This war in 1853 was triggered by a dispute between France, Russia, and Turkey over control of the Holy Places in Palestine, and during this war Florence Nightingale performed her heroic nursing deeds. What was it?

The conflict that erupted in 1853 was indeed sparked by a quarrel over Christian holy sites in Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire. Russia, acting as the champion of Orthodox Christians, clashed with France, which protected Catholic claims. When the Ottoman Sultan sided with the French, Russia used it as a pretext to invade Ottoman territories. This triggered a war that would soon draw in other major European powers who feared Russia's expansionist ambitions.

While the initial dispute was religious, Great Britain and France ultimately joined the Ottoman Empire to maintain the balance of power and curb Russia's growing influence. The war is perhaps most famous today for the monumental work of Florence Nightingale. Appalled by the unsanitary and horrific conditions in the British military hospital at Scutari, she and her team of nurses established professional standards of care. By dramatically improving sanitation and patient services, she drastically reduced the death rates from disease, which had been killing more soldiers than battle wounds.

This war was also one of the first to be documented by war correspondents and photographers, bringing the harsh realities of the front lines to the public for the first time. It is also remembered for the famously disastrous "Charge of the Light Brigade," an ill-fated cavalry assault immortalized in a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The war ended in 1856 with Russia's defeat, temporarily checking its expansion southward.