ABSTRACT
Figure 5.1 The Red Cross Geneva Conventions (1864, 1899, 1929, 1949) 55
The Crimean War 1854-56
The Crimean War of 1854-56 between Russia and Turkey brought the first half of the nineteenth century to an end. Austria, France, Sardinia (a part of the future Italy) and the UK turned against Russia, whereas Prussia mostly kept aloof from the conflict. As a result of this war, Austria and Russia drifted apart more or less permanently, which caused a profound change in European power relations and offered Prussia the opportunity to press for German unity. In 1856 the Peace of Paris concluded the Crimean War, which had weakened the Concert of Europe as an international security regime, but did not end the custom of convening multilateral conferences and concluding treaties (see Figure 2.3). The European nation-states continued their use of conference diplomacy and the balance of power. Even the choice of location for a peace agreement was based on considerations related to a cautious use of the balance of power. ‘By carefully choosing the location for a congress the European leadership sought to acknowledge, ratify, and legitimate changes in the balance of power. The choice of Paris in 1856, for example, served to rehabilitate Napoleon and demonstrate that France was restored to great-power status. The choice of Berlin over twenty years later was a reflection of the new role of Germany in the centre of Europe. Berlin also marked the emergence of Italy on (almost) equal terms with the great powers’ (Richardson 1999, 69). As a result of the outcome of the Crimean War in 1856, Russia lost its Continental leadership position to France. In addition to this Turkey, a Muslim state (the Ottoman Empire), was represented at the conference in Paris and admitted to the then existing international community of states. It was the first enlargement of the conference system beyond Europe in a strict sense (Jackson 2000, 12).
