The Crimean War was a result of Russian pressure on Turkey; this
threatened British commercial and strategic interests in the
Middle East and India. France, having provoked the crisis for
prestige purposes, used the war to cement an alliance with
Britain and to reassert its military power. Anglo-French forces
secured Istanbul before attacking Russia in the Black Sea, the
Baltic, the Arctic, and the Pacific, supported by a maritime
blockade. In September 1854 the allies landed in the Crimea,
planning to destroy Sevastopol and the Russian Fleet in six
weeks before withdrawing to Turkey. After victory on the River
Alma, they hesitated; the Russians then reinforced the city and
attacked the allied flank at the battles of Balaklava and the
Inkerman. After a terrible winter, the allies cut Russian
logistics by occupying the Sea of Azov; then, using superior
sea-based logistics, they forced the Russians out of Sevastopol,
which fell on September 8–9, 1855. In the Baltic, also a major
theater, the allies captured the