Great Eastern Crisis

Great Eastern Crisis (1875–1878)
Part of the rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire and of the Great Game
Serbian soldiers attacking the Ottoman army at Mramor, 1877
Date 19 June 1875 – 13 July 1878 (3 years, 3 weeks and 3 days) Location Balkans, Caucasus Result Ottoman defeat Treaty of Berlin Territorial changes Reestablishment of the Bulgarian state De jure independence of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro from the Ottoman Empire Kars and Batum Oblasts become part of the Russian Empire
Belligerents
Russia Grand Duchy of Finland Romania Bulgaria Montenegro Serbia Austria-Hungary Greek rebels Supported by: Germany France	Ottoman Empire Egypt Kurdish volunteers Albanian volunteers Circassian volunteers Polish Legion Imamate rebels Abkhazian rebels Supported by: United Kingdom
Commanders and leaders
Alexander II Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich Mikhail Loris-Melikov Mikhail Skobelev Iosif Gurko Ivan Lazarev Carol I of Romania Alexander of Battenberg Prince Nikola Kosta Protić Stjepan Jovanović Kosmas Doumpiotis	Abdul Hamid II Ahmed Pasha Osman Pasha Suleiman Pasha Mehmed Pasha Abdülkerim Nadir Pasha Ahmed Eyüb Pasha Mehmed Riza Pasha
Strength
185,000 in the Army of the Danube, 75,000 in the Caucasian Army Finland: 1,000 66,000 12,000, 190 cannons 81,500 45,000 15,000	281,000
Casualties and losses
15,567 killed, 56,652 wounded, 6,824 died from wounds 4,302 killed and missing, 3,316 wounded, 19,904 sick 2,456 dead and wounded 2,400 dead and wounded	30,000 killed, 90,000 died from wounds and diseases

The Great Eastern Crisis of 1875–1878 began in the Ottoman Empire's territories on the Balkan peninsula in 1875, with the outbreak of several uprisings and wars that resulted in the intervention of international powers, and was ended with the Treaty of Berlin in July 1878.

It is also called Serbo-Croatian: Velika istočna kriza; Turkish: Şark Buhranı ("Eastern Crisis", for the crisis in general), Turkish: Ramazan Kararnamesi ("Decree of Ramadan", for the sovereign default declared on 30 October 1875) and Turkish: 93 Harbi ("War of 93", for the wars on the Balkan peninsula between 1877 and 1878, referring in particular to the Russo-Turkish War, the year 1293 on the Islamic Rumi calendar corresponding to the year 1877 on the Gregorian calendar).

Background

Further information: Eastern Question

The empire in 1875 right before the crisis

The Batak massacre carried out by Ottoman irregular troops in Bulgaria in 1876

The Avenger: An Allegorical War Map for 1877 by Fred. W. Rose, 1872: This map reflects the "Great Eastern Crisis" and the subsequent Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78.

The state of Ottoman administration in the Balkans continued to deteriorate throughout the 19th century, with the Sublime Porte occasionally losing control over whole provinces. Reforms imposed by European powers did little to improve the conditions of the Christian population, while at the same time managing to dissatisfy a sizable portion of the Muslim population. Bosnia suffered at least two waves of rebellion by the local Muslim population, the most recent in 1850. Austria consolidated after the turmoil of the first half of the century and sought to reinvigorate its longstanding policy of expansion at the expense of the Ottoman Empire. Meanwhile, the nominally autonomous, de facto independent principalities of Serbia and Montenegro also sought to expand into regions inhabited by their compatriots. Nationalist and irredentist sentiments were strong and were encouraged by Russia and its agents.

Ottoman economic crisis and default

On 24 August 1854, during the Crimean War, the Ottoman Empire took its first foreign loans. The empire entered into subsequent loans, partly to finance the construction of railways and telegraph lines, and partly to finance deficits between revenues and the lavish expenditures of the imperial court, such as the construction of new palaces on the Bosphorus strait in Constantinople. Some financial commentators have noted that the terms of these loans were exceptionally favourable to the British and French banks (owned by the Rothschild family) which facilitated them, whereas others have noted that the terms reflected the imperial administration's willingness to constantly refinance its debts. A large amount of money was also spent for building new ships for the Ottoman Navy during the reign of Sultan Abdülaziz (r. 1861–1876). In 1875, the Ottoman Navy had 21 battleships and 173 warships of other types, which formed the third largest naval fleet in the world after those of the British and French navies. All of these expenditures, however, put a huge strain on the Ottoman treasury. In the meantime, a severe drought in Anatolia in 1873 and flooding in 1874 caused famine and widespread discontent in the heart of the empire. The agricultural shortages precluded the collection of necessary taxes, which forced the Ottoman government to declare a sovereign default on its foreign loan repayments on 30 October 1875 and increase taxes in all of its provinces, including the Balkans.

Uprisings and wars in the Balkans

The decision to increase taxes for paying the Ottoman Empire's debts to foreign creditors resulted in outrage in the Balkan provinces, which culminated in the Great Eastern Crisis and ultimately the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78) that provided independence or autonomy for the Christian nations in the empire's Balkan territories, with the subsequent Treaty of Berlin in 1878. The war, however, was disastrous for the already struggling Ottoman economy and the Ottoman Public Debt Administration was established in 1881, which gave the control of the Ottoman state revenues to foreign creditors. This made the European creditors bondholders, and assigned special rights to the OPDA for collecting various types of tax and customs revenues.

Aftermath

After the Treaty of Berlin in 1878, Austria-Hungary stationed military garrisons in the Ottoman Vilayet of Bosnia and Ottoman Sanjak of Novi Pazar, which formally (de jure) continued to be Ottoman territories. Taking advantage of the chaos that occurred during the Young Turk Revolution in 1908, Bulgaria declared its formal independence on 5 October 1908. The following day, Austria-Hungary unilaterally annexed Bosnia on 6 October 1908, but pulled its military forces out of Novi Pazar in order to reach a compromise with the Ottoman government and avoid a war (the Ottoman Empire lost the Sanjak of Novi Pazar with the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913.)

In 1881, France occupied the Ottoman Beylik of Tunisia, with the excuse that Tunisian troops had crossed the border into their colony of Algeria, which also formerly belonged to the Ottoman Empire until 1830. A year later, in 1882, the British Empire occupied the Ottoman Khedivate of Egypt, with the pretext of giving military assistance to the Ottomans for putting down the Urabi Revolt (Britain later declared Egypt a British protectorate on 5 November 1914, in response to the Ottoman government's decision to join World War I on the side of the Central Powers.) It is worth noting that the Ottoman government had frequently declared the tax revenues from Egypt as a surety for borrowing loans from British and French banks. The Ottoman government had earlier leased Cyprus to Britain in 1878, in exchange for British support at the Congress of Berlin in the same year (Cyprus was later annexed by Britain on 5 November 1914, for the same aforementioned reason regarding the Ottoman participation in World War I.) By obtaining Cyprus and Egypt, Britain gained an important foothold in the East Mediterranean and control over the Suez Canal; while France increased its lands in the West Mediterranean coast of North Africa by adding Tunisia to its empire as a French protectorate.

Historian Maroš Melichárek writes that the Great Eastern Crisis could not have been fully resolved without Serbia.

Chronology of the Great Eastern Crisis and its aftermath

Precursors

• Franco-Prussian War
• 1873–1875 Anatolian famine
• Panic of 1873

Crisis

• Herzegovina uprising (1875–1877)
• Stara Zagora Uprising (1875)
• April Uprising (1876)
• Salonika Incident (1876)
• Razlovtsi insurrection (1876)
• On June 30, 1876, Montenegro and Serbia declared war on the Ottoman Empire.
• Serbian–Ottoman Wars (1876–1878)
• Montenegrin–Ottoman War (1876–1878)
• 1876 Ottoman coup d'état
• First Constitutional Era (1876–1878)
• Constantinople Conference (1876–1877)
• Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)
  • Romanian War of Independence
  • Provisional Russian Administration in Bulgaria
  • Treaty of San Stefano (1878)
• Expulsion of the Albanians, 1877–1878
• Congress of Berlin (1878)
• Kumanovo uprising (1878)
• 1878 Greek Macedonian rebellion
• Epirus Revolt of 1878
• Cretan revolt (1878)
• Austro-Hungarian campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878
• Kresna–Razlog uprising (1878)

Treaties

• Reichstadt Agreement (1876)
• Budapest Convention of 1877
• Treaty of San Stefano (1878)
• Cyprus Convention (1878)
• Treaty of Berlin (1878)

Aftermath

• Armenian Question
• League of Prizren (1878–1881)
  • Battles for Plav and Gusinje (1879–1880)
• Pact of Halepa (1878)
• Dual Alliance (1879)
• ʻUrabi revolt (1879–1882)
• Brsjak revolt (1880–1881)
• French conquest of Tunisia (1881)
• Austro–Serbian Alliance of 1881
• Convention of Constantinople (1881)
• Herzegovina Uprising (1882)
• British Occupation of Egypt (1882)
• Austro-Hungarian–German–Romanian alliance (1883)
• Timok Rebellion (1883)
• Bulgarian Crisis (1885–1888)
• Yildiz Trials (1881)
• 1879–1881 Anatolian famine

Further reading

• "Unprinted documents: Russo-British relations during the Eastern Crisis (VIII. The eve of the armistice)". The Slavonic and East European Review. 25 (64). November 1946.
• "Unprinted documents: Russo-British relations during the Eastern Crisis (VIII. On the edge of war)". The Slavonic and East European Review. 25 (65). April 1947.
• Anderson, M.S. The Eastern Question, 1774–1923: A Study in International Relations (1966) online Archived 2020-06-19 at the Wayback Machine
• Branković, Slobodan (1998). Great eastern crisis and Serbia, 1875-1878. Svetska srpska zajednica, Institut srpskog naroda.
• Goldfrank, David M. (2003). "Berlin, Congress of". In Millar, James R. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Russian History. Macmillan Reference USA. ISBN 978-0028656939.
• Király, Béla K.; Rothenberg, Gunther Erich (1985). War and Society in East Central Europe: Insurrections wars and the eastern crisis in the 1870s. Brooklyn College Press. ISBN 978-0-88033-090-9.
• Langer, William L. European Alliances and Alignments: 1871-1890 (1950) pp 151–70. Online
• Millman, Richard (1979). Britain and the Eastern question, 1875–1878. Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-822379-5.
• Medlicott, W. N. (1963). The Congress of Berlin and After: A Diplomatic History of the Near East Settlement, 1878–1880 (Second ed.). London: Frank Cass., Focus on the aftermath.
• Munro, Henry F. The Berlin congress (1918) online free, 41pp of text, 600 pp of documents
• Taylor, A. J. P. (1954). The struggle for mastery in Europe: 1848–1918. Oxford University Press.
• Yavuz, M. Hakan; Sluglett, Peter, eds. (2012). War and Diplomacy: The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 and the Treaty of Berlin. University of Utah Press. ISBN 978-1-60781-150-3.