A Necessary War

The Crimean War, which lasted only two years, 1854-1856, was an unintentional, and very useful, practice run for World War I. Because there hadn’t been a major European war since 1815 there had been many advances in warfare without a change in the actual conduct of war. The fighting style practiced was similar to the Napoleonic era, and proved useless against advances such as artillery and rifles, which could be devastating from a distance. These advances in weaponry could easily mow down charging soldiers, and trenches were dug as a result. This war, though devastating, was a good thing for Europe, otherwise the new technology would have been tested first during World War I. If the Europeans had made the types of mistakes during World War I that they made during the Crimean War, such as the British “charge of the Light Brigade,” the war would have been immeasurably more catastrophic.

The Crimean War also gave the major powers in Europe practice in nation building. They put together the disputed territories of Moldavia and Walachia to form Romania. After World War I, when "self determination of peoples" was an even bigger issue, they ended up creating many new nations including Bulgaria and Yugoslavia.