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{{Short description|Series of uprisings against Ottoman rule in the Balkan Peninsula in the 1870s}}

factoids

)| place = Balkans, CaucasusPrincipality of Bulgaria>Bulgarian state

• De jure independence of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro from the Ottoman Empire
• Kars and Batum Oblasts become part of the Russian Empire| result = Ottoman defeat
• Treaty of Berlin| combatant1 = {hide}ubli

Russian Empireitem_style=list-style-type:initial; margin-left: 1em16px) Grand Duchy of Finland}}Kingdom of Romania}} RomaniaKingdom of Bulgaria}} Principality of Bulgaria>{{flagcountry|Principality of Montenegro}}Principality of Serbia}} SerbiaAustria-Hungary}}West Macedonian flag 1878.JPG}}{{flagicon imageGreeks>Greek rebels}}Supported by:{{ubliGerman Empire}}French Third Republic}}}}| combatant2 = {{ubliOttoman Empire}}}}* {{flagcountry1867}}

• Kurdish volunteers
• Albanian volunteers
• Circassian volunteers
• Polish Legion

----Imamate rebelsAbkhazian rebelsSupported by:{{ubliUKGBI}}}}| commander1 = {{ubliRussian EmpireAlexander II of Russia>Alexander IIRussian EmpireGrand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia (1831–1891)>Grand Duke Nicholas NikolaevichRussian EmpireGrand Duke Michael Nikolaevich of Russia>Grand Duke Michael NikolaevichRussian Empire|1858}} Mikhail Loris-MelikovRussian Empire|1858}} Mikhail SkobelevRussian Empire|1858}} Iosif GurkoRussian EmpireIvan Davidovich Lazarev>Ivan LazarevRomania}} Carol I of RomaniaKingdom of Bulgaria}} Alexander of BattenbergPrincipality of Montenegro}} Prince NikolaPrincipality of Serbia}} Kosta ProtićAustria-Hungary}} Stjepan Jovanović(File:West Macedonian flag 1878.JPG|25px) Kosmas Doumpiotis}}| commander2 = {{ubliOttoman Empire}} Abdul Hamid IIOttoman Empire}} Ahmed PashaOttoman Empire}} Osman PashaOttoman Empire}} Suleiman PashaOttoman Empire}} Mehmed PashaOttoman Empire}} Abdülkerim Nadir PashaOttoman Empire}} Ahmed Eyüb PashaOttoman Empire}} Mehmed Riza Pasha}}| strength1 = {{ubliRussian EmpireRussia at War: From the Mongol Conquest to Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Beyond. ABC-CLIO, 2014. p. 748{{unordered list>item_style=list-style-type:initial; margin-left: 1em16px) Finland: 1,000}}Romania}} 66,000Kingdom of Bulgaria}} 12,000, 190 cannonsPrincipality of Serbia}} 81,500Principality of Montenegro}} 45,00025px) 15,000}}Ottoman Empire}} 281,000MERNIKOV > FIRST = A. G. FIRST2=A. A. TRANS-TITLE=WORLD HISTORY OF WARS PLACE = MINSK, BELARUS LANGUAGE = RU, | casualties1 = {{ubliRussian Empire AUTHOR-LINK = BORIS URLANIS LANGUAGE=RU CHAPTER-URL = HTTP://SCEPSIS.NET/LIBRARY/ID_2140.HTML#A161TRANS-TITLE=WARS AND POPULATION OF EUROPE: HUMAN LOSSES OF THE ARMED FORCES OF EUROPEAN COUNTRIES IN THE WARS OF THE 17TH—20TH CENTURIES (HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL RESEARCH) YEAR = 1960 PAGES = 104–105, 129 § 4, Romania}} 4,302 killed and missing, 3,316 wounded, 19,904 sick Scafes, Cornel, et al., Armata Romania in Razvoiul de Independenta 1877–1878 [The Romanian Army in the War of Independence 1877–1878]. Bucuresti, Editura Sigma, 2002, p. 149 (Romence)Kingdom of Bulgaria}} 2,456 dead and woundedBoris Urlanis, Войны и народонаселение Европы [Wars and population of Europe], Part II, Chapter II Principality of Serbia}}{{flagicon|Principality of Montenegro}} 2,400 dead and wounded}}Ottoman Empire}} 30,000 killed,MERNIKOV >FIRST1=A. G. FIRST2=A. A. LANGUAGE=RU LOCATION = MINSK, BELARUS PUBLISHER = Харвест, 985-13-2607-0, 90,000 died from wounds and diseases| campaignbox = {{Campaignbox Great Eastern Crisis}}{{Campaignbox Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)}}{{Russo-Ottoman War Series}}}}{{Events leading to World War I}}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 ; ("Eastern Crisis", for the crisis in general), ("Decree of Ramadan", for the sovereign default declared on 30 October 1875) and ("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|Eastern Question}}(File:Ottomans 1875.png|thumb|The empire in 1875 right before the crisis)File:Пиотровский. батакская резня. 1889 год.jpeg|thumb|The Batak massacre carried out by Ottoman irregular troops in Bulgaria in 1876]](File:Fred. W. Rose The Avenger An Allegorical War Map for 1877 1877 Cornell CUL PJM 1080 01.jpg|thumb|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.BOOK, Dixon, Jeffrey S., Sarkees, Meredith Reid, A Guide to Intra-state Wars: An Examination of Civil, Regional, and Intercommunal Wars, 1816-2014, 2015, CQ Press, 978-1506300818, 265,weblink 25 December 2019, 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,WEB,weblink Dünya Bülteni: "Osmanlı Devleti ilk kez dış borç aldı", 2016-09-17, 2018-04-11,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20180411175003weblink">weblink dead, Derin Strateji: "Osmanlı Borçları ve Düyun-u Umumiye İdaresi"WEB,weblink Yazarport: "Kırım Savaşı ve İlk Dış Borçlanma (1854-1855)", 2016-09-17, 2018-06-15,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20180615111307weblink">weblink dead, WEB,weblink History of the Ottoman public debt, 2014-08-28,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120724135149weblink">weblink 2012-07-24, dead, during the Crimean War, the Ottoman Empire took its first foreign loans.Douglas Arthur Howard: "The History of Turkey", page 71.Mevzuat Dergisi, Yıl: 9, Sayı: 100, Nisan 2006: "Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nda ve Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'nde Borçlanma Politikaları ve Sonuçları" 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.WEB,weblink An Ottoman warning for indebted America, Niall Ferguson, Niall Ferguson, Financial Times, 2 January 2008, 4 February 2016, 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.Gold for the Sultan: Western Bankers and Ottoman Finance, 1856–1881, by Christopher Clay, London, 2001, p. 30. 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.WEB, Krasner, Stephen D., Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy, {{Google books, yes, tHJ5m56sBX4C, 135, |access-date=26 August 2014 }} 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.Articles 17, 18 and 19 of the Treaty of Lausanne (1923)) 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.Articles 20 and 21 of the Treaty of Lausanne (1923)) 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.JOURNAL, Melichárek, Maroš, Srbské nádeje a sklamania: Jovan Ristić a Berlínsky kongres /Serbia's Hopes and Disillusions: Jovan Ristić and the Congress of Berlin/,weblink Od moravských luk k balkánským horám: Václavu Štěpánkovi k šedesátinám, January 2019, en,

Chronology of the Great Eastern Crisis and its aftermath

{{Commons category}}

Precursors

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

Crisis

• Herzegovina uprising (1875–1877)
• Stara Zagora Uprising (1875)
• April Uprising (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)
• 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)
• Ê»Urabi 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

References

{{Reflist}}

Further reading

• JOURNAL, Unprinted documents: Russo-British relations during the Eastern Crisis (VIII. The eve of the armistice),weblink The Slavonic and East European Review, November 1946, 25, 64,
• JOURNAL, Unprinted documents: Russo-British relations during the Eastern Crisis (VIII. On the edge of war),weblink The Slavonic and East European Review, April 1947, 25, 65,
• Anderson, M.S. The Eastern Question, 1774–1923: A Study in International Relations (1966) online {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200619025514weblink |date=2020-06-19 }}
• BOOK, Branković, Slobodan, Great eastern crisis and Serbia, 1875-1878, {{Google books, yes, cmjVPgAACAAJ, |year=1998|publisher=Svetska srpska zajednica, Institut srpskog naroda}}
• ENCYCLOPEDIA, David M., Goldfrank, Berlin, Congress of, Encyclopedia of Russian History, 2003, 978-0028656939, Millar, James R., Macmillan Reference USA,weblink
• BOOK, Király, Béla K., Rothenberg, Gunther Erich, War and Society in East Central Europe: Insurrections wars and the eastern crisis in the 1870s, {{Google books, yes, M2HfAAAAMAAJ, |year=1985|publisher=Brooklyn College Press|isbn=978-0-88033-090-9}}
• Langer, William L. European Alliances and Alignments: 1871-1890 (1950) pp 151–70. Online
• BOOK, Millman, Richard, Richard Millman (historian), Britain and the Eastern question, 1875–1878,weblink 1979, Clarendon Press, 978-0-19-822379-5,
• BOOK, Medlicott, W. N., W. N. Medlicott, 1963, The Congress of Berlin and After: A Diplomatic History of the Near East Settlement, 1878–1880, Second, London, Frank Cass, , Focus on the aftermath.
• Munro, Henry F. The Berlin congress (1918) online free, 41pp of text, 600 pp of documents
• BOOK, Taylor, A. J. P., A. J. P. Taylor, The struggle for mastery in Europe: 1848–1918,weblink 1954, Oxford University Press, {{Dead link|date=March 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
• BOOK, Yavuz, M. Hakan, Peter, Sluglett, War and Diplomacy: The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 and the Treaty of Berlin, University of Utah Press, 2012, 978-1-60781-150-3,

{{Great Eastern Crisis}}{{Authority control}}