The Crimean War and the Eastern Question in the view of Catholic Americans in the middle of the XIX century (based on the materials of the Boston Pilot)

Abstract

The article examines the publications of the Boston Pilot for the period from 1849 to 1856, devoted to the Eastern question and the Crimean War. The purpose of the study is to analyze the views of Catholic Americans on the events of the mid-19th century, as a result of America's information policy to counter British expansionism in the 19th century. The subject of the study are the issues of the Boston Pilot magazine, which feature articles on the Eastern question and the Crimean War. The lower chronological frame is due to the fact that the events of 1849 ("Spring of the Peoples") served as a prologue to the crisis in the East. The object of the study is the information policy of America, aimed at forming a narrative about the Eastern question and the Crimean War among the American Catholic population, following the American foreign policy course of the XIX century. According to the results of the study, it was revealed that the newspaper's publications can be divided into two periods according to their tonality. The first one, from 1849 to 1853, follows the pan-European discourse and contains statements and provisions with an anti-Russian orientation. The subsequent escalation of the conflict with the inclusion of Great Britain and France in the conflict leads to a transformation of the views of the authors of the Boston Pilot on the events taking place. The publication begins to position the conflict as a tool to weaken the British Empire, urging readers to refrain from direct participation. In this interpretation, Russia appears as a lesser evil necessary for the fight against Britain. The attitude of the Catholic population of the United States to the events of the middle should be positioned as anti-British. The assessment of sentiments as pro-Russian is erroneous and creates a misconception not only about American society of the period under review, but also about US foreign policy in the XIX century.