The Balkan states

In the 1870s most South Slavs were still under Ottoman (Turkish) rule and some under the Habsburgs; only Montenegro and the Principality of Serbia, which covered part of the Serbian lands, governed themselves. In Bulgaria V. Levski set up secret committees to fight for an independent republic (he was executed in 1873); the April Uprising took place in 1876, in which the poet and revolutionary H. Botev died; it was harshly suppressed and caused wide protest in Europe. After the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 the Treaty of San Stefano foresaw a large Bulgaria, but the Congress of Berlin (1878) reduced its territory; Bulgaria became a principality only nominally dependent on Turkey and a constitutional monarchy under the 1879 (Tarnovo) constitution. In 1885 Northern Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia united; in 1908 Bulgaria declared full independence. The independence of Serbia, Montenegro and Romania was recognised in 1878. After uprisings in 1909–1911 Albania declared independence on 28 November 1912, during the First Balkan War. In the Balkans the interests of Austria-Hungary, Russia, Germany and Britain clashed.