Great Britain and Serbia 1856–1862

Great Britain and Serbia 1856–1862, a book of Ljubodrag P. Ristić recently published by the Institute for Balkan Studies, covers the period between the Treaty of Paris, where Serbia, an autonomous principality under Ottoman suzerainty, came under the protection of the Great Powers instead of Russia, and the conference at Kanlica ending the Turco-Serbian conflict over the Turkish bombardment of Belgrade in June 1862. In order to contain Russian influence in the Balkans and protect her interests in the eastern Mediterranean, Britain continued to favour the preservation of the Ottoman Empire. Her position entailed postponing a solution to the serious and knotty Eastern Question, of which a small but important part was the issue of Serbian national liberation. Serbia’s rulers and politicians harboured no illusions that Britain would come to her rescue amidst the conflicting claims and interests of Austria and Russia, but they did hope that British diplomatic assessments could become less biased in Ottoman favour. Positively convinced that the Principality of Serbia was fully under St Petersburg’s control and that therefore any furtherance of its autonomy or improvement of the position of the Serbs in the Ottoman Empire could lead to another conflict among the Great Powers, the Foreign Office saw no reason for altering its Balkan policy or its attitude towards Serbia. At Kanlica Britain was willing to agree to a compromise between the principle of preserving the Ottoman Empire and the rights of peoples.