The First Balkan War

 before the First World War

in the last years of the Ottoman Empire

and of their deep rule in continental

Europe in October 1912 a new war will

start the identity of the Balkan region

was dominated by its geographical

position since the ancient times the

area was known as a crossroads of

culture and civilization this area has

been a bridge between the Latin and

Greek parts of the Roman Empire also it

was the final destination of an

important influx of migrators bull gars

and Slavs in the middle age the region

became an area where the two branches of

Christianity met Orthodox and Catholic

people met since the Great Schism after

a few centuries the region will contact

a new religion and a new culture under

the rule of the Ottomans their first

ruler was Osman which will be known as

Asin the first the founder of the

Ottoman Empire it's not known for sure

how small an Anatolian Balak started to

dominate the region but the

vulnerability of the Byzantine Empire

created the situation for them to expand

they passed into Europe defeating local

leaders and taking profit from the

instability of the region by the year

1400 the ottomans were a true power

having control of much of the Balkans

and Western Anatolia for the next

centuries the Ottoman Empire will expand

even further and will rule the Balkans

for more than 400 years the majority of

the people living in the area were

Christians speaking a different language

having another culture the differences

between the Turkish culture and the

Balkan ones were huge the ottomans reach

their peak in the 16th century but in

the next ones their military system fell

behind that of their European rivals the

Sultanate suffered military defeats in

the 18th and 19th centuries also

rebellions started to happen especially

due to the rise of nationalism a popular

sentiment which changed the history of

Europe 19th century was a period of

rebellions in the Balkans Serbs Greeks

Romanians Bulgarians and others revolted

in a way or another against the Ottoman

rule

Greeks declared their independence in

1821 and it was recognized in 1830 also

independence of Romania Serbia and

Montenegro and the semi independence for

Bulgaria was recognized in 1878 after a

war even if some of these countries

declared their freedom sooner by 1908

Bulgaria was recognized as fully

independent tensions among the Balkan

states over their rival aspirations to

the provinces of Ottoman controled

remilia namely eastern remilia Thrace

and Macedonia subsided somewhat

following intervention by the great

powers in the mid 19th century aimed at

securing both more complete protection

for the provinces Christian majority and

protection of the status quo

even if these nations gained their long

desired achievements through their

independence Ottoman rule was still

there over some of these people

Bulgarian Serbians Greeks and others

were left outside their motherland in

this territory still controlled by the

Ottomans tensions existed between Serbia

and Bulgaria over some territories

Serbia's aspirations to take over bosnia

and herzegovina were thwarted by the

Bosnian crisis and the Austrian

annexation of the province in October

1908 after the unification of Eastern

ramela Bulgaria began to dream to its

national unification a large army was

developed but Bulgaria could not win a

war alone against the Ottomans on March

13 1912 Serbia in Bulgaria signed a

treaty which assigned northern Macedonia

to Serbia and southern Macedonia to

Bulgaria in May 1912 Greece and Bulgaria

signed a similar treaty making use of

the military actions against their

common enemy Montenegro's attachment to

the league was secured by an informal

arrangement with Bulgaria and Greece and

a treaty with Serbia concluded in

September 1912 but Bulgaria refused to

commit to any agreement on the

distribution of territorial gains unlike

its deal with Serbia over Macedonia

Bulgaria believed that its army would be

able to occupy the larger part of

Macedonia and the important port city

thessaloniki before the greeks

in 1911 Italy had launched an invasion

of Tripolitania in present-day Libya the

italians decisive military victories

over the ottoman empire this and the

repressive policies of the young turks

encouraged the balkan league to imagine

they might win a war against the

ottomans and achieve their desire to

liberate their people the first to

declare war was Montenegro on the 8th of

October 1912 an ultimatum was sent to

Istanbul on the 13th of October Bulgaria

Serbia and Greece declared war on the

Empire on the 17th of October the

Ottoman order of battle when the war

broke out constituted a total of 12,000

officers three hundred and twenty-four

thousand other ranks forty seven

thousand nine hundred and sixty animals

2318 artillery pieces and three hundred

and eighty-eight machine guns on the

other side bulgaria mobilized around six

hundred thousand men Serbia around two

hundred and fifty five thousand Greece

around 120 thousand and Montenegro

around forty thousand men

in the West and the theater of sanjeok

the Serbs and Montenegrins coordinate

their efforts more to the center the

Bulgarians and Serbs focused together in

the Macedonia the main theater of the

ensuing conflict was Thrace the

Bulgarians armies went south and

besieged the major ottoman fortress at

Adrianople called ed urns the siege was

important adrianople was an important

city for the ottomans it existed since

ancient times and its importance existed

in the Byzantine times as well the siege

of the city had historical meanings

Adrianople a major Byzantine city in

Thrace was conquered by the Ottomans

sometime in the 13th 60s and became the

Ottoman capital until the fall of

Constantinople in 1453 the fall of the

city after some months since the start

of the siege can be seen as a downfall

of the Ottoman rule in the balkan region

two major victories were at Kurt Scalise

and at Lowell Burgos this one was the

largest battle of this war and a

decisive victory of the Bulgarians in

just a short period of time these

successes opened up the gates to

Constantinople the Ottoman capital the

Turkish rally depature Tulsa the last

lines of defense before their capital an

attack was made by the whole garyun

forces already exhausted after important

and hard battles on the 17th of November

the attack failed and from that time on

both sides settled into trench warfare

elsewhere the Serbian army broke the

western ottoman army akuma novo on the

23rd of october the serbs then proceeded

against diminishing resistance into

macedonia kosovo and on through albania

reaching the adriatic coast in december

even if the Greek army wasn't the

biggest however Greece was the only

Balkan country to possess a substantial

Navy this was vital to the league as it

could prevent Ottoman reinforcements

from being rapidly transferred by ship

from Asia to Europe the Greek army

advanced in two directions in the Battle

of giannetta Greek armies were led by

the crown prince Constantine and won a

very important victory having as a

result the capture of Thessaloniki on

the 8th of November the city was wanted

by Bulgarians who expected to capture it

before the Greeks upon hearing about the

Greek success Bulgarian High Command

urgently dispatched a division from the

north in the direction of the city the

division arrived there a week later

further west in the Epirus front the

Greek army was initially heavily

outnumbered but due to the passive

attitude of the Ottomans pushed north

after the victory at the Battle of

Bassani

in March 1913 Montenegrin forces moved

into the sanjeok of Novi Bazaar and

besieged in northern Albanian town of

Scutari

the ottoman signed an armistice with

Bulgaria Montenegro and Serbia on the

3rd of December Greek military

operations continued by this time

Ottoman rule was limited to the three

besieged towns of Adrianople Janina and

qatari the Gallipoli Peninsula and

Eastern Thrace behind the chital the

lines while fighting took place at

adrianople it's Qatari and Janina the

Armistice was signed and a peace

conference met at London in December

1912 as a result of the Ottoman collapse

groups of Albanian Nobles supported by

Austria and Italy declared Albanian

independence on the 28th of November

1912 a coup on the 23rd of January 1913

returned a young turk government to

power in Constantinople this government

was determined to continue the war

mainly in order to retain Adrianople it

denounced the armistice on the 30th of

January hostilities recommended to the

detriment of the ottomans Janina fell to

the Greeks on the 6th of March and

Adrianople to the Bulgarians on the 26th

of March meanwhile in London peace

negotiations resulted in the preliminary

Treaty of London signed in the 30th of

May 1913 between the Balkan allies and

the Ottoman Empire by this treaty the

Ottoman Empire in Europe consisted of

only a narrow band of territory and

Eastern Thrace close to their capital in

the war Ottoman army was quickly and

decisively defeated as the Balkan forces

drove the Turks from almost all of their

territory in the southeastern Europe

over the course of a month of course

there were Ottoman victories too but

with less impact the internal problem of

the Ottomans the instability of some

territories the wars and exhaustion of

the Ottoman state as well as the large

and vulnerable borders and Europe

contributed to their defeat in the end

at peace conferences over the course of

in the next several months an agreement

was reached Macedonia was partitioned

between the victors of the first Balkan

war

the piece concluded on May 30th 1913 but