It proved unsuccessful, as they were quickly defeated in under a month by a unified front containing the Greeks, Serbians and Romanians. Bulgaria was penalised severely in a treaty known as The Treaty of Bucharest, which was signed in August , leaving Bulgaria isolated, frustrated and hostile towards its former allies.
The main beneficiaries of both Balkan wars were the Serbs as their nation had almost doubled in size with the acquisition of parts of Macedonia and Albania and Kosovo. The occurrence of these two Balkan wars forced the great powers to rethink and reinvent their foreign policies and objectives in the region, especially Russia, which had become dependent on Serbia as a buffer against an attack from the Austro-Hungarians. This territorial gains had two implications on Serbia, which both contributed to the outbreak of World War I.
The first and most obvious one was a staggering increase in Serbian nationalism. Serbs felt invincible after their recent triumphs. As a consequence, in the early s, a number of Serb nationalist groups had formed and they flourished for the next decade.
Their primary objective was to get rid of any foreign control and influence, particularly from Vienna. In , Bosnia and Herzegovina were formally annexed by Austro-Hungary. Nationalist movements were formed in the region to oppose this move. Russian agents, as well as individuals in the Serbian government, public service and military encouraged these groups.
A majority of their activities revolved around the production of anti-Austrian propaganda and political mishaps. Others plotted acts of terrorism carried out by trained mercenaries. The threatened stability of Austro-Hungary was another profound consequence of Serbian expansion.
In the s, the Hapsburg Empire had previously surrendered significant territory to the Italians and Russians. What had happened in the Balkans between and seemed to hint at even more losses. This system began to fall apart as the Ottoman Empire, seen as a check on Russian power, began to crumble, and as Germany, a loose confederation of minor states, was united into a major power.
Not only did these changes lead to a realignment of power, but of interests as well. All these factors and many others conspired to bring about the First World War.
The Chancellor of Germany in the late 19th century, Otto von Bismarck, correctly predicted it would be the source of major conflict in Europe. Balkan Troubles: Germany, France, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Britain attempting to keep the lid on the simmering cauldron of imperialist and nationalist tensions in the Balkans to prevent a general European war.
They were successful in and but did not succeed in , resulting in the outbreak of World War I. The continuing collapse of the Ottoman Empire led to two wars in the Balkans, in and , which was a prelude to world war. By nation states had formed in Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia. Nevertheless, many of their ethnic compatriots lived under the control of the Ottoman Empire.
In , these countries formed the Balkan League. There were three main causes of the First Balkan War.
The Ottoman Empire was unable to reform itself, govern satisfactorily, or deal with the rising ethnic nationalism of its diverse peoples. Secondly, the Great Powers quarreled among themselves and failed to ensure that the Ottomans would carry out the needed reforms. This led the Balkan states to impose their own solution. Most importantly, the members of the Balkan League were confident that it could defeat the Turks, which would prove to be the case.
Under Austro-Hungarian pressure, 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 between the Balkan allies and the Ottoman Empire. By this treaty, the Ottomans 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.
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 prevented the Serbs from gaining the Adriatic port in northern Albania that they desired. The Serbs then sought to strengthen their hold on Macedonia as compensation for the loss of the Albanian coast. 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 remained determined to obtain this area. Hostilities among the allies over the Macedonian question escalated throughout the spring of from exchanges of notes to actual shooting.
Russian attempts at mediation between Bulgaria and Serbia were feeble and fruitless. On the night of June , Bulgarian soldiers began local attacks against Greek and Serbian positions in Macedonia. These attacks became the signal for the outbreak of general war. Greek and Serb counterattacks pushed the Bulgarians back to their pre-war frontiers.
Just as the Bulgarian army began to stabilize the situation, Romanian and Ottoman units invaded Bulgaria. The Romanians sought to obtain southern Dobrudzha to broaden their Black Sea coast and to balance Bulgarian gains elsewhere in the Balkans. The Ottomans wished to regain Adrianople.
The Bulgarian army, already heavily engaged against the Greeks and Serbs, was unable to resist the Romanians and Ottomans. Under these circumstances, Bulgaria sued for peace. The Treaty of Constantinople, signed on 30 September , ended Bulgaria's brief occupation of Adrianople.
The Balkan Wars resulted in huge casualties. The Bulgarians lost around 65, men, the Greeks 9,, the Montenegrins, 3,, and the Serbs at least 36, The Ottomans lost as many as , dead. In addition, tens of thousands of civilians died from disease and other causes.
Deliberate atrocities occurred throughout every theater of war. Another important consequence of the Balkan Wars was the alienation of Bulgaria from Russia.
When Austro-Hungarian chastisement threatened Serbia in July , the Russians had to protect Serbia or else lose the Balkans completely. The ambitions of the Montenegrins and Serbs in Albania greatly increased Austro-Hungarian antipathy towards these two south Slavic states. The Viennese government became determined that Serbian power should not increase in the Balkans.
On three separate occasions, in December , in April and again after the Balkan Wars in October the Austro-Hungarians came into conflict with the Serbs and Montenegrins over Albanian issues. Nationalist conflicts persisted in southeastern Europe from to
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