TR EN DE FR ARAtlas of the Sultans · Wars, battles and treaties

Treaty of San Stefano

Treaty · 1878

The war Russia declared on 24 April 1877 at first went in the Ottomans' favour thanks to the exploits of Gazi Ahmed Muhtar Pasha in eastern Anatolia and Gazi Osman Pasha in the Balkans, but the Russians reached Erzurum in the east and the outskirts of Istanbul in the west. According to the TDV article on the Treaty of San Stefano, the Armistice of Edirne was signed on 31 January 1878 at the Porte's request. Negotiations at San Stefano (Yeşilköy), with Foreign Minister Safvet Pasha and the ambassador in Berlin Sadullah Bey for the Ottomans and General Ignatiev and Nelidov for Russia, ended with the signing of the twenty-nine-article treaty on 3 March 1878. The treaty was a triumph of Pan-Slav policy; Russia's one-sided upsetting of the balance aroused the opposition of other powers, above all Britain, and its terms were revised at the Congress of Berlin, which met on 13 June 1878.

About the event

Signed	3 March 1878
Place of signing	San Stefano (Yeşilköy), Istanbul
Parties	Ottoman Empire, Russian Empire
Signatories	Safvet Pasha; Sadullah Bey; Nikolay Ignatiev; Aleksandr Nelidov

Main terms of the treaty

Romania, Serbia and Montenegro were to be independent; Montenegro would reach the Adriatic and Serbia would receive Niš
Bulgaria was to become an autonomous principality under the Ottomans stretching from the Danube to the Aegean and from Albania to the Black Sea
Reforms were to be made in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Christian districts of Rumelia and the Armenian-inhabited parts of eastern Anatolia
Against most of a war indemnity of 1,410,000,000 roubles, some places in Rumelia and Kars, Ardahan, Batumi and Doğubayazıt were to be ceded to Russia; the remaining 300,000,000 roubles were to be paid in cash
Russian troops were to evacuate Rumelia within three months and eastern Anatolia within six months

Aftermath

The terms were reconsidered at the Congress of Berlin (13 June 1878) and replaced by the Treaty of Berlin.

This event in the atlas

Took place during the reign of Abdulhamid II (1876–1909). Abdulhamid II

The atlas records this territorial change for the year:

− Montenegro (loss, 1878)
− Batumi (Adjara) (loss, 1878)
− Danubian Bulgaria (loss, 1878)
− Southern Dobruja (Dobrich–Silistra) (loss, 1878)
− Bosnia (loss, 1878)
− Herzegovina (loss, 1878)
− Cyprus (loss, 1878)

Open the reign of Abdulhamid II on the map

Context of the period

By the atlas's calculation the Ottoman lands covered about 3,721,000 km² in 1878; at the start of Abdulhamid II's reign they measured 4,123,000 km², at its end 2,996,000 km².

During Abdulhamid II (1876–1909) the atlas records 0 regions gained and 19 regions lost.

Regions lost: Wallachia (1877), Moldavia (1877), Morava Serbia (Niš–Kruševac) (1877), Smederevo–Šumadija (1877), Belgrade–Šabac (1877), Northern Dobruja (Constanța–Tulcea) (1877), Kars–Ardahan–Artvin (1877), Montenegro (1878), and 11 more.

Abdulhamid II in brief

His thirty-three-year reign saw both the greatest territorial loss and the most intensive investment in schools, railways and the telegraph. Proclaiming and then suspending the constitution, rule through a centralised intelligence network and the cost of the 1877–78 war make him the most controversial sultan in Ottoman history.

Other battles and treaties of Abdulhamid II

In nearby years (1871–1876), under other sultans

Areas are land area computed from the atlas's region data; see Method and sources.

Source: TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, “AYASTEFANOS ANTLAŞMASI” (Turkish); text written for the atlas.

Cite as: Atlas of the Sultans, “Treaty of San Stefano (1878): Terms, Date and Outcome”, https://padisahlaratlasi.com/en/events/treaty-of-san-stefano/ (last updated 12 November 2026). Corrections

Terms on this page: Sublime Porte