The Congress of Berlin was called in 1878 by the signers of the Treaty of Paris of 1856 to change the terms of the Treaty of San Stefano, which ended the Russo-Turkish War. Russia felt the original treaty was fine, but Great Britain threatened to go to war unless the terms were changed. German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck offered to mediate at a convention in Berlin. He was chairman of the congress. Disraeli represented Great Britain; Count Andrássy, Austria-Hungary; William Henry Waddington, France; Aleksandr Gorchakov, Russia; Count Corti, Italy; and Alexander Karatheodori, the Ottomans.
The compromises reached in the ensuing Treaty of Berlin and the accompanying British-Turkish pact greatly modified the Treaty of San Stefano. Montenegro, Serbia, and Romania were acknowledged as independent nations. Romania, however, was forced to trade southern Bessarabia with Russia in return for the Dobruja. The nation of Greater Bulgaria, which had been created in the Treaty of Stefano, was divided into North Bulgaria, a principality under nominal Ottoman control; Eastern Rumelia, which was governed, with certain autonomous rights, by a Christian appointee of the Ottoman emperor; and Macedonia, under unrestricted Ottoman sovereignty. Bosnia and Hercegovina, which originally caused the Russo-Turkish War, were granted to Austria-Hungary for administration.
In Asia, Russia acquired Ardahan, Batum, and Kars from the Ottomans. Great Britain got temporary control of Cyprus, and Crete was promised constitutional government.
Other provisions discussed at the Congress included a redefinition of the Greco-Ottoman boundary, the demilitarization of the lower Danube, and the protection of the Armenians in Turkey. Russia was upset at Bismarck's handling of the conference, which brought an end to the first Three Emperors' League.