ABSTRACT
Bratianu, who had steered the country through the Eastern Crisis, the war with Turkey and the Congress of Berlin, remained in office until 1888. At the Congress of Berlin, Habsburg diplomacy had provided Serbia with the best support that she could hope for in the circumstances, but in exchange imposed on Prince Milan the 1881 agreements that turned his principality into a satellite. The Treaty of Berlin had imposed the return to Russia of southern Bessarabia which had been Romanian again since the Treaty of Paris, in exchange for 15,600 sq. km of Ottoman Dobrudja up to and including the Danube delta. Austria-Hungary took over a large chunk of Turkey-in-Europe which rounded off her South Slav possessions. She also wanted to monitor her now fully independent Balkan neighbours, the kingdoms of Serbia and Romania, through diplomatic and trade links. Dual Monarchy's stability and balance through its South Slav and Romanian subjects, most of whom were in Hungary.
