Long before it became a flashpoint in today’s geopolitics, Crimea was the site of one of the 19th century’s most consequential wars. This event revisits the Crimean War — a clash of empires, religion, and ambition that saw Britain and the Ottoman Empire allied against an expansionist Russia.

While Florence Nightingale and the Charge of the Light Brigade remain in public memory, the war’s deeper geopolitical legacy is often forgotten.

What does this earlier conflict reveal about imperial rivalry, the shaping of Europe, and the long shadow Crimea casts over today’s war in Ukraine?