Slav insurgencies against the Ottoman Empire rock…

Slav insurgencies against the Ottoman Empire rock the Balkans.

Turkey viciously crushes a Christian revolt in eastern Rumelia.

Russia invades Rumelia and defeats Turkey, gaining influence in the Balkans by creating the independent state of Greater Bulgaria.

Britain and Austria-Hungary intervene, Britain's fleet checking a second Russian drive for a warm water port; the British take Cyprus to prevent further Russian advances.

The Great Powers hold the Congress of Berlin to impose a redesigned order upon the Balkan states, limiting Russian gains at British insistence.

The Principality of Bulgaria is created in 1878 as a result of war waged in the territory of modern Bulgaria between the Russian and Ottoman empires, in which Russia is joined by the Romanians, the Serbs, and the Montenegrins.

The peace settlement, imposed on the Ottoman government by Russia at this high point of its influence on Balkan affairs, provides for a new disposition of the European provinces of the Ottoman Empire that ends any effective Turkish control over the Balkans.

The independence of the Kingdom of Romania is recognized, together with that of the principalities of Serbia and Montenegro, the boundaries of which are extended so as to be contiguous.

Romania is compelled to cede southern Bessarabia to Russia, receiving the Dobruja from Turkey in exchange.

Sultan Abdülhamid has had reasonable success in preserving the empire after 1878. (Apart from eastern Rumelia, he will lose no further territories until 1908.)

The principalities of Romania and Serbia gain recognition from the Great Powers as kingdoms in 1881 and 1882, respectively.