Bulgarian atrocities—The Andrassy Note; England destroys its effect—The Berlin Memorandum; England opposes it—Russia prepares for a Turkish war—Conference of Constantinople—New Turkish Constitution—Russo-Turkish War—Treaty of San Stefano—Intervention of the Powers—The Berlin Congress—Final treaty of peace.
The Slavs migrated to the Balkan Peninsula as early as 450 A.D., and Bosnia remained the only Slavonic part of the Turkish Empire where a native nobility owned the land and a peasantry tilled it for them.
Having been defeated by the Turks, the nobility became Mahommedans to save their patrimony, while the peasantry, having nothing to lose, remained Christians; but the tyranny of their nobility at length obliged the Turks to put an end to the Feudal System in Bosnia (1850–1851).
In August, 1875, Herzegovina (the southwestern district of Bosnia) revolted against the Sultan, being aided by a strong natural position and receiving the assistance of both Servia and Montenegro.
While this revolt was going on the Bulgarians also rose in rebellion against the Sultan (1876), but were put down by the Turkish Government, although not without shameful cruelties and outrages being committed by the Turkish troops and militia, which caused great indignation throughout Europe,[[75]] and specially so in Russia. This, therefore, gave the latter country a good opportunity of claiming to be a general protector of the Christians in Turkey.
The Austro-Hungarian Minister, Count Andrassy, on behalf of Austria, Germany, and Russia, drew up a Note in which five[[76]] chief concessions were insisted upon from the Porte as necessary for the pacification of the revolted provinces.
Lord Derby, on behalf of the English Government, signed[[77]] it, but added that the integrity[[78]] of the Ottoman Empire was to be respected. Here the Czar caught a key-note of the English policy, and he played on it afterwards to his own advantage.
The Porte accepted the conditions of the Note, but the rebels did not trust the Turkish promises, so the insurrections continued.
The Czar then, with Gortschakoff, met Bismarck and Andrassy at Berlin, and, together, they drew up the “Berlin Memorandum,”[[79]] in which the three Powers asked the Sultan to grant an armistice for two months in order that the demands of the insurgents might receive a fair consideration. Italy and France added their voices, but England refused[[80]] to sign the Memorandum and sent a powerful squadron to Besika Bay, expecting that the Sultan would refuse the Memorandum because it would endanger the integrity of the Ottoman Empire. This “Berlin Memorandum” displays the skilful way in which Russia, under the clever guidance of the Czar and his Minister Gortschakoff, carried on negotiation. She was only seeking a pretence[[81]] for a single-handed war policy with Turkey, and in order to do this she proposed measures at Berlin which she knew would prove objectionable to England. Germany, who dreaded a special alliance between France and Russia, was obliged to agree to these measures, thus becoming a tool of Russia, who wanted to make England first deviate from the Treaties of Paris and London, and, if possible, to break down the balance of power in Europe which she herself had already done by her withdrawal from the Black Sea clauses in the Treaty of Paris. England fell into the snare together with the other Powers. She objected to the Berlin Memorandum, refused to sign, and sent a fleet to Besika Bay in support of her objection. This was just what Russia desired.
A new Sultan now ascended the throne, and Russian influence declined while that of England increased.