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Yugoslavia The Balkan Wars and World War I
In 1912 Turkish chauvinism and atrocities combined with
Albanian insurgency to galvanize Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece. In
the first Balkan War, October 1912 to May 1913, these nations
joined Montenegro to oust Turkey from the Balkans. Besides
capturing western Macedonia, Kosovo, and other Serbian-populated
regions, Serbian forces moved through purely Albanian-populated
lands to the Adriatic. Austria-Hungary convinced the major
European powers to create an independent Albania to deny Serbia
an Adriatic outlet, and it forced Serbia to remove its troops
from Albanian territory. The Treaty of London (1913) awarded the
Serbs almost all remaining Ottoman lands in Europe, but there was
immediate conflict over the division of Macedonia. With AustroHungarian approval, Bulgaria attacked its erstwhile allies in
June 1913, triggering the Second Balkan War. This time Serbia,
Montenegro, Greece, Romania, and Turkey defeated Bulgaria and
eliminated the possibility of Bulgarian participation in a South
Slav state. Its victories filled Serbia with confidence and
doubled its size. But the wars also weakened the country and left
it with hostile neighbors and bitter Macedonian and Albanian
minorities.
Serbian victories and the Serbians' obvious contempt for
Austria-Hungary brought hostility from Vienna and anti-Habsburg
sentiment in all the empire's South Slavic regions, especially
Bosnia and Hercegovina. Confident behind German military
protection, the high command of Austria-Hungary lobbied for war
to eliminate Serbia. Serbia's alliance with Slavic Russia also
encouraged the growth of expansionist, nationalist secret
societies in the Serbian army. The most significant of these
societies was the Black Hand, a group of army officers who
dominated the army and influenced the government from 1911-17.
In 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Habsburg throne
and a longtime advocate of equality for the South Slavs in the
empire, made an ill-prepared visit to Bosnia. On Vidovdan,
Bosnian student Gavrilo Princip assassinated the archduke and the
archduchess in Sarajevo. The Black Hand had armed and trained the
assassin, but historians doubt that the rulers of Serbia had
approved the plot. Nevertheless, on July 23 Austria-Hungary sent
an ultimatum, threatening war unless Serbia allowed Vienna to
join the murder investigation and suppress secret societies. Even
the German kaiser felt that Serbia met the Austrian demands, but
war was declared, the existing alliance structure of Europe went
into force, and World War I began. The Central Powers--Germany,
Austria-Hungary, and Turkey--faced the Triple Entente--France,
Britain, and Russia. The Croats, Slovenes, and many Serbs in
Austria-Hungary went to war against Serbia and Montenegro.
Despite overwhelming odds, Serbia twice cleared its soil of
invading Austro-Hungarian armies early in the war, and late in
1914 the prime minister announced plans to unite the Serbs,
Croats, and Slovenes in a South Slavic state. Italy joined the
Triple Entente in 1915 and attacked Austria-Hungary, then
Bulgaria joined the side of Austria-Hungary in the fall of that
year. With French and Italian forces waiting in nearby Salonika
(Thessalonika), German, Austro-Hungarian, and Bulgarian forces
attacked Serbia in October 1915. The Serbian army, weakened by
typhus, escaped through Montenegro and Albania in midwinter,
suffering heavy losses. Italian units in Albania denied support,
then French ships evacuated the remaining Serbian forces to
Corfu.
Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria occupied Serbia and Montenegro
after the retreat. After recovering, the Serbian army helped the
French and British capture Bitola in September 1916. Entente
armies remained inactive there until the Central Powers began to
disintegrate. They then routed the Bulgarians in September 1918,
swept Austro-Hungarian and German forces from Serbia, and entered
Hungary. In November Austria-Hungary collapsed and the war ended.
World War I destroyed one-fourth of Montenegro's population and
several hundred thousand Croats and Slovenes. Serbia lost about
850,000 people, a quarter of its prewar population, and half its
prewar resources.
Data as of December 1990
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