Part one
Part two
Part three
T o b e c o n t i n u e d . . .
The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkan Peninsula in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913. The First Balkan War lasted from October 1912 to May 1913, and was fought between the kingdoms of Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria & Montenegro on one side, and the Ottoman empire on the other. The victory over the Ottoman army was to prove relatively easy. The Balkan forces numbered about 700,000, against 320,000 for their adversary. With the defeat of the Ottoman army the Turkish state lost all of its territories in Europe. The Second Balkan War was a conflict which broke out when Bulgaria, unsatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War, attacked its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on 29 June 1913. Serbian and Greek armies repulsed the Bulgarian offensive and counter-attacked, entering Bulgaria. With Bulgaria also having previously engaged in territorial disputes with Romania, this war provoked Romanian intervention against Bulgaria. The Ottoman Empire also took advantage of the situation to regain some lost territories from the previous war. When Romanian troops approached the capital Sofia, Bulgaria asked for an armistice, resulting in the Treaty of Bucharest, in which Bulgaria had to cede portions of its First Balkan War gains to Serbia, Greece, Romania and the Ottomans.
(sources : Barbara Jelavich, History of the Balkans: 20th Century, Cambridge University Press, 1983 ; V. Albert, Balkanski rat 1912-1913 )
T o b e c o n t i n u e d . . .