Did Serbia benefit from the Balkan Wars?

Though outnumbered, most observers believed that the Turkish Army would defeat the coalition of the Balkan League whose plans for coordinating attacks and hope for long-term cooperation were viewed with scepticism. Sensing the upcoming hostilities, Kiamil Pasha had sued for peace with Italy, and on October 18 he had ceded Tripoli and the wastelands of Libya to initiate a transfer of troops to the more pressing concern of losing the Ottoman areas of Europe. Under German direction, its Army was still considered formidable, and the nature of the terrain in the Balkans proved advantageous to defense. Knowing the need for a quick and decisive victory, the members of the Balkan League instituted a courageous and costly series of offences directly into the teeth of the Turkish forces. The brunt of the fighting fell to the Bulgarians, whose primary theatre of operations fell southward into Thrace though their primary objective was to win a Bulgarian Macedonia. After driving the Turks from their fortified positions at Kirk Kilisse on October 29, they laid siege to the fortress of Adrianople (Edirne) while continuing to collapse the Turkish centre at Lule Burgas. A final siege line was established along the formidable Chataldja Line a mere twenty miles from Istanbul. Serbian divisions headed into Macedonia, slamming into the North Macedonian Army commanded by Zeki Pasha, and winning a pivotal battle at Kumanova on October 25 before entering Shkup uncontested. A fierce assault against the lines of the Babuna Pass sent the Turks into a panicked retreat, leading the Serbs to realize their primary objective of Manastir itself. To the south, the Greeks had laid siege to Janina and quickly closed on Salonika. Djavid Pasha, commander of the Macedonian South Army, managed a small victory over the Fifth Greek Division at Bannitza before retiring to the regions surrounding Lake Ohri. By the December of 1912, the Turkish hold in Europe had been reduced to the fortresses of Janina, Shkoder, Adrianople, and a small strip of Thrace just north of Istanbul. As winter set in, they opened negotiations for peace.

An armistice agreement was signed on December 3 by all the Balkan allies except Greece, which continued military operations against the Turks. Later in the month, representatives of the belligerents and the major European powers met in London to decide the Balkan question. “The Balkan Wars should have finished at the London Conference in January 1913.  But the humiliation of the Turkish army re-ignited the bitter domestic struggle in Istanbul between the Liberals and the CUP.”  The Turks rejected the peace conditions demanded by the Balkan states, the chief sticking point being Adrianople, and the conference ended in failure on January 6, 1913. On January 23, a successful coup d'état brought an extreme nationalist grouping called the ‘Young Turks’ to power in the Ottoman Empire, and within a week fighting resumed.  Again the allies were victorious: Ioánnina fell to the Greeks and Adrianople to the Bulgarians. Under a peace treaty signed in London on May 30, 1913, the Ottoman Empire lost almost all of its remaining European territory, including all of Macedonia and Albania. Albanian independence was insisted upon by the European powers, and Macedonia was to be divided among the Balkan allies.

After the conclusion of hostilities Serbia showed intentions of annexing a large part of Albania, in order to gain an outlet on the Adriatic, but this step toward a “Greater Serbia” was opposed by Austria-Hungary and Italy and by the Albanians, who had proclaimed their independence. Dissatisfied with these terms, Serbia demanded of Bulgaria a greater share of Macedonia.  However, Bulgaria refused to recognize the Serbian claim to certain Bulgarian-held portions of Macedonia.  On June 1, 1913, Greece and Serbia concluded an alliance aimed against Bulgaria. The Second Balkan War began on June 29. On that date a Bulgarian general, acting without orders from his government, launched an attack on Serbian defensive positions. The Bulgarian government disavowed this attack, but on July 8,  Serbia and Greece declared war. Within the next two weeks Montenegro, Romania, and the Ottoman Empire entered the war against Bulgaria. On July 30, Bulgaria, unable to withstand this coalition, asked for and received an armistice. By the ensuing peace agreement, signed at Bucharest, Romania, on August 10, Bulgaria lost considerable territory, including nearly 7770 sq km (nearly 3000 sq miles) allotted to Romania. The agreement, among other things, awarded most of Macedonia to Serbia and Greece. By later agreements Bulgaria also yielded a large territory to the Turks.  As a result of this Second Balkan War, Bulgaria lost territory to all her enemies. Furthermore, Serbia divided the Sanjak with Montenegro, acquired Kosovo and Metohija, and took the lion's share of Macedonia. Its area was expanded by some four-fifths and its population by more than half. Turkish possessions in Europe were confined to a small area of eastern Thrace.

What was very significant was the Serbian gain of Kosovo as a result of the Balkan Wars.  Serbs have long revered Kosovo, an autonomous republic of the former Yugoslavia, as the cradle of their civilization. It has only been in the last century and a half that Albanians have become the majority in Kosovo, and not until this century that Kosovo has become semi-independent of Serb control. Kosovo is an integral part of Serbia, and the Serbs have a legitimate and historical claim.

During the height of its medieval kingdom, Serbia emerged as the dominant power of the Balkans.  Kosovo was the centre of this great kingdom. During this era, Serbia was recognized by the great monarchies of Europe. It was Serbia alone who created this great kingdom, and Serbia who defended it in 1389 against the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of the Serb, Prince Lazar. The Balkans since, were subjected to five hundred years of domination by the Ottoman Turks. During this time, it was only the Serbs who effectively rebelled against Turkish rule. By 1878 Serbia was again free, demonstrating that Slavic peoples did not have to be subjected to foreign rule. By 1913, after two Balkan wars, Kosovo was reclaimed by the Serbs. Serbia once again demonstrated why she is the leader of the Slavic peoples.

After the Treaty of Bucharest, the results were irreversible, as Viscount Grey accounted: “Any future Balkan peace was impossible so long as the Treaty of Bucharest remained.”  The Balkan League was smashed and the result of the Balkan Wars was that the problems of the Balkans were not resolved but “merely covered over the cracks.”  More significantly: “The Balkan wars left Serbia exhausted and bleeding but almost doubled in size and population.  Its prestige and self-confidence were vastly enhanced.”   What it ultimately meant was that these Serbian victories proved a “potent weapon in winning the confidence and support if the other South Slavs.”  As a result of the Balkan Wars, Serbia gained the Kosovo region and extended into northern and central Macedonia. Albania was made an independent state under a German prince. The political consequences of the wars were considerable. Bulgaria, frustrated in Macedonia, looked to Austria for support, while Serbia, which had been forced by Austria to give up its Albanian conquests, regarded Vienna with greater hostility than ever. The heightened tensions in the Balkans reached their climax in World War I, which was sparked by the assassination of the Austrian heir-apparent by a Serb in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on June 28, 1914.  The Balkan Wars profoundly influenced the subsequent course of European history. By creating a strong and ambitious Serbia, the peace settlements engendered fear and anti-Serbian sentiment in neighbouring Austria-Hungary. The dismantling of the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria created equally dangerous tensions in south-eastern Europe. These conditions greatly intensified the contemporary forces in shaping a general European conflict.

The Balkan Wars prepared the way for World War I by satisfying some of the aspirations of Serbia and thereby giving a great impetus to the Serbian desire to annex parts of Austria-Hungary; by alarming Austria and stiffening Austrian resolution to crush Serbia; and by giving causes of dissatisfaction to Bulgaria and Turkey.  “In Serbia and Montenegro the result of the two successive Balkan Wars, though these had exhausted the material resources of the two countries, was a justifiable return of national self-confidence and rejoicing such as the people, humiliated and impoverished as it had habitually been by its internal and external troubles, had not known for very many years.  At last Serbia and Montenegro had joined hands.  At last Old Serbia was restored to the free kingdom.”   Therefore, the result was the impetus desired by Serbia for so long to finally try to fulfil her long term aim – that of unification of South Slavs one way or another.  She had gained very crucial territories including Kosovo, and other states such as Bosnia – Herzegovina and other ethnic groups such ass the Croats and the Slovenes took great pleasure in watching the old Empires of The Habsburgs and the Ottomans fall to pieces.  It stimulated further ethic nationalism and created such a vibe for Pan-Slavism and unification, that could not be quelled again by any Great Power.  

BIBLIOGRAPHY

N Forbes – The Balkans (Oxford, 1915)

The Balkans since 1453 – L S Stavrianos (US, 1963)

Serbia as Piedmont and the Yugoslav Idea – D MacKenzie (East European Quarterly, XXVIII, No 2)

Yugoslavia As History – J Lambe (Cambridge, 1996)

The Balkans – M Glenny (London, 1999)

The Struggle For Mastery In Europe – A J P Taylor (Oxford, 1954)

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