First Balkan War

The First Balkan War was fought between the members of the  Balkan League  (Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Montenegro) and the Ottoman Empire. The war was located on the Balkan Peninsula. It started in October 1912 and ended in May 1913. After a lot of casualties and bloodshed, the victory belongs to the Balkan League and Ottomans lost 83% of their European territories and 69% of their European population. Ottoman's ruled territory in the Balkans is divided between Balkan states.

• the military-political weakening of the Ottoman Empire
• the oppression of Christians in its European provinces
• the failure of the struggle of the population of Macedonia and Edirne for autonomy
• the contradictions between the great European states, which fail to impose regime reforms in both areas
• the union between the Balkan Christian states in their quest for national unification and territorial enlargement at the expense of the Ottoman Empire.

The Balkan League was formed under Russian  auspices  in the spring of 1912 to take Macedonia away from Turkey, which was already involved in a war with Italy. The league was able to field a combined force of 750,000 men. Montenegro opened hostilities by declaring war on Turkey on October 8, 1912, and the other members of the league followed suit 10 days later.

The Balkan allies were soon victorious. In Thrace the Bulgarians defeated the main Ottoman forces, advancing to the outskirts of Constantinople and laying siege to Adrianople (Edirne). In Macedonia the Serbian army achieved a great victory at Kumanovo that enabled it to capture Bitola and to join forces with the Montenegrins and enter Skopje. The Greeks, meanwhile, occupied Salonika (Thessaloníki) and advanced on  Ioánnina . In Albania the Montenegrins besieged Shkodër and the Serbs entered Durrës.

The Turkish collapse was so complete that all parties were willing to conclude an armistice on December 3, 1912. A peace conference begun in London, but, after a  coup d’état  by the Young Turks in Constantinople in January 1913, war with the Ottomans was resumed. Again the allies were victorious: Ioánnina fell to the Greeks and Adrianople to the Bulgarians. Under a peace treaty signed in London on May 30, 1913, the Ottoman Empire lost almost all of its remaining European territory, including all of Macedonia and Albania. Albanian independence was insisted upon by the European powers, and Macedonia was to be divided among the Balkan allies.