and Montenegro were jeopardised by the creation of
a Great Bulgaria, but that would not have mattered
if in return they had been given control of the purely
Serb provinces of Bosnia and Hercegovina, which ethnically
they can claim just as legitimately as Bulgaria claims
most of Macedonia. The Treaty of San Stefano was,
however, soon replaced by that of Berlin. By
its terms both Serbia and Montenegro achieved complete
independence and the former ceased to be a tributary
state of Turkey. The Serbs were given the districts
of southern Serbia which they had occupied, and which
are all ethnically Serb except Pirot, the population
of which is a sort of cross between Serb and Bulgar.
The Serbs also undertook to build a railway through
their country to the Turkish and Bulgarian frontiers.
Montenegro was nearly doubled in size, receiving the
districts of Nik[’s]i[’c], Podgorica, and
others; certain places in the interior the Turks and
Albanians absolutely refused to surrender, and to
compensate for these Montenegro was given a strip of
coast with the townlets of Antivari and Dulcigno.
The memory of Gladstone, who specially espoused Montenegro’s
cause in this matter, is held in the greatest reverence
in the brave little mountain country, but unfortunately
the ports themselves are economically absolutely useless.
Budua, higher up the Dalmatian coast, which would
have been of some use, was handed over to Austria,
to which country, already possessed of Cattaro and
all the rest of Dalmatia, it was quite superfluous.
Greatest tragedy of all for the future of the Serb
race, the administration of Bosnia and Hercegovina
was handed over ‘temporarily’ to Austria-Hungary,
and Austrian garrisons were quartered throughout those
two provinces, which they were able to occupy only
after the most bitter armed opposition on the part
of the inhabitants, and also in the Turkish sandjak
or province of Novi-Pazar, the ancient Raska and cradle
of the Serb state; this strip of mountainous territory
under Turkish administrative and Austrian military
control was thus converted into a fortified wedge
which effectually kept the two independent Serb states
of Serbia and Montenegro apart. After all these
events the Serbs had to set to work to put their enlarged
house in order. But the building of railways
and schools and the organization of the services cost
a lot of money, and as public economy is not a Serbian
virtue the debt grew rapidly. In 1882 Serbia proclaimed
itself a kingdom and was duly recognized by the other
nations. But King Milan did not learn to manage
the affairs of his country any better as time went
on. He was too weak to stand alone, and having
freed himself from Turkey he threw himself into the
arms of Austria, with which country he concluded a
secret military convention. In 1885, when Bulgaria
and ‘Eastern Rumelia’ successfully coalesced
and Bulgaria thereby received a considerable increase
of territory and power, the Serbs, prompted by jealousy,