18: Turkey and the Balkan States
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Checking the Dominion of the Turk in Europe
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.
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