By the late 19th century, the Ottoman

Empire was in deep decline, weakened by

debt, uprisings, and territorial losses

in the Balkans. The Russo-Turkish War of

1877-78

reshaped the region and secured

independence for several Balkan states.

But it also created friction among the

great powers. The Treaty of Berlin

rolled back Russian influence by

returning much of Macedonia to Ottoman

rule, leaving none of the regional

players satisfied.

The early 20th century brought even more

upheaval. The Young Turk revolution of

1908 attempted to modernize and

strengthen the empire. Yet

AustriaHungary's annexation of Bosnia,

Bulgaria's declaration of independence,

and renewed unrest in Albania and Cree

intensified the crisis. At the same

time, the Balkan states suffered their

own coups and struggled to control

powerful nationalist militaries that

demanded territorial expansion. By 1910,

both the Ottomans and their neighbors

were unstable, and the Balkans became a

region full of tension and conflict.

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As the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire

faced turmoil, Italy saw it as the

opportune moment to expand its empire.

Traditionally, Britain, France, and

later Germany had supported the Ottoman

Empire to prevent a total collapse. But

now they allowed Italy to attack and

occupy Ottoman Libya and the Dodecan

Islands.

Watching closely, the Serbian and

Bulgarian governments began alliance

talks in the fall of 1911, just after

the Italo Turkish War began. And in

March of 1912, they agreed on an

alliance that assigned northern

Macedonia to Serbia and southern

Macedonia to Bulgaria. But part was

considered a dispute zone that could be

assigned after the war with Russian

arbitration.

Soon after, Montenegro and Greece joined

with separate agreements, and the Balkan

League was born. However, Bulgaria

refused to commit to a final division of

territorial gains during the agreements,

confident that its army could seize the

most valuable lands. Bulgaria was

militarily the most powerful of the four

Balkan states with a large,

well-trained, welle equipped army.

Greece was considered the weakest of the

three main allies since it fielded the

smallest army and had suffered a defeat

against the Ottomans 16 years earlier.

But it was also the only Balkan country

to possess a formidable navy which was

vital for the League in preventing

Ottoman reinforcements from being

rapidly transferred by ship between Asia

and Europe. The Balkan League planned to

attack the Ottomans together. But on

October 8th, 1912, Montenegro attacked

ahead of schedule to get the jump on

Serbia, setting off the first Balkan

War. The rest of the Balkan League

members quickly followed. Ottoman Grand

Vizier Ahmed Mutar Pasha wanted to save

the peace and even demobilized part of

the Ottoman Third Army in the province

of Thrace. But the young Turks running

the government wanted to fight. Many

observers misread the balance and

underestimated the league. The empire's

population of 24 million was more than

twice the league's combined 10 million.

And on paper, the Ottomans could field

600,000 soldiers. The Ottomans had also

gained experience fighting the Italians

and rebels in Albania and Macedonia.

However, just over 6 million lived in

what still remained of Ottoman Europe,

many of whom were Orthodox Christians

and considered unfit for conscription.

The poor transport network of the

empire's Asian regions meant that the

only reliable way to move large numbers

of troops to the front was by sea, where

they'd be vulnerable to attacks from the

Greek fleet. In addition, the Ottomans

were still at war with the Italians over

1912, who had already overrun Ottoman

Libya and by now were invading the

Dodanese islands. Though the Ottoman

Empire and Italy made peace by this

point, the war had prevented the

Ottomans from reinforcing their position

in the Balkans. Many of their best

officers like Mustafa Kimal and Enver

Bay were stuck in Libya, and the reserve

troops were badly trained and equipped.

The Ottoman Navy was weak and the army

only had 315,000

men in Europe. Furthermore, the Ottomans

military capabilities were hampered by

several factors such as domestic strife

caused by the Young Turks revolution and

the counterrevolutionary coup several

months later. This resulted in different

groups competing for influence within

the military. A German mission had tried

to reorganize the army, but its

recommendations had not been fully

implemented. Also, several of the army's

best battalions had been transferred to

Yemen to face an ongoing rebellion. The

Balkan League could count on 825,000

soldiers, 350,000 Bulgarians, 230,000

Serbs, 200,000 Greeks, and 45,000

Montenegrons. Most of the soldiers were

peasant conscripts equipped with a

variety of European weapons including

French and German artillery and a few

observation aircraft. The Greek Navy

with 16 destroyers and an armored

cruiser ensured control of the Aian Sea.

By October 8th, Cree, which had been de

facto aligned with Greece since 1908,

was under Greek control, though its

official union with the kingdom would

not be recognized until 1913.

In early October 1912, three Bulgarian

armies faced the Ottoman First Army in

eastern Thrace. The Ottomans thought the

Bulgarians would move on Macedonia and

concentrated their troops there. But the

Bulgarians sent the bulk of their units

toward the fortress towns of Edererna

and Kirk Kaliza on the road to the

Ottoman capital of Constantinople. At

the battle of Kirk Kiza, the outnumbered

Ottomans fought for 3 days before the

Bulgarians broke their lines. The

Bulgarians could have completely smashed

the Ottoman army if they had pursued,

but instead they paused to reorganize

while the Ottomans rushed in

reinforcements, restoring discipline. On

October 29th, the Bulgarians attacked

the Ottoman defensive positions at Lully

Burgus. At first, the Ottomans held

firm, their artillery hammering

Bulgarian infantry as waves of men

pressed against their lines. But when

ammunition began to run short, the

Bulgarians gradually gained the upper

hand in brutal close quarters fighting

across the trenches and fields. By the

end, each side had suffered about 20,000

casualties, making it the bloodiest

battle in Europe since the

Francoressussian War in 1871.

The Ottomans fell back to the Catala

line just 18 mi or 30 km from

Constantinople where exhausted survivors

regrouped. The Ottomans requested an

armistice, but Zar Ferdinand of Bulgaria

refused and kept the decision secret

from his allies. On November 17th, the

Bulgarians launched an assault against

the Catala defenses, but fierce Ottoman

resistance, overstretched supply lines,

and the spread of chalera stopped their

advance. Meanwhile, in Macedonia,

Serbian forces came up against Ottoman

resistance quicker than expected at

Kumanovo. The Serbs outnumbered the

Ottoman army almost 2 to1, but the

Ottomans launched the first attacks on

October 23rd and the Serbs had to

counterattack at great cost. In the end,

the Serbian artillery overpowered the

Ottomans and the Serbs won the battle.

The victory left the Serbs in possession

of the part of Macedonia disputed with

the Balkans and routed the Ottomans who

fled south. The Serbs pursued them

further, leading to confrontations at

the battles of Prippp and Pollah. The

defeated Ottomans were then pushed into

southern Albania. Later, Serbian forces

joined Montenegrons at Scutari, captured

Novi Pizar and Pzen, and faced Albanian

resistance in Kosovo.

Meanwhile, the Greeks made straight for

Salonica, which the Bulgarians also

desired. Having prioritized it over

Macedonia, the Greeks surrounded the

port city. On November 7th, a Bulgarian

division rushed south and the commander

sent a message ahead asking the Ottomans

to surrender to him instead of the

Greeks. But it was too late. The capture

of Salonica on November 8th was a

critical league victory as Ottoman

forces were now completely cut off from

any hope of reinforcement. After taking

Salonica, Greek and Bulgarian troops

began an uneasy occupation. In the west,

Greek troops also besieged the Ottoman

fortress at Yania.

As the Balkan League armies advanced,

the Christian and Muslim civilian

population suffered from atrocities

committed by all sides. This was made

worse by the presence of irregular

forces that blurred the line between

soldiers and civilians. Constantinople

was filled with hundreds of thousands of

Muslim refugees with even the Haya

Sophia being turned into a kalera

hospital. The great powers sent warships

to Constantinople to protect the city's

Christian population from potential

revenge killings by Muslims. In just a

few weeks, the Balkan League had put

together a string of decisive victories.

Nearly all of Ottoman Europe was now

under their control except for a few

holdout fortresses. As a result of the

Ottoman collapse, an Albanian group

supported by Austria and Italy declared

independence on November 28th. On

December 3rd, the Ottomans signed an

armistice with Bulgaria, Montenegro, and

Serbia, but Greek military operations

continued. The Balkan League was

victorious on all fronts. But despite

the armistice, the war was not over, and

the great powers were being drawn ever

closer into the conflict. Even though

the Ottoman armies were beaten in the

field and its fleet was bottled up by

the Greek navy, they still held

important fortresses along with the

Katala line and had more reserves in

Asia. The Balkan League was divided over

the possible spoils. But the Ottomans

had no allies to help them take

advantage of the situation. This time

the great powers would not support the

Ottomans as they had in the past and

declared they would accept border

changes in favor of the League. Even

AustriaHungary said Vienna would not

oppose Serbian expansion except for an

Adriatic port. Russia was now worried

the Bulgarians might actually get to

Constantinople before them and urged

restraint. The events in the Balkans had

also pushed Europe to the brink of war.

On November 21st, AustriaHungary acted

to prevent Serbia from permanently

occupying the Adriatic coast. Vienna

mobilized six army corps with three

facing the Balkans and three facing

Russia. Kaiser Wilhelm secretly assured

the Austrians that if Russia mobilized,

Germany would support the Hapsburgs just

as he would do in July 1914. In response

to Austrohungarian moves, the Russians

Zar held a meeting with his war council

and the army drew up plans for a partial

mobilization. The court decided not to

mobilize, partly out of fear of

provoking Germany and partly because

some ministers didn't want to risk war

over Serbian access to the sea. The

German government did not know how close

the Russians had come to mobilizing when

they held their own war council meeting

on December 8th. Following the war scare

and the December armistice, two parallel

conferences took place in London on

December 16th and 17th, 1912.

Ottoman delegate Rasheed Pasha said that

his government would give up Macedonia

and Salonica but not Erdina, Eastern

Thrace or the four islands at the mouth

of the dinels that Greece was demanding.

The Ottomans also insisted on an

independent Albania.

The Bulgarians made a new demand for

Ederna to compensate for lands they

might lose to the Serbs. But it was a

particular sticking point as the

fortress city was important for the

safety of Constantinople. The Greeks and

Bulgarians argued over who would get

Salonica while the Serbs and Bulgarians

argued over Macedonia. For the great

powers, the main topic was the borders

of Albania, something that was of

critical importance for AustriaHungary

to limit Serbian power. The diplomatic

talks did not put an end to the chaos in

Constantinople as on January 23rd, 1913,

a young Turk government took power again

after yet another coup and the murder of

the war minister Nazim Pasha. Supported

by influential Turkish officers, many of

whom came from the Balkan lands that

were now lost. They decided to continue

the war to prevent the loss of Thrace.

Ottoman troops, including Mustafa Kimal,

landed at Gallipoli on February 7th. At

first, they pushed the Bulgarians back

around Bolair, but the Bulgarians

rallied and the Ottoman attack failed

with the loss of 6,000 dead to just 114

Bulgarians. Meanwhile, the Greeks took

Yawanina on March 6th, and the

Bulgarians and Serbians finally captured

Edera on March 26th. Atqutari, Serbian

troops arrived to help the Montenegrons,

who ignoring warnings from the great

powers, assaulted the city. A combined

fleet of the powers blockaded

Montenegro, causing the Serbs to leave.

But the Montenegrons managed to take the

city on April 24th, only to agree to

give it up to a future independent

Albania just days later.

The Ottomans had no choice but to accept

a peace deal and the belligerent signed

the Treaty of London on May 30th, 1913,

which reduced Ottoman Europe to a small

strip of land outside of Constantinople

and created the principality of Albania.

The first Balkan War came to an end in

May of 1913, and the Ottoman Empire in

Europe seemed to be irrevocably

defeated. But the borders between the

victorious Balkan League members were

another matter altogether. Even before

the first Balkan War had come to an end,

further conflict was brewing.

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this video. If you need an AI powered

tool for your projects and want access

to multiple models at a fraction of the

cost, click our link in the description

and use code AH5 at checkout to sign up

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