Historical political situation in Europe
Bulgarian Crisis
Bulgaria following Constantinople Conference 1877
|
Native name
| Българска криза
|
---|
Date
| September 18, 1885
(
1885-09-18
)
|
---|
Location
| Eastern Rumelia
|
---|
Cause
| Bulgarian victory
- Union between Eastern Rumelia and Bulgaria
|
---|
The
Bulgarian Crisis
(Българска криза,
Balgarska kriza
) refers to a series of events in the
Balkans
between 1885 and 1888 that affected the balance of power between the
Great Powers
and the conflict between
Austria-Hungary
and the
Russian Empire
. It was one of several episodes in the continuing Balkan Crisis as
vassal
states struggled for independence from the
Ottoman Empire
but achieved a mosaic of nascent
nation-states
(
Balkanisation
). They featured unstable alliances that frequently led to war and eventually to the
First World War
.
Background
[
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]
The
Ottoman
rejection of the terms of the
Constantinople Conference
(1876-1877) led to the
Russo-Turkish War (1877?1878)
, which concluded with the
Treaty of San Stefano
and the
Treaty of Berlin (1878)
, which established the independent
Principality of Bulgaria
. The original treaty signed by Russia and Turkey at San Stefano created a greater pro-Russian Bulgaria out of the defeated Ottoman lands. That appeared to contravene earlier secret Russian undertakings
in Reichstadt
on July 8, 1876 and also later in Budapest between
Count Andrassy
and the Russian envoy,
Eugene Novikov
, (
Budapest Convention
, 15 January, 18 March 1877). The treaties agreed that a Russian victory in war would not create any large Slavic states. Russia had also traded Austrian neutrality for Bosnia-Herzegovina.
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
The enlargement of the Russian
sphere of influence
angered the other Balkan states and alarmed the other Great Powers. They initially threatened war against Russia and then convened the Berlin Conference at the behest of Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister
Gyula Andrassy
to dismantle and to rework the provisions of San Stefano. The treaty also established international recognition of the neighbouring former Ottoman
vassal states
of
Romania
,
Serbia
and
Montenegro
. It broke up "Greater Bulgaria" into a northern Principality of Bulgaria and two southern territories under Ottoman control,
Macedonia
and the autonomous
Eastern Rumelia
. Also,
Bosnia and Herzegovina
were transferred to Austria-Hungary.
Unfortunately, the treaty solved little. It satisfied Britain and Austria-Hungary but only at the expense of Russia and the peoples of the Balkan states, which made further crises inevitable.
[5]
The future of the Balkan lands was thus now perceived in Europe as a matter for the disposal of the Great Powers. Those events significantly impacted the dynastic relations between
Germany
and
Russia
. To counterbalance Russian influence and perceived
Pan-Slavic
expansion in the Balkans, Germany and Austria-Hungary thus concluded the
Dual Alliance
(
Zweibund
) in 1879.
Bulgarian unification and Serbo-Bulgarian War
[
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]
On September 18, 1885, a rebellion and a coup in the
Ottoman
province of
Eastern Rumelia
, aided by the Bulgarians, saw the people proclaim a
union with
the new (1878) state of
Bulgaria
, in violation of the
Treaty of Berlin (1878)
. In Europe, the union caused consternation in the Great Powers by altering the power balance in the repeatedly-unstable
Balkans
and risking Ottoman retaliation and Russian intervention on behalf of Bulgaria. However, tension between Russian Tsar
Alexander III
and the German-born
Knyaz (Prince) Alexander I
of Bulgaria led to the Russians standing aside, withdrawing their troops from Bulgaria and advocating a conference in
Constantinople
. The other Great Powers in general supported Russia's unexpected position but not
Greece
and
Serbia
.
Serbia had signed
a secret treaty with
Austria-Hungary
in 1881 and was so sure in Austria's support that it made territorial demands on its western border with Bulgaria. On being rebuffed, Serbia declared
war on November 14
. However, by November 28, Serbia had been defeated by Bulgaria. Further humiliation of Serbia was prevented only by Austrian intervention.
A Russophile
coup against Alexander I
in 1886 replaced him by an Austrophile, who was the Austrian Emperor's nephew and an officer in the Austrian army,
Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
(1887?1918). Relations of the young Bulgarian state with Russia deteriorated.
Effects on Great Powers
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]
The events in the Balkans were in a way proxy events for their supporters, Russia and Austria-Hungary, and effectively dissolved (1887) the fragile alliance between Germany, Austria and Russia known as the
League of Three Emperors
(
Dreikaiserabkommen
) 1873?1878, which had been revived on June 18, 1881. The League provided for mutual aid in the event of an attack on a member and benign neutrality in the event of one of them being involved in a conflict outside the League. Its terms also provided for consultation on any proposed Balkan operations, which offered Germany the neutrality of Russia, in the event of a further war against France, and Russia the neutrality of Germany and Austria-Hungary, in the event of war against Britain or the Ottomans. The protocol was secret and was renewed in 1884. It stated in part:
[6]
?
4. Die drei Machte werden sich der etwaigen Vereinigung Bulgariens und Ostrumeliens in den Gebietsgrenzen, die durch den Berliner Vertrag angewiesen sind, nicht widersetzen, wenn diese Frage sich durch die Macht der Dinge erheben sollte.
“
(4. The three powers will not oppose the eventual unification of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia within the limits set by the
Treaty of Berlin
, should this eventuality occur by force of circumstances.)
When that eventually occurred, the situation was more complicated.
Prince Alexander of Battenberg
had been elected in 1879 as Prince of Bulgaria at the request of his uncle, Russian Tsar Alexander II. Prince Alexander found himself obliged to support the nationalist movement for
re-unification
despite the advice of the Russian ministers and advisers but with the apparent support of British Prime Minister
Gladstone
, who opposed Russia's position. Russia then withdrew its ministers and advisers from Bulgaria.
Another complication was the role of
King Milan of Serbia
, an ally of Austria, another opponent of Russia in the Balkans. Milan sought territorial compensation from Bulgaria. When he did not receive it, he declared
war in 1885
. Defeated, Serbia saw Bulgarian troops reach
Belgrade
before Austria intervened. The
Treaty of Bucharest
in March 1886 essentially restored the status quo.
[7]
The Great Powers and the
Porte
finally accepted the Unification of Bulgaria in the 1886
Tophane Agreement
. Russia, however, was not satisfied and Russian Tsar
Alexander III
refused to recognise Prince Alexander as ruler of the newly-enlarged Bulgaria. Subsequently, a Russian-backed coup, involving a group pro-Russian officers, forced Prince Alexander to abdicate on 9 August 1886. He was then exiled to Russia. In a countercoup, Prince Alexander I returned to the Bulgarian throne, and Russia then broke off diplomatic relations with Bulgaria.
The Great Powers, which were in a constant fear of war between them, continued with a series of complicated agreements and alliances, many of which were secret, as deterrents to one another's actions, largely at the behest of
Bismarck
. These included the
Triple Alliance
, which replaced the Dual Alliance in 1882 by including Italy; two
Mediterranean Agreements
(
Mittelmeerentente
) in 1887 and the
Reinsurance Treaty
(1887). Finally, the publication of the terms of the 1879 treaty persuaded Russia that further action was not in its interests and so it withdrew from involvement in Bulgaria, and the fear of war dissipated. Bismarck's strategy was arcane but largely successful in averting war during his time in office (1871?1890). Unfortunately, his arrangements were heavily dependent on himself and so failed to provide long-term solutions.
See also
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Hugh Ragsdale (ed.) Imperial Russian Foreign Policy. Woodrow Wilson Center Press. Cambridge University Press, 1993
.
ISBN
052144229X
, 780521442299
- ^
Frederick Kellogg. The Road to Romanian Independence. Purdue University Press, 1995
.
ISBN
1557530653
, 9781557530653
- ^
Mikulas Fabry. The Idea of National Self-Determination and The Recognition of New States at The Congress Of Berlin (1878). ISA Annual Convention, New Orleans, March 24-27, 2002
Archived
June 21, 2008, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Pribram, Alfred, ed. (1921) The Secret Treaties of Austria-Hungary. Vol. 2. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
- ^
Encyclopædia Britannica: Congress of Berlin
- ^
Text of the Protocol of the league of Three Emperors 1881
- ^
Lothar Gall
,
Bismarck. Der weiße Revolutionar
, Frankfurt 1980,
ISBN
3 549 07397 6
, p. 619 ff.
Sources
[
edit
]
- Crampton, R. J.
A Concise History of Bulgaria
Cambridge UP 1997
- Praliminarfriede von San Stefano
in:
Konferenzen und Vertrage. Vertrags-Ploetz. Handbuch der geschichtlich bedeutsamen Zusammenkunfte und Vereinbarungen. Teil II. 1493 - 1952
. Helmuth Ronnefahrt (ed.). Bielefeld: A. G. Ploetz Verlag, 1953, pp. 351f
- Istvan Dioszegi:
Kalnoky, Andrassy und die bulgarische Krise 1885?1887.
In:
Bulgarian Historical Review
3 (1985) pp. 54?59.
- Barbara Jelavich:
Russia, Britain and the Bulgarian Question 1885?1888.
In:
Sudostforschungen
32 (1973) pp. 168?191.
- M. Ju. Zolotucbin:
Bolgarskij krizis 1885-1886 gg. i krach avstro-russko-germanskogo sojuza (The Bulgarian 1885-1886 crisis and the collapse of the Austro-Russian-German alliance
) In:
Voprosy istorii
4 (1984), pp. 43?56.
Timeline
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External links
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