The Crimean War (1853-6) was the only conflict of European dimensions in the century between the Napoleonic Wars and World War I. There were not only the five great European powers that were directly or indirectly involved; all the smaller European states that had remained neutral sooner or later confronted the question of whether to join the fray or stay outside. This text considers the origins and diplomacy of the war; the war aims and general attitudes of the belligerent powers, Russia, France, and Britain, of the two non-belligerent German powers, Austria and Prussia, and of a selected number of neutral powers, among them the United States; and the nature and capacity of the armies of the belligerents, including Turkey and Sardinia. The central chapters describe the war on the Danube front 1853-4, in the Black Sea 1854-6, in the Baltic, on the Caucasian battlefield and in the minor theatres of war, the White Sea and the Pacific. A final chapter is devoted to the end of the war marked by the Paris peace congress of 1856, and to the significance of the war for international relations and for arms development.