First Balkan War (oct 18, 1912 – aug 30, 1913)

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Tensions rose among the Balkan states over their aspirations to the provinces of Ottoman-controlled Europe, mainly Eastern Rumelia, Thrace and Macedonia. The question of the viability of Ottoman rule was revived after the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, which restored the Ottoman constitution.

Serbia's aspirations to take over Bosnia were thwarted by the Austrian annexation of the province in 1908. The Serbs directed their expansionism to the south. Albanian revolts grew more common and some Albanian government troops had begun to switch sides. In 1912, the Albanian Revolution drove the Young Turkish forces out of Skopje, allying with the Neapolitans. Serbia, which had helped arm the Albanian rebels, took the revolt as a pretext for war.

In a search for allies, Serbia negotiated with Bulgaria that, in the event of victory against the Ottomans, Bulgaria would receive all of Macedonia south of the Kriva Palanka–Ohrid line. Serbia's expansion was accepted by Bulgaria as being to the north of the Shar Mountains. The intervening area was agreed to be "disputed"; it would be arbitrated by the Tsar of Russia in the event of a successful war against the Ottoman Empire. However, during the war, the Albanians would continue to ally with the Austrians and Neapolitans over the Serbians.

By 1913, the entire Balkan League (Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia) had declared war on the Ottoman Empire, which forced the Ottomans to make peace with the Neapolitans and focus on their European possessions. However the combined armies of the Balkan League overcame the numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies and achieved rapid success.

However, the terms of the peace treaty gave much of the land promised to Bulgaria to Greece and Serbia; which greatly angered the nation.

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