<P> The Greek War of Independence (1821--1829) was fought to liberate Greece from a three centuries long Ottoman occupation . Independence was secured by the intervention of the British and French navies and the French and Russian armies, but Greece was limited to an area including perhaps only one - third of ethnic Greeks, that later grew significantly with the Megali Idea project . The war ended many of the privileges of the Phanariot Greeks of Constantinople . </P> <P> Following a failed Bulgarian revolt in 1876, the subsequent Russo - Turkish war ended with the provisional Treaty of San Stefano established a huge new realm of Bulgaria including most of Macedonia and Thrace . The final 1878 Treaty of Berlin allowed the other Great Powers to limit the size of the new Russian client state and even briefly divided this rump state in two, Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia, but the irredentist claims from the first treaty would direct Bulgarian claims through the first and second Balkan Wars and both World Wars . </P> <P> Romania fought on the Russian side in the Russo - Turkish War and in the 1878 Treaty of Berlin, Romania was recognized as an independent state by the Great Powers . </P> <P> Centuries of armed and unarmed struggle ended with the recognition of Serbian independence from the Ottoman Empire at the Congress of Berlin in 1878 . </P>

Why were there widespread decolonization efforts and independence movements after world war ii