Motives for Creating the Balkan Alliance

The Crimean War, fought over the rights of Christians in the holy land and controlled at that time by the Ottoman Empire, came to an ending in 1856, with Russia losing to an alliance of France, Britain, The Ottoman Empire and Sardinia and beginning to fear that its enemies would put extreme effort into preventing any further imperialism in the Mediterranean region. In preparation for this possibility and in an attempt to form a pre-emptive strike on an enemy alliance, Russia began pursuing goals of passive expansion throughout the Balkan region. Russia began giving military aid to the Balkan states in order to form indirect alliances with those countries. Russia helped cement an independent Bulgarian state and rescued Serbia from Ottoman defeat in 1876, after which they forced the Ottomans to recognize an independent Serbia some years later. After helping these two countries become recognized as autonomous states, Russia continued to feel pressure at the hands of the other European powers that had only recently caused them defeat. When the Bosnian crisis struck, where Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, Russia and Serbia protested but were not strong enough to fight a supporter of the annexation, Germany. In a move towards protection, Russia attempted to create a “Slavic block” coercing Bulgaria and Serbia to form an alliance directed against both the Ottomans and Austria Hungary.

In the more southern Balkan country of Greece, previous Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos had just been reappointed into power during this period through the revolt of army offices in 1909. When Venizelos came back as Prime Minister in 1910, much of Greece was hoping that he would help Greece regain status after suffering the Ottoman defe...

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...e second Balkan war, the Greek king was assassinated in Thessaloniki generating a foreign policy revolving around neutrality. The war concluded through the Treaty of Bucharest on August 10th 1913, resulting in Greece’s gain of Macedonia, part of Epirus, and Crete. However, the negative effects of this war carried long into the future of Greece. The new king of Greece who replaced his father was pro-German, and took all measures to keep Greece out of the upcoming World War as pressure was mounting to fight against Germany. The conflict over whether to enter the first World War continued to cause problems between the king, who wanted to avoid war at all costs in an attempt to avoid conflict with Germany, and the prime minister who desperately wanted to align Greece with the ally powers leading to the National schism, dominating Greek politics for over half a century.