Page "Balkan League" Paragraph 3

After the Crimean War ( 1853 – 1856 ), Russia realized that the other Great Powers would spare no effort to prevent her from gaining access to the Mediterranean.

As a consequence she started engineering an ambitious plan for indirect expansion through the creation of friendly and closely allied states under Russian patronage in the Balkan peninsula.

Instrumental to this policy was the emerging Panslavic movement, which henceforth formed the basis of Russian foreign policy up until the end of the Tsarist regime in 1917.

Working in this direction, following the victorious Russo-Turkish War of 1877 – 1878, Russia managed to establish an autonomous Bulgarian state.

Similarly, after saving Serbia from annihilation at the Turks ' hands in 1876, Russia forced the Ottomans to accept a full independent and expanded Serbia two years later.

However, although both states acknowledged Russian patronage and protection, their conflicted national aspirations soon led to a series of hostile actions before and after the short war between them.

With the antagonism of the European powers mounting, and smarting from her humiliation by the Austrians at the Bosnian crisis, Russia sought to gain the upper hand by creating a Russophile " Slavic block " in the Balkans, directed both against Austria-Hungary and the Ottomans.

Consequently, Russian diplomacy began pressuring the two countries to reach a compromise and form an alliance.