Balkan Wars: A Visual History

The First Balkan War (October 1912-May 1913) saw the Balkan League of Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Montenegro attack the Ottoman Empire and, within weeks, overrun Macedonia, Thrace, Albania and Epirus; the Bulgarians reached the Chatalja lines outside Constantinople, Salonika fell to the Greeks and Adrianople to the Bulgarians and Serbs. The Treaty of London (May 1913) left the Ottomans only eastern Thrace and created Albania. Bulgaria, feeling cheated of Macedonia, attacked its former allies on 29-30 June 1913 and was crushed within weeks by Serbia, Greece, Romania and the Ottomans in the Second Balkan War (Treaty of Bucharest, August 1913). Serbia doubled in size and Austria-Hungary's alarm led straight to Sarajevo.

When it was fought: the era ribbon

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Territory of the Balkan states, 1912 v 1913

Timeline of the Balkan Wars

1. 1912
   Montenegro declares war; Kumanovo; Lule Burgas; Salonika fallsOctober to November.
2. 1912
   Armistice; London conferenceDecember.
3. 1913
   Adrianople falls to BulgariaMarch.
4. 1913
   Treaty of London30 May.
5. 1913
   Bulgaria attacks; Second Balkan War29 June to 31 July.
6. 1913
   Treaty of Bucharest10 August.

The Balkan League

Encouraged by Russia and the Ottoman defeat by Italy in Libya, the four Christian states signed secret pacts in 1912 to partition Ottoman Europe. Montenegro declared war on 8 October; the others followed on 17-18 October. Bulgaria won at Kirk Kilisse and Lule Burgas, Serbia at Kumanovo and Monastir, Greece took Salonika on 8 November hours before the Bulgarians. Adrianople held out until March 1913, and the Ottoman army held Chatalja against Bulgarian assaults, aided by cholera in the Bulgarian ranks. The Young Turk coup of January 1913 failed to reverse the losses.

London and the Albanian question

The great powers' London conference created an independent Albania, denying Serbia its Adriatic coast and Montenegro Scutari, and gave the allies everything west of the Enos-Midia line. Serbia therefore insisted on keeping the Macedonian lands it occupied, which the Serbo-Bulgarian treaty had assigned to Bulgaria; Greece held Salonika. Bulgaria demanded arbitration and, impatient, ordered a surprise attack on Serbian and Greek positions.

The Second Balkan War

The Bulgarian assault of 29-30 June 1913 failed at Bregalnica and Kilkis; Romania invaded from the north and marched on Sofia unopposed; the Ottomans retook Adrianople. Bulgaria sued for peace within a month. The Treaty of Bucharest gave Serbia and Greece most of Macedonia, Romania southern Dobruja, and left Bulgaria a rump of its gains and a grievance that took it into the Central Powers in 1915. Massacres and expulsions of Muslims and Bulgarians, documented by the Carnegie Endowment, foreshadowed the century's ethnic cleansing.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Ottoman Empire (1299 to 1922)
• Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867 to 1918)
• Russian Empire (1721 to 1917)
• Bulgarian Empire (681 to 1396)
• Italian Empire (1882 to 1947)
• Nazi Germany (1933 to 1945)

Wars of the same era and region

• World War I (1914 to 1918)
• Greek War of Independence (1821 to 1829)
• Italo-Senussi wars (1911 to 1932)
• Yugoslav Wars (1991 to 2001)
• Turkish War of Independence (1919 to 1923)
• World War II (1939 to 1945)

8 surprising things about the Balkan Wars

1. The Ottoman Empire lost 83 percent of its European territory and 69 percent of its European population in eight months.
2. The first military use of aircraft in Europe, for reconnaissance and bombing, took place in the Balkan Wars.
3. The Greek and Bulgarian armies raced to Salonika; the Greeks won by a few hours and the city has been Greek since.
4. Enver Bey's coup of January 1913, in which the war minister was shot, brought the Young Turk triumvirate to power.
5. The wars displaced perhaps 400,000 Muslims to Anatolia and drove Christian populations from Thrace.
6. The Carnegie Endowment's 1914 report on atrocities was one of the first international human rights investigations.
7. Trotsky covered the wars as a journalist and was appalled by the atrocities he saw.
8. Serbia's doubling in size and Austria's fear of it were the direct background to the assassination in Sarajevo in June 1914.

Sources

• Balkan Wars Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Balkan Wars Wikipedia
• Balkan Wars 1912-1913 1914-1918 Online
• Richard C. Hall, The Balkan Wars 1912-1913: Prelude to the First World War (2000) Routledge

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