Congress of Berlin - Background

Background

In the decades leading up to the Congress of Berlin, Russia and the Balkans had been gripped by a movement known as Pan-Slavism, a desire to unite all the Balkan Slavs under one rule. This movement, which evolved similarly to the Pan-Germanic and Pan-Italian movements that resulted in the unification of their respective nations, took different forms in the various Slavic nations. In Imperial Russia, Pan-Slavism meant the creation of a unified Slavic state under Russian direction – essentially a byword for Russian conquest of the Balkan peninsula. The realization of this goal would result in Russia’s controlling of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, giving it economic control of the Black Sea and substantially increasing its geopolitical power. In the Balkans, Pan-Slavism meant unifying the Balkan Slavs under the rule of a particular Balkan state – though which state was meant to serve as the locus for unification was not always clear; initiative waffled between Serbia and Bulgaria. It is worthy to remember that the creation of a Bulgarian Exarch by the Ottomans in 1870 was to separate the Bulgarians religiously from the Greek Patriarch and politically from Serbia. From the Balkan point of view, the peninsula needed a Piedmont, and a corresponding France to sponsor its unification. Though the views of how Balkan politics should proceed differed, both began with the deposition of the Sultan as ruler of the Balkans and the ousting of the Ottomans from Europe. How this was to proceed, or whether it was to proceed at all, was the major question to be answered at the Congress of Berlin.