Balkan crisis
The Balkan Crisis or Oriental Crisis is the term used to describe the crisis between the major European powers in the years 1875–1878, which originated in the Balkan Peninsula and was closely related to the independence of the Balkan peoples from the Ottoman Empire and to the Russo-Ottoman War (1877–1878) and the Peace of San Stefano (1878) led. The crisis ended with the Berlin Congress , which redesigned the political map of the Balkans and Southeast Europe .
prehistory
The Balkan Peninsula proved to be a hotspot in the 19th century due to the domestic political problems of the Ottoman Empire and the striving for sovereignty of its largely Christian and Slavic population in the region . The Oriental question about the continued existence of the Ottoman Empire led to several military conflicts.
Russia participated in this liberation movement for two reasons:
- Firstly, domestic support from the Balkan nations had become important for Russia due to the growing ideology of Pan-Slavism .
- Second, Russia's underlying goal was its strategic interest in free access to the Mediterranean through the Bosporus .
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, Russia announced the Paris Peace of 1856. It achieved the abolition of neutrality and demilitarization of the Black Sea in 1871 at the Pontus Conference in London with the support of Bismarck . The passage through the Bosporus and through the Dardanelles was still dependent on the approval of the Ottoman Empire.
outbreak
In July 1875, uprisings of the Christian population against the Ottoman oppression broke out in Herzegovina , Bosnia and Thrace ( Stara-Sagora uprising ). Which included Montenegro and Serbia in the Serbian-Turkish War of, as well as Bulgaria in the April Uprising in 1876. But the Turkish troops maintained the upper hand against all expectations and took "cruel revenge on the insurgents." This brought the major European powers onto the scene, above all Russia, the self-proclaimed protective power of Orthodox Christians in the Balkans.
The Sublime Porte by Sultan Abdulhamid II. However, leaning on in Konstantin Opel convened conference of ambassadors from internal reforms. In Budapest Treaty , Russia secured the Austrian neutrality. Russia opened war on the pretext of preventing riots against Christians and improving their situation. Allies were Serbia, Romania and Montenegro as well as Bulgarian volunteers. The Russian troops occupied the Danube Plain , the Schipka Pass which leads to Eastern Rumelia , took Pleven Stara Sagora and marched towards Constantinople.
In March 1878 the peace of San Stefano was negotiated. In addition to the enlargement of Serbia, Romania and Montenegro, the restoration of Bulgaria as a state, namely as a principality nominally subject to tribute to the Sultan, was planned. The restoration of a Bulgarian state within the boundaries proposed by the Constantinople Conference was against the Budapest Treaty and would have been at the expense of the Ottoman Empire, which would have lost almost all of its possessions on the Balkan Peninsula. The growing Russian influence in the Balkans therefore led to protests by the other great powers of the European pentarchy . Austria-Hungary had a keen interest in the northern Balkan countries and thus also in a revision of the outcome of San Stefano. Great Britain feared the strengthening of Russian influence in the Mediterranean, which it viewed as a separate strategic sphere of interest due to the connection via the Suez Canal to British India . It also saw the European balance at risk. Both states threatened Russia with war. The German Reich under Chancellor Bismarck invited the opponents to mediate peace at the Berlin Congress, out of European, but also out of German interest: Russia and Austria were both integral parts of Bismarck's alliance system . German-Russian relations suffered greatly from the situation, so Bismarck initially looked for the dual alliance with Austria-Hungary in order to be able to take a stronger position vis-à-vis Russia.
settlement
In June and July 1878, the independence of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro was decided at the Berlin Congress. The Principality of Bulgaria received extensive autonomy, but remained tributary nonetheless. It lost Macedonia again to the Ottomans in relation to the San Stefano agreements and had to give up Eastern Rumelia, which itself became autonomous, for the time being. Russia only got southern Bessarabia and parts of Armenia ( Kars ), England got Cyprus and Austria-Hungary occupied Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Sanjak Novi Pazar .
As a result, peace was maintained at Russia's expense, but resentment on the Russian and Austrian sides was evident. Russia would have liked a better mediation from the German Reich and Austria was still at odds with Russia over the Balkans. The Ottoman Empire held most of its European possessions, the small Balkan countries were not yet able to enforce their national aspirations. However, this soon changed in the Balkan Wars .
literature
- Horst Haselsteiner: Bosnia-Hercegovina. Orient crisis and south Slavic question. Verlag Böhlau, Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-205-98376-9 .
- Rainer F. Schmidt: The Balkan Crisis from 1875 to 1878. Strategies of the great powers. In: Rainer F. Schmidt (Ed.): Germany and Europe. Basic foreign policy lines between the founding of an empire and the First World War. Celebration for Harm-Hinrich Brandt on his seventieth birthday. Steiner, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-515-08262-X , pp. 36-96.
Individual evidence
- ↑ dtv atlas on history. From the French Revolution to the present. Volume 2, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-423-03002-X , p. 81.
- ↑ a b Volker Ullrich: The nervous great power. Rise and fall of the German Empire 1871–1918 . Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-596-11694-5 , p. 83.
- ^ The outbreak of the Russo-Turkish War . In: Provinzial-Correspondenz . 15th year, no. April 17 , 1877 ( digitized version [accessed November 10, 2018]).
- ^ The Preliminary Treaty of Peace, signed at San Stefano. Text of the peace treaty of San Stefano; all articles in square brackets have been replaced in the Berlin Treaty. In: uoregon.edu. Archived from the original on December 7, 2019 ; accessed on December 7, 2019 .