Disaster in Berlin

It should have been the greatest triumph of his political career. Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl Beaconsfield, and Prime Minister of Great Britain came to the Congress of Berlin intent to maintain the pea e in Europe, stop Russian expansion in Balkans, and gain Cyprus for the British Empire. Instead it all went horribly wrong.

The congress started on 13th June 1878, called by Bismark in response to the Russian victory in its war with Turkey. Bulgarian Christians had risen up against oppressive Turkish rule, and, after the Turkish army had tried, and failed, to brutally suppress the revolt Russian forces had stepped in and utterly defeated the Turks.  They were advancing on Constantinople, which Disreali thought would give Russia 'the keys to India', when Dizzy had played a desperate gambit. He had sent Admiral Hornby and a squadron of six ironclads through the Dardanelles where they dropped anchor in the Sea of Marmara, their guns facing the Russian advance.

In response the Russians played a card of their own, mobilising an army in Central Asia to march to Afghanistan, where a friendly welcome would leave it on the borders of British India. This though was countered immediately by Britain playing an Asian card of its own, with the arrival of a division of the Indian Army in Malta. The two great powers were now on the brink of war.

At the same time an Austro-Hungarian Army was massing on the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Russians and the Austrians had had a pact of benevolent neutrality, as they had planned to divide up Turkey's European empire between them. Vienna now wanted its slice, but Russia was being proposing that Bosnia be self-governing.

This was the background to the congress that Bismark presided over. But what Bismark did not know, when he invited the six great powers to Berlin, was that Disraeli had already signed a secret deal with Turkey, over the head of his own Foreign Secretary, that in exchange for the island of Cyprus, Britain would back Turkey against the others.

It might have worked too, and Britain could have walked away with more territory than Russia, but for the work of one man: Nikolay Pavlovich Ignatiev As the Russian ambassador to the Ottoman Empire he had done more than anyone else to bring about the war, often working in secret. His network of shady contacts now served him well,bringing him a copy of the Cyprus Convention which he released to the world on the eve of the Congress.

Disraeli was humiliated. His Foreign Secretary, Lord Salisbury, resigned. The Congress was a failure. On the same day that it was dissolved by Bismark, the Royal Navy landed in Galliopli.

It was to be war.

The Last War You Can Fight With Toy Soldiers

In 1877 the Russian Empire attacked the Ottoman Empire, ostensibly to save Christians in the Balkans from massacre, but in reality to extend her own empire and gain a Mediterranean port. 

This was the start of a remarkable, but now largely forgotten war. it saw the first use of the Red Crescent organisation and drew the borders of the Balkans we still have today. It also occurred at an interesting time for the development of military weapons and tactics.

The armies of 1945 and 1995 looked superficially pretty much the same, and mostly used similar tactics. However between 1845 and 1895 the nature of warfare changed dramatically, and it was only the absence of a major European war that stopped people noticing.

Turkish Cavalry by Balkandave

In 1845 infantry were armed with a black powder musket that loaded at the front and which would be
lucky to hit a barn door a 200 yards. As a result shooting was really just the preliminary to the more important business of trying to stick a bayonet into someone. The rifles of 1895 by contrast were more than just glorified spears. Lethal at a mile, they could fire ten rounds a minute. Almost as importantly they now fired smokeless ammunition, so it was very hard to even tell who was shooting at you. Barbed wire, portable machine guns and quick-firing artillery were also coming in, meaning that by the end of the century all the ingredients of the trench warfare of the First World War were in place.

Plevna by Balkandave

The increase in the lethality of firepower changed what armies looked like. In 1845 uniforms were designed to be seen. Helmets made the soldiers look taller, cross straps made them look beefier and bright colours allowed them to see who was a friend. By 1895 the more sensible armies were adopting uniforms that made the soldiers more difficult to be seen. They also no longer fought in the parade ground manner of Trooping the Colour, but spread out and using the terrain to hide. Soon men would start learning to live in holes in the ground. We were entering the world of Empty Battlefield, where the enemy were usually only seen when they were dead or prisoners.

At the same time industrialisation was increasing the size of armies exponentially. In 1845 you could probably watch the whole of a battle from a conveniently sited hill. By 1870, when armies of over 100,000 on each side fought on battlefronts seven miles long, you'd need a small mountain. By 1895 the Great Powers of mainland Europe were each capable of putting over a million men into uniform. Even a Zeppelin wouldn't let you see the whole battlefield.

A skirmish in the Shipka Pass by Balkandave

1878 though was the mid-point of this revolution. Rifles now loaded at the back, and could kill at half a mile, but they fired slowly and inaccurately. A determined enough charge could still get through, as the British Army was about to find out in Zululand and the Sudan, so troops still stood shoulder to shoulder. They also still fired black powder, so there was no hiding, and - with a few exceptions - still went into battle in their Sunday best.

If stood on the proverbial hill you could still, therefore, see lines of brightly coloured soldiers fighting each other in neat little lines. And is this not wargamers like to do with their toy soldiers? In 1878 it is possible to set out your armies on the tabletop in a way that resembled what the real generals would have seen.

This makes the Great War of 1878 the last war that can be realistically fought with toy soldiers.