First Balkan War Research Paper

The First Balkan War Taking advantage of its preparedness and smaller size when compared to the other members of the Balkan League, Montenegro declared war on the Ottoman Empire on October 8, 1912. Within 10 days, the other members of the Balkan League, Serbia, Greece, and Bulgaria, joined the war. Spread thin by previous campaigns and financial difficulties resulting in a shortage of military equipment, the Ottoman defeat by the Balkan Alliance came easy. The Balkan forces outnumbered the Ottomans roughly 700,000 to 320,000. The Greek navy controlled the sea, which prevented quick movement of troops from Anatolia to Macedonia. The major theater of the campaign was in Thrace, a region situated on the current borders of Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey. There the

Austria-Hungary had German support, and Serbia could rely on Russia, and neither state was interested in negotiation. It can be argued that Austria-Hungary underestimated Serbia, and the consequences of what going to war with Serbia would bring. For Serbia, war had become commonplace. There was too little fear of war, and too little consideration of the consequences that war would bring. The Balkan states were seeking to unify, they had had enough intervention in their affairs by foreign powers, and they had recently toppled one of the great empires. Serbia had no interest in being under foreign control and desired the inclusion of Bosnia-Herzegovina into a unified Balkan state. Upset by the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary in 1908 a number of nationalist movements against Austria-Hungary had sprung up, encouraged by both Russia and Serbia. When Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo, the situation had already reached its tipping point, and the two bullets fired by Gavrilo Princip on June 28, 1914 was all the world needed to push it over the