Balkan WarsEuropean history

(1912–13), two successive military conflicts that deprived the Ottoman Empire of almost all its remaining territory in Europe.

The First Balkan War was fought between the members of the Balkan League—Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Montenegro—and the Ottoman Empire. The Balkan League was formed under Russian auspices in the spring of 1912 to take Macedonia away from Turkey, which was already involved in a war with Italy. The league was able to field a combined force of 750,000 men. Montenegro opened hostilities by declaring war on Turkey on Oct. 8, 1912, and the other members of the league followed suit 10 days later.

The Balkan allies were soon victorious. In Thrace, the Bulgarians defeated the main Ottoman forces, advancing to the outskirts of Constantinople (now Istanbul) and laying siege to Adrianople (Edirne). In Macedonia, the Serbian army achieved a great victory at Kumanovo that enabled it to capture Bitola and to join forces with the Montenegrins and enter Skopje. The Greeks, meanwhile, occupied Salonika (Thessaloníki) and advanced on Ioánnina. In Albania, the Montenegrins besieged Shkodër, and the Serbs entered Durrës.

The Turkish collapse was so complete that all parties were willing to conclude an armistice on Dec. 3, 1912. A peace conference was begun in London, but after a coup d’état by the Young Turks in Constantinople in January 1913, war with the Ottomans was resumed. Again the allies were victorious: Ioánnina fell to the Greeks and Adrianople to the Bulgarians. Under a peace treaty signed in London on May 30, 1913, the Ottoman Empire lost almost all of its remaining European territory, including all of Macedonia and Albania. Albanian independence was insisted upon by the European powers, and Macedonia was to be divided among the Balkan...

(Nov. 14, 1885–March 3, 1886), military conflict between Serbia and Bulgaria, which demonstrated the instability of the Balkan peace settlement imposed by the Congress of Berlin (Treaty of Berlin, July 1878).

Both Serbia and Bulgaria felt that the Treaty of Berlin should have awarded them more extensive territories at the Ottoman Empire’s expense. Under the Berlin settlement, Eastern Rumelia had been separated from the enlarged Bulgarian state created by the Treaty of San Stefano (March 1878) and had been returned to the Ottoman Empire. But on Sept. 18, 1885, Bulgarian nationalists in Eastern Rumelia mounted a coup and declared the province’s unification with Bulgaria. Serbia was opposed to this strengthening of its rival, Bulgaria. After the coup, the Serbian king, Milan Obrenović IV, who also hoped that an aggressive foreign policy would relieve his domestic problems, demanded that Bulgaria cede some of its territory to Serbia. In spite of active international diplomatic efforts to discourage him, Milan declared war on Bulgaria on Nov. 14, 1885. Although a swift Serbian victory was expected, Prince Alexander I of Bulgaria won the decisive battle at Slivnitsa (Nov. 17–19, 1885), defeating the invading Serbs and subsequently pursuing them back into Serbia. He accepted an armistice only when Austria-Hungary threatened to enter the war in Serbia’s defense.

The Treaty of Bucharest (March 3, 1886), which concluded the war, reestablished the prewar Serbo-Bulgarian border but left Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia united. Milan’s position was damaged beyond repair by the defeat; he abdicated in 1889, passing the Serbian crown to a regency in the name of his son...

(1897 and 1921–22), two military conflicts between the Greeks and the Turks.

The first war, also called the Thirty Days’ War, took place against a background of growing Greek concern over conditions in Crete, which was under Turkish domination and where relations between the Christians and their Muslim rulers had been deteriorating steadily. The outbreak in 1896 of rebellion on Crete, fomented in part by the secret Greek nationalistic society called Ethniki Etairia, appeared to present Greece with an opportunity to annex the island. By the beginning of 1897, large consignments of arms had been sent to Crete from Greece. On January 21 the Greek fleet was mobilized, and in early February Greek troops landed on the island, and union with Greece was proclaimed. The following month, however, the European powers imposed a blockade upon Greece to prevent assistance being sent from the mainland to the island. They took this step to prevent the disturbance from spreading to the Balkans. Thwarted in their attempt to assist their compatriots in Crete, the Greeks sent a force, commanded by Prince Constantine, to attack the Turks in Thessaly (April). By the end of April, however, the Greeks, who were inadequately prepared for war, had been overwhelmed by the Turkish army, which had recently been reorganized under German supervision. The Greeks then yielded to pressure from the European powers, withdrew their troops from Crete, and accepted an armistice on the mainland (May 20, 1897). A peace treaty, concluded on December 4, compelled Greece to pay the Turks an indemnity, to accept an international financial commission that would control Greek finances, and to yield some territory in Thessaly to Turkey. Subsequently, the Turkish troops also left Crete, which had been made an international protectorate,...

(1876–78), military conflict in which Serbia and Montenegro fought the Ottoman Turks in support of an uprising in Bosnia and Herzegovina and, in the process, intensified the Balkan crisis that culminated in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78. By the settlement of that conflict Serbia and Montenegro acquired their independence from the Ottoman Empire and an expansion of their territory.

In July 1875 the Christian peasants of Herzegovina rebelled against their Muslim landlords and Ottoman Turkish rulers. The revolt quickly spread to Bosnia and aroused enormous popular sympathy in Serbia, which was then an autonomous principality within the Ottoman Empire. After attempts by the great European powers to mediate between the belligerents had failed, Milan Obrenović IV of Serbia, together with Prince Nicholas of Montenegro, succumbed to domestic pressure and declared war on the Turks (June 30, 1876).

Serbia’s military capacity was extremely limited; and although a Russian general assumed command of the army and Serbia received Russian volunteers, the Russian government did not at once provide the expected military assistance. The Serbian effort to invade Bosnia was a failure; and while their sole ally, Montenegro, successfully fought in Herzegovina, the Serbs, after losing the Battle of Aleksinac (Sept. 1, 1876), were confronted with a Turkish advance toward Belgrade. Only then did Russia present an ultimatum to the Turks and force them to conclude an armistice (Oct. 31, 1876).

When subsequent international negotiations produced no settlement, the Serbs and Turks concluded a peace treaty based on the status quo (March 1, 1877). In the meantime, Russia’s efforts to secure from the Ottoman sultan a guarantee of reforms that would improve the position of the Christian populations in...

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