Page:The European Concert in the Eastern Question.djvu/254

 In 1862 the Turks invaded Montenegro and dictated terms of peace at Scutari, reserving to themselves the right to make a military road through the country and to protect it by block-houses.

Montenegro declared war against Turkey on 2nd July, 1876. Its independence was recognised by the Porte in the Treaty of San Stefano. At the Congress of Berlin it appeared that, formally or informally, all the Powers except England and Turkey had at that date recognised the independence of the Principality ; and the Treaty declares that, subject to certain conditions, 'the independence of Montenegro is recognised by the Sublime Porte and by all those of the High Contracting Parties who had not hitherto admitted it .'

X, XI. .—The Bulgarian kingdom became a Turkish province after the battle of Kossovo, 1389, and many of its great families adopted Mohammedanism in order to preserve their estates. The 'atrocities' of which this province was the scene in May, 1876, had much influence upon the policy of the Powers during the events which resulted in the Treaty of San Stefano. The 'great Bulgaria' created by that Treaty, stretching from the Danube to the Ægean, was severed by the Treaty of Berlin into three portions, of which, that north of the Balkans became the autonomous tributary province of 'Bulgaria ;' that immediately south of that range became the Province of 'Eastern Roumelia,' under the direct political and military authority of the Sultan, though with 'administrative autonomy ;' while the most southerly portion was unreservedly restored to Turkey.

Even omitting provisions of a purely temporary character, no less than forty-three of the sixty-four articles of the Treaty of Berlin are devoted to Roumania, Servia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, and Eastern Roumelia.