Treaty of Berlin, 1878
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The Treaty of Berlin was the final Act of the Congress of Berlin (June 13-July 13, 1878), by which the United Kingdom, Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the Ottoman government under Sultan Hamid revised the Treaty of San Stefano signed on March 3 of the same year.
The treaty recognised the complete independence of the principalities of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro and the autonomy of Bulgaria, though the latter remained under formal Ottoman overlordship and was divided between the two principalities of Bulgaria proper and Eastern Rumelia, undoing Russian plans for an independent "Greater Bulgaria". The Ottoman province of Bosnia-Herzegovina as well as the former Sanjak of Novi Pazar were placed under Austro-Hungarian occupation, though formally remaining a part of the Ottoman Empire.
The three newly-independent states subsequently proclaimed themselves kingdoms (Romania in 1881, Serbia in 1882 and Montenegro in 1910), while Bulgaria proclaimed full independence in 1908 after uniting with Eastern Rumelia in 1885. Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia in 1908, sparking a major European crisis.
The Treaty of Berlin accorded special legal status to some religious groups; it also served as a model for the Minorities System that was subsequently established within the framework of the League of Nations.[#endnote_nut]
The Treaty of Berlin caused many problems in the following decades. The attempts of Great West-European Powers (Britain, Germany, Austria-Hungary and France) to preserve the existence of the dying Ottoman Empire led to several conflicts on the Balkans. Large portions of Christian population were left under the Muslim administration of the Ottoman Empire. The struggles for freedom by the Balkan nations continued to cause diplomatic incidents and wars.
One of the failures of the Treaty of Berlin was to establish a border between Greece and the Ottoman Empire. It simply proved impossible to create a border there in 1878, and the seeking of a solution was carried out after the Congress ended. Negotiations continued until 1881 when a shaky agreement established a border between the two nations; however, armed conflicts arose thereafter in the succeeding decades.
Notes
- ↑ p. 7
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