The Crimean War altered the balance of power in Europe and set the stage for dramatic political and national changes on the continent. Some historians have argued that the Crimean War represented a break between the reactionary regimes of the post-Napoleonic age and the new conservative nation-state formation process of the second half of the 19th century. This entry looks at how the Crimean War was as much a war of conquest and containment as it was part of a larger geopolitical struggle between the British and the Russian Empire. The entry also examines how new technology used in the war highlighted the suffering and inadequacies of war and demanded social changes in the conduct of war and the medical treatment of wounded soldiers.