![]() The Game’s big prize was India, where after decades of battling both Indian and other European powers, the British were now in control and extracting considerable riches.įor the Russians India was a rich, warm target far more tempting than the bleak and chilly interiors of Asia that lay between them. This has been called the Great Game, since it was mostly covert and done through spies, with Crimea being the rare time it actually came to battle. Through the 19th century Russia and Britain fought over Asia. India, like most of the world, will be an anxious observer, but it was deeply linked to the earlier war, and may even have been partly its cause. And where the earlier crisis brought together a curious British-French-Turkish-Sardinian (yes, really) coalition, we may yet see a curious coalition come together against Russia now. Caught between them was a hapless local state, Ukraine now, Ottoman then. In both cases the ostensible reasons covered something more basic: Russia’s determination to extend its influence and the determination of European (now Western) powers to resist this. Just as Putin claims he only stepped in to protect Russians in the Crimea from fascist Ukrainians, the tsar of Russia then claimed to be acting only to protect Orthodox Christians from the Muslim Ottomans who controlled the Black Sea coast. Yet despite the 160-year gap, there are interesting parallels between the two Crimean conflicts. That may now be called the First Crimean War and today it is mainly remembered for the nursing of Florence Nightingale and the suicidal charge of the Light Brigade. We know what came from this, but why were the British so quick to introduce the Enfield rifle? And why did no officers, many with decades of service in India and familiar with the feelings of sepoys, not catch on to what a problem the cartridges might be? Some answers might lie in the Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula which Vladimir Putin has just grabbed for Russia, but where in 1850s a British-led coalition scored a rather battered win over Russia, partly due to the new rifles. In particular, it was alleged the grease was being mixed with pig and cow fat. The Calcutta firm of Gangadarh Banerji & Co landed the contract to supply the grease and rumours soon spread that, as usual with military procurement, corners were being cut. It was called the Pattern 1853 Enfield and used a new kind of paper wrapped cartridge, pre-greased to make it waterproof and to lubricate the bullet. ![]() In late 1856 the British introduced a new rifle to their soldiers in India. ![]()
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