ABSTRACT
The Anglo-French coalition that fought against Russia during the Crimean War was an unlikely combination. The two powers had been at war, off and on, for close on five hundred years, and well within living memory had been the principal opponents in a 22 year long total conflict, the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, 1793-1815. In the years since Waterloo their relations had rarely been other than hostile. Yet they managed to agree on policy, strategy, and operate in apparent harmony to invade and defeat Imperial Russia – the continental superpower of the age.
