Crimean+War

Lisa Hyndman

> // Half a league onward, // > // All in the valley of Death // > // Rode the six hundred: // > // 'Forward, the Light Brigade! // > // Charge for the guns' he said: // > // Into the valley of Death // > // Rode the six hundred. // > > // 'Forward, the Light Brigade!' // > // Was there a man dismay'd ? // > // Not tho' the soldier knew // > // Some one had blunder'd: // > // Theirs not to make reply, // > // Theirs not to reason why, // > // Theirs but to do & die, // > // Into the valley of Death // > // Rode the six hundred. // > > // Cannon to right of them, // > // Cannon to left of them, // > // Cannon in front of them // > // Volley'd & thunder'd; // > // Storm'd at with shot and shell, // > // Boldly they rode and well, // > // Into the jaws of Death, // > // Into the mouth of Hell // > // Rode the six hundred. // > > // Flash'd all their sabres bare, // > // Flash'd as they turn'd in air // > // Sabring the gunners there, // > // Charging an army while // > // All the world wonder'd: // > // Plunged in the battery-smoke // > // Right thro' the line they broke; // > // Cossack & Russian // > // Reel'd from the sabre-stroke, // > // Shatter'd & sunder'd. // > // Then they rode back, but not // > // Not the six hundred. // > > // Cannon to right of them, // > // Cannon to left of them, // > // Cannon behind them // > // Volley'd and thunder'd; // > // Storm'd at with shot and shell, // > // While horse & hero fell, // > // They that had fought so well // > // Came thro' the jaws of Death, // > // Back from the mouth of Hell, // > // All that was left of them, // > // Left of six hundred. // > > // When can their glory fade? // > // O the wild charge they made! // > // All the world wonder'd. // > // Honour the charge they made! // > // Honour the Light Brigade, // > // Noble six hundred! // >> //There were thirty million English who talked of England's might,// >> //There were twenty broken troopers who lacked a bed for the night.// >> //They had neither food nor money, they had neither service nor trade;// >> //They were only shiftless soldiers, the last of the Light Brigade.// >> >> //They felt that life was fleeting; they knew not that art was long,// >> //That though they were dying of famine, they lived in deathless song.// >> //They asked for a little money to keep the wolf from the door;// >> //And the thirty million English sent twenty pounds and four !//
 * Metternich -**
 * Concert of Europe - consisted of the Quadruple Alliance(Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Great Britain), maintain the balance of power
 * Balance of Power - equilibrium among the great powers
 * Turkish/Ottoman Empire -**
 * The empire begins to disintegrate
 * European nations were eager to take their share of the empire
 * Russia -**
 * War breaks out with Ottoman Empire, wants to enlarge it's sphere of influence
 * demands the right to protect Christian shrines in Palestine(already given to France)
 * invades Moldavia and Walachia when Ottomans refused
 * Ottoman Empire delcares war on Russia on October 4, 1853 - unable to resolve the dispute
 * Great Britain/France -**
 * Declare war on Russia on March 28 because of a concern in the upset of the balance of power
 * British feared Russia would seiz Ottoman territory, making it a major power, and challenge British naval control of the eastern Mediterranean.
 * Napoleon III believed Russians insulted France
 * attacked Russia's crimean peninsula in the Black Sea
 * Main Russian fortress of Sevastopol falls after a long siege and huge losses for both sides(6 months after Tsar Nicholas I dies)
 * Austria -**
 * remained Neutral
 * Tsar Alexander II -**
 * Successor of Nicholas I
 * asked for peace
 * Treaty of Paris:
 * Russia was forced to give up Bessarabia at the mouth of the Danube River and accept the neutrality of the Black Sea
 * Moldavia and Walachia were placed under the protection of all the great powers
 * Florence Nightengale -**
 * insisted on strict sanitary conditions during the war, saved many lives
 * helped make nursing a profession of trained, middle-class women
 * Outcome of War -**
 * Concert of Europe = destroyed
 * Austria and Russia enemies due to Austria's neutrality
 * Alfred, Lord Tennyson -**
 * //Charge of the Light Brigade -// disasters of the Battle of Balaclava
 * // Half a league half a league, //
 * Kipling's Response** -
 * Poem - //The Last of the Light Brigade -// Aftermath of the War - England talk about the greatness of the Charge of the Light Brigade but soldiers are left in the streets, unappreciated.

>> //They laid their heads together that were scarred and lined and grey;// >> //Keen were the Russian sabres, but want was keener than they;// >> //And an old Troop-Sergeant muttered, "Let us go to the man who writes// >> //The things on Balaclava the kiddies at school recites."//

>> //They went without bands or colours, a regiment ten-file strong,// >> //To look for the Master-singer who had crowned them all in his song;// >> //And, waiting his servant's order, by the garden gate they stayed,// >> //A desolate little cluster, the last of the Light Brigade.//

>> //They strove to stand to attention, to straighen the toil-bowed back;// >> //They drilled on an empty stomach, the loose-knit files fell slack;// >> //With stooping of weary shoulders, in garments tattered and frayed,// >> //They shambled into his presence, the last of the Light Brigade.//

>> //The old Troop-Sergeant was spokesman, and "Beggin' your pardon," he said,// >> //"You wrote o' the Light Brigade, sir. Here's all that isn't dead.// >> //An' it's all come true what you wrote, sir, regardin' the mouth of hell;// >> //For we're all of us nigh to the workhouse, an' we thought we'd call an' tell.//

>> //"No, thank you, we don't want food, sir; but couldn't you take an' write// >> //A sort of 'to be continued' and 'see next page' o' the fight?// >> //We think that someone has blundered, an' couldn't you tell 'em how?// >> //You wrote we were heroes once, sir. Please, write we are starving now."//

>> //The poor little army departed, limping and lean and forlorn.// >> //And the heart of the Master-singer grew hot with "the scorn of scorn."// >> //And he wrote for them wonderful verses that swept the land like flame,// >> //Till the fatted souls of the English were scourged with the thing called Shame.//

>> //O thirty million English that babble of England's might,// >> //Behold there are twenty heroes who lack their food to-night;// >> //Our children's children are lisping to "honour the charge they made - "// >> //And we leave to the streets and the workhouse the charge of the Light Brigade!//

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