The First and Second Balkan Wars took place in 1912–1913 and dramatically altered the political map of southeastern Europe. Fighting occurred across a wide area, from Adrianople (Edirne) and Macedonia to Kosovo, Thrace, the Aegean Sea, and the approaches to Salonica. Combined military and civilian casualties ran into the hundreds of thousands, although estimates vary considerably depending on whether deaths from disease and displacement are included.
The wars were, in essence, the final major attempt by the Balkan Christian states to drive the Ottoman Empire almost completely out of southeastern Europe. But they were also about something more complicated: competing nationalisms, territorial ambitions, and, above all, the struggle over Macedonia.
By the early twentieth century, Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, and Montenegro had all achieved varying degrees of independence from Ottoman rule. Yet large numbers of their ethnic and religious compatriots remained inside the Ottoman Empire. The borders created by the earlier process of Ottoman retreat did not correspond neatly with ethnic boundaries, creating a combustible mixture of competing national claims.
Bulgaria and Serbia were themselves rivals, particularly over Macedonia. Both wanted territory inhabited by Slavic populations whom they considered part of their respective national communities. Greece had its own ambitions in Macedonia and Thrace, while Montenegro sought further territorial expansion.
Russia played an important diplomatic role in encouraging cooperation among the Balkan states, particularly between Serbia and Bulgaria. The result was the formation of the Balkan League, consisting primarily of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro. Its immediate objective was to defeat the Ottoman Empire and divide its remaining European territories among the victors. The arrangement, however, contained the seeds of its own destruction.
The First Balkan War began on 8 October 1912, when Montenegro declared war on the Ottoman Empire. Bulgaria, Serbia, and Greece followed shortly afterward.
The war developed across several fronts. Bulgaria attacked toward Thrace and Adrianople, Serbia advanced into Macedonia and Kosovo, while Greece moved into Macedonia and simultaneously used its navy to secure control of much of the Aegean.
The Ottoman Empire was badly prepared for the conflict. Its military had undergone substantial modernization, but political instability, logistical difficulties, poor coordination, and the recent Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912 had weakened its ability to respond effectively.
The Ottoman armies suffered a series of defeats.
Bulgarian forces advanced rapidly into Thrace and reached the defensive lines at Çatalca, relatively close to Constantinople. Serbian armies defeated Ottoman forces in Macedonia and Kosovo, while Greek forces captured Salonica (Thessaloniki), one of the most strategically important cities in the region. In Epirus, the Greeks eventually captured Ioannina after a prolonged campaign.
One of the most important Bulgarian successes was the capture of Adrianople (Edirne) after a lengthy siege, although the city was taken in March 1913 rather than immediately after a five-month siege.
The Greek navy also played a crucial role by establishing effective control over the Aegean Sea. This prevented Ottoman reinforcements from being easily transported from Asia Minor to the European front and allowed Greece to consolidate its territorial gains.
The Ottoman Empire was being pushed rapidly out of Europe. In May 1913, the combatants signed the Treaty of London. The Ottoman Empire surrendered almost all of its remaining European territories west of a line running roughly from Enos on the Aegean to Midia on the Black Sea.
Yes, there really are an extraordinary number of Treaties of London in European diplomatic history but this particular one solved very little. The fundamental problem was who would receive the territory that had been taken from the Ottomans. The Balkan allies had defeated a common enemy, but they had never agreed on how the spoils would be divided. Macedonia was particularly contentious.
Bulgaria believed that much of Macedonia belonged to it on ethnic and historical grounds. Serbia had expanded into the region during the war and had no intention of surrendering its gains. Greece likewise wanted to retain the territories it had occupied, particularly Salonica, which was economically and strategically invaluable.
The creation of an independent Albania also complicated matters. Austria-Hungary and Italy strongly supported the establishment of an Albanian state because they wanted to prevent Serbia from reaching the Adriatic Sea. Serbia was consequently denied the extensive Adriatic coastline it had hoped to acquire.
Bulgaria emerged from the First Balkan War convinced that it had been cheated. Their army had borne a very large share of the fighting against the Ottomans, and Sofia believed that its sacrifices entitled it to substantial portions of Macedonia. Instead, Serbia and Greece retained territories that Bulgaria regarded as rightfully its own.
The alliance that had defeated the Ottomans was therefore beginning to fall apart.
On 29 June 1913, Bulgarian forces attacked Serbian and Greek positions in Macedonia, beginning the Second Balkan War. Bulgaria had hoped to defeat its former allies quickly and force a more favorable settlement. Instead, the situation deteriorated rapidly.
Serbia and Greece resisted, while Romania entered the war against Bulgaria from the north. Even more dramatically, the Ottoman Empire took advantage of Bulgaria's predicament and re-entered the conflict, recapturing Adrianople (Edirne).
Bulgaria was now fighting on several fronts. The result was predictable. The Bulgarians were defeated, and the Treaty of Bucharest, signed in August 1913, confirmed most of the territorial gains made by Serbia, Greece, and Romania. Bulgaria retained significant territory but lost much of what it had hoped to acquire in Macedonia. The Treaty of Constantinople subsequently established the settlement between Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire.
The consequences were enormous. Bulgaria emerged bitter and frustrated. It had participated enthusiastically in the destruction of Ottoman power but believed that its wartime sacrifices had produced an inadequate territorial reward. The loss of Macedonia and southern Dobrudja, together with the recovery of Adrianople by the Ottomans, contributed to a powerful desire for revision. Bulgaria would eventually join the Central Powers during the First World War, partly because Germany and Austria-Hungary appeared better positioned to help it recover lost territory.
The Ottoman Empire suffered an even greater disaster. Almost all of its European territory was lost, leaving only a small portion of Thrace around Constantinople. The defeat intensified political instability and contributed to the rise of the Committee of Union and Progress, the Young Turk movement that had already transformed Ottoman politics. The Ottoman Empire would survive until 1922, but the Balkan Wars demonstrated just how far its European power had declined.
Greece emerged as one of the great winners. Its territory expanded dramatically, and the acquisition of Salonica was particularly important. Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos emerged from the wars with enormous prestige.
Serbia was another major winner. Its territory roughly doubled, and its prestige among South Slavs increased substantially. This worried Austria-Hungary, which increasingly regarded Serbia as a threat to the stability of its multinational empire.
That tension would prove enormously important only one year later. Romania also benefited by acquiring southern Dobrudja from Bulgaria. The Great Powers supported the creation of an independent Albanian state in order to prevent Serbia from reaching the Adriatic. Albania became an independent principality in 1913, although its boundaries were highly contested and its political development remained extremely unstable. Prince Wilhelm of Wied, a German prince, was selected as its ruler in 1914 but lasted only a few months.
One of the great unresolved questions was the status and identity of Macedonia. The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) had been founded in 1893, rather than 1895, and sought autonomy for Macedonia from Ottoman rule. After the Balkan Wars, however, Macedonia was divided primarily among Serbia, Greece, and Bulgaria, leaving different populations under different national administrations.
Macedonian nationalism would continue to develop throughout the twentieth century. After the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, the Republic of Macedonia declared independence in 1991. Following a dispute with Greece over its name, it officially became the Republic of North Macedonia in 2019.
The Balkan Wars solved one problem while creating several others. The Ottoman Empire had been pushed almost completely out of southeastern Europe, but the victory produced intense rivalry among the Balkan states. Serbia, Greece, and Romania emerged stronger; Bulgaria emerged resentful; and the Ottoman Empire was deeply humiliated.
Most importantly, Serbia's dramatic expansion alarmed Austria-Hungary. The Habsburg leadership feared that Serbian nationalism could inspire its own South Slavic population to demand independence. Serbia, meanwhile, increasingly presented itself as the champion of South Slavic nationalism.
The result was a dangerous confrontation between Austria-Hungary and Serbia. When Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo in June 1914 by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb associated with a nationalist network, the tensions generated by the Balkan Wars were still very much alive.
The Balkan Wars therefore did not cause the First World War by themselves. But they created an exceptionally unstable regional environment in which the assassination at Sarajevo could trigger a much larger European crisis.
In that sense, the Balkan Wars were the dress rehearsal for the catastrophe of 1914. The Ottoman retreat, Bulgarian resentment, Serbian expansion, Austro-Serbian rivalry, competing nationalisms, and Great Power interference all combined to make the Balkans what European diplomats had long called it: the powder keg of Europe.
The First World War would provide the spark.
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