The Crimean War

The Crimean war is often referred to as the first modern war because it introduced technological changes that set precedence for how future wars were fought. Though the railway and the electric telegraph were not considered new technologies for the time their tactical use during warfare was new and with the telegraph came the ability to effectively communicate with the public the events of the war in a fraction of the time needed before, because of such rapid communications the telegraph reduced the independence of British overseas possessions from their commanders in London.

The Crimean war was one of the first wars to be documented extensively; news from the war correspondents sent to document this war kept the public informed on the day-to-day activities of the battlefield for the first time ever. Now that news from the war was able to reach the general public in Britain in a timely manner, reports from war correspondents for newspapers that highlighted the scandalous treatment of wounded soldiers in Crimea prompted the reform of traditional nursing techniques. The proven techniques of Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole, Frances Margaret Taylor and others and led to the introduction of modern nursing methods.

Since this was the first European war to be photographed it was the first time that the general public could have an exact visual representation of what was happening to their troops. Newspaper readership and publicized photographs informed public opinion in the United Kingdom and France as never before.