Berlin, Congress of

Berlin, Congress of, 1878. A summit conference which met in the German capital, under the presidency of Bismarck, in June 1878. All the European great powers and Turkey were represented. Lord Salisbury and Lord Beaconsfield ( Benjamin Disraeli) represented Britain. It had been summoned because European opinion was uneasy at the gains Russia had made by the treaty of San Stefano at the end of the recent Russo-Turkish War. Many questions were settled by secret agreements before the congress assembled. San Stefano had provided for a ‘Big Bulgaria’, an autonomous principality including half the Balkan peninsula, which seemed likely to be under Russian influence. This was divided and part returned to Turkish jurisdiction. Austria was to ‘occupy and administer’ Bosnia and Herzegovina, although they remained under Turkish suzerainty. Britain was to lease Cyprus from Turkey. This gave her a forward base in the eastern Mediterranean to cover the Suez canal, opened in 1869. In return, Britain promised to maintain Turkish interests in Asia Minor. The independence of Serbia, Montenegro, and Romania was recognized but Romania had to cede southern Bessarabia to Russia. Disraeli returned to London boasting that he had secured ‘peace with honour’ but Salisbury later concluded that they had ‘backed the wrong horse’ in trying to prop up the Turkish empire. Panslavism was temporarily checked but the emerging Balkan nations remained dissatisfied.

Muriel Evelyn Chamberlain