Keep France and Britain out of the Crimean War?

Just like it says, is there any possible way to keep Russia's invasion of the Danubian Principalities from turning into a major war by bringing in France and Britain on the Ottoman's side? If not, is there some other casus belli besides the religious one that can keep a war limited to just Russia and the Ottomans?
 
Just like it says, is there any possible way to keep Russia's invasion of the Danubian Principalities from turning into a major war by bringing in France and Britain on the Ottoman's side? If not, is there some other casus belli besides the religious one that can keep a war limited to just Russia and the Ottomans?
don't forget Piedmont
 
Have either France or Britain accept Nicholas' proposals- Egypt to Britain, Syria to France, Slonika to Austria and the Straits to Russia, Its a pretty reasonable offer and Salisbury always regretted that Britain hadn't accepted it
 
Just like it says, is there any possible way to keep Russia's invasion of the Danubian Principalities from turning into a major war by bringing in France and Britain on the Ottoman's side? If not, is there some other casus belli besides the religious one that can keep a war limited to just Russia and the Ottomans?

Yes: have the Ottomans gain the upper hand over Russia. If Turkey dosen't look like they'll need the help, why would France and GB feel the need to intervene militarily? Let Russians get their bloody nose, then swoop in to mediate things at the peace conference

France is a little harder to keep out: after all, they're the one who touched off the religious question in the first place, and have invested their prestige in getting the Sultan to shift away from Russia and towards the Empire. Backing out right after what they said they wanted was in reach would make Nappy III look weak at a time when he barely has a solid grasp on his new position.
 
I think it was Andrew Lambert that posited that the sending of a British fleet to meet with the French at Besika Bay (mouth of the Hellespont) in June 1853, at the cusp of the Russian invasion of the Danubian Principalities, was an unnecessary move that OTL triggered the Crimean War. Besika Bay was not within operational distance of Constantinople given the naval technology of the time; the British-French gesture was meant to be purely symbolic rather than a military commitment. However, such a gesture emboldened the Ottomans both to take a more uncompromising stance against the Russians, and also to move their fleet to more forward positions, resulting in the Russian attack at Sinope that made it politically unacceptable for either France or, more importantly, Britain (since France was not likely to fight Russia alone) to back out of the fight.

Without the fleets at Besika Bay - admittedly unlikely since that would have been the likely response for a Near East Crisis - diplomatic efforts might have been enough to localize the Crimean dispute purely into an issue regarding the Danubian Principalities (which would not have led to British/French intervention), rather than a general war about the survival of the Ottoman Empire itself.
 
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