The Rise and Fall of the Crimean System 1855-71

The Crimean war and the settlement by which it was concluded formed the climax of then-British Prime Minister Palmerston’s later diplomacy. In Palmerston’s view, much like the war itself, the peace settlement that followed was intended to “to curb the aggressive ambition of Russia. We went to war not so much to keep the Sultan and his Mussulmans in Turkey as to keep the Russians out of Turkey.” Apart from material guarantees like the neutralization of the Black Sea and the removal of Russia from