fleet at the [[Battle of Sinop]] on 30 November 1853 sparked the war (painting by [[Ivan Aivazovsky]]).]]
The European powers continued to pursue diplomatic avenues. The representatives of the four Great Powers (the United Kingdom, France, Austria and [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]]) met in [[Vienna]], where they drafted a note, which they hoped would be acceptable to both the Russians and the Ottomans. The peace terms arrived at by the four powers at the Vienna Conference (1853) were delivered to the Russians by Austrian Foreign Minister [[Count Karl Ferdinand von Buol|Count Karl von Buol]] on 5 December 1853. The note met with the approval of Nicholas I, but Abdülmecid I rejected the proposal since he felt that the document's poor phrasing left it open to many different interpretations. The United Kingdom, France and Austria united in proposing amendments to mollify the Sultan, but the court of St. Petersburg ignored their suggestions.{{sfn|Figes|2010|p=143}} The United Kingdom and France then set aside the idea of continuing negotiations, but Austria and Prussia did not believe that the rejection of the proposed amendments justified the abandonment of the diplomatic process.

On 23 November, a small Russian naval force discovered the Ottoman fleet harboured in [[Sinop, Turkey|Sinop]] and began a blockade. Once the Russian blockade was reinforced, a squadron of 6 Russian ships of the line supported by 5 smaller warships, assaulted the harbour on 30 November 1853. During [[Battle of Sinop]], the Russian squadron destroyed a patrol squadron of 11 Ottoman warships—mostly frigates—while they were anchored in port under defence of the onshore artillery garrison.{{sfn|Tucker|2009|p={{page needed|date=November 2022}}}} The Ottoman fleet suffered a crushing defeat. The Russian victory in the naval battle in Sinope was called "the massacre of Sinope".{{sfn|Marriott|1917|p=234}} Although Russia and the Ottoman Empire were already at war, and there was no evidence of Russian atrocities, the phrase was used as propaganda in the West.<ref>O.Figes, The Crimean War. Metropolitan Books. New York. 2014, p. 137</ref> The press in both United Kingdom and France used Sinop as the ''[[casus belli]]'' ("cause of war") to shape the public opinion in favour of war against Russia. By 28 March 1854, after Russia ignored an Anglo-French ultimatum to withdraw from the Danubian Principalities, the United Kingdom and France had both declared war.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |first=Andrew |last=Lambert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GCVyIZEdc6kC&pg=PA94 |title=The Crimean War: British Grand Strategy Against Russia, 1853–56 |publisher=Ashgate |year=2011 |isbn=978-1409410119 |pages=94, 97}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |first=Christopher John |last=Bartlett |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aXi7AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA51 |title=Defence and Diplomacy: Britain and the Great Powers, 1815–1914 |publisher=Manchester UP |year=1993 |isbn=978-0719035203 |pages=51–52}}</ref>