CHAPTER VIII

Causes of the BALKAN WARS (1911-1913)

HE Turko-Italian war of 1911, in which the Italians

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so readily overcame the Turks, opened the eyes of the Balkan nations, and convinced them that the time was opportune for a concerted movement to drive the "unspeakable Turk" out of Europe, and especially, out of Balkan affairs. Turkey had proven herself much weaker than was generally anticipated, and her once tributary states in Europe were now confident of victory and the fruits of victory, in the rounding out of their own nationalities and patriotic aspirations. Thus did the Italians' victory over the Turks in 1911 lead directly and immediately to the greater victory of the little Balkan states the next year. They knew that their triumph would eliminate the rule of the Ottoman entirely from Europe, if only the great European powers would leave them alone. As the great powers had a number of times intervened in their struggles with Turkey previously, however, they knew that possibility of intervention still existed. But their chance to win was such that they would run the risk anyway, in the hope that the justice of their cause would stay the meddling hand. And so war came.

As indicated above, the First Balkan war came as a result of the universal conviction of the Balkan states that the time had come to throw off the last remnants of Turkish tyranny, and drive the monster out of Europe. Their strong national feeling and ambition to rule over all the people of their own blood fed the flame.

The Second Balkan war was a fight over the division of the spoils of victory, of which Bulgaria had hardly received

her just share. This was unfortunate, but it was natural, as the victors had come to no previous conclusion as to their respective claims in the region conquered. This trouble was aggravated by Austria-Hungary's intervention at the close of the First war, backed by the "shining sword" of the German Kaiser.

Before the Balkan wars of 1911-13 historians were accustomed to include in the Balkan states Serbia, Montenegro, Roumania, Bulgaria, and sometimes Greece. After the First Balkan war a separate state, Albania, was set up, due to the jealous intervention of Austria. That made six. And since Greece received part of the region fought for and has also played an important rôle in the Balkans in the great World War, it is right that she be included in the Balkan group, as she is, geographically, in the peninsula. Accordingly, the writer, whenever referring to the Balkan states as a whole will include Greece.

The Balkan question has been for three quarters of a century, and still is, a most complicated and intricate one. As already observed in an earlier chapter of this work, the wars of the nineteenth century, and particularly of the latter part of the century, have been mostly wars of nationality. It was to be expected, therefore, that this spirit would manifest itself strongly in the Balkans and prove a strong moral force toward victory. Nevertheless, all the world was surprised, and little less than astonished at the swift and terrible defeats that these little states inflicted upon the country that but a short time before had held them under its despotic sway of crime and massacre.

The story of the unification of Italy and Germany we need not recount here, although they had their remote and indirect bearings on the recent Balkan troubles,—especially, since they paved the way for the ambitions of Italy along the Adriatic, and the mutual jealousies and intrigues of the Teutonic and Russian governments in the Near East. And the Crimean war (1853-56) needs little more than passing

mention. This war meant for Turkey (a), the abolition of Russia's protectorate over the Danubian Principalities and of the Czar's claim to special right of intervention in behalf of the Christian subjects of the Sultan, (b) closing of the Straits to the warships of all nations, and (c), the formal admission of Turkey into the family of European powers. It marked also a distinct step on the part of several of the small Balkan principalities toward freedom from Turkish rule, the setting up of independent governments, or their protection, control, or annexation by European powers. The chief significance of this all is that these small states and principalities have ever since remained a continual menace to the "balance of power" and peace of Europe. So they will continue to be if an effective League of Nations is not formed as an immediate outcome of the World war.

Bulgaria was the last of the original Balkan states to obtain independence of Turkey. The Bulgarian Exarchate was established as a separate religious community March 10, 1870. This struggle resulted in a movement toward nationality. Bulgarian insurrections against Turkey broke out in 1875-6, and these led in turn to the Russo-Turkish war and the virtual loss of Bulgaria to Turkey, in 1878. Since that time the Bulgarians have looked to Russia repeatedly for aid, and have considered her their best friend and protector, until the period immediately before the Balkan wars, when their German rulers began to veer them toward the Central powers. Bulgaria's defeat in the Second Balkan war, 1913, at the hands of the other Balkan states sealed her alliance with the Teutonic powers and Turkey; and that explains her line-up in the World War. She had gained her final independence from Turkey in 1908.

By the Congress of Berlin, concluded in July 1878, at the close of the Russo-Turkish war alluded to above, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Eastern Roumelia and Montenegro were severed from direct rule by the Sultan. Montenegro, Serbia and Roumania achieved their complete independence

at this time, while Bulgaria was a Turkish protectorate in name at least, until 1908, as stated above.

From the remote past the different peoples of the Balkan peninsula have inherited racial animosities and political troubles and confusion. The Bulgarians resented the "tyranny” of the Greeks in ecclesiastical and educational matters. The Albanians have always been wild and ungovernable and unable to assimulate the benefits of ordered government and society. The Roumanians prided themselves in their Roman stock and traditions and held apart from the other peoples of the peninsula. As is stated in the RandMcNally Atlas (p.42):

For 1000 years the Balkan Peninsula has suffered from political confusion due in part to its geographical position, which made it the meeting-ground of conflicting races and religions. In ancient times it was occupied by various branches of the Arian stock, the Thracians in the northeast, the Illyrians in the northwest, and the Greeks in the south, whose commingling gave rise to the mixed Macedonian type inhabiting the northern central part of the peninsula. Under Roman, and especially under Byzantine rule, it attained its highest development, Constantinople becoming the chief center of the world's civilization and commerce. In the seventh century, A.D., the Servians and Bulgarians, of Slavonic stock, pressed southward into the peninsula, driving the Greeks before them to the south, the Illyrians (ancestors of the present Albanians) to the southwest, and the Romans back toward the northwest. The introduction of Christianity in the ninth century marked the transition from barbarism to civilization. For a time the Bulgarians were masters of the peninsula, but in the fourteenth century the Servians established a short-lived supremacy which by the defeat of their army in 1389, followed by the fall of Constantinople in 1453 gave way before the irresistible advance of the Turk. Four centuries of retrogression ensued, during which the peninsula, with the exception of Dalmatia in the northwest, which continued under Venetian and later passed under Austrian rule, was abandoned to almost hopeless barbarity. It was not until the nineteenth century that the almost smothered germs of national vitality were quickened again under Russian influence, and that the Balkan peoples were aroused to struggle for freedom from the yoke of the "unspeakable" Turk.

Coming back to recent years, we find that Bulgaria's desire to annex neighboring parts of European Turkey inhabited by Slav, especially Macedonia, was widely cherished, and more or less tension existed with Serbia, Greece and Austria even before the first Balkan war. It was also realized

that strategically Roumania's position was one of commanding importance. This can easily be seen by a glance at the map, which will show the peculiar shape and frontiers of Roumania. She has stood in the pathway of both Teuton and Russian advance toward the regions beyond the Black Sea, and, second only to Serbia, in these same powers' path to the eastern Mediterranean, Asia Minor and the Orient. Thus, the security of Roumania, like the other small states of this region, depended upon a delicate tension of international relations that has justly been called the "powderbox" of Europe. And even now, let me repeat, only a strong League of Nations can guarantee peace in this troublesome region in the future.

As Bulgaria was the last of the Balkan states (save only Albania) to gain her complete independence of Turkey, so Serbia was the first (save only Greece). But that did not make hers a stable government. She virtually gained her independence in 1829, immediately after Greece became free from Turkey. And complete independence was given her by the treaty of Berlin, 1878. Her progress, considering her opportunity has been disappointing,-the most so of all the Balkan states; and this has made her all the more a prey to Austrian and German intrigues. The new Jugo-Slav state, however, with a greater Serbia as the nucleus, gives promise of better things for the future.

It was a general conviction of the students of the Balkan affairs just previous to the World War that, in case of a breakout of war in this region, the Central Powers and Russia would each attempt to seize as big a slice of the Balkan regions as possible; the Russians would make for Constantinople, the Austrians for Serbia, Macedonia and the Saloniki coast; the English would make for the Dardanelles, to protect their Eastern possessions; the French for Rhodes, parts of Asia Minor and Syria, and the Italians for Albania and the entire eastern coast of the Adriatic. They were not very far wrong when the World War came. Said M. Berard: