
Map showing the original territory of the
Kingdom of Greece as laid down in the Treaty of 1832 (in dark blue)
The 'Τreaty of Constantinople' was the product of the Constantinople Conference which opened in February 1832 with the participation of the
Great Powers (the
United Kingdom,
France and
Russia) on the one hand and the
Ottoman Empire on the other. The factors which shaped the treaty included the refusal of
Léopold King of
Belgium to assume the
Greek throne. He ''inter alia'' was not at all satisfied with the Aspropotamos-Zitouni borderline, which replaced the more favorable Arta-Volos line considered by the Great Powers earlier.
The withdrawal of
Léopold as a candidate for the throne of Greece, and the
July Revolution in France, delayed the final settlement of the frontiers of the new kingdom until a new government was formed in the United Kingdom. Lord
Palmerston, who took over as British
Foreign Secretary, agreed to the Arta-Volos borderline. However, the secret note on
Crete, which the
Bavarian plenipotentiary communicated to the Courts of the United Kingdom, France and Russia, bore no fruit.
Under the
protocol signed on
May 71832 between Bavaria and the protecting Powers, and basically dealing with the way in which the Regency was to be managed until
Otto reached his majority (while also concluding the second Greek loan, for a sum of £2,400,000 sterling), Greece was defined as an independent kingdom, with the Arta-Volos line as its northern frontier. The Ottoman Empire was indemnified in the sum of 40,000,000 piastres for the loss of the territory. The borders of the Kingdom were reiterated in the London Protocol of
August 30,
1832 signed by the Great Powers, which ratified the terms of the Constantinople Arrangement in connection with the border between Greece and the Ottoman Empire and marked the end of the
Greek War of Independence creating modern Greece as an independent state free of the Ottoman Empire.
See also
★
London Protocol
★
List of treaties
Sources
★
Treaty of Constantinople