THE SECOND BALKAN WAR

GREECE AND SERVIA CRUSH THE AMBITIONS OF BULGARIA

A.D. 1913

PROF.  STEPHEN P. DUGGAN

CAPT.  A.H.  TRAPMANN

The crushing defeat of Turkey by the Balkan States during the winter of 1912-13 had been accomplished mainly by Bulgaria.  The Bulgarians were therefore eager to assert themselves as the chief Balkan State, the Power which was to take the place of Turkey as ruler of the “Near East.”  Naturally this roused the antagonism not only of Bulgaria’s recent allies, Greece and Servia, but also of the other neighboring State, Roumania.  Bulgaria hoped to meet and crush her two allies before Roumania could join them.  Thus she deliberately precipitated a war which resulted in her utter defeat.  From this contest Greece has emerged as the chief State of the eastern Mediterranean, a growing Power which at last bears some resemblance to the classic Greece of ancient times.

To understand this war, it should be realized that the Bulgars are really an Asiatic race, who broke into Europe as the Hungarians had done before them, and as the Turks did afterward.  Hence their kinship with European races or manners is really slight, though they have something of Slavic or Russian blood.  The Servians are near akin to the Russians.  The Roumanians trace their ancestry proudly, if somewhat dubiously, back to the old Roman colonists of the days of Rome’s world empire.  The Greeks are really the most ancient dwellers in the region; and to their pride of race was now added a furious eagerness to prove their military power.  This had been much scorned after their ineffective war against Turkey in 1897, and they had found no opportunity to give decisive proof of their strength during the war of 1912.

To Professor Duggan’s account of the causes and results of the war, which appeared originally in the Political Science Quarterly, we append the picture of its most striking incidents by Captain Trapmann, who was with the Greek army through its brief but brilliant campaign.

PROF.  STEPHEN P. DUGGAN

When the secret treaty of alliance of March, 1912, between Bulgaria and Servia against Turkey was signed, a division of the territory that might possibly fall to the allies was agreed upon.  Neither Bulgaria nor Servia has ever published the treaty in full, but from the denunciations and recriminations indulged in by the parliaments of both, we know in general what the division was to be.  The river Maritza, it was hoped, would become the western boundary of Turkey, and a line running from a point just east of Kumanova to the head of Lake Ochrida was to divide the conquered territory between Servia and Bulgaria.  This would give Monastir, Prilip, Ochrida, and Veles