880 Ch. 22 • The Great War
the kindling for another international flare-up. Late in the year, Italy
invaded Libya, part of the Ottoman Empire, in what became known as the
Tripoli War, overcoming resistance in October 1912. France acquiesced to
the Italian seizure of Libya in exchange for Italian recognition of Morocco’s
status as a French protectorate. Another piece of the Ottoman Empire had
been swallowed up.
Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, and Greece had formed the Balkan League
with the intention of freeing the Balkans from Ottoman rule. Encouraged by
the difficulty the Turkish army had in putting down an insurrection in Alba
nia in 1910 and by the Turkish defeat in Libya, they declared war on Turkey
in 1912. The First Balkan War lasted less than a month, with the Balkan
League emerging victorious. However, the success of the Balkan states wor
ried the Austro-Hungarian government. Russia and the Austro-Hungarian
monarchy seemed on a collision course in the Balkans. Serbia, Bulgaria, and
Greece each annexed Ottoman territory (for Greece, which increased its ter
ritory by 70 percent, this new territory included the prize port of Salonika).
Only one small chunk of the once enormous Ottoman Empire now
remained on the European side of the straits (see Map 22.2).
Yet Russia and Austria-Hungary had avoided war. New foreign ministers,
Sergei Sazonov (1861 — 1927) of Russia and Leopold Berchtold (1863—
1942) of Austria-Hungary, helped defuse the crisis. Austria-Hungary’s
goals were to see that no Balkan state became so strong that it could gen
erate nationalist agitation within its territories, and to prevent Serbia, Rus
sia’s friend, from gaining a port on the Adriatic. In the interest of peace,
Britain and France supported Austria-Hungary’s call for the creation of the
independent state of Albania on the Adriatic, which would prevent Serbia
from having its port. The German government viewed these issues as suffi
ciently grave to warrant its unconditional support for Austria-Hungary.
The Treaty of London of May 1913 divided up most of the remaining
Ottoman holdings in southeastern Europe among the Balkan states.
However, Bulgaria felt aggrieved by the fact that Serbia and Greece had
ended up with large parts of Macedonia and attacked both states. Serbia and
Greece, with the assistance of Romania and the Turks, quickly defeated Bul
garia in 1913 in the Second Balkan War. With the Peace of Bucharest, Ser
bia received the parts of what had been Ottoman Macedonia, which Bulgaria
was to have received; Greece gained more territory on the Aegean coast as
well as Crete, where Greeks had risen up against Turkish rule on two previ
ous occasions and which Greece tried to occupy in 1897 before being easily
defeated by Ottoman forces. The small Muslim state of Albania came into
existence. Serbia emerged from the Balkan Wars larger, stronger, more ambi
tious, and angry that Austria-Hungary had frustrated its quest for an Adriatic
port. It also may have emerged with the impression that there were limits to
Germany’s support for Austria-Hungary, since the German government had
at least appeared to restrain the Habsburg government’s aggressive response
to Serbia’s demand for a port.