#头条创作挑战赛 #
Tsar Nicholas I died in 1855, and the 1908 publication of History of Russia in the 19th Century speculated that Nicholas died of poisoning, as did the German writer Silde, who wrote a biography of Nicholas I.
After the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Russia's international prestige reached its peak, and when Napoleon's army swept across Europe, Tsarist Russia was the only force capable of confronting France on the continent. After the victory of the anti-French coalition, Tsar Alexander I entered Paris on a white horse, and Russia became the lord of the continent.
However, Alexander I did not live long, and since he had no heirs, his brother Nikolai became the heir, which was Nicholas I.
Taking over the empire left by his imperial brother, Nicholas I also continued the expansionist policy of successive tsars. In order for the Russian fleet to break out of the Black Sea and into the Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean, Russia must control the Turkish Strait, but this desire is bound to harm the interests of many powers, especially Britain, France, and Turkey.
To go to the Mediterranean, Black Sea countries must pass through the Turkish Strait, including: the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, the Dardanelles. The Bosphorus is 30.4 km long, 3.6 km widest, 708 m narrowest, 120 m deep and 27.5 m shallower. In such a narrow and narrow strip, passing ships do not have the permission of Ottoman Turkey, and it is too difficult to muddle through.
The Turkish Straits were the territory of the Ottoman Empire in both the east and west, and even the capital Istanbul (that is, Constantinople) itself was bordered by the Turkish Strait, and the Turks could not have agreed to Tsar Nicholas I in any way. However, with the experience of the previous eight "Russo-Turkish wars", the Ottomans also understood that they could not compete with Russia on their own, and Britain and France were also involved.
As a maritime nation, Britain was most worried about its maritime supremacy being challenged, and that the British navy's geopolitical superiority in the waters would be reduced if the Russian fleet entered the Mediterranean from the Black Sea. Although the British did not have a favorable opinion of the Ottoman Empire in terms of religious and cultural traditions, the British quickly reached an agreement with the Turks in order to curb Russian expansion.
As for France, which has always wanted to be the hegemon of the European continent, after the defeat of the Napoleonic Wars, Britain, Russia, Austria and Prussia formed a "four-nation alliance" to deal with France, and France's voice in European affairs was subject to this alliance. For the French, as long as the Anglo-Russian war was provoked, the "Quad Alliance" was bound to collapse automatically, so France was particularly active in the early days of the Crimean War.
With their own needs, Britain, France, and Turkey quickly formed an alliance, and in 1853, the tragic Crimean War began. There were about 700,000 troops in Tsarist Russia, 300,000 on the Ottoman side on the allied side, 200,000 in Britain, and 30,000 in France.
In terms of military strength, Tsarist Russia was not very disadvantageous, but Britain and France had the advantage of technology and equipment, and new weapons such as steam battleships, telegraphs, rifled rifles and other new weapons appeared, and Russia was tired of coping.
In the three-year war, the Russian army lost more than 522,000 people, the Turkish army lost nearly 96,000, the French army lost 95,000 people, and the British army lost 102,000 people. In the end, Tsarist Russia was defeated, but Nicholas I did not hold out until after the war.
In 1855, with defeat certain, Tsar Nicholas I died suddenly, and his son, Alexander II, concluded a peace treaty with the allied forces, and Russia not only lost all its naval power in the Black Sea, but was also forced to cede large territories in the west, and its international status was no less than that before the war.
Seeing that the direction of Europe could not move, Czarist Russia accelerated its expansion and competition for the Pacific region, and the geopolitical pattern of the North Pacific changed rapidly.
In 1855, Japan and Russia divided the Kuril Islands, with Japan occupying the south and Tsarist Russia occupying the north.
In 1860, the Qing Dynasty signed the Sino-Russian Treaty of Beijing with the Russian Empire, ceding about 400,000 square kilometers of territory east of the Ussuri River, including Sakhalin, to Russia, of which Vladivostok was renamed Vladivostok, which means "conquering the East".
In 1867, Russia sold Alaska to the United States for $7.2 million. Now there is a very interesting topic: there is a voice in Russia that wants to buy Alaska back. Of course, unless the United States declines to the level of Ukraine, it is almost impossible for Russia to reclaim Alaska.