Page:The Boy Travellers in the Russian Empire.djvu/502

496 Turkey which the Porte rejected. Russia declared war against Turkey April 24, 1877, and immediately entered the Turkish dominions in Roumania and Armenia.

"The war lasted until March 3, 1878, when a treaty of peace was made at San Stefano, near Constantinople. Many battles were fought during the war, and the losses were heavy on both sides; the severest battles were those of the Shipka Pass and of Plevna. The fortune of war fluctuated, but on the whole the successes were on the side of Russia, and



her armies finally stood ready to enter Constantinople. Her losses were said to have been fully one hundred thousand men, and the cost of the war was six hundred million dollars.

"After the war came the Berlin Conference of 1878, which gave independence to some of the countries formerly controlled by Turkey, made new conditions for the government of others, regulated the boundaries between Russia and Turkey, giving the former several ports and districts of importance, and required the Porte to guarantee certain rights and privileges to her Christian subjects. England interfered, as she generally does, to prevent Russia from reaping the full advantages she expected from