Balkan Wars Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids

Balkan Wars

Battle of Prilep, depicted in a Serbian postcard from 1912

Date

8 October 1912 – 18 July 1913
(9 months, 1 week and 3 days)

Location

Adrianople
Scutari
Kosovo
Manastir
Salonica provinces
Aegean Islands
Aegean Sea

Result

First Balkan War:

Balkan League victory
Treaty of London

Second Balkan War:

Greek, Serbian, Montenegrin, Ottoman and Romanian victories
Treaties of Bucharest and Constantinople

Belligerents

First Balkan War
Ottoman Empire

Support

Austria-Hungary

First Balkan War
Balkan League:

Support

Russian Empire

Second Balkan War

Bulgaria

Second Balkan War

Commanders and leaders

Mehmed V
Enver Pasha
Nazım Pasha
Zeki Pasha
Essad Pasha
Kölemen Abdullah Pasha
Ali Rıza Pasha
Hasan Tahsin Pasha
İsmail Hakkı Pasha
Rauf Pasha

Nicholas I
Prince Danilo Petrović
Mitar Martinović
Janko Vukotić
Ferdinand I
Mihail Savov
Ivan Fichev
Vasil Kutinchev
Nikola Ivanov
Radko Dimitriev
Crown Prince Constantine
Panagiotis Danglis
Pavlos Kountouriotis
Radomir Putnik
Petar Bojović
Stepa Stepanović
Živojin Mišić
Carol I
Ferdinand I
Alexandru Averescu

Ferdinand I
Mihail Savov
Vasil Kutinchev
Nikola Ivanov
Radko Dimitrev
Stiliyan Kovacher
Stefan Toshev

The Balkan Wars were a series of wars fought in the Balkan Peninsula in 1912 (First Balkan War) and 1913 (Second Balkan War).

The First Balkan War was fought by Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria (the Balkan League) against the Ottoman Empire. The main objective of the Balkan League was to annex the European territories of the Ottoman Empire, because large numbers of the people of the Balkan League lived under Ottoman rule. The war was a success and the Ottoman Empire lost almost its entire European territories.

The Second Balkan War was fought by Greece, Serbia, the Ottoman Empire and Romania against Bulgaria. Because Bulgaria felt that Greece and Serbia got more lands than they deserved, Bulgaria declared war on Greece and Serbia, which repelled the attacks. The Ottoman Empire and Romania declared war on Bulgaria, because they wanted to gain Bulgarian territories, and by the end of the Second Balkan War Bulgaria had lost almost all its gains from the First Balkan War.

Balkan Campaigns during World War I
Balkan Campaigns during World War II

Images for kids

Map of the Ottoman Empire in 1900, with the names of the Ottoman provinces.
A Punch cartoon by English cartoonist Leonard Raven-Hill depicting Britain, France, German, Austria-Hungary, and Russia sitting on a lid on top of a pot marked "Balkan Troubles", satirizing the situation in the Balkans leading up to the First Balkan War
Bulgarian forces waiting to start their assault on Adrianople
Territorial changes as a result of the First Balkan war, as of April 1913 showing the prewar agreed line of expansion between Serbia and Bulgaria
The apple of discord: King George I of Greece and Tsar Ferdinand of Bulgaria at Thessaloniki, December 1912. Despite their alliance, Greco-Bulgarian antagonism over the city and Macedonia did not abate.
Cholera was common among the soldiers of the combatant nations
Boundaries on the Balkans after the First and the Second Balkan War (1912–1913)
Greek lithograph of the Battle of Kilkis–Lachanas
Tirana Bazaar at the turn of the 20th century.
Serbian propaganda poster, depicting king Alexander I beating the losing Bulgarian ruler.

Balkan Wars facts for kids

Related pages

Images for kids

See also