III.

First Balkan War

The Young Turks revolution (1908-1909) and the Turko-Italian War (1911-1912) provided the Balkan states with an opportunity to retaliate against the Turks, their former oppressors. In March 1912, Serbia arranged a treaty of alliance with Bulgaria. Greece concluded a military convention with Bulgaria the following May. Tension increased steadily in the Balkan Peninsula during the summer of 1912, especially after August 14, when Bulgaria dispatched a note to the Turks demanding that Macedonia, then a Turkish province, be granted autonomy. The Balkan states began to mobilize on September 30, and eight days later Montenegro declared war on the Ottoman Empire. On October 18 the Balkan allies entered the war on the side of Montenegro, precipitating the First Balkan War. The Balkan Alliance won a series of decisive victories over the Turks during the next two months, forcing them to relinquish Albania, Macedonia, and practically all their other holdings in south-east Europe. Late in November the Turks sued for an armistice. An armistice agreement was signed on December 3 by all the Balkan allies except Greece, which continued military operations against the Turks. Later in the month, representatives of the warring sides met with the major European powers in London (Great Britain) to decide the Balkan question. The Turks rejected the peace conditions demanded by the Balkan states, and the conference ended in failure on January 6, 1913. On January 23, a successful coup d'état brought an extreme nationalist group to power in the Ottoman Empire, and within a week fighting resumed.

In the subsequent fighting Greece captured Ioannina (now in Epirus Region, north-western Greece), and Bulgaria took Adrianople (now Edirne, Turkey). The Turks obtained an armistice with Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia on April 19, 1913. Montenegro accepted the armistice a few days later. Another peace conference, with the major European powers again acting as mediators, met in London on May 20. By the terms of the Treaty of London, concluded on May 30, the Turks ceded the island of Crete to Greece and relinquished all territories in Europe west of a line between the Black Sea port of Midye (Turkey) and Enez, a town on the Turkish coast of the Aegean Sea. Boundary questions and the status of Albania and the Aegean Islands were referred to an international commission.