Pre-WWI Conflicts: Russo-Japanese, Italo-Turkish, Balkan Wars

[00:00:00]A group of Japanese warships slips silently  through the night towards their unsuspecting prey. The Pacific fleet is at anchor, not  realizing that Japan is about to launch a sneak attack to wipe out their main naval base  and expand Japan’s influence in Asia. But it’s not 1941 – it's 1904, and the fleet in danger  is Russian. The war that is about to break out will see dramatic sieges, the largest  land battle in history up to that time, machine guns and modern artillery slaughter  thousands, and one of the most crushing naval victories of all time. Japan will  be vaulted to Great Power status, while Russia will quake with revolution.  It’s World War Zero, the Russo-Japanese War.

[00:00:50]Hi, I’m Jesse Alexander and welcome to The  Great War. By the late 19th century, Japan had emerged as a modern power after centuries  of isolation. Under the Meiji Restoration, the government prioritized the adoption  of western science, dress, and military technology. The pace of change astonished  outsiders like journalist George Rittner: “In less than twenty years Japan  has acquired the knowledge it has taken us centuries to learn.” (Paine 49) Japanese leaders decided to put the country’s new advantages to use and defeated Imperial China in  the Sino-Japanese War of 1894. Japan was the now the strongest power in East Asia, and this new  status led to rivalries with the European Great Powers – especially Russia. After its defeat in  the Crimean War in the 1850s, the Russian Empire turned its attention to further expansion in the  Far East. The city of VladivostOk was founded in 1860 and its very name made Russian intentions  clear: “Lord of the East.” From 1894, Tsar Nicholas II tried to increase Russian influence in  Manchuria and Korea despite the opposition of some ministers. After the Sino-Japanese war, Russian  and the other European powers forced Japan to give up the strategic naval base at Port Arthur, which  Russia then forced the Chinese to lease to it.

[00:02:14]Russian troops also participated in suppressing  the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900-1903, and stayed in Manchuria afterwards. To Japanese leaders, the situation was intolerable. In their eyes, Russia was  threatening Korea and Japan itself – a so-called “dagger pointed at the heart of Japan.”  So Japan went looking for allies, and found one in Great Britain. The British were worried about  potential Russian expansion towards British India, so in 1902 Japan and the United Kingdom formed  an alliance. This agreement meant that Russia and Japan would face each other one-on-one if it  came to war. The weak emperors of China and Korea decided it would be best to remain neutral  even if fighting broke out on their soil.

[00:03:01]So by 1904 Russian and Japanese ambitions  in the Far East had reached breaking point.

[00:03:07]After brief negotiations failed, Japan began  to prepare its new army and navy for war.

[00:03:14]In 1904, 82 percent of Japan’s national budget  went to the military, which had grown to around 400,000 men. The army modelled itself on the  Prussian General Staff, prioritized education, leadership, and morale. They also tried to replace  old clan loyalties with Japanese patriotism: “The principal duty of soldiers is  loyalty to Sovereign and Country.

[00:03:38]It improbable that anyone born in this  country will be wanting in patriotism; but for soldiers this virtue is so essential  that unless a man is strong in patriotism he will be unfit for service… [Remember] always  that duty is heavier than a mountain […] while death is lighter than a feather.” (Hamby 344) The Imperial Japanese Navy modelled itself on Britain’s Royal Navy and boasted state-of-the-art,  British-built capital ships. In 1904, it had the fourth biggest fleet in the world,  including 6 battleships and 6 battle cruisers. Britain also cooperated with Japan in  intelligence, and the Japense built an effective network of informants in the Russian Far East. Meanwhile Russia’s military was stagnating. There were some quality units in its 1 million strong  army, but only 150,000 of these were in the Far East. The vast majority of the conscripts were  poorly trained, motivated, and led. The officer corps was still the product of aristocratic  favoritism, and non-noble officers were rare since they were considered politically unreliable . The situation was no better in the navy – many sailors came from landlocked provinces with little  maritime experience, and they complained that the officers didn’t even know their names. In Port  Arthur and Vladivostok it had 7 battleships and 11 cruisers, but these ships were of an  older design than those of the Japanese.

[00:05:09]So the Japanese set out to plan  the coming war, and their strategic thinking was dominated by the navy. Its first  strike would be planned in minute detail.

[00:05:19]Japan’s war plan was to defeat the Russian  fleet, win decisive battles on land, and then achieve a favorable peace deal.  Russia’s financial and manpower resources were far greater than Japan’s, so the Japanese  wanted to win a short war to force the Russians out of Korea and China’s Liaodong Peninsula. The Japanese high command planned to land troops in Korea, and push north into Manchuria.  Further landings would cut off Port Arthur and open another line of advance from the Liaodong  Peninsula. Japanese troops would then join forces for a major battle and push the Russians  back to Harbin. The Japanese hoped that at that point the United States would intervene  diplomatically and broker a peace treaty.

[00:06:05]But for any of this to work, Japan’s maritime  supply and logistical routes must be secured, this meant crippling the Russian  navy in a surprise attack.

[00:06:16]The Russian government, on the other hand,  didn’t plan on war with Japan – in spite of encouragement from the German Kaiser.  Saint Petersburg was convinced of its racial superiority and the Tsar assumed war would  break out only if he decided to start one.

[00:06:32]The Russian chain of command in the Far  East was equally unprepared. Minister of War Aleksey KuropAtkin was in charge of the  military, but in Manchuria he was subordinate to Viceroy YevgEni AleksEyev, and the two  did not get along. In case of war with Japan, Kuropatkin wanted to retreat and wait for  reinforcements from Europe. Alekseyev wanted to stand and fight, and his opinion counted for  more since he was the Tsar’s favorite uncle.

[00:07:00]Japan was ready, and declared war on Russian  on February 8, 1904. Before the declaration arrived in Saint Petersburg, the Japanese  Combined Fleet arrived at Port Arthur.

[00:07:13]The Russian Pacific Fleet was not overly  worried about a Japanese attack. The ships had anchored outside the main harbor  and some torpedo nets had been laid, but few ships were on full alert and many sailors  were ashore in Port Arthur’s bars – there was even a party on the flagship PetropAvlovsk. Admiral Togo was worried that Russian coastal batteries might put his irreplaceable battleships  at risk, so he planned a night-time sneak attack.

[00:07:41]The capital ships waited at some distance while  10 destroyers armed with torpedoes crept up on the unsuspecting Russian ships in the darkness.  At 11:30PM, the first four Japanese destroyers launched their torpedoes from a distance of  650 meters. 6 missed their targets, but 2 hit the cruisers PallAda and RetvizAn. The Russians  opened fire on the second group of destroyers, forcing them to fire their torpedoes from  1.5 km away. A Russian sailor recalled the moment the battleship TsesarEvich was hit: “At 11.38 p.m. the commander heard the order “torpedo defense” in the cabin. To get  dressed and on deck was a matter of two minutes. During this they opened fire (…).  Barely on deck, the commander recognized two Japanese torpedo boats at the rear (…) and a  torpedo aiming at the ship from port. A second later the explosion occurred.” (Jacob 29) Togo ordered his fleet to close in, but the Russian coastal batteries soon forced the Japanese  vessels back. No Japanese ships were lost, but only a few Russian ships were damaged and  all could be repaired. Psychologically though, the attack had shaken the Russians and achieved  its strategic goal, since the cautious Russian commanders ordered their fleet to stay in Port  Arthur. This gave the Japanese a free hand to continue landing troops as planned. In fact before the Port Arthur attack, the Japanese started landing 3000 troops  at in Korea at the international port of Chemulpo. Two Russian warships watched closely but  couldn’t intervene in a neutral port. Eventually, in contravention of international law,  the Japanese told the Russian ships they had to leave the harbor or face destruction. The  Russians faced impossible odds, but hoisted their battle flags and engaged the Japanese. British  captain Captain Lewis Bayly witnessed the scene: “Here were 694 Russian officers and men going to  almost certain death - for no one expected them, or at any rate many of them, to survive  the most unequal conflict - and yet they had their bands playing and were cheering,  and their cheers were heartily returned by about four hundred British officers and men,  who felt very sorry for them, and admired their pluck in giving battle.” (Warner 192) The waiting Japanese defeated the Russians in the Battle of Chemulpo Bay, and the  Russian commanders scuttled their ships.

[00:10:16]The Russo-Japanese war began at sea, but  without a decisive engagement. Instead, the focus of the war now shifted to the land.

[00:10:24]The Japanese First Army landed 42,000 men in  Korea, and planned to land more at DAlniy to cut off Port Arthur. For the additional landing, First  Army would have to push back the 19,000 men of the Russian Eastern Detachment along the Yalu and Ai  rivers. The first clashes pitted Russian Cossacks against the Japanese in wintery conditions.  Despite the Cossacks’ fierce reputation, military translator Usa Ogihiko was unimpressed: “The Cossack army is an army in name only. In fact they are nothing more than trick riders.  There are several hundred thousand Cossacks, but if all of them were to come together, what  would they be able to do? They are useless soldiers in a war.” (Hosokawa Gentarō, pp.141-2) The fast-flowing Yalu river was a natural defensive position, but the Russian chain of  command was disorganized. Kuropatkin ordered local commander General Mikhail ZasUlich to  retreat if attacked, while Alekseyev told him to stand firm. Zasulich chose to stay and fight. The Japanese dug artillery pits to hide their guns, and scouts disguised as Korean fishermen  reconnoitered Russian positions. The Russians, on the other hand, moved around openly and  didn’t camouflage their large artillery carriages. Japanese engineers also built a large  bridge in plain sight of the Russian artillerymen, who opened fire and exposed their gun positions  even further. Japanese counter-battery fire from concealed guns then knocked out many Russian  positions before the main attack began.

[00:12:04]Zasulich expected the Japanese to attack near the  wide, shallow mouth of the river, within range of their naval guns. Instead, the Japanese used  what would become a common tactic in the war: 12th Division crossed the Yalu quite some  distance from the Russian flank. Zasulich thought this was a feint and held his position,  which allowed the 12th Division to capture the high ground and cross the Ai river after fierce  fighting. Japanese Captain Takemine recalled: “The fierce battle lasted three hours, and  all of those who fell were killed or wounded when crossing the Ai River. It is said that the  soldiers, standing in the midst of the smoke and bullets, were in high spirits, and with a vigor  that could never be seen in ordinary training, they chanted military songs in one voice  and kept pace as they advanced. All is as it should be.” (Hosokawa Gentarō, p.102) With the Russian left flank collapsing, on May 1 the Japanese launched a general  assault in the center across the Yalu. They drove the Russians from their trenches,  where the Japanese artillery fired on them from the heights. Russian forces  retreated to the gorges behind the river, which was also a defensible position if it weren’t  for the confusion in the Russian command. Japanese poured fire onto the Russian columns and the  12th Division began to surround them. Lacking clear orders, some Russian units surrendered. The Battle of the Yalu river cost around 2000 Russian and 900 Japanese lives. Most Russian  forces had escaped, but their most important positions in Manchuria were lost. The Japanese  landings at Dalniy went ahead, and it seemed the war was going Japan’s way – foreign banks  began to loan Japan much-needed cash as well.

[00:13:58]After the battle on the Yalu,  the Japanese were in position to move on the Russian naval base at  Port Arthur from the landward side.

[00:14:06]The arrival of Admiral StepAn MakArov at Port  Arthur seemed to give the Russians some hope as he led aggressive naval sorties against the  blockading Japanese fleet. But in April 1904 the flagship Petropavlovsk hit a Japanese mine and  sank with all hands – including the admiral. To make matters worse, the Japanese Third Army moved  up from Dalniy and besieged Port Arthur from the landward side. Japanese commander General  Nogi, had captured the town in one day in the Sino-Japanese War, but in 1904 it would be  a harder nut to crack. With concrete defences, barbed wire, machineguns, and hand grenades, the  Russian garrison inflicted heavy losses on the first Japanese assaults. Nogi ordered suicidal  human wave attacks, known as nikudan kogeki, or ‘human bullets’. In a single assault,  the Japanese lost 16,000 men. Buddhist chaplain Mamiya Eijū recalled the carnage: “Some of them were missing half of their bodies, some had one arm and one leg removed, some had  their heads torn off with only the skin attached, and some had their shoes filled with the flesh  of their feet and were abandoned. When burned, they look like blackened rotten fish, and  you couldn't know whose son or husband they once were. No illustration of the  Buddhist hells has ever portrayed such cruelties.” (Takagi Suiu, Jinsei hachimenkan, 940) The Japanese government hid the scale of the losses from the public. With Port Arthur under threat, the Tsar ordered Admiral WIlgelm VItgeft  (Wilhelm Withoeft) to take his ships and make a run to join the cruiser force at  Vladivostok. Vitgeft was not happy about the order, but on August 10 the Pacific Fleet  steamed out with 6 battleships, 4 cruisers, and 8 destroyers. Admiral Togo’s Combined Fleet  had 4 battleships and 2 cruisers and smaller ships. Togo had previously lost 2 battleships  to mines so he was reluctant to take risks, but he could not allow the Russian fleets to  join. The Japanese first tried to sail across the front of the Russians in a maneuver known as  “crossing the T,” but ended up behind the Russian ships. The Japanese chased the Russians while  the fleets exchanged fire, and a heavy Russian 12-inch shell hit Togo’s flagship Mikasa. The Mikasa withdrew, but just as the Russians seemed to be slipping away, two Japanese  12-inch shells smashed into the Russian flagship TsesarEvich. Admiral Vitgeft was killed  and the ship jammed in a port-ward turn. The Russian fleet panicked and lost cohesion, but  was saved from disaster when the battleship RetvizAn charged at the Japanese. Pacific Fleet  limped back to Port Arthur and decided to wait for reinforcements. Those reinforcements  were the Baltic Fleet, which was re-named the 2nd Pacific Fleet and set off on an epic  8-month journey around the world in October.

[00:17:17]So the Japanese had bottled up  the Russian Pacific Fleet in Port Arthur and had the town surrounded.  The Baltic Fleet was on the way, but before it arrived the fate of Port  Arthur and the Pacific Fleet was decided.

[00:17:19]In a series of battles throughout the summer  of 1904, the Japanese army gradually drove Russian forces away from Port Arthur to  defensive positions around the Manchurian town of Mukden. Then in January 1905, Port  Arthur capitulated and Japanese artillery sunk the Russian Pacific Fleet in the  harbor. The string of defeats caused much tenson amongst the Russians, including  between Generals Samsonov and Rennenkampf, whose relations would not improve by the time  they commanded at the Battle of Tannenberg in 1914. Interestingly a German military  observer of this campaign was Max Hoffmann who later helped met the Russian generals again  at the same battle during the First World War.

[00:18:03]Japan had won a string of important victories  so far, but they had suffered heavy casualties.

[00:18:10]Russia’s much larger reserves meant  it could replace its losses by sending fresh troops east on the Trans-Siberian  Railway. Now that Port Arthur had fallen, five Japanese armies could join for the decisive  battle their army staff had envisioned to avoid a long war. Japanese commander General Ōyama Iwao  knew the Russians were planning a counterattack, so decided to strike first at Mukden. For the coming battle the Japanese concentrated 200,000 men, 7,300 cavalry and 1000  artillery pieces. The three Russians armies had around 275,000 men, 16,000 cavalry and 1,200  artillery pieces. The Japanese however, had about twice as many machine guns as the Russians. Ōyama planned to once again outflank the Russian position, and trap them in a pincer movement  so that this time they could not escape. On February 17, the Japanese Army of the Yalu began  to move through the hills of the Russian eastern flank. A strong artillery barrage pinned  the Russian center and Kuropatkin assumed the main Japanese thrust was in the east. He  shifted units across the 100km-long front, which weakened his western flank. And it was in  the west that the Japanese Third Army launched its primary effort. General Nogi swung around Mukden  to threaten the Russians’ lines of retreat. German military observer Captain von Beckmann recorded  the Japanese use of machine guns in the advance: “The Russian fire was silenced, but broke  out again whenever the machine gun fire slackened. The Japanese infantry used these  pauses in the enemy’s fire to press forward to close range under cover of their own  machine gun fire.” (Ivanov & Jowett 10) Russian troops began to panic. Officers tried to  organize counterattacks, but the chaos turned into a rout. Fleeing Russian troops burned supplies and  looted supplies of vodka. Colonel Anton Denikin, who would later lead the Whites in the  Russian Civil War, recalled the chaos: “Individual soldiers, sometimes in small groups,  then scattering again, helplessly looked for a way out of the trap […] The whole field, as  far as the eye could see, was littered with abandoned boxes and heaps of luggage – even from  the commander-in-chief's baggage train. Wagons and carts, ambulances, and riderless horses all rushed  about in different directions […] For the first time in the war, saw panic.” (Деникин 197-198) Despite the disaster, Kuropatkin was able to put together a rearguard to prevent total defeat.  The fighting had been hard, and the Japanese were once again too exhausted to pursue the  weakened Russians. The Japanese had won, but most of the Russian army had escaped and  Japanese casualties were an unsustainable 25%.

[00:21:18]The battle of Mukden was likely the largest  in history up to that point in terms of troop numbers and ammunition expended. The Japanese  fired as much ammo at Mukden as the entire German army in the 6-month-long Franco-Prussian  War – and the Russian used even more.

[00:21:37]The Japanese were again victorious at Mukden, but the land war had turned into a  meat-grinder they could not continue for long. It was up to the navy to bring the  victory that Japan so desperately needed.

[00:21:51]The voyage of the Russian Baltic Fleet had  taken it around the world, but by the time it reached the theatre of war in May 1905 it  was in a poor state. Its 29,000km journey had seen it accidentally fire on British fishing  trawlers and face mutinies, refuelling problems and mechanical issues. Its commander, Admiral  ZinOvy “Mad Dog” RozhEstvensky, even referred to some of his older ships as “self-sinkers.” The Japanese fleet was well informed of the Russians’ journey, and used the time to make  repairs and train. Admiral Togo planned to ambush the Russian ships as they passed  through the 50-km wide Tsushima strait on their way to Vladivostok. Torpedo boats  would harass the Russians at night, and the main Japanese Fleet would strike the next day. When the Japanese sighted the Russian fleet early on May 27, the sea was too rough for torpedo  boats, so it would be an all-or-nothing attack with the main fleet. That afternoon the  Japanese fleet centred on 4 battleships, 8 armored cruisers and 4 protected cruisers  crossed in front of the Russian force led by 8 battleships and 10 cruisers, and  performed a bold u-turn on its port side.

[00:23:09]For Admiral Akiyama Saneyuki this was  the culmination of years of preparation: “The navy had been built up through many years of  painstaking [work], but it all came to a head in a mere 30 minute maneuver. The decade I spent  training in tactics and strategy was also all for the sake of those 30 minutes. […] It  could not have happened without a decade of preparation, so we could think of it as a  decade-long war.” (Akiyama Saneyuki, 79-81) The Japanese ships steamed obliquely towards  the leading Russian vessels and opened fire on the battleships. Both sides scored hits,  and the Mikasa was badly hit. The Russians had the heavier guns, but the Japanese  had a superior rate of fire and better fire control. The angle of attack also meant the  Russians could also fire from their foreturrets while the Japanese could fire broadsides  using all available guns. The effect was devastating, as Admiral RozhEstvensky recalled: “The paint burnt with a clear flame on the steel surfaces; boats, ropes, hammocks and woodwork  caught fire; cartridges in the ready racks ignited; upper works and light guns were swept  away; turrets jammed.” (Corbett Volume II 249) In the first hour of battle, the Russian flagship  SuvOrov was hit and Rozhestvensky wounded. Shortly afterwards Japanese shells sank the battleship  OslyAbya - the first modern ship to be sunk by gunnery alone. A Russian sailor on a nearby  destroyer watched his comrades abandon ship: “The whole of the starboard side  as far as the keel was laid bare, her bright plating looked like the wet scales of  some sea monster; and suddenly, as if by command, all the men who had crowded to the starboard  side jumped down upon these scales… Most of them were dashed against the bilge keel and fell  crippled into the sea. In the water they formed an unimaginable mass… and the enemy’s shell never  ceased the whole time from bursting over them. A few more seconds and the OslyAbya disappeared  beneath the water.” (Corbett Volume II 253) The battleship AleksAndr TrEtyi charged  the Japanese line with all guns blazing, which brought a temporary reprieve for the  hard-pressed Russians. At 7:00PM the battle started up again, and damaged Russian ships were  easy prey. The Japanese sank the Aleksandr III, then the battleship BorodinO. As night  fell, Togo sent in his torpedo boats.

[00:25:54]The next morning, only 2 Russian battleships  remained and the Japanese had surrounded the remnants of the Baltic Fleet. As there  was no hope of reaching Vladivostok, the Russian fleet surrendered. The Japanese  victory at Tsushima was staggering. 34 of 38 Russian ships were sunk, captured, or interned  in neutral ports, including all the battleships.

[00:26:19]About 5000 Russian sailors were killed. Japanese  losses were three torpedo boats, and 110 dead.

[00:26:27]The Russian navy was all but gone, and Tsar  Nicholas II agreed to negotiate peace terms.

[00:26:34]The United States mediated the peace talks in  New Hampshire, and President Teddy Roosevelt was heavily involved. Both belligerents needed  to end the war quickly: Japan was victorious but militarily exhausted, and revolutionary  unrest was brewing in Russia. Japanese troops occupied SakhalIn Island in July to pressure  the Russians, while the Russians sent fresh divisions to Manchuria to pressure the Japanese.  Eventually, the Treaty of Portsmouth was signed on September 5, 1905. Russia would withdraw  from Manchuria and the Liaodong Peninsula, and grant most of the railway concessions to  Japan. South Sakhalin would remain Japanese, while Russia recognized Japanese dominance  over nominally independent Korea. Russia, however, refused to pay a war indemnity to  now-bankrupt Japan. President Roosevelt received the Nobel Peace Prize for his  efforts, with the citation referring to Japan as “one of the world’s great powers.” In Japan, shock at the supposedly lenient treaty led to riots and martial law – but the public was  not aware of how tenuous the Japanese position had become. The treaty was not as controversial in  Russia, but the defeat strengthened opposition to the autocratic regime and helped spark the  1905 revolution that nearly toppled the Tsar.

[00:28:00]The Russo-Japanese War was a deadly conflict:  about 50,000 Russian and 80,000 Japanese soldiers died in combat or of disease. It also had a  global impact, hence the nickname World War Zero. Colonized peoples took inspiration from the  defeat of a European power, while western military observers noted the destructive power of modern  weapons like the machine gun. It weakened Russia, made Japan into a major power, and caused some to  conclude that modern wars could be won relatively quickly and decisively – developments that would  cast a long shadow in the years leading to 1914.

[00:28:43]Mass use of artillery, a grinding strategic  stalemate, the first use of combat aircraft and naval operations in the Dardanelles! I am not  talking about the First World War, but a war just before it that marked a major turning point  in European geopolitics and in the history of warfare. I t destabilized the Balkans, and moved  the Great Powers of Europe further down the road of rivalry, distrust, and militarization.  It’s the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-1912.

[00:29:19]Hi, I’m Jesse Alexander and Welcome to the Great  War. Following Italian unification in 1871, nationalist movements in the new Kingdom continued  to call for further expansion. Under the banner of “New Italy” nationalists dreamed of the  reconstitution of the Roman Empire through imperial expansion in the Mediterranean.  But it was Britain and France who ended up expanding their influence in the region in the  late 19th century. Italian imperialists looked on with dismay in 1882 as France took control of  Tunisia and Britain occupied Egypt. The Moroccan crisis of summer 1911 was a clear sign that  imperial competition in the Mediterranean was still alive and well. This left Ottoman Libya (the  provinces of Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Fezzan) as the one viable Italian target in North Africa,  and some Italians worried the French or British might take it before they had the chance. Italy  did expand its soft power via banks, schools, and hospitals in Libya, but diplomats like  Tommaso Tittoni called for military action: “Tripolitania is necessary to Italy for the  Mediterranean balance. We could wait if there were not the danger that we might lose it,  and indeed we waited patiently until such danger appeared on the horizon. Today this  danger begins to take shape, and with the passage of time it will grow more severe. Thus the  occupation of Tripolitania imposes itself upon us as an unavoidable necessity.” (Caccamo 28) The Ottomans knew about Italy’s ambitions and tried to avoid the worst by granting Italy  economic concessions. But these offers couldn’t hide the empire’s weakness: it had suffered  decades of economic and military decline, and political divisions caused by the Young Turk  revolution of 1908 and failed counter-coup by the Sultan in 1909. Ottoman Minister to Rome  Seifeddin Bey understood things with Italy were unlikely to end at the negotiating table: “The concessions that we make to the Italians in our African provinces will do nothing but  increase their appetite and offer them occasion to intervene… Italian appetite is not satiable,  and whatever concessions or facilitations will be fatally followed by others. In this way, the  sacrifices that we might undertake will have no outcome but to represent temporary satisfactions,  without lasting effects.” (Caccamo 24) With tensions rising in 1911, Italian  Prime Minister Giovani Giolitti and Foreign Minister Antonio di San Giuliano  went on a public relations and diplomatic offensive to win over nationalist support. The  press reported on Ottoman supposed insults to Italian commercial interests and citizens  in Libya, which were grossly exaggerated.

[00:32:14]Giolitti though, was still cautious: “The Nationalists imagine that Tripoli is the territory of a poor black simpleton  whom a European state can dethrone as he wishes. But Tripoli is a province of the  Ottoman Empire and the Ottoman Empire is a great European power.” (Vandervort 14) Despite his hesitations, Giolitti felt he was running out of time. Not only was there the  danger of British or French action, but Italy’s allies were against weakening the Ottomans.  Austria-Hungary wanted stability in the Balkans, and Germany wanted a strong Ottoman Empire in  case of war with the Entente. So the Italian government struck a deal with the French: France  wouldn’t interfere in Libya, and Italy wouldn’t interfere in Tunisia and Morocco. Meanwhile the  Ottomans had actually moved troops away from Libya to deal with a rebellion in Yemen, though they  did bring in weapons to arm the locals in Libya in anticipation of the coming conflict. On September 27, 1911, Giolitti gave the Ottomans an ultimatum based on supposed  bias against Italian business interests: agree to Italian occupation of Libya  within 24 hours, or face military action.

[00:33:29]So Italy had thrown down the gauntlet in  its quest for imperial glory in Libya. The Ottoman government offered some further  concessions, but the Italians rejected them and the ultimatum expired on  September 28 – it would be war.

[00:33:45]The Italo-Turkish War began with a somewhat  reluctant-sounding announcement from Giolitti: “The Italian Government, therefore, finding itself  forced to safeguard its dignity and its interests, has decided to proceed to the military occupation  of Tripoli and Cyrenaica. This solution is the only one which Italy can accept…” (Hindmarsh, 112) The Italian military now had to arrange an invasion on extremely short notice, since  they weren’t fully aware of government plans until September. All the same between  October 3 and 21, 1911 25,000 Italian troops landed along the coast and captured Tripoli,  Tobruk, Berna, Benghazi and Homs. At first, Ottoman resistance was generally light  since they were outgunned and outnumbered.

[00:34:33]The Italian landings had been successful, but  advancing into the Libyan hinterland would prove far more difficult. The Italians knew so  little about the interior, some of their planning documents even used ancient sources like Caesar  for topographic and demographic information.

[00:34:51]Italian leaders hoped that by seizing the towns,  they could force the Ottomans to surrender.

[00:34:56]Instead, the Ottomans simply withdrew in good  order beyond the range of Italian naval guns.

[00:35:02]As Italian soldier Innocenzo Bianchi wrote,  the invasion barely seemed to be a war at all: “I believe that it is not real war but little  attacks and soon we shall overcome... Overall I’m very happy and you’ll see that it will  be finished very soon.” (Wilcox - The Italian Soldiers' experience in Libya, 1911-12 - 45) Bianchi was killed in action just six days later.

[00:35:25]One factor the Italian plan had not taken into  account was the local Arab population. Italian planners assumed the Arabs would welcome  them as liberators from Ottoman oppression, and did not expect local resistance  – which turned out to be a mistake.

[00:35:42]So by late October, the Italians were feeling  confident – they had captured the coast, and the Ottomans had seemingly  fled the field. But instead of capitulating as the Italians expected,  the Ottomans and Arabs made common cause.

[00:35:56]Militarily, the Italians seemed to be in  a strong position. The Italian conscripts brought with them several new pieces of  equipment, like their modern grey-green uniform and the Modello 91 magazine rifle. Both  of these pieces of kit, with some modifications, would continue in service until 1945. The Italians  also had the support of the large naval guns of the Italian ships offshore, as well as Maxim  machine-guns and German-built Krupp artillery.

[00:36:27]Estimates on the number of  Ottoman troops vary greatly: there were probably somewhere between  2500 and 5000 Ottoman regulars and 20 to 35,000 Arab tribesmen under the command of  local Sheikhs of the Senusi Sufi order. They also had German artillery but had no heavy  naval guns to back them up. Their Model 1893 Mauser was considered superior to that of the  Italians because of its larger calibre. British doctor Ernest Griffin was with the Turkish  Red Crescent in Libya and explained why: “The injuries produced by the small [6.5 mm]  conical bullets used by the Italians were scarcely ever severe, and if the wounds had  not been infected … we had the satisfaction of soon sending our Arab patients back to  their duties in the field.” (Griffin 62) Ottoman forces identified what they felt  was a weakness in the fortified Italian line near Tripoli. Italian trenches in this  area did not run through the usual scrubland, but directly through an oasis, which could provide  cover for advancing Ottoman troops. Additionally, the Italians had not built many fortifications  around the settlement of Shar al-Shatt.

[00:37:39]On October 23rd, supported by  diversionary attacks to the south, Ottoman forces attacked a 6-kilometre stretch of  front between Fort Sidi-Messri and the sea. Around 1,800 men of the 11th Bersaglieri Regiment were  awakened at 7am by the sound of gunfire and dogs barking. As the Italians scrambled to man their  positions, local Arabs came out of Shar al-Shatt and attacked them from behind. Italian soldier Evangelista Salvatore recalled the shock: “The Saraceni seemed to rise out of the earth on every side of us:” (Stephenson) Italian reinforcements arrived late and eventually beat back the Ottomans – but Italian losses  were heavy. At least 21 officers and 482 men were killed, including 250 who were massacred  in a cemetery after they’d surrendered. Some of the bodies had been mutilated. Officially, the Italian General Staff downplayed the setback: “Our losses were not light, but justified by the result, and showed that the  morale of our troops was excellent:” (Tittoni, 29) The Italian response on the ground was  swift and brutal, as they executed around 4,000 Arabs by firing squad in the following days. Shar al-Shatt and other guerilla raids caused the Italian government to increase the expeditionary  force to 100,000 men, far more than planned – they even brought in askaris from Eritrea.  Giolitti also escalated the war politically, and announced the full annexation of Libya on  November 5th. This was mostly a symbolic gesture, since the Italians only controlled the  coast, but historian Bruce Vandevort argues it ensured that the war would continue: “In retrospect, [the annexation] appears to have virtually assured that the Turks would have no  option but to continue fighting.” (Vandervort, 20) The Battle of Shar al-Shatt was a major  psychological blow for Italy. They had held their position, but it was a defeat that showed  the war would not be as quick as they’d hoped.

[00:39:52]By the late fall of 1911, the Italo-Turkish War  had ground to a stalemate. The Ottomans couldn’t expel the Italians, but the Italians couldn’t  force a decisive battle because the Ottomans and Arabs began to wage a full-on guerilla war. Italian naval supremacy also meant the Turks couldn’t send reinforcements, but they did  manage to sneak in shipments of arms and a small group of volunteer officers, including  Enver Bey and Mustafa Kemal. Kemal made it to Libya by sailing to Egypt on a Russian ship and  disguising himself as a journalist. Despite the previous struggles the Arab tribes had with the  Ottomans, the two now worked together against the Italian invaders. Ottoman commander Enver Bey  and tribal leader Sheikh Omar al-Mukhtar committed to the guerilla strategy: keep the Italians  pinned in the coastal towns and exhaust them through attrition. Kemal, who was wounded in  the eye, operated in the Derna sector and used his 9000 men to keep 15,000 Italians busy. The Ottomans wanted to continue to dominate the Arabs, but also saw much value in  their allies, as Enver Bey expressed: “I have become the master of the situation.  Into my hands has fallen a power [the Sanusiya], a force for which the various powers  of Europe, the Italians, the French, the English spend millions to have in their hands.  Even the Khedive had tried to appropriate and employ them against us. And thus, this force has  come to me without my spending a dime.” (McCollum) Arab leader Farhat al-Zawi  made the somewhat different Arab motivations clear to a French reporter: ‘[Our men are] patriots in bare feet and rags, like your soldiers of the revolution, and  not religious fanatics […] if the Turkish government abandons us we will proclaim that it  has forfeited its right over our country. We will form the Republic of Tripolitania.’ (Stephenson) Italian commanders wanted to push into the desert, but they lacked the intelligence and logistics,  had poor desert equipment, and were vulnerable to the guerillas. So instead they advanced little by  little, digging trenches as they went – sometimes as often as every 100 meters – one British  journalist called it “purely imbecile.” In December, the Italians tried to bring the  Turks and Arabs to a decisive battle at Ain Zara, an Ottoman base on the high ground with commanding  views around Tripoli. The Italian attack opened on December 4th with around 15,000 men supported  by heavy artillery and naval guns. Two assault columns of Italian infantry advanced on  the rudimentary Ottoman trenches, with one running into some difficulty. The defenders were  forced to abandoned the trenches and were then hit hard in the open by Italian artillery fire. The Ottomans withdrew 40 kilometres to the south, but the Italian cavalry failed to surround them.  This allowed the Ottomans to escape once again, but they did leave much of their artillery behind.  The Italian authorities and government-friendly newspapers trumpeted Ain Zara as a major  victory, while journalists from neutral states were quick to point out Ain Zara was  only a few kilometres from the Italian lines.

[00:43:22]Even though the Ottomans lost at Ain Zara, they  were becoming more confident. Time appeared to be on their side, and there was always more  desert to withdraw into if need be. Meanwhile, as the Italians advanced, their morale dropped  and disease spread, as Enver Bey well knew: “... Sometimes there come deserters who say  very interesting things of the Italians. Almost everyday Italian losses from “dysentery” are about  20 men. The hospitals are full. The morale of the troops is low and all want peace.” (Childs 135) From December to March, the Italians made a few more landings to consolidated their  position and intercept Turkish gun shipments, but these actions were simply meant  to boost public support back home.

[00:44:11]As the war dragged on, Italian media  interest did not weaken. In fact, press coverage was unprecedented for a  modern conflict and one aspect grabbed headlines more than any other: the war in the air.

[00:44:25]ADDITION "On October 23rd, supported  by diversionary attacks to the south, Ottoman forces attacked a 6-kilometre stretch  of front between Fort Sidi-Messri and the sea."

[00:44:26]The Italo-Turkish War saw the first significant  wartime use of airplanes for reconnaissance and bombing. The Italian First Aeroplane Flotilla  had nine machines including Blériot and Nieuport monoplanes plus 11 pilots. On October 23rd,  Captain Carlo Piazza made the first ever official combat flight when he reconnoitered Ottoman  positions along the coast. And on November 1st, Italians made the first ever bombing raid  when pilots dropped Cipelli grenades into Ottoman camps. On October 25th, Ottoman  gunners became the first to hit an enemy combat aircraft with anti-aircraft fire. Although such fire was usually inaccurate, Captain Giuseppi Rossi experienced a close call: “We flew at an altitude of 600 metres and had covered 15 kilometres when we spotted the  first group of Arab tents. These welcomed us with such a volley of accurate fire that I had  half a mind to give up continuing the mission... At 100 metres away from the centre of the  camp I gave the second signal […] It was a wonderful sight: the bomb had erupted with the  intended effect. But the joy of this perception was severely impaired by the incessant crackle  of the volley of fire aimed at us…. I tried to climb but was unsuccessful, and so was passing  over the left side of the camp when my companion shouted that he was wounded. I had turned around  to look at him when the engine stopped and we began to descend. Happily it started again, but  we were struck by two more bullets.” ( Stephenson) Although aerial bombing grabbed public  attention, its military effects were relatively minor. Reconnaissance, whether from  fixed-wing aircraft or balloons, was far more valuable to Italian operations. The photos they  took supplemented the limited maps of the region, and on several occasions planes were able discover  and disrupt attempted Ottoman ambushes. But above all else, the Italian effort showed aircraft were  robust and reliable enough to be used in war.

[00:46:34]As the conflict dragged on into 1912,  the Italians now looked not to the air, but to the sea to bring the conflict  to an end. But as the war expanded, it inevitably clashed with the interests  of the other European Great Powers.

[00:46:49]The first targets of the Italian naval strategy  to defeat the Ottomans were in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Italy had already attacked Ottoman  ports in the area in fall 1911, but in January 1912 the Italian navy sank several Ottoman ships  and delivered weapons to rebellious anti-Ottoman groups in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. In February,  Italian and Ottoman ships fought a pitched naval battle in Beirut harbour, resulting in a decisive  Italian victory and 66 Beirut residents killed.

[00:47:22]In April 1912, the Italians also sent  a flotilla to the Dardanelles straits, a vital international shipping lane giving  access to the Ottoman capital of Constantinople.

[00:47:33]Following some inconclusive duels between  the Italian navy and Ottoman shore batteries, the Ottomans closed and mined the straits to  prevent a threat to the capital. This drew the attention of Britain and especially Russia, whose  economy depended on shipping passing through the Dardanelles. This put pressure on both the  Italians and the Ottomans, but it was the Ottomans who were forced to reopen the straits to  shipping. Austria-Hungary was also worried about the war since they wanted to keep the status quo  in the Balkans, which was also enshrined in the Triple Alliance with Germany and Italy. If the  Ottomans lost too badly, the Balkans might erupt.

[00:48:15]The Ottomans though were not able to take  advantage of the divisions among the Europeans.

[00:48:20]The Empire was diplomatically isolated, and the  Young Turk regime was badly divided between those who were still loyal to the Sultan and those who  supported the revolutionary committee of Union and Progess. In 1911 and 1912, there were 3 different  Grand Viziers and 3 different Foreign Ministers.

[00:48:41]Despite the political risks, Italian  leadership still felt in May 1912 that naval operations were the key to  victory – so much so that operations in Libya were suspended in favor of a series  of amphibious landings on Turkey’s doorstep.

[00:48:58]The Italian command now turned to the  Ottomans’ island possessions in the East Mediterranean. If they took Rhodes  and the Dodecanese, Ottoman routes to Libya and naval options would be further reduced. Admiral Carlo Rocca Rey was also thinking of the diplomatic advantages as early as October 1911: “[…] I think it might be useful for us in the current war to occupy some part of the Ottoman  Empire that will compel them to accept peace.

[00:49:28]Unfortunately we do not have a free hand and so  we cannot act, for example, on the west-coast of the Balkan peninsula, or, by forcing the  Dardanelles, go to Constantinople […] But we can […] take some island, as a bargaining  counter at least. Strategically the island of Rhodes would be most valuable...” (Stephenson) This was another risky move, since the islands were covered by the same Triple Alliance status  quo agreement as the Balkans. The Italians tried to calm Austrian fears, and eventually  Austria-Hungary agreed to a temporary occupation of the islands. And the Austrians  only allowed even that under pressure from Germany - who wanted to strengthen the triple  alliance before it came up for renewal in 1912.

[00:50:14]Between April 28th and May 21st, 1912, the  Italians seized 13 Ottoman islands in the Aegean with nearly no opposition, except  on Rhodes. The Italian gamble worked, since the occupation of the islands increased  Ottoman internal divisions between those who wanted to continue the struggle and  those who wanted a negotiated peace.

[00:50:37]So in the summer of 1912 it seemed there might be a road to the peace table,  but there were obstacles: the Italians were reluctant to compromise  and had already announced Libyan annexation, while the Ottomans expected major concessions  since they had not been fully defeated.

[00:50:56]Russian-led peace talks in May failed, and  a new round of talks began in Switzerland in June. The Ottomans were willing to  accept Libya becoming an independent state within an Italian zone of occupation.  Italian demands were far more substantial, so the Swiss talks also fell through. One Italian  diplomat put the blame on his Turkish counterpart: “[The Ottoman delegate] had in his baggage  only.... one word: autonomy” (Childs 163) But internal pressure in Italy was also  growing. The war was becoming less popular, especially among the working class, and rumours  of talks increased demands for peace. Italian soldiers were also tired of the war, and there  was unrest in the trenches and even desertions.

[00:51:44]The fact that the war was costing Italy 47%  of its total expenditure was also helping to turn the formerly pro-war newspapers against it. On July 18, the Italians tried one last action to force the Ottomans to the negotiating table.  5 specially camouflaged Italian torpedo boats snuck into the Dardanelles to attack the Turkish  fleet at anchor – not unlike the Italian motorboat attacks against the Austro-Hungarian navy a few  years later. Ottoman sentries spotted them and drove them away, but the Italian press exaggerated  the raid to make it sound like a bold strike against the heart of the enemy state. Journalist Giuseppe Bevione was not present during the attack but waxed poetic: “The water boiled around the torpedo boats from stem to stern, and jets of water flew high  as shells fell with horrible thuds, as if volcanic eruptions were flashing inexhaustibly beneath the  water […] The air was full of flashes, of flames, explosions, and splinters. Convulsive, foaming,  full of glare and reflections, the sea seemed to become a huge fiery furnace. But at the zenith  shone always the star of Italy.” (Stephenson) The Dardanelles raid marked the height of Italian  naval adventures, and peace talks started up again in August. The new Ottoman government under  Gazi Muhtar Pasha was willing to negotiate, partly because of pressure from other Powers  and the outbreak of the First Balkan War in early October. The Ottomans still wanted to avoid  any peace deal that gave the impression they’d abandoned the Libyan Arabs, since that might cause  problems in other Arab regions of the empire.

[00:53:37]The peace treaty ending the Italo-Turkish War was  signed on October 18, 1912. The Ottomans declared Libya independent to avoid accepting Italian  sovereignty over it, but they would not object when Italy then declared that sovereignty. The  Sultan would continue to be recognized as the religious head of Libyan muslims. The Italians  promised to return the Aegean islands and pay some reparations. The other European Powers  quickly recognized Italian control over Libya.

[00:54:09]So Italy had won the Italo-Turkish War and  taken Libya from the Ottoman Empire. When peace was announced, the Italian  elites, like popular contemporary historian Cesare Causa, were overjoyed: “Praise be to God. We are longer “nothing”: We are an old people that has found its youth and  strength; we are a great nation.” (Vandervort 23) The majority of Italians were less enthusiastic.  The war had not brought the impressive victory they’d been promised, and proved costly in blood  and treasure. 3,500 Italians had died, mostly from disease, and 4,250 were wounded. The victory did  little to improve Italy’s military reputation with the other Great Powers, and its new possession  was not easy to govern. Libyan Arabs would go on to resist Italian rule for years, and  the Italian authorities brutally repressed them in response. Italy would also refuse to  give up the Aegean islands on the grounds of the increased costs of the Libyan occupation. For the Ottomans, losing their last African province reinforced their reputation as the  so-called “sick man,” but they managed to save some face with the complicated arrangement in  Libya, and losing control of the region actually improved their finances. They suffered  a similar number of military killed and wounded as the Italians despite Italian military  superiority. The suffering of Libyan people was, however, significant, and special refugee  offices were set up in Constantinople for those fleeing Italian repression. The Italo-Turkish War was the last typical 19th century imperial small war, but it also hinted at  what was to come in 1914. It featured trenches, machine guns, airplanes, the first tactical use  of armored cars, Italian torpedo boat attacks, and a stalemate – though actual combat was not  comparable to the First World War. The war also saw a guerilla force successfully resist a  larger and more powerful conventional force, which forced the stronger power to seek victory  by means other than a decisive battle. In fact the very same Senussi Arabs would also fight  with the Ottomans in 1914-1918. The war in the air influenced military thought - the war  was referenced in the founding charter of the British Royal Flying Corps, and the Dardanelles  would be a key objective of the British in 1915.

[00:56:51]The Italo-Turkish War, just as Austria had feared,  did indeed destabilize the Balkans and helped bring about the Balkan Wars. Giolitti himself  had worried about just such a scenario in 1911: “The integrity of the Ottoman Empire is a  condition for Europe’s balance and peace. Is it truly in Italy’s interest to shatter into pieces  one of the corner-stones of the old building? And what if, after we attack Turkey, the Balkans move  as well? And what if a Balkan war causes a clash among the groups of powers and a European war?  Could we take upon ourselves the responsibility for igniting the gunpowder?” (Caccamo 24-25) The Italo-Turkish War alone did not start the First World War – but it was one of the  sparks that lit the long fuse of 1914.

[00:57:47]In 1912 and 1913, the Balkans were torn apart by  not one, but two wars that radically changed the map, nearly dragged Europe into a general war,  caused untold suffering, and helped set the stage for the First World War. The armies of the  Balkan League marched together against the ailing Ottoman Empire, only for alliances to change  and all turn against one – it’s the Balkan Wars.

[00:58:17]For centuries the Ottoman Empire controlled the  multi-ethnic and multi-religious Balkan peninsula, but the 19th century brought dramatic  change. As the Empire grew weaker and nationalism among the Balkan peoples grew  stronger, new states emerged: Montenegro, Greece, Serbia, Romania, and Bulgaria gained  first informal, and later formal independence.

[00:58:39]This did not happen without bloodshed, including  uprisings, Ottoman repression, independence wars, and Great Power intervention to protect their  own interests. The decisive Russian victory in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 ensured  the independence of the Balkan states, but also provoked the suspicions of the other  powers by creating a large Russian-friendly Bulgaria. A concerned Austria-Hungary occupied  Ottoman Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Sanjak of Novi Pazar in 1878, and Britain worried  Russia might get too close to the Straits.

[00:59:14]So the Powers met in Berlin to modify  the borders of the preliminary peace of San Stefano to limit Russian influence. They  returned most of Macedonia to the Ottomans, which angered Bulgarian leaders like Ivan Geshov: “When we read […] the agreement in which a short-sighted diplomacy in Berlin partitioned our  homeland, we were left crushed and thunderstruck.

[00:59:35]Was such an injustice possible? Could  such an injustice be reversed?” (Hall) The peace of 1878 did not stabilize the region, as  no state was satisfied with the resulting borders.

[00:59:48]Serbia and Bulgaria even fought a brief war in  1885, as did Greece and the Ottomans in 1897.

[00:59:55]By the start of the 20th century, local and Great  Power tensions in the Balkans were running high.

[01:00:00]The new states hoped to expand their territory  at the expense of the Ottomans and each other, and the Great Powers were still nervous about the  balance of power in the region. Austria-Hungary worried that Serbia was a danger since some  in Serbia also wanted closer ties with their fellow Serbs and other south Slavs in the Dual  Monarchy, and Serbia had close relations with Russia. Russia was glad to have new allies in  the Balkans, and wanted access to the Turkish Straits – but worried that someone else  might get their hands on Constantinople if the Ottomans collapsed completely. The Ottoman Empire was in a state of crisis externally and internally. Its defeats had  cost it much of its European lands, and brought violent instability at home. 1908 though, would  be a decisive year. The Young Turk revolution in July brought a fresh constitution and a desire to  modernize the empire and army, create a stronger Ottoman identity, and preserve Ottoman territories  – in particular Macedonia. But in October, Austria-Hungary shook the Balkans and Europe by  annexing Bosnia after 30 years of occupation, and withdrawing from Novi Pazar. Russia was  outraged, and Bulgaria used the opportunity to sever all formal ties to the Ottomans.  The result was more international tension, and more chaos in Constantinople. Conservative  forces tried to overthrow the new Ottoman constitution in 1909, which led to a  counter-coup, yet another constitution, and a new sultan, Mehmet V. The next year  even formal control of Crete was lost, and Albanians revolted in favour of  more autonomy, with Montenegrin support.

[01:01:41]The Balkan states also had their share of  problems, with Serbia and Greece suffering coups of their own and all nations having  difficulty exerting political control over their influential and nationalistic military leadership. While the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire were in turmoil, in 1911 Italy decided the time was right  to expand its empire. Traditionally Britain, France, and more recently Germany, had supported  the Ottoman Empire to prevent a total collapse, but now they allowed Italy to attack and  occupy Ottoman Libya and the Dodecanese islands. The Italo-Turkish War of 1911-12 ended  with defeat for the Ottomans, who tried to limit their losses at the negotiating table. But  the Balkan states had been watching closely, and planned to take advantage of Ottoman  troubles – with Russian encouragement.

[01:02:30]The Serbian and Bulgarian governments began  alliance talks in fall 1911 just after the Italo-Turkish War began, and in March 1912, they  agreed on a defensive alliance – which changed to an offensive alliance in May. Soon after,  Montenegro and Greece joined with separate agreements, and the Balkan League was born. The  League resolved to make war on the Ottoman Empire to gain what they felt were lands that belonged  to their peoples, but they had conflicting claims they all said dated back to medieval times.  Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece wanted Macedonia, while Bulgaria and Greece both wanted Thrace.  Montenegro and Serbia wanted the Sanjak of Novi Pazar, the area around the port of Scutari on  the Adriatic, and Kosovo. The Albanians hoped for autonomy which would include Scutari and Kosovo.  In most of these regions, the mix of nationalities and religions did not align with political  plans: Turks, Albanians, Bulgarians, Serbs, Montenegrins, Greeks, Jews, and other groups lived  in communities that overlapped over the centuries.

[01:03:36]The League wanted to take territory from the  Ottomans, but made few formal agreements on how it would be divided. Serbia and Bulgaria  agreed on how to divide part of Macedonia, but part was considered a disputed zone that could be  assigned after the war with Russian arbitration.

[01:03:52]So the Balkan League determined to make war on the  Ottomans without a clear post-war plan to divide the spoils. But first, they would have to defeat  the Ottoman army just as the Italians had done.

[01:04:04]The First Balkan War began on October 8, 1912,  when Montenegro attacked the Ottomans ahead of schedule to get the jump on rival Serbia. The  rest of the Balkan League members quickly gave the Ottomans a pro forma ultimatum. Hard  pressed Ottoman Grand Vizier Muhtar wanted to save the peace, and even demobilized  part of the Ottoman 3rd Army in Thrace, but the influential Young Turk party called the  Committee for Union and Progress wanted to fight.

[01:04:32]The Empire was again on the brink of civil war  but declared war on the Balkan League October 16.

[01:04:39]Most European observers expected the Ottomans  would win. The Empire’s population of 24 million was more than twice the League’s combined 10  million, and on paper the Ottomans could field 600,000 men. The regular troops also gained  experience fighting the Italians and rebels in Albania and Macedonia. But the Ottomans also  faced problems: many of their best officers, like Mustafa Kemal and Enver Bey were stuck in  Libya, and the reserve troops were badly trained, and equipped with a mishmash of weaponry. The  Ottoman navy was weak, and the army only had 315,000 men in Europe. The Balkan League could  count on 825,000 soldiers: 350,000 Bulgarians, 230,000 Serbs, 200,000 Greeks, and 45,000  Montenegrins. Most of the soldiers were peasant conscripts, equipped with a variety of European  weapons, including French and German artillery and a few observation aircraft. The Greek navy,  with 16 destroyers and an armoured cruiser, ensured control of the Aegean sea. (McMeekin)  When the Great Powers issued a statement on October 10 saying they wanted to keep the  territorial status quo if it came to war, what they really meant was they would not  allow the Ottomans to expand if they won.

[01:05:57]All over the Balkans, families saw their young  men off to the front, including Bulgarian Nedko Kableshkov’s 21-year-old-son Anton: ‘By noon,  [Anton’s] chest was overflowing with flowers [from well-wishers], and we sent him off to the  train station. On the way, we ran into a crippled Greek. This meeting was a bad omen - I feared  that my son would also be crippled; I wanted us to go back. But I didn't want to discourage  him, so we continued on towards the station."

[01:06:26]https://bulgarianhistory.shop/product/-poslednata-krepost/4/241 In Eastern Thrace three Bulgarian Armies faced  the Ottoman 1st Army. The Ottomans thought the Bulgarians would move on Macedonia, so that’s  where they had most of their troops – but the Bulgarians send the bulk of their units towards  the fortress towns of Edirne and Kirikkilise, aka Adrianople and Lozengrad, on the road to  Constantinople. Bulgarian troops surrounded the Ottoman garrison at Edirne, and Deputy  commander in Chief Mihail Savov said that he was ready to sacrifice 100,000 men to storm  it. The Bulgarians did not storm the fortress, but young Anton Kableshkov was  killed just outside its walls.

[01:07:05]East of Edirne, Ottoman 1st Army commander  Abdullah Pasha thought he outnumbered the enemy, so he sent his troops forward in a hasty advance  on October 21. At the Battle of Kirk Kilise, the outnumbered Ottomans fought for three days before  the Bulgarians break their lines. The Bulgarians could probably have completely smashed the Ottoman  army if they had pursued, but instead they rested while the Ottomans rushed in reinforcements,  and restored discipline. Ottoman senior officer Muhtar Pasha reflected on the disaster: “The causes of our defeat are to be found in our bad military organization, and in  the lack of discipline of our reservists, but the principle cause was the rain, which had  continued for a week, completely destroying the moral of our army, and for 3 days, rendering  impassable the roads and fields to our trains and artillery.” Hall 27 On the 29th, the Bulgarians attacked the fresh Ottoman defensive positions at Lyule Burgas.  At first the Ottomans were able to hold the line, but when their logistics couldn’t furnish the  guns with enough shells, the Bulgarians again defeat them thanks to determined infantry attacks  and superior artillery. Each side suffered 20,000 killed and wounded in the largest battle in Europe  between 1871 and 1914. On November 2, reeling Ottoman forces retreated to the Catalca line, just  30 km from the imperial capital of Constantinople.

[01:08:31]The Ottoman government requested an armistice,  but Tsar Ferdinand refused and did not inform his allies. On November 17, the Bulgarians tried  to break through the Catalca line and fulfil Tsar Ferdinand’s dream of reaching the old Byzantine  capital, but fierce Ottoman resistance, stretched logistics, and a cholera outbreak stopped them.  Still, with Bulgarian advance on land and the Greek navy off the coast, Ottoman forces in  the rest of the Balkans had been cut off.

[01:09:01]Some of the towns and villages captured by  Bulgarian troops in Thrace were populated by Bulgarians, many of whom considered  themselves liberated. Elena Bizeva later recalled when Bulgarian irregulars, among  them poet Peyo Yavorov, entered her town: “When the people entered the church, they took  off their fezzes and held them in their hands, and Yavorov sat on the [priest's] chair and  began speaking. He said we were free, and that we needn’t fear Turkish prisons anymore. Then he  asked “What will you do with those fezzes?” And they all tossed them to the ground and trampled  them. It was like they were taking out all their anger at the Turks on those fezzes.” ( Ilinchev,) Meanwhile in Macedonia, Serbian forces came up against Ottoman resistance quicker than General  Putnik expected at Kumanovo. The Serbs outnumbered the Ottoman Vardar Army 100,000 to 58,000,  but the Ottomans under Zeki Pasha launched the first attacks on October 23. In the driving  rain and mud, the Serbs counterattacked at great cost that observers compared to the Japanese  attacks in the Russo-Japanese War – but the firepower of modern artillery and machine guns  meant soldiers dig trenches and foxholes to keep out of harm’s way. Serbian medic Dragoljub  Radojković was in the midst of the fighting: “I look out of the trench and see a wounded  man on the parapet […] I shout to him, but he doesn’t hear me. He’s hit again and faints.  Some men carry him in, and blood is gushing from his neck. I wrap one bandage, then another. We get  him onto a stretcher, but the man dies.” (Paunic) In the end the Serbian artillery carried the  day and the Serbs won the Battle of Kumanovo.

[01:10:46]The victory earned Putnik the title Vojvoda,  left the Serbs in possession of the part of Macedonia disputed with the Bulgarians,  and routed the Ottomans, who fled south.

[01:10:56]Another result was chaos amongst the local  Muslim population, and many dead and wounded on both sides. Radojković was at the  train station a day after the battle: “In the morning […] we went down to the train  station in Kumanovo. Captured Turks, the Turkish people, - women, children, everything was  crowded there. The trains were not running. One train, freight wagons, a train full of wounded,  bot moving, a train full of dead Turks. Blood dripped from the wagon onto the rails.” (Paunic) The Serbs pursued and pushed the Ottomans back at the Battles of Prilep and Bitola, while  the Ottomans withdrew to southern Albania.

[01:11:35]They also move forces west towards Scutari and  the Adriatic coast, where they join Montenegrin forces besieging the town. In the north, the  Serbs also capture the Sanjak of Novi Pazar and the town of Prizren, which the Montenegrins  had wanted. Serbian troops also entered Kosovo, but faced resistance from local Albanians. In the south, the Greek Army of Thessaly made straight for Salonika. Greece was also interested  in Macedonia, but they prioritized the drive for Salonika to reach it before the Bulgarians  could. Greek troops pushed the Ottomans aside at Sarantaporos Pass and with more difficulty  at Yanitsa. The way to Salonika was open, and the Greek army surrounded the city on  November 7. A Bulgarian division rushed south, and the commander sent a message ahead asking the  Ottomans to surrender to him instead of to the Greeks, but it was too late. The Ottoman commander  replied that he only had one Salonika, and he had surrendered it to the Greeks on November 8.  This was a critical League victory as Ottoman forces were now completely cut off from any hope  of reinforcement. It was also a personal tragedy for Ottoman officer Mustafa Kemal, as it was his  home town, and fueled his anger at Constantinople: “Then one day I heard, my homeland [Salonika], my  mother, my sister, my relatives and acquaintances, were handed over to the enemy, by the very  [Ottoman leadership] who expelled me for unveiling the truth about them.” (Kemal  121) Kemal also said he would have every Ottoman officer above the rank of major fired. After taking Salonica, Greek and Bulgarian troops began an uneasy joint presence in the city. In  the west, Greek troops also made progress and besieged the Ottoman fortress at Yanina. As the Balkan League armies advanced, the Christian and Muslim civilian population suffered  from atrocities committed by all sides. This was made worse by the presence of irregular forces of  locals who supported their countrymen’s armies, but also blurred the line between soldiers and  non-combatants for enemy soldiers. Some Christians turned on Muslim officials who had repressed  them in the past, or on Muslim - and sometimes Christian – landowners before seizing their lands. A British journalist with the Bulgarian army reported: “The track of the Bulgarian  army [in Thrace] is marked by 80 miles of ruined villages.” (Mcmeekin 72) Greek commander Crown Prince Constantine ordered Muslim villages destroyed since he  claimed Muslims were shooting at his troops, and Greek soldier Stratis Myrivilis later  included his experience in his writing: “All male prisoners [in the village] were to  be executed. I was opposite an old [Turk]. His grandfatherly face was bruised, he whispered  prayers, and his silky beard moved in the wind. […] I pulled the trigger and he fell  into the mud like he was struck by lightning.

[01:14:36][After the executions we set the village on  fire]. Suddenly, a frenzied crowd rushed over, children and women freed from the mosque [where  we had imprisoned them]. They run to the corpses screaming, to look for their loved ones.  [This memory] lives and circulates inside me like an anguished virus.” Myrivilis 26-27 Constantinople was filled with hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees, with  the old city turned into a camp, including the famous Blue Mosque, and the Hagia  Sofia mosque turned into a cholera hospital.

[01:15:10]The British consul at Salonika was blunt: “The result of the massacre of Muslims at the beginning of the war, of the looting of their  goods in the ensuing months, of the settling of Christians in their villages, of their persecution  by Christian neighbours, of their torture and beating by Greek troops, has been the creation of  a state of terror among the Islamic population.

[01:15:33]Their one desire is to escape from Macedonia  and to be again in a free land.” (Ungor 82) The Powers sent warships to Constantinople,  to protect the city’s Christian population from what they feared might be  revenge killings by Muslims.

[01:15:49]In just a few weeks, the Balkan League had put  together a string of decisive victories. Nearly all of Ottoman Europe was now under their control,  except for the fortresses of Edirne, Yanina, and Scutari. As a result of the Ottoman collapse,  an Albanian group, supported by Austria and Italy, declared independence on November 28, 1912. On  December 3, the Ottomans signed an armistice with Bulgaria, Montenegro and Serbia -  but Greek military operations continued.

[01:16:20]So the Balkan League was victorious on all fronts  – but despite the armistice the war was not over, and the Great Powers were on  the cusp of getting involved.

[01:16:31]Even though the Ottoman armies were beaten in the  field, and the fleet bottled up by the Greek navy, militarily the Empire might have had a chance  to recover. It still held important fortresses, it was holding on the Catalca line, had  more reserves in Asia, and the Balkan League was divided over the possible spoils. But the Ottomans had no allies. This time, the Great Powers would not support the Empire  as they had in the past, and even Germany, declared the war was a “free fight with no favor.”  The Powers now said that they would go back on their declaration about the territorial status  quo and accept border changes in favour of the League. Even Austro-Hungarian foreign minister  Leopold von Berchtold said Vienna would not oppose Serbian expansion except for an Adriatic  port. Russia was now worried the Bulgarians might actually get to Constantinople  before them, and they urged restraint.

[01:17:29]The events in the Balkans had also pushed  Europe to the brink of war. On November 21, Austria-Hungary acted to, in its view, prevent  Serbia from permanently occupying the Adriatic coast. Vienna mobilized 6 army corps – three  facing the Balkans and three facing Russia.

[01:17:48]Kaiser Wilhelm secretly assured the Austrians  that if Russia mobilized, Germany would support Austria – just as he would do again in  July 1914. In response to Austrian moves, the Tsar held a meeting with his war council, and  the army drew up plans for a partial mobilization.

[01:18:06]But the council decided not to mobilize,  partly out of fear of provoking Germany, and partly because some ministers didn’t want  to risk war over Serbian access to the sea.

[01:18:17]The German government did not know how close  the Russians had come to mobilizing when they held their own infamous war council meeting  December 8. Chief of the General Staff von Moltke felt that Germany should declare  war now, before Russia got any stronger, but in the end the council decided against it. Following the war scare and December armistice, two parallel conferences took place in London on  December 16 and 17, 1912. At the first conference, Ottoman delegate Reshid Pasha said that his  government would give up Macedonia and Salonica, but not Edirne, Eastern Thrace, or the four  islands at the mouth of the Dardanelles that Greece was demanding. The Ottomans also insisted  on an independent Albania rather than it being split between the Serbs, Montenegrins, and Greeks.  The Bulgarians made a new demand for Edirne, to compensate for lands they might lose to the  Serbs, but this was a particular sticking point because the fortress city was important for the  safety of Constantinople. Reshid Pasha put it simply to the Bulgarian representative: “[Edirne]  is a window into our harem.” (Mcmeekin 76) The Greeks and Bulgarians argued over who would  get Salonika, while the Serbs and Bulgarians argued over Macedonia. Meanwhile at the separate  Great Powers’ conference, the main topic was the borders of a Albania, of critical importance  for Austria-Hungary to limit Serbian power.

[01:19:44]But events in Constantinople overtook diplomacy.  On January 23, 1913 a Young Turk government took power again after yet another coup and the  murder of War Minister Nazim Pasha. Supported by influential Turkish officers like Enver  Bey, many of whom came from the Balkan lands that were now lost, they decided to continue  the war to prevent the loss of Thrace. New Ottoman Foreign Minister Noradounghian Effendi  was defiant: “If Adrianople continues to resist, we shall fight to relieve her. If Adrianople  falls, we shall fight to retake her.” Hall 80 Ottoman troops including Mustafa Kemal landed  at Gallipoli on February 7, and at first they pushed the Bulgarians back around Bulair. But the  Bulgarians rallied and the Ottoman attack failed with the loss of 6000 dead to just 114 Bulgarians.  Elsewhere, the Greeks took Yanina on March 6, and the Bulgarians and Serbians finally capture Edirne  on March 26. French journalist Gustave Cirilli described the state of the people in the starving  city: “It was like a scene out of a fantastical tale […] to see these human rags, with protruding  teeth, devouring a sort of [bread] - black lava in which the barely ground seeds fell out in yellow  spots. Those who did not get their share of the fought-over morsels watched the others savour  them with envious tears in their eyes.” (Scott 49) At Scutari, Serbian troops arrived to help the  Montenegrins, who ignored warnings from the Great Powers and assaulted the city. A combined  fleet of the Powers blockaded Montenegro, causing the Serbs to leave, but the  Montenegrins managed to take the city April 24 only to agree to give it up to a  future independent Albania just days later.

[01:21:41]The Ottomans had no choice but to accept  a peace deal, and the belligerents sign the Treaty of London on May 30, 1913,  which reduced Ottoman Europe to a small strip of land outside of Constantinople  and created the Principality of Albania.

[01:21:58]The First Balkan War came to an end in May 1913, and the Ottoman Empire in Europe seemed  to be a thing of the past. But the borders between the victorious Balkan League  members are another matter altogether.

[01:22:12]Even before the First Balkan War had come to an  end, further conflict was brewing. Not only did the Balkan League members dispute where the  new borders would be, but Romania had also begun to make demands for Southern Dobrudja,  which was part of Bulgaria. In May 1913, the Powers awarded the town of Silistra to  Romania, which angered both sides, and made some Bulgarians doubt Russia as a reliable ally. Bulgarians were also frustrated because in their view, they had won the strategically important  Thrace battles, but the Serbs were left in possession of most of Macedonia and didn’t want to  honour the pre-war agreement. Bulgaria and Greece were also still in conflict over Salonika. Russia  tried to mediate between Serbia and Bulgaria, but the two rivals could not agree, and the  Russians were still nervous about Bulgarian troops so close to Constantinople. The  Bulgarian army was in a fragile state, as many soldiers were exhausted from the war, and  some were willing to split Macedonia with their allies if it meant peace. General Savov told the  government to either send the men home or go to war now. Without strong Russian backing, Sofia  feared it might lose Macedonia for good, so the Tsar ordered an attack against Serbia and Greece  on June 29 – although it’s not clear how much the government knew about this before the shooting  started. The Second Balkan War had begun.

[01:23:42]The Bulgarian Prime Minister tried to stop  the fighting in Macedonia, but it was too late. The Greeks and Serbs could claim Bulgaria  was the aggressor and agreed to divide Macedonia between them. Montenegro joined to stay in  Serbia’s good graces. On the Bulgarian side, the sudden attack had confused communication  and hampered operations. Their attack was uncoordinated and the Serbs eventually stopped it,  and defeated the Bulgarians at Bregalnitsa by July 8. The Greeks defeated a smaller Bulgarian army  around Kilkis and Doiran at around the same time, and eliminated isolated Bulgarian  units at Salonika. Bulgarian Mihail Madjarov’s son was killed in the fighting: “I lost my very last hope. From that moment forth I became a man haunted by grief. All  around me seemed to go dark. All the misery and all the sorrow of Bulgaria appeared  to me to be twice as great. Each and every object in my home served as a reminder  to me of my lost happiness.” (Kolev 117) On July 11, Greek and Serb forces met and  the front stabilized. Retreating Bulgarians attacked Greek, Turkish, and Serbian civilians,  and advancing Greek and Serbian troops committed atrocities against Bulgarian civilians, again  after claims of attacks against their troops.

[01:25:09]Turkish civilian Ibosh Agha felt empathy for  Bulgarian refugees: “A Bulgarian peasant was leading a scrawny donkey on the wooden saddle of  which sat a child, her bare legs dangling on one side. […] The misery, the look of a dread and  utter agony in the small blinking eyes of the pockmarked face with the yellow straggly  beard were the very embodiment of human fear and despair. No, not human. It was the  animal dread of cattle at the slaughterhouse, the wild glassy stare of terror in a cornered  animal. It was a look which, once perceived, made one cringe with shame and humiliation, the shame  of its having been in a human eye.” (Kolev 119) Meanwhile, Romania saw its chance and entered the  war on July 10 to take all of Southern Dobrudja.

[01:26:04]A quarter of a million Romanian troops of the  Army of the Danube entered Bulgaria and moved towards Sofia. The Bulgarians decided not to offer  organized resistance. Advancing Romanian troops, however, rode straight into a cholera epidemic  due to unsanitary conditions. Chaplain Dumitru Brumușescu complained bitterly about  the army’s lack of medical care: “In the hospital, there are no beds, so the  men lie on the floor in their uniforms. They’ve barely the strength to moan or ask for water.  Some are delirious, with spasmodic movements of their arms and hands, some vomit onto  the floor while others relieve themselves where they lay. […] The lack of furniture,  dishes, linens, medical devices, medicine, and antiseptic rendered the presence of army  doctors useless. I’ve seen a lot of messes, but this one topped them all.” (Vada 305) About 2700  Romanian soldiers died of cholera in summer 1913.

[01:27:05]The Ottomans saw their opportunity to recover  parts of Thrace, so crossed the Catalca line on July 12. The few Bulgarian troops left in the  area could offer only token resistance, and the Ottomans re-captured the fortress without firing  a shot on July 23. Many Bulgarian civilians fled, creating a new wave of refugees, and another  outbreak of cholera killed 4000 Ottoman troops.

[01:27:31]As Romanian troops got closer to Sofia and  Russia refused to intervene to help Bulgaria, the pro-Russian Bulgarian government resigned.  It was replaced by a pro-German government under Vasil Radoslavov, but fighting  continued. Bulgarian forces recovered to win a defensive battle against the  Serbs and Montenegrins at Kalimantsi, and a successful counterattack against the  Greeks at Kresna Gorge. The Greeks asked for an armistice, and Sofia ordered a stop to  operations since even a Bulgarian victory could not reverse the tide of the war. The peace treaties signed in August and September 1913 ended the Second Balkan War  and redrew the map of the Balkans yet again, this time to Bulgaria’s disadvantage. Romania  got Southern Dobrudja. Austria-Hungary and Russia refused to support Serbian maximalist  demands in Macedonia so they could retain some influence with Bulgaria. Serbia did get most of  Macedonia, but Bulgaria kept a part and Greece kept Salonica. The Ottomans regained Eastern  Thrace despite their defeat in the first war.

[01:28:37]The Balkan Wars left a lasting impact on the  region and Europe as a whole. The fighting and the cholera were deadly: 125,000 Ottoman  soldiers died, along with 65,000 Bulgarians, 36,000 Serbs, 9500 Greeks, and 3000  Montenegrins. After more than 600 years, the Ottoman presence in the Balkans was nearly  gone. Albania was independent but its neighbours claimed its territory. Many Balkan Christians saw  the change as the end of foreign domination and oppression. For more than 300,000 Balkan Muslims,  the changes meant expulsion from their homes and an uncertain future in Anatolia – and for some  Young Turks, radicalization against Christians still in the empire. Enver Pasha, who hailed  from the Balkans and would later play a key role in the Armenian genocide and killing of Ottoman  Greeks in the First World War, shared his anger: “How could anyone forget the plains, the meadows,  watered with the blood of our forefathers; abandon those places where Turkish raiders had stalled  their steeds for a full four hundred years, with our mosques, our tombs, our dervish  lodges, our bridges and our castles, to leave them to our slaves, to be  driven out of [the Balkans] to Anatolia: this is beyond a man’s endurance. I am prepared  to sacrifice gladly the remaining years of my life to take revenge on the Bulgarians, the  Greeks and the Montenegrins.” (Ungor 85) The events of 1912-13 helped to create the  conditions for the catastrophe of 1914 as well. Bulgarian resentment at the lack  of support from Russia caused it to drift closer to Austria-Hungary and Germany. Tensions  between Austria-Hungary and a much larger Serbia increased. With Serbia as Russia’s only remaining  Balkan ally, Russia would be under more pressure to support Serbia in future conflicts. And in  October 1913, Austria issued an ultimatum to Serbia, with German support, to force Belgrade  to remove its troops from northern Albania. A similar ultimatum in 1914 would transform  the Third Balkan War into the Great War.