1913 : The First Balkan War ends
On this day in 1913, a peace treaty is signed ending the First Balkan War,
in which the newly aligned Slavic nations of Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria
and Greece had driven Turkish forces out of Macedonia, a territory of the
Ottoman Empire located in the tumultuous Balkans region of southeastern
Europe.
After rebellion in Macedonia—led by a secret society of nationalists known
as the Young Turks—shook the stability of the sultan’s hold on Ottoman
territory in Europe in 1908, the Austro-Hungarian empire acted quickly to
annex the dual Balkan provinces of Bosnia-Herzegovina and to encourage
Bulgaria, also under Turkish rule, to proclaim its independence.
Austria-Hungary’s actions clearly upset the delicate balance of power in the
Balkans. The small, boisterous monarchy of Serbia was outraged by the
annexation, having long regarded Bosnia-Herzegovina as part of its own
rightful territory due to their shared South Slavic heritage. Meanwhile,
czarist Russia—an important supporter of Serbia and the other great European
power with influence in the Balkans region—felt its own interests threatened
by its rival’s actions.
In the spring of 1912, Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Greece, encouraged
by Russia, aligned with the objective of taking control of some or all of
the lands still occupied by the Ottoman Empire in Europe. Though the
disparate Balkan peoples nursed intense hatreds of one another, they were
compelled to join forces and act quickly in order to strike at Turkey—now
ensnared in a war with Italy over territory in Libya—in its weakness. On
October 8, 1912, Montenegro declared war on Turkey; Serbia, Bulgaria, and
Greece followed suit on October 17.
Surprisingly, the Ottoman army was quickly and decisively defeated, as the
Balkan forces drove the Turks from almost all of their territory in
southeastern Europe over the course of a month. The great powers of
Europe—Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia—scrambled to
exert control over the region in the wake of Turkey’s withdrawal, and a
congress was convened with representatives of the belligerent nations in
London in December 1912 to draw up post-war boundaries in the Balkans. Over
the course of the next several months and 63 meetings, as well as renewed
hostilities on the battlefield, an agreement was reached, and Macedonia was
partitioned between the victors of the First Balkan War. Nevertheless, the
peace concluded May 30, 1913, was only tenuous, as Bulgaria felt cheated out
of its rightful share by Serbia and Greece.
Exactly a month after the peace treaty was signed, on the night of June
29-30, Bulgaria turned against its former allies, Serbia and Greece, in a
surprise attack ordered by King Ferdinand I without consultation with his
own government. The attack led to the so-called Second Balkan War, in which
Bulgaria was quickly defeated by forces from Serbia, Greece, Turkey and
Romania. The Treaty of Bucharest, signed August 10, was negotiated by local
states, rather than by the great powers. By its terms, Bulgaria lost a
considerable amount of territory and Serbia and Greece received control of
most of Macedonia.
Austria-Hungary, which had badly wanted to see Serbia crushed, was shocked
and disappointed by the results of the two Balkan wars. Confident that first
Turkey and then Bulgaria would prove victorious, Austria-Hungary had
neglected to intervene in either conflict; now, the Dual Monarchy became
increasingly fearful—with reason—of the growing Slavic influence in the
Balkans, the emergence of a powerful and ambitious Serbia, and what it would
all mean for the future of its own declining empire.
By 1913, many in both Austria-Hungary and Germany—especially within the
countries’ military leadership—had decided that a preventive war against
Serbia would be necessary to restore the empire’s prestige and power; as
Russia was almost certain to back Serbia in any such conflict, a third war
in the Balkans would most likely proceed directly to a general European one,
with Germany and Austria-Hungary facing off against Serbia, Russia, Russia’s
primary ally, France, and possibly Britain. For the time being, however,
both Kaiser Wilhelm, emperor of Germany, and Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir
to the Austrian throne, continued to see the possibility of a peaceful
resolution of the Balkans question, though they disputed the means of
achieving it. Franz Ferdinand’s assassination, by a Serbian nationalist, in
Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, however, put an end to any such negotiations and
toppled Europe, already teeming with unresolved conflict and irreconcilable
differences between the great powers, headlong into the First World War.
The Ottoman Empire - Balkan Wars
(pdf)
Forced Displacement
between 1770-1923
The Ottoman Empire - Balkan Wars
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