Occasion
The French claimed the custody of the Holy Places in Palestine: the Russians made a counter-claim to the custody of the Holy Places and to a Protectorate over the Greek Christians in the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish Government, on the advice of the British Ambassador, Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, refused to accept the Russian claims. Russian troops crossed the Pruth in June 1853, and a Turkish squadron was destroyed at Sinope in November. On the refusal of Russia to make her ships re-enter port in the Black Sea and evacuate the Danubian principalities, war was declared by France and England on March 27, 1854.