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dpmcdermott 's review for:
The Crimean War: A History
by Orlando Figes
The Crimean War was the first war to be widely covered in media driving the concept of popular opinion shaping political decisions. Ostensibly, the Crimean War was about which religion had right over holy places in Jerusalem and Bethlehem. From the Russian perspective, this was a religious war to protect eastern orthodoxy from the Ottoman empire (e.g. Muslim), but in reality they needed a warm water port in the Black Sea to remain a competitive empire. The Russians invaded Ottoman territory and so began the war. France and Britain joined the side of the Ottoman empire, both interested in counterbalancing Russian aggression and expansionism. To the respective populations, they were on a mission to protect weaker states promoting nationalistic "superiority" myths to incite the population. However, inciting the population is a fickle master -- getting to war is one thing, but running an effective campaign and dealing with losses and mismanagement in public view is another (This was the first war in British history where a monument was put up to the soldier and not a lord). Today's conflict in Ukraine has roots here... The assertion that a nation has a divine or ethnic right to control something it doesn't is a powerful motivator to change the status quo. Often though, the divine or ethnic right to something is just a cover for a political or power projection advantage.