12.05.2024

The third. balkan war even though. after the first and the second balkan. wars. there wasn't another isolated conflict. in the balkans. in the year of 1914 the first world war. started exactly in the same region which. was marked by. war conflict and political turmoil. and because you are our subscriber you. should definitely check out our sponsor. over at squarespace. this incredible website builder includes. so many features. like easy link to all social media. platforms support for podcasts. integrated analytics. but also mailing lists and email. campaigns regardless of your future. projects having a wellstructured. website is of great help. from websites and online stores to. marketing tools and analytics. squarespace is the allin-one platform. to build a beautiful online presence. and to do so you don't need specific.

Skills in building a website. for that squarespace has you covered. allowing anyone to very quickly design a. wellstructured beautiful and. easyto-navigate platform. go to squarespace.com for a free trial. and when you're ready to launch. go to squarespace dot com slash no legia. to save 10. off your first purchase of a website or. domain. neither the first nor the second balkan. war fix the issues of those countries. living in the region. as we talked about the balkan conflicts. in our previous videos. the long centuries of ottoman hegemony. over other diverse. christian people and the geographic. position between the three powers. russia austria and the ottoman empire. put the balkans at the crossroads of. interests and conflicts. and when the nations freed themselves. there was even more conflict. leading to the first then to the second.

Regional wars. and also marking and influencing the. start of the first world war. thus we named the balkan theater of the. first world war as. the third balkan war. the domino effect of history as we call. it was incredibly well felt in this. space. every event affected the next one and it. will be felt even in the second world. war. knowing all this even if an isolated war. didn't happen here. we can say there was a third balkan. conflict based on the same frustrations. and on the outcome of the second one. but this third war was incorporated in a. much larger world. war in the aftermath of the balkan wars. bulgarian opinion turned against russia. and the western powers. whom the bulgarians felt had done. nothing to help them. the government aligned bulgaria with. germany and austriahungary. even though this meant also becoming an.

Ally of the ottomans. bulgaria's traditional enemy but. bulgaria now had no claims against the. ottomans. but against serbia greece and romania. bulgaria recuperating from the balkan. wars. sat out the first year of world war one. ottoman entry into world war one was the. result of. two recently purchased ships of its navy. still. manned by their german crews and. commanded by their german admiral. carrying out the black sea raid on the. 29th of october. 1914 there were a number of factors that. conspired to. influence the ottoman government and. encourage them into entering the war. the reason for joining the war on. germany's side is debated. knowing that the ottoman empire was an. agricultural weakened state. in an age of industrial warfare also. the economic resources of the empire. were shortened by the cost of the balkan.

Wars. so the reasons are not immediately clear. the serbs never reconciled with the idea. of annexing bosnia. and herzegovina by austria in late june. 1914. the heir to the austrohungarian throne. archduke franz ferdinand. and his wife sophie arrived on a visit. being in a car an assassination attempt. was made. and was unsuccessful but afterwards a. serbian extremist. gavrilo princip stepped up to the. footboard of the car and. shot franz ferdinand and sophie at. pointblank range. he was one of six members of a network. coordinated by danilo ilick. who had the black hand panslavic. organization behind him. the assassination led to a diplomatic. maneuvering between the great powers. called. the july crisis austriahungary. correctly believed that serbian. officials were involved in the plot to. murder archduke. on the 23rd of july austriahungary.

Delivered to serbia the july ultimatum. a series of 10 demands that were made. intentionally unacceptable. this was clearly an effort to provoke a. war with serbia. serbia decreed general mobilization. after two days. and accepted all the terms of the. ultimatum except for the demand that. austrian delegates. be allowed in serbia to take part into. the investigation of the assassination. following this austriahungary broke off. diplomatic relations with serbia. and the next day ordered a partial. mobilization. finally on the 28th of july 1914. a month after the assassination. austriahungary declared war on serbia. russia prepared for war ordered general. mobilization. german chancellor for an appropriate. response. kaiser wilhelm ii asked his cousin. sar nicholas ii to suspend the russian. general mobilization. when he refused germany issued an.

Ultimatum. demanding its mobilization be stopped. and a commitment not to support. serbia knowing that russian involvement. in the war. will attract germany to defend its ally. austriahungary. another was sent to france asking her. not to support. russia if it were to come to the defense. of serbia. on the 1st of august after the russian. response. germany mobilized and declared war on. russia. austriahungary mobilized 239 battalions. 516 pieces of artillery in three armies. against. serbia the second army the fifth with. around eighty thousand men. and the sixth army with around sixty. thousand men. the participation in this campaign for. the second was insignificant. and she was transferred to galicia and. the austrian numbers will grow. serbia deployed four armies on the. ground with 247. 000 troops and montenegro mobilized.

Six divisions the austrian army. surpassed the armies of its balkan. enemies in all respects. troops armaments and military equipment. but even so the defense and courage of. the serbian montenegrin armies spoke for. itself. austria invaded and fought the serbian. army at the battle of seer. and battle of calabara beginning on the. 12th of august. over the next two weeks austrian attacks. were thrown. back with heavy losses which marked the. first major allied victories of the war. and dashed austrohungarian hopes of a. swift victory. austriahungary could only spare. onethird of its army to attack serbia. after suffering heavy losses the. austrians briefly occupied the serbian. capital. belgrade a serbian counterattack in the. battle of kalabara. succeeded in driving them from the. country by the end of 1914. for the first 10 months of 1915.

Austriahungary used most of its. military reserves to fight italy. german and austrohungarian diplomats. however. scored a coup by persuading bulgaria to. join the attack on. serbia when germany promised to restore. the boundaries of the treaty of san. stefano. bulgaria which had the largest army in. the balkans. declared war on serbia in october 1915.. britain france and italy then declared. war on bulgaria. bulgaria declared war on serbia on the. 12th of october 1915. and joined in the attack by the. austrohungarian army. under mckenson's army of 250 000. that was already underway serbia was. conquered in a little more than a month. as the central powers now including. bulgaria. sent in 600 000 troops total. the serbian army fighting on two fronts. and facing certain defeat. retreated into northern albania the. serbs suffered defeat in the battle of.

Kosovo. montenegro covered the serbian retreat. towards the adriatic coast. in the battle of muy cavac in the 6th to. 7th of january 1916. but ultimately the austrians also. conquered montenegro. the surviving serbian soldiers were. evacuated to greece. after conquest serbia was divided. between. austrohungary and bulgaria in late 1915. a francobritish force landed at. salonica. in greece to offer assistance and to. pressure its government to declare war. against the central powers. however the progerman king constantine. the first. dismissed the proallied government of. el etherios venezuela. before the allied expeditionary force. arrived. the friction between the king of greece. and the allies. continued to accumulate with the. national schism. which effectively divided greece between. regions. still loyal to the king and the new.

Provisional government of venizelos. in thessaloniki at the end of 1915. serbia and montenegro were fully. occupied by the central powers. due to this the front line was. continuous from baltic sea. to the mediterranean sea and the link. between the ottomans bulgarians. austrians and germans was established. the german high command whose troops. represented the main military force of. the central powers. did not plan any large scale offensive. on the thessaloniki front. in part because of its limited strength. but also because of logistical. difficulties. the purpose was to control enemy troops. in the region. with the help of small german bulgarian. troops. and to focus to more against the. russians and the french. in may 1916 the ontant forces of the. thessaloniki front. enjoyed numerical superiority over. german bulgarian troops.

The anton's troops were supplemented by. those of the completely reorganized. serbian army. the serbs had formed six infantry and. one. cavalry divisions placed under the. nominal command of crown prince. the serbian army had 130 000. troops and the total allied forces in. the balkans. reached 300 000 in the meantime. from the 17th of february 1915. to the 9th of january 1916 theontant. powers. britain france and russia sought to. weaken the ottoman empire. one of the central powers by taking. control of the straits that provided a. supply route to russia. an attack was made on ottoman forts at. the entrance of the dardanelles. in february 1915 and was followed by an. amphibious landing on the gallipoli. peninsula. in april 1915 to capture the ottoman. straits. and then take control of constantinople. but this was in the end a costly defeat.

For the ontant powers. when the german command decided to. transfer troops from the balkans to the. french front. the antan troops were tasked with. stopping the relocation of enemy forces. by launching offensive actions in the. wake of allied attacks. the germans continued to send troops. from the balkans to the western front. and the remaining bulgarian units in the. region remained. relatively passive also in the north of. the danube. the kingdom of romania was neutral for. the first two years of the war. king carl the first was an ethnic german. from the same royal family that ruled. the german empire. and thus favored germany but after his. death in 1914. his nephew the new king ferdinand also. from the same royal family. decided to join the ontante due to the. public opinion that was more inclined to. france. but mainly due to the highest priority.

Of romania. that was to unite with transylvania. which had romanians as the major. ethnic group the allies wanted romania. to join its side in order to cut the. rail communications between. germany and turkey and to shift the. balance of power in the region. britain made loans france set a military. training mission. and russia promised modern munitions the. allies promised at least 200. 000 soldiers to defend romania against. bulgaria to the south and help it invade. austria. on the night of august 27 1916. three romanian armies first second and. northern army. deployed according to the romanian. campaign plan. the z hypothesis launched the battle of. transylvania through the carpathians. while the third army protected the south. across danube. in a short time many towns were captured. and the romanian army advanced rapidly.

But within weeks sizable reinforcements. began. arriving at the scene eight german. divisions and an. alpine corpse were deployed under the. command of eric von falkenhayne and. other austriahungarian divisions. arrived. the anton's military actions gained. momentum in august. anglofrench units tried to break. through the bulgarian defense in the. dodgering. lake region the bulgarians managed to. repel the attack. inflicting heavy losses on their enemies. after romania entered the war the ontant. planned a combined offensive. which aimed to get bulgaria out of the. war. the offensive was to begin on august. 20th. the bulgarian command took it before the. allies and launched its own offensive on. august 17th. the bulgarian attack targeted heavily. populated regions of greece. but until the end of the year no major. changes on the greek macedonian front.

Line happened. attacked from the south by germans and. bulgarians. and from the west across carpathians in. the next months. romania suffered high losses and lost. more than. 60 percent of its territory romanian. forces became too strained to put up. effective resistance. against the enemy advance romania had to. fight. on two 1600 kilometer long battlefields. the longest front in europe with a. varied configuration and diverse. geographical elements. because of this situation the offensive. against bulgaria didn't start. on the 2nd of july 1917 after pressures. made by the antart countries. greece joined the war against the. central powers. even though the majority of the country. was conquered. romania didn't capitulate and in early. july 1917. on the romanian front one of the largest. concentrations of combat forces and war.

Material assembled during world war one. a total of nine armies 80 infantry. divisions with 974 battalions. 19 cavalry divisions with 550 squadrons. and 923 artillery batteries. whose effectives amounted to some 800. thousand men. with about one million in their. immediate reserve. the three great battles decisive for the. romanian nation's destiny. delivered at marashti mara sheshti. and oitus stopped the central powers. advance. and represented a turning point in the. war on the eastern. front these battles were fought. approximately on the front alignment. stabilized in early 1917.. romanian forces together with the. russians resisted on that front line. but in november 1917 due to the. revolution in russia. the russian army became unorganized and. the new russian government signed a. peace agreement with central powers.

Thus even though romania resisted on the. front line for around a year. they were encircled and an armistice was. forced on them. the military political situation in the. balkans since the beginning of 1918. has changed in favor of the on taunt. however. from the beginning of 1917 calm. prevailed. along the entire length of the front and. the fighting was of low. intensity the on taunt forces occupied a. 350 kilometer front in the south. and was ready to launch a full offensive. taking profit off the fact that. many german troops switched to the. western front struggle. against the french british and the nuon. taught power. the united states allied military. operations began on the morning of. september 14th. and in the next days the offensive had a. success. during this period the bulgarian army. was ravaged by rebellions.

And about thirty thousand soldiers. refused to fight. the government in sofia given the. desperate situation in which the army. found itself. did everything in its power to speed up. the negotiation process. for signing an armistice the armistice. between the antant and bulgaria. was signed on september 29th 1918. in thessalonica the anton force advanced. and in serbia and in bulgaria. and when two divisions reached romania. the romanian government canceled the. armistice agreement. and entered in the war for the second. time against the central powers. meanwhile the allied advance the arab. revolts that happened. and the developments in southeast europe. squashed the ottoman government's hopes. seeking peace on the 30th of october. 1918. the armistice of mudros was signed at. that point the ottoman state was. bankrupt and in turmoil this will be the.

End of the ottoman empire. after the liberation of serbian. territory the antan troops prepared for. the invasion of austriahungary. also large turmoil started to exist in. the empire. mainly due to so many different. ethnicities that existed. and the unfavorable war situation. under these conditions the vienna. government asked the allies. on october 27th to accept the start of. separate peace negotiations. on october 29th the austrians accepted. all the conditions of peace imposed by. the ontart. after this the austrianhungary empire. will collapse. soon after on november 11 1918. germany signed an armistice we called. this video the third balkan war. not because it was an isolated war but. because the developments in world war. one in the region. were a consequence of the previous. balkan wars. the instability of the region created.

the flame that ignited the war. in bosnia and the end of this war will. ignite the hate and frustration. that will start a bigger war 21 years. later. this war ended the multisecular. monarchies of austria. ottomans and russia that fought over the. balkans for centuries. it was the final nail in the coffin for. the monarchies that fought over and. subjugated the balkan ethnicities but. the frustration. and conflict was not done yet. again a huge thanks to our sponsor. squarespace. don't forget to check them out. you