Produced by David Starner and Andrea Ball
1912-1913
1916
The interest in the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 has exceeded theexpectations of the publishers of this volume. The first edition,which was published five months ago, is already exhausted and asecond is now called for. Meanwhile there has broken out and is nowin progress a war which is generally regarded as the greatest of alltime—a war already involving five of the six Great Powers and threeof the smaller nations of Europe as well as Japan and Turkey andlikely at any time to embroil other countries in Europe, Asia, andAfrica, which are already embraced in the area of militaryoperations.
This War of Many Nations had its origin in Balkan situation. Itbegan on July 28 with the declaration of the Dual Monarchy to theeffect that from that moment Austria-Hungary was in a state of warwith Servia. And the fundamental reason for this declaration asgiven in the note or ultimatum to Servia was the charge that theServian authorities had encouraged the Pan-Serb agitation whichseriously menaced the integrity of Austria-Hungary and had alreadycaused the assassination at Serajevo of the Heir to the Throne.
No one could have observed at close range the Balkan Wars of1912-1913 without perceiving, always in the background andoccasionally in the foreground, the colossal rival figures of Russiaand Austria-Hungary. Attention was called to the phenomenon atvarious points in this volume and especially in the concludingpages.
The issue of the Balkan struggles of 1912-1913 was undoubtedlyfavorable to Russia. By her constant diplomatic support she retainedthe friendship and earned the gratitude of Greece, Montenegro, andServia; and through her championship, belated though it was, of theclaims of Roumania to territorial compensation for benevolentneutrality during the war of the Allies against Turkey, she won thefriendship of the predominant Balkan power which had hitherto beenregarded as the immovable eastern outpost of the Triple Alliance.But while Russia was victorious she did not gain all that she hadplanned and hoped for. Her very triumph at Bukarest was a proofthat she had lost her influence over Bulgaria. This Slav state afterthe war against Turkey came under the influence of Austria-Hungary,by whom she was undoubtedly incited to strife with Servia and herother partners in the late war against Turkey. Russia was unable toprevent the second Balkan war between the Allies. The Czar's summonsto the Kings of Bulgaria and Servia on June 9, 1913, to submit, inthe name of Pan-Slavism, their disputes to his decision failed toproduce the desired effect, while this assumption of Russianhegemony in Balkan affairs greatly exacerbated Austro-Hungariansentiment. That action of the Czar, however, was clear notificationand proof to all the world that Russia regarded the Slav States inthe Balkans as objects of her peculiar concern and protection.
The first Balkan War—the war of the Allies against Turkey—ended ina way that surprised all the world. Everybody expected a victory forthe Turks. That the Turks should one day be driven out of Europe wasthe universal assumption, but it was the equally fixed belief thatthe agents of their expulsion would be the Great Powers or some ofthe Great Powers. That the little independent States of the Balkansshould themselves be equal to the task no one imagined,—no one withthe possible exception of the government of Russia. And as Russiarejoiced over the victory of the Balkan States