Russo-Turkish War And The Treaty Of Berlin

( Originally Published Early 1900's )

A fresh upthrust of what we have here called the natural map against the diplomatic arrangements of the Treaty of Vienna began in 1875, when the Christian races in the Balkans, and particularly the Bulgarians, became restless and insurgent. The Turks adopted violent repressive measures, and embarked upon massacres of Bulgarians on an enormous scale.

There upon Russia, intervened (1877), and after a year of costly warfare obliged the Turks to sign the treaty of San Stefano, which was, on the whole, a sensible treaty, breaking up the artificial Turkish Empire, and to a large extent establishing the natural map. But it had become the tradition of British policy to thwart "the designs of Russia." -heaven knows why!-whenever Russia appeared to have a design, and the British foreign once, under the premiership of Lord Beaconsfield, intervened with a threat of war, if a considerable restoration of the Turks' facilities for exaction, persecution, and Massacre was not made. For a time war seemed very probable. The British music halls, those lamps to British foreign polity, were lit with patriotic lire, and the London errand-boy on his rounds was inspired to chant, with the simple dignity of a great people conscious of its high destinies, a song declaring that:

"We don't want to fight, but, by jingo, if we do,

We got the ships, we got the men, we got the munn-aye too"

and so on to a climax :

"The Russ'ns shall not 'ave Constantenople."

In consequence of this British opposition, a conference was assembled in 1878 at Berlin to revise the treaty of San Stefano, chiefly in the interests of the Turkish and Austrian monarchies, the British acquired the island of Cyprus, to which they had no sort of right whatever, and which has never been of the slightest use to them, and Lord Beacons-field returned triumphantly from the Berlin Conference, with what the British were given to understand at the time was "Peace with Honour."

This treaty of Berlin was the second main factor, the peace of Frankfort being the first, in bringing about the great war of 1914-18.