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==Background==
[[File:The_defeat_of_Shipka_Peak,_Bulgarian_War_of_Independence.jpeg|thumbnail|left|300px|Russian and Bulgarian troops defending against Turkish troops at Shipka Pass during Russo-Turkish War.]]
The Ottoman Empire was in terminal decline and since the start of the 19th century it had been in retreat in the Balkans, which it had once dominated.<ref>Taylor, Alan J. P. (1954). ''Struggle for the Mastery of Europe 1848–1918''. UK: Oxford University Press. p. 241</ref> However, it still retained control over large areas of the southern Balkans. The region was very unstable. The population of the Balkans was made up largely of Slavs and many of these wanted the creation of a single Slavic state in the region, this ideology was known as Pan-Slavism. The nationalist ideology of Pan-Slavism was very hostile to the Ottoman Turks, but generally support Russian influence in the Balkans, as it was considered a Slavic nation. Russia considered itself to be the defender of the Christian Slavs against the Muslim Ottomans.<ref>Taylor, p. 167</ref>
