Balkan Wars

Two wars 1912–13 and 1913 (preceding World War I) which resulted in the expulsion by the Balkan states of Ottoman Turkey from Europe, except for a small area around Istanbul.

The First Balkan War, 1912, of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro against Turkey, forced the Turks to ask for an armistice, but the London‐held peace negotiations broke down when the Turks, while agreeing to surrender all Turkey‐in‐Europe west of the city of Edirne (formerly Adrianople), refused to give up the city itself. In February 1913 hostilities were resumed. Edirne fell on 26 March, and on 30 May, by the Treaty of London, Turkey retained in Europe only a small piece of eastern Thrace and the Gallipoli peninsula.

The Second Balkan War, June–July 1913, took place when the victors fought over acquisitions in Macedonia, from most of which Bulgaria was excluded. Bulgaria attacked Greece and Serbia, which were joined by Romania. Bulgaria was defeated, and Turkey retained Thrace.