Balkan Wars

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BALKAN WARS

the first balkan war
second balkan or interallied war
consequences
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The Balkan Wars of 1912–1913 initiated a period of conflict in Europe that would last until 1918 and would endure in one form or another until 1999. These Balkan wars originated in the aspirations of the small nationalist states of southeastern Europe, already having achieved independence from the Ottoman Empire during the nineteenth century, to incorporate members of their nationalities remaining under Ottoman rule and thus achieve their maximum nationalist claims. In this way, the states of Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia sought to emulate the nineteenth-century nationalist successes of Germany and Italy.

Competing claims to Ottoman-held territories, especially Macedonia, had long prevented the Balkan states from cooperating against the Ottomans. When the Young Turks threatened to reinvigorate the Ottoman Empire after their 1908 coup, the leaders of the Balkan states began to seek ways to overcome their rivalries. Russian diplomacy facilitated their efforts. The Russians wanted to compensate for their setback in the Bosnian Crisis of 1908–1909 by establishing a pro-Russian Balkan alliance intended to impede any further Austro-Hungarian advances in the region. In March 1912, the Bulgarians and Serbs concluded an alliance under the aegis of Russia. Contained within this alliance agreement was a plan for the settlement of the Macedonian problem, including a provision for Russian mediation. The Bulgarians and Serbs then made individual agreements with the Greeks and Montenegrins, who themselves reached an agreement. By September 1912 this loose confederation, the Balkan League, was ready to achieve its goals.

the first balkan war

Montenegro began the First Balkan War on 8 October 1912 by declaring war on the Ottoman Empire. Before the other allies could join in, the Ottomans declared war on 17 October on the Balkan League. The Ottomans were confident that their army, recently upgraded with the help of German advisers, would quickly prevail against their Balkan adversaries.

The main theater of the ensuing conflict was Thrace. While one Bulgarian army besieged the major Ottoman fortress at Adrianople (Edirne), two others achieved major victories against the Ottomans at Kirk Kilisse and at Buni Hisar/Lule Burgas. The latter was the largest battle in Europe between the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871 and World War I. The Ottomans rallied at the Chataldzha, the last lines of defense before Constantinople. An attack by the exhausted and epidemic-ridden Bulgarians on 17 November against the Ottoman positions failed. Both sides then settled into trench warfare at Chataldzha.

Elsewhere the Serbian army broke the western Ottoman army at Kumanovo on 23 October. The Serbs then advanced against diminishing resistance into Macedonia, Kosovo, and on into Albania, reaching the Adriatic coast in December. The Greek navy prevented the Ottomans from shipping reinforcements from Anatolia to the Balkans. The Greek army advanced in two directions, entering Salonika on 8 November, and further west, bringing the town of Janina under siege. Montenegrin forces advanced into the Sanjak of Novi Pazar and besieged Scutari.

The Ottomans signed an armistice with Bulgaria, Montenegro, and Serbia on 3 December. Greek military operations continued. By this time, Ottoman Europe was limited to the three besieged towns of Adrianople, Janina, and Scutari; the Gallipoli peninsula; and eastern Thrace behind the Chataldzha lines. As a result of the Ottoman collapse, a group of Albanian notables, supported by Austria and Italy, declared Albanian independence on 28 November 1912. While delegations from the

Balkan allies attempted to negotiate a final peace with the Ottomans in London, a conference of Great Power ambassadors met also in London to ensure that the interests of the Powers would prevail in any Balkan settlement.

A coup on 23 January 1913 brought a Young Turk government to power in Constantinople. This government was determined to continue the war, mainly in order to retain Adrianople. They denounced the armistice on 30 January. Hostilities recommenced, to the detriment of the Ottomans. Janina fell to the Greeks on 6 March and Adrianople to the Bulgarians on 26 March.

The siege of Scutari, however, incurred international complications. The Austrians demanded that this largely Albanian inhabited town become a part of the new Albanian state. Because of this demand, Serbian forces aiding the Montenegrin siege withdrew. The Montenegrins persisted in the siege, however, and succeeded in taking the town on 22 April. A Great Power flotilla off the Adriatic coast forced the Montenegrins to withdraw less than two weeks later, on 5 May.

Meanwhile in London, peace negotiations resulted in the preliminary Treaty of London, signed on 30 May 1913 between the Balkan allies and the Ottoman Empire. By this treaty, the Ottoman Empire in Europe consisted of only a narrow band of territory in eastern Thrace defined by a straight line drawn from the Aegean port of Enos to the Black Sea port of Midya.

second balkan or interallied war

During the First Balkan War, while the Bulgarians contended with the major portion of the Ottoman army in Thrace, the Serbs had occupied most of

Macedonia. Austrian prohibitions had prevented the Serbs from realizing their ambitions to an Adriatic port in northern Albania. The Serbs then sought to strengthen their hold on Macedonia in compensation for the loss of an Albanian port. The Greeks had never agreed to any settlement over Macedonia, and also indicated that they would retain the Macedonian areas they had occupied. The Bulgarians had fought the Ottomans for Macedonia. They remained determined to obtain this area. Hostilities among the allies over the Macedonian question escalated throughout the spring of 1913 from exchanges of notes to actual shooting. Russian attempts at mediation between Bulgaria and Serbia were feeble and fruitless.

On the night of 29–30 June 1913, Bulgarian soldiers began local attacks against Serbian positions in Macedonia. These attacks became the signal for the outbreak of general war. The initial Greek and Serb counterattacks pushed the Bulgarians back past their old frontiers. Just as the Bulgarian army began to stabilize the situation, Romanian and Ottoman soldiers invaded the country. The Romanians sought to obtain southern Dobrudzha to broaden their Black Sea coast and to balance Bulgarian gains elsewhere in the Balkans. The Ottomans wanted to retake Adrianople. The Bulgarian army, already heavily engaged against the Greeks and Serbs, was unable to resist the Romanians and Ottomans. Under these circumstances, Bulgaria had to sue for peace. By the resulting Treaty of Bucharest signed on 10 August, Bulgaria lost most of Macedonia to Greece and Serbia, and southern Dobrudzha to Romania. The Treaty of Constantinople, signed on 30 September 1913, ended Bulgaria's brief control of Adrianople.

consequences

The Balkan Wars resulted in huge military casualties. The Bulgarians lost around 65,000 men, the Greeks 9,500, the Montenegrins 3,000, and the Serbs at least 36,000. The Ottomans lost as many as 125,000. In addition, tens of thousands of civilians died, from disease and other causes. Deliberate atrocities occurred throughout every theater of war, especially in Kosovo.

The consequences of the Balkan Wars inflamed the nationalist appetites of all participants. The Greeks sought additional gains in Asia Minor, the Serbs in Bosnia, and the Bulgarians seethed with a desire, still unrealized, for Macedonia. The Ottomans also wanted to regain power lost in the Balkan Wars by participating in World War I. These pursuits led to catastrophes for all during or after World War I.

The Great Powers struggled to manage the Balkan Wars. The ambitions of the Serbs to northern Albania and the Adriatic coast and of the Montenegrins to Scutari caused some tensions among them, particularly between Austria-Hungary supporting Albania and Russia supporting Montenegro and Serbia. The Powers themselves coped with these tensions at the London Ambassadors Conference. They even cooperated to eject the Montenegrins from Scutari.

One important consequence of the Balkan Wars was the alienation of Bulgaria from Russia. Up until 1913, Bulgaria had been Russia's most important connection in the Balkan region. Bulgaria's proximity to Constantinople, especially after the gains of the First Balkan War, afforded Russia with a valuable base from which to bring pressure upon this vital area. The failure of Russian diplomacy to mediate the Bulgaro-Serbian dispute over the disposition of Macedonia led to Bulgaria's catastrophic defeat in the Second Balkan War and Bulgaria's turn to the Triple Alliance for redress. This left Serbia as Russia's only ally in the Balkans. When Austro-Hungarian chastisement threatened Serbia in July 1914, the Russians had to act to protect Serbia or else lose the Balkans completely.

The ambitions of the Montenegrins and Serbs in Albania greatly increased Austro-Hungarian antipathy toward these two south Slavic states. The Viennese government became determined that the Serb power should not increase in the Balkans. On three separate occasions, in December 1912, in April 1913, and again after the Balkan Wars in October 1913, the Austro-Hungarians came into conflict with the Serbs and Montenegrins over Albanian issues. Even though war resulted in the summer of 1914 from an event in Bosnia, the conflicts over Albania facilitated the Austrians' decision to fight the Serbs. World War I was not the Third Balkan War, rather the Balkan Wars were the beginning of World War I. Nationalist conflicts persisted in the region from 1912 to 1918. Problems of nationalism, especially in Kosovo and Macedonia, endured over the rest of the twentieth century.

See alsoAlbania; Bulgaria; Greece; Montenegro; Ottoman Empire; Serbia.