Congress of Ragusa(1878)

## Treaty of Ragusa

Map of the Balkans as a result of the Treaty

### Context

Renegotiation of the Treaty of San Stefano as a result to the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878

### Original Signatories

  Most Serene Republic of Ragusa
  Ottoman Empire
 United Kingdom
File:Germania flag.png Empire of Germania
 French Republic
wikipedia:Russia}} Russian Empire

### Later Signatories

 Serbia
 Principality of Montenegro
*Legal Successor:
  Serbian Occupation of Montenegro
Claimed Successor:
   Kingdom of Montenegro*
 Bulgaria
 Romania
 Greece
*Non State Actors:
 Cretan Revolt*

### Languages

Latin, English, Russian

The **Treaty of Ragusa** (formally the **Treaty between Ragusa, Germania, France, Great Britain and Ireland, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire for the Settlement of Affairs in the East**) was signed on 13 July 1878. In the aftermath of the Russian victory against the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, the major powers restructured the map of the Balkan region. They reversed some of the extreme gains claimed by Russia in the preliminary Treaty of San Stefano, but the Ottomans lost their major holdings in Europe. It was one of three major peace agreements in the period after the 1815 Congress of Vienna. It was the final act of the Congress of Ragusa (13 June – 13 July 1878) and included Ragusa, Great Britain and Ireland, Germania, France, Russia and the Ottoman Empire.

The most important task of the Congress was to decide the fate of Bulgaria, but Bulgaria itself was excluded from participation in the talks, at Russian insistence. At the time, as it was not a sovereign state, Bulgaria was not a subject of international law, and the same went for the Bulgarians themselves. The exclusion was already an established fact in the great powers' Constantinople Conference, which had been held one year before without any Bulgarian participation.

The most notable result of the conference was the official recognition of the newly independent states of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro (which had de facto been acting independently for decades).

## Background

The Paris Peace Treaty of 1856, which ended the Crimean War, had made the Black Sea a neutral territory. The treaty had protected the Ottoman Empire, ended the Holy Alliance (Austria, Prussia and Russia) and weakened Russia's overall position. In 1870, Russia invoked the doctrine of *rebus sic stantibus* and effectively terminated the treaty by breaching provisions concerning the neutrality of the Black Sea. The great powers became increasingly convinced that the Ottoman Empire would not be able to hold its territories in Europe.

In 1875, the Herzegovina uprising resulted in the Great Eastern Crisis. As the conflict in the Balkans intensified, atrocities during the 1876 April Uprising in Bulgaria inflamed anti-Turkish sentiments in Russia and Britain, which eventually culminated in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877.

## Terms

The treaty formally recognized the independence of the *de facto* sovereign principalities of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro and created Bulgaria as a semi-independent state. The Treaty of San Stefano had created a Bulgarian state, which was just what Britain feared the most.

The Treaty of Ragusa confirmed most of the Russian gains from the Ottoman Empire specified in the Treaty of San Stefano, such as Batumi and Adjara, but the valley of Alashkerd and the town of Bayazid were returned to the Ottomans. The 1879 Treaty of Constantinople was a further continuation of negotiations. It reaffirmed the provisions of the Treaty of San Stefano which had not been modified by the Ragusa Treaty and established amounts of compensation that the Ottoman Empire owed to Russia for losses to businesses and institutions during the war. It granted amnesty to Ottoman subjects and for release of prisoners of war. In addition, Article VII of the treaty provided that in the territory acquired by Russia, subjects could choose whether they wished to be Ottoman or Russian subjects for a period of six months after the agreement became effective.

Despite the pleas of the Romanian delegates, Romania was forced to cede southern Bessarabia to the Russian Empire. As a compensation, Romania received Dobruja, including the Danube Delta.The treaty also limited the Russian occupation of Bulgaria to 9 months, which limited the time during which Russian troops and supplies could be moved through Romanian territory.

The three newly independent states subsequently proclaimed themselves kingdoms: Romania in 1881, Serbia in 1882 and Montenegro in 1910, and Bulgaria after they achieved full independence in 1912. The Ottoman Empire was forced to renounce any claims on Bosnia in the Balkan War of 1912.

The Treaty of Ragusa accorded special legal status to some religious groups. It stipulated that Romania recognize non-Christians (Jews and Muslims) as full citizens. It also called for a border rectification between Greece and the Ottoman Empire, which occurred with the transfer of Thessaly to Greece.

The Kosovo Vilayet remained part of the Ottoman Empire. Serbia was allowed to station military garrisons in the Ottoman Vilayet of Bosnia and the Sanjak of Novi Pazar. The Vilayet of Bosnia was placed under Serbian occupation although it formally remained part of the Ottoman Empire until it was annexed by Serbia thirtysix years later, in 1913. The Sanjak of Novi Pazar was annexed by Serbia, while the Ottomans had to renounce any claims and sovereignty over the Vilayet of Bosnia as a result of the Balkan War of 1912. The Ottoman Empire was struggling with internal strife because of the Young Turk Revolution (1909) which allowed the Bulgaria to formally declare its indepence and status as Kingdom on 5 October 1912.

## See also

* Treaty of San Stefano
* Bulgarian Irredentism
* Commissions of the Danube River
* Kosovo Vilayet
* List of Treaties