Diplomatic Preparations for War

The Czar pledged his word that he did not aim at the acquisition of Constantinople.

Continuing Russo-Turkish War 1877,
our selection from Political History of Recent Times by Wilhelm Mueller published in 1882. The selection is presented in twelve easy 5-minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Russo-Turkish War 1877.

Time: 1877-1878
Place: Balkans

England’s pro-Turkish attitude naturally excited the greatest indignation in Russia, where all classes of the population were clamorous for war with Turkey. On July 8th a meeting took place at Reichstadt between Alexander and Francis Joseph, at tended by their chancellors, at which it appears to have been decided that no armed intervention should be attempted for the present, and that neither State should in any case act independently of the other. Germany naturally assented to this arrangement. General Klapka, one of the heroes of 1848, arrived in Constantinople on July 21st, and put himself at the disposal of the Turkish Government, his intention being to raise a Hungarian legion to fight under the crescent against the Christian Slavs. This project met with the hearty approval of the Hungarian press. On October 23rd the students of Pest expressed to Minister – President Tisza their wish to hold a torchlight procession in honor of the Turkish consul, and on January 13, 1877, a deputation of Hungarian students presented Abdul-Kerim, the conqueror of the Serbians, with a saber as “a pledge of the intimate friendship between the two countries.” The Magyars were also influenced by interest as well as sentiment, for they perceived that a strong Slavonic State to the south must result in giving the five million Slavs in Hungary a share in its government.

In addition to England and the Magyars, one other friend of Turkish rule should be mentioned, namely, the Pope. The ground of this friendship was indicated in an article in the Voce delta Verita, a Vatican sheet, to the effect that the rule of the Turkish crescent was preferable to that of the Greek Catholic cross. This alliance, which restrained from revolt the Roman Catholic population in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was very welcome to the Porte, and the latter showed its gratitude by settling certain difficulties that had arisen regarding the Armenian Church and promising to bestow special privileges on its Roman Catholic subjects.

The Sultan with whom Serbia must negotiate a peace was no longer Amurath V. The “reformer of the Turkish Empire,” after a reign of three months, fell a victim to an incurable brain trouble, and on August 31st his brother, Abdul-Hamid II, was declared Sultan in his stead. The great Powers, which had been negotiating in Constantinople and Belgrade with a view to peace, left it to the Porte to propose the terms, and on September 14th the latter laid before their representatives the plan of a treaty; but it was not acceptable. England, which had heretofore re fused to act in harmony with the other Powers, was allowed to propose terms of peace. On September 25th Sir Henry Elliot submitted to the Porte the following propositions: Restoration of the status quo ante in Serbia and Montenegro, the establishment of administrative autonomy in Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Bulgaria, and the execution of the reforms indicated in the Andrassy note. The official answer, communicated on October 2nd, while accepting the first two conditions, refused autonomy to the three provinces on the ground that a constitution, including a central parliament, was about to be granted to the whole empire, and all branches of the administration thoroughly reformed.

But before matters had reached this point hostilities had been again resumed. On September 28th Chernayeff, who had taken advantage of the truce to proclaim Prince Milan King of Serbia and cause the army to take the oath of allegiance to him, resumed the offensive, destroyed the two bridges which Abdul- Kerim had thrown across the Morava, and attacked the Turks. When victory seemed within his grasp, Hafiz Pacha arrived on the scene with thirty-three thousand fresh troops, and the Serbians were repulsed. After a long pause, on October 19th the Turks attacked the Serbian positions, and by the 31st of that month Alexinatz had been taken and destroyed and the way opened into the interior.

On October 30th Ignatieff, in an interview with Savfet Pacha, informed the latter, in the name of the Russian Emperor, that, unless within twenty-four hours the Porte signified its willingness to conclude an armistice with Serbia of six weeks or two months, Russia would break off her political relations with the Sultan. What Turkey might venture to refuse to the united demands of the disunited great Powers she did not dare to refuse to Russia alone, and on October 31st a two-months’ truce with Serbia was signed. England at once proposed a conference of the Powers on the basis of the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, with a view to establishing administrative autonomy in Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Bulgaria and after some objections from the Porte, all the Powers sent delegates to the Conference at Constantinople.

On November 2nd the Czar, in a conversation with Lord Loftus, the English ambassador at St. Petersburg, pledged his word that he did not aim at the acquisition of Constantinople, and that in case it became necessary to occupy Bulgaria the occupation should be merely temporary. But it soon appeared that the English Government was not satisfied. On November 9th, at the Lord Mayor’s banquet, Lord Beaconsfield, after glorifying the strength and resources of Great Britain, said: “In a righteous cause England is not the country that will have to in quire whether she can enter upon a second or third campaign. In a righteous cause England will commence a fight that will not end till right is done.” The allusion was manifest, and the Emperor Alexander’s speech to the nobles at Moscow on the following day was an evident answer to the challenge contained in the English Premier’s words. If he could not succeed in obtaining, with the concert of Europe, he said, such guarantees as he thought it necessary to exact, he was firmly determined to act in dependently, and was convinced that all Russia would respond to his summons.

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