Treaty of Berlin (1878)

The Treaty of Berlin (formally the Treaty between Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Great Britain and Ireland, Italy, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire for the Settlement of Affairs in the East) was signed on 13 July 1878.[1][2] In the aftermath of the Russian victory against the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, the major powers restructured the map of the Balkan region. They reversed some of the extreme gains claimed by Russia in the preliminary Treaty of San Stefano, but the Ottomans lost their major holdings in Europe. It was one of three major peace agreements in the period after the 1815 Congress of Vienna. It was the final act of the Congress of Berlin (13 June – 13 July 1878) and included Great Britain and Ireland, Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the Ottoman Empire. Germany's Otto von Bismarck was the chairman and dominant personality.

Treaty of Berlin
Southeastern Europe after the Congress of Berlin
ContextCongress of Berlin, after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878
Signed13 July 1878 (1878-07-13)
LocationBerlin, German Empire
Parties

The most important task of the Congress was to decide the fate of Bulgaria, but Bulgaria itself was excluded from participation in the talks, at Russian insistence.[3][4] At the time, as it was not a sovereign state, Bulgaria was not a subject of international law, and the same went for the Bulgarians themselves. The exclusion was already an established fact in the great powers' Constantinople Conference, which had been held one year before without any Bulgarian participation.

The most notable result of the conference was the official (de jure) recognition of actual (de facto) newly independent states of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro.

Background

The Paris Peace Treaty of 1856, which ended the Crimean War, had made the Black Sea a neutral territory. The treaty had protected the Ottoman Empire, ended the Holy Alliance (Austria, Prussia and Russia) and weakened Russia's position in Europe. In 1870, Russia invoked the doctrine of rebus sic stantibus and effectively terminated the treaty by breaching provisions concerning the neutrality of the Black Sea. The great powers became increasingly convinced that the Ottoman Empire would not be able to hold its territories in Europe.[5]

In 1875, the Herzegovina uprising resulted in the Great Eastern Crisis. As the conflict in the Balkans intensified, atrocities during the 1876 April Uprising in Bulgaria inflamed anti-Turkish sentiments in Russia and Britain, which eventually culminated in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877.[5]

Terms

The treaty formally recognized the independence of the de facto sovereign principalities of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro and the autonomy of Bulgaria although the latter de facto functioned independently and was divided into three parts: the Principality of Bulgaria, the autonomous province of Eastern Rumelia and Macedonia, which was given back to the Ottomans,[6] thus undoing Russian plans for an independent and Russophile "Greater Bulgaria". The Treaty of San Stefano had created a Bulgarian state, which was just what Britain and Austria-Hungary feared the most.[7]

The Treaty of Berlin confirmed most of the Russian gains from the Ottoman Empire specified in the Treaty of San Stefan, but the valley of Alashkerd and the town of Bayazid were returned to the Ottomans.[8]

Despite the pleas of the Romanian delegates, Romania was forced to cede southern Bessarabia to the Russian Empire.[9] As a compensation, Romania received Dobruja, including the Danube Delta.[9] The treaty also limited the Russian occupation of Bulgaria to 9 months, which limited the time during which Russian troops and supplies could be moved through Romanian territory.[9]

The three newly-independent states subsequently proclaimed themselves kingdoms: Romania in 1881, Serbia in 1882 and Montenegro in 1910, and Bulgaria proclaimed full independence in 1908 after it had united with Eastern Rumelia in 1885. Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia in 1908, sparking the Bosnian crisis, a major European crisis that reinforced pre-World War I alliances.[10]

The Treaty of Berlin accorded special legal status to some religious groups and also would serve as a model for the Minority Treaties, which would be established within the framework of the League of Nations.[11] It stipulated that Romania recognize non-Christians (Jews and Muslims) as full citizens. It also vaguely called for a border rectification between Greece and the Ottoman Empire, which occurred after protracted negotiations in 1881, with the transfer of Thessaly to Greece.

In the "Salisbury Circular" of 1 April 1878, British Foreign Secretary, the Marquess of Salisbury, made clear his own and his government's objections to the Treaty of San Stefano and its favourable position of Russia.[12] Historian AJP Taylor wrote, "If the treaty of San Stefano had been maintained, both the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary might have survived to the present day. The British, except for Beaconsfield in his wilder moments, had expected less and were, therefore, less disappointed. Salisbury wrote at the end of 1878: 'We shall set up a rickety sort of Turkish rule again south of the Balkans. But it is a mere respite. There is no vitality left in them.'"[13]

The Kosovo Vilayet remained part of the Ottoman Empire. Austria-Hungary was allowed to station military garrisons in the Ottoman Vilayet of Bosnia and the Sanjak of Novi Pazar. The Vilayet of Bosnia was placed under Austro-Hungarian occupation although it formally remained part of the Ottoman Empire until it was annexed by Austria-Hungary thirty years later, on 5 October 1908. The Austro-Hungarian garrisons in the Sanjak of Novi Pazar were withdrawn in 1908, after the annexation of the Vilayet of Bosnia and the resulting Bosnian Crisis,[10] to reach a compromise with the Ottoman Empire, which was struggling with internal strife because of the Young Turk Revolution (1908). The chaotic situation in the Ottoman Empire also allowed Bulgaria to formally declare its independence on 5 October 1908.

List of plenipotentiaries

See also

References
  1. Hertslet, Edward (1891), "Treaty between Great-Britain, Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, and Turkey, for the Settlement of Affairs in the East, Signed at Berlin, 13th July 1878 (Translation)", The Map of Europe by Treaty; which have taken place since the general peace of 1814. With numerous maps and notes, IV (1875-1891) (First ed.), London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, pp. 2759–2798, retrieved 8 February 2019 – via Internet Archive
  2. W.A.P. (1910). "BERLIN, CONGRESS AND TREATY OF". The Encyclopaedia Britannica; A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General Information. III (AUSTRIA LOWER to BISECTRIX) (11th ed.). Cambridge, England: At the University Press. pp. 790–791. Retrieved 8 February 2019 – via Internet Archive.
  3. Krasner, Stephen D. (1999). Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy. Princeton University Press. p. 165. ISBN 0-691-00711-X.
  4. Bourchier, James David (1911). "Bulgaria/History" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  5. Bogaert, Sina Van den. "Berlin Congress (1878)". Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law [MPEPIL]. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  6. Jelavich, Barbara (2004). Russia and the Formation of the Romanian National State, 1821–1878. Cambridge University Press. p. 286. ISBN 0-521-52251-X.
  7. Crampton, R. J. (2005). A Concise History of Bulgaria. Cambridge University Press. p. 84. ISBN 0-521-85085-1.
  8. Schem, Alexander Jacob (1878). "Chapter IX [Third Book]: The Berlin Congress". War in the East: An Illustrated History of the Conflict Between Russia and Turkey, With a Review of the Eastern Question. H.S. Goodspeed & Co. pp. 685–700.
  9. Hitchins, Keith (1994). Rumania: 1866–1947. Oxford History of Modern Europe. Oxford University Press. p. 50. ISBN 0-19-822126-6.
  10. Bosnian Crisis
  11. Buergenthal, Thomas (1 July 2002). International Human Rights in a Nutshell (Third ed.). West Publishing Company. p. 7. ISBN 0-314-26014-5.
  12. Walker, Christopher J. (1980), Armenia: The Survival of A Nation, London: Croom Helm, p. 112
  13. Taylor, A. J. P. (1954). The Struggle for Mastery in Europe 1848–1918. Oxford University Press. p. 253. ISBN 0-19-881270-1.
  14. Phillips, Walter Alison (1911). "Berlin#Berlin, Congress and Treaty of" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Primary sources

Further reading
  • Anderson, M.S. The Eastern Question, 1774–1923: A Study in International Relations (1966) online
  • Goldfrank, David M. (2003). "Berlin, Congress of". In Millar, James R. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Russian History. Macmillan Reference USA. ISBN 978-0028656939.
  • Langer, William L. European Alliances and Alignments: 1871-1890 (1950) pp 151–70. Online
  • Millman, Richard (1979). Britain and the Eastern question, 1875–1878. Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-822379-5.
  • Medlicott, W. N. (1963). The Congress of Berlin and After: A Diplomatic History of the Near East Settlement, 1878–1880 (Second ed.). London: Frank Cass., Focus on the aftermath.
  • Munro, Henry F. (1918). The Berlin Congress (Confidential, For Official Use Only). Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. Retrieved 8 February 2019 – via Internet Archive.
  • Stavrianos, Leften Stavros. The Balkans since 1453 (1958).
  • Taylor, A. J. P. (1954). The struggle for mastery in Europe: 1848–1918. Oxford University Press.
  • Yavuz, M. Hakan; Sluglett, Peter, eds. (2012). War and Diplomacy: The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 and the Treaty of Berlin. University of Utah Press. ISBN 978-1-60781-150-3.
  • "Treaty between Great Britain, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Russia, and Turkey for the Settlement of Affairs in the East: Signed at Berlin, July 13, 1878 (Translation)". The American Journal of International Law. II (4, Supplement, Official Documents): 401–424. October 1908. doi:10.2307/2212670. JSTOR 2212670.
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