Balkan Wars

Balkan Wars
A Bulgarian postcard depicting the Battle of Lule Burgas.
Date 8 October 1912 – 10 August 1913 (9 months, 1 week and 3 days) First Balkan War: 8 October 1912 – 30 May 1913 (7 months, 3 weeks and 1 day) Second Balkan War: 16 June – 10 August 1913 (1 month, 1 week and 5 days) Location Adrianople Scutari Kosovo Manastir Salonica provinces Aegean Islands Aegean Sea Result First Balkan War: Balkan League victory Treaty of London Second Balkan War: Bulgarian defeat Treaty of Bucharest Treaty of Constantinople
Belligerents
First Balkan War:  Ottoman Empire	First Balkan War:  Bulgaria  Serbia  Greece  Montenegro
Second Balkan War:  Bulgaria	Second Balkan War:  Serbia  Romania  Greece  Montenegro  Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Mehmed V Enver Pasha Nazım Pasha Zeki Pasha Abdul Kerim Pasha Kölemen Abdullah Pasha Hasan Tahsin Pasha  Rauf Pasha Ferdinand I Mihail Savov Vasil Kutinchev Nikola Ivanov Radko Dimitriev Stiliyan Kovachev	Ferdinand I Mihail Savov Vasil Kutinchev Nikola Ivanov Radko Dimitriev Radomir Putnik Petar Bojović Stepa Stepanović Eleftherios Venizelos Crown Prince Constantine Pavlos Kountouriotis Nicholas I Prince Danilo Petrović Carol I Ferdinand I
Strength
437,000+ 600,000+	450,000+ 230,000 125,000 44,500 Total: 850,000 men 348,000 330,000 255,000 148,000 12,800 Total: 1,093,800 men
632,000–1,500,000 Ottoman Muslim civilian deaths[1][2] 400,000–813,000 Ottoman Muslim refugees[1][2] c. 120,000–270,000 Albanian civilians killed[3][4] 60,000–300,000 Albanians deported from Old Serbia[3][5]

Events leading to World War I
Unification of Germany 1866–1871 Franco-Prussian War 1870–1871 Second Concert of Europe 1871 Great Eastern Crisis 1875–1878 Campaign in Bosnia 1878 Dual Alliance 1879 Boer Wars 1880–1902 Austro–Serbian Alliance 1881–1903 Triple Alliance 1882 Berlin Conference 1884 Bulgarian Crisis 1885–1888 Reinsurance Treaty 1887–1890 Franco-Russian Alliance 1894 First Sino-Japanese War 1894–1895 Anglo-German naval arms race 1898–1912 Fashoda Incident 1898 Anglo-Japanese Alliance 1902 May Coup 1903 Russo-Japanese War 1904–1905 Entente Cordiale 1904 First Moroccan Crisis 1905–1906 Pig War 1906–1908 Anglo-Russian Convention 1907 Young Turk Revolution 1908 Bosnian Crisis 1908–1909 Racconigi Bargain 1909 Second Moroccan Crisis 1911 Italo-Turkish War 1911–1912 Balkan Wars 1912–1913 Assassination of Franz Ferdinand 1914 July Crisis 1914
v t e

The Balkan Wars were a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan states in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan states of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defeated it, in the process stripping the Ottomans of their European provinces, leaving only Eastern Thrace under Ottoman control. In the Second Balkan War, Bulgaria fought against the other four original combatants of the first war. It also faced an attack from Romania from the north. The Ottoman Empire lost the bulk of its territory in Europe. Although not involved as a combatant, Austria-Hungary became relatively weaker as a much enlarged Serbia pushed for union of the South Slavic peoples.^[6] The war set the stage for the July crisis of 1914 and thus served as a prelude to the First World War.^[7]

By the early 20th century, Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia had achieved independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large elements of their ethnic populations remained under Ottoman rule. In 1912, these countries formed the Balkan League. The First Balkan War began on 8 October 1912, when the League member states attacked the Ottoman Empire, and ended eight months later with the signing of the Treaty of London on 30 May 1913. The Second Balkan War began on 16 June 1913, when Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its loss of Macedonia, attacked its former Balkan League allies. The combined forces of Serbian and Greek armies, with their superior numbers repelled the Bulgarian offensive and counter-attacked Bulgaria by invading it from the west and the south. Romania, having taken no part in the conflict, had intact armies to strike with and invaded Bulgaria from the north in violation of a peace treaty between the two states. The Ottoman Empire also attacked Bulgaria and advanced in Thrace, regaining Adrianople. In the resulting Treaty of Bucharest, Bulgaria managed to regain most of the territories it had gained in the First Balkan War. However, it was forced to cede the ex-Ottoman south part of Dobruja province to Romania.^[8]

The Balkan Wars were marked by ethnic cleansing, with all parties being responsible for grave atrocities against civilians, and inspired later atrocities including war crimes during the 1990s Yugoslav Wars.^{[9][10][11][12]}