The Balkan Wars

Described as the "sick man of Europe" by the Great Powers, the Ottoman Empire in the early twentieth century was in terminal decline. The newly independent Balkan states—Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria—each had significant ethnic populations who had remained under Ottoman rule. Under the guidance of Russia, which had its own interests in south-east Europe, they joined forces against the Ottomans, under the name of the Balkan League, in 1912. In the first phase of the Balkan Wars, Bulgari