The Berlin Congress of 1878: Causes, Consequences and Assessments a Century Later

Abstract

In mid-February 1878 the British public was startled by the sensational announcement in a number of London papers that a sea battle had taken place in the Dardanelles near Constantinople and that a British armoured ship had been sunk by Turkish coastal batteries. Even though this soon turned out to be an exaggeration, news of this kind may have sounded credible at the time when we consider that Great Britain had a vital interest in the Turkish Straits. The false report was to become stark reality thirty-seven years later though this was, of course, beyond human predictions. Still, the situation was extremely critical and growing worse from day to day. Russia, restrained in its expansionist aspirations on the Balkan Peninsula by England and France in the Crimean War, found a pretext in 1877 for declaring war on Turkey and attacked on the Balkan front with six army corps. After sustaining heavy losses in winter fighting, the Turkish army was forced to retreat and abandon, on 9 January 1878, the road leading through Shipka Pass. The way to the Turkish capital was now open to the Russians. Negotiations on a cease-fire began at the end of the same month, but were protracted by the Russians as they sent their troops towards Constantinople in forced marches.