THE SICK MAN OF EUROPE 127The victorious Russians, finally restrained by the Western Europeans,
dictated the Treaty of San Stefano to the Turks on March 3, 1878. This
treaty created the Bulgarian nation, but left Macedonia, Albania, and
Thrace to the Ottoman Empire. Although the treaty ended the fighting, it
was not a success. The West did not want the newly formed Bulgaria to
become a Russian client state. The Treaty of Berlin, signed on July 13,
1878, cut Bulgaria’s boundaries to the territory between the Danube, ex-
cluding the Dobruja, and the rest of the Balkans, with Samokov and Kius-
tendil. Vranje, Pirot, and Nish were given to Serbia, and Turkey retained
nearly all of Macedonia. These transfers of territory were made without
any consideration of the nationalities of the people occupying those ter-
ritories, and large portions of Bulgarian-speaking peoples were cut off
from the newly forming state of Bulgaria. Macedonia had many Bulgar-
ians, as did Vranje, Pirot, and Nish, but they eventually became parts of
non-Bulgar states. Thus were laid the seeds of 100 years of discontent,
border disputes, and war that continue to this day.
The twentieth century saw a continuation of the long decline. In 1911
the Italians gobbled up as much of the North African coastal territories
as they chose, and which had not already gone to France. In October
1912, the new Bulgarian government, allied with the Greeks, Serbs, and
Montenegrins launched a successful offensive to clip off the exposed
Turkish holding north of the Bosporus.
The Turks were ill prepared for such a war. The war with Italy was
barely finished, and the Turks had little opportunity to set right the losses
inflicted on them there. The Greeks blockaded Turkish ports, while the
Bulgarians drove victoriously to within twenty-five miles of Istanbul. The
Turks collapsed, defeated in a few weeks. In December a peace conference
was convened, but Turkey was unwilling to surrender Adrianople, and
Bulgaria insisted on it. The peace conference ended and the war resumed,
with the Bulgarians, supported by 60,000 Serbians, pressing the siege of
Adrianople. The city was stormed on March 26. The fighting ended April
23 with the surrender of Scutari.
Turkey paid a tremendous price for peace. It lost its territory in Europe
except a small enclave on the western bank of the Marmara Sea. Crete
was surrendered to Greece, as were most of the Turkish-held Aegean
islands.
The Turks might well have taken some pleasure in the events of the
next year. Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its portion of the spoils, launched a
war against its neighbors. Serbia, Romania, and Greece engaged the Bul-
garian army and the war went badly for the aggressor. When it ended,
Bulgaria had lost. Southern Dobruja, which had belonged to Bulgaria