ABSTRACT
The Crimean War might well have gone down in history as the 'War of the Empires'. It was a conflict between the Tsar's empire and a coalition comprising the Ottoman empire, the British empire and the French 'Second Empire' of Napoleon III. Most of the articles on the Crimean War were written by Friedrich Engels, those dealing with military aspects; some of them appeared under karl Marx's name. In an article on the 'Eastern Question', written in March 1853, about a year before the Anglo-French declaration of war, Engels denounced Russia's designs of 'annexation and aggrandizement' which would exclude Britain from the Black Sea and injure her commercial interests. Marx and Engeis had predicted and hoped for war prior to the Crimean War. They favoured war with Denmark in 1848 and hoped that it would spread to engulf Russia. Marx and Engels were over-optimistic about the prospects of revolution and the ability of anti-Russian coalition to achieve quick major successes.
