It was a term devised in the early 20th century to describe the unstable political situation in the region just before it exploded into a conflict known as the First World War. The Balkan Wars were a series of conflicts fought between the Balkan League (Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro) and its allies and the Ottoman Empire. But these wars didn't involve any of the great European powers such as Germany, France, or the United Kingdom. This is what makes them less known, but they were crucial for the development of the European political scene.
The Balkan Wars were first fought for ethnic groups that were ruled by the Ottoman Empire so they could gain their complete independence and expand their territory. Looking up to the successful western states, Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, and Greece wanted to achieve national states with a territory that would gather all their ethnic brothers into one state.
But the legacy of the Ottoman Empire lives on in the multiethnic hodgepodge of the Balkan Peninsula. Unlike Westerners, the Ottomans considered their faith to be the uniting factor, not the idea of belonging to a nation. This belief created the complex situation in the Balkans that lasts to this day.
To understand this part of Europe, one must look into the past and understand the obscure and complex conflicts that are known as the Balkan Wars. This book will take you into the past and show you how it all started, from the creation of the Balkan League to the Bucharest Peace Conference.
Read Captivating History's The Balkan Wars to understand the origins of the conflict, as well as:The national aspirations of the Balkan peopleHow Bulgaria gained independence just to lose it against its willThe creation of the Balkan LeagueHow Bulgarians pushed the Ottomans out of Thrace and EuropeHow they lost Macedonia, their ultimate goal, in the processThe role of the Greek navy in the Balkan WarsHow Greece took Thessaly and its main prize, the Port of ThessalonikiWhy the Montenegrins were tied to Serbia and what their role in the war wasWhy Serbia and Greece agreed on an allianceWhy Romania and the Ottoman Empire jumped into the conflictHow it all ended with a peace treaty signed in Bucharest and Constantinople