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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/11676-0.txt b/11676-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..43dc40f --- /dev/null +++ b/11676-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2690 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11676 *** + +THE BALKAN WARS + +1912-1913 + +JACOB GOULD SCHURMAN + +THIRD EDITION + +1916 + + + +PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION + +The interest in the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 has exceeded the +expectations of the publishers of this volume. The first edition, +which was published five months ago, is already exhausted and a +second is now called for. Meanwhile there has broken out and is now +in progress a war which is generally regarded as the greatest of all +time--a war already involving five of the six Great Powers and three +of the smaller nations of Europe as well as Japan and Turkey and +likely at any time to embroil other countries in Europe, Asia, and +Africa, which are already embraced in the area of military +operations. + +This War of Many Nations had its origin in Balkan situation. It +began on July 28 with the declaration of the Dual Monarchy to the +effect that from that moment Austria-Hungary was in a state of war +with Servia. And the fundamental reason for this declaration as +given in the note or ultimatum to Servia was the charge that the +Servian authorities had encouraged the Pan-Serb agitation which +seriously menaced the integrity of Austria-Hungary and had already +caused the assassination at Serajevo of the Heir to the Throne. + +No one could have observed at close range the Balkan Wars of +1912-1913 without perceiving, always in the background and +occasionally in the foreground, the colossal rival figures of Russia +and Austria-Hungary. Attention was called to the phenomenon at +various points in this volume and especially in the concluding +pages. + +The issue of the Balkan struggles of 1912-1913 was undoubtedly +favorable to Russia. By her constant diplomatic support she retained +the friendship and earned the gratitude of Greece, Montenegro, and +Servia; and through her championship, belated though it was, of the +claims of Roumania to territorial compensation for benevolent +neutrality during the war of the Allies against Turkey, she won the +friendship of the predominant Balkan power which had hitherto been +regarded as the immovable eastern outpost of the Triple Alliance. +But while Russia was victorious she did not gain all that she had +planned and hoped for. Her very triumph at Bukarest was a proof +that she had lost her influence over Bulgaria. This Slav state after +the war against Turkey came under the influence of Austria-Hungary, +by whom she was undoubtedly incited to strife with Servia and her +other partners in the late war against Turkey. Russia was unable to +prevent the second Balkan war between the Allies. The Czar's summons +to the Kings of Bulgaria and Servia on June 9, 1913, to submit, in +the name of Pan-Slavism, their disputes to his decision failed to +produce the desired effect, while this assumption of Russian +hegemony in Balkan affairs greatly exacerbated Austro-Hungarian +sentiment. That action of the Czar, however, was clear notification +and proof to all the world that Russia regarded the Slav States in +the Balkans as objects of her peculiar concern and protection. + +The first Balkan War--the war of the Allies against Turkey--ended in +a way that surprised all the world. Everybody expected a victory for +the Turks. That the Turks should one day be driven out of Europe was +the universal assumption, but it was the equally fixed belief that +the agents of their expulsion would be the Great Powers or some of +the Great Powers. That the little independent States of the Balkans +should themselves be equal to the task no one imagined,--no one with +the possible exception of the government of Russia. And as Russia +rejoiced over the victory of the Balkan States and the defeat of her +secular Mohammedan neighbor, Austria-Hungary looked on not only with +amazement but with disappointment and chagrin. + +For the contemporaneous diplomacy of the Austro-Hungarian government +was based on the assumption that the Balkan States would be +vanquished by Turkey. And its standing policy had been on the one +hand to keep the Kingdom of Servia small and weak (for the Dual +Monarchy was itself an important Serb state) and on the other hand +to broaden her Adriatic possessions and also to make her way through +Novi Bazar and Macedonia to Saloniki and the Aegean, when the time +came to secure this concession from the Sultan without provoking a +European war. It seemed in 1908 as though the favorable moment had +arrived to make a first move, and the Austro-Hungarian government +put forward a project for connecting the Bosnian and Macedonian +railway systems. But the only result was to bring to an end the +co-operation which had for some years been maintained between the +Austrian and Russian governments in the enforcement upon the Porte +of the adoption of reforms in Macedonia. + +And now the result of the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 was the practical +expulsion of Turkey from Europe and the territorial aggrandizement +of Servia and the sister state of Montenegro through the annexation +of those very Turkish domains which lay between the Austro-Hungarian +frontier and the Aegean. At every point Austro-Hungarian policies +had met with reverses. + +Only one success could possibly be attributed to the diplomacy of +the Ballplatz. The exclusion of Servia from the Adriatic Sea and the +establishment of the independent State of Albania was the +achievement of Count Berchtold, the Austro-Hungarian Minister of +Foreign Affairs. The new State has been a powder magazine from the +beginning, and since the withdrawal of Prince William of Wied, the +government, always powerless, has fallen into chaos. Intervention on +the part of neighboring states is inevitable. And only last month +the southern part of Albania--that is, Northern Epirus--was occupied +by a Greek army for the purpose of ending the sanguinary anarchy +which has hitherto prevailed. This action will be no surprise to the +readers of this volume. The occupation, or rather re-occupation, is +declared by the Greek Government to be provisional and it is +apparently approved by all the Great Powers. Throughout the rest of +Albania similar intervention will be necessary to establish order, +and to protect the life and property of the inhabitants without +distinction of race, tribe, or creed. Servia might perhaps have +governed the country, had she not been compelled by the Great +Powers, at the instigation of Austria-Hungary, to withdraw her +forces. And her extrusion from the Adriatic threw her back toward +the Aegean, with the result of shutting Bulgaria out of Central +Macedonia, which was annexed by Greece and Servia presumably under +arrangements satisfactory to the latter for an outlet to the sea at +Saloniki. The war declared by Austria-Hungary against Servia may be +regarded to some extent as an effort to nullify in the interests of +the former the enormous advantages which accrued directly to Servia +and indirectly to Russia from the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913. That +Russia should have come to the support of Servia was as easy to +foresee as any future political event whatever. And the action of +Germany and France once war had broken out between their respective +allies followed as a matter of course. If the Austro-German +Alliance wins in the War of Many Nations it will doubtless control +the eastern Adriatic and open up a way for itself to the Aegean. +Indeed, in that event, German trade and German political influence +would spread unchallenged across the continents from the North Sea +to the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. Turkey is a friend and +ally; but even if Turkey were hostile she would have no strength to +resist such victorious powers. And the Balkan States, with the +defeat of Russia, would be compelled to recognize Germanic +supremacy. + +If on the other hand the Allies come out victorious in the War of +Many Nations, Servia and perhaps Roumania would be permitted to +annex the provinces occupied by their brethren in the Dual Monarchy +and Servian expansion to the Adriatic would be assured. The Balkan +States would almost inevitably fall under the controlling influence +of Russia, who would become mistress of Constantinople and gain an +unrestricted outlet to the Mediterranean through the Bosphorus, the +Sea of Marmora, and the Dardanelles. + +In spite of themselves the destiny of the peoples of the Balkans is +once more set on the issue of war. It is not inconceivable, +therefore, that some or all of those States may be drawn into the +present colossal conflict. In 1912-1913 the first war showed +Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Servia allied against Turkey; and +in the second war Greece, Montenegro, and Servia were joined by +Roumania in the war against Bulgaria, who was also independently +attacked by Turkey. What may happen in 1914 or 1915 no one can +predict. But if this terrible conflagration, which is already +devastating Europe and convulsing all the continents and vexing all +the oceans of the globe, spreads to the Balkans, one may hazard the +guess that Greece, Montenegro, Servia, and Roumania will stand +together on the side of the Allies and that Bulgaria if she is not +carried away by marked Austro-German victories will remain +neutral,--unless indeed the other Balkan States win her over, as +they not inconceivably might do, if they rose to the heights of +unwonted statesmanship by recognizing her claim to that part of +Macedonia in which the Bulgarian element predominates but which was +ceded to her rivals by the Treaty of Bukarest. + +But I have said enough to indicate that as in its origin so also in +its results this awful cataclysm under which the civilized world is +now reeling will be found to be vitally connected with the Balkan +Wars of 1912-1913. And I conclude with the hope that the present +volume, which devotes indeed but little space to military matters +and none at all to atrocities and massacres, may prove helpful to +readers who seek light on the underlying conditions, the causes, and +the consequences of those historic struggles. The favor already +accorded to the work and the rapid exhaustion of the first edition* +seem to furnish some justification of this hope. + +JACOB GOULD SCHURMAN. + +November 26, 1914. + +* The present work is rather, a reprint than a new edition, few +changes having been made except the correction of typographical +errors. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +The changes made in the map of Europe by the Balkan Wars of +1912-1913 were not merely the occasion but a cause and probably the +most potent, and certainly the most urgent, of all the causes that +led to the World War which has been raging with such titanic fury +since the summer of 1914. + +Had the Balkan Allies after their triumph over Turkey not fallen out +amongst themselves, had there been no second Balkan War in 1913, had +the Turkish provinces wrested from the Porte by the united arms of +Bulgaria, Greece, Servia, and Montenegro been divided amongst the +victors either by diplomacy or arbitration substantial justice would +have been done to all, none of them would have been humiliated, and +their moderation and concord would have commended their achievement +to the Great Powers who might perhaps have secured the acquiescence +of Austria-Hungary in the necessary enlargement of Servia and the +expansion of Greece to Saloniki and beyond. + +But the outbreak of the second Balkan War nullified all these fair +prospects. And Bulgaria, who brought it on, found herself encircled +by enemies, including not only all her recent Allies against Turkey, +but also Turkey herself, and even Roumania, who had remained a +neutral spectator of the first Balkan War. Of course Bulgaria was +defeated. And a terrible punishment was inflicted on her. She was +stripped of a large part of the territory she had just conquered +from Turkey, including her most glorious battle-fields; her original +provinces were dismembered; her extension to the Aegean Sea was +seriously obstructed, if not practically blocked; and, bitterest and +most tragic of all, the redemption of the Bulgarians in Macedonia, +which was the principal object and motive of her war against Turkey +in 1912, was frustrated and rendered hopeless by Greek and Servian +annexations of Macedonian territory extending from the Mesta to the +Drin with the great cities of Saloniki, Kavala, and Monastir, which +in the patriotic national consciousness had long loomed up as fixed +points in the "manifest destiny" of Bulgaria. + +That the responsibility for precipitating the second Balkan War +rests on Bulgaria is demonstrated in the latter portion of this +volume. Yet the intransigent and bellicose policy of Bulgaria was +from the point of view of her own interests so short-sighted, so +perilous, so foolish and insane that it seemed, even at the time, to +be directed by some external power and for some ulterior purpose. No +proof, however, was then available. But hints of that suspicion were +clearly conveyed even in the first edition of this volume, which, it +may be recalled, antedates the outbreak of the great European War. +Thus, on page 103, the question was put: + + "Must we assume that there is some ground for suspecting that + Austria-Hungary was inciting Bulgaria to war?" + +And again, on page 108, with reference to General Savoff's order +directing the attack on the Greek and Servian forces which initiated +the second Balkan War, the inquiry was made: + + "Did General Savoff act on his own responsibility? Or is there + any truth in the charge that King Ferdinand, after a long + consultation with the Austro-Hungarian Minister, instructed the + General to issue the order?" + +These questions may now be answered with positive assurance. What +was only surmise when this volume was written is to-day indubitable +certainty. The proof is furnished by the highest authorities both +Italian and Russian. + +When the second Balkan War broke out San Giuliano was Prime Minister +of Italy. And he has recently published the fact that at that +time--the summer of 1913--the Austro-Hungarian government +communicated to the Italian government its intention of making war +on Servia and claimed under the terms of the Triple Alliance the +co-operation of Italy and Germany. The Italian government repudiated +the obligation imputed to it by Austria-Hungary and flatly declared +that the Triple Alliance had nothing to do with a war of aggression. +That Austria-Hungary did not proceed to declare war against Servia +at that time--perhaps because she was discouraged by Germany as well +as by Italy--makes it all the more intelligible, in view of her +bellicose attitude, that she should have been urgent and insistent +in pushing Bulgaria forward to smite their common rival. + +This conclusion is confirmed by the positive statement of the +Russian government. The communication accompanying the declaration +of war against Bulgaria, dated October 18, contains the following +passage: + + "The victorious war of the united Balkan people against their + ancient enemy, Turkey, assured to Bulgaria an honorable place in + the Slavic family. But under Austro-German suggestion, contrary + to the advice of the Russian Emperor and without the knowledge of + the Bulgarian government, the Coburg Prince on June 29, 1913, + moved Bulgarian armies against the Serbians." + +The "Coburg Prince" is of course Ferdinand, King of Bulgaria. That +he acted under Austro-Hungarian influences in attacking his Balkan +Allies on that fateful Sunday, June 29, 1913, is no longer +susceptible of doubt. But whatever other inferences may be drawn +from that conclusion it certainly makes the course of Bulgaria in +launching the second Balkan War, though its moral character remains +unchanged, look less hopeless and desperate than it otherwise +appeared. Had she not Austria-Hungary behind her? And had not +Austria-Hungary at that very time informed her Italian ally that she +intended making war against Servia? + +But, whatever the explanation, the thunderbolt forged in 1913 was +not launched till July 28, 1914, when Austria-Hungary formally +declared war on Servia. The occasion was the assassination, a month +earlier, of the heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his +wife, the Duchess of Hohenburg, in the streets of Sarajevo. The +occasion, however, was not the cause of the war. The cause was that +which moved the Dual Monarchy to announce a war on Servia in the +summer of 1913, namely, dissatisfaction with the territorial +aggrandizement of Servia as a result of the first Balkan War and +alarm at the Pan-Serb agitation and propaganda which followed the +Servian victories over Turkey. These motives had subsequently been +much intensified by the triumph of Servia over Bulgaria in the +second Balkan War. The relations of Austria-Hungary to Servia had +been acutely strained since October, 1908, when the former annexed +the Turkish provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which under the +terms of the treaty of Berlin she had been administering since 1878. +The inhabitants of Bosnia and Herzegovina are Serb, and Serb also +are the inhabitants of Dalmatia on the west and Croatia on the +north, which the Dual Monarchy had already brought under its +sceptre. The new annexation therefore seemed a fatal and a final +blow to the national aspirations of the Serb race and it was +bitterly resented by those who had already been gathered together +and "redeemed" in the Kingdom of Servia. A second disastrous +consequence of the annexation was that it left Servia hopelessly +land-locked. The Serb population of Dalmatia and Herzegovina looked +out on the Adriatic along a considerable section of its eastern +coast, but Servia's long-cherished hope of becoming a maritime state +by the annexation of the Serb provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina +was now definitively at an end. She protested, she appealed, she +threatened; but with Germany behind the Dual Monarchy and Russia +still weak from the effects of the war with Japan, she was quickly +compelled to submit to superior force. + +During the war of the Balkan Allies against Turkey Servia made one +more effort to get to the Adriatic,--this time by way of Albania. +She marched her forces over the mountains of that almost impassable +country and reached the sea at Durazzo. But she was forced back by +the European powers at the demand of Austria-Hungary, as some weeks +later on the same compulsion she had to withdraw from the siege of +Scutari. Then she turned toward the Aegean, and the second Balkan +War gave her a new opportunity. The treaty of Bukarest and the +convention with Greece assured her of an outlet to the sea at +Saloniki. But this settlement proved scarcely less objectionable to +Austria-Hungary than the earlier dream of Servian expansion to the +Adriatic by the annexation of the Turkish provinces of Bosnia and +Herzegovina. + +The fact is that, if we look at the matter dispassionately and in a +purely objective spirit, we shall find that there really was a +hopeless incompatibility between the ideals, aims, policies, and +interests of the Servians and the Serb race and those of the +Austrians and Hungarians. Any aggrandizement of the Kingdom of +Servia, any enlargement of its territory, any extension to the sea +and especially to the Adriatic, any heightening and intensifying of +the national consciousness of its people involved some danger to the +Dual Monarchy. For besides the Germans who control Austria, and the +Hungarians who control Hungary, the Austro-Hungarian Empire embraces +many millions of Slavs, and the South Slavs are of the same family +and speak practically the same language as the inhabitants of the +Kingdom of Servia. And Austria and Hungary can not get to their +outlets on the Adriatic--Trieste and Fiume--without passing through +territory inhabited by these South Slavs. + +If, therefore, Austria and Hungary were not to be left land-locked +they must at all hazards prevent the absorption of their South Slav +subjects by the Kingdom of Servia. Pan-Serbism at once menaced the +integrity of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and jeopardized its +position on the Adriatic. Hence the cardinal features in the Balkan +policy of Austria-Hungary were a ruthless repression of national +aspiration among its South Slav subjects--the inhabitants of +Croatia, Dalmatia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina; a watchful and jealous +opposition to any increase of the territory or resources of the +Kingdom of Servia; and a stern and unalterable determination to +prevent Servian expansion to the Adriatic. + +The new Servia which emerged from the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 was +an object of anxiety and even of alarm to the statesmen of Vienna +and Buda-Pesth. The racial and national aspirations already astir +among the South Slavs of the Dual Monarchy were quickened and +intensified by the great victories won by their Servian brethren +over both Turks and Bulgarians and by the spectacle of the +territorial aggrandizement which accrued from those victories to the +independent Kingdom of Servia. Might not this Greater Servia prove a +magnet to draw the kindred Slavs of Bosnia, Herzegovina, Dalmatia, +and Croatia away from their allegiance to an alien empire? The +diplomacy of Vienna had indeed succeeded in excluding Servia from +the Adriatic but it had neither prevented its territorial +aggrandizement nor blocked its access to the Aegean. + +Access to the Aegean was not, however, as serious a matter as access +to the Adriatic. Yet the expansion of Servia to the south over the +Macedonian territory she had wrested from Turkey, as legalized in +the Treaty of Bukarest, nullified the Austro-Hungarian dream of +expansion through Novi Bazar and Macedonia to the Aegean and the +development from Saloniki as a base of a great and profitable +commerce with all the Near and Middle East. + +Here were the conditions of a national tragedy. They have developed +into a great international war, the greatest and most terrible ever +waged on this planet. + +It may be worth while in concluding to note the relations of the +Balkan belligerents of 1912-1913 to the two groups of belligerents +in the present world-conflict. + +The nemesis of the treaties of London and Bukarest and the fear of +the Great Powers pursue the Balkan nations and determine their +alignments. The declaration of war by Austria-Hungary against +Servia, which started the present cataclysm, fixed the enemy status +of Servia and also Montenegro. The good relations long subsisting +between Emperor William and the Porte were a guarantee to the +Central Powers of the support of Turkey, which quickly declared in +their favor. The desire of avenging the injury done her by the +treaty of Bukarest and the prospect of territorial aggrandizement at +the expense of her sister Slav nation on the west drew Bulgaria +(which was influenced also by the victories of the Germanic forces) +into the same group in company with Turkey, her enemy in both the +Balkan Wars of 1912-1913. Bulgaria's opportunity for revenge soon +arrived. It was the Bulgarian army, in cooperation with the +Austro-German forces, that overran Servia and Montenegro and drove +the national armies beyond their own boundaries into foreign +territory. If the fortunes of war turn and the Entente Powers get +the upper hand in the Balkans, these expelled armies of Servia and +Montenegro, who after rest and reorganization and re-equipping in +Corfu have this summer been transported by France and England to +Saloniki, may have the satisfaction of devastating the territory of +the sister Slav state of Bulgaria, quite in the divisive and +internecine spirit of all Balkan history. The fate and future of +Bulgaria, Servia, and Montenegro now depend on the issue of the +great European conflict. The same thing is true of Turkey, into +which meanwhile Russian forces, traversing the Caucasus, have driven +a dangerous wedge through Armenia towards Mesopotamia. Roumania has +thus far maintained the policy of neutrality to which she adhered so +successfully in the first Balkan war--a policy which in view of her +geographical situation, with Bulgaria to the south, Russia to the +north, and Austria-Hungary to the west, she cannot safely abandon +till fortune has declared more decisively for one or the other group +of belligerents. The only remaining party to the Balkan Wars is +Greece, and the situation of Greece, though not tragic like that of +Servia, must be exceedingly humiliating to the Greek nation and to +the whole Hellenic race. + +When the war broke out, Mr. Venizelos was still prime minister of +Greece. His policy was to go loyally to the assistance of Servia, as +required by the treaty between the two countries; to defend New +Greece against Bulgaria, to whom, however, he was ready to make some +concessions on the basis of a quid pro quo; and to join and +co-operate actively with the Entente Powers on the assurance of +receiving territorial compensation in Asia Minor. King Constantine, +on the other hand, seems to have held that the war of the Great +Powers in the Balkans practically abrogated the treaty between +Greece and Servia and that, in any event, Greek resistance to the +Central Powers was useless. The positive programme of the King was +to maintain neutrality between the two groups of belligerents and at +the same time to keep the Greek army mobilized. Between these two +policies the Greek nation wavered and hesitated; but the King, who +enjoyed the complete confidence of the general staff, had his way +and the cabinet of Mr. Venizelos was replaced by another in +sympathy with the policy of the neutrality of Greece and the +mobilization of the Greek army. + +It was, under all the circumstances of the case, an exceedingly +difficult policy to carry out successfully. Each group of the +belligerents wanted special favors; the nation was divided on the +subject of neutrality; the expense of keeping the army mobilized was +ruinous to the country; and the views and sympathies of the greatest +statesman Modern Greece had ever had remained out of office, as they +had been in office, diametrically opposed to those of the victorious +warrior-King and doubtless also of the Queen, the sister of the +German Emperor. This condition was one of unstable equilibrium which +could not long continue. It was upset on May 26, 1916, by a +Bulgarian invasion of Greek territory and the seizure of Fort Rupel, +one of the keys to the Struma Valley and to eastern Macedonia. The +cities of Seres and Drama with their large Greek Population, and +even Kavala are now in danger, and the Greek people seem greatly +stirred by the situation. Mr. Venizelos in a newspaper article +bitterly asks: + + "Who could have imagined a Greek army witnessing the Bulgarian + flag replacing that of Greece? Is it for this that our + mobilization is maintained?" + +But, while Greece has been invaded by Bulgaria, with the support of +Germany (who, however, has given a written promise that the Greek +territory now occupied shall be restored), Greek sovereignty has +since suffered another severe shock by the intervention of Great +Britain, France, and Russia, who, under the Protocol of London, are +the Protecting Powers of the Kingdom. These Powers demand of the +Greek government that the army shall be completely and immediately +demobilized, that the present cabinet shall be replaced by another +which shall guarantee benevolent neutrality toward the Entente +Powers, that the Chamber shall be immediately dissolved and new +elections held, and that certain public functionaries obnoxious to +the legations of the Allies shall be replaced. And statements from +Athens dated June 21 announce that Greece, under the menace of an +embargo maintained by the allied navies, has yielded to these +demands. With Greece humiliated by the Protecting Powers and her +territory occupied by Bulgaria, with Servia and Montenegro overrun +and occupied by the German-Austrian-Bulgarian forces, with Roumania +waiting to see which of the belligerent groups will be finally +victorious, with Bulgaria now basking in the sunshine of the Central +Powers but an object of hatred to all the Allied Powers and +especially to Russia, one may be pardoned for refusing to make any +guess whatever as to the way in which the resultant diagonal of the +parallelogram of European forces will ultimately run through the +Balkans. Fortunately also such prediction has no place in an account +of the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913. + +To-day the Balkan nations are the pawns of the Great Powers who are +directly responsible for the deplorable conditions that now exist +among them. Yet in a very real sense their present tragic situation +is the nemesis of the political sins of the Balkan nations +themselves. These sins are those of all undeveloped political +communities. Even the most highly civilized nations may temporarily +fall under their sway, and then civilization reverts to barbarism, +as the terrible condition of Europe to-day actually demonstrates. +But the acute disease from which Europe suffers is more or less +chronic in the Balkans, where elemental human nature has never been +thoroughly disciplined and chastened in the school of peaceful +political life and experience. Each for himself without regard to +others or even without thought of a future day of reckoning seems to +be the maxim of national conduct among the Balkan peoples. The +spirit of strife and division possesses them; they are dominated by +the uncontrolled instinct of national egoism and greed. The second +Balkan War, alike in its origin, course, and conclusion, was a bald +exhibition of the play of these primitive and hateful passions. + +The history of the world, which is also the high tribunal of the +world, proves that no nation can with impunity ignore the rights of +other nations or repudiate the ideal of a common good or defy the +rule of righteousness by which political communities achieve +it--justice, moderation, and the spirit of hopeful and unwearying +conciliation. In their war against Turkey in 1912 the Balkan +nations, for the first time in history, laid aside their mutual +antagonisms and co-operated in a common cause. This union and +concord marked at least the beginning of political wisdom. And it +was vindicated, if ever any policy was vindicated, by the surprise +and splendor of the results. + +My hope for the Balkan nations is that they may return to this path +from which they were too easily diverted in 1913. They must learn, +while asserting each its own interests and advancing each its own +welfare, to pay scrupulous regard to the rights and just claims of +others and to co-operate wisely for the common good in a spirit of +mutual confidence and good will. This high policy, as expedient as +it is sound, was to a considerable extent embodied in the leadership +of Venizelos and Pashitch and Gueshoff. And where there is a leader +with vision the people in the end will follow him. May the final +settlement of the European War put no unnecessary obstacle in the +way of the normal political development of all the Balkan Nations! + + J. G. S. + + President's Office Cornell University July 13, 1916 + +_Postscript_. I remarked in the foregoing Introduction, that +Roumania would not abandon her neutrality till fortune had declared +more decisively for one or the other group of belligerents. That was +written seven weeks ago. And within the last few days Roumania has +joined the Allies and declared war against Austria-Hungary. I also +noted that the unstable equilibrium which had been maintained in +Greece between the party of King Constantine and the party of +Venizelos had already been upset to the disadvantage of the former. +Roumania's adhesion to the cause of the Allies is bound to +accelerate this movement. It would not be surprising if Greece were +any day now to follow the example of Roumania. Had Greece in 1914 +stood by Venizelos and joined the Allies the chances are that +Roumania would at that time have adopted the same course. But the +opposition of King Constantine delayed that consummation, directly +in the case of Greece, and indirectly in the case of Roumania. Now +that the latter has cast in her lot with the Allies and the former +is likely at any tune to follow her example, I may be permitted to +quote the forecast which I made in the Preface to the Second Edition +of this volume under date of November 26, 1914: + + "If this terrible conflagration, which is already devastating + Europe and convulsing all the continents and vexing all the + oceans of the globe, spreads to the Balkans, one may hazard the + guess that Greece, Montenegro, Servia, and Roumania will stand + together on the side of the Allies and that Bulgaria if she is + not carried away by marked Austro-German victories will remain + neutral." + + J. G. S. + + September 1, 1916. + + +[Map: map1.png +Caption: The Balkan Peninsula before the Wars of 1912-1913.] + + + + +I + +TURKEY AND THE BALKAN STATES + +The expulsion of the Turks from Europe was long ago written in the +book of fate. There was nothing uncertain about it except the date +and the agency of destiny. + + +THE TURKISH EMPIRE IN EUROPE + +A little clan of oriental shepherds, the Turks had in two +generations gained possession of the whole of the northwest corner +of Asia Minor and established themselves on the eastern shore of the +Bosphorus. The great city of Brusa, whose groves to-day enshrine the +stately beauty of their mosques and sultans' tombs, capitulated to +Orkhan, the son of the first Sultan, in 1326; and Nicaea, the cradle +of the Greek church and temporary capital of the Greek Empire, +surrendered in 1330. On the other side of the Bosphorus Orkhan could +see the domes and palaces of Constantinople which, however, for +another century was to remain the seat of the Byzantine Empire. + +The Turks crossed the Hellespont and, favored by an earthquake, +marched in 1358 over the fallen walls and fortifications into the +city of Gallipoli. In 1361 Adrianople succumbed to the attacks of +Orkhan's son, Murad I, whose sway was soon acknowledged in Thrace +and Macedonia, and who was destined to lead the victorious Ottoman +armies as far north as the Danube. + +But though the provinces of the corrupt and effete Byzantine Empire +were falling into the hands of the Turks, the Slavs were still +unsubdued. Lazar the Serb threw down the gauntlet to Murad. On the +memorable field of Kossovo, in 1389, the opposing forces met--Murad +supported by his Asiatic and European vassals and allies, and Lazar +with his formidable army of Serbs, Bosnians, Albanians, Poles, +Magyars, and Vlachs. Few battles in the world have produced such a +deep and lasting impression as this battle of Kossovo, in which the +Christian nations after long and stubborn resistance were vanquished +by the Moslems. The Servians still sing ballads which cast a halo of +pathetic romance round their great disaster. And after more than +five centuries the Montenegrins continue to wear black on their caps +in mourning for that fatal day. + +In the next two centuries the Ottoman Empire moved on toward the +zenith of its glory. Mohammed II conquered Constantinople in 1453. +And in 1529 Suleyman the Magnificent was at the gates of Vienna. +Suleyman's reign forms the climax of Turkish history. The Turks had +become a central European power occupying Hungary and menacing +Austria. Suleyman's dominions extended from Mecca to Buda-Pesth and +from Bagdad to Algiers. He commanded the Mediterranean, the +Euxine, and the Red Sea, and his navies threatened the coasts of +India and Spain. + +But the conquests of the Turks were purely military. They did +nothing for their subjects, whom they treated with contempt, and +they wanted nothing from them but tribute and plunder. As the Turks +were always numerically inferior to the aggregate number of the +peoples under their sway, their one standing policy was to keep them +divided--divide et impera. To fan racial and religious differences +among their subjects was to perpetuate the rule of the masters. The +whole task of government, as the Turks conceived it, was to collect +tribute from the conquered and keep them in subjection by playing +off their differences against one another. + +But a deterioration of Turkish rulers set in soon after the time of +Suleyman with a corresponding decline in the character and +efficiency of the army. And the growth of Russia and the reassertion +of Hungary, Poland, and Austria were fatal to the maintenance of an +alien and detested empire founded on military domination alone. By +the end of the seventeenth century the Turks had been driven out of +Austria, Hungary, Transylvania, and Podolia, and the northern +boundaries of their Empire were fixed by the Carpathians, the +Danube, and the Save. How marked and rapid was the further decline +of the Ottoman Empire may be inferred from the fact that twice in +the eighteenth century Austria and Russia discussed the project of +dividing it between them. But the inevitable disintegration of the +Turkish dominion was not to inure to the glorification of any of the +Great Powers, though Russia certainly contributed to the weakening +of the common enemy. The decline and diminution of the Ottoman +Empire continued throughout the nineteenth century. What happened, +however, was the revolt of subject provinces and the creation out of +the territory of European Turkey of the independent states of +Greece, Servia, Roumania, and Bulgaria. And it was Bulgarians, +Greeks, and Servians, with the active assistance of the Montenegrins +and the benevolent neutrality of the Roumanians, who, in the war of +1912-1913, drove the Turk out of Europe, leaving him nothing but the +city of Constantinople and a territorial fringe bordered by the +Chataldja line of fortifications. + + +THE EARLIER SLAV EMPIRES + +There is historic justice in the circumstance that the Turkish +Empire in Europe met its doom at the hands of the Balkan nations +themselves. For these nationalities had been completely submerged +and even their national consciousness annihilated under centuries of +Moslem intolerance, misgovernment, oppression, and cruelty. + +None suffered worse than Bulgaria, which lay nearest to the capital +of the Mohammedan conqueror. Yet Bulgaria had had a glorious, if +checkered, history long before there existed any Ottoman Empire +either in Europe or in Asia. From the day their sovereign Boris +accepted Christianity in 864 the Bulgarians had made rapid and +conspicuous progress in their ceaseless conflicts with the Byzantine +Empire. The Bulgarian church was recognized as independent by the +Greek patriarch at Constantinople; its primates subsequently +received the title of patriarch, and their see was established at +Preslav, and then successively westward at Sofia, Vodena, Presba, +and finally Ochrida, which looks out on the mountains of Albania. +Under Czar Simeon, the son of Boris, "Bulgaria," says Gibbon, +"assumed a rank among the civilized powers of the earth." His +dominions extended from the Black Sea to the Adriatic and comprised +the greater part of Macedonia, Greece, Albania, Servia, and +Dalmatia; leaving only to the Byzantine Empire--whose civilization +he introduced and sedulously promoted among the Bulgarians--the +cities of Constantinople, Saloniki, and Adrianople with the +territory immediately surrounding them. But this first Bulgarian +Empire was shortlived, though the western part remained independent +under Samuel, who reigned, with Ochrida as his capital, from 976 to +1014. Four years later the Byzantine Emperor, Basil II, annihilated +the power of Samuel, and for a hundred and fifty years the Bulgarian +people remained subject to the rule of Constantinople. In 1186 under +the leadership of the brothers Asen they regained their +independence. And the reign of Czar Asen II (1218-1240) was the most +prosperous period of all Bulgarian history. He restored the Empire +of Simeon, his boast being that he had left to the Byzantines +nothing but Constantinople and the cities round it, and he +encouraged commerce, cultivated arts and letters, founded and +endowed churches and monasteries, and embellished his capital, +Trnovo, with beautiful and magnificent buildings. After Asen came a +period of decline culminating in a humiliating defeat by the +Servians in 1330. The quarrels of the Christian races of the Balkans +facilitated the advance of the Moslem invader, who overwhelmed the +Serbs and their allies on the memorable field of Kossovo in 1389, +and four years later captured and burned the Bulgarian capital, +Trnovo, Czar Shishman himself perishing obscurely in the common +destruction. For five centuries Bulgaria remained under Moslem +despotism, we ourselves being the witnesses of her emancipation in +the last thirty-five years. + +The fate of the Serbs differed only in degree from that of the +Bulgarians. Converted to Christianity in the middle of the ninth +century, the major portion of the race remained till the twelfth +century under either Bulgarian or Byzantine sovereignty. But Stephen +Nemanyo bought under his rule Herzegovina, Montenegro and part of +modern Servia and old Servia, and on his abdication in 1195 in favor +of his son launched a royal dynasty which reigned over the Serb +people for two centuries. Of that line the most distinguished +member was Stephen Dushan, who reigned from 1331 to 1355. He wrested +the whole of the Balkan Peninsula from the Byzantine Emperor, and +took Belgrade, Bosnia, and Herzegovina from the King of Hungary. He +encouraged literature, gave to his country a highly advanced code of +laws, and protected the church whose head--the Archbishop of +Ipek--he raised to the dignity of patriarch. On Easter Day 1346 he +had himself crowned at Uskub as "Emperor of the Greeks and Serbs." A +few years later he embarked on an enterprise by which, had he been +successful, he might have changed the course of European history. It +was nothing less than the capture of Constantinople and the union of +Serbs, Bulgarians, and Greeks into an empire which might defend +Christendom against the rising power of Islam. Dushan was within +forty miles of his goal with an army of 80,000 men when he died +suddenly in camp on the 20th of December, 1355. Thirty-four years +later Dushan's countrymen were annihilated by the Turks at Kossovo! +All the Slavonic peoples of the Balkan Peninsula save the brave +mountaineers of Montenegro came under Moslem subjection. And under +Moslem subjection they remained till the nineteenth century. + + +TURKISH OPPRESSION OF SLAVS + +It is impossible to give any adequate description of the horrors of +Turkish rule in these Christian countries of the Balkans. Their +people, disqualified from holding even the smallest office, were +absolutely helpless under the oppression of their foreign masters, +who ground them down under an intolerable load of taxation and +plunder. The culminating cruelty was the tribute of Christian +children from ten to twelve years of age who were sent to +Constantinople to recruit the corps of janissaries. It is not +surprising that for the protection of wives and children and the +safeguarding of interests the nobles of Bosnia and the Pomaks of +Southeastern Bulgaria embraced the creed of their conquerors; the +wonder is that the people as a whole remained true to their +Christian faith even at the cost of daily martyrdom from generation +to generation. Their fate too grew worse as the Turkish power +declined after the unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1683. For at +first Ottoman troops ravaged Bulgaria as they marched through the +land on their way to Austria; and later disbanded soldiers in +defiance of Turkish authority plundered the country and committed +nameless atrocities. Servia was to some extent protected by her +remote location, but that very circumstance bred insubordination in +the janissaries, who refused to obey the local Turkish governors and +gave themselves up to looting, brigandage, and massacre. The +national spirt of the subject races was completely crushed. The +Servians and Bulgarians for three or four centuries lost all +consciousness of a fatherland. The countrymen of Simeon and Dushan +became mere hewers of wood and drawers of water for their foreign +masters. Servia and Bulgaria simply disappeared. As late as 1834 +Kinglake in travelling to Constantinople from Belgrade must have +passed straight across Bulgaria. Yet in "Eothen," in which he +describes his travels, he never even mentions that country or its +people. + +It is easy to understand that this history of Turkish horrors should +have burned itself into the heart and soul of the resurrected Servia +and Bulgaria of our own day. But there is another circumstance +connected with the ruthless destruction and long entombment of these +nationalities which it is difficult for foreigners, even the most +intelligent foreigners, to understand or at any rate to grasp in its +full significance. Yet the sentiments to which that circumstance has +given rise and which it still nourishes are as potent a factor in +contemporary Balkan politics as the antipathy of the Christian +nations to their former Moslem oppressors. + + +GREEK ECCLESIASTICAL DOMINATION OF SLAV + +I refer to the special and exceptional position held by the Greeks +in the Turkish dominions. Though the Moslems had possessed themselves +of the Greek Empire from the Bosphorus to the Danube, Greek +domination still survived as an intellectual, ecclesiastical, and +commercial force. The nature and effects of that supremacy, and its +results upon the fortunes of other Balkan nations, we must now +proceed to consider. + +The Turkish government classifies its subjects not on the basis of +nationality but on the basis of religion. A homogeneous religious +group is designated a millet or nation. Thus the Moslems form the +millet of Islam. And at the present time there are among others a +Greek millet, a Catholic millet, and a Jewish millet. But from the +first days of the Ottoman conquest until very recent times all the +Christian population, irrespective of denominational differences, +was assigned by the Sultans to the Greek millet, of which the +patriarch of Constantinople was the head. The members of this +millet were all called Greeks; the bishops and higher clergy were +exclusively Greek; and the language of their churches and schools +was Greek, which was also the language of literature, commerce, and +polite society. But the jurisdiction of the patriarch was not +restricted even to ecclesiastical and educational matters. It +extended to a considerable part of civil law--notably to questions +of marriage, divorce, and inheritance when they concerned Christians +only. + +It is obvious that the possession by the Greek patriarch of +Constantinople of this enormous power over the Christian subjects of +the Turks enabled him to carry on a propaganda of hellenization. +The disappearance for three centuries of the national consciousness +in Servia and Bulgaria was not the sole work of the Moslem invader; +a more fatal blight to the national languages and culture were the +Greek bishops and clergy who conducted their churches and schools. +And if Kinglake knew nothing of Bulgaria as late as 1834 it was +because every educated person in that country called himself a +Greek. For it cannot be too strongly emphasized that until +comparatively recent times all Christians of whatever nation or sect +were officially recognized by the Turks as members of the Greek +millet and were therefore designated Greeks. + +The hostility of the Slavonic peoples in the Balkans, and especially +of the Bulgarians, to the Greeks, grows out of the ecclesiastical +and educational domination which the Greek clergy and bishops so +long and so relentlessly exercised over them. Of course the Turkish +Sultans are responsible for the arrangement. But there is no +evidence that they had any other intention than to rid themselves of +a disagreeable task. For the rest they regarded Greeks and Slavs +with equal contempt. But the Greeks quickly recognized the racial +advantage of their ecclesiastical hegemony. And it was not in human +nature to give it up without a struggle. The patriarchate retained +its exclusive jurisdiction over all orthodox populations till 1870, +when the Sultan issued a firman establishing the Bulgarian +exarchate. + +There were two other spheres in which Greek influence was paramount +in the Turkish Empire. The Turk is a soldier and farmer; the Greek +is pre-eminent as a trader, and his ability secured him a +disproportionate share of the trade of the empire. Again, the Greeks +of Constantinople and other large cities gradually won the +confidence of the Turks and attained political importance. During +the eighteenth century the highest officials in the empire were +invariably Phanariots, as the Constantinople Greeks were termed from +the quarter of the city in which they resided. + +In speaking of the Greeks I have not had in mind the inhabitants of +the present kingdom of Greece. Their subjection by the Turks was as +complete as that of the Serbs and Bulgaria though of course they +were exempt from ecclesiastical domination at the hands of an alien +clergy speaking a foreign language. The enmity of the Bulgarians may +to-day be visited upon the subjects of King Constantine, but it was +not their ancestors who imposed upon Bulgaria foreign schools and +churches but the Greeks of Constantinople and Thrace, over whom the +government of Athens has never had jurisdiction. + + +SERVIAN INDEPENDENCE + +So much of the Balkan countries under Turkish rule. Their emancipation +did not come till the nineteenth century. The first to throw off the +yoke was Servia. Taking advantage of the disorganization and anarchy +prevailing in the Ottoman Empire the Servian people rose in a body +against their oppressors in January, 1804. Under the able leadership +first of Kara-George and afterward of Milosh Obrenovich, Servian +autonomy was definitely established in 1817. The complete independence +of the country was recognized by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878. The +boundaries of the new state, however, fell far short of Servian +aspirations, excluding as they did large numbers of the Servian +population. The first ruling prince of modern Servia was Milosh +Obrenovich; and the subsequent rulers have belonged either to the +Obrenovich dynasty or to its rival the dynasty of Kara-George. King +Peter, who came to the throne in 1903, is a member of the latter +family. + + +GREEK INDEPENDENCE + +Scarcely had Servia won her freedom when the Greek war of +independence broke out. Archbishop Germanos called the Christian +population of the Morea under the standard of the cross in 1821. For +three years the Greeks, with the assistance of European money and +volunteers (of whom Lord Byron was the most illustrious), conducted +a successful campaign against the Turkish forces; but after the +Sultan had in 1824 summoned to his aid Mehemet Ali, Pasha of Egypt, +with his powerful fleet and disciplined army, the laurels which the +Greek patriots had won were recovered by the oppressor; and, with +the recapture of Athens in May, 1827, the whole country once more +lay under the dominion of the Turks. The Powers now recognized that +nothing but intervention could save Greece for European +civilization. The Egyptian fleet was annihilated at Navarino in +October, 1828, by the fleets of England, France, and Russia. Greece +was constituted an independent monarchy, though the Powers who +recognized its independence traced the frontier of the emancipated +country in a jealous and niggardly spirit. Prince Otto of Bavaria +was designated the first King and reigned for thirty years. He was +succeeded in 1863 by King George who lived to see the northern +boundary of his kingdom advanced to Saloniki, where, like a faithful +sentinel at his post, he fell, on March 18, 1913, by the hand of an +assassin just as he had attained the glorious fruition of a reign of +fifty years. + + +BULGARIAN INDEPENDENCE + +There had been a literary revival preceding the dawn of independence +in Greece. In Bulgaria, which was the last of the Balkan states to +become independent, the national regeneration was also fostered by a +literary and educational movement, of which the founding of the +first Bulgarian school--that of Gabrovo--in 1835 was undoubtedly the +most important event. In the next five years more than fifty +Bulgarian schools were established and five Bulgarian +printing-presses set up. The Bulgarians were beginning to +re-discover their own nationality. Bulgarian schools and books +produced a reaction against Greek culture and the Greek clergy who +maintained it. Not much longer would Greek remain the language of +the upper classes in Bulgarian cities; not much longer would +ignorant peasants, who spoke only Bulgarian, call themselves Greek. +The days of the spiritual domination of the Greek patriarchate were +numbered. The ecclesiastical ascendency of the Greeks had crushed +Bulgarian nationality more completely than even the civil power of +the Turks. The abolition of the spiritual rule of foreigners and the +restoration of the independent Bulgarian church became the leading +object of the literary reformers, educators, and patriots. It was a +long and arduous campaign--a campaign of education and awakening at +home and of appeal and discussion in Constantinople. Finally the +Sultan intervened and in 1870 issued a firman establishing the +Bulgarian exarchate, conferring on it immediate jurisdiction over +fifteen dioceses, and providing for the addition of other dioceses +on a vote of two-thirds of their Christian population. The new +Bulgarian exarch was immediately excommunicated by the Greek +patriarch. But the first and most important official step had been +taken in the development of Bulgarian nationality. + +The revolt against the Turks followed in 1876. It was suppressed by +acts of cruelty and horror unparalleled even in the Balkans. Many +thousands of men, women, and children were massacred and scores of +villages destroyed. I remember vividly--for I was then in +England--how Gladstone's denunciation of those atrocities aroused a +wave of moral indignation and wrath which swept furiously from one +end of Great Britain to the other, and even aroused the governments +and peoples of the Continent of Europe. The Porte refusing to adopt +satisfactory measures of reform, Russia declared war and her +victorious army advanced to the very gates of Constantinople. The +Treaty of San Stefano, which Russia then enforced upon Turkey, +created a "Big Bulgaria" that extended from the Black Sea to the +Albanian Mountains and from the Danube to the Aegean, leaving to +Turkey, however, Adrianople, Saloniki, and the Chalcidician +Peninsula. But this treaty was torn to pieces by the Powers, who +feared that "Big Bulgaria" would become a mere Russian dependency, +and they substituted for it the Treaty of Berlin. Under this +memorable instrument, which dashed to the ground the racial and +national aspirations of the Bulgarians which the Treaty of San +Stefano had so completely satisfied, their country was restricted to +a "tributary principality" lying between the Danube and the Balkans, +Eastern Roumelia to the south being excluded from it and made an +autonomous province of Turkey. This breach in the political life of +the race was healed in 1885 by the union of Eastern Roumelia with +Bulgaria; and the Ottoman sovereignty, which had become little more +than a form, was completely ended in 1908 when the ruler of the +enlarged principality of Bulgaria publicly proclaimed it an +independent kingdom. In spite of a protest from the Porte the +independence of Bulgaria was at once recognized by the Powers. + +If Bulgaria owed the freedom with which the Treaty of Berlin dowered +her to the swords, and also to the pens, of foreigners, her complete +independence was her own achievement. But it was not brought about +till a generation after the Treaty of Berlin had recognized the +independence of Servia, Montenegro, and Roumania and delegated to +Austria-Hungary the administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Yet +the progress made by Bulgaria first under Prince Alexander and +especially since 1887 under Prince Ferdinand (who subsequently +assumed the title of King and later of Czar) is one of the most +astonishing phenomena in the history of Modern Europe. + + +THE BALKAN COUNTRIES + +Thus in consequence of the events we have here so hastily sketched +Turkey had lost since the nineteenth century opened a large portion +of the Balkan Peninsula. Along the Danube and the Save at the north +Bulgaria and Servia had become independent kingdoms and Bosnia and +Herzegovina had at first practically and later formally been annexed +to Austria-Hungary. At the extreme southern end of the Balkan +Peninsula the Greeks had carved out an independent kingdom extending +from Cape Matapan to the Vale of Tempe and the Gulf of Arta. All +that remained of European Turkey was the territory lying between +Greece and the Slav countries of Montenegro, Bosnia, Servia, and +Bulgaria. The Porte has divided this domain into six provinces or +vilayets, besides Constantinople and its environs. These vilayets +are Scutari and Janina on the Adriatic; Kossovo and Monastir, +adjoining them on the east; next Saloniki, embracing the centre of +the area; and finally Adrianople, extending from the Mesta River to +the Black Sea. In ordinary language the ancient classical names are +generally used to designate these divisions. The vilayet of +Adrianople roughly corresponds to Thrace, the Adriatic vilayets to +Epirus, and the intervening territory to Macedonia. Parts of the +domain in question are, however, also known under other names. The +district immediately south of Servia is often called Old Servia; and +the Adriatic coast lands between Montenegro and Greece are generally +designated Albania on the north and Epirus on the south. + +The area of Turkey in Europe in 1912 was 169,300 square kilometers; +of Bulgaria 96,300; of Greece 64,600; of Servia 48,300; and of +Montenegro 9,000. The population of European Turkey at the same date +was 6,130,000; of Bulgaria 4,329,000; of Greece 2,632,000; of Servia +2,912,000; and of Montenegro 250,000. To the north of the Balkan +states, with the Danube on the south and the Black Sea on the east, +lay Roumania having an area of 131,350 square kilometers and a +population of 7,070,000. + + +CAUSES OF THE FIRST BALKAN WAR + +What was the occasion of the war between Turkey and the Balkan +states in 1912? The most general answer that can be given to that +question is contained in the one word Macedonia. Geographically +Macedonia lies between Greece, Servia, and Bulgaria. +Ethnographically it is an extension of their races. And if, as +Matthew Arnold declared, the primary impulse both of individuals and +of nations is the tendency to expansion, Macedonia both in virtue of +its location and of its population was foreordained to be a magnet +to the emancipated Christian nations of the Balkans. Of course the +expansion of Greeks and Slavs meant the expulsion of Turks. Hence +the Macedonian question was the quintessence of the Near Eastern +Question. + +But apart altogether from the expansionist ambitions and the racial +sympathies of their kindred in Bulgaria, Servia, and Greece, the +population of Macedonia had the same right to emancipation from +Turkish domination and oppression as their brethren in these +neighboring states. The Moslems had forfeited their sovereign rights +in Europe by their unutterable incapacity to govern their Christian +subjects. Had the Treaty of Berlin sanctioned, instead of undoing, +the Treaty of San Stefano, the whole of Macedonia would have come +under Bulgarian sovereignty; and although Servia and especially +Greece would have protested against the Bulgarian absorption of +their Macedonian brethren (whom they had always hoped to bring under +their own jurisdiction when the Turk was expelled) the result would +certainly have been better for all the Christian inhabitants of +Macedonia as well as for the Mohammedans (who number 800,000 persons +or nearly one third of the entire population of Macedonia). As it +was these, people were all doomed to a continuation of Turkish +misgovernment, oppression, and slaughter. The Treaty of Berlin +indeed provided for reforms, but the Porte through diplomacy and +delay frustrated all the efforts of Europe to have them put into +effect. For fifteen years the people waited for the fulfilment of +the European promise of an amelioration of their condition, enduring +meanwhile the scandalous misgovernment of Abdul Hamid II. But after +1893 revolutionary societies became active. The Internal +Organization was a local body whose programme was "Macedonia for the +Macedonians." But both in Bulgaria and in Greece there were +organized societies which sent insurgent bands into Macedonia to +maintain and assert their respective national interests. This was +one of the causes of the war between Turkey and Greece in 1897, and +the reverses of the Greeks in that war inured to the advantage of +the Bulgarian propaganda in Macedonia. Servian bands soon after +began to appear on the scene. These hostile activities in Macedonia +naturally produced reprisals at the hands of the Turkish +authorities. In one district alone 100 villages were burned, over +8,000 houses destroyed, and 60,000 peasants left without homes at +the beginning of winter. Meanwhile the Austrian and Russian +governments intervened and drew up elaborate schemes of reform, but +their plans could not be adequately enforced and the result was +failure. The Austro-Russian entente came to an end in 1908, and in +the same year England joined Russia in a project aiming at a better +administration of justice and involving more effective European +supervision. Scarcely had this programme been announced when the +revolution under the Young Turk party broke out which promised to +the world a regeneration of the Ottoman Empire. Hopeful of these +constitutional reformers of Turkey, Europe withdrew from Macedonia +and entrusted its destinies to its new master. Never was there a +more bitter disappointment. If autocratic Sultans had punished the +poor Macedonians with whips, the Young Turks flayed them with +scorpions. + +Sympathy, indignation, and horror conspired with nationalistic +aspirations and territorial interests to arouse the kindred +populations of the surrounding states. And in October, 1912, war was +declared against Turkey by Bulgaria, Servia, Montenegro, and Greece. + + +THE BALKAN LEAGUE + +This brings us to the so-called Balkan Alliance about which much has +been written and many errors ignorantly propagated. For months after +the outbreak of the war against Turkey the development of this +Alliance into a Confederation of the Balkan states, on the model of +the American or the German constitution, was a theme of constant +discussion in Europe and America. As a matter of fact there existed +no juridical ground for this expectation, and the sentiments of the +peoples of the four Christian nations, even while they fought +together against the Moslem, were saturated with such an infusion of +suspicion and hostility as to render nugatory any programme of +Balkan confederation. An alliance had indeed been concluded between +Greece and Bulgaria in May, 1912, but it was a defensive, not an +offensive alliance. It provided that in case Turkey attacked either +of these states, the other should come to its assistance with all +its forces, and that whether the object of the attack were the +territorial integrity of the nation or the rights guaranteed it by +international law or special conventions. Without the knowledge of +the Greek government, an offensive alliance against Turkey had in +March, 1912, been concluded between Servia and Bulgaria which +determined their respective military obligations in case of war and +the partition between them, in the event of victory, of the +conquered Turkish provinces in Europe. A similar offensive and +defensive alliance between Greece and Turkey was under +consideration, but before the plan was matured Bulgaria and Servia +had decided to declare war against Turkey. This decision had been +hastened by the Turkish massacres at Kochana and Berane, which +aroused the deepest indignation, especially in Bulgaria. Servia and +Bulgaria informed Greece that in three days they would mobilize +their forces for the purpose of imposing reforms on Turkey, and, if +within a specified time they did not receive a satisfactory reply, +they would invade the Ottoman territory and declare war. They +invited Greece on this short notice to co-operate with them by a +simultaneous mobilization. It was a critical moment not only for the +little kingdom of King George, but for that great cause of Hellenism +which for thousands of years had animated, and which still animated, +the souls of the Greek population in all Aegean lands. + + +GREECE AND THE LEAGUE + +King George himself was a ruler of large experience, of great +practical wisdom, and of fine diplomatic skill. He had shortly +before selected as prime minister the former Cretan insurgent, Mr. +Eleutherios Venizelos. It is significant that the new premier had +also taken the War portfolio. He foresaw the impending conflict--as +every wise statesman in Europe had foreseen it--and began to make +preparations for it. For the reorganization of the army and navy he +secured French and English experts, the former headed by General +Eydoux, the latter by Admiral Tufnel. By 1914 it was estimated that +the military and naval forces of the country would be thoroughly +trained and equipped, and war was not expected before that date. But +now in 1912 the hand of the Greek government was forced. And a +decision one way or the other was inevitable. + +Mr. Venizelos had already proved himself an agitator, an orator, and +a politician. He was now to reveal himself not only to Greece but to +Europe as a wise statesman and an effective leader of his people. +The first test came in his answer to the invitation to join Bulgaria +and Servia within three days in a war against Turkey. Of all +possibilities open to him Mr. Venizelos rejected the programme of +continued isolation for Greece. There were those who glorified it as +splendid and majestic: to him under the existing circumstances it +seemed stupid in itself and certain to prove disastrous in its +results. Greece alone would never have been able to wage a war +against Turkey. And if Greece declined to participate in the +inevitable conflict, which the action of the two Slav states had +only hastened, then whether they won or Turkey won, Greece was bound +to lose. It was improbable that the Ottoman power should come out of +the contest victorious; but, if the unexpected happened, what would +be the position, not only of the millions of Greeks in the Turkish +Empire, but of the little kingdom of Greece itself on whose northern +boundary the insolent Moslem oppressor, flushed with his triumph +over Bulgaria, Servia, and Montenegro, would be immovably +entrenched? On the other hand if these Christian states themselves +should succeed, as seemed likely, in destroying the Ottoman Empire +in Europe, the Kingdom of Greece, if she now remained a passive +spectator of their struggles, would find in the end that Macedonia +had come into the possession of the victorious Slavs, and the Great +Idea of the Greeks--the idea of expansion into Hellenic lands +eastward toward Constantinople--exploded as an empty bubble. It was +Mr. Venizelos's conclusion that Greece could not avoid participating +in the struggle. Neutrality would have entailed the complete +bankruptcy of Hellenism in the Orient. There remained only the +alternative of co-operation--co-operation with Turkey or +co-operation with the Christian states of the Balkans. + + +GREEK AND BULGARIAN ANTIPATHIES + +How near Greece was to an alliance with Turkey the world may never +know. At the nothing of the sort was even suspected. It was not +until Turkey had been overpowered by the forces of the four +Christian states and the attitude of Bulgaria toward the other three +on the question of the division of the conquered territories had +become irreconcilable and menacing that Mr. Venizelos felt it proper +to communicate to the Greek people the history of the negotiations +by which the Greek government had bound their country to a partner +now felt to be so unreasonable and greedy. Feeling in Greece was +running high against Bulgaria. The attacks on Mr. Venizelos's +government were numerous and bitter. He was getting little or no +credit for the victory that had been won against Turkey, while his +opponents denounced him for sacrificing the fruits of that victory +to Bulgaria. The Greek nation especially resented the occupation by +Bulgarian troops of the Aegean coast lands with their large Hellenic +population which lay between the Struma and the Mesta including the +cities of Seres and Drama and especially Kavala with its fine harbor +and its hinterland famed for crops of choice tobacco. + +It was on the fourth of July, 1913, a few days after the outbreak of +the war between Bulgaria and her late allies, that Mr. Venizelos +made his defence in an eloquent and powerful speech at a special +session of the Greek parliament. The accusation against him was not +only that during the late war he had sacrificed Greek interests to +Bulgaria but that he had committed a fatal blunder in joining her in +the campaign against Turkey. His reply was that since Greece could +not stand alone he had to seek allies in the Balkans, and that it +was not his fault if the choice had fallen on Bulgaria. He had +endeavored to maintain peace with Turkey. Listen to his own words: + + "I did not seek war against the Ottoman Empire. I would not have + sought war at a later date if I could have obtained any + adjustment of the Cretan question--that thorn in the side of + Greece which can no longer be left as it is without rendering a + normal political life absolutely impossible for us. I endeavored + to adjust this question, to continue the policy of a close + understanding with the neighboring empire, in the hope of + obtaining in this way the introduction of reforms which would + render existence tolerable to the millions of Greeks within the + Ottoman Empire." + + +THE CRETAN PROBLEM + +It was this Cretan question, even more than the Macedonian question, +which in 1897 had driven Greece, single-handed and unprepared, into +a war with Turkey in which she was destined to meet speedy and +overwhelming defeat. It was this same "accursed Cretan question," as +Mr. Venizelos called it, which now drew the country into a military +alliance against her Ottoman neighbor who, until too late, refused +to make any concession either to the just claims of the Cretans or +to the conciliatory proposals of the Greek government. + +Lying midway between three continents, the island of Crete has +played a large part both in ancient and modern history. The +explorations and excavations of Sir Arthur Evans at Cnossus seem to +prove that the Homeric civilization of Tiryns and Mycenae was +derived from Crete, whose earliest remains carry us back three +thousand years before the Christian era. And if Crete gave to +ancient Greece her earliest civilization she has insisted on giving +herself to modern Greece. It is a natural union; for the Cretans are +Greeks, undiluted with Turk, Albanian, or Slav blood, though with +some admixture of Italian. The one obstacle to this marriage of +kindred souls has been Turkey. For Crete was taken from the +Venetians by the Turks in 1669, after a twenty years' siege of +Candia, the capital. A portion of the inhabitants embraced the creed +of their conquerors, so that at the present time perhaps two-thirds +of the population are Christian and one-third Moslem. The result has +been to make Crete the worst governed province of the Ottoman +Empire. In Turkey in Europe diversity of race has kept the +Christians quarreling with one another; in Crete diversity of +religion plunges the same race into internecine war as often as once +in ten years. The island had been the scene of chronic insurrections +all through the nineteenth century. Each ended as a rule with a +promise of the Sultan to confer upon the Cretans some form of local +self-government, with additional privileges, financial or other. But +these promises were never fulfilled. Things went from bad to worse. +The military intervention of Greece in 1897 led to war with Turkey +in which she was disastrously defeated. The European Powers had +meantime intervened and they decided that Crete should be endowed +with autonomy under the sovereignty of the Sultan, and in 1898 they +appointed Prince George of Greece as High Commissioner. Between the +political parties of the island and the representatives of the +Powers the Prince, who worked steadily for the welfare of Crete, had +a difficult task, and in 1906 he withdrew, his successor being Mr. +Zaimis, a former prime minister of Greece. The new commissioner was +able to report to the protecting Powers in 1908 that a gendarmerie +had been established, that tranquility was being maintained, and +that the Moslem population enjoyed safety and security. Thereupon +the Powers began to withdraw their forces from the island. And the +project for annexation with Greece, which had been proclaimed by the +Cretan insurgents under Mr. Venizelos in 1905 and which the insular +assembly had hastened to endorse, was once more voted by the +assembly, who went on to provide for the government of the island in +the name of the King of Greece. I have not time to follow in detail +the history of this programme of annexation. Suffice it to say that +the Cretans ultimately went so far as to elect members to sit in the +Greek Parliament at Athens, and that Turkey had given notice that +their admission to the chamber would be regarded as a casus belli. I +saw them on their arrival in Athens in October 1912, where they +received a most enthusiastic welcome from the Greeks, while +everybody stopped to admire their picturesque dress, their superb +physique, and their dignified demeanor. If Mr. Venizelos excluded +these delegates from the chamber he would defy the sentiments of the +Greek people. If he admitted them, Turkey would proclaim war. + + +MR. VENIZELOS'S SOLUTION + +The course actually pursued by Mr. Venizelos in this predicament he +himself explained to the parliament in the speech delivered at the +close of the war against Turkey from which I have already quoted. He +declared to his astonished countrymen that in his desire to reach a +close understanding with Turkey he had arrived at the point where he +no longer demanded a union of Crete with Greece, "knowing it was too +much for the Ottoman Empire." What he did ask for was the +recognition of the right of the Cretan deputies to sit in the Greek +chamber, while Crete itself should remain an autonomous state under +the sovereignty of the Sultan. Nay, Mr. Venizelos was so anxious to +prevent war with Turkey that he made another concession, for which, +he frankly confessed, his political opponents if things had turned +out differently would have impeached him for high treason. He +actually proposed, in return for the recognition of the right of the +Cretan deputies to sit in the Greek chamber, that Greece should pay +on behalf of Crete an annual tribute to the Porte. + +Happily for Mr. Venizelos's government the Young Turk party who then +governed the Ottoman Empire rejected all these proposals. Meanwhile +their misgovernment and massacre of Christians in Macedonia were +inflaming the red Slav nations and driving them into War against +Turkey. When matters had reached a crisis, the reactionary and +incompetent Young Turk party were forced out of power and a wise and +prudent statesman, the venerable Kiamil Pasha, succeeded to the +office of Grand Vizier. He was all for conciliation and compromise +with the Greek government, whom he had often warned against an +alliance with Bulgaria, and he had in readiness a solution of the +Cretan question which he was certain would be satisfactory to both +Greece and Turkey. But these concessions were now too late. Greece +had decided to throw in her lot with Servia and Bulgaria. And a +decree was issued for the mobilization of the Greek troops. + + +THE WAR + +There is not time, nor have I the qualifications, to describe the +military operations which followed. In Greece the Crown Prince was +appointed commanding general, and the eve proved him one of the +great captains of our day. The prime minister, who was also minister +of war, furnished him with troops and munitions and supplies. The +plains and hills about Athens were turned into mock battlefields for +the training of raw recruits; and young Greeks from all parts of the +world--tens of thousands of them from America--poured in to protect +the fatherland and to fight the secular enemy of Europe. The Greek +government had undertaken to raise an army of 125,000 men to +co-operate with the Allies; it was twice as large a number as even +the friends of Greece dreamed possible; yet before the war closed +King Constantine had under his banner an army of 250,000 men +admirably armed, clothed, and equipped;--each soldier indeed having +munitions fifty per cent in excess of the figure fixed by the +general staff. + + +GREEK MILITARY AND NAVAL OPERATIONS + +The Greek army, which had been concentrated at Larissa, entered +Macedonia by the Pass and the valley of the Xerias River. The Turks +met the advancing force at Elassona but retired after a few hours' +fighting. They took their stand at the pass of Sarandaporon, from +which they were driven by a day's hard fighting on the part of the +Greek army and the masterly tactics of the Crown Prince. On October +23 the Greeks were in possession of Serndje. Thence they pushed +forward on both sides of the Aliakmon River toward Veria, which the +Crown Prince entered with his staff on the morning of October 30. +They had covered 150 miles from Larissa, with no facilities but +wagons for feeding the army and supplying ammunition. But at Veria +they struck the line of railway from Monastir to Saloniki. Not far +away was Jenitsa, where the Turkish army numbering from 35,000 to +40,000 had concentrated to make a stand for the protection of +Saloniki. The battle of Jenitsa was fiercely contested but the +Greeks were victorious though they lost about 2000 men. This victory +opened the way to Saloniki. The Turkish armies which defended it +having been scattered by the Greek forces, that city surrendered to +Crown Prince Constantine on the eighth of November. It was only +three weeks since the Greek army had left Larissa and it had +disposed of about 60,000 Turks on the way. + +On the outbreak of war Greece had declared a blockade of all Turkish +ports. To the usual list of contraband articles there were added not +only coal, concerning which the practice of belligerent nations had +varied, but also machine oil, which so far as I know was then for +the first time declared contraband of war. As Turkey imported both +coal and lubricants, the purpose of this policy was of course to +paralyze transportation in the Ottoman Empire. Incidentally I may +say the prohibition of lubricating oil caused much inconvenience to +American commerce; not, however, primarily on its own account, but +because of its confusion, in the minds of Greek officials, with such +harmless substances as cotton seed oil and oleo. The Greek navy not +only maintained a very effective blockade but also took possession of +all the Aegean Islands under Turkish rule, excepting Rhodes and the +Dodecanese, which Italy held as a temporary pledge for the +fulfilment by Turkey of some of the conditions of the treaty by +which they had closed their recent war. It will be seen, therefore, +that the navy was a most important agent in the campaign, and Greece +was the only one of the Allies that had a navy. The Greek navy was +sufficient not only to terrorize the Turkish navy, which it reduced +to complete impotence, but also to paralyze Turkish trade and +commerce with the outside world, to embarrass railway transportation +within the Empire, to prevent the sending of reinforcements to +Macedonia or the Aegean coast of Thrace, and to detach from Turkey +those Aegean Islands over which she still exercised effective +jurisdiction. + + +SERB MILITARY OPERATIONS + +On land the other Allies had been not less active than Greece. +Montenegro had fired the first shot of the war. And the brave +soldiers of King Nicholas, the illustrious ruler of the one Balkan +state which the Turks had never conquered, were dealing deadly blows +to their secular enemy both in Novi Bazar and Albania. + +As the Greeks had pressed into southern Macedonia, so the Servian +armies advanced through old Servia into northern and central +Macedonia. In their great victory over the Turkish forces at +Kumanovo they avenged the defeat of their ancestors at Kossovo five +hundred years before. Still marching southward they again defeated +the enemy in two great engagements, the one at Prilip and the other +at Monastir. The latter city had been the object of the Greek +advance to Florina, but when the prize fell to Servia, though the +Greeks were appointed, it made no breach in the friendship of the +two Allies. Already no doubt they were both gratified that the +spheres of their military occupation were conterminous and that no +Turkish territory remained for Bulgaria to occupy west of the Vardar +River. + + +BULGARIAN MILITARY OPERATIONS + +While Greece and Servia were scattering, capturing, or destroying +the Turkish troops stationed in Macedonia, and closing in on that +province from north and south like an irresistible vise, it fell to +Bulgaria to meet the enemy's main army in the plains of Eastern +Thrace. The distribution of the forces of the Allies was the natural +result of their respective geographical location. Macedonia to the +west of the Vardar and Bregalnitza Rivers was the only part of +Turkey which adjoined Greece and Servia. Thrace, on the other hand, +marched with the southern boundary of Bulgaria from the sources of +the Mesta River to the Black Sea, and its eastern half was +intersected diagonally by the main road from Sofia to Adrianople and +Constantinople. Along this line the Bulgarians sent their forces +against the common enemy as soon as war was declared. The swift +story of their military exploits, the record of their brilliant +victories, struck Europe with amazement. Here was a country which +only thirty-five years earlier had been an unknown and despised +province of Turkey in Europe now overwhelming the armies of the +Ottoman Empire in the great victories of Kirk Kilisse, Lule Burgas, +and Chorlu. In a few weeks the irresistible troops of King Ferdinand +had reached the Chataldja line of fortifications. Only twenty-five +miles beyond lay Constantinople where they hoped to celebrate their +final triumph. + + +THE COLLAPSE OF TURKEY + +The Great Powers of Europe had other views. Even if the Bulgarian +delay at Chataldja--a delay probably due to exhaustion--had not +given the Turks time to strengthen their defences and reorganize +their forces, it is practically certain that the Bulgarian army +would not have been permitted to enter Constantinople. But with the +exception of the capital and its fortified fringe, all Turkey in +Europe now lay at the mercy of the Allies. The entire territory was +either already occupied by their troops or could be occupied at +leisure. Only at three isolated points was the Ottoman power +unsubdued. The city of Adrianople, though closely besieged by the +Bulgarians, still held out, and the great fortresses of Scutari in +Northern Albania and Janina in Epirus remained in the hands of their +Turkish garrisons. + +The power of Turkey had collapsed in a few weeks. Whether the ruin +was due to inefficiency and corruption in government or the +injection by the Young Turk party of politics into the army or +exhaustion resulting from the recent war with Italy or to other +causes more obscure, we need not pause to inquire. The disaster +itself, however, had spread far enough in the opinion of Europe, and +a Peace Conference was summoned in December. Delegates from the +belligerent states and ambassadors from the Great Powers came +together in London. But their labors in the cause of peace proved +unavailing. Turkey was unwilling to surrender Adrianople and +Bulgaria insisted on it as a sine qua non. The Peace Conference +broke up and hostilities were resumed. The siege of Adrianople was +pressed by the Bulgarians with the aid of 60,000 Servian troops. It +was taken by storm on March 26. Already, on March 6, Janina had +yielded to the well directed attacks of King Constantine. And the +fighting ended with the spectacular surrender on April 23 of Scutari +to King Nicholas, who for a day at least defied the united will of +Europe. + +Turkey was finally compelled to accept terms of peace. In January, +while the London Peace Conference was still in session, Kiamil +Pasha, who had endeavored to prepare the nation for the territorial +sacrifice he had all along recognized as inevitable, was driven from +power and his war minister, Nazim Pasha, murdered through an +uprising of the Young Turk party executed by Enver Bey, who himself +demanded the resignation of Kiamil and carried it to the Sultan and +secured its acceptance. The insurgents set up Mahmud Shevket Pasha +as Grand Vizier and made the retention of Adrianople their cardinal +policy. But the same inexorable fate overtook the new government in +April as faced Kiamil in January. The Powers were insistent on +peace, and the successes of the Allies left no alternative and no +excuse for delay. The Young Turk party who had come to power on the +Adrianople issue were accordingly compelled to ratify the cession to +the allies of the city with all its mosques and tombs and historic +souvenirs. The Treaty of London, which proved to be short-lived, was +signed on May 30. + + +THE TERMS OF PEACE + +The treaty of peace provided that beyond a line drawn from Enos near +the mouth of the Maritza River on the Aegean Sea to Midia on the +coast of the Black Sea all Turkey should be ceded to the Allies +except Albania, whose boundaries were to be fixed by the Great +Powers. It was also stipulated that the Great Powers should +determine the destiny of the Aegean Islands belonging to Turkey +which Greece now claimed by right of military occupation and the +vote of their inhabitants (nearly all of whom were Greek). A more +direct concession to Greece was the withdrawal of Turkish +sovereignty over Crete. The treaty also contained financial and +other provisions, but they do not concern us here. The essential +point is that, with the exception of Constantinople and a narrow +hinterland for its protection, the Moslems after more than five +centuries of possession had been driven out of Europe. + +This great and memorable consummation was the achievement of the +united nations of the Balkans. It was not a happy augury for the +immediate future to recall the historic fact that the past successes +of the Moslems had been due to dissensions and divisions among their +Christian neighbors. + + +[Map: map2.png +Caption: Map showing the Turkish Territories occupied by the Armies +of Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Servia at the close of the War +against Turkey] + + + + +II + + +THE WAR BETWEEN THE ALLIES + +The Treaty of London officially eliminated Turkey from the further +settlement of the Balkan question. Thanks to the good will of the +Great Powers toward herself or to their rising jealousy of Bulgaria +she was not stripped of her entire European possessions west of the +Chataldja lines where the victorious Bulgarians had planted their +standards. The Enos-Midia frontier not only guaranteed to her a +considerable portion of territory which the Bulgarians had occupied +but extended her coast line, from the point where the Chataldja +lines strike the Sea of Marmora, out through the Dardanelles and +along the Aegean littoral to the mouth of the Maritza River. To that +extent the Great Powers may be said to have re-established the Turks +once more in Europe from which they had been practically driven by +the Balkan Allies and especially the Bulgarians. All the rest of her +European possessions, however, Turkey was forced to surrender either +in trust to the Great Powers or absolutely to the Balkan Allies. + +The great question now was how the Allies should divide among +themselves the spoils of war. + + +RIVAL AMBITIONS OF THE ALLIES + +This was a difficult matter to adjust. Before the war began, as we +have already seen, a Treaty of Partition had been negotiated between +Bulgaria and Servia, but conditions had changed materially in the +interval and Servia now demanded a revision of the treaty and +refused to withdraw her troops from Central Macedonia, which the +treaty had marked for reversion to Bulgaria. In consequence the +relations between the governments and peoples of Servia and Bulgaria +were dangerously strained. The Bulgarians denounced the Servians as +perfidious and faithless and the Servians responded by excoriating +the colossal greed and intolerance of the Bulgarians. The immemorial +mutual hatred of the two Slav nations was stirred to its lowest +depths, and it boiled and sputtered like a witches' cauldron. + +In Eastern Macedonia Bulgarians and Greeks were each eagerly pushing +their respective spheres of occupation without much regard to the +rights or feeling of the other Ally. Though the Bulgarians had not +forgiven the Greeks for anticipating them in the capture of Saloniki +in the month of November, the rivalry between them in the following +winter and spring had for its stage the territory between the Struma +and the Mesta Rivers--and especially the quadrilateral marked by +Kavala and Orphani on the coast and Seres and Drama on the line of +railway from Saloniki to Adrianople. They had one advantage over the +Bulgarians: their troops could be employed to secure extensions of +territory for the Hellenic kingdom at a time when Bulgaria still +needed the bulk of her forces to fight the Turks at Chataldja and +Adrianople. Hence the Greeks occupied towns in the district from +which Bulgarian troops had been recalled. Nor did they hesitate to +dislodge scattered Bulgarian troops which their ally had left behind +to establish a claim of occupation. Naturally disputes arose between +the military commanders and these led to repeated armed encounters. +On March 5 Greeks and Bulgarians fought at Nigrita as they +subsequently fought at Pravishta, Leftera, Panghaion, and Anghista. + +This conduct of the Allies toward one another while the common enemy +was still in the field boded ill for their future relations. "Our +next war will be with Bulgaria," said the man on the street in +Athens, and this bellicose sentiment was reciprocated alike by the +Bulgarian people and the Bulgarian army. The secular mutual enmities +and animosities of the Greeks and Bulgarians, which self-interest +had suppressed long enough to enable the Balkan Allies to make +European Turkey their own, burst forth with redoubled violence under +the stimulus of the imperious demand which the occasion now made +upon them all for an equitable distribution of the conquered +territory. For ages the fatal vice of the Balkan nations has been +the immoderate and intolerant assertion by each of its own claims +coupled with contemptuous disregard of the rights of others. + + +ALBANIA A CAUSE OF FRICTION + +There were also external causes which contributed to the deepening +tragedy in the Balkans. Undoubtedly the most potent was the +dislocation of the plans of the Allies by the creation of an +independent Albania. This new kingdom was called into being by the +voice of the European concert at the demand of Austria-Hungary +supported by Italy. + +The controlling force in politics, though not the only force, is +self-interest. Austria-Hungary had long sought an outlet through +Macedonia to the Aegean by way of Saloniki. It was also the aim of +Servia to reach the Adriatic. But the foreign policy of +Austria-Hungary, which has millions of Serbs under its dominion, has +steadily opposed the aggrandizement of Servia. And now that Servia +and her allies had taken possession of Macedonia and blocked the +path of Austria-Hungary to Saloniki, it was not merely revenge, it +was self-interest pursuing a consistent foreign policy, which moved +the Dual Monarchy to make the cardinal feature of its Balkan +programme the exclusion of Servia from access to the Adriatic Sea. +Before the first Balkan war began the Adriatic littoral was under +the dominion of Austria-Hungary and Italy, for though Montenegro and +European Turkey were their maritime neighbors neither of them had +any naval strength. Naturally these two dominant powers desired that +after the close of the Balkan war they should not be in a worse +position in the Adriatic than heretofore. But if Servia were allowed +to expand westward to the Adriatic, their supremacy might in the +future be challenged. For Servia might enter into special relations +with her great sister Slav state, Russia, or a confederation might +be formed embracing all the Balkan states between the Black Sea and +the Adriatic: and, in either event, Austria-Hungary and Italy would +no longer enjoy the unchallenged supremacy on the Adriatic coasts +which was theirs so long as Turkey held dominion over the maritime +country lying between Greece and Montenegro. As a necessity of +practical politics, therefore, there emerged the Austro-Italian +policy of an independent Albania. But natural and essential as this +policy was for Italy and Austria-Hungary, it was fatal to Servia's +dream of expansion to the Adriatic; it set narrow limits to the +northward extension of Greece into Epirus, and the southward +extension of Montenegro below Scutari; it impelled these Allies to +seek compensation in territory that Bulgaria had regarded as her +peculiar preserve; and as a consequence it seriously menaced the +existence of the Balkan Alliance torn as it already was by mutual +jealousies, enmities, aggressions, and recriminations. + + +RECOIL OF SERVIA TOWARD THE AEGEAN + +The first effect of the European fiat regarding an independent +Albania was the recoil of Servia against Bulgaria. Confronted by the +force majeure of the Great Powers which estopped her advance to the +Adriatic, Servia turned her anxious regard toward the Gulf of +Saloniki and the Aegean Sea. Already her victorious armies had +occupied Macedonia from the Albanian frontier eastward beyond the +Vardar River to Strumnitza, Istib, and Kochana, and southward below +Monastir and Ghevgheli, where they touched the boundary of the Greek +occupation of Southern Macedonia. An agreement with the Greeks, who +held the city of Saloniki and its hinterland as well as the whole +Chalcidician Peninsula, would ensure Servia an outlet to the sea. +And the merchants of Saloniki--mostly the descendants of Jews +expelled from Spain in the fifteenth century--were shrewd enough to +recognize the advantage to their city of securing the commerce of +Servia, especially as they were destined to lose, in consequence of +hostile tariffs certain to be established by the conquerors, a +considerable portion of the trade which had formerly flowed to them +without let or hindrance from a large section of European Turkey. +The government of Greece was equally favorably disposed to this +programme; for, in the first place, it was to its interest to +cultivate friendly relations with Servia, in view of possible +embroilments with Bulgaria; and, in the second place, it had to +countercheck the game of those who wanted either to make Saloniki a +free city or to incorporate it in a Big Bulgaria, and who were using +with some effect the argument that the annexation of the city to +Greece meant the throttling of its trade and the annihilation of its +prosperity. The interests of the city of Saloniki, the interests of +Greece, and the interests of Servia all combined to demand the free +flow of Servian trade by way of Saloniki. And if no other power +obtained jurisdiction over any Macedonian territory through which +that trade passed, it would be easy for the Greek and Servian +governments to come to an understanding. + + +TREATY RESTRICTIONS + +Just here, however, was the rub. The secret treaty of March, 1912, +providing for the offensive and defensive alliance of Bulgaria and +Servia against the Ottoman Empire regulated, in case of victory, the +division of the conquered territory between the Allies. And the +extreme limit, on the south and east, of Turkish territory assigned +to Servia by this treaty was fixed by a line starting from Ochrida +on the borders of Albania and running northeastward across the +Vardar River a few miles above Veles and thence, following the same +general direction, through Ovcepolje and Egri Palanka to Golema Vreh +on the frontier of Bulgaria--a terminus some twenty miles southeast +of the meeting point of Servia, Macedonia, and Bulgaria. During the +war with Turkey the Servian armies had paid no attention to the +Ochrida-Golema Vreh line. The great victory over the Turks at +Kumanovo, by which the Slav defeat at Kossovo five hundred years +earlier was avenged, was, it is true, won at a point north of the +line in question. But the subsequent victories of Prilip and +Monastir were gained to the south of it--far, indeed, into the heart +of the Macedonian territory recognized by the treaty as Bulgarian. + +If you look at a map you will see that the boundary between Servia +and Bulgaria, starting from the Danube, runs in a slightly +undulating line due south. Now what the military forces of King +Peter did during the war of the Balkan states with the Ottoman +Empire was to occupy all European Turkey south of Servia between the +prolongation of that boundary line and the new Kingdom of Albania +till they met the Hellenic army advancing northward under Crown +Prince Constantine, when the two governments agreed on a common +boundary for New Servia and New Greece along a line starting from +Lake Presba and running eastward between Monastir and Florina to the +Vardar River a little to the south of Ghevgheli. + + +THE APPLE OF DISCORD + +But this arrangement between Greece and Servia would leave no +territory for Bulgaria in Central and Western Macedonia! Yet Servia +had solemnly bound herself by treaty not to ask for any Turkish +territory below the Ochrida-Golema Vreh line. There was no similar +treaty with Greece, but Bulgaria regarded the northern frontier of +New Greece as a matter for adjustment between the two governments. +Servia, withdrawn behind the Ochrida-Golema Vreh line in accordance +with the terms of the treaty, would at any rate have nothing to say +about the matter. And, although the Bulgarian government never +communicated, officially or unofficially, its own views to Greece or +Servia, I believe we should not make much mistake in asserting that +a line drawn from Ochrida to Saloniki (which Bulgaria in spite of +the Greek occupation continued to claim) would roughly represent the +limit of its voluntary concession. Now if you imagine a base line +drawn from Saloniki to Golema Vreh, you have an equilateral triangle +resting on Ochrida as apex. And this equilateral triangle represents +approximately what Bulgaria claimed in the western half of Macedonia +as her own. + +The war between the Allies was fought over the possession of this +triangle. The larger portion of it had in the war against Turkey +been occupied by the forces of Servia; and the nation, inflamed by +the military spirit of the army, had made up its mind that, treaty +or no treaty, it should not be evacuated. On the south, especially +above Vodena, the Greeks had occupied a section of the fatal +triangle. And the two governments had decided that they would not +tolerate the driving of a Bulgarian wedge between New Servia and New +Greece. Bulgaria, on the other hand, was inexorable in her demands +on Servia for the fulfilment of the terms of the Treaty of +Partition. At the same time she worried the Greek government about +the future of Saloniki, and that at a time when the Greek people +were criticizing Mr. Venizelos for having allowed the Bulgarians to +occupy regions in Macedonia and Thrace inhabited by Greeks, notably +Seres, Drama, and Kavala, and the adjacent country between the +Struma and the Mesta. These were additional causes of dissension +between the Allies. But the primary disruptive force was the +attraction, the incompatible attraction, exerted on them all by that +central Macedonian triangle whose apex rested on the ruins of Czar +Samuel's palace at Ochrida and whose base extended from Saloniki to +Golema Vreh. + + +THE CLAIM OF BULGARIA + +From that base line to the Black Sea nearly all European Turkey +(with the exception of the Chalcidician Peninsula, including +Saloniki and its hinterland) had been occupied by the military +forces of Bulgaria. Why then was Bulgaria so insistent on getting +beyond that base line, crossing the Vardar, and possessing herself +of Central Macedonia up to Ochrida and the eastern frontier of +Albania? + +The answer, in brief, is that it has been the undeviating policy of +Bulgaria, ever since her own emancipation by Russia in 1877, to free +the Bulgarians still under the Ottoman yoke and unite them in a +common fatherland. The Great Bulgaria which was created by Russia in +the treaty she forced on Turkey--the Treaty of San Stefano--was +constructed under the influence of the idea of a union of the +Bulgarian race in a single state under a common government. This +treaty was afterward torn to pieces by the Congress of Berlin, which +set up for the Bulgarians a very diminutive principality. But the +Bulgarians, from the palace down to the meanest hut, have always +been animated by that racial and national idea. The annexation of +Eastern Roumelia in 1885 was a great step in the direction of its +realization. And it was to carry that programme to completion that +Bulgaria made war against Turkey in 1912. Her primary object was the +liberation of the Bulgarians in Macedonia and their incorporation in +a Great Bulgaria. And the Treaty of Partition with Servia seemed, in +the event of victory over Turkey, to afford a guarantee of the +accomplishment of her long-cherished purpose. It was a strange irony +of fate that while as a result of the geographical situation of the +belligerents Bulgaria, at the close of the war with Turkey, found +herself in actual occupation of all European Turkey from the Black +Sea up to the River Struma and beyond,--that is, all Thrace to +Chataldja as well as Eastern Macedonia--her allies were in +possession of the bulk of Macedonia, including the entire triangle +she had planned to inject between the frontiers of New Servia and +New Greece! + +The Bulgarians claimed this triangle on ethnological grounds. Its +inhabitants, they asseverated, were their brethren, as genuinely +Bulgarian as the subjects of King Ferdinand. + + +RACIAL PROPAGANDA IN MACEDONIA + +Of all perplexing subjects in the world few can be more baffling +than the distribution of races in Macedonia. The Turks classify the +population, not by language or by physical characteristics, but by +religion. A Greek is a member of the Orthodox Church who recognizes +the patriarch of Constantinople; a Bulgarian, on the other hand, is +one of the same religious faith who recognizes the exarch; and since +the Servians in Turkey have no independent church but recognize the +patriarchate they are often, as opposed to Bulgarians, called +Greeks. Race, being thus merged in religion--in something that rests +on the human will and not on physical characteristics fixed by +nature--can in that part of the world be changed as easily as +religion. A Macedonian may be a Greek to-day, a Bulgarian to-morrow, +and a Servian next day. We have all heard of the captain in the +comic opera who "in spite of all temptations to belong to other +nations" remained an Englishman. There would have been nothing comic +in this assertion had the redoubtable captain lived in Macedonia. In +that land a race is a political party composed of members with +common customs and religion who stand for a "national idea" which +they strenuously endeavor to force on others. + +Macedonia is the land of such racial propaganda. As the Turkish +government forbids public meetings for political purposes, the +propaganda takes an ecclesiastical and linguistic form. Each "race" +seeks to convert the people to its faith by the agency of schools +and churches, which teach and use its own language. Up to the middle +of the nineteenth century the Greeks, owing to their privileged +ecclesiastical position in the Ottoman Empire, had exclusive +spiritual and educational jurisdiction over the members of the +Orthodox Church in Macedonia. The opposition of the Bulgarians led, +as we have already seen, to the establishment in 1870 of the +exarchate, that is, of an independent Bulgarian Orthodox Church with +the exarch at its head. The Bulgarian propaganda in Macedonia +demanded the appointment of bishops to conduct churches and schools +under the authority of the exarchate. In 1891 the Porte conceded +Bulgarian bishops to Ochrida and Uskub, in 1894 to Veles and +Nevrokop, and in 1898 to Monastir, Strumnitza, and Dibra. As has +been well said, the church of the exarchate was really occupied in +creating Bulgarians: it offered to the Slavonic population of +Macedonia services and schools conducted in a language which they +understood and showed a genuine interest in their education. By 1900 +Macedonia had 785 Bulgarian schools, 39,892 pupils, and 1,250 +teachers. + +The Servian propaganda in Macedonia was at a disadvantage in +comparison with the Bulgarian because it had not a separate +ecclesiastical organization. As we have already seen, the orthodox +Serbs owe allegiance to the Greek patriarch in Constantinople. And +at first they did not push their propaganda as zealously or as +successfully as the Bulgarians. In fact the national aspirations of +the people of Servia had been in the direction of Bosnia and +Herzegovina; but after these provinces were assigned to Austria by +the Treaty of Berlin, a marked change of attitude occurred in the +Servian government and nation. They now claimed as Servian the +Slavonic population of Macedonia which hitherto Bulgaria had +cultivated as her own. The course of politics in Bulgaria, notably +her embroilment with Russia, inured to the advantage of the Servian +propaganda in Macedonia, which after 1890 made great headway. The +Servian government made liberal contributions for Macedonian +schools. And before the nineteenth century closed the Servian +propaganda could claim 178 schools in the vilayets of Saloniki and +Monastir and in Uskub with 321 teachers and 7,200 pupils. + +These Slav propagandists made serious encroachments upon the Greek +cause, which, only a generation earlier, had possessed a practical +monopoly in Macedonia. Greek efforts too were for a time almost +paralyzed in consequence of the disastrous issue of the +Greco-Turkish war in 1897. Nevertheless in 1901 the Greeks claimed +927 schools in the vilayets of Saloniki and Monastir with 1,397 +teachers and 57,607 pupils. + + +RACIAL FACTS AND FALLACIES + +The more bishops, churches, and schools a nationality could show, +the stronger its claim on the reversion of Macedonia when the Turk +should be driven out of Europe! There was no doubt much juggling +with statistics. And though schools and churches were provided by +Greeks, Servians, and Bulgarians to satisfy the spiritual and +intellectual needs of their kinsmen in Macedonia, there was always +the ulterior (which was generally the dominant) object of staking +out claims in the domain soon to drop from the paralyzed hand of the +Turk. The bishops may have been good shepherds of their flocks, but +the primary qualification for the office was, I imagine, the gift of +aggressive political leadership. The Turkish government now favored +one nationality and now another as the interests of the moment +seemed to suggest. With an impish delight in playing off Slav +against Greek and Servian against Bulgarian, its action on +applications for bishoprics was generally taken with a view to +embarrassing the rival Christian nationalities. And it could when +necessary keep the propagandists within severe limits. The +Bulgarians grew bold after securing so many bishoprics in the +nineties and the bishop at Uskub thought to open new schools and +churches. But the Turkish governor--the Vali--summoned him and +delivered this warning: "O Bulgarian, sit upon the eggs you have, +and do not burst your belly by trying to lay more." + +How are we to determine the racial complexion of a country in which +race is certified by religion, in which religion is measured by the +number of bishops and churches and schools, in which bishops and +churches and schools are created and maintained by a propaganda +conducted by competing external powers, and in which the results of +the propaganda are determined largely by money and men sent from +Sofia, Athens, and Belgrade, subject always to the caprice and +manipulation of the Sultan's government at Constantinople? + +In Southern Macedonia from the Thessalian frontier as far north as +the parallel of Saloniki, the population is almost exclusively +Greek, as is also the whole of the Chalcidician Peninsula, while +further east the coast region between the Struma and the Mesta is +also predominantly Greek. Eastern Macedonia to the north of the line +of Seres and Drama and south of the Kingdom of Bulgaria is generally +Bulgarian. On the northwest from the city of Uskub up to the +confines of Servia and Bosnia, Macedonia is mixed Serb, Bulgarian, +and Albanian, with the Serb element preponderating as you travel +northward and the Albanian westward. + + +PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS AND EXPERIENCES + +The difficulty comes when we attempt to give the racial character of +Central Macedonia, which is equally remote from Greece, Bulgaria, +and Servia. I travelled through this district last summer. On June +29, when the war broke out between the Allies I found myself in +Uskub. Through the courtesy of the Servian authorities I was +permitted to ride on the first military train which left the city. +Descending at Veles I drove across Central Macedonia by way of +Prilip to Monastir, spending the first night, for lack of a better +bed, in the carriage, which was guarded by Servian sentries. From +Monastir I motored over execrable roads to Lake Presba and Lake +Ochrida and thence beyond the city of Ochrida to Struga on the Black +Drin, from which I looked out on the mountains of Albania. + +Coming from Athens where for many months I had listened to patriotic +stories of the thorough permeation of Macedonia by Greek settlements +my first surprise was my inability to discover a Greek majority in +Central Macedonia. In most of the cities a fraction of the +population indeed is Greek and as a rule the colony is prosperous. +This is especially true in Monastir, which is a stronghold of Greek +influence. But while half the population of Monastir is Mohammedan +the so-called Bulgarians form the majority of the Christian +population, though both Servians and Roumanians have conducted +energetic propaganda. In Veles two-thirds of the population are +Christians and nearly all of these are called Bulgarians. In Ochrida +the lower town is Mohammedan and the upper Christian, and the +Christian population is almost exclusively of the Bulgarian Church. + +It does not follow, however, that the people of Central Macedonia, +even if Bulgarian churches are in the ascendant among them, are +really connected by ties of blood and language with Bulgaria rather +than with Servia. If history is invoked we shall have to admit that +under Dushan this region was a part of the Serb empire as under +Simeon and Asen it was part of the Bulgarian. If an appeal is made +to anthropology the answer is still uncertain. For while the +Mongolian features--broad flat faces, narrow eyes, and straight +black hair--which characterize the subjects of King Ferdinand can be +seen--I myself have seen them--as far west as Ochrida, they may also +be found all over Northern Servia as far as Belgrade though the +Servian physical type is entirely different. There is no fixed +connection between the anthropological unit and the linguistic or +political unit. Furthermore, while there are well-marked groups who +call themselves Serbs or Bulgarians there is a larger population not +so clearly differentiated by physique or language. Undoubtedly they +are Slavs. But whether Serb or Bulgarian, or intermediate between +the two, no one to-day can demonstrate. Central Macedonia has its +own dialects, any one of which under happy literary auspices might +have developed into a separate language. And the men who speak them +to-day can more or less understand either Servian or Bulgarian. +Hence as the anonymous and highly authoritative author of "Turkey in +Europe," who calls himself Odysseus, declares: + + "The practical conclusion is that neither Greeks, Servians, nor + Bulgarians have a right to claim Central Macedonia. The fact that + they all do so shows how weak each claim must be." + +Yet it was Bulgaria's intransigent assertion of her claim to Central +Macedonia which led to the war between the Allies. + +It will be instructive to consider the attitude of each of the +governments concerned on the eve of the conflict. I hope I am in a +position correctly to report it. Certainly I had unusual +opportunities to learn it. For besides the official position I held +in Athens during the entire course of both Balkan wars I visited the +Balkan states in June and was accorded the privilege of discussing +the then pending crisis with the prime ministers of Roumania, +Servia, and Bulgaria. It would of course be improper to quote them; +nay more, I feel myself under special obligation sacredly to respect +the confidence they reposed in me. But the frank disclosures they +made in these conversations gave me a point of view for the +comprehension of the situation and the estimate of facts which I +have found simply invaluable. And if Mr. Venizelos in Athens, or Mr. +Maioresco in Bukarest, or Mr. Pashitch in Belgrade, or Dr. Daneff, +who is no longer prime minister of Bulgaria, should ever chance to +read what I am saying, I hope each will feel that I have fairly and +impartially presented the attitude which their respective +governments had taken at this critical moment on the vital issue +then confronting them. + + +THE ATTITUDE OF SERVIA + +I have already indicated the situation of Servia. Compelled by the +Great Powers to withdraw her troops from Albania, after they had +triumphantly made their way to the Adriatic, she was now requested +by Bulgaria to evacuate Central Macedonia up to the Ochrida-Golema +Vreh line in accordance with the terms of the treaty between the two +countries which was ratified in March, 1912. The Servian government +believed that for the loss of Albania, which the treaty assumed +would be annexed to Servia, they were entitled to compensation in +Macedonia. And if now, instead of compensation for the loss of an +outlet on the Adriatic, they were to withdraw their forces from +Central Macedonia and allow Bulgaria to establish herself between +New Servia and New Greece, they would block their own way to +Saloniki, which was the only prospect now left of a Servian outlet +to the sea. Nor was this the whole story by any means. The army, +which comprised all able-bodied Servians, was in possession of +Central Macedonia; and the military leaders, with the usual +professional bias in favor of imperialism, dictated their +expansionist views to the government at Belgrade. If Bulgaria would +not voluntarily grant compensation for the loss of Albania, the +Servian people were ready to take it by force. They had also a +direct claim against Bulgaria. They had sent 60,000 soldiers to the +siege of Adrianople, which the Bulgarians had hitherto failed to +capture. And the Servians were now asking, in bitter irony, whether +they had gone to war solely for the benefit of Bulgaria; whether +besides helping her to win all Thrace and Eastern Macedonia they +were now to present her with Central Macedonia, and that at a time +when the European Concert had stripped them of the expected prize of +Albania with its much desired Adriatic littoral! This argument was +graphically presented on a map of which I secured a copy in +Belgrade. The legend on this map reads as follows: + + "Territories occupied by Servia 55,000 square miles. Servia cedes + to her allies in the east and south 3,800 square miles. Servia + cedes to Albania 15,200 square miles. Servia retains 36,000 + square miles. Territories occupied by Bulgaria to Enos-Midia, + 51,200 square miles. The Bulgarians demand from the Servians + still 10,240 square miles. According to Bulgarian pretensions + Bulgaria should get 61,520 square miles and Servia only 25,760!" + + +PROPOSED REVISION OF TREATY AND ARBITRATION + +When the treaty between Servia and Bulgaria was negotiated, it seems +to have been assumed that the theatre of a war with Turkey would be +Macedonia and that Thrace--the country from the Mesta to the Black +Sea--would remain intact to Turkey. And if the rest of Turkey in +Europe up to the Adriatic were conquered by the two Allies, the +Ochrida-Golema Vreh line would make a fairly equitable division +between them of the spoils of war. But with Albania denied to +Servia and Thrace occupied by Bulgaria, conditions had wholly +changed. The Servian government declared that the changed conditions +had abrogated the Treaty of Partition and that it was for the two +governments now to adjust themselves to the logic of events! On May +28 Mr. Pashitch, the Servian prime minister, formally demanded a +revision of the treaty. A personal interview with the Bulgarian +prime minister, Mr. Gueshoff, followed on June 2 at Tsaribrod. And +Mr. Gueshoff accepted Mr. Pashitch's suggestion (which originated +with Mr. Venizelos, the Greek prime minister) of a conference of +representatives of the four Allies at St. Petersburg. For it should +be added that, in the Treaty of Partition, the Czar had been named +as arbiter in case of any territorial dispute between the two +parties. + +What followed in the next few days has never been clearly disclosed. +But it was of transcendent importance. I have always thought that if +Mr. Gueshoff, one of the authors of the Balkan Alliance, had been +allowed like Mr. Venizelos and Mr. Pashitch, to finish his work, +there would have been no war between the Allies. I did not enjoy the +personal acquaintance of Mr. Gueshoff, but I regarded him as a wise +statesman of moderate views, who was disposed to make reasonable +concessions for the sake of peace. But a whole nation in arms, +flushed with the sense of victory, is always dangerous to the +authority of civil government. If Mr. Gueshoff was ready to arrange +some accommodation with Mr. Pashitch, the military party in Bulgaria +was all the more insistent in its demands on Servia for the +evacuation of Central Macedonia. Even in Servia Mr. Pashitch had +great difficulty in repressing the jingo ardor of the army, whose +bellicose spirit was believed to find expression in the attitude of +the Crown Prince. But the provocation in Bulgaria was greater, +because, when all was said and done, Servia was actually violating +an agreement with Bulgaria to which she had solemnly set her name. +Possibly the military party gained the ear of King Ferdinand. +Certainly it was reported that he was consulting with leaders of the +opposition. Presumably they were all dissatisfied with the +conciliatory attitude which Mr. Gueshoff had shown in the Tsaribrod +conference. Whatever the explanation, Mr. Gueshoff resigned on June +9. + + +DELAY AND OPPOSITION OF BULGARIA + +On that very day the Czar summoned the Kings of Bulgaria and Servia +to submit their disputes to his decision. While this demand was +based on a specific provision of the Servo-Bulgarian treaty, His +Majesty also urged it on the ground of devotion to the Slav cause. +This pro-Slav argument provoked much criticism in Austro-Hungarian +circles which resented bitterly the assumption of Slav hegemony in +Balkan affairs. However, on June 12 Bulgaria and Servia accepted +Russian arbitration. But the terms were not agreed upon. While Mr. +Venizelos and Mr. Pashitch impatiently awaited the summons to St. +Petersburg they could get no definite information of the intentions +of the Bulgarian government. And the rivalry of Austria-Hungary and +Russia for predominance in the Balkans was never more intense than +at this critical moment. + +On June 14 Dr. Daneff was appointed prime minister in succession to +Mr. Gueshoff. He had represented Bulgaria in the London Peace +Conference where his aggressive and uncompromising attitude had +perturbed his fellow delegates from the other Balkan states and +provoked some criticism in the European press. He was known as a +Russophil. And he seems now to have got assurance from Russia that +she would maintain the Bulgarian view of the treaty with Servia, +although she had at one time favored the Servian demand for an +extensive revision of it. Certainly Dr. Daneff voiced the views and +sentiments of the Bulgarian army and nation. I was in Sofia the week +before the outbreak of the war between the Allies. And the two +points on which everybody insisted were, first, that Servia must be +compelled to observe the Treaty of Partition, and, secondly, that +Central Macedonia must be annexed to Bulgaria. For these things all +Bulgarians were ready to fight. And flushed with their great +victories over the main army of Turkey they believed it would be an +easy task to overpower the forces of Servia and Greece. For the +Greeks they entertained a sort of contempt; and as for the Servians, +had they not already defeated them completely at Slivnitza in 1886? +Men high in the military service of the nation assured me that the +Bulgarian army would be in Belgrade in eight days after war was +declared. The Greeks too would quickly be driven out of Saloniki. +The idea of a conference to decide the territorial question in +dispute between the Allies found no favor in any quarter. + +Now it is important that full justice should be done to Bulgaria. As +against Servia, if Servia had stood alone, she might have appealed +to the sanctity and inviolability of treaties. Circumstances had +indeed changed since the treaty was negotiated. But was that a good +reason, Bulgaria might have asked, why she should be excluded from +Central Macedonia which the treaty guaranteed to her? Was that a +good reason why she should not emancipate her Macedonian brethren +for whose sake she had waged a bloody and costly war with Turkey? +The Bulgarians saw nothing in the problem but their treaty with +Servia and apparently cared for no territorial compensation without +Central Macedonia. + + +BULGARIA'S UNCOMPROMISING POLICY + +The Bulgarians were blind to all facts and considerations but the +abstract terms of the treaty with Servia. It was a fact, however, +that the war against Turkey had been fought by four Allies. It was a +fact that the Ottoman government had ceded European Turkey (except +Albania) to these four Allies. No two of the Allies could divide +between themselves the common possession. A division made by the +four Allies might contravene the terms of a treaty which existed +between any two of the Allies prior to the outbreak of the war. In +any event it was for the four Allies together to effect a +distribution of the territory ceded to them by Turkey. For that +purpose a conference was an essential organ. How otherwise could the +four nations reach any agreement? Yet the Bulgarians--army, +government, and nation--were obsessed by the fixed idea that +Bulgaria enjoyed not only a primacy in this matter but a sort of +sovereign monopoly by virtue of which it was her right and privilege +to determine how much of the common spoils she should assign Servia +(with whom she had an ante-bellum treaty), and, after Servia had +been eliminated, how much she could spare to Greece (with whom no +treaty of partition existed), and, when Greece had been disposed of, +whether any crumbs could be flung to Montenegro, who had indeed very +little to hope for from the Bulgarian government. And so Bulgaria +opposed a conference of the four prime ministers though a conference +was the natural, obvious, and necessary method of disposing of the +common business pressing upon them. + +The attitude of Bulgaria left no alternative but war. Yet the +Bulgarian government failed to reckon the cost of war. Was it not +madness for Bulgaria to force war upon Greece, Servia, and +Montenegro on the west at a time when Roumania was making demands +for territorial compensation on the north and Turkey was sure to +seize the occasion to win back territory which Bulgaria had just +wrested from her on the south? Never was a government blinder to the +significant facts of a critical situation. All circumstances +conspired to prescribe peace as the manifest policy for Bulgaria, +yet nearly every step taken by the government was provocative of +war. The Bulgarian army had covered itself with glory in the +victorious campaign against the Moslem. A large part of European +Turkey was already in Bulgarian hands. To imperil that glory and +those possessions by the risk of a new war, when the country was +exhausted and new enemies lay in wait, was as foolish as it was +criminal. That way madness lay. Yet that way the policy pursued by +the Bulgarian government infallibly led. Must we assume that there +is some ground for suspecting that Austria-Hungary was inciting +Bulgaria to war? We must leave it to history to answer. If the +result was a terrible disaster, that was only the old Greek Nemesis +of the gods for the outraged principles of reason and moderation. + + +THE CONCILIATORY SPIRIT OF GREECE + +Those principles, thanks to the conciliatory spirit of Mr. +Venizelos, the prime minister, and the steady support of King +Constantine, who was also commander-in-chief, were loyally followed +in Greece. A few days after the declaration of war against the +Ottoman Empire, into which Greece was precipitately hastened by the +unexpected action of Servia and Bulgaria, the Greek foreign minister +addressed a communication to the Allies on the subject of the +division of conquered territory. He traced the line of Greek claims, +as based on ethnological grounds, and added that, as he foresaw +difficulties in the way of a direct adjustment, he thought the +disputed points should be submitted to arbitration. But months +followed months without bringing from Bulgaria any clear reply to +this just and reasonable proposal of the Greek government. +Nevertheless, Mr. Venizelos persisted in his attitude of +conciliation toward Bulgaria. He made concessions, not only in +Thrace but in Eastern Macedonia, for which he was bitterly +criticized on the ground of sacrificing vital Greek interests to +Bulgaria. He recognized, as his critics refused to do, that the +Balkan question could not be settled on ethnological principles +alone; one had to take account also of geographical necessities. He +saw that the Greeks in Thrace must be handed over to Bulgaria. He +demanded only the Macedonian territory which the Greek forces had +actually occupied, including Saloniki with an adequate hinterland. +As the attitude of Bulgaria became more uncompromising, as she +pushed her army of occupation further westward, Mr. Venizelos was +even ready to make the River Struma the eastern boundary of New +Greece, and to abandon to Bulgaria the Aegean Httoral between the +Struma and the Mesta Rivers including Greek cities like Kavala, +Seres, and Drama. But these new concessions of Mr. Venizelos were in +danger of alienating from him the support of the Greek nation +without yielding anything in return from Bulgaria. The outbreak of +the war between the Allies saved him from a difficult political +position. Yet against that war Mr. Venizelos strove resolutely to +the end. And when in despite of all his efforts war came, he was +justified in saying, as he did say to the national parliament, that +the Greeks had the right to present themselves before the civilized +world with head erect because this new war which was bathing with +blood the Balkan Peninsula had not been provoked by Greece or +brought about by the demand of Greece to receive satisfaction for +all her ethnological claims. And this position in which he had +placed his country was, he proudly declared, a "moral capital" of +the greatest value. + + +BULGARIA BEGINS HOSTILITIES + +Bulgaria's belated acceptance of Russian arbitration was not +destined to establish peace. Yet Dr. Daneff, the prime minister, who +received me on June 27 and talked freely of the Balkan situation +(perhaps the more freely because in this conversation it transpired +that we had been fellow students together at the University of +Heidelberg), decided on June 28 not to go to war with the Allies. +Yet that very evening at eight o'clock, unknown to Dr. Daneff, an +order in cipher and marked "very urgent" was issued by General +Savoff to the commander of the fourth army directing him on the +following evening to attack the Servians "most vigorously along the +whole front." On the following afternoon, the 29th, General Savoff +issued another order to the army commanders giving further +instructions for attacks on the Servians and Greeks, including an +attack on Saloniki, stating that these attacks were taking place +"without any official declaration of war," and that they were +undertaken in order to accustom the Bulgarian army to regard their +former allies as enemies, to hasten the activities of the Russian +government, to compel the former allies to be more conciliatory, and +to secure new territories for Bulgaria! Who was responsible for this +deplorable lack of harmony between the civil government and the +military authorities has not yet been officially disclosed. Did +General Savoff act on his own responsibility? Or is there any truth +in the charge that King Ferdinand after a long consultation with the +Austro-Hungarian Minister instructed the General to issue the order? +Dr. Daneff knew nothing of it, and though he made every effort to +stop the resulting hostilities, the dogs of war had been let loose +and could not now be torn from one another's throats. + +There had been sporadic fighting in Macedonia between the Allies for +some months past. Greece and Servia had concluded an anti-Bulgarian +alliance on June 1. They also entered into a convention with +Roumania by which that power agreed to intervene in case of war +between the late Allies. And war having been declared, Roumania +seized Silistria at midnight, July 10. Meanwhile the Servian and +Greek forces were fighting the Bulgarians hard at Kilkis, Doiran, +and other points between the Vardar and the Struma. And, as if +Bulgaria had not enemies enough on her back already, the Turkish +Army on July 12 left the Chataldja fortifications, crossed the +Enos-Midia line, and in less than two weeks, with Enver Bey at its +head, re-occupied Adrianople. Bulgaria was powerless to stop the +further advance of the Turks, nor had she forces to send against the +Roumanians who marched unopposed through the neighboring country +till Sofia itself was within their power. + +No nation could stand up against such fearful odds. Dr. Daneff +resigned on July 15. And the new ministry had to make the best terms +it could. + + +TERMS OF PEACE + +A Peace Conference met at Bukarest on July 28, and peace was signed +on August 10. By this Treaty of Bukarest Servia secured not only all +that part of Macedonia already under her occupation but gained also +an eastward extension beyond the Doiran-Istib-Kochana line into +purely Bulgarian territory. Greece fared still better under the +treaty; for it gave her not only all the Macedonian lands she had +already occupied but extended her domain on the Aegean littoral as +far east as the mouth of the Mesta and away into the interior as far +above Seres and Drama as they are from the sea,--thus establishing +the northern frontier of New Greece from Lake Presba (near the +eastern boundary of Albania) on a northward-ascending line past +Ghevgheli and Doiran to Kainchal in Thrace on the other side of the +Mesta River. This assignment of territory conquered from Turkey had +the effect of shutting out Bulgaria from the Western Aegean; and the +littoral left to Bulgaria between the Mesta River and the Turkish +boundary has no harbor of any consequence but Dedeagach, which is +much inferior to Kavala. + +The new Turkish boundary was arranged by negotiations between the +Bulgarian and Ottoman governments. The terminus on the Black Sea was +pushed north from Midia almost up to the southern boundary of +Bulgaria. Enos remained the terminus on the Aegean. But the two +termini were connected by a curved line which after following the +Maritza River to a point between Sufli and Dimotika then swung in a +semicircle well beyond Adrianople to Bulgaria and the Black Sea. +Thus Bulgaria was compelled to cede back to the Asiatic enemy not +only Adrianople but the battlefields of Kirk Kilisse, Lule Burgas, +and Chorlu on which her brave soldiers had won such magnificent +victories over the Moslems. + + +THE ATTITUDE OF ROUMANIA + +The Treaty of Bukarest marked the predominance of Roumania in Balkan +affairs. And of course Roumania had her own reward. She had long +coveted the northeastern corner of Bulgaria, from Turtukai on the +Danube to Baltchik on the Black Sea. And this territory, even some +miles beyond that line, Bulgaria was now compelled to cede to her by +the treaty. It is a fertile area with a population of some 300,000 +souls, many of whom are Turks. + +The claim of Roumania to compensation for her neutrality during the +first Balkan war was severely criticized by the independent press of +western Europe. It was first put forward in the London Peace +Conference, but rejected by Dr. Daneff, the Bulgarian delegate. But +the Roumanian government persisted in pressing the claim, and the +Powers finally decided to mediate, with the result that the city of +Silistria and the immediately adjoining territory were assigned to +Roumania. Neither state was satisfied with the award and the second +Balkan war broke out before the transfer had been effected. This +gave Roumania the opportunity to enforce her original claim, and, +despite the advice of Austria-Hungary, she used it, as we have +already seen. + +The Roumanian government justifies its position in this matter by +two considerations. In the first place, as Roumania was larger and +more populous than any of the Balkan states, the Roumanian nation +could not sit still with folded arms while Bulgaria wrested this +preeminence from her. And if Bulgaria had not precipitated a war +among the Allies, if she had been content with annexing the portion +of European Turkey which she held under military occupation, New +Bulgaria would have contained a greater area and a larger population +than Roumania. The Roumanians claim, accordingly, that the course +they pursued was dictated by a legitimate and vital national +interest. And, in the second place, as Greeks, Servians, and +Bulgarians based their respective claims to Macedonian territory on +the racial character of the inhabitants, Roumania asserted that the +presence of a large Roumanian (or Vlach) population in that disputed +region gave her an equally valid claim to a share in the common +estate. + +In all Macedonia there may be some 100,000 Vlachs, though Roumanian +officials put the number much higher. Many of them are highland +shepherds; others engage in transportation with trains of horses or +mules; those in the lowlands are good farmers. They are found +especially in the mountains and valleys between Thessaly and +Albania. They are generally favorable to the Greek cause. Most of +them speak Greek as well as Roumanian; and they are all devoted +members of the Greek Orthodox Church. Yet there has been a Roumanian +propaganda in Macedonia since 1886, and the government at Bukarest +has devoted large sums to the maintenance of Roumanian schools, of +which the maximum number at any time has perhaps not exceeded forty. + +Now if every other nation--Greek, Servian, Bulgarian--which had +hitherto maintained its propaganda of schools and churches in +Macedonia, was to bring its now emancipated children under the +benign sway of the home government and also was to annex the +Macedonian lands which they occupied, why, Roumania asked, should +she be excluded from participation in the arrangement? She did not, +it is true, join the Allies in fighting the common Moslem oppressor. +But she maintained a benevolent neutrality. And since Macedonia is +not conterminous with Roumania, she was not seeking to annex any +portion of it. Yet the rights those Roumanians in Macedonia gave her +should be satisfied. And so arguing, the Roumanian government +claimed as a quid pro quo the adjoining northeastern corner of +Bulgaria, permitting Bulgaria to recoup herself by the uncontested +annexation of Thrace and Eastern Macedonia. + +Such was the Roumanian reasoning. Certainly it bore hard on +Bulgaria. But none of the belligerents showed any mercy on Bulgaria. +War is a game of ruthless self-interest. It was Bulgaria who +appealed to arms and she now had to pay the penalty. Her losses +enriched all her neighbors. What Lord Bacon says of individuals is +still more true of nations: the folly of one is the fortune of +another, and none prospers so suddenly as by others' errors. + + +THE WORK AND REWARD OF MONTENEGRO + +I have already sufficiently described the territorial gains of +Roumania, Servia, and Greece. But I must not pass over Montenegro in +silence. As the invincible warriors of King Nicholas opened the war +against the Ottoman Empire, so they joined Servia and Greece in the +struggle against Bulgaria. On Sunday, June 29, I saw encamped across +the street from my hotel in Uskub 15,000 of these Montenegrin +soldiers who had arrived only a day or two before by train from +Mitrowitza, into which they had marched across Novi Bazar. Tall, +lithe, daring, with countenances bespeaking clean lives, they looked +as fine a body of men as one could find anywhere in the world, and +their commanding figures and manly bearing were set off to great +advantage by their striking and picturesque uniforms. The officers +told me next day that in a few hours they would be fighting at +Ghevgheli. Their splendid appearance seemed an augury of victory for +the Serbs. + +Montenegro too received her reward by an extension of territory on +the south to the frontier of Albania (as fixed by the Great Powers) +and a still more liberal extension on the east in the sandjak of +Novi Bazar. This patriarchal kingdom will probably remain unchanged +so long as the present King lives, the much-beloved King Nicholas, a +genuinely Homeric Father of his People. But forces of an economic, +social, and political character are already at work tending to draw +it into closer union with Servia, and the Balkan wars have given a +great impetus to these forces. A united Serb state, with an Adriatic +littoral which would include the harbors of Antivari and Dulcigno, +may be the future which destiny has in store for the sister kingdoms +of Servia and Montenegro. If so, it is likely to be a mutually +voluntary union; and neither Austria-Hungary nor Italy, the warders +of the Adriatic, would seem to have any good ground to object to +such a purely domestic arrangement. + + +THE PROBLEM OF ALBANIA + +The Albanians, though they rather opposed than assisted the Allies +in the war against Turkey, were set off as an independent nation by +the Great Powers at the instigation of Austria-Hungary with the +support of Italy. The determination of the boundaries of the new +state was the resultant of conflicting forces in operation in the +European concert. On the north while Scutari was retained for +Albania through the insistence of Austria-Hungary, Russian influence +was strong enough to secure the Albanian centres of Ipek and Djakova +and Prisrend, as well as Dibra on the east, for the allied Serb +states. This was a sort of compensation to Servia for her loss of an +Adriatic outlet at a time when the war between the Allies, which was +destined so greatly to extend her territories, was not foreseen. But +while in this way Albanians were excluded from the new state on the +north and east, an incongruous compensation was afforded it on the +south by an unjustifiable extension into northern Epirus, whose +population is prevailingly Greek. + +The location of the boundary between Albania and New Greece was +forced upon the Great Powers by the stand of Italy. During the first +war the Greeks had occupied Epirus or southern Albania as far north +as a line drawn from a point a little above Khimara on the coast due +east toward Lake Presba, so that the cities of Tepeleni and Koritza +were included in the Greek area. But Italy protested that the Greek +occupation of territory on both sides of the Straits of Corfu would +menace the control of the Adriatic and insisted that the boundary +between Albania and Greece should start from a point on the coast +opposite the southern part of the island of Corfu, Greece, +accordingly, was compelled to evacuate most of the territory she had +occupied above Janina. And Albania subsequently attempted to assert +her jurisdiction over it. + +But the task of Albania is bound to be difficult. For though the +Great Powers have provided it with a ruler--the German Prince +William of Wied--there is no organized state. The Albanians are one +of the oldest races in Europe, if not the oldest. But they have +never created a state. And to-day they are hopelessly divided. It is +a land of universal opposition--north against south, tribe against +tribe, bey against bey. The majority of the population are +Mohammedan but there are many Roman Catholics in the north and in +the south the Greek Orthodox Church is predominant. The inhabitants +of the north, who are called Ghegs, are divided into numerous tribes +whose principal occupation is fighting with one another under a +system of perpetual blood-feuds and inextinguishable vendettas. +There are no tribes in the south, but the people, who are known as +Tosks, live under territorial magnates called beys, who are +practically the absolute rulers of their districts. The country as a +whole is a strange farrago of survivals of primitive conditions. And +it is not only without art and literature, but without manufactures +or trade or even agriculture. It is little wonder that the Greeks of +Epirus feel outraged by the destiny which the European Powers have +imposed upon them--to be torn from their own civilized and Christian +kindred and subjected to the sway of the barbarous Mohammedans who +occupy Albania. Nor is it surprising that since Hellenic armies have +evacuated northern Epirus in conformity with the decree of the Great +Powers, the inhabitants of the district, all the way from Santi +Quaranta to Koritza, are declaring their independence and fighting +the Albanians who attempt to bring them under the yoke. + +The future of Albania is full of uncertainty. The State, however, +was not created for the Albanians, who for the rest, are not in a +condition to administer or maintain it. The state was established in +the interests of Austria-Hungary and Italy. And those powers are +likely to shape its future. + + +THE AEGEAN ISLANDS AND CRETE + +For the sacrifice demanded of Greece in Epirus the Great Powers +permitted her by way of compensation to retain all the Aegean +Islands occupied by her during the war, except Imbros, Tenedos, and +the Rabbit Islands at the mouth of the Dardanelles. These islands, +however, Greece is never to fortify or convert into naval bases. +This allotment of the Asiatic Islands (which includes all but Rhodes +and the Dodecanese, temporarily held by Italy as a pledge of the +evacuation of Libya by the Turkish officers and troops) has given +great dissatisfaction in Turkey, where it is declared it would be +better to have a war with Greece than cede certain islands +especially Chios and Mitylene. The question of the disposition of +the islands had, however, been committed by Turkey to the Great +Powers in the Treaty of London. And Turkish unofficial condemnation +of the action of the Powers now creates a dangerous situation. Mr. +Venizelos declared not long ago, with the enthusiastic approval of +the chamber, that the security of Greece lay alone in the possession +of a strong navy. For Mr. Venizelos personally nothing in all these +great events can have been more gratifying than the achievement of +the union of Crete with Greece. This was consummated on December 14, +when the Greek flag was hoisted on Canea Fort in the presence of +King Constantine, the prime minister, and the consuls of the Great +Powers, and saluted with 101 guns by the Greek fleet. + + +KING CONSTANTINE + +Fortune in an extraordinary degree has favored the King of the +Hellenes--Fortune and his own wise head and valiant arm and the +loyal support of his people. When before has a Prince taken supreme +command of a nation's army and in the few months preceding and +succeeding his accession to the throne by successful generalship +doubled the area and population of his country? + + +[Map: map3.png +Caption: The Balkan Peninsula after the Wars of 1912-1913.] + + +COST OF THE WAR + +The Balkan wars have been bloody and costly. We shall never know of +the thousands of men, women, and children who died from privation, +disease, and massacre. But the losses of the dead and wounded in the +armies were for Montenegro 11,200, for Greece 68,000, for Servia +71,000, for Bulgaria 156,000, and for Turkey about the same as for +Bulgaria. The losses in treasure were as colossal as in blood. Only +rough computations are possible. But the direct military +expenditures are estimated at figures varying from a billion and a +quarter to a billion and a half of dollars. This of course takes no +account of the paralysis of productive industry, trade, and commerce +or of the destruction of existing economic values. + +Yet great and momentous results have been achieved. Although seated +again in his ancient capital of Adrianople, the Moslem has been +expelled from Europe, or at any rate is no longer a European Power. +For the first time in more than five centuries, therefore, +conditions of stable equilibrium are now possible for the Christian +nations of the Balkans. Whether the present alignment of those +states toward one another and towards the Great Powers is destined +to continue it would be foolhardy to attempt to predict. + + +THE FUTURE OF THE BALKANS + +But without pretending to cast a horoscope, certain significant +facts may be mentioned in a concluding word. If the Balkan states +are left to themselves, if they are permitted to settle their own +affairs without the intervention of the Great Powers, there is no +reason why the existing relations between Greece, Servia, +Montenegro, and Roumania, founded as they are on mutual interest, +should not continue; and if they continue, peace will be assured in +spite of Bulgaria's cry for revenge and readjustment. The danger +lies in the influence of the Great Powers with their varying +attractions and repulsions. France, Germany, and Great Britain, +disconnected with the Balkans and remote from them, are not likely +to exert much direct individual influence. But their connections +with the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente would not leave them +altogether free to take isolated action. And two other members of +those European groups--Russia and Austria-Hungary--have long been +vitally interested in the Balkan question; while the opposition to +Servian annexation on the Adriatic littoral and of Greek annexation +in Epirus now for the first time reveals the deep concern of Italy +in the same question. + +The Serbs are Slavs. And the unhappy relations between Servia and +Austria-Hungary have always intensified their pro-Russian +proclivities. The Roumanians are a Romance people, like the French +and Italians, and they have hitherto been regarded as a Balkan +extension of the Triple Alliance. The attitude of Austria-Hungary, +however, during the Balkan wars has caused a cooling of Roumanian +friendship, so that its transference to Russia is no longer +inconceivable or even improbable. Greece desires to be independent +of both groups of the European system, but the action of Italy in +regard to Northern Epirus and in regard to Rhodes and the Dodecanese +has produced a feeling of irritation and resentment among the Greeks +which nothing is likely to allay or even greatly alleviate. Bulgaria +in the past has carried her desire to live an independent national +life to the point of hostility to Russia, but since Stambuloff's +time she has shown more natural sentiments towards her great Slav +sister and liberator. Whether the desire of revenge against Servia +(and Greece) will once more draw her toward Austria-Hungary only +time can disclose. + +In any event it will take a long time for all the Balkan states to +recover from the terrible exhaustion of the two wars of 1912 and +1913. + +Their financial resources have been depleted; their male population +has been decimated. Necessity, therefore, is likely to co-operate +with the community of interest established by the Treaty of Bukarest +in the maintenance of conditions of stable equilibrium in the +Balkans. Of course the peace-compelling forces operative in the +Balkan states themselves might be counteracted by hostile activities +on the part of some of the Great Powers. And there is one +danger-point for which the Great Powers themselves are solely +responsible. This, as I have already explained, is Albania. An +artificial creation with unnatural boundaries, it is a grave +question whether this so-called state can either manage its own +affairs or live in peace with its Serb and Greek neighbors. At this +moment the Greeks of Epirus (whom the Great Powers have transferred +to Albania) are resisting to the death incorporation in a state +which outrages their deepest and holiest sentiments of religion, +race, nationality, and humane civilization. On the other hand the +Hoti and Gruda tribes on the north fiercely resent annexation to +Montenegro (which the Great Powers have decreed) and threaten to +summon to their support other Malissori tribes with whom they have +had a defensive alliance for several centuries. If Prince William of +Wied is unable to cope with these difficulties, Italy and +Austria-Hungary may think it necessary to intervene in Albania. But +the intervention of either would almost certainly provoke +compensatory action on the part of other European Powers, especially +Russia. + +One can only hope that the Great Powers may have wisdom granted to +them to find a peaceful solution of the embarrassing problem which +they have created in setting up the new state of Albania. That the +Albanians themselves will have an opportunity to develop their own +national independence I find it impossible to believe. Yet I heard +in the summer of 1913 at Valona from the lips of Ismail Kemal Bey, +the head of the provisional government, a most impressive statement +of his hopes and aspirations for an independent Albania and his +faith and confidence in its future, in which he claimed to voice the +sentiments of the Albanian people. But, as I have already explained, +I think it doubtful whether under the most favorable external +circumstances the Albanians are at present qualified to establish +and maintain an independent state. And their destiny is so +inextricably entangled with the ambitions of some of the Great +Powers that the experiment stands no chance of getting a fair trial. +I heartily wish the circumstances were other than they are. For as +an American I sympathize with the aspirations of all struggling +nationalities to be free and independent. And my interest in Albania +is deepened, as the interest of all Americans must be deepened, by +the fact that a large number of Albanians have now found a home in +the United States. + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Balkan Wars: 1912-1913, by Jacob Gould Schurman + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11676 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Balkan Wars: 1912-1913 + Third Edition + +Author: Jacob Gould Schurman + +Release Date: March 22, 2004 [EBook #11676] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BALKAN WARS: 1912-1913 *** + + + + +Produced by David Starner and Andrea Ball + + + + +THE BALKAN WARS + +1912-1913 + +JACOB GOULD SCHURMAN + +THIRD EDITION + +1916 + + + +PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION + +The interest in the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 has exceeded the +expectations of the publishers of this volume. The first edition, +which was published five months ago, is already exhausted and a +second is now called for. Meanwhile there has broken out and is now +in progress a war which is generally regarded as the greatest of all +time--a war already involving five of the six Great Powers and three +of the smaller nations of Europe as well as Japan and Turkey and +likely at any time to embroil other countries in Europe, Asia, and +Africa, which are already embraced in the area of military +operations. + +This War of Many Nations had its origin in Balkan situation. It +began on July 28 with the declaration of the Dual Monarchy to the +effect that from that moment Austria-Hungary was in a state of war +with Servia. And the fundamental reason for this declaration as +given in the note or ultimatum to Servia was the charge that the +Servian authorities had encouraged the Pan-Serb agitation which +seriously menaced the integrity of Austria-Hungary and had already +caused the assassination at Serajevo of the Heir to the Throne. + +No one could have observed at close range the Balkan Wars of +1912-1913 without perceiving, always in the background and +occasionally in the foreground, the colossal rival figures of Russia +and Austria-Hungary. Attention was called to the phenomenon at +various points in this volume and especially in the concluding +pages. + +The issue of the Balkan struggles of 1912-1913 was undoubtedly +favorable to Russia. By her constant diplomatic support she retained +the friendship and earned the gratitude of Greece, Montenegro, and +Servia; and through her championship, belated though it was, of the +claims of Roumania to territorial compensation for benevolent +neutrality during the war of the Allies against Turkey, she won the +friendship of the predominant Balkan power which had hitherto been +regarded as the immovable eastern outpost of the Triple Alliance. +But while Russia was victorious she did not gain all that she had +planned and hoped for. Her very triumph at Bukarest was a proof +that she had lost her influence over Bulgaria. This Slav state after +the war against Turkey came under the influence of Austria-Hungary, +by whom she was undoubtedly incited to strife with Servia and her +other partners in the late war against Turkey. Russia was unable to +prevent the second Balkan war between the Allies. The Czar's summons +to the Kings of Bulgaria and Servia on June 9, 1913, to submit, in +the name of Pan-Slavism, their disputes to his decision failed to +produce the desired effect, while this assumption of Russian +hegemony in Balkan affairs greatly exacerbated Austro-Hungarian +sentiment. That action of the Czar, however, was clear notification +and proof to all the world that Russia regarded the Slav States in +the Balkans as objects of her peculiar concern and protection. + +The first Balkan War--the war of the Allies against Turkey--ended in +a way that surprised all the world. Everybody expected a victory for +the Turks. That the Turks should one day be driven out of Europe was +the universal assumption, but it was the equally fixed belief that +the agents of their expulsion would be the Great Powers or some of +the Great Powers. That the little independent States of the Balkans +should themselves be equal to the task no one imagined,--no one with +the possible exception of the government of Russia. And as Russia +rejoiced over the victory of the Balkan States and the defeat of her +secular Mohammedan neighbor, Austria-Hungary looked on not only with +amazement but with disappointment and chagrin. + +For the contemporaneous diplomacy of the Austro-Hungarian government +was based on the assumption that the Balkan States would be +vanquished by Turkey. And its standing policy had been on the one +hand to keep the Kingdom of Servia small and weak (for the Dual +Monarchy was itself an important Serb state) and on the other hand +to broaden her Adriatic possessions and also to make her way through +Novi Bazar and Macedonia to Saloniki and the Aegean, when the time +came to secure this concession from the Sultan without provoking a +European war. It seemed in 1908 as though the favorable moment had +arrived to make a first move, and the Austro-Hungarian government +put forward a project for connecting the Bosnian and Macedonian +railway systems. But the only result was to bring to an end the +co-operation which had for some years been maintained between the +Austrian and Russian governments in the enforcement upon the Porte +of the adoption of reforms in Macedonia. + +And now the result of the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 was the practical +expulsion of Turkey from Europe and the territorial aggrandizement +of Servia and the sister state of Montenegro through the annexation +of those very Turkish domains which lay between the Austro-Hungarian +frontier and the Aegean. At every point Austro-Hungarian policies +had met with reverses. + +Only one success could possibly be attributed to the diplomacy of +the Ballplatz. The exclusion of Servia from the Adriatic Sea and the +establishment of the independent State of Albania was the +achievement of Count Berchtold, the Austro-Hungarian Minister of +Foreign Affairs. The new State has been a powder magazine from the +beginning, and since the withdrawal of Prince William of Wied, the +government, always powerless, has fallen into chaos. Intervention on +the part of neighboring states is inevitable. And only last month +the southern part of Albania--that is, Northern Epirus--was occupied +by a Greek army for the purpose of ending the sanguinary anarchy +which has hitherto prevailed. This action will be no surprise to the +readers of this volume. The occupation, or rather re-occupation, is +declared by the Greek Government to be provisional and it is +apparently approved by all the Great Powers. Throughout the rest of +Albania similar intervention will be necessary to establish order, +and to protect the life and property of the inhabitants without +distinction of race, tribe, or creed. Servia might perhaps have +governed the country, had she not been compelled by the Great +Powers, at the instigation of Austria-Hungary, to withdraw her +forces. And her extrusion from the Adriatic threw her back toward +the Aegean, with the result of shutting Bulgaria out of Central +Macedonia, which was annexed by Greece and Servia presumably under +arrangements satisfactory to the latter for an outlet to the sea at +Saloniki. The war declared by Austria-Hungary against Servia may be +regarded to some extent as an effort to nullify in the interests of +the former the enormous advantages which accrued directly to Servia +and indirectly to Russia from the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913. That +Russia should have come to the support of Servia was as easy to +foresee as any future political event whatever. And the action of +Germany and France once war had broken out between their respective +allies followed as a matter of course. If the Austro-German +Alliance wins in the War of Many Nations it will doubtless control +the eastern Adriatic and open up a way for itself to the Aegean. +Indeed, in that event, German trade and German political influence +would spread unchallenged across the continents from the North Sea +to the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. Turkey is a friend and +ally; but even if Turkey were hostile she would have no strength to +resist such victorious powers. And the Balkan States, with the +defeat of Russia, would be compelled to recognize Germanic +supremacy. + +If on the other hand the Allies come out victorious in the War of +Many Nations, Servia and perhaps Roumania would be permitted to +annex the provinces occupied by their brethren in the Dual Monarchy +and Servian expansion to the Adriatic would be assured. The Balkan +States would almost inevitably fall under the controlling influence +of Russia, who would become mistress of Constantinople and gain an +unrestricted outlet to the Mediterranean through the Bosphorus, the +Sea of Marmora, and the Dardanelles. + +In spite of themselves the destiny of the peoples of the Balkans is +once more set on the issue of war. It is not inconceivable, +therefore, that some or all of those States may be drawn into the +present colossal conflict. In 1912-1913 the first war showed +Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Servia allied against Turkey; and +in the second war Greece, Montenegro, and Servia were joined by +Roumania in the war against Bulgaria, who was also independently +attacked by Turkey. What may happen in 1914 or 1915 no one can +predict. But if this terrible conflagration, which is already +devastating Europe and convulsing all the continents and vexing all +the oceans of the globe, spreads to the Balkans, one may hazard the +guess that Greece, Montenegro, Servia, and Roumania will stand +together on the side of the Allies and that Bulgaria if she is not +carried away by marked Austro-German victories will remain +neutral,--unless indeed the other Balkan States win her over, as +they not inconceivably might do, if they rose to the heights of +unwonted statesmanship by recognizing her claim to that part of +Macedonia in which the Bulgarian element predominates but which was +ceded to her rivals by the Treaty of Bukarest. + +But I have said enough to indicate that as in its origin so also in +its results this awful cataclysm under which the civilized world is +now reeling will be found to be vitally connected with the Balkan +Wars of 1912-1913. And I conclude with the hope that the present +volume, which devotes indeed but little space to military matters +and none at all to atrocities and massacres, may prove helpful to +readers who seek light on the underlying conditions, the causes, and +the consequences of those historic struggles. The favor already +accorded to the work and the rapid exhaustion of the first edition* +seem to furnish some justification of this hope. + +JACOB GOULD SCHURMAN. + +November 26, 1914. + +* The present work is rather, a reprint than a new edition, few +changes having been made except the correction of typographical +errors. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +The changes made in the map of Europe by the Balkan Wars of +1912-1913 were not merely the occasion but a cause and probably the +most potent, and certainly the most urgent, of all the causes that +led to the World War which has been raging with such titanic fury +since the summer of 1914. + +Had the Balkan Allies after their triumph over Turkey not fallen out +amongst themselves, had there been no second Balkan War in 1913, had +the Turkish provinces wrested from the Porte by the united arms of +Bulgaria, Greece, Servia, and Montenegro been divided amongst the +victors either by diplomacy or arbitration substantial justice would +have been done to all, none of them would have been humiliated, and +their moderation and concord would have commended their achievement +to the Great Powers who might perhaps have secured the acquiescence +of Austria-Hungary in the necessary enlargement of Servia and the +expansion of Greece to Saloniki and beyond. + +But the outbreak of the second Balkan War nullified all these fair +prospects. And Bulgaria, who brought it on, found herself encircled +by enemies, including not only all her recent Allies against Turkey, +but also Turkey herself, and even Roumania, who had remained a +neutral spectator of the first Balkan War. Of course Bulgaria was +defeated. And a terrible punishment was inflicted on her. She was +stripped of a large part of the territory she had just conquered +from Turkey, including her most glorious battle-fields; her original +provinces were dismembered; her extension to the Aegean Sea was +seriously obstructed, if not practically blocked; and, bitterest and +most tragic of all, the redemption of the Bulgarians in Macedonia, +which was the principal object and motive of her war against Turkey +in 1912, was frustrated and rendered hopeless by Greek and Servian +annexations of Macedonian territory extending from the Mesta to the +Drin with the great cities of Saloniki, Kavala, and Monastir, which +in the patriotic national consciousness had long loomed up as fixed +points in the "manifest destiny" of Bulgaria. + +That the responsibility for precipitating the second Balkan War +rests on Bulgaria is demonstrated in the latter portion of this +volume. Yet the intransigent and bellicose policy of Bulgaria was +from the point of view of her own interests so short-sighted, so +perilous, so foolish and insane that it seemed, even at the time, to +be directed by some external power and for some ulterior purpose. No +proof, however, was then available. But hints of that suspicion were +clearly conveyed even in the first edition of this volume, which, it +may be recalled, antedates the outbreak of the great European War. +Thus, on page 103, the question was put: + + "Must we assume that there is some ground for suspecting that + Austria-Hungary was inciting Bulgaria to war?" + +And again, on page 108, with reference to General Savoff's order +directing the attack on the Greek and Servian forces which initiated +the second Balkan War, the inquiry was made: + + "Did General Savoff act on his own responsibility? Or is there + any truth in the charge that King Ferdinand, after a long + consultation with the Austro-Hungarian Minister, instructed the + General to issue the order?" + +These questions may now be answered with positive assurance. What +was only surmise when this volume was written is to-day indubitable +certainty. The proof is furnished by the highest authorities both +Italian and Russian. + +When the second Balkan War broke out San Giuliano was Prime Minister +of Italy. And he has recently published the fact that at that +time--the summer of 1913--the Austro-Hungarian government +communicated to the Italian government its intention of making war +on Servia and claimed under the terms of the Triple Alliance the +co-operation of Italy and Germany. The Italian government repudiated +the obligation imputed to it by Austria-Hungary and flatly declared +that the Triple Alliance had nothing to do with a war of aggression. +That Austria-Hungary did not proceed to declare war against Servia +at that time--perhaps because she was discouraged by Germany as well +as by Italy--makes it all the more intelligible, in view of her +bellicose attitude, that she should have been urgent and insistent +in pushing Bulgaria forward to smite their common rival. + +This conclusion is confirmed by the positive statement of the +Russian government. The communication accompanying the declaration +of war against Bulgaria, dated October 18, contains the following +passage: + + "The victorious war of the united Balkan people against their + ancient enemy, Turkey, assured to Bulgaria an honorable place in + the Slavic family. But under Austro-German suggestion, contrary + to the advice of the Russian Emperor and without the knowledge of + the Bulgarian government, the Coburg Prince on June 29, 1913, + moved Bulgarian armies against the Serbians." + +The "Coburg Prince" is of course Ferdinand, King of Bulgaria. That +he acted under Austro-Hungarian influences in attacking his Balkan +Allies on that fateful Sunday, June 29, 1913, is no longer +susceptible of doubt. But whatever other inferences may be drawn +from that conclusion it certainly makes the course of Bulgaria in +launching the second Balkan War, though its moral character remains +unchanged, look less hopeless and desperate than it otherwise +appeared. Had she not Austria-Hungary behind her? And had not +Austria-Hungary at that very time informed her Italian ally that she +intended making war against Servia? + +But, whatever the explanation, the thunderbolt forged in 1913 was +not launched till July 28, 1914, when Austria-Hungary formally +declared war on Servia. The occasion was the assassination, a month +earlier, of the heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his +wife, the Duchess of Hohenburg, in the streets of Sarajevo. The +occasion, however, was not the cause of the war. The cause was that +which moved the Dual Monarchy to announce a war on Servia in the +summer of 1913, namely, dissatisfaction with the territorial +aggrandizement of Servia as a result of the first Balkan War and +alarm at the Pan-Serb agitation and propaganda which followed the +Servian victories over Turkey. These motives had subsequently been +much intensified by the triumph of Servia over Bulgaria in the +second Balkan War. The relations of Austria-Hungary to Servia had +been acutely strained since October, 1908, when the former annexed +the Turkish provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which under the +terms of the treaty of Berlin she had been administering since 1878. +The inhabitants of Bosnia and Herzegovina are Serb, and Serb also +are the inhabitants of Dalmatia on the west and Croatia on the +north, which the Dual Monarchy had already brought under its +sceptre. The new annexation therefore seemed a fatal and a final +blow to the national aspirations of the Serb race and it was +bitterly resented by those who had already been gathered together +and "redeemed" in the Kingdom of Servia. A second disastrous +consequence of the annexation was that it left Servia hopelessly +land-locked. The Serb population of Dalmatia and Herzegovina looked +out on the Adriatic along a considerable section of its eastern +coast, but Servia's long-cherished hope of becoming a maritime state +by the annexation of the Serb provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina +was now definitively at an end. She protested, she appealed, she +threatened; but with Germany behind the Dual Monarchy and Russia +still weak from the effects of the war with Japan, she was quickly +compelled to submit to superior force. + +During the war of the Balkan Allies against Turkey Servia made one +more effort to get to the Adriatic,--this time by way of Albania. +She marched her forces over the mountains of that almost impassable +country and reached the sea at Durazzo. But she was forced back by +the European powers at the demand of Austria-Hungary, as some weeks +later on the same compulsion she had to withdraw from the siege of +Scutari. Then she turned toward the Aegean, and the second Balkan +War gave her a new opportunity. The treaty of Bukarest and the +convention with Greece assured her of an outlet to the sea at +Saloniki. But this settlement proved scarcely less objectionable to +Austria-Hungary than the earlier dream of Servian expansion to the +Adriatic by the annexation of the Turkish provinces of Bosnia and +Herzegovina. + +The fact is that, if we look at the matter dispassionately and in a +purely objective spirit, we shall find that there really was a +hopeless incompatibility between the ideals, aims, policies, and +interests of the Servians and the Serb race and those of the +Austrians and Hungarians. Any aggrandizement of the Kingdom of +Servia, any enlargement of its territory, any extension to the sea +and especially to the Adriatic, any heightening and intensifying of +the national consciousness of its people involved some danger to the +Dual Monarchy. For besides the Germans who control Austria, and the +Hungarians who control Hungary, the Austro-Hungarian Empire embraces +many millions of Slavs, and the South Slavs are of the same family +and speak practically the same language as the inhabitants of the +Kingdom of Servia. And Austria and Hungary can not get to their +outlets on the Adriatic--Trieste and Fiume--without passing through +territory inhabited by these South Slavs. + +If, therefore, Austria and Hungary were not to be left land-locked +they must at all hazards prevent the absorption of their South Slav +subjects by the Kingdom of Servia. Pan-Serbism at once menaced the +integrity of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and jeopardized its +position on the Adriatic. Hence the cardinal features in the Balkan +policy of Austria-Hungary were a ruthless repression of national +aspiration among its South Slav subjects--the inhabitants of +Croatia, Dalmatia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina; a watchful and jealous +opposition to any increase of the territory or resources of the +Kingdom of Servia; and a stern and unalterable determination to +prevent Servian expansion to the Adriatic. + +The new Servia which emerged from the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 was +an object of anxiety and even of alarm to the statesmen of Vienna +and Buda-Pesth. The racial and national aspirations already astir +among the South Slavs of the Dual Monarchy were quickened and +intensified by the great victories won by their Servian brethren +over both Turks and Bulgarians and by the spectacle of the +territorial aggrandizement which accrued from those victories to the +independent Kingdom of Servia. Might not this Greater Servia prove a +magnet to draw the kindred Slavs of Bosnia, Herzegovina, Dalmatia, +and Croatia away from their allegiance to an alien empire? The +diplomacy of Vienna had indeed succeeded in excluding Servia from +the Adriatic but it had neither prevented its territorial +aggrandizement nor blocked its access to the Aegean. + +Access to the Aegean was not, however, as serious a matter as access +to the Adriatic. Yet the expansion of Servia to the south over the +Macedonian territory she had wrested from Turkey, as legalized in +the Treaty of Bukarest, nullified the Austro-Hungarian dream of +expansion through Novi Bazar and Macedonia to the Aegean and the +development from Saloniki as a base of a great and profitable +commerce with all the Near and Middle East. + +Here were the conditions of a national tragedy. They have developed +into a great international war, the greatest and most terrible ever +waged on this planet. + +It may be worth while in concluding to note the relations of the +Balkan belligerents of 1912-1913 to the two groups of belligerents +in the present world-conflict. + +The nemesis of the treaties of London and Bukarest and the fear of +the Great Powers pursue the Balkan nations and determine their +alignments. The declaration of war by Austria-Hungary against +Servia, which started the present cataclysm, fixed the enemy status +of Servia and also Montenegro. The good relations long subsisting +between Emperor William and the Porte were a guarantee to the +Central Powers of the support of Turkey, which quickly declared in +their favor. The desire of avenging the injury done her by the +treaty of Bukarest and the prospect of territorial aggrandizement at +the expense of her sister Slav nation on the west drew Bulgaria +(which was influenced also by the victories of the Germanic forces) +into the same group in company with Turkey, her enemy in both the +Balkan Wars of 1912-1913. Bulgaria's opportunity for revenge soon +arrived. It was the Bulgarian army, in cooperation with the +Austro-German forces, that overran Servia and Montenegro and drove +the national armies beyond their own boundaries into foreign +territory. If the fortunes of war turn and the Entente Powers get +the upper hand in the Balkans, these expelled armies of Servia and +Montenegro, who after rest and reorganization and re-equipping in +Corfu have this summer been transported by France and England to +Saloniki, may have the satisfaction of devastating the territory of +the sister Slav state of Bulgaria, quite in the divisive and +internecine spirit of all Balkan history. The fate and future of +Bulgaria, Servia, and Montenegro now depend on the issue of the +great European conflict. The same thing is true of Turkey, into +which meanwhile Russian forces, traversing the Caucasus, have driven +a dangerous wedge through Armenia towards Mesopotamia. Roumania has +thus far maintained the policy of neutrality to which she adhered so +successfully in the first Balkan war--a policy which in view of her +geographical situation, with Bulgaria to the south, Russia to the +north, and Austria-Hungary to the west, she cannot safely abandon +till fortune has declared more decisively for one or the other group +of belligerents. The only remaining party to the Balkan Wars is +Greece, and the situation of Greece, though not tragic like that of +Servia, must be exceedingly humiliating to the Greek nation and to +the whole Hellenic race. + +When the war broke out, Mr. Venizelos was still prime minister of +Greece. His policy was to go loyally to the assistance of Servia, as +required by the treaty between the two countries; to defend New +Greece against Bulgaria, to whom, however, he was ready to make some +concessions on the basis of a quid pro quo; and to join and +co-operate actively with the Entente Powers on the assurance of +receiving territorial compensation in Asia Minor. King Constantine, +on the other hand, seems to have held that the war of the Great +Powers in the Balkans practically abrogated the treaty between +Greece and Servia and that, in any event, Greek resistance to the +Central Powers was useless. The positive programme of the King was +to maintain neutrality between the two groups of belligerents and at +the same time to keep the Greek army mobilized. Between these two +policies the Greek nation wavered and hesitated; but the King, who +enjoyed the complete confidence of the general staff, had his way +and the cabinet of Mr. Venizelos was replaced by another in +sympathy with the policy of the neutrality of Greece and the +mobilization of the Greek army. + +It was, under all the circumstances of the case, an exceedingly +difficult policy to carry out successfully. Each group of the +belligerents wanted special favors; the nation was divided on the +subject of neutrality; the expense of keeping the army mobilized was +ruinous to the country; and the views and sympathies of the greatest +statesman Modern Greece had ever had remained out of office, as they +had been in office, diametrically opposed to those of the victorious +warrior-King and doubtless also of the Queen, the sister of the +German Emperor. This condition was one of unstable equilibrium which +could not long continue. It was upset on May 26, 1916, by a +Bulgarian invasion of Greek territory and the seizure of Fort Rupel, +one of the keys to the Struma Valley and to eastern Macedonia. The +cities of Seres and Drama with their large Greek Population, and +even Kavala are now in danger, and the Greek people seem greatly +stirred by the situation. Mr. Venizelos in a newspaper article +bitterly asks: + + "Who could have imagined a Greek army witnessing the Bulgarian + flag replacing that of Greece? Is it for this that our + mobilization is maintained?" + +But, while Greece has been invaded by Bulgaria, with the support of +Germany (who, however, has given a written promise that the Greek +territory now occupied shall be restored), Greek sovereignty has +since suffered another severe shock by the intervention of Great +Britain, France, and Russia, who, under the Protocol of London, are +the Protecting Powers of the Kingdom. These Powers demand of the +Greek government that the army shall be completely and immediately +demobilized, that the present cabinet shall be replaced by another +which shall guarantee benevolent neutrality toward the Entente +Powers, that the Chamber shall be immediately dissolved and new +elections held, and that certain public functionaries obnoxious to +the legations of the Allies shall be replaced. And statements from +Athens dated June 21 announce that Greece, under the menace of an +embargo maintained by the allied navies, has yielded to these +demands. With Greece humiliated by the Protecting Powers and her +territory occupied by Bulgaria, with Servia and Montenegro overrun +and occupied by the German-Austrian-Bulgarian forces, with Roumania +waiting to see which of the belligerent groups will be finally +victorious, with Bulgaria now basking in the sunshine of the Central +Powers but an object of hatred to all the Allied Powers and +especially to Russia, one may be pardoned for refusing to make any +guess whatever as to the way in which the resultant diagonal of the +parallelogram of European forces will ultimately run through the +Balkans. Fortunately also such prediction has no place in an account +of the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913. + +To-day the Balkan nations are the pawns of the Great Powers who are +directly responsible for the deplorable conditions that now exist +among them. Yet in a very real sense their present tragic situation +is the nemesis of the political sins of the Balkan nations +themselves. These sins are those of all undeveloped political +communities. Even the most highly civilized nations may temporarily +fall under their sway, and then civilization reverts to barbarism, +as the terrible condition of Europe to-day actually demonstrates. +But the acute disease from which Europe suffers is more or less +chronic in the Balkans, where elemental human nature has never been +thoroughly disciplined and chastened in the school of peaceful +political life and experience. Each for himself without regard to +others or even without thought of a future day of reckoning seems to +be the maxim of national conduct among the Balkan peoples. The +spirit of strife and division possesses them; they are dominated by +the uncontrolled instinct of national egoism and greed. The second +Balkan War, alike in its origin, course, and conclusion, was a bald +exhibition of the play of these primitive and hateful passions. + +The history of the world, which is also the high tribunal of the +world, proves that no nation can with impunity ignore the rights of +other nations or repudiate the ideal of a common good or defy the +rule of righteousness by which political communities achieve +it--justice, moderation, and the spirit of hopeful and unwearying +conciliation. In their war against Turkey in 1912 the Balkan +nations, for the first time in history, laid aside their mutual +antagonisms and co-operated in a common cause. This union and +concord marked at least the beginning of political wisdom. And it +was vindicated, if ever any policy was vindicated, by the surprise +and splendor of the results. + +My hope for the Balkan nations is that they may return to this path +from which they were too easily diverted in 1913. They must learn, +while asserting each its own interests and advancing each its own +welfare, to pay scrupulous regard to the rights and just claims of +others and to co-operate wisely for the common good in a spirit of +mutual confidence and good will. This high policy, as expedient as +it is sound, was to a considerable extent embodied in the leadership +of Venizelos and Pashitch and Gueshoff. And where there is a leader +with vision the people in the end will follow him. May the final +settlement of the European War put no unnecessary obstacle in the +way of the normal political development of all the Balkan Nations! + + J. G. S. + + President's Office Cornell University July 13, 1916 + +_Postscript_. I remarked in the foregoing Introduction, that +Roumania would not abandon her neutrality till fortune had declared +more decisively for one or the other group of belligerents. That was +written seven weeks ago. And within the last few days Roumania has +joined the Allies and declared war against Austria-Hungary. I also +noted that the unstable equilibrium which had been maintained in +Greece between the party of King Constantine and the party of +Venizelos had already been upset to the disadvantage of the former. +Roumania's adhesion to the cause of the Allies is bound to +accelerate this movement. It would not be surprising if Greece were +any day now to follow the example of Roumania. Had Greece in 1914 +stood by Venizelos and joined the Allies the chances are that +Roumania would at that time have adopted the same course. But the +opposition of King Constantine delayed that consummation, directly +in the case of Greece, and indirectly in the case of Roumania. Now +that the latter has cast in her lot with the Allies and the former +is likely at any tune to follow her example, I may be permitted to +quote the forecast which I made in the Preface to the Second Edition +of this volume under date of November 26, 1914: + + "If this terrible conflagration, which is already devastating + Europe and convulsing all the continents and vexing all the + oceans of the globe, spreads to the Balkans, one may hazard the + guess that Greece, Montenegro, Servia, and Roumania will stand + together on the side of the Allies and that Bulgaria if she is + not carried away by marked Austro-German victories will remain + neutral." + + J. G. S. + + September 1, 1916. + + +[Map: map1.png +Caption: The Balkan Peninsula before the Wars of 1912-1913.] + + + + +I + +TURKEY AND THE BALKAN STATES + +The expulsion of the Turks from Europe was long ago written in the +book of fate. There was nothing uncertain about it except the date +and the agency of destiny. + + +THE TURKISH EMPIRE IN EUROPE + +A little clan of oriental shepherds, the Turks had in two +generations gained possession of the whole of the northwest corner +of Asia Minor and established themselves on the eastern shore of the +Bosphorus. The great city of Brusa, whose groves to-day enshrine the +stately beauty of their mosques and sultans' tombs, capitulated to +Orkhan, the son of the first Sultan, in 1326; and Nicaea, the cradle +of the Greek church and temporary capital of the Greek Empire, +surrendered in 1330. On the other side of the Bosphorus Orkhan could +see the domes and palaces of Constantinople which, however, for +another century was to remain the seat of the Byzantine Empire. + +The Turks crossed the Hellespont and, favored by an earthquake, +marched in 1358 over the fallen walls and fortifications into the +city of Gallipoli. In 1361 Adrianople succumbed to the attacks of +Orkhan's son, Murad I, whose sway was soon acknowledged in Thrace +and Macedonia, and who was destined to lead the victorious Ottoman +armies as far north as the Danube. + +But though the provinces of the corrupt and effete Byzantine Empire +were falling into the hands of the Turks, the Slavs were still +unsubdued. Lazar the Serb threw down the gauntlet to Murad. On the +memorable field of Kossovo, in 1389, the opposing forces met--Murad +supported by his Asiatic and European vassals and allies, and Lazar +with his formidable army of Serbs, Bosnians, Albanians, Poles, +Magyars, and Vlachs. Few battles in the world have produced such a +deep and lasting impression as this battle of Kossovo, in which the +Christian nations after long and stubborn resistance were vanquished +by the Moslems. The Servians still sing ballads which cast a halo of +pathetic romance round their great disaster. And after more than +five centuries the Montenegrins continue to wear black on their caps +in mourning for that fatal day. + +In the next two centuries the Ottoman Empire moved on toward the +zenith of its glory. Mohammed II conquered Constantinople in 1453. +And in 1529 Suleyman the Magnificent was at the gates of Vienna. +Suleyman's reign forms the climax of Turkish history. The Turks had +become a central European power occupying Hungary and menacing +Austria. Suleyman's dominions extended from Mecca to Buda-Pesth and +from Bagdad to Algiers. He commanded the Mediterranean, the +Euxine, and the Red Sea, and his navies threatened the coasts of +India and Spain. + +But the conquests of the Turks were purely military. They did +nothing for their subjects, whom they treated with contempt, and +they wanted nothing from them but tribute and plunder. As the Turks +were always numerically inferior to the aggregate number of the +peoples under their sway, their one standing policy was to keep them +divided--divide et impera. To fan racial and religious differences +among their subjects was to perpetuate the rule of the masters. The +whole task of government, as the Turks conceived it, was to collect +tribute from the conquered and keep them in subjection by playing +off their differences against one another. + +But a deterioration of Turkish rulers set in soon after the time of +Suleyman with a corresponding decline in the character and +efficiency of the army. And the growth of Russia and the reassertion +of Hungary, Poland, and Austria were fatal to the maintenance of an +alien and detested empire founded on military domination alone. By +the end of the seventeenth century the Turks had been driven out of +Austria, Hungary, Transylvania, and Podolia, and the northern +boundaries of their Empire were fixed by the Carpathians, the +Danube, and the Save. How marked and rapid was the further decline +of the Ottoman Empire may be inferred from the fact that twice in +the eighteenth century Austria and Russia discussed the project of +dividing it between them. But the inevitable disintegration of the +Turkish dominion was not to inure to the glorification of any of the +Great Powers, though Russia certainly contributed to the weakening +of the common enemy. The decline and diminution of the Ottoman +Empire continued throughout the nineteenth century. What happened, +however, was the revolt of subject provinces and the creation out of +the territory of European Turkey of the independent states of +Greece, Servia, Roumania, and Bulgaria. And it was Bulgarians, +Greeks, and Servians, with the active assistance of the Montenegrins +and the benevolent neutrality of the Roumanians, who, in the war of +1912-1913, drove the Turk out of Europe, leaving him nothing but the +city of Constantinople and a territorial fringe bordered by the +Chataldja line of fortifications. + + +THE EARLIER SLAV EMPIRES + +There is historic justice in the circumstance that the Turkish +Empire in Europe met its doom at the hands of the Balkan nations +themselves. For these nationalities had been completely submerged +and even their national consciousness annihilated under centuries of +Moslem intolerance, misgovernment, oppression, and cruelty. + +None suffered worse than Bulgaria, which lay nearest to the capital +of the Mohammedan conqueror. Yet Bulgaria had had a glorious, if +checkered, history long before there existed any Ottoman Empire +either in Europe or in Asia. From the day their sovereign Boris +accepted Christianity in 864 the Bulgarians had made rapid and +conspicuous progress in their ceaseless conflicts with the Byzantine +Empire. The Bulgarian church was recognized as independent by the +Greek patriarch at Constantinople; its primates subsequently +received the title of patriarch, and their see was established at +Preslav, and then successively westward at Sofia, Vodena, Presba, +and finally Ochrida, which looks out on the mountains of Albania. +Under Czar Simeon, the son of Boris, "Bulgaria," says Gibbon, +"assumed a rank among the civilized powers of the earth." His +dominions extended from the Black Sea to the Adriatic and comprised +the greater part of Macedonia, Greece, Albania, Servia, and +Dalmatia; leaving only to the Byzantine Empire--whose civilization +he introduced and sedulously promoted among the Bulgarians--the +cities of Constantinople, Saloniki, and Adrianople with the +territory immediately surrounding them. But this first Bulgarian +Empire was shortlived, though the western part remained independent +under Samuel, who reigned, with Ochrida as his capital, from 976 to +1014. Four years later the Byzantine Emperor, Basil II, annihilated +the power of Samuel, and for a hundred and fifty years the Bulgarian +people remained subject to the rule of Constantinople. In 1186 under +the leadership of the brothers Asen they regained their +independence. And the reign of Czar Asen II (1218-1240) was the most +prosperous period of all Bulgarian history. He restored the Empire +of Simeon, his boast being that he had left to the Byzantines +nothing but Constantinople and the cities round it, and he +encouraged commerce, cultivated arts and letters, founded and +endowed churches and monasteries, and embellished his capital, +Trnovo, with beautiful and magnificent buildings. After Asen came a +period of decline culminating in a humiliating defeat by the +Servians in 1330. The quarrels of the Christian races of the Balkans +facilitated the advance of the Moslem invader, who overwhelmed the +Serbs and their allies on the memorable field of Kossovo in 1389, +and four years later captured and burned the Bulgarian capital, +Trnovo, Czar Shishman himself perishing obscurely in the common +destruction. For five centuries Bulgaria remained under Moslem +despotism, we ourselves being the witnesses of her emancipation in +the last thirty-five years. + +The fate of the Serbs differed only in degree from that of the +Bulgarians. Converted to Christianity in the middle of the ninth +century, the major portion of the race remained till the twelfth +century under either Bulgarian or Byzantine sovereignty. But Stephen +Nemanyo bought under his rule Herzegovina, Montenegro and part of +modern Servia and old Servia, and on his abdication in 1195 in favor +of his son launched a royal dynasty which reigned over the Serb +people for two centuries. Of that line the most distinguished +member was Stephen Dushan, who reigned from 1331 to 1355. He wrested +the whole of the Balkan Peninsula from the Byzantine Emperor, and +took Belgrade, Bosnia, and Herzegovina from the King of Hungary. He +encouraged literature, gave to his country a highly advanced code of +laws, and protected the church whose head--the Archbishop of +Ipek--he raised to the dignity of patriarch. On Easter Day 1346 he +had himself crowned at Uskub as "Emperor of the Greeks and Serbs." A +few years later he embarked on an enterprise by which, had he been +successful, he might have changed the course of European history. It +was nothing less than the capture of Constantinople and the union of +Serbs, Bulgarians, and Greeks into an empire which might defend +Christendom against the rising power of Islam. Dushan was within +forty miles of his goal with an army of 80,000 men when he died +suddenly in camp on the 20th of December, 1355. Thirty-four years +later Dushan's countrymen were annihilated by the Turks at Kossovo! +All the Slavonic peoples of the Balkan Peninsula save the brave +mountaineers of Montenegro came under Moslem subjection. And under +Moslem subjection they remained till the nineteenth century. + + +TURKISH OPPRESSION OF SLAVS + +It is impossible to give any adequate description of the horrors of +Turkish rule in these Christian countries of the Balkans. Their +people, disqualified from holding even the smallest office, were +absolutely helpless under the oppression of their foreign masters, +who ground them down under an intolerable load of taxation and +plunder. The culminating cruelty was the tribute of Christian +children from ten to twelve years of age who were sent to +Constantinople to recruit the corps of janissaries. It is not +surprising that for the protection of wives and children and the +safeguarding of interests the nobles of Bosnia and the Pomaks of +Southeastern Bulgaria embraced the creed of their conquerors; the +wonder is that the people as a whole remained true to their +Christian faith even at the cost of daily martyrdom from generation +to generation. Their fate too grew worse as the Turkish power +declined after the unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1683. For at +first Ottoman troops ravaged Bulgaria as they marched through the +land on their way to Austria; and later disbanded soldiers in +defiance of Turkish authority plundered the country and committed +nameless atrocities. Servia was to some extent protected by her +remote location, but that very circumstance bred insubordination in +the janissaries, who refused to obey the local Turkish governors and +gave themselves up to looting, brigandage, and massacre. The +national spirt of the subject races was completely crushed. The +Servians and Bulgarians for three or four centuries lost all +consciousness of a fatherland. The countrymen of Simeon and Dushan +became mere hewers of wood and drawers of water for their foreign +masters. Servia and Bulgaria simply disappeared. As late as 1834 +Kinglake in travelling to Constantinople from Belgrade must have +passed straight across Bulgaria. Yet in "Eothen," in which he +describes his travels, he never even mentions that country or its +people. + +It is easy to understand that this history of Turkish horrors should +have burned itself into the heart and soul of the resurrected Servia +and Bulgaria of our own day. But there is another circumstance +connected with the ruthless destruction and long entombment of these +nationalities which it is difficult for foreigners, even the most +intelligent foreigners, to understand or at any rate to grasp in its +full significance. Yet the sentiments to which that circumstance has +given rise and which it still nourishes are as potent a factor in +contemporary Balkan politics as the antipathy of the Christian +nations to their former Moslem oppressors. + + +GREEK ECCLESIASTICAL DOMINATION OF SLAV + +I refer to the special and exceptional position held by the Greeks +in the Turkish dominions. Though the Moslems had possessed themselves +of the Greek Empire from the Bosphorus to the Danube, Greek +domination still survived as an intellectual, ecclesiastical, and +commercial force. The nature and effects of that supremacy, and its +results upon the fortunes of other Balkan nations, we must now +proceed to consider. + +The Turkish government classifies its subjects not on the basis of +nationality but on the basis of religion. A homogeneous religious +group is designated a millet or nation. Thus the Moslems form the +millet of Islam. And at the present time there are among others a +Greek millet, a Catholic millet, and a Jewish millet. But from the +first days of the Ottoman conquest until very recent times all the +Christian population, irrespective of denominational differences, +was assigned by the Sultans to the Greek millet, of which the +patriarch of Constantinople was the head. The members of this +millet were all called Greeks; the bishops and higher clergy were +exclusively Greek; and the language of their churches and schools +was Greek, which was also the language of literature, commerce, and +polite society. But the jurisdiction of the patriarch was not +restricted even to ecclesiastical and educational matters. It +extended to a considerable part of civil law--notably to questions +of marriage, divorce, and inheritance when they concerned Christians +only. + +It is obvious that the possession by the Greek patriarch of +Constantinople of this enormous power over the Christian subjects of +the Turks enabled him to carry on a propaganda of hellenization. +The disappearance for three centuries of the national consciousness +in Servia and Bulgaria was not the sole work of the Moslem invader; +a more fatal blight to the national languages and culture were the +Greek bishops and clergy who conducted their churches and schools. +And if Kinglake knew nothing of Bulgaria as late as 1834 it was +because every educated person in that country called himself a +Greek. For it cannot be too strongly emphasized that until +comparatively recent times all Christians of whatever nation or sect +were officially recognized by the Turks as members of the Greek +millet and were therefore designated Greeks. + +The hostility of the Slavonic peoples in the Balkans, and especially +of the Bulgarians, to the Greeks, grows out of the ecclesiastical +and educational domination which the Greek clergy and bishops so +long and so relentlessly exercised over them. Of course the Turkish +Sultans are responsible for the arrangement. But there is no +evidence that they had any other intention than to rid themselves of +a disagreeable task. For the rest they regarded Greeks and Slavs +with equal contempt. But the Greeks quickly recognized the racial +advantage of their ecclesiastical hegemony. And it was not in human +nature to give it up without a struggle. The patriarchate retained +its exclusive jurisdiction over all orthodox populations till 1870, +when the Sultan issued a firman establishing the Bulgarian +exarchate. + +There were two other spheres in which Greek influence was paramount +in the Turkish Empire. The Turk is a soldier and farmer; the Greek +is pre-eminent as a trader, and his ability secured him a +disproportionate share of the trade of the empire. Again, the Greeks +of Constantinople and other large cities gradually won the +confidence of the Turks and attained political importance. During +the eighteenth century the highest officials in the empire were +invariably Phanariots, as the Constantinople Greeks were termed from +the quarter of the city in which they resided. + +In speaking of the Greeks I have not had in mind the inhabitants of +the present kingdom of Greece. Their subjection by the Turks was as +complete as that of the Serbs and Bulgaria though of course they +were exempt from ecclesiastical domination at the hands of an alien +clergy speaking a foreign language. The enmity of the Bulgarians may +to-day be visited upon the subjects of King Constantine, but it was +not their ancestors who imposed upon Bulgaria foreign schools and +churches but the Greeks of Constantinople and Thrace, over whom the +government of Athens has never had jurisdiction. + + +SERVIAN INDEPENDENCE + +So much of the Balkan countries under Turkish rule. Their emancipation +did not come till the nineteenth century. The first to throw off the +yoke was Servia. Taking advantage of the disorganization and anarchy +prevailing in the Ottoman Empire the Servian people rose in a body +against their oppressors in January, 1804. Under the able leadership +first of Kara-George and afterward of Milosh Obrenovich, Servian +autonomy was definitely established in 1817. The complete independence +of the country was recognized by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878. The +boundaries of the new state, however, fell far short of Servian +aspirations, excluding as they did large numbers of the Servian +population. The first ruling prince of modern Servia was Milosh +Obrenovich; and the subsequent rulers have belonged either to the +Obrenovich dynasty or to its rival the dynasty of Kara-George. King +Peter, who came to the throne in 1903, is a member of the latter +family. + + +GREEK INDEPENDENCE + +Scarcely had Servia won her freedom when the Greek war of +independence broke out. Archbishop Germanos called the Christian +population of the Morea under the standard of the cross in 1821. For +three years the Greeks, with the assistance of European money and +volunteers (of whom Lord Byron was the most illustrious), conducted +a successful campaign against the Turkish forces; but after the +Sultan had in 1824 summoned to his aid Mehemet Ali, Pasha of Egypt, +with his powerful fleet and disciplined army, the laurels which the +Greek patriots had won were recovered by the oppressor; and, with +the recapture of Athens in May, 1827, the whole country once more +lay under the dominion of the Turks. The Powers now recognized that +nothing but intervention could save Greece for European +civilization. The Egyptian fleet was annihilated at Navarino in +October, 1828, by the fleets of England, France, and Russia. Greece +was constituted an independent monarchy, though the Powers who +recognized its independence traced the frontier of the emancipated +country in a jealous and niggardly spirit. Prince Otto of Bavaria +was designated the first King and reigned for thirty years. He was +succeeded in 1863 by King George who lived to see the northern +boundary of his kingdom advanced to Saloniki, where, like a faithful +sentinel at his post, he fell, on March 18, 1913, by the hand of an +assassin just as he had attained the glorious fruition of a reign of +fifty years. + + +BULGARIAN INDEPENDENCE + +There had been a literary revival preceding the dawn of independence +in Greece. In Bulgaria, which was the last of the Balkan states to +become independent, the national regeneration was also fostered by a +literary and educational movement, of which the founding of the +first Bulgarian school--that of Gabrovo--in 1835 was undoubtedly the +most important event. In the next five years more than fifty +Bulgarian schools were established and five Bulgarian +printing-presses set up. The Bulgarians were beginning to +re-discover their own nationality. Bulgarian schools and books +produced a reaction against Greek culture and the Greek clergy who +maintained it. Not much longer would Greek remain the language of +the upper classes in Bulgarian cities; not much longer would +ignorant peasants, who spoke only Bulgarian, call themselves Greek. +The days of the spiritual domination of the Greek patriarchate were +numbered. The ecclesiastical ascendency of the Greeks had crushed +Bulgarian nationality more completely than even the civil power of +the Turks. The abolition of the spiritual rule of foreigners and the +restoration of the independent Bulgarian church became the leading +object of the literary reformers, educators, and patriots. It was a +long and arduous campaign--a campaign of education and awakening at +home and of appeal and discussion in Constantinople. Finally the +Sultan intervened and in 1870 issued a firman establishing the +Bulgarian exarchate, conferring on it immediate jurisdiction over +fifteen dioceses, and providing for the addition of other dioceses +on a vote of two-thirds of their Christian population. The new +Bulgarian exarch was immediately excommunicated by the Greek +patriarch. But the first and most important official step had been +taken in the development of Bulgarian nationality. + +The revolt against the Turks followed in 1876. It was suppressed by +acts of cruelty and horror unparalleled even in the Balkans. Many +thousands of men, women, and children were massacred and scores of +villages destroyed. I remember vividly--for I was then in +England--how Gladstone's denunciation of those atrocities aroused a +wave of moral indignation and wrath which swept furiously from one +end of Great Britain to the other, and even aroused the governments +and peoples of the Continent of Europe. The Porte refusing to adopt +satisfactory measures of reform, Russia declared war and her +victorious army advanced to the very gates of Constantinople. The +Treaty of San Stefano, which Russia then enforced upon Turkey, +created a "Big Bulgaria" that extended from the Black Sea to the +Albanian Mountains and from the Danube to the Aegean, leaving to +Turkey, however, Adrianople, Saloniki, and the Chalcidician +Peninsula. But this treaty was torn to pieces by the Powers, who +feared that "Big Bulgaria" would become a mere Russian dependency, +and they substituted for it the Treaty of Berlin. Under this +memorable instrument, which dashed to the ground the racial and +national aspirations of the Bulgarians which the Treaty of San +Stefano had so completely satisfied, their country was restricted to +a "tributary principality" lying between the Danube and the Balkans, +Eastern Roumelia to the south being excluded from it and made an +autonomous province of Turkey. This breach in the political life of +the race was healed in 1885 by the union of Eastern Roumelia with +Bulgaria; and the Ottoman sovereignty, which had become little more +than a form, was completely ended in 1908 when the ruler of the +enlarged principality of Bulgaria publicly proclaimed it an +independent kingdom. In spite of a protest from the Porte the +independence of Bulgaria was at once recognized by the Powers. + +If Bulgaria owed the freedom with which the Treaty of Berlin dowered +her to the swords, and also to the pens, of foreigners, her complete +independence was her own achievement. But it was not brought about +till a generation after the Treaty of Berlin had recognized the +independence of Servia, Montenegro, and Roumania and delegated to +Austria-Hungary the administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Yet +the progress made by Bulgaria first under Prince Alexander and +especially since 1887 under Prince Ferdinand (who subsequently +assumed the title of King and later of Czar) is one of the most +astonishing phenomena in the history of Modern Europe. + + +THE BALKAN COUNTRIES + +Thus in consequence of the events we have here so hastily sketched +Turkey had lost since the nineteenth century opened a large portion +of the Balkan Peninsula. Along the Danube and the Save at the north +Bulgaria and Servia had become independent kingdoms and Bosnia and +Herzegovina had at first practically and later formally been annexed +to Austria-Hungary. At the extreme southern end of the Balkan +Peninsula the Greeks had carved out an independent kingdom extending +from Cape Matapan to the Vale of Tempe and the Gulf of Arta. All +that remained of European Turkey was the territory lying between +Greece and the Slav countries of Montenegro, Bosnia, Servia, and +Bulgaria. The Porte has divided this domain into six provinces or +vilayets, besides Constantinople and its environs. These vilayets +are Scutari and Janina on the Adriatic; Kossovo and Monastir, +adjoining them on the east; next Saloniki, embracing the centre of +the area; and finally Adrianople, extending from the Mesta River to +the Black Sea. In ordinary language the ancient classical names are +generally used to designate these divisions. The vilayet of +Adrianople roughly corresponds to Thrace, the Adriatic vilayets to +Epirus, and the intervening territory to Macedonia. Parts of the +domain in question are, however, also known under other names. The +district immediately south of Servia is often called Old Servia; and +the Adriatic coast lands between Montenegro and Greece are generally +designated Albania on the north and Epirus on the south. + +The area of Turkey in Europe in 1912 was 169,300 square kilometers; +of Bulgaria 96,300; of Greece 64,600; of Servia 48,300; and of +Montenegro 9,000. The population of European Turkey at the same date +was 6,130,000; of Bulgaria 4,329,000; of Greece 2,632,000; of Servia +2,912,000; and of Montenegro 250,000. To the north of the Balkan +states, with the Danube on the south and the Black Sea on the east, +lay Roumania having an area of 131,350 square kilometers and a +population of 7,070,000. + + +CAUSES OF THE FIRST BALKAN WAR + +What was the occasion of the war between Turkey and the Balkan +states in 1912? The most general answer that can be given to that +question is contained in the one word Macedonia. Geographically +Macedonia lies between Greece, Servia, and Bulgaria. +Ethnographically it is an extension of their races. And if, as +Matthew Arnold declared, the primary impulse both of individuals and +of nations is the tendency to expansion, Macedonia both in virtue of +its location and of its population was foreordained to be a magnet +to the emancipated Christian nations of the Balkans. Of course the +expansion of Greeks and Slavs meant the expulsion of Turks. Hence +the Macedonian question was the quintessence of the Near Eastern +Question. + +But apart altogether from the expansionist ambitions and the racial +sympathies of their kindred in Bulgaria, Servia, and Greece, the +population of Macedonia had the same right to emancipation from +Turkish domination and oppression as their brethren in these +neighboring states. The Moslems had forfeited their sovereign rights +in Europe by their unutterable incapacity to govern their Christian +subjects. Had the Treaty of Berlin sanctioned, instead of undoing, +the Treaty of San Stefano, the whole of Macedonia would have come +under Bulgarian sovereignty; and although Servia and especially +Greece would have protested against the Bulgarian absorption of +their Macedonian brethren (whom they had always hoped to bring under +their own jurisdiction when the Turk was expelled) the result would +certainly have been better for all the Christian inhabitants of +Macedonia as well as for the Mohammedans (who number 800,000 persons +or nearly one third of the entire population of Macedonia). As it +was these, people were all doomed to a continuation of Turkish +misgovernment, oppression, and slaughter. The Treaty of Berlin +indeed provided for reforms, but the Porte through diplomacy and +delay frustrated all the efforts of Europe to have them put into +effect. For fifteen years the people waited for the fulfilment of +the European promise of an amelioration of their condition, enduring +meanwhile the scandalous misgovernment of Abdul Hamid II. But after +1893 revolutionary societies became active. The Internal +Organization was a local body whose programme was "Macedonia for the +Macedonians." But both in Bulgaria and in Greece there were +organized societies which sent insurgent bands into Macedonia to +maintain and assert their respective national interests. This was +one of the causes of the war between Turkey and Greece in 1897, and +the reverses of the Greeks in that war inured to the advantage of +the Bulgarian propaganda in Macedonia. Servian bands soon after +began to appear on the scene. These hostile activities in Macedonia +naturally produced reprisals at the hands of the Turkish +authorities. In one district alone 100 villages were burned, over +8,000 houses destroyed, and 60,000 peasants left without homes at +the beginning of winter. Meanwhile the Austrian and Russian +governments intervened and drew up elaborate schemes of reform, but +their plans could not be adequately enforced and the result was +failure. The Austro-Russian entente came to an end in 1908, and in +the same year England joined Russia in a project aiming at a better +administration of justice and involving more effective European +supervision. Scarcely had this programme been announced when the +revolution under the Young Turk party broke out which promised to +the world a regeneration of the Ottoman Empire. Hopeful of these +constitutional reformers of Turkey, Europe withdrew from Macedonia +and entrusted its destinies to its new master. Never was there a +more bitter disappointment. If autocratic Sultans had punished the +poor Macedonians with whips, the Young Turks flayed them with +scorpions. + +Sympathy, indignation, and horror conspired with nationalistic +aspirations and territorial interests to arouse the kindred +populations of the surrounding states. And in October, 1912, war was +declared against Turkey by Bulgaria, Servia, Montenegro, and Greece. + + +THE BALKAN LEAGUE + +This brings us to the so-called Balkan Alliance about which much has +been written and many errors ignorantly propagated. For months after +the outbreak of the war against Turkey the development of this +Alliance into a Confederation of the Balkan states, on the model of +the American or the German constitution, was a theme of constant +discussion in Europe and America. As a matter of fact there existed +no juridical ground for this expectation, and the sentiments of the +peoples of the four Christian nations, even while they fought +together against the Moslem, were saturated with such an infusion of +suspicion and hostility as to render nugatory any programme of +Balkan confederation. An alliance had indeed been concluded between +Greece and Bulgaria in May, 1912, but it was a defensive, not an +offensive alliance. It provided that in case Turkey attacked either +of these states, the other should come to its assistance with all +its forces, and that whether the object of the attack were the +territorial integrity of the nation or the rights guaranteed it by +international law or special conventions. Without the knowledge of +the Greek government, an offensive alliance against Turkey had in +March, 1912, been concluded between Servia and Bulgaria which +determined their respective military obligations in case of war and +the partition between them, in the event of victory, of the +conquered Turkish provinces in Europe. A similar offensive and +defensive alliance between Greece and Turkey was under +consideration, but before the plan was matured Bulgaria and Servia +had decided to declare war against Turkey. This decision had been +hastened by the Turkish massacres at Kochana and Berane, which +aroused the deepest indignation, especially in Bulgaria. Servia and +Bulgaria informed Greece that in three days they would mobilize +their forces for the purpose of imposing reforms on Turkey, and, if +within a specified time they did not receive a satisfactory reply, +they would invade the Ottoman territory and declare war. They +invited Greece on this short notice to co-operate with them by a +simultaneous mobilization. It was a critical moment not only for the +little kingdom of King George, but for that great cause of Hellenism +which for thousands of years had animated, and which still animated, +the souls of the Greek population in all Aegean lands. + + +GREECE AND THE LEAGUE + +King George himself was a ruler of large experience, of great +practical wisdom, and of fine diplomatic skill. He had shortly +before selected as prime minister the former Cretan insurgent, Mr. +Eleutherios Venizelos. It is significant that the new premier had +also taken the War portfolio. He foresaw the impending conflict--as +every wise statesman in Europe had foreseen it--and began to make +preparations for it. For the reorganization of the army and navy he +secured French and English experts, the former headed by General +Eydoux, the latter by Admiral Tufnel. By 1914 it was estimated that +the military and naval forces of the country would be thoroughly +trained and equipped, and war was not expected before that date. But +now in 1912 the hand of the Greek government was forced. And a +decision one way or the other was inevitable. + +Mr. Venizelos had already proved himself an agitator, an orator, and +a politician. He was now to reveal himself not only to Greece but to +Europe as a wise statesman and an effective leader of his people. +The first test came in his answer to the invitation to join Bulgaria +and Servia within three days in a war against Turkey. Of all +possibilities open to him Mr. Venizelos rejected the programme of +continued isolation for Greece. There were those who glorified it as +splendid and majestic: to him under the existing circumstances it +seemed stupid in itself and certain to prove disastrous in its +results. Greece alone would never have been able to wage a war +against Turkey. And if Greece declined to participate in the +inevitable conflict, which the action of the two Slav states had +only hastened, then whether they won or Turkey won, Greece was bound +to lose. It was improbable that the Ottoman power should come out of +the contest victorious; but, if the unexpected happened, what would +be the position, not only of the millions of Greeks in the Turkish +Empire, but of the little kingdom of Greece itself on whose northern +boundary the insolent Moslem oppressor, flushed with his triumph +over Bulgaria, Servia, and Montenegro, would be immovably +entrenched? On the other hand if these Christian states themselves +should succeed, as seemed likely, in destroying the Ottoman Empire +in Europe, the Kingdom of Greece, if she now remained a passive +spectator of their struggles, would find in the end that Macedonia +had come into the possession of the victorious Slavs, and the Great +Idea of the Greeks--the idea of expansion into Hellenic lands +eastward toward Constantinople--exploded as an empty bubble. It was +Mr. Venizelos's conclusion that Greece could not avoid participating +in the struggle. Neutrality would have entailed the complete +bankruptcy of Hellenism in the Orient. There remained only the +alternative of co-operation--co-operation with Turkey or +co-operation with the Christian states of the Balkans. + + +GREEK AND BULGARIAN ANTIPATHIES + +How near Greece was to an alliance with Turkey the world may never +know. At the nothing of the sort was even suspected. It was not +until Turkey had been overpowered by the forces of the four +Christian states and the attitude of Bulgaria toward the other three +on the question of the division of the conquered territories had +become irreconcilable and menacing that Mr. Venizelos felt it proper +to communicate to the Greek people the history of the negotiations +by which the Greek government had bound their country to a partner +now felt to be so unreasonable and greedy. Feeling in Greece was +running high against Bulgaria. The attacks on Mr. Venizelos's +government were numerous and bitter. He was getting little or no +credit for the victory that had been won against Turkey, while his +opponents denounced him for sacrificing the fruits of that victory +to Bulgaria. The Greek nation especially resented the occupation by +Bulgarian troops of the Aegean coast lands with their large Hellenic +population which lay between the Struma and the Mesta including the +cities of Seres and Drama and especially Kavala with its fine harbor +and its hinterland famed for crops of choice tobacco. + +It was on the fourth of July, 1913, a few days after the outbreak of +the war between Bulgaria and her late allies, that Mr. Venizelos +made his defence in an eloquent and powerful speech at a special +session of the Greek parliament. The accusation against him was not +only that during the late war he had sacrificed Greek interests to +Bulgaria but that he had committed a fatal blunder in joining her in +the campaign against Turkey. His reply was that since Greece could +not stand alone he had to seek allies in the Balkans, and that it +was not his fault if the choice had fallen on Bulgaria. He had +endeavored to maintain peace with Turkey. Listen to his own words: + + "I did not seek war against the Ottoman Empire. I would not have + sought war at a later date if I could have obtained any + adjustment of the Cretan question--that thorn in the side of + Greece which can no longer be left as it is without rendering a + normal political life absolutely impossible for us. I endeavored + to adjust this question, to continue the policy of a close + understanding with the neighboring empire, in the hope of + obtaining in this way the introduction of reforms which would + render existence tolerable to the millions of Greeks within the + Ottoman Empire." + + +THE CRETAN PROBLEM + +It was this Cretan question, even more than the Macedonian question, +which in 1897 had driven Greece, single-handed and unprepared, into +a war with Turkey in which she was destined to meet speedy and +overwhelming defeat. It was this same "accursed Cretan question," as +Mr. Venizelos called it, which now drew the country into a military +alliance against her Ottoman neighbor who, until too late, refused +to make any concession either to the just claims of the Cretans or +to the conciliatory proposals of the Greek government. + +Lying midway between three continents, the island of Crete has +played a large part both in ancient and modern history. The +explorations and excavations of Sir Arthur Evans at Cnossus seem to +prove that the Homeric civilization of Tiryns and Mycenae was +derived from Crete, whose earliest remains carry us back three +thousand years before the Christian era. And if Crete gave to +ancient Greece her earliest civilization she has insisted on giving +herself to modern Greece. It is a natural union; for the Cretans are +Greeks, undiluted with Turk, Albanian, or Slav blood, though with +some admixture of Italian. The one obstacle to this marriage of +kindred souls has been Turkey. For Crete was taken from the +Venetians by the Turks in 1669, after a twenty years' siege of +Candia, the capital. A portion of the inhabitants embraced the creed +of their conquerors, so that at the present time perhaps two-thirds +of the population are Christian and one-third Moslem. The result has +been to make Crete the worst governed province of the Ottoman +Empire. In Turkey in Europe diversity of race has kept the +Christians quarreling with one another; in Crete diversity of +religion plunges the same race into internecine war as often as once +in ten years. The island had been the scene of chronic insurrections +all through the nineteenth century. Each ended as a rule with a +promise of the Sultan to confer upon the Cretans some form of local +self-government, with additional privileges, financial or other. But +these promises were never fulfilled. Things went from bad to worse. +The military intervention of Greece in 1897 led to war with Turkey +in which she was disastrously defeated. The European Powers had +meantime intervened and they decided that Crete should be endowed +with autonomy under the sovereignty of the Sultan, and in 1898 they +appointed Prince George of Greece as High Commissioner. Between the +political parties of the island and the representatives of the +Powers the Prince, who worked steadily for the welfare of Crete, had +a difficult task, and in 1906 he withdrew, his successor being Mr. +Zaimis, a former prime minister of Greece. The new commissioner was +able to report to the protecting Powers in 1908 that a gendarmerie +had been established, that tranquility was being maintained, and +that the Moslem population enjoyed safety and security. Thereupon +the Powers began to withdraw their forces from the island. And the +project for annexation with Greece, which had been proclaimed by the +Cretan insurgents under Mr. Venizelos in 1905 and which the insular +assembly had hastened to endorse, was once more voted by the +assembly, who went on to provide for the government of the island in +the name of the King of Greece. I have not time to follow in detail +the history of this programme of annexation. Suffice it to say that +the Cretans ultimately went so far as to elect members to sit in the +Greek Parliament at Athens, and that Turkey had given notice that +their admission to the chamber would be regarded as a casus belli. I +saw them on their arrival in Athens in October 1912, where they +received a most enthusiastic welcome from the Greeks, while +everybody stopped to admire their picturesque dress, their superb +physique, and their dignified demeanor. If Mr. Venizelos excluded +these delegates from the chamber he would defy the sentiments of the +Greek people. If he admitted them, Turkey would proclaim war. + + +MR. VENIZELOS'S SOLUTION + +The course actually pursued by Mr. Venizelos in this predicament he +himself explained to the parliament in the speech delivered at the +close of the war against Turkey from which I have already quoted. He +declared to his astonished countrymen that in his desire to reach a +close understanding with Turkey he had arrived at the point where he +no longer demanded a union of Crete with Greece, "knowing it was too +much for the Ottoman Empire." What he did ask for was the +recognition of the right of the Cretan deputies to sit in the Greek +chamber, while Crete itself should remain an autonomous state under +the sovereignty of the Sultan. Nay, Mr. Venizelos was so anxious to +prevent war with Turkey that he made another concession, for which, +he frankly confessed, his political opponents if things had turned +out differently would have impeached him for high treason. He +actually proposed, in return for the recognition of the right of the +Cretan deputies to sit in the Greek chamber, that Greece should pay +on behalf of Crete an annual tribute to the Porte. + +Happily for Mr. Venizelos's government the Young Turk party who then +governed the Ottoman Empire rejected all these proposals. Meanwhile +their misgovernment and massacre of Christians in Macedonia were +inflaming the red Slav nations and driving them into War against +Turkey. When matters had reached a crisis, the reactionary and +incompetent Young Turk party were forced out of power and a wise and +prudent statesman, the venerable Kiamil Pasha, succeeded to the +office of Grand Vizier. He was all for conciliation and compromise +with the Greek government, whom he had often warned against an +alliance with Bulgaria, and he had in readiness a solution of the +Cretan question which he was certain would be satisfactory to both +Greece and Turkey. But these concessions were now too late. Greece +had decided to throw in her lot with Servia and Bulgaria. And a +decree was issued for the mobilization of the Greek troops. + + +THE WAR + +There is not time, nor have I the qualifications, to describe the +military operations which followed. In Greece the Crown Prince was +appointed commanding general, and the eve proved him one of the +great captains of our day. The prime minister, who was also minister +of war, furnished him with troops and munitions and supplies. The +plains and hills about Athens were turned into mock battlefields for +the training of raw recruits; and young Greeks from all parts of the +world--tens of thousands of them from America--poured in to protect +the fatherland and to fight the secular enemy of Europe. The Greek +government had undertaken to raise an army of 125,000 men to +co-operate with the Allies; it was twice as large a number as even +the friends of Greece dreamed possible; yet before the war closed +King Constantine had under his banner an army of 250,000 men +admirably armed, clothed, and equipped;--each soldier indeed having +munitions fifty per cent in excess of the figure fixed by the +general staff. + + +GREEK MILITARY AND NAVAL OPERATIONS + +The Greek army, which had been concentrated at Larissa, entered +Macedonia by the Pass and the valley of the Xerias River. The Turks +met the advancing force at Elassona but retired after a few hours' +fighting. They took their stand at the pass of Sarandaporon, from +which they were driven by a day's hard fighting on the part of the +Greek army and the masterly tactics of the Crown Prince. On October +23 the Greeks were in possession of Serndje. Thence they pushed +forward on both sides of the Aliakmon River toward Veria, which the +Crown Prince entered with his staff on the morning of October 30. +They had covered 150 miles from Larissa, with no facilities but +wagons for feeding the army and supplying ammunition. But at Veria +they struck the line of railway from Monastir to Saloniki. Not far +away was Jenitsa, where the Turkish army numbering from 35,000 to +40,000 had concentrated to make a stand for the protection of +Saloniki. The battle of Jenitsa was fiercely contested but the +Greeks were victorious though they lost about 2000 men. This victory +opened the way to Saloniki. The Turkish armies which defended it +having been scattered by the Greek forces, that city surrendered to +Crown Prince Constantine on the eighth of November. It was only +three weeks since the Greek army had left Larissa and it had +disposed of about 60,000 Turks on the way. + +On the outbreak of war Greece had declared a blockade of all Turkish +ports. To the usual list of contraband articles there were added not +only coal, concerning which the practice of belligerent nations had +varied, but also machine oil, which so far as I know was then for +the first time declared contraband of war. As Turkey imported both +coal and lubricants, the purpose of this policy was of course to +paralyze transportation in the Ottoman Empire. Incidentally I may +say the prohibition of lubricating oil caused much inconvenience to +American commerce; not, however, primarily on its own account, but +because of its confusion, in the minds of Greek officials, with such +harmless substances as cotton seed oil and oleo. The Greek navy not +only maintained a very effective blockade but also took possession of +all the Aegean Islands under Turkish rule, excepting Rhodes and the +Dodecanese, which Italy held as a temporary pledge for the +fulfilment by Turkey of some of the conditions of the treaty by +which they had closed their recent war. It will be seen, therefore, +that the navy was a most important agent in the campaign, and Greece +was the only one of the Allies that had a navy. The Greek navy was +sufficient not only to terrorize the Turkish navy, which it reduced +to complete impotence, but also to paralyze Turkish trade and +commerce with the outside world, to embarrass railway transportation +within the Empire, to prevent the sending of reinforcements to +Macedonia or the Aegean coast of Thrace, and to detach from Turkey +those Aegean Islands over which she still exercised effective +jurisdiction. + + +SERB MILITARY OPERATIONS + +On land the other Allies had been not less active than Greece. +Montenegro had fired the first shot of the war. And the brave +soldiers of King Nicholas, the illustrious ruler of the one Balkan +state which the Turks had never conquered, were dealing deadly blows +to their secular enemy both in Novi Bazar and Albania. + +As the Greeks had pressed into southern Macedonia, so the Servian +armies advanced through old Servia into northern and central +Macedonia. In their great victory over the Turkish forces at +Kumanovo they avenged the defeat of their ancestors at Kossovo five +hundred years before. Still marching southward they again defeated +the enemy in two great engagements, the one at Prilip and the other +at Monastir. The latter city had been the object of the Greek +advance to Florina, but when the prize fell to Servia, though the +Greeks were appointed, it made no breach in the friendship of the +two Allies. Already no doubt they were both gratified that the +spheres of their military occupation were conterminous and that no +Turkish territory remained for Bulgaria to occupy west of the Vardar +River. + + +BULGARIAN MILITARY OPERATIONS + +While Greece and Servia were scattering, capturing, or destroying +the Turkish troops stationed in Macedonia, and closing in on that +province from north and south like an irresistible vise, it fell to +Bulgaria to meet the enemy's main army in the plains of Eastern +Thrace. The distribution of the forces of the Allies was the natural +result of their respective geographical location. Macedonia to the +west of the Vardar and Bregalnitza Rivers was the only part of +Turkey which adjoined Greece and Servia. Thrace, on the other hand, +marched with the southern boundary of Bulgaria from the sources of +the Mesta River to the Black Sea, and its eastern half was +intersected diagonally by the main road from Sofia to Adrianople and +Constantinople. Along this line the Bulgarians sent their forces +against the common enemy as soon as war was declared. The swift +story of their military exploits, the record of their brilliant +victories, struck Europe with amazement. Here was a country which +only thirty-five years earlier had been an unknown and despised +province of Turkey in Europe now overwhelming the armies of the +Ottoman Empire in the great victories of Kirk Kilisse, Lule Burgas, +and Chorlu. In a few weeks the irresistible troops of King Ferdinand +had reached the Chataldja line of fortifications. Only twenty-five +miles beyond lay Constantinople where they hoped to celebrate their +final triumph. + + +THE COLLAPSE OF TURKEY + +The Great Powers of Europe had other views. Even if the Bulgarian +delay at Chataldja--a delay probably due to exhaustion--had not +given the Turks time to strengthen their defences and reorganize +their forces, it is practically certain that the Bulgarian army +would not have been permitted to enter Constantinople. But with the +exception of the capital and its fortified fringe, all Turkey in +Europe now lay at the mercy of the Allies. The entire territory was +either already occupied by their troops or could be occupied at +leisure. Only at three isolated points was the Ottoman power +unsubdued. The city of Adrianople, though closely besieged by the +Bulgarians, still held out, and the great fortresses of Scutari in +Northern Albania and Janina in Epirus remained in the hands of their +Turkish garrisons. + +The power of Turkey had collapsed in a few weeks. Whether the ruin +was due to inefficiency and corruption in government or the +injection by the Young Turk party of politics into the army or +exhaustion resulting from the recent war with Italy or to other +causes more obscure, we need not pause to inquire. The disaster +itself, however, had spread far enough in the opinion of Europe, and +a Peace Conference was summoned in December. Delegates from the +belligerent states and ambassadors from the Great Powers came +together in London. But their labors in the cause of peace proved +unavailing. Turkey was unwilling to surrender Adrianople and +Bulgaria insisted on it as a sine qua non. The Peace Conference +broke up and hostilities were resumed. The siege of Adrianople was +pressed by the Bulgarians with the aid of 60,000 Servian troops. It +was taken by storm on March 26. Already, on March 6, Janina had +yielded to the well directed attacks of King Constantine. And the +fighting ended with the spectacular surrender on April 23 of Scutari +to King Nicholas, who for a day at least defied the united will of +Europe. + +Turkey was finally compelled to accept terms of peace. In January, +while the London Peace Conference was still in session, Kiamil +Pasha, who had endeavored to prepare the nation for the territorial +sacrifice he had all along recognized as inevitable, was driven from +power and his war minister, Nazim Pasha, murdered through an +uprising of the Young Turk party executed by Enver Bey, who himself +demanded the resignation of Kiamil and carried it to the Sultan and +secured its acceptance. The insurgents set up Mahmud Shevket Pasha +as Grand Vizier and made the retention of Adrianople their cardinal +policy. But the same inexorable fate overtook the new government in +April as faced Kiamil in January. The Powers were insistent on +peace, and the successes of the Allies left no alternative and no +excuse for delay. The Young Turk party who had come to power on the +Adrianople issue were accordingly compelled to ratify the cession to +the allies of the city with all its mosques and tombs and historic +souvenirs. The Treaty of London, which proved to be short-lived, was +signed on May 30. + + +THE TERMS OF PEACE + +The treaty of peace provided that beyond a line drawn from Enos near +the mouth of the Maritza River on the Aegean Sea to Midia on the +coast of the Black Sea all Turkey should be ceded to the Allies +except Albania, whose boundaries were to be fixed by the Great +Powers. It was also stipulated that the Great Powers should +determine the destiny of the Aegean Islands belonging to Turkey +which Greece now claimed by right of military occupation and the +vote of their inhabitants (nearly all of whom were Greek). A more +direct concession to Greece was the withdrawal of Turkish +sovereignty over Crete. The treaty also contained financial and +other provisions, but they do not concern us here. The essential +point is that, with the exception of Constantinople and a narrow +hinterland for its protection, the Moslems after more than five +centuries of possession had been driven out of Europe. + +This great and memorable consummation was the achievement of the +united nations of the Balkans. It was not a happy augury for the +immediate future to recall the historic fact that the past successes +of the Moslems had been due to dissensions and divisions among their +Christian neighbors. + + +[Map: map2.png +Caption: Map showing the Turkish Territories occupied by the Armies +of Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Servia at the close of the War +against Turkey] + + + + +II + + +THE WAR BETWEEN THE ALLIES + +The Treaty of London officially eliminated Turkey from the further +settlement of the Balkan question. Thanks to the good will of the +Great Powers toward herself or to their rising jealousy of Bulgaria +she was not stripped of her entire European possessions west of the +Chataldja lines where the victorious Bulgarians had planted their +standards. The Enos-Midia frontier not only guaranteed to her a +considerable portion of territory which the Bulgarians had occupied +but extended her coast line, from the point where the Chataldja +lines strike the Sea of Marmora, out through the Dardanelles and +along the Aegean littoral to the mouth of the Maritza River. To that +extent the Great Powers may be said to have re-established the Turks +once more in Europe from which they had been practically driven by +the Balkan Allies and especially the Bulgarians. All the rest of her +European possessions, however, Turkey was forced to surrender either +in trust to the Great Powers or absolutely to the Balkan Allies. + +The great question now was how the Allies should divide among +themselves the spoils of war. + + +RIVAL AMBITIONS OF THE ALLIES + +This was a difficult matter to adjust. Before the war began, as we +have already seen, a Treaty of Partition had been negotiated between +Bulgaria and Servia, but conditions had changed materially in the +interval and Servia now demanded a revision of the treaty and +refused to withdraw her troops from Central Macedonia, which the +treaty had marked for reversion to Bulgaria. In consequence the +relations between the governments and peoples of Servia and Bulgaria +were dangerously strained. The Bulgarians denounced the Servians as +perfidious and faithless and the Servians responded by excoriating +the colossal greed and intolerance of the Bulgarians. The immemorial +mutual hatred of the two Slav nations was stirred to its lowest +depths, and it boiled and sputtered like a witches' cauldron. + +In Eastern Macedonia Bulgarians and Greeks were each eagerly pushing +their respective spheres of occupation without much regard to the +rights or feeling of the other Ally. Though the Bulgarians had not +forgiven the Greeks for anticipating them in the capture of Saloniki +in the month of November, the rivalry between them in the following +winter and spring had for its stage the territory between the Struma +and the Mesta Rivers--and especially the quadrilateral marked by +Kavala and Orphani on the coast and Seres and Drama on the line of +railway from Saloniki to Adrianople. They had one advantage over the +Bulgarians: their troops could be employed to secure extensions of +territory for the Hellenic kingdom at a time when Bulgaria still +needed the bulk of her forces to fight the Turks at Chataldja and +Adrianople. Hence the Greeks occupied towns in the district from +which Bulgarian troops had been recalled. Nor did they hesitate to +dislodge scattered Bulgarian troops which their ally had left behind +to establish a claim of occupation. Naturally disputes arose between +the military commanders and these led to repeated armed encounters. +On March 5 Greeks and Bulgarians fought at Nigrita as they +subsequently fought at Pravishta, Leftera, Panghaion, and Anghista. + +This conduct of the Allies toward one another while the common enemy +was still in the field boded ill for their future relations. "Our +next war will be with Bulgaria," said the man on the street in +Athens, and this bellicose sentiment was reciprocated alike by the +Bulgarian people and the Bulgarian army. The secular mutual enmities +and animosities of the Greeks and Bulgarians, which self-interest +had suppressed long enough to enable the Balkan Allies to make +European Turkey their own, burst forth with redoubled violence under +the stimulus of the imperious demand which the occasion now made +upon them all for an equitable distribution of the conquered +territory. For ages the fatal vice of the Balkan nations has been +the immoderate and intolerant assertion by each of its own claims +coupled with contemptuous disregard of the rights of others. + + +ALBANIA A CAUSE OF FRICTION + +There were also external causes which contributed to the deepening +tragedy in the Balkans. Undoubtedly the most potent was the +dislocation of the plans of the Allies by the creation of an +independent Albania. This new kingdom was called into being by the +voice of the European concert at the demand of Austria-Hungary +supported by Italy. + +The controlling force in politics, though not the only force, is +self-interest. Austria-Hungary had long sought an outlet through +Macedonia to the Aegean by way of Saloniki. It was also the aim of +Servia to reach the Adriatic. But the foreign policy of +Austria-Hungary, which has millions of Serbs under its dominion, has +steadily opposed the aggrandizement of Servia. And now that Servia +and her allies had taken possession of Macedonia and blocked the +path of Austria-Hungary to Saloniki, it was not merely revenge, it +was self-interest pursuing a consistent foreign policy, which moved +the Dual Monarchy to make the cardinal feature of its Balkan +programme the exclusion of Servia from access to the Adriatic Sea. +Before the first Balkan war began the Adriatic littoral was under +the dominion of Austria-Hungary and Italy, for though Montenegro and +European Turkey were their maritime neighbors neither of them had +any naval strength. Naturally these two dominant powers desired that +after the close of the Balkan war they should not be in a worse +position in the Adriatic than heretofore. But if Servia were allowed +to expand westward to the Adriatic, their supremacy might in the +future be challenged. For Servia might enter into special relations +with her great sister Slav state, Russia, or a confederation might +be formed embracing all the Balkan states between the Black Sea and +the Adriatic: and, in either event, Austria-Hungary and Italy would +no longer enjoy the unchallenged supremacy on the Adriatic coasts +which was theirs so long as Turkey held dominion over the maritime +country lying between Greece and Montenegro. As a necessity of +practical politics, therefore, there emerged the Austro-Italian +policy of an independent Albania. But natural and essential as this +policy was for Italy and Austria-Hungary, it was fatal to Servia's +dream of expansion to the Adriatic; it set narrow limits to the +northward extension of Greece into Epirus, and the southward +extension of Montenegro below Scutari; it impelled these Allies to +seek compensation in territory that Bulgaria had regarded as her +peculiar preserve; and as a consequence it seriously menaced the +existence of the Balkan Alliance torn as it already was by mutual +jealousies, enmities, aggressions, and recriminations. + + +RECOIL OF SERVIA TOWARD THE AEGEAN + +The first effect of the European fiat regarding an independent +Albania was the recoil of Servia against Bulgaria. Confronted by the +force majeure of the Great Powers which estopped her advance to the +Adriatic, Servia turned her anxious regard toward the Gulf of +Saloniki and the Aegean Sea. Already her victorious armies had +occupied Macedonia from the Albanian frontier eastward beyond the +Vardar River to Strumnitza, Istib, and Kochana, and southward below +Monastir and Ghevgheli, where they touched the boundary of the Greek +occupation of Southern Macedonia. An agreement with the Greeks, who +held the city of Saloniki and its hinterland as well as the whole +Chalcidician Peninsula, would ensure Servia an outlet to the sea. +And the merchants of Saloniki--mostly the descendants of Jews +expelled from Spain in the fifteenth century--were shrewd enough to +recognize the advantage to their city of securing the commerce of +Servia, especially as they were destined to lose, in consequence of +hostile tariffs certain to be established by the conquerors, a +considerable portion of the trade which had formerly flowed to them +without let or hindrance from a large section of European Turkey. +The government of Greece was equally favorably disposed to this +programme; for, in the first place, it was to its interest to +cultivate friendly relations with Servia, in view of possible +embroilments with Bulgaria; and, in the second place, it had to +countercheck the game of those who wanted either to make Saloniki a +free city or to incorporate it in a Big Bulgaria, and who were using +with some effect the argument that the annexation of the city to +Greece meant the throttling of its trade and the annihilation of its +prosperity. The interests of the city of Saloniki, the interests of +Greece, and the interests of Servia all combined to demand the free +flow of Servian trade by way of Saloniki. And if no other power +obtained jurisdiction over any Macedonian territory through which +that trade passed, it would be easy for the Greek and Servian +governments to come to an understanding. + + +TREATY RESTRICTIONS + +Just here, however, was the rub. The secret treaty of March, 1912, +providing for the offensive and defensive alliance of Bulgaria and +Servia against the Ottoman Empire regulated, in case of victory, the +division of the conquered territory between the Allies. And the +extreme limit, on the south and east, of Turkish territory assigned +to Servia by this treaty was fixed by a line starting from Ochrida +on the borders of Albania and running northeastward across the +Vardar River a few miles above Veles and thence, following the same +general direction, through Ovcepolje and Egri Palanka to Golema Vreh +on the frontier of Bulgaria--a terminus some twenty miles southeast +of the meeting point of Servia, Macedonia, and Bulgaria. During the +war with Turkey the Servian armies had paid no attention to the +Ochrida-Golema Vreh line. The great victory over the Turks at +Kumanovo, by which the Slav defeat at Kossovo five hundred years +earlier was avenged, was, it is true, won at a point north of the +line in question. But the subsequent victories of Prilip and +Monastir were gained to the south of it--far, indeed, into the heart +of the Macedonian territory recognized by the treaty as Bulgarian. + +If you look at a map you will see that the boundary between Servia +and Bulgaria, starting from the Danube, runs in a slightly +undulating line due south. Now what the military forces of King +Peter did during the war of the Balkan states with the Ottoman +Empire was to occupy all European Turkey south of Servia between the +prolongation of that boundary line and the new Kingdom of Albania +till they met the Hellenic army advancing northward under Crown +Prince Constantine, when the two governments agreed on a common +boundary for New Servia and New Greece along a line starting from +Lake Presba and running eastward between Monastir and Florina to the +Vardar River a little to the south of Ghevgheli. + + +THE APPLE OF DISCORD + +But this arrangement between Greece and Servia would leave no +territory for Bulgaria in Central and Western Macedonia! Yet Servia +had solemnly bound herself by treaty not to ask for any Turkish +territory below the Ochrida-Golema Vreh line. There was no similar +treaty with Greece, but Bulgaria regarded the northern frontier of +New Greece as a matter for adjustment between the two governments. +Servia, withdrawn behind the Ochrida-Golema Vreh line in accordance +with the terms of the treaty, would at any rate have nothing to say +about the matter. And, although the Bulgarian government never +communicated, officially or unofficially, its own views to Greece or +Servia, I believe we should not make much mistake in asserting that +a line drawn from Ochrida to Saloniki (which Bulgaria in spite of +the Greek occupation continued to claim) would roughly represent the +limit of its voluntary concession. Now if you imagine a base line +drawn from Saloniki to Golema Vreh, you have an equilateral triangle +resting on Ochrida as apex. And this equilateral triangle represents +approximately what Bulgaria claimed in the western half of Macedonia +as her own. + +The war between the Allies was fought over the possession of this +triangle. The larger portion of it had in the war against Turkey +been occupied by the forces of Servia; and the nation, inflamed by +the military spirit of the army, had made up its mind that, treaty +or no treaty, it should not be evacuated. On the south, especially +above Vodena, the Greeks had occupied a section of the fatal +triangle. And the two governments had decided that they would not +tolerate the driving of a Bulgarian wedge between New Servia and New +Greece. Bulgaria, on the other hand, was inexorable in her demands +on Servia for the fulfilment of the terms of the Treaty of +Partition. At the same time she worried the Greek government about +the future of Saloniki, and that at a time when the Greek people +were criticizing Mr. Venizelos for having allowed the Bulgarians to +occupy regions in Macedonia and Thrace inhabited by Greeks, notably +Seres, Drama, and Kavala, and the adjacent country between the +Struma and the Mesta. These were additional causes of dissension +between the Allies. But the primary disruptive force was the +attraction, the incompatible attraction, exerted on them all by that +central Macedonian triangle whose apex rested on the ruins of Czar +Samuel's palace at Ochrida and whose base extended from Saloniki to +Golema Vreh. + + +THE CLAIM OF BULGARIA + +From that base line to the Black Sea nearly all European Turkey +(with the exception of the Chalcidician Peninsula, including +Saloniki and its hinterland) had been occupied by the military +forces of Bulgaria. Why then was Bulgaria so insistent on getting +beyond that base line, crossing the Vardar, and possessing herself +of Central Macedonia up to Ochrida and the eastern frontier of +Albania? + +The answer, in brief, is that it has been the undeviating policy of +Bulgaria, ever since her own emancipation by Russia in 1877, to free +the Bulgarians still under the Ottoman yoke and unite them in a +common fatherland. The Great Bulgaria which was created by Russia in +the treaty she forced on Turkey--the Treaty of San Stefano--was +constructed under the influence of the idea of a union of the +Bulgarian race in a single state under a common government. This +treaty was afterward torn to pieces by the Congress of Berlin, which +set up for the Bulgarians a very diminutive principality. But the +Bulgarians, from the palace down to the meanest hut, have always +been animated by that racial and national idea. The annexation of +Eastern Roumelia in 1885 was a great step in the direction of its +realization. And it was to carry that programme to completion that +Bulgaria made war against Turkey in 1912. Her primary object was the +liberation of the Bulgarians in Macedonia and their incorporation in +a Great Bulgaria. And the Treaty of Partition with Servia seemed, in +the event of victory over Turkey, to afford a guarantee of the +accomplishment of her long-cherished purpose. It was a strange irony +of fate that while as a result of the geographical situation of the +belligerents Bulgaria, at the close of the war with Turkey, found +herself in actual occupation of all European Turkey from the Black +Sea up to the River Struma and beyond,--that is, all Thrace to +Chataldja as well as Eastern Macedonia--her allies were in +possession of the bulk of Macedonia, including the entire triangle +she had planned to inject between the frontiers of New Servia and +New Greece! + +The Bulgarians claimed this triangle on ethnological grounds. Its +inhabitants, they asseverated, were their brethren, as genuinely +Bulgarian as the subjects of King Ferdinand. + + +RACIAL PROPAGANDA IN MACEDONIA + +Of all perplexing subjects in the world few can be more baffling +than the distribution of races in Macedonia. The Turks classify the +population, not by language or by physical characteristics, but by +religion. A Greek is a member of the Orthodox Church who recognizes +the patriarch of Constantinople; a Bulgarian, on the other hand, is +one of the same religious faith who recognizes the exarch; and since +the Servians in Turkey have no independent church but recognize the +patriarchate they are often, as opposed to Bulgarians, called +Greeks. Race, being thus merged in religion--in something that rests +on the human will and not on physical characteristics fixed by +nature--can in that part of the world be changed as easily as +religion. A Macedonian may be a Greek to-day, a Bulgarian to-morrow, +and a Servian next day. We have all heard of the captain in the +comic opera who "in spite of all temptations to belong to other +nations" remained an Englishman. There would have been nothing comic +in this assertion had the redoubtable captain lived in Macedonia. In +that land a race is a political party composed of members with +common customs and religion who stand for a "national idea" which +they strenuously endeavor to force on others. + +Macedonia is the land of such racial propaganda. As the Turkish +government forbids public meetings for political purposes, the +propaganda takes an ecclesiastical and linguistic form. Each "race" +seeks to convert the people to its faith by the agency of schools +and churches, which teach and use its own language. Up to the middle +of the nineteenth century the Greeks, owing to their privileged +ecclesiastical position in the Ottoman Empire, had exclusive +spiritual and educational jurisdiction over the members of the +Orthodox Church in Macedonia. The opposition of the Bulgarians led, +as we have already seen, to the establishment in 1870 of the +exarchate, that is, of an independent Bulgarian Orthodox Church with +the exarch at its head. The Bulgarian propaganda in Macedonia +demanded the appointment of bishops to conduct churches and schools +under the authority of the exarchate. In 1891 the Porte conceded +Bulgarian bishops to Ochrida and Uskub, in 1894 to Veles and +Nevrokop, and in 1898 to Monastir, Strumnitza, and Dibra. As has +been well said, the church of the exarchate was really occupied in +creating Bulgarians: it offered to the Slavonic population of +Macedonia services and schools conducted in a language which they +understood and showed a genuine interest in their education. By 1900 +Macedonia had 785 Bulgarian schools, 39,892 pupils, and 1,250 +teachers. + +The Servian propaganda in Macedonia was at a disadvantage in +comparison with the Bulgarian because it had not a separate +ecclesiastical organization. As we have already seen, the orthodox +Serbs owe allegiance to the Greek patriarch in Constantinople. And +at first they did not push their propaganda as zealously or as +successfully as the Bulgarians. In fact the national aspirations of +the people of Servia had been in the direction of Bosnia and +Herzegovina; but after these provinces were assigned to Austria by +the Treaty of Berlin, a marked change of attitude occurred in the +Servian government and nation. They now claimed as Servian the +Slavonic population of Macedonia which hitherto Bulgaria had +cultivated as her own. The course of politics in Bulgaria, notably +her embroilment with Russia, inured to the advantage of the Servian +propaganda in Macedonia, which after 1890 made great headway. The +Servian government made liberal contributions for Macedonian +schools. And before the nineteenth century closed the Servian +propaganda could claim 178 schools in the vilayets of Saloniki and +Monastir and in Uskub with 321 teachers and 7,200 pupils. + +These Slav propagandists made serious encroachments upon the Greek +cause, which, only a generation earlier, had possessed a practical +monopoly in Macedonia. Greek efforts too were for a time almost +paralyzed in consequence of the disastrous issue of the +Greco-Turkish war in 1897. Nevertheless in 1901 the Greeks claimed +927 schools in the vilayets of Saloniki and Monastir with 1,397 +teachers and 57,607 pupils. + + +RACIAL FACTS AND FALLACIES + +The more bishops, churches, and schools a nationality could show, +the stronger its claim on the reversion of Macedonia when the Turk +should be driven out of Europe! There was no doubt much juggling +with statistics. And though schools and churches were provided by +Greeks, Servians, and Bulgarians to satisfy the spiritual and +intellectual needs of their kinsmen in Macedonia, there was always +the ulterior (which was generally the dominant) object of staking +out claims in the domain soon to drop from the paralyzed hand of the +Turk. The bishops may have been good shepherds of their flocks, but +the primary qualification for the office was, I imagine, the gift of +aggressive political leadership. The Turkish government now favored +one nationality and now another as the interests of the moment +seemed to suggest. With an impish delight in playing off Slav +against Greek and Servian against Bulgarian, its action on +applications for bishoprics was generally taken with a view to +embarrassing the rival Christian nationalities. And it could when +necessary keep the propagandists within severe limits. The +Bulgarians grew bold after securing so many bishoprics in the +nineties and the bishop at Uskub thought to open new schools and +churches. But the Turkish governor--the Vali--summoned him and +delivered this warning: "O Bulgarian, sit upon the eggs you have, +and do not burst your belly by trying to lay more." + +How are we to determine the racial complexion of a country in which +race is certified by religion, in which religion is measured by the +number of bishops and churches and schools, in which bishops and +churches and schools are created and maintained by a propaganda +conducted by competing external powers, and in which the results of +the propaganda are determined largely by money and men sent from +Sofia, Athens, and Belgrade, subject always to the caprice and +manipulation of the Sultan's government at Constantinople? + +In Southern Macedonia from the Thessalian frontier as far north as +the parallel of Saloniki, the population is almost exclusively +Greek, as is also the whole of the Chalcidician Peninsula, while +further east the coast region between the Struma and the Mesta is +also predominantly Greek. Eastern Macedonia to the north of the line +of Seres and Drama and south of the Kingdom of Bulgaria is generally +Bulgarian. On the northwest from the city of Uskub up to the +confines of Servia and Bosnia, Macedonia is mixed Serb, Bulgarian, +and Albanian, with the Serb element preponderating as you travel +northward and the Albanian westward. + + +PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS AND EXPERIENCES + +The difficulty comes when we attempt to give the racial character of +Central Macedonia, which is equally remote from Greece, Bulgaria, +and Servia. I travelled through this district last summer. On June +29, when the war broke out between the Allies I found myself in +Uskub. Through the courtesy of the Servian authorities I was +permitted to ride on the first military train which left the city. +Descending at Veles I drove across Central Macedonia by way of +Prilip to Monastir, spending the first night, for lack of a better +bed, in the carriage, which was guarded by Servian sentries. From +Monastir I motored over execrable roads to Lake Presba and Lake +Ochrida and thence beyond the city of Ochrida to Struga on the Black +Drin, from which I looked out on the mountains of Albania. + +Coming from Athens where for many months I had listened to patriotic +stories of the thorough permeation of Macedonia by Greek settlements +my first surprise was my inability to discover a Greek majority in +Central Macedonia. In most of the cities a fraction of the +population indeed is Greek and as a rule the colony is prosperous. +This is especially true in Monastir, which is a stronghold of Greek +influence. But while half the population of Monastir is Mohammedan +the so-called Bulgarians form the majority of the Christian +population, though both Servians and Roumanians have conducted +energetic propaganda. In Veles two-thirds of the population are +Christians and nearly all of these are called Bulgarians. In Ochrida +the lower town is Mohammedan and the upper Christian, and the +Christian population is almost exclusively of the Bulgarian Church. + +It does not follow, however, that the people of Central Macedonia, +even if Bulgarian churches are in the ascendant among them, are +really connected by ties of blood and language with Bulgaria rather +than with Servia. If history is invoked we shall have to admit that +under Dushan this region was a part of the Serb empire as under +Simeon and Asen it was part of the Bulgarian. If an appeal is made +to anthropology the answer is still uncertain. For while the +Mongolian features--broad flat faces, narrow eyes, and straight +black hair--which characterize the subjects of King Ferdinand can be +seen--I myself have seen them--as far west as Ochrida, they may also +be found all over Northern Servia as far as Belgrade though the +Servian physical type is entirely different. There is no fixed +connection between the anthropological unit and the linguistic or +political unit. Furthermore, while there are well-marked groups who +call themselves Serbs or Bulgarians there is a larger population not +so clearly differentiated by physique or language. Undoubtedly they +are Slavs. But whether Serb or Bulgarian, or intermediate between +the two, no one to-day can demonstrate. Central Macedonia has its +own dialects, any one of which under happy literary auspices might +have developed into a separate language. And the men who speak them +to-day can more or less understand either Servian or Bulgarian. +Hence as the anonymous and highly authoritative author of "Turkey in +Europe," who calls himself Odysseus, declares: + + "The practical conclusion is that neither Greeks, Servians, nor + Bulgarians have a right to claim Central Macedonia. The fact that + they all do so shows how weak each claim must be." + +Yet it was Bulgaria's intransigent assertion of her claim to Central +Macedonia which led to the war between the Allies. + +It will be instructive to consider the attitude of each of the +governments concerned on the eve of the conflict. I hope I am in a +position correctly to report it. Certainly I had unusual +opportunities to learn it. For besides the official position I held +in Athens during the entire course of both Balkan wars I visited the +Balkan states in June and was accorded the privilege of discussing +the then pending crisis with the prime ministers of Roumania, +Servia, and Bulgaria. It would of course be improper to quote them; +nay more, I feel myself under special obligation sacredly to respect +the confidence they reposed in me. But the frank disclosures they +made in these conversations gave me a point of view for the +comprehension of the situation and the estimate of facts which I +have found simply invaluable. And if Mr. Venizelos in Athens, or Mr. +Maioresco in Bukarest, or Mr. Pashitch in Belgrade, or Dr. Daneff, +who is no longer prime minister of Bulgaria, should ever chance to +read what I am saying, I hope each will feel that I have fairly and +impartially presented the attitude which their respective +governments had taken at this critical moment on the vital issue +then confronting them. + + +THE ATTITUDE OF SERVIA + +I have already indicated the situation of Servia. Compelled by the +Great Powers to withdraw her troops from Albania, after they had +triumphantly made their way to the Adriatic, she was now requested +by Bulgaria to evacuate Central Macedonia up to the Ochrida-Golema +Vreh line in accordance with the terms of the treaty between the two +countries which was ratified in March, 1912. The Servian government +believed that for the loss of Albania, which the treaty assumed +would be annexed to Servia, they were entitled to compensation in +Macedonia. And if now, instead of compensation for the loss of an +outlet on the Adriatic, they were to withdraw their forces from +Central Macedonia and allow Bulgaria to establish herself between +New Servia and New Greece, they would block their own way to +Saloniki, which was the only prospect now left of a Servian outlet +to the sea. Nor was this the whole story by any means. The army, +which comprised all able-bodied Servians, was in possession of +Central Macedonia; and the military leaders, with the usual +professional bias in favor of imperialism, dictated their +expansionist views to the government at Belgrade. If Bulgaria would +not voluntarily grant compensation for the loss of Albania, the +Servian people were ready to take it by force. They had also a +direct claim against Bulgaria. They had sent 60,000 soldiers to the +siege of Adrianople, which the Bulgarians had hitherto failed to +capture. And the Servians were now asking, in bitter irony, whether +they had gone to war solely for the benefit of Bulgaria; whether +besides helping her to win all Thrace and Eastern Macedonia they +were now to present her with Central Macedonia, and that at a time +when the European Concert had stripped them of the expected prize of +Albania with its much desired Adriatic littoral! This argument was +graphically presented on a map of which I secured a copy in +Belgrade. The legend on this map reads as follows: + + "Territories occupied by Servia 55,000 square miles. Servia cedes + to her allies in the east and south 3,800 square miles. Servia + cedes to Albania 15,200 square miles. Servia retains 36,000 + square miles. Territories occupied by Bulgaria to Enos-Midia, + 51,200 square miles. The Bulgarians demand from the Servians + still 10,240 square miles. According to Bulgarian pretensions + Bulgaria should get 61,520 square miles and Servia only 25,760!" + + +PROPOSED REVISION OF TREATY AND ARBITRATION + +When the treaty between Servia and Bulgaria was negotiated, it seems +to have been assumed that the theatre of a war with Turkey would be +Macedonia and that Thrace--the country from the Mesta to the Black +Sea--would remain intact to Turkey. And if the rest of Turkey in +Europe up to the Adriatic were conquered by the two Allies, the +Ochrida-Golema Vreh line would make a fairly equitable division +between them of the spoils of war. But with Albania denied to +Servia and Thrace occupied by Bulgaria, conditions had wholly +changed. The Servian government declared that the changed conditions +had abrogated the Treaty of Partition and that it was for the two +governments now to adjust themselves to the logic of events! On May +28 Mr. Pashitch, the Servian prime minister, formally demanded a +revision of the treaty. A personal interview with the Bulgarian +prime minister, Mr. Gueshoff, followed on June 2 at Tsaribrod. And +Mr. Gueshoff accepted Mr. Pashitch's suggestion (which originated +with Mr. Venizelos, the Greek prime minister) of a conference of +representatives of the four Allies at St. Petersburg. For it should +be added that, in the Treaty of Partition, the Czar had been named +as arbiter in case of any territorial dispute between the two +parties. + +What followed in the next few days has never been clearly disclosed. +But it was of transcendent importance. I have always thought that if +Mr. Gueshoff, one of the authors of the Balkan Alliance, had been +allowed like Mr. Venizelos and Mr. Pashitch, to finish his work, +there would have been no war between the Allies. I did not enjoy the +personal acquaintance of Mr. Gueshoff, but I regarded him as a wise +statesman of moderate views, who was disposed to make reasonable +concessions for the sake of peace. But a whole nation in arms, +flushed with the sense of victory, is always dangerous to the +authority of civil government. If Mr. Gueshoff was ready to arrange +some accommodation with Mr. Pashitch, the military party in Bulgaria +was all the more insistent in its demands on Servia for the +evacuation of Central Macedonia. Even in Servia Mr. Pashitch had +great difficulty in repressing the jingo ardor of the army, whose +bellicose spirit was believed to find expression in the attitude of +the Crown Prince. But the provocation in Bulgaria was greater, +because, when all was said and done, Servia was actually violating +an agreement with Bulgaria to which she had solemnly set her name. +Possibly the military party gained the ear of King Ferdinand. +Certainly it was reported that he was consulting with leaders of the +opposition. Presumably they were all dissatisfied with the +conciliatory attitude which Mr. Gueshoff had shown in the Tsaribrod +conference. Whatever the explanation, Mr. Gueshoff resigned on June +9. + + +DELAY AND OPPOSITION OF BULGARIA + +On that very day the Czar summoned the Kings of Bulgaria and Servia +to submit their disputes to his decision. While this demand was +based on a specific provision of the Servo-Bulgarian treaty, His +Majesty also urged it on the ground of devotion to the Slav cause. +This pro-Slav argument provoked much criticism in Austro-Hungarian +circles which resented bitterly the assumption of Slav hegemony in +Balkan affairs. However, on June 12 Bulgaria and Servia accepted +Russian arbitration. But the terms were not agreed upon. While Mr. +Venizelos and Mr. Pashitch impatiently awaited the summons to St. +Petersburg they could get no definite information of the intentions +of the Bulgarian government. And the rivalry of Austria-Hungary and +Russia for predominance in the Balkans was never more intense than +at this critical moment. + +On June 14 Dr. Daneff was appointed prime minister in succession to +Mr. Gueshoff. He had represented Bulgaria in the London Peace +Conference where his aggressive and uncompromising attitude had +perturbed his fellow delegates from the other Balkan states and +provoked some criticism in the European press. He was known as a +Russophil. And he seems now to have got assurance from Russia that +she would maintain the Bulgarian view of the treaty with Servia, +although she had at one time favored the Servian demand for an +extensive revision of it. Certainly Dr. Daneff voiced the views and +sentiments of the Bulgarian army and nation. I was in Sofia the week +before the outbreak of the war between the Allies. And the two +points on which everybody insisted were, first, that Servia must be +compelled to observe the Treaty of Partition, and, secondly, that +Central Macedonia must be annexed to Bulgaria. For these things all +Bulgarians were ready to fight. And flushed with their great +victories over the main army of Turkey they believed it would be an +easy task to overpower the forces of Servia and Greece. For the +Greeks they entertained a sort of contempt; and as for the Servians, +had they not already defeated them completely at Slivnitza in 1886? +Men high in the military service of the nation assured me that the +Bulgarian army would be in Belgrade in eight days after war was +declared. The Greeks too would quickly be driven out of Saloniki. +The idea of a conference to decide the territorial question in +dispute between the Allies found no favor in any quarter. + +Now it is important that full justice should be done to Bulgaria. As +against Servia, if Servia had stood alone, she might have appealed +to the sanctity and inviolability of treaties. Circumstances had +indeed changed since the treaty was negotiated. But was that a good +reason, Bulgaria might have asked, why she should be excluded from +Central Macedonia which the treaty guaranteed to her? Was that a +good reason why she should not emancipate her Macedonian brethren +for whose sake she had waged a bloody and costly war with Turkey? +The Bulgarians saw nothing in the problem but their treaty with +Servia and apparently cared for no territorial compensation without +Central Macedonia. + + +BULGARIA'S UNCOMPROMISING POLICY + +The Bulgarians were blind to all facts and considerations but the +abstract terms of the treaty with Servia. It was a fact, however, +that the war against Turkey had been fought by four Allies. It was a +fact that the Ottoman government had ceded European Turkey (except +Albania) to these four Allies. No two of the Allies could divide +between themselves the common possession. A division made by the +four Allies might contravene the terms of a treaty which existed +between any two of the Allies prior to the outbreak of the war. In +any event it was for the four Allies together to effect a +distribution of the territory ceded to them by Turkey. For that +purpose a conference was an essential organ. How otherwise could the +four nations reach any agreement? Yet the Bulgarians--army, +government, and nation--were obsessed by the fixed idea that +Bulgaria enjoyed not only a primacy in this matter but a sort of +sovereign monopoly by virtue of which it was her right and privilege +to determine how much of the common spoils she should assign Servia +(with whom she had an ante-bellum treaty), and, after Servia had +been eliminated, how much she could spare to Greece (with whom no +treaty of partition existed), and, when Greece had been disposed of, +whether any crumbs could be flung to Montenegro, who had indeed very +little to hope for from the Bulgarian government. And so Bulgaria +opposed a conference of the four prime ministers though a conference +was the natural, obvious, and necessary method of disposing of the +common business pressing upon them. + +The attitude of Bulgaria left no alternative but war. Yet the +Bulgarian government failed to reckon the cost of war. Was it not +madness for Bulgaria to force war upon Greece, Servia, and +Montenegro on the west at a time when Roumania was making demands +for territorial compensation on the north and Turkey was sure to +seize the occasion to win back territory which Bulgaria had just +wrested from her on the south? Never was a government blinder to the +significant facts of a critical situation. All circumstances +conspired to prescribe peace as the manifest policy for Bulgaria, +yet nearly every step taken by the government was provocative of +war. The Bulgarian army had covered itself with glory in the +victorious campaign against the Moslem. A large part of European +Turkey was already in Bulgarian hands. To imperil that glory and +those possessions by the risk of a new war, when the country was +exhausted and new enemies lay in wait, was as foolish as it was +criminal. That way madness lay. Yet that way the policy pursued by +the Bulgarian government infallibly led. Must we assume that there +is some ground for suspecting that Austria-Hungary was inciting +Bulgaria to war? We must leave it to history to answer. If the +result was a terrible disaster, that was only the old Greek Nemesis +of the gods for the outraged principles of reason and moderation. + + +THE CONCILIATORY SPIRIT OF GREECE + +Those principles, thanks to the conciliatory spirit of Mr. +Venizelos, the prime minister, and the steady support of King +Constantine, who was also commander-in-chief, were loyally followed +in Greece. A few days after the declaration of war against the +Ottoman Empire, into which Greece was precipitately hastened by the +unexpected action of Servia and Bulgaria, the Greek foreign minister +addressed a communication to the Allies on the subject of the +division of conquered territory. He traced the line of Greek claims, +as based on ethnological grounds, and added that, as he foresaw +difficulties in the way of a direct adjustment, he thought the +disputed points should be submitted to arbitration. But months +followed months without bringing from Bulgaria any clear reply to +this just and reasonable proposal of the Greek government. +Nevertheless, Mr. Venizelos persisted in his attitude of +conciliation toward Bulgaria. He made concessions, not only in +Thrace but in Eastern Macedonia, for which he was bitterly +criticized on the ground of sacrificing vital Greek interests to +Bulgaria. He recognized, as his critics refused to do, that the +Balkan question could not be settled on ethnological principles +alone; one had to take account also of geographical necessities. He +saw that the Greeks in Thrace must be handed over to Bulgaria. He +demanded only the Macedonian territory which the Greek forces had +actually occupied, including Saloniki with an adequate hinterland. +As the attitude of Bulgaria became more uncompromising, as she +pushed her army of occupation further westward, Mr. Venizelos was +even ready to make the River Struma the eastern boundary of New +Greece, and to abandon to Bulgaria the Aegean Httoral between the +Struma and the Mesta Rivers including Greek cities like Kavala, +Seres, and Drama. But these new concessions of Mr. Venizelos were in +danger of alienating from him the support of the Greek nation +without yielding anything in return from Bulgaria. The outbreak of +the war between the Allies saved him from a difficult political +position. Yet against that war Mr. Venizelos strove resolutely to +the end. And when in despite of all his efforts war came, he was +justified in saying, as he did say to the national parliament, that +the Greeks had the right to present themselves before the civilized +world with head erect because this new war which was bathing with +blood the Balkan Peninsula had not been provoked by Greece or +brought about by the demand of Greece to receive satisfaction for +all her ethnological claims. And this position in which he had +placed his country was, he proudly declared, a "moral capital" of +the greatest value. + + +BULGARIA BEGINS HOSTILITIES + +Bulgaria's belated acceptance of Russian arbitration was not +destined to establish peace. Yet Dr. Daneff, the prime minister, who +received me on June 27 and talked freely of the Balkan situation +(perhaps the more freely because in this conversation it transpired +that we had been fellow students together at the University of +Heidelberg), decided on June 28 not to go to war with the Allies. +Yet that very evening at eight o'clock, unknown to Dr. Daneff, an +order in cipher and marked "very urgent" was issued by General +Savoff to the commander of the fourth army directing him on the +following evening to attack the Servians "most vigorously along the +whole front." On the following afternoon, the 29th, General Savoff +issued another order to the army commanders giving further +instructions for attacks on the Servians and Greeks, including an +attack on Saloniki, stating that these attacks were taking place +"without any official declaration of war," and that they were +undertaken in order to accustom the Bulgarian army to regard their +former allies as enemies, to hasten the activities of the Russian +government, to compel the former allies to be more conciliatory, and +to secure new territories for Bulgaria! Who was responsible for this +deplorable lack of harmony between the civil government and the +military authorities has not yet been officially disclosed. Did +General Savoff act on his own responsibility? Or is there any truth +in the charge that King Ferdinand after a long consultation with the +Austro-Hungarian Minister instructed the General to issue the order? +Dr. Daneff knew nothing of it, and though he made every effort to +stop the resulting hostilities, the dogs of war had been let loose +and could not now be torn from one another's throats. + +There had been sporadic fighting in Macedonia between the Allies for +some months past. Greece and Servia had concluded an anti-Bulgarian +alliance on June 1. They also entered into a convention with +Roumania by which that power agreed to intervene in case of war +between the late Allies. And war having been declared, Roumania +seized Silistria at midnight, July 10. Meanwhile the Servian and +Greek forces were fighting the Bulgarians hard at Kilkis, Doiran, +and other points between the Vardar and the Struma. And, as if +Bulgaria had not enemies enough on her back already, the Turkish +Army on July 12 left the Chataldja fortifications, crossed the +Enos-Midia line, and in less than two weeks, with Enver Bey at its +head, re-occupied Adrianople. Bulgaria was powerless to stop the +further advance of the Turks, nor had she forces to send against the +Roumanians who marched unopposed through the neighboring country +till Sofia itself was within their power. + +No nation could stand up against such fearful odds. Dr. Daneff +resigned on July 15. And the new ministry had to make the best terms +it could. + + +TERMS OF PEACE + +A Peace Conference met at Bukarest on July 28, and peace was signed +on August 10. By this Treaty of Bukarest Servia secured not only all +that part of Macedonia already under her occupation but gained also +an eastward extension beyond the Doiran-Istib-Kochana line into +purely Bulgarian territory. Greece fared still better under the +treaty; for it gave her not only all the Macedonian lands she had +already occupied but extended her domain on the Aegean littoral as +far east as the mouth of the Mesta and away into the interior as far +above Seres and Drama as they are from the sea,--thus establishing +the northern frontier of New Greece from Lake Presba (near the +eastern boundary of Albania) on a northward-ascending line past +Ghevgheli and Doiran to Kainchal in Thrace on the other side of the +Mesta River. This assignment of territory conquered from Turkey had +the effect of shutting out Bulgaria from the Western Aegean; and the +littoral left to Bulgaria between the Mesta River and the Turkish +boundary has no harbor of any consequence but Dedeagach, which is +much inferior to Kavala. + +The new Turkish boundary was arranged by negotiations between the +Bulgarian and Ottoman governments. The terminus on the Black Sea was +pushed north from Midia almost up to the southern boundary of +Bulgaria. Enos remained the terminus on the Aegean. But the two +termini were connected by a curved line which after following the +Maritza River to a point between Sufli and Dimotika then swung in a +semicircle well beyond Adrianople to Bulgaria and the Black Sea. +Thus Bulgaria was compelled to cede back to the Asiatic enemy not +only Adrianople but the battlefields of Kirk Kilisse, Lule Burgas, +and Chorlu on which her brave soldiers had won such magnificent +victories over the Moslems. + + +THE ATTITUDE OF ROUMANIA + +The Treaty of Bukarest marked the predominance of Roumania in Balkan +affairs. And of course Roumania had her own reward. She had long +coveted the northeastern corner of Bulgaria, from Turtukai on the +Danube to Baltchik on the Black Sea. And this territory, even some +miles beyond that line, Bulgaria was now compelled to cede to her by +the treaty. It is a fertile area with a population of some 300,000 +souls, many of whom are Turks. + +The claim of Roumania to compensation for her neutrality during the +first Balkan war was severely criticized by the independent press of +western Europe. It was first put forward in the London Peace +Conference, but rejected by Dr. Daneff, the Bulgarian delegate. But +the Roumanian government persisted in pressing the claim, and the +Powers finally decided to mediate, with the result that the city of +Silistria and the immediately adjoining territory were assigned to +Roumania. Neither state was satisfied with the award and the second +Balkan war broke out before the transfer had been effected. This +gave Roumania the opportunity to enforce her original claim, and, +despite the advice of Austria-Hungary, she used it, as we have +already seen. + +The Roumanian government justifies its position in this matter by +two considerations. In the first place, as Roumania was larger and +more populous than any of the Balkan states, the Roumanian nation +could not sit still with folded arms while Bulgaria wrested this +preeminence from her. And if Bulgaria had not precipitated a war +among the Allies, if she had been content with annexing the portion +of European Turkey which she held under military occupation, New +Bulgaria would have contained a greater area and a larger population +than Roumania. The Roumanians claim, accordingly, that the course +they pursued was dictated by a legitimate and vital national +interest. And, in the second place, as Greeks, Servians, and +Bulgarians based their respective claims to Macedonian territory on +the racial character of the inhabitants, Roumania asserted that the +presence of a large Roumanian (or Vlach) population in that disputed +region gave her an equally valid claim to a share in the common +estate. + +In all Macedonia there may be some 100,000 Vlachs, though Roumanian +officials put the number much higher. Many of them are highland +shepherds; others engage in transportation with trains of horses or +mules; those in the lowlands are good farmers. They are found +especially in the mountains and valleys between Thessaly and +Albania. They are generally favorable to the Greek cause. Most of +them speak Greek as well as Roumanian; and they are all devoted +members of the Greek Orthodox Church. Yet there has been a Roumanian +propaganda in Macedonia since 1886, and the government at Bukarest +has devoted large sums to the maintenance of Roumanian schools, of +which the maximum number at any time has perhaps not exceeded forty. + +Now if every other nation--Greek, Servian, Bulgarian--which had +hitherto maintained its propaganda of schools and churches in +Macedonia, was to bring its now emancipated children under the +benign sway of the home government and also was to annex the +Macedonian lands which they occupied, why, Roumania asked, should +she be excluded from participation in the arrangement? She did not, +it is true, join the Allies in fighting the common Moslem oppressor. +But she maintained a benevolent neutrality. And since Macedonia is +not conterminous with Roumania, she was not seeking to annex any +portion of it. Yet the rights those Roumanians in Macedonia gave her +should be satisfied. And so arguing, the Roumanian government +claimed as a quid pro quo the adjoining northeastern corner of +Bulgaria, permitting Bulgaria to recoup herself by the uncontested +annexation of Thrace and Eastern Macedonia. + +Such was the Roumanian reasoning. Certainly it bore hard on +Bulgaria. But none of the belligerents showed any mercy on Bulgaria. +War is a game of ruthless self-interest. It was Bulgaria who +appealed to arms and she now had to pay the penalty. Her losses +enriched all her neighbors. What Lord Bacon says of individuals is +still more true of nations: the folly of one is the fortune of +another, and none prospers so suddenly as by others' errors. + + +THE WORK AND REWARD OF MONTENEGRO + +I have already sufficiently described the territorial gains of +Roumania, Servia, and Greece. But I must not pass over Montenegro in +silence. As the invincible warriors of King Nicholas opened the war +against the Ottoman Empire, so they joined Servia and Greece in the +struggle against Bulgaria. On Sunday, June 29, I saw encamped across +the street from my hotel in Uskub 15,000 of these Montenegrin +soldiers who had arrived only a day or two before by train from +Mitrowitza, into which they had marched across Novi Bazar. Tall, +lithe, daring, with countenances bespeaking clean lives, they looked +as fine a body of men as one could find anywhere in the world, and +their commanding figures and manly bearing were set off to great +advantage by their striking and picturesque uniforms. The officers +told me next day that in a few hours they would be fighting at +Ghevgheli. Their splendid appearance seemed an augury of victory for +the Serbs. + +Montenegro too received her reward by an extension of territory on +the south to the frontier of Albania (as fixed by the Great Powers) +and a still more liberal extension on the east in the sandjak of +Novi Bazar. This patriarchal kingdom will probably remain unchanged +so long as the present King lives, the much-beloved King Nicholas, a +genuinely Homeric Father of his People. But forces of an economic, +social, and political character are already at work tending to draw +it into closer union with Servia, and the Balkan wars have given a +great impetus to these forces. A united Serb state, with an Adriatic +littoral which would include the harbors of Antivari and Dulcigno, +may be the future which destiny has in store for the sister kingdoms +of Servia and Montenegro. If so, it is likely to be a mutually +voluntary union; and neither Austria-Hungary nor Italy, the warders +of the Adriatic, would seem to have any good ground to object to +such a purely domestic arrangement. + + +THE PROBLEM OF ALBANIA + +The Albanians, though they rather opposed than assisted the Allies +in the war against Turkey, were set off as an independent nation by +the Great Powers at the instigation of Austria-Hungary with the +support of Italy. The determination of the boundaries of the new +state was the resultant of conflicting forces in operation in the +European concert. On the north while Scutari was retained for +Albania through the insistence of Austria-Hungary, Russian influence +was strong enough to secure the Albanian centres of Ipek and Djakova +and Prisrend, as well as Dibra on the east, for the allied Serb +states. This was a sort of compensation to Servia for her loss of an +Adriatic outlet at a time when the war between the Allies, which was +destined so greatly to extend her territories, was not foreseen. But +while in this way Albanians were excluded from the new state on the +north and east, an incongruous compensation was afforded it on the +south by an unjustifiable extension into northern Epirus, whose +population is prevailingly Greek. + +The location of the boundary between Albania and New Greece was +forced upon the Great Powers by the stand of Italy. During the first +war the Greeks had occupied Epirus or southern Albania as far north +as a line drawn from a point a little above Khimara on the coast due +east toward Lake Presba, so that the cities of Tepeleni and Koritza +were included in the Greek area. But Italy protested that the Greek +occupation of territory on both sides of the Straits of Corfu would +menace the control of the Adriatic and insisted that the boundary +between Albania and Greece should start from a point on the coast +opposite the southern part of the island of Corfu, Greece, +accordingly, was compelled to evacuate most of the territory she had +occupied above Janina. And Albania subsequently attempted to assert +her jurisdiction over it. + +But the task of Albania is bound to be difficult. For though the +Great Powers have provided it with a ruler--the German Prince +William of Wied--there is no organized state. The Albanians are one +of the oldest races in Europe, if not the oldest. But they have +never created a state. And to-day they are hopelessly divided. It is +a land of universal opposition--north against south, tribe against +tribe, bey against bey. The majority of the population are +Mohammedan but there are many Roman Catholics in the north and in +the south the Greek Orthodox Church is predominant. The inhabitants +of the north, who are called Ghegs, are divided into numerous tribes +whose principal occupation is fighting with one another under a +system of perpetual blood-feuds and inextinguishable vendettas. +There are no tribes in the south, but the people, who are known as +Tosks, live under territorial magnates called beys, who are +practically the absolute rulers of their districts. The country as a +whole is a strange farrago of survivals of primitive conditions. And +it is not only without art and literature, but without manufactures +or trade or even agriculture. It is little wonder that the Greeks of +Epirus feel outraged by the destiny which the European Powers have +imposed upon them--to be torn from their own civilized and Christian +kindred and subjected to the sway of the barbarous Mohammedans who +occupy Albania. Nor is it surprising that since Hellenic armies have +evacuated northern Epirus in conformity with the decree of the Great +Powers, the inhabitants of the district, all the way from Santi +Quaranta to Koritza, are declaring their independence and fighting +the Albanians who attempt to bring them under the yoke. + +The future of Albania is full of uncertainty. The State, however, +was not created for the Albanians, who for the rest, are not in a +condition to administer or maintain it. The state was established in +the interests of Austria-Hungary and Italy. And those powers are +likely to shape its future. + + +THE AEGEAN ISLANDS AND CRETE + +For the sacrifice demanded of Greece in Epirus the Great Powers +permitted her by way of compensation to retain all the Aegean +Islands occupied by her during the war, except Imbros, Tenedos, and +the Rabbit Islands at the mouth of the Dardanelles. These islands, +however, Greece is never to fortify or convert into naval bases. +This allotment of the Asiatic Islands (which includes all but Rhodes +and the Dodecanese, temporarily held by Italy as a pledge of the +evacuation of Libya by the Turkish officers and troops) has given +great dissatisfaction in Turkey, where it is declared it would be +better to have a war with Greece than cede certain islands +especially Chios and Mitylene. The question of the disposition of +the islands had, however, been committed by Turkey to the Great +Powers in the Treaty of London. And Turkish unofficial condemnation +of the action of the Powers now creates a dangerous situation. Mr. +Venizelos declared not long ago, with the enthusiastic approval of +the chamber, that the security of Greece lay alone in the possession +of a strong navy. For Mr. Venizelos personally nothing in all these +great events can have been more gratifying than the achievement of +the union of Crete with Greece. This was consummated on December 14, +when the Greek flag was hoisted on Canea Fort in the presence of +King Constantine, the prime minister, and the consuls of the Great +Powers, and saluted with 101 guns by the Greek fleet. + + +KING CONSTANTINE + +Fortune in an extraordinary degree has favored the King of the +Hellenes--Fortune and his own wise head and valiant arm and the +loyal support of his people. When before has a Prince taken supreme +command of a nation's army and in the few months preceding and +succeeding his accession to the throne by successful generalship +doubled the area and population of his country? + + +[Map: map3.png +Caption: The Balkan Peninsula after the Wars of 1912-1913.] + + +COST OF THE WAR + +The Balkan wars have been bloody and costly. We shall never know of +the thousands of men, women, and children who died from privation, +disease, and massacre. But the losses of the dead and wounded in the +armies were for Montenegro 11,200, for Greece 68,000, for Servia +71,000, for Bulgaria 156,000, and for Turkey about the same as for +Bulgaria. The losses in treasure were as colossal as in blood. Only +rough computations are possible. But the direct military +expenditures are estimated at figures varying from a billion and a +quarter to a billion and a half of dollars. This of course takes no +account of the paralysis of productive industry, trade, and commerce +or of the destruction of existing economic values. + +Yet great and momentous results have been achieved. Although seated +again in his ancient capital of Adrianople, the Moslem has been +expelled from Europe, or at any rate is no longer a European Power. +For the first time in more than five centuries, therefore, +conditions of stable equilibrium are now possible for the Christian +nations of the Balkans. Whether the present alignment of those +states toward one another and towards the Great Powers is destined +to continue it would be foolhardy to attempt to predict. + + +THE FUTURE OF THE BALKANS + +But without pretending to cast a horoscope, certain significant +facts may be mentioned in a concluding word. If the Balkan states +are left to themselves, if they are permitted to settle their own +affairs without the intervention of the Great Powers, there is no +reason why the existing relations between Greece, Servia, +Montenegro, and Roumania, founded as they are on mutual interest, +should not continue; and if they continue, peace will be assured in +spite of Bulgaria's cry for revenge and readjustment. The danger +lies in the influence of the Great Powers with their varying +attractions and repulsions. France, Germany, and Great Britain, +disconnected with the Balkans and remote from them, are not likely +to exert much direct individual influence. But their connections +with the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente would not leave them +altogether free to take isolated action. And two other members of +those European groups--Russia and Austria-Hungary--have long been +vitally interested in the Balkan question; while the opposition to +Servian annexation on the Adriatic littoral and of Greek annexation +in Epirus now for the first time reveals the deep concern of Italy +in the same question. + +The Serbs are Slavs. And the unhappy relations between Servia and +Austria-Hungary have always intensified their pro-Russian +proclivities. The Roumanians are a Romance people, like the French +and Italians, and they have hitherto been regarded as a Balkan +extension of the Triple Alliance. The attitude of Austria-Hungary, +however, during the Balkan wars has caused a cooling of Roumanian +friendship, so that its transference to Russia is no longer +inconceivable or even improbable. Greece desires to be independent +of both groups of the European system, but the action of Italy in +regard to Northern Epirus and in regard to Rhodes and the Dodecanese +has produced a feeling of irritation and resentment among the Greeks +which nothing is likely to allay or even greatly alleviate. Bulgaria +in the past has carried her desire to live an independent national +life to the point of hostility to Russia, but since Stambuloff's +time she has shown more natural sentiments towards her great Slav +sister and liberator. Whether the desire of revenge against Servia +(and Greece) will once more draw her toward Austria-Hungary only +time can disclose. + +In any event it will take a long time for all the Balkan states to +recover from the terrible exhaustion of the two wars of 1912 and +1913. + +Their financial resources have been depleted; their male population +has been decimated. Necessity, therefore, is likely to co-operate +with the community of interest established by the Treaty of Bukarest +in the maintenance of conditions of stable equilibrium in the +Balkans. Of course the peace-compelling forces operative in the +Balkan states themselves might be counteracted by hostile activities +on the part of some of the Great Powers. And there is one +danger-point for which the Great Powers themselves are solely +responsible. This, as I have already explained, is Albania. An +artificial creation with unnatural boundaries, it is a grave +question whether this so-called state can either manage its own +affairs or live in peace with its Serb and Greek neighbors. At this +moment the Greeks of Epirus (whom the Great Powers have transferred +to Albania) are resisting to the death incorporation in a state +which outrages their deepest and holiest sentiments of religion, +race, nationality, and humane civilization. On the other hand the +Hoti and Gruda tribes on the north fiercely resent annexation to +Montenegro (which the Great Powers have decreed) and threaten to +summon to their support other Malissori tribes with whom they have +had a defensive alliance for several centuries. If Prince William of +Wied is unable to cope with these difficulties, Italy and +Austria-Hungary may think it necessary to intervene in Albania. But +the intervention of either would almost certainly provoke +compensatory action on the part of other European Powers, especially +Russia. + +One can only hope that the Great Powers may have wisdom granted to +them to find a peaceful solution of the embarrassing problem which +they have created in setting up the new state of Albania. That the +Albanians themselves will have an opportunity to develop their own +national independence I find it impossible to believe. Yet I heard +in the summer of 1913 at Valona from the lips of Ismail Kemal Bey, +the head of the provisional government, a most impressive statement +of his hopes and aspirations for an independent Albania and his +faith and confidence in its future, in which he claimed to voice the +sentiments of the Albanian people. But, as I have already explained, +I think it doubtful whether under the most favorable external +circumstances the Albanians are at present qualified to establish +and maintain an independent state. And their destiny is so +inextricably entangled with the ambitions of some of the Great +Powers that the experiment stands no chance of getting a fair trial. +I heartily wish the circumstances were other than they are. For as +an American I sympathize with the aspirations of all struggling +nationalities to be free and independent. And my interest in Albania +is deepened, as the interest of all Americans must be deepened, by +the fact that a large number of Albanians have now found a home in +the United States. + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Balkan Wars: 1912-1913, by Jacob Gould Schurman + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BALKAN WARS: 1912-1913 *** + +***** This file should be named 11676.txt or 11676.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/6/7/11676/ + +Produced by David Starner and Andrea Ball + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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