Crimean War

HistoryCentral · Primary Source & History

In October 1853 a war had broken out between Russia and the Ottomans known as the Russo-Turkish War. The war broke out after a Turkish attack on Russian forces that had occupied Walachia and Moldavia. France and Great Britain declared war on Russia in support of the Ottomans. Austria in the meantime successfully pressured Russia to withdraw from the Danubian principalities that it had occupied, and then Austria occupied them. On September 14 allied troops landed in the Crimea. On September 20th the Russians were defeated in the battle of Alma River. The allies then went on to lay siege to the Russian port of Sevastopol.