Berlin Conference

Berlin conference by Antoine von Ferno

The Berlin Conference (June 13 - July 13, 1878) was a meeting of representatives of the six great powers of the time (Russia, Great Britain, France, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy, and Germany), the Ottoman Empire, and four Balkan countries (Greece, Serbia, Romania, and Montenegro). The conference aimed to demarcate the borders of the states of the Balkan Peninsula in the wake of the Russo-Turkish War between 1877 and 1878 and ended with the signing of the Berlin Treaty that replaced the initial San Stefano Treaty and that was signed three months ago between Russia and the Ottoman Empire.

Map of the ethnic composition in the Balkans of German-English cartographer Ernst Georges in 1870

German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who had vowed to stabilize the Balkan countries, realized the collapse of the power of the Ottoman Empire and the clear common interests of Britain, Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. At the same time, he tried to curtail Russian gains in the region and prevent the emergence of Greater Bulgaria. As a result, the Ottoman lands in Europe receded sharply, Bulgaria was considered an independent emirate within the Ottoman Empire, the Eastern Rumid Turks were restored and subjected to special administration and the Macedonian region returned directly to the rule of the Turks, who promised reform.

Romania achieved complete independence, having to hand over part of Bessarabia to Russia, in order to obtain Northern Dibrogate. Serbia and Montenegro finally gained their full independence but with a smaller area of land, with the Austro-Hungarian Empire occupying the Sandzak region (Rashka). Bosnia and Herzegovina also captured Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Britain took control of Cyprus.

Initially, the results were welcomed as a major breakthrough in peacemaking and stabilization. However, most of the participants were not completely satisfied, and grievances over the results faded until they exploded in the First and Second Balkan Wars in 1912-1913 and ultimately the First World War in 1914. Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece made gains, but everyone got far less than they thought They deserve.

The Ottoman Empire, then called the "sick man of Europe", was humiliated and severely weakened, making it more vulnerable to internal disturbances and more vulnerable to receiving attack.

Although Russia was victorious in the war leading up to the conference, it was humiliated there and resented the treatment it had received. Austria acquired a large swath of land, which angered southern Slavs, and led to decades of tensions in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Bismarck became a hatred for Russian and Slavic nationalists, and he would have found that he had closely linked Germany with the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the Balkans.

In the long run, tensions between Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire intensified, as did the issue of citizenship in the Balkans. The conference was aimed at revising the San Stefano Treaty and keeping Constantinople in the hands of the Ottomans. The conference renounced Russia's victory over the faltering Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War. The conference returned the lands to the Ottoman Empire, which had been granted by the previous treaty to the Principality of Bulgaria, most notably Macedonia, which generated a strong desire for revenge in Bulgaria, and thus led to the outbreak of the first Balkan war in 1912.

Background events

In the decades leading up to the conference, Russia and the Balkans had come under the control of the National Slavic, a movement aimed at uniting all Slavs in the Balkan countries under one rule. That desire, which developed in a similar manner to the League of Germanic Peoples and the Unification Movement of Italy, and which resulted in two unification processes, took various forms in various Slavic countries. In the Russian Empire, Slavic nationalism meant the creation of a unified Slavic state, under Russian direction, and essentially a Russian invasion of the Balkan Peninsula. Achieving this goal leads to the extension of Russian control over the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, thereby granting Russia economic control over the Black Sea and a significant increase in its geopolitical power. In the Balkans, Slavic nationalism assumed the unification of the Balkans Slavic under the rule of a specific Balkan state, but the state that was supposed to serve as a site for unification was not always clear, and the initiative was supposed to be implemented between Serbia and Bulgaria. The aim of the Ottoman establishment of a Bulgarian Exarchus in 1870 was to separate the Bulgarians religiously from the Greek Patriarchate, and to separate them politically from Serbia. From the Balkans' point of view, the unification of the peninsula needed Piedmont as a base and the corresponding France as a patron.

Despite differing views on how Balkan politics should proceed, both began to depose the sultan as ruler of the Balkans and exclude the Ottomans from Europe. How and whether this policy will go forward remains the main question to be answered at the Berlin Conference.

Great powers in the Balkans

The Balkans were a major stage of competition between European superpowers in the second half of the nineteenth century. Britain and Russia had interests in the fate of the Balkans. Ideologically, Russia was interested in the region as a unifying of Slavic nationalism; In practice, to ensure greater control over the Mediterranean Sea; While Britain was interested in preventing Russia from achieving its goals. Moreover, the unification of Italy and Germany frustrated the ability of a third European power, that is, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to expand its scope to the southwest. As the most powerful European country after the Franco-Prussian War of 1871, Germany had little direct interest in the settlement, and was therefore the only force that could mediate on the Balkan issue.

Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the two most investing powers of the fate of the Balkans, allied with Germany in the Conservative League of Three Emperors, which was founded to preserve the continental kingdoms of Europe. Thus the Berlin Conference was essentially a conflict between the supposed allies of Bismarck and his German empire, and he was the mediator in the discussions, and therefore, they must, before the end of the conference, choose one of their allies to support him. This decision had direct implications for the geopolitical future of Europe.

Ottoman brutality in the Serbian-Ottoman war and the violent suppression of the Herzegovina uprising caused political pressure within Russia, which considered itself a protector of the Serbs, to confront the Ottoman Empire. "The sympathy for the Serbian Christians was evident among the court, between the national diplomats, and in the lower classes, and the Slavic committees expressed this sympathy with enthusiasm," David McKinsey wrote.

Ultimately, Russia sought and obtained a pledge from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to uphold the benevolence of neutrality in the next war, in exchange for abandoning Bosnia and Herzegovina in favor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the Budapest Convention of 1877.

San Stefano Treaty

After the Bulgarian April Uprising in 1876 and the Russian victory in the Russo-Turkish War that continued during 1877 and 1878, Russia liberated nearly all European lands under Ottoman rule. The Ottomans recognized Montenegro, Romania, and Serbia as independent states, and the territories of the three countries expanded. Russia established a large emirate in Bulgaria as an independent subordinate to the sultan's rule. Russia expanded its sphere of influence to include the entire Balkan country, which worried other powers in Europe. Britain, waving war with Russia if the latter conquered Constantinople, and France did not want another force to interfere in the Mediterranean or in the Middle East, as both powers were ready for broad colonial gains. The Austro-Hungarian Empire wanted the Habsburg Empire to extend its control over the Balkans, while Germany wanted to prevent its ally from entering the war. German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck called for the Berlin conference to discuss the division of the Ottoman Balkans among European powers and the preservation of the League of Three Emperors in the face of the spread of European liberalism.

Britain, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the Ottoman Empire attended the conference. Delegations from Greece, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro attended the sessions specific to their countries, but were not members of the conference. The conference solicited the invitation of the Russian competitors, especially the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Britain, and was hosted by Otto von Bismarck in 1878. It proposed and ratified the Berlin Treaty. The meetings were held at the Reich Consultant of Bismarck, formerly the Radsville Palace, from June 13, 1878 to July 13, 1878. The conference revised or repealed 18 of the 29 articles in the San Stefano Treaty. Moreover, by using the Paris (1856) and Washington (1871) treaties, the treaty restructured the East.

The most important terms of the treaty

Among the most important conditions of the treaty:

Bulgaria's independence and modification of its borders.
Bosnia and Herzegovina annexed to Austria.
Independence of Serbs and Montenegro.

The most prominent personalities present

Benjamin Disraeli
Robert Cecil
Otto von Bismarck
Prince Schlodvig
Muhammad Raouf Pasha bin Abdi Pasha the Circassian