TURKEY AND THE BALKAN STATES
Checking the Dominion of the Turk in Europe
The Story of Servia—Turkey in Europe—The Bulgarian Horrors—The Defense
of Plevna—The Congress of Berlin—Hostile Sentiments in the
Balkans—Incitement to War—Fighting Begins—The Advance on
Adrianople—Servian and Greek victories—The Bulgarian Successes—Steps
toward Peace—The War Resumed—Siege of Scutari—Treaty of Peace—War
Between the Allies—The Final Settlement
In the southeast of Europe lies a group of minor kingdoms, of little
importance in size, but of great importance in the progress of recent
events. Their sudden uprising in 1912, their conquest of nearly the
whole existing remnant of Turkey in Europe, and the subsequent struggle
between them for the spoils are specially important from the fact that
Servia, one of this group of states, was the ostensible—hardly the
actual—cause of the great European war of 1914.
These, known as the Balkan States from their being traversed by the
Balkan range of mountains, comprise the kingdoms of Roumania, Bulgaria,
Servia, Montenegro, and the recent and highly artificial kingdom of
Albania. Greece is an outlying member of the group.
THE STORY OF SERVIA
Of these varied states Servia is of especial interest from its
immediate relation to the European contest. Its ancient history, also,
possesses much of interest. Minor in extent at present, it was once an
extensive empire. Under its monarch, Stephen Dushan (1336–56), it
included the whole of Macedonia, Albania, Thessaly, Bulgaria, and
Northern Greece, leaving little of the Balkan region beyond its
borders. In 1389 its independence ended as a result of the battle of
Kossova, it becoming tributary to the conquering empire of the Turks.
In another half century it became a province of Turkey in Europe, and
so remained for nearly two hundred years.
Its succeeding history may be rapidly summarized. In 1718 Austria won
the greater part of it, with its capital, Belgrade, from Turkey, but in
1739 it was regained by the Turks. Barbarous treatment of the Christian
population of Servia by its half-civilized rulers led to a series of
insurrections, ending in 1812 in its independence, by the terms of the
Treaty of Bukarest. The Turks won it back in 1813, but in 1815, under
its leader, Milosh, its complete independence was attained.
After the fall of Plevna in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, Servia
joined its forces to those of Russia, and by the Treaty of Berlin it
obtained an accession of territory and full recognition by the Powers
of Europe of its independence. In 1885 a national rising took place in
Eastern Roumelia, a province of Turkey, which led to the Turkish
governor being expelled and union with Bulgaria proclaimed. Servia
demanded a share of this new acquisition of territory and went to war
with Bulgaria, but met with a severe defeat. When, in 1908, Austria
annexed the former Turkish provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the
people of Servia were highly indignant, these provinces being largely
inhabited by people of the Servian race. The exasperation thus caused
is of importance, especially as augmented by the agency of Austria in
preventing Servia from obtaining a port on the Adriatic after the
Balkan war of 1912–13. The seething feeling of enmity thus engendered
had its final outcome in the assassination of the Austrian Crown Prince
Ferdinand in 1914, and the subsequent invasion of Servia by the armies
of Austria.
We have here spoken of the stages by which Servia gradually won its
independence from Turkey and its recognition as a full-fledged member
of the European family of nations. There are several others of the
Balkan group which similarly won independence from Turkey and to the
story of which some passing allusion is desirable.
How Greece won its independence has been already told. Another of the
group, the diminutive mountain state of Montenegro, much the smallest
of them all, has the honor of being the only section of that region of
Europe that maintained its independence during the long centuries of
Turkish domination. Its mountainous character enabled its hardy
inhabitants to hold their own against the Turks in a series of deadly
struggles. In 1876–78 its ruler, Prince Nicholas, joined in the war of
Servia and Russia against Turkey, the result being that 1,900 square
miles was changed from a principality into a kingdom, Prince Nicholas
gaining the title of King Nicholas. A second acquisition of territory
succeeded the Balkan War of 1913, the adjoining Turkish province of
Novibazar being divided between it and Servia.
TURKEY IN EUROPE
With this summary of the story of the Balkans we shall proceed to give
in more detail its recent history, comprising the wars of 1876–78 and
of 1912–13. As for the relations between Turkey and the Balkan
peninsula, it is well known how the Asiatic conquerors known as Turks,
having subdued Asia Minor, invaded Europe in 1355, overran most of the
Balkan country, and attacked and took Constantinople in 1453. Servia,
Bosnia, Albania, and Greece were added to the Ottoman Empire, which
subdued half of Hungary and received its first check on land before the
walls of Vienna in 1529, and on the ocean at the battle of Lepanto in
1571. Vienna was again besieged by the Turks in 1683, and was then
saved from capture by Sobieski of Poland and Charles of Lorraine.
This was the end of Turkish advance in Europe. Since that date it has
been gradually yielding to European assault, Russia beginning its
persistent attacks upon Turkey about the middle of the eighteenth
century. At that time Turkey occupied a considerable section of
Southern Russia, but by the end of the century much of this had been
regained. In 1812 Russia won that part of Moldavia and Bessarabia which
lies beyond the Pruth, in 1828 it gained the principal mouth of the
Danube, and in 1829 it crossed the Balkans and took Adrianople. The
independence of Greece was acknowledged the same year.
The next important event in the history of Turkey in Europe was the
Crimean War, the story of which has been told in an earlier chapter.
The chief results of it were a weakening of Russian influence in
Turkey, the abolition of the Russian protectorate over Moldavia and
Wallachia (united in 1861 as the principality of Roumania), and the
cession to Turkey of part of Bessarabia.
Turkey also came out of the Crimean War weakened and shorn of
territory. But the Turkish idea of government remained unchanged, and
in twenty years’ time Russia was fairly goaded into another war. In
1875 Bosnia rebelled in consequence of the insufferable oppression of
the Turkish tax-collectors. The brave Bosnians maintained themselves so
sturdily in their mountain fastnesses that the Turks almost despaired
of subduing them, and the Christian subjects of the Sultan in all
quarters became so stirred up that a general revolt was threatened.
THE BULGARIAN HORRORS
The Turks undertook to prevent this in their usual fashion. Irregular
troops were sent into Christian Bulgaria with orders to kill all they
met. It was an order to the Mohammedan taste. The defenseless villages
of Bulgaria were entered and their inhabitants slaughtered in cold
blood, till thousands of men, women, and children had been slain.
When tidings of these atrocities reached Europe the nations were filled
with horror. The Sultan made smooth excuses, and diplomacy sought to
settle the affair, but it became evident that a massacre so terrible as
this could not be condoned so easily. Disraeli, then prime minister of
Great Britain, sought to minimize these reports so as to avert a great
war in which England might be plunged. But Gladstone, at that time in
retirement, arose, and by his pamphlet on the “Bulgarian Horrors”
aroused a fierce public sentiment in England. His denunciation rang out
like a trumpet-call. “Let the Turks now carry away their abuses in the
only possible manner—by carrying off themselves,” he wrote. “Their
Zaptiehs and their Mudirs, their Bimbashis and their Yuzbachis, shall,
I hope, clear out from the province they have desolated and profaned.”
He followed up this pamphlet by a series of speeches, delivered to
great meetings and to the House of Commons, with which for four years
he sought, as he expressed it, “night and day to counterwork the
purpose of Lord Beaconsfield.” He succeeded; England was prevented by
his eloquence from actively resisting Russia; and he excited the fury
of the war party to such an extent that at one time it was not safe for
him to appear in the streets of London.
Hostilities were soon proclaimed. The Russians, of the same race and
religious sect as the Bulgarians, were excited beyond control, and in
April 1877, Alexander II declared war against Turkey. The outrages of
the Turks had been so flagrant that no allies came to their aid, while
the rottenness of their empire was shown by the rapid advance of the
Russian armies. They crossed the Danube in June. In a month later, they
had occupied the principal passes of the Balkan mountains and were in
position to descend on the broad plain that led to Constantinople. But
at this point in their career they met with a serious check. Osman
Pasha, the single Turkish commander of ability that the war developed,
occupied the town of Plevna with such forces as he could gather,
fortified it as strongly as possible, and from its walls defied the
Russians.
THE DEFENSE OF PLEVNA
The invaders dared not advance and leave this stronghold in their rear.
For five months all the power of Russia and the skill of its generals
were held in check by this brave man and his followers, until Europe
and America alike looked on with admiration at his remarkable defense,
in view of which the cause of the war was almost forgotten. The Russian
general Kudener was repulsed with the loss of 8,000 men. The daring
Skobeleff strove in vain to launch his troops over Osman’s walls. At
length General Todleben undertook the siege, adopting the slow but safe
method of starving out the defenders. Osman Pasha now showed his
courage, as he had already shown his endurance. When hunger and disease
began to reduce the strength of his men, he resolved on a final
desperate effort. At the head of his brave garrison the “Lion of
Plevna” sallied from the city, and fought with desperate courage to
break through the circle of his foes. He was finally driven back into
the city and compelled to surrender.
Osman had won glory, and his fall was the fall of the Turkish cause.
The Russians crossed the Balkans, capturing in the Schipka Pass a
Turkish army of 30,000 men. Adrianople was taken, and the Turkish line
of retreat cut off. The Russians marched to the Bosporus, and the
Sultan was compelled to sue for peace to save his capital from falling
into the hands of the Christians, as it had fallen into those of the
Turks four centuries before.
Russia had won the game for which she had made so long a struggle. The
treaty of San Stefano practically decreed the dissolution of the
Turkish Empire. But at this juncture the other nations of Europe took
part. They were not content to see the balance of power destroyed by
Russia becoming master of Constantinople, and England demanded that the
treaty should be revised by the European Powers in order to guard her
own route to India. Russia protested, but Beaconsfield threatened war,
and the Czar gave way.
THE CONGRESS OF BERLIN
The Congress of Berlin, to which the treaty was referred, settled the
question in the following manner: Montenegro, Roumania, and Servia were
declared independent, and Bulgaria became free, except that it had to
pay an annual tribute to the Sultan. The part of old Bulgaria that lay
south of the Balkan Mountains was named Eastern Roumelia and given its
own civil government, but was left under the military control of
Turkey. Bosnia and Herzegovina were placed under the control of
Austria. All that Russia obtained for her victories were some provinces
in Asia Minor. Turkey was terribly shorn, and since then her power has
been further reduced, for Eastern Roumelia has broken loose from her
control and united itself again to Bulgaria.
Another twenty years passed, and Turkey found itself at war again. It
was the old story, the oppression of the Christians. This time the
trouble began in Armenia, a part of Turkey in Asia, where in 1895 and
1896 terrible massacres took place. Indignation reigned in Europe, but
fears of a general war kept the Powers from using force, and the Sultan
paid no heed to the reforms he had promised to make.
In 1896 the Christians (Greeks) of the island of Crete broke out in
revolt against the oppression and tyranny of Turkish rule. Of all the
Powers of Europe little Greece was the only one that came to their aid,
and the great nations, still inspired with the fear of a general war,
sent their fleets and threatened Greece with blockade unless she would
withdraw her troops.
The result was one scarcely expected. Greece was persistent, and
gathered a threatening army on the frontier of Turkey, and war broke
out in 1897 between the two states. The Turks now, under an able
commander, showed much of their ancient valor and intrepidity, crossing
the frontier, defeating the Greeks in a rapid series of engagements,
and occupying Thessaly, while the Greek army was driven back in a state
of utter demoralization. At this juncture, when Greece lay at the mercy
of Turkey, as Turkey had lain at that of Russia twenty years before,
the Powers, which had refused to aid Greece in her generous but
hopeless effort, stepped in to save her from ruin. Turkey was bidden to
call a halt, and the Sultan reluctantly stopped the march of his army.
He demanded the whole of Thessaly and a large indemnity in money. The
former the Powers refused to grant, and reduced the indemnity to a sum
within the power of Greece to pay. Thus the affair ended, and such was
the status of the Eastern Question until the hatred of the Balkan
States again leaped into flame in the memorable Balkan War of 1912.
HOSTILE SENTIMENTS OF THE BALKANS
As may be seen from what has been said, the sentiment of hostility
between the Christian States of the Balkan region and the Mohammedan
empire of Turkey was not likely to be easily allayed. The atrocities of
persecution which the Christians had suffered at the hands of the Turks
were unforgotten and unavenged, and to them was added an ambitious
desire to widen their dominions at the expense of Turkey, if possible
to drive Turkey completely out of Europe and extend their areas of
control to the Mediterranean and the Bosporus. These states consisted
of Servia, made an autonomous principality in 1830, an independent
principality in 1878, and a kingdom in 1882; Bulgaria, an autonomous
principality in 1878, an independent kingdom in 1908; Roumania, an
autonomous principality in 1802, an independent principality in 1878, a
kingdom in 1881; Montenegro, an independent principality in 1878, a
kingdom in 1910; Eastern Roumelia, autonomous in 1878, annexed to
Bulgaria in 1885. Adjoining these on the south was Greece, an
independent kingdom since 1830. The former provinces of Bosnia and
Herzegovina had been assigned to Austrian administrative control in
1878, and annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1908, an act which added to the
feeling of unrest in the Balkan States.
The relations existing between the Balkan States and their neighbors
was one of dissatisfaction and hostility which might at any time break
into war, this being especially the case with those which bordered
directly upon Turkey—Servia, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Greece. Roumania,
being removed from contact, had less occasion to entertain warlike
sentiments.
INCITEMENT TO WAR
A fitting time for this indignation and hostile feeling to break out
into war came in 1912, as a result of the invasion and conquest of
Tripoli by Italy in 1911–12. This war, settled by a protocol in favor
of Italy on October 15, 1912, had caused financial losses and political
unrest in Turkey which offered a promising opportunity for the states
to carry into effect their long-cherished design. They did not act as a
unit, the smallest of them, Montenegro,, declaring war on Turkey on
October 8th, and Greece, on October 17th. In regard to Servia and
Bulgaria, Turkey took the initiative, declaring war on them October 17,
1912.
But acts of war did not wait for a formal declaration. On October 5th,
King Peter of Servia thus explained to the National Assembly of that
state his reasons for mobilizing his troops:
“I have applied with friendly counsels to Constantinople regarding the
misery which the Christian nationalities, including ours, are suffering
in Turkey, and it is to be regretted that all this was of no avail.
Instead of the expected reforms we were surprised a few days ago by the
mobilization of the Turkish army near our frontiers. To this act, by
which our safety was endangered, Servia had only one reply. By my
decree our army was put into a mobile state.
“Our position is clear. Our duty is to undertake measures insuring our
safety. It is our duty, in conformity with other Christian Balkan
states, to do everything in our power to insure proper conditions for a
real and permanent peace in the Balkans.”
The first raid into Turkish territory was made by the Bulgarian bandit
Sandansky, who in 1902 had kidnapped Miss Ellen M. Stone, an American
missionary, and held her for a ransom of $65,000 to procure funds for
his campaign. At the head of a band of 2,500 Bulgarians he crossed the
frontier and burned the Turkish blockhouse at Oschumava, afterwards
occupying a strategic position above the Struma River.
FIGHTING BEGINS
The Montenegro army opened the war on October 9th, by attacking a
strong Turkish position opposite Podgoritza, Franz Peter, the youngest
son of King Nicholas, firing the first shot. Bulgaria, without waiting
to declare war, crossed the frontier on October 14th and made a sharp
attack on the railway patrols between Sofia and Uskut. Sharp fighting
at the same time took place on the Greek frontier, the Greeks capturing
Malurica Pass, the chief mountain pass leading from Greece to Turkey on
the northern frontier. As regards the reasons impelling Greece to take
an active part in the war, it must be remembered that the great
majority of Greeks still lived under the Turkish flag, while the twelve
islands in the Aegean Sea seized by Italy during its war with Turkey
were clamoring to be annexed to Greece instead of being returned to
Turkey by the treaty of peace between Italy and Turkey.
Such were the conditions and events existing at the opening of the war.
It developed with great rapidity, a number of important battles being
fought, in which the Turks were defeated. The military strength of the
combined states exceeded that of Turkey, and within a month’s time they
made rapid advances, the goals sought by them being Constantinople,
Adrianople, Salonica and Scutari.
THE ADVANCE ON ADRIANOPLE
The most important of the Balkan movements was that of the Bulgarian
army upon Adrianople, the second to Constantinople in importance of
Turkish cities. By October 20th the Bulgarian main army had forced the
Turks back upon the outward forts of this stronghold, while the left
wing threatened the important post of Kirk-Kilisseh, in Thrace, about
thirty miles northeast of Adrianople. This place, regarded as “the Key
to Adrianople,” was take on the 24th, after a three days’ fight, the
Turkish forces, said to be 150,000 strong, retiring in disorder.
The Bulgarians continued their advance, fighting over a wide
semicircular area before Adrianople, upon which city they gradually
closed, taking some of the outer forts and making their bombardment
felt within the city itself.
SERVIAN AND GREEK VICTORIES
While the Bulgarians were making such vigorous advances towards the
capital of the Turkish empire, their allies were winning victories in
other quarters. Novibazar, capital of the sanjak of the same name, was
taken by the Servians on October 23rd. Prishtina and other towns and
villages of Old Servia were also taken, the victors being received by
the citizens with open arms of welcome and other demonstrations of joy.
Tobacco and refreshments were pressed upon the soldiers, while the
people put all their possessions at the disposal of the military
authorities.
The Greeks were also successful, an army under the Crown Prince
capturing the town of Monastir, which was garrisoned by a Turkish force
estimated at 40,000. The Montenegrin forces were regarded as of high
importance as a means of widening the area of their narrow kingdom.
Other important towns or Old Servia were taken, including Kumanova,
captured on the 25th, Uskab, captured on the 26th, and Istib, 45 miles
to the southwest, occupied without opposition on the following day.
This place, a very strong natural position in the mountains, was known
as the Adrianople of Macedonia.
THE BULGARIAN SUCCESSES
While these movements were taking place in the west, the siege of
Adrianople was vigorously pushed. It was completely surrounded by
Bulgarian troops by the 29th, and its commander formally summoned to
surrender the city. The besiegers, however, had great difficulties to
overcome, the country around being inundated by the rivers Maretza and
Arda in consequence of heavy rains. These floods at the same time
impeded the movements of the Turks.
On October 31st, after another three-day fight, the Bulgarians achieved
the great success of the war, defeating a Turkish army of 200,000 men.
Only a fortnight had passed since Turkey declared war. The first week
of the campaign closed with the dramatic fall of Kirk-Kilesseh, fully
revealing for the first time the disorganization, bad morale and
inefficient commissariat of the Turkish army. Ten days later that army
was defeated and routed, within fifty miles from Constantinople,
forcing it to retreat within the capital’s line of defenses.
Apparently Nazim Pasha had been completely outmaneuvered by Savoff’s
generalship. The Bulgarian turning movement along the Black Sea coast
appears to have been a feint, which induced the Turkish commander to
throw his main army to the eastward, to such effect that the Bulgarian
force on this side had the greatest difficulty in holding the Turks in
check.
In fact, the Bulgarians gave way, and thus enabled Nazim Pasha to
report to Constantinople some success in this direction. In the
meantime, however, General Savoff hurled his great strength against the
Turks’ weakened left wing, which he crushed in at Lule Burgas. The
fighting along the whole front, which evidently was of the most
stubborn and determined character, was carried on day and night without
intermission, and both sides lost heavily.
The final result was to force the Turks within the defensive lines of
Tchatalja, the only remaining fortified position protecting
Constantinople. These lines lie twenty-five miles to the northwest of
the capital.
The seat of war between Bulgaria and Turkey, aside from the continued
siege of Adrianople, was by this success transferred to the Tchatalja
lines, along which the opposing armies lay stretched during the week
succeeding the Lule Burgas victory. Here siege operations were
vigorously prosecuted, but the Turks, though weakened by an outbreak of
cholera in their ranks, succeeded in maintaining their position.
STEPS TOWARD PEACE
Elsewhere victory followed the banners of the allies. On November 8th
the important port of Salonica was taken by the Greeks, and on the 18th
the Servians captured Monastir, the remaining Turkish stronghold in
Macedonia. The fighting here was desperate, lasting three days, the
Turkish losses amounting to about 20,000 men. In Albania the
Montenegrin siege of Scutari continued, though so far without success.
Turkey had now enough of the war. On November 3d she had asked a
mediation of the Powers, but these replied that she must treat directly
with the Balkan nations. This caused delay until the end of the month,
the protocol of an armistice being approved by the Turkish cabinet on
November 30th, and signed by representatives of Turkey, Bulgaria,
Servia and Montenegro on December 3d. Greece refused to sign, but at a
later date agreed to take part in a conference to meet in London on
December 16th.
This peace conference continued in session until January 6, 1913,
without reaching any conclusions, Turkey refusing to accept the Balkan
demands that she should yield practically the whole of her territory in
Europe. At the final session of the conference she renounced her claim
to the island of Crete, and promised to rectify her Thracian frontier,
but insisted upon the retention of Adrianople. This place, the original
capital of the Ottoman Empire in Europe, and containing the splendid
mosque of Sultan Selim, was highly esteemed by the Mohammedans, who
clung to it as a sacred city.
War seemed likely to be resumed, though the European Powers strongly
suggested to Turkey the advisability of yielding on this point, and
leaving the question of the fate of the Aegean Islands to the Powers,
which promised also to guard Mussulman interests in Adrianople.
Finally, on January 22d, the Porte consented to this request of the
Powers, a decision which was vigorously resented by the warlike party
known as Young Turks.
Demonstrations at once broke out in Constantinople, leading to the
overthrow of the cabinet and the murder of Nazim Pasha, former minister
of war and commander-in-chief of the Turkish army. He was succeeded by
Enver Bey, the most spirited leader of the Young Turks, who became
chief of staff of the army.
On January 30th the Balkan allies denounced their armistice and a
renewed war seemed imminent. On the same day the Ottoman government
offered a compromise, agreeing to divide Adrianople between the
contestants in such a way that they might retain the mosques and the
historic monuments. As for the Aegean Islands, they would leave these
to the disposition of the Powers.
THE WAR RESUMED
To this compromise the Balkan allies refused to agree and on February
3d hostile operations were resumed. The investment of Adrianople had
remained intact during the interval, and on the 4th a vigorous
bombardment took place, the Turkish response being weak. Forty Servian
seven-inch guns had been mounted, their shells falling into the town,
part of which again broke into flames. At points the lines of besiegers
and besieged were only 200 yards apart. An attempt was made also to
capture the peninsula of Gallipoli, which commands the Dardanelles, and
thus take the Turkish force in the rear. Fifty thousand Bulgarians had
been landed on this coast in November, and the Greek fleet in the Gulf
of Saros supported the attack. If successful, there would be nothing to
prevent this fleet from passing the straits, defeating the inferior
Turkish war vessels and attacking Constantinople from the rear.
Fighting in this region continued for several days, the Turkish forces
being driven back, but still holding their forts.
SIEGE OF SCUTARI
In the west the most important operation at this period was that of the
Montenegrins, led by King Nicholas in person, against Scutari, an
Albanian stronghold which they were eager to possess.
Servian artillery aided in the assault, and on February 8th the
important outwork on Muselim Hill was taken by an impulsive bayonet
charge. The city was not captured, however, until April 23d, when an
entire day’s ceaseless fighting ended in the yielding of the garrison,
the climax of a six-month siege.
An energetic attack had been made by the Bulgarians and Serbs on
Adrianople on March 14th, ending in a repulse, and on the 22d another
vigorous assault was begun, continuing with terrific fighting for four
days. It ended in a surrender of the city on the 26th. The siege had
continued for 152 days. Before yielding, the Turks blew up the arsenal
and set fire to the city at several points. At the same time Tchatalja,
which had been actively assailed, fell into the hands of the allies and
Constantinople lay open to assault.
Meanwhile the Powers of Europe had again offered their good services to
mediate between the warring forces, and a conditional mediation was
agreed to by the Balkan allies. Movements towards peace, however,
proceeded slowly, the most interesting event of the period being a
demand by Austria, backed by Italy, that Montenegro should give up the
city of Scutari. Earnest protests were made against this by King
Nicholas, but the despatch of an Austrian naval division on April 27th
to occupy his ports and march upon Cettinje, his capital, obliged him
reluctantly to yield and on May 5th Scutari was given up to Austria, to
form part of a projected Albanian kingdom.
TREATY OF PEACE
Peace between the warring nations was finally concluded on May 30,
1913, the treaty providing that Turkey should cede to her allied foes
all territory west of a line drawn from Enos on the Aegean coast to
Media on the coast of the Black Sea. This left Adrianople in the hands
of the Bulgarians and gave Turkey only a narrow strip of territory west
of Constantinople, the meager remnant of her once great holdings upon
the continent of Europe. The victors desired to divide the conquered
territory upon a plan arranged between them before the war, but the
purposes of Austria and Italy were out of agreement with this design
and the Powers insisted in forming out of the districts assigned to
Servia and Greece a new principality to be named Albania, embracing the
region occupied by the unruly Albanian tribes.
This plan gave intense dissatisfaction to the allies. It seemed
designed to cut off Servia from an opening upon the Mediterranean,
which that inland state ardently desired and Austria strongly opposed.
Montenegro was also deprived of the warmly craved city of Scutari,
which she had won after so vigorous a strife. Bulgaria also was
dissatisfied with this new project and opposed the demands of Servia
and Greece for compensation in land for the loss of Albania or for
their support of the Bulgarian operations.
WAR BETWEEN THE ALLIES
Thus the result of this creation of a new and needless state out of the
conquered territory by the peace-making Powers roused hostilities among
the allies which speedily flung them into a new war. Bulgaria refused
to yield any of the territory held by it to the Servians and Greeks,
and Greece in consequence made a secret league with Servia against
Bulgaria.
It was the old story of a fight over the division of the spoils. It is
doubtful which of the contestants began hostile operations, but
Bulgaria lost no time in marching upon Salonica, held by Greece, and in
attacking the Greek and Servian outposts in Macedonia. The plans of
General Savoff, who had led the Bulgarians to victory in the late war
and who commanded in this new outbreak, in some way fell into the hands
of the Greeks and gave them an important advantage. They at once, in
junction with the Servians, attacked the Bulgarians and drove them
back. From the accounts of the war, probably exaggerated, this struggle
was accompanied by revolting barbarities upon the inhabitants of the
country invaded, each country accusing the other of shameful
indignities.
What would have been the result of the war, if fought out between the
original contestants, it is impossible to say, for at this juncture a
new Balkan State, which had taken no part in the Turkish war, came into
the field. This was Roumania, lying north of Bulgaria and removed from
any contact with Turkey. It had had a quarrel with Bulgaria, dating
back to 1878, concerning certain territory to which it laid claim. This
was a strip of land on the south side of the Danube near its mouth and
containing Silistria and some other cities.
THE FINAL SETTLEMENT
King Charles of Roumania now took the opportunity to demand this
territory, and when his demand was refused by Ferdinand of Bulgaria he
marched an army across the Danube and took the Bulgarians, exhausted by
their recent struggle, in the rear. No battles were fought. The
Roumanian army advanced until within thirty miles of Sofia, the
Bulgarian capital, and Ferdinand was obliged to appeal for peace, and
in the subsequent treaty yielded to Roumania the tract desired, which
served to round out the frontier on the Black Sea.
Another unexpected event took place. While her late foes were
struggling in a war of their own, Turkey quietly stepped into the
arena, and on July 20th retook possession, without opposition, of
Adrianople, Bulgaria’s great prize in the late war.
A peace conference was held at Bukarest, capital of Roumania, beginning
July 30th, and framing a treaty, signed on August 10th.
This provided for the evacuation of Bulgaria by the invading armies,
and also for a division of the conquered territory. Bulgaria gained the
largest amount of territory, though less than she had claimed. Greece
retained the important seaport of Salonica, the possession of which had
been hotly disputed, and gained the largest sea front. Montenegro,
though deprived of the much-coveted Scutari, was assigned part of
northern Albania and the Turkish sanjak of Novibazar, adjoining on the
east, considerably increasing her diminutive territory.
Servia had most reason to be dissatisfied with the result, in view of
her craving for an opening to the sea. Cut off by Albania on the west,
it sought an opening on the south, demanding the city of Kavala, on the
Aegean Sea. But to this Greece strongly objected, as that city, one of
the great tobacco marts of the world, was inhabited almost wholly by
Greeks. Servia, however, extended southward far over its old territory,
gaining Uskub, its old capital. And the Powers also agreed that it
should have commercial rights on the Mediterranean, thorough railroad
connection with Salonica.
As regards Turkey’s shrewd advantage of the opportunity to retake
Adrianople, it proved a successful move. The Russian press strongly
advocated that the Turks should be ejected, but the jealousy of the
Powers prevented any agreement as to who should do this and in the end
the Turks remained, with a considerable widening of the tract of land
before assigned to them.
In these wars it is estimated that 358,000 persons died, and that the
cost of the two wars, to the several nations involved, reached a total
of $1,200,000,000. Its general result was almost to complete the work
of expelling the Turks from Europe, the territory lost by them being
divided up between the several Balkan nations.