Background
In the XV century, the Turks, occupying Asia Minor, began the conquest of the Balkan Peninsula, the Middle East and North Africa. After the conquest of Constantinople, the Ottoman Empire, which had formed, began to incorporate vast territories in the eastern Mediterranean, in the Black Sea region, and in western Asia. On these lands lived a lot of people differing from the Turks by religion, nationality and worldview.
Repeatedly against the rule of Turkey on the peninsula there were uprisings. In the XIX century, on the wave of anti-colonial wars and uprisings, a series of liberation wars occurred in the region. There were such states as Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro and Romania.
After the Italian-Turkish war, the countries of the Balkan Peninsula, the opponents of the Ottoman Empire, realized the need for consolidation. The unifying factors were both common goals and common features of the peoples – Serbs, Montenegrins and Bulgarians were Orthodox Slavs. The Greeks were also Orthodox. The Russian Empire , which competed with Austria-Hungary in the Balkans, played an important role in the region, and it needed to establish itself in this part of Europe.
It was on her initiative that on March 13, 1912, Serbia and Bulgaria signed an agreement on the creation of a defensive alliance. On May 12, relations between the countries were strengthened. On May 29, Greece joined the union, not wanting to remain without territorial gains at the expense of Turkey, moreover, Serbia and Bulgaria were extremely interested in the participation of the Greek fleet in hostilities in order to block Turkish communications with Asia Minor and the Middle East. Later the union treaty was signed by Montenegro and Romania. Thus, as conceived by the Russian government, a powerful alliance was formed on the peninsula, directed against Austria-Hungary. It should be noted that further events did not develop according to Russia’s plan, since the Balkan alliance, instead of confronting Austria-Hungary, began preparations for war with its old enemy, the Ottoman Empire. Since the union was led by Bulgaria and Serbia, they decided to satisfy their territorial claims with the help of the allies.
Irredentism
At the beginning of the XX century on the Balkan Peninsula, the situation changed dramatically. The once mighty Ottoman Empire, which included Serbia, Greece, Romania, Montenegro and Bulgaria, dictated its conditions to the entire region. The emergence of new states in the Balkans was due to pan-Slavism, pan-Romanism and various nationalist ideas. When these countries emerged, the people living in them turned out to be divided. Some of them still lived in Turkey.
Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece wanted to include in their composition the lands inhabited by these peoples and, moreover, to achieve the greatest expansion of the borders of their powers. This meant that the Greeks were striving for the idea of Great Greece, after World War I, to incarnate the Great Idea of Venizelos, the Bulgarians for Great Bulgaria, the Serbs for the maximum expansion of their borders from the Danube to the Adriatic Sea and Greece. But the “great” states could not coexist with each other, since their territorial claims intersected. So, Bulgaria and Greece together laid claim to Thrace; Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria – to Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia – to the Adriatic ports.
Therefore, it was decided to defeat Turkey first, and then solve territorial problems. After the war, Bulgaria and Serbia wanted to divide Macedonia with a demarcation line. Bulgarians sought to get access to the Aegean Sea, joining Thessaloniki and Western Thrace. Serbia and Greece wanted to divide Albania among themselves, since Serbia sought to gain access to the Adriatic Sea. After the end of the First Balkan War, the Second Balkan War began, the causes of which were the countries of the Balkans who were dissatisfied with the London Peace Treaty, which lost a common enemy – Turkey, after which they began to implement the “great-power” ideas into life through mutual destruction.
Sources:
Zhebokritsky V.A. Bulgaria, on the eve of the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913
Zhogov P.V. Diplomacy of Germany and Austria-Hungary and the First Balkan War
Mernikov A.G., Spektor A.A. World History of Wars
Petrosyan Yu. A. The Ottoman Empire: Power and Death. Historical essays
Pisarev Yu. A. Great Powers and the Balkans on the Eve of the First World War
Halgarten G. Imperialism until 1914. Sociological study of German foreign policy before the First World Wa
Balkan peoples and European governments in the XVIII – early XX century
Zadokhin A. G., Nizovsky A. Yu. Porokhovaya Cellar of Europe.