First Balkan War

First Balkan War
Part of the Balkan Wars

Clockwise from top right: Serbian forces entering the town of Mitrovica; Ottoman troops at the Battle of Kumanovo; Meeting of the Greek king George I and the Bulgarian tsar Ferdinand I in Thessaloniki; Bulgarian heavy artillery
Date
  • 8 October 1912 – 30 May 1913
  • (7 months, 3 weeks and 1 day)
Location
Balkan Peninsula
Result

Balkan League victory

Territorial
changes		 Ottoman European territory divided between the Balkan League States.
Belligerents
Commanders and leaders
Strength
  • Tsardom of Bulgaria (1908–1946) 450,300+ men[1][2]
  • Kingdom of Serbia 230,000 men[3]
  • Kingdom of Greece 125,000 men[4]
  • Kingdom of Montenegro 44,500 men[5]
  • Total: 850,000+
Ottoman Empire 436,742 men initially (significantly more than the Balkan League by the end)[6]
Casualties and losses
  •  Bulgaria:[7]
    • 14,000 killed
    • 4,926 missing
    • 50,000 wounded
    • 19,000 dead of disease
  •  Greece:[7]
  • 5,169 killed
  • 23,502 wounded
  • 1,550 dead of disease
  •  Serbia:
  • 5,000 killed
  • 18,000 wounded[8]
  • 6,698 dead of disease
  •  Montenegro:[7][9]
  • 2,836 killed
  • 6,602 wounded
  • 406 dead of disease

Total: 156,139 killed, wounded, or died of disease

 Ottoman Empire:[9]
  • 50,000 killed
  • 100,000 wounded
  • 115,000 captured
  • 75,000 dead of disease
  • Total: 340,000 killed, wounded, captured or died of disease
Numerous Albanian and Ottoman civilian casualties (see below...)

The First Balkan War lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and involved actions of the Balkan League (the Kingdoms of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro) against the Ottoman Empire. The Balkan states' combined armies overcame the initially numerically inferior (significantly superior by the end of the conflict) and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies, achieving rapid success.

The war was a comprehensive and unmitigated disaster for the Ottomans, who lost 83% of their European territories and 69% of their European population.[10] As a result of the war, the League captured and partitioned almost all of the Ottoman Empire's remaining territories in Europe. Ensuing events also led to the creation of an independent Albania, which dissatisfied the Serbs. Bulgaria, meanwhile, was dissatisfied over the division of the spoils in Macedonia and attacked its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on 16 June 1913, which provoked the start of the Second Balkan War.

During the war, many civilians, overwhelmingly Muslim Turks, were either killed or forced to flee their homes. The highly politicized and disorganized units of the Ottoman army were quite incapable of evacuating the civilians in the war zone. This situation left many civilians in the occupied areas defenseless against the invading armies of the Balkan League. Although there are discussions about the exact amount of civilian casualties, when the war ended great changes occurred in the demographic makeup of the Balkan region.[11]

  1. ^ Hall 2000, p. 16
  2. ^ Dennis, Brad (3 July 2019). "Armenians and the Cleansing of Muslims 1878–1915: Influences from the Balkans". Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs. 39 (3): 411–431. doi:10.1080/13602004.2019.1654186. ISSN 1360-2004. S2CID 202282745.
  3. ^ Hall 2000, p. 18
  4. ^ Erickson 2003, p. 70
  5. ^ Erickson 2003, p. 69.
  6. ^ Erickson 2003, p. 52.
  7. ^ a b c Hall 2000, p. 135
  8. ^ Βιβλίο εργασίας 3, Οι Βαλκανικοί Πόλεμοι, ΒΑΛΕΡΙ ΚΟΛΕΦ and ΧΡΙΣΤΙΝΑ ΚΟΥΛΟΥΡΗ, translation by ΙΟΥΛΙΑ ΠΕΝΤΑΖΟΥ, CDRSEE, Thessaloniki 2005, p. 120, (Greek). Retrieved from http://www.cdsee.org
  9. ^ a b Erickson 2003, p. 329
  10. ^ Balkan Savaşları ve Balkan Savaşları'nda Bulgaristan, Süleyman Uslu
  11. ^ "1.1. The ethnography and national aspirations of the Balkans". macedonia.kroraina.com.