Historical Spotlight: The Balkan Wars

Written by Lime

Hi lads, the weekend has come once again, and why not play a game of civilization to represent it? Particularly, in this day in history - 18 October 1912 - Peter I of Serbia issued a declaration that began the first Balkan War. This tumultuous conflict was the first round in 20th-century warfare in the Balkans, setting the stage for the Second Balkan War, which was one of many factors that lead to World War One.

For this occasion, we have a great multitude of mods! The sides in this conflict: the Balkan League consisting of the combined forces of Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Montenegro, against the ageing but not-quite-dead-yet Ottoman Empire, each have their own mods to play, but let's start with the Greeks. For this, we've got Urdnot's Kingdom of Greece under Venizelos, for Sid Meier's Civilization V. Venizelos was the original architect of this Balkan League, seeing it as the best way to ensure that Greece could both reform its army and defeat the Turks at the same time.

Backed by the Russians and in the aftermath of the Italo-Turkish war, the Balkan League felt that they could reliably defeat the Ottoman Empire in war. After all, if the Italians could do it, why couldn't they? The Balkan League was incredibly successful in this first war, taking control of most of the Ottoman territories in Europe in a little over a year. And so, for this occasion, we have another two mods for Civilization V: Pouakai's Kingdom of Serbia under Peter I and Tarcisio's Kingdom of Bulgaria under Ferdinand I. Both of these individuals were crucial actors in the swift rise and even swifter fall of the Balkan League: Peter of Serbia was the one who issued the call to arms for the war, and negotiated for the Bulgarian entry. In his infinite wisdom, he assured the Bulgarians that they would receive all of Macedonia, and with their combined forces they won swiftly and effectively, using an Ottoman Albanian uprising spilling over into Serbian territory as a Casus Belli.

For his part of the deal, Ferdinand wanted to create a "Second Byzantium", and lost many soldiers in fighting off the Ottoman Forces. When they came out successful, the Great Powers of Europe took notice. Insistent on the creation of an independent Albania, Serbia and Greece were suddenly short on spoils, so they went back on the ceding of all of Macedonia to Bulgaria. With Macedonia's partitioning, Ferdinand was outraged, and thus attacked Bulgaria's erstwhile allies, Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro. The Balkans erupted once more as the Balkan league collapsed. 

While Ottomans had been the Sick Man of Europe for quite long, the First Balkan War when the bell began to toll. Under Mehmed V, some great revisions in government were attempted but failed. The uprising in Albania was to reappoint one of Mehmed's Predecessors - Sultan Abdulhamid "the Damned", a paranoid tyrant who had been deposed for good reason. It was suspected that Serbia even secretly backed the revolt to spark the First Balkan War! This event was a major disaster to the Ottomans, who lost almost everything they had in Europe, including almost a quarter of their population. But things were not over. When Bulgaria attacked her former Allies, the Ottoman Empire (and also Romania) looked on and saw that they could retake some of what they lost from Bulgaria in this war. So, on the Turkish side, we've got Tarcisio's Ottoman Turkey under Mehmed V for Civilization V, and my own Mehmed V Alternate Ottoman Leader for Civilization VI! While this leader was largely ineffectual in the grand scheme of things, most modders find the prospect of an Enver Pasha civ very unattractive. And, he was managing Ottoman Internal chaos Politics in the meantime, which the Election of Beatings occurring and a number of coups before and afterwards.

So for this weekend, perhaps try a diplomacy and domination game as either of these powers, duking it out in honour for this conflict that started us all on the path of the Great War. Will you solidify your successes as Venizelos and fulfil the Megali Dream? Maybe play as Peter, to fight for Crown, Christ, and Crisp pickings? Try out establishing a second Byzantium as Ferdinand? Or maybe even restore the lost glory as the Sublime Porte itself? Only one way to find out.