London Conference of 1832

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The London Conference of 1832 was an international conference convened to establish a stable government in Greece. Negotiations among the three Great Powers (Britain, France and Russia) resulted in the establishment of the Kingdom of Greece under a Bavarian Prince. The decisions were ratified in the Treaty of Constantinople later that year. The treaty followed the Akkerman Convention which had previously recognized another territorial change in the Balkans, the suzerainty of the Principality of Serbia. [1] [2]

Contents

Background

Greece had won its independence from the Ottoman Empire in the Greek War of Independence (1821–1829) with the help of Britain, France and Russia. In the London Protocol of 3 February 1830, the three powers had assigned the borders of the new state. However, when the governor of Greece, John Capodistria (Ioannis Kapodistrias) was assassinated in 1831 in Nafplion, the Greek peninsula plunged into confusion. The Great Powers sought a formal end of the war and a recognized government in Greece.

As Foreign Secretary, Viscount Palmerston was deeply interested in Greece Palmerston.jpg
As Foreign Secretary, Viscount Palmerston was deeply interested in Greece

Conference of London

In May 1832, British Foreign Secretary Palmerston convened with French and Russian diplomats, and, without consultation of the Greeks, decided that Greece should be a monarchy. The convention offered the throne to the Bavarian Prince, Otto. They also established the line of succession which would pass the crown to Otto's descendants, or his younger brothers should he have no issue. It was also decided that in no case would the crowns of Greece and Bavaria be joined. As co-guarantors of the monarchy, the Great Powers also empowered their ambassadors in Constantinople, the Ottoman capital, to secure the end of the Greek War of Independence.

On 21 July 1832 British ambassador Sir Stratford Canning and the other representatives concluded the Treaty of Constantinople, which set the boundaries of the new Kingdom of Greece along the Arta–Volos line.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treaty of Constantinople (1832)</span> Treaty setting territory of new Kingdom of Greece

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">London Protocol (1830)</span> 1830 agreement between the United Kingdom, France, and Russia

The London Protocol of 1830, also known as the Protocol of Independence in Greek historiography, was a treaty signed between France, Russia, and Great Britain on 3 February 1830. It was the first official international diplomatic act that recognized Greece as a fully sovereign and independent state, separate from the Ottoman Empire. The protocol afforded Greece the political, administrative, and commercial rights of an independent state, and defined the northern border of Greece from the mouth of the Achelous or Aspropotamos river to the mouth of the Spercheios river. As a result of the Greek War of Independence, which had broken out in 1821, the autonomy of Greece in one form or another had been recognized already since 1826, and a provisional Greek government under Governor Ioannis Kapodistrias existed, but the conditions of the Greek autonomy, its political status, and the borders of the new Greek state, were being debated between the Great Powers, the Greeks, and the Ottoman government.

The London Protocol of 22 March 1829 was an agreement between the three Great Powers, which amended the first London Protocol on the creation of an internally autonomous, but tributary Greek state under Ottoman suzerainty.

The London Protocol of 16 November 1828 was an agreement among the three Great Powers, which established the creation of an internally autonomous, but tributary Greek state under Ottoman suzerainty.

The Protocol of St. Petersburg was an 1826 Anglo-Russian agreement for the settlement of the Greek War of Independence.

The Conference of Poros was a meeting held in 1828 by British, French and Russian diplomats to determine the borders of independent Greece.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kingdom of Greece</span> Period of Greek statehood from 1832 to 1923 and 1935 to 1973

The Kingdom of Greece was established in 1832 and was the successor state to the First Hellenic Republic. It was internationally recognised by the Treaty of Constantinople, where Greece also secured its full independence from the Ottoman Empire after nearly four centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Territorial evolution of Greece</span>

The borders of Greece have changed nine times since the Protocol of London on March 22, 1829 until the accession of the Dodecanese in 1947.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aspropotamos–Spercheios line</span> Border between Greece and the Ottoman Empire between 1830 and 1832

The Aspropotamos–Spercheios line or Achelöos–Spercheios line was Greece's first land border with the Ottoman Empire, established by the London Protocol (1830).

References

  1. Konstantopoulou Photeine, The foundation of the modern Greek state: Major treaties and conventions, 1830–1947 (1999)
  2. Mitev, Plamen; Parvev, Ivan; Baramova, Maria; Racheva, Vania (2010), Empires and Peninsulas: Southeastern Europe between Karlowitz and the Peace of Adrianople, 1699–1829, ISBN   978-3-643-10611-7