On 7 May 1832, British
Foreign Secretary Palmerston 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 the
Bavarian 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 a
personal union. As co-guarantors of the monarchy, the Great powers also empowered their ambassadors in
Constantinople, the
Ottoman capital, to secure the end of the
Greek War of Independence. Under the Treaty of London signed on 7 May 1832 between
Bavaria and the protecting Powers, and dealing with how the Regency was to be managed until
Otto 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 the
Arta–Volos line as its northern frontier. The factors that shaped the treaty included the refusal of
Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to assume the Greek throne. He was not at all satisfied with the
Aspropotamos–Spercheios line, which replaced the more favorable
Arta–Volos line considered by the Great Powers earlier. The withdrawal of
Leopold I as a candidate for the throne of Greece and the
July Revolution in France delayed the final settlement of the frontiers of the new kingdom until a new government was formed in London. Lord
Palmerston, who took over as British
foreign secretary, agreed to the
Arta–Volos line. However, the secret note on
Crete, which the
Bavarian plenipotentiary communicated to the Courts of Britain, France, and Russia, bore no fruit. On 21 July 1832 British ambassador Sir
Stratford Canning and the other representatives concluded the
Treaty of Constantinople (signed on 21 July 1832), which set the boundaries of the new
Kingdom of Greece along the
Arta–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 the
Constantinople Treaty in connection with the border between Greece and the Ottoman Empire and marked the end of the
Greek 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. == See also ==