TheLondon Conference of 1832 was an international conference convened to establish a stable government inGreece. Negotiations among the threeGreat Powers (Britain,France andRussia) resulted in the establishment of theKingdom of Greece under aBavarian prince. The decisions were ratified in theTreaty of Constantinople later that year. The treaty followed theAkkerman Convention which had previously recognized another territorial change in theBalkans, thesuzerainty of thePrincipality of Serbia.[1][2]
Greece had won its independence from theOttoman Empire in theGreek War of Independence (1821–1829) with the help of Britain, France and Russia. In theLondon Protocol of 3 February 1830, the three powers had assigned the borders of the new state. However, when the governor of Greece,Ioannis Kapodistrias was assassinated in 1831 inNafplion, theGreek peninsula plunged into confusion. The Great powers sought a formal end of the war and a recognized government in Greece.
On 7 May 1832, BritishForeign SecretaryPalmerston convened with French and Russian diplomats, and, without consultation of the Greeks, decided that Greece should be a monarchy. The convention offered the throne to theBavarian Prince,Otto. They also established the line of succession which would pass the crown to Otto's descendants, or his younger brothers should he have no issue. It was also decided that in no case would the crowns of Greece and Bavaria be joined in apersonal union. As co-guarantors of the monarchy, the Great powers also empowered their ambassadors inConstantinople, theOttoman capital, to secure the end of theGreek War of Independence.
Under the Treaty of London signed on 7 May 1832 betweenBavaria and the protecting Powers, and dealing with how the Regency was to be managed untilOtto 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 theArta–Volos line as its northern frontier.
The factors that shaped the treaty included the refusal ofLeopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to assume the Greek throne. He was not at all satisfied with theAspropotamos–Spercheios line, which replaced the more favorableArta–Volos line considered by the Great Powers earlier.[3] The withdrawal ofLeopold I as a candidate for the throne of Greece and theJuly Revolution in France delayed the final settlement of the frontiers of the new kingdom until a new government was formed in London. LordPalmerston, who took over as Britishforeign secretary, agreed to theArta–Volos line. However, the secret note onCrete, which theBavarian plenipotentiary communicated to the Courts of Britain, France, and Russia, bore no fruit.
On 21 July 1832 British ambassador SirStratford Canning and the other representatives concluded theTreaty of Constantinople (signed on 21 July 1832), which set the boundaries of the newKingdom of Greece along theArta–Volos line.
The borders of the Kingdom were reiterated in the Protocol of London signed on 30 August 1832 by the Great Powers, which ratified the terms of theConstantinople Treaty in connection with the border between Greece and the Ottoman Empire and marked the end of theGreek War of Independence creating modern Greece as an independent state free of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire was indemnified in the sum of 40,000,000 piastres for the loss of the territory.