so hastily sketched
Turkey had lost since the nineteenth century opened a large portion
of the Balkan Peninsula. Along the Danube and the Save at the north
Bulgaria and Servia had become independent kingdoms and Bosnia and
Herzegovina had at first practically and later formally been annexed
to Austria-Hungary. At the extreme southern end of the Balkan
Peninsula the Greeks had carved out an independent kingdom extending
from Cape Matapan to the Vale of Tempe and the Gulf of Arta. All
that remained of European Turkey was the territory lying between
Greece and the Slav countries of Montenegro, Bosnia, Servia, and
Bulgaria. The Porte has divided this domain into six provinces or
vilayets, besides Constantinople and its environs. These vilayets
are Scutari and Janina on the Adriatic; Kossovo and Monastir,
adjoining them on the east; next Saloniki, embracing the centre of
the area; and finally Adrianople, extending from the Mesta River to
the Black Sea. In ordinary language the ancient classical names are
generally used to designate these divisions. The vilayet of
Adrianople roughly corresponds to Thrace, the Adriatic vilayets to
Epirus, and the intervening territory to Macedonia. Parts of the
domain in question are, however, also known under other names. The
district immediately south of Servia is often called Old Servia; and
the Adriatic coast lands between Montenegro and Greece are generally
designated Albania on the north and Epirus on the south.
The area of Turkey in Europe in 1912 was 169,300 square kilometers;
of Bulgaria 96,300; of Greece 64,600; of Servia 48,300; and of
Montenegro 9,000. The population of European Turkey at the same date
was 6,130,000; of Bulgaria 4,329,000; of Greece 2,632,000; of Servia
2,912,000; and of Montenegro 250,000. To the north of the Balkan
states, with the Danube on the south and the Black Sea on the east,
lay Roumania having an area of 131,350 square kilometers and a
population of 7,070,000.
CAUSES OF THE FIRST BALKAN WAR
What was the occasion of the war between Turkey and the Balkan
states in 1912? The most general answer that can be given to that
question is contained in the one word Macedonia. Geographically
Macedonia lies between Greece, Servia, and Bulgaria.
Ethnographically it is an extension of their races. And if, as
Matthew Arnold declared, the primary impulse both of individuals and
of nations is the tendency to expansion, Macedonia both in virtue of
its location an
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