The Balkans is a large European peninsula located between four seas: the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, the Adriatic and the Aegean. Prior to World War I, the Balkan land mass contained a cluster of nations, kingdoms and provinces, including Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Bosnia. Political instability and volatility in the Balkans, particularly in the relationship between Serbia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, became a pivotal factor in the outbreak of World War I.
Strategic location
At the turn of the century, the Balkans was less populated and less economically developed than western Europe. The region was dominated by agriculture, with good farmland but few industries or known natural resources. Because of this, it was not highly prized by Europe’s Great Powers in economic terms.
Of greater interest was the Balkan peninsula’s geographic location. Situated at the crossroads of three major empires – Ottoman, Russian and Austro-Hungarian – and with access to several accessible and busy waterways, the Balkans were strategically important.
Because of its location the Balkans had, for centuries, served as a gateway between East and West. It was an area of cultural and mercantile exchange and, consequently, a melting pot of ethnicities and people.
The ‘Eastern Question’
The Balkans underwent significant change and disorder in the late 19th century. A good deal of this was caused by the deterioration and weakening of the Ottoman Empire, a wealthy imperial power that had dominated the region for centuries.
At its peak, the Ottoman Empire had ruled most of eastern Europe, including the Balkan states. By the late 1800s, however, the Ottomans were in retreat. In this century, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria all achieved independence from Ottoman rule.
Western European powers, particularly Britain, France, Germany and Russia, maintained a strong interest in the region, chiefly concerned with what might happen once the Ottoman Empire disintegrated. They referred to this as the ‘Eastern Question’ and developed their own foreign policy objectives.
Russia, for instance, hoped to expand its territory by moving into the Balkans and other areas formerly under Ottoman rule. The Russian navy, with its ports on the Black Sea, coveted access to or even control of the Bosphorus, a strait of water that provided shipping access to the Mediterranean. Britain was opposed to Russian expansion into the Mediterranean and the Middle East, so wanted the Ottoman Empire to remain intact to provide a buffer against the Russians. Germany hoped to acquire bankrupt Ottoman regions as vassal states, possibly even as colonies.
“The region’s rising nationalist tensions and dizzying ethnic diversity confounded all attempts to find lasting solutions to the seemingly endless conflicts… European diplomats understood that ethnic, economic and political connections between Balkan groups and several of the Great Powers meant that a conflict in this region could easily expand… Few Europeans expected [the assassination of Franz Ferdinand] to lead to a large war, although another Balkan war was a distinct possibility… Most Europeans expected diplomacy and cooler heads to prevail, as they had so often in the recent past.”
Michael S. Neiberg, historian
The Balkan wars
In 1912, several Balkan nations, incited by Russia, signed a series of military alliances to form the so-called Balkan League. The purpose of this coalition was to wage war on the Ottomans and drive them out of eastern Europe entirely. The League declared war in October 1912 and, despite fractures within their alliance, the Balkan states emerged victorious after just eight months of fighting.
In June 1913, Bulgaria launched a surprise attack on its former Balkan League allies, in what was little more than an opportunistic grab for territory. The Bulgarians were defeated by the Greeks, Serbians and Romanians in barely a month. The Treaty of Bucharest (August 1913) penalised Bulgaria severely, leaving it frustrated and hostile towards its neighbours. The Serbs, victorious in both Balkan Wars, were the main beneficiary – their nation almost doubled in size, with the acquisition of Kosovo and parts of Macedonia and Albania.
The two Balkan wars forced the Great Powers to revisit their foreign policy in the region – especially Russia, which was now dependent on Serbia as a buffer against Austro-Hungarian aggression.
Nationalists mobilise
Serbia’s territorial gains had two significant outcomes, both of which contributed to the outbreak of World War I. The first of these was a significant rise in Serbian nationalism. Several Serb nationalist groups had formed in the early 1900s and continued to grow over the next decade. Their primary aim was to free Serbia from foreign control and influence, particularly that of Austria-Hungary.
In 1908, the Austro-Hungarians formally annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina. This roused nationalist movements in the region. Groups like the Narodna Odbrana (‘People’s Defence’), Crna Ruka (‘Black Hand’) and Mlada Bosna (‘Young Bosnia’) all formed between 1908-1911 and sought to drive out the Austro-Hungarians from their regions.
Most of these groups were encouraged by Russian agents, as well as individuals in the Serbian government, public service and military. Their activities revolved around political agitation or the production of anti-Austrian propaganda – but some trained for and plotted acts of terrorism. Their most telling act was the killing of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in June 1914 by a teenaged member of Crna Ruka, Gavrilo Princip.
Austria-Hungary concerned
Another profound consequence of Serbian expansion was that it threatened the stability of Austro-Hungary. The Hapsburg empire had already surrendered significant territory to the Italians and the Russians in the 1870s. The developments in the Balkans in 1912-13 seemed to hint at even more losses.
To prevent this, Austro-Hungarian generals began talking tough about Serbia. While the dual monarchy’s military strength and equipment lagged behind those of Germany, its commanders were confident that they could easily vanquish the troublesome Serbs.
The ageing Austrian emperor, Franz Josef, was not keen on war and was reluctant to place his cherished military at risk. But the assassination of his nephew and his heir, along with the ‘blank cheque’ offered by the German kaiser, roused the old man to action. Otto von Bismarck’s 1888 prediction about a future European war – that it would “start with some damn foolish thing in the Balkans” – was about to be proved correct.
1. The Balkans was a large peninsula in south-eastern Europe, occupied by a cluster of nations and sandwiched between the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires.
2. The location of the Balkans – between Europe and Asia, between the Black Sea and Mediterranean – made the region strategically important and drew European attention there.
3. The Balkan nations and kingdoms were also subject to political volatility, some serving as a hotbed of ethnic and nationalist tensions.
4. The Balkans were disrupted by two wars in 1912-13 and consequent territorial redistribution that caused alarm in Austria-Hungary and fuelled nationalist movements in Serbia.
5. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in the Balkan city of Sarajevo provided the Austro-Hungarian government with a pretext for crushing Serbian nationalism, something it had long desired.
Citation information
Title: ‘The Balkans’
Authors: Jennifer Llewellyn, Steve Thompson
Publisher: Alpha History
URL: https://alphahistory.com/worldwar1/balkans/
Date published: August 31, 2018
Date updated: November 10, 2024
Date accessed: June 1, 2025
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