The Protocol of St. Petersburg is often cited as the end of the Congress System, as it represented the failure of the Congress of St. Petersburg (1825) to resolve the question of the Greek War of Independence against the Ottomans. Russia, seeking territory and influence in the Black Sea and the Balkans, and to protect the Eastern Orthodox Christians under Muslim Ottoman rule, supported Greek independence and was dissatisfied with other Powers' desire to treat the uprising as an internal matter and support for the status quo. Russian and the United Kingdom entered a bilateral agreement to enforce their plan, by war if necessary, for a mediated end to the conflict with Greek autonomy within the Ottoman Empire. The other Great Powers were not consulted in this Protocol and though France later joined, Austria and Prussia opposed the Protocol and the threat it posed to the conservative, anti-nationalist stability they sought to impose on Europe. The Ottomans also rejected the Protocol until their defeat at the Battle of Navarino at the hands of the British, French, Russian, and Greek forces forced them to the negotiating table.