Just at this period Russia was warmly engaged with Turkish affairs, and in 1853–1856 was employed in the Crimean War against England, France, and Turkey. She was beaten, and by the Treaty of Paris was driven back from the Danube, and forbidden to put a Russian fleet of any description in the Black Sea, and the fortifications of Sebastopol were dismantled. Thus a Russian advance on the Balkans and Armenia seemed then almost hopeless. Therefore she turned her attention to Central Asia, and vigorously carried out her plans for several years. In 1864 the Russian forces captured Tchenken, in Turkestan, and she had advanced as far as the river Syr Daria. In 1865 she declared war with Bokhara, and captured Taskend, which was followed by the surrender of Khojind (1866). In 1867 the province of Syr Adria was annexed, and in the same year Nicholas installed a Russian Government in Turkestan. In 1868 Samarcand was subjugated, and the Ameer of Bokhara was practically made a vassal of the Czar. In 1869 Krasnovodok, on the east coast of the Caspian, next fell a prey to Russian greed, and a fort was built there, and at present forms one of the Russian military outposts. During and after the Franco-German War she was busily engaged in Central Asia, and still increased and extended her boundaries, until at length the Oxus was reached, and the Clarendon boundary in 1872 for a time stopped her roving footsteps. In 1873, however, the whole territory of the Khan of Khiva was drawn in, and the river Atrak was now the boundary with Persia. Zerafshan next fell before her, and now the Tian Shan mountains and the eastern part of Semipolatinsk formed the eastern boundary with China. Lastly, 1876 saw the annexation of Ferghana. Let us now direct our attention to the English frontiers and territory, which she was trying to consolidate more firmly. The Indian Mutiny of 1857 had led to the transferring of the Government of India from the East India Company to the Crown, and the reins of government from a Governor-General to a Viceroy (1858). The tour of the Prince of Wales through India, 1875–1876, had done a good deal of good in creating a friendly feeling with the natives, and he had met with a brilliant reception. This was the preliminary to Queen Victoria being proclaimed Empress of India in 1877. The Russo-Turkish War (1878), the San Stefano Treaty, and the Congress of Berlin, produced a new phase in the Afghan question. The opposition of Austria to Russia at the Balkans, the defence of England in Asia Minor, both by the provisions of the Berlin Treaty, and the Anglo-Turkish Convention had frustrated the schemes of Russia in Europe; she therefore turned her undivided energies to her advance in Central Asia, with the object of dividing the attention and forces of the English between Asia Minor and the Afghan frontiers.