Page:Russian Realities and Problems - ed. James Duff (1917).djvu/34

 formally demanded Turkey's consent to the autonomy of the European vilayets, redivided according to nationality, and on October 17 Turkey replied by declaring war on Bulgaria, Serbia, and Greece, Montenegro having been at war since October 9.

Nobody expected at the time a decisive victory for the allies, and thus it was easy for Russia, England, and France to persuade Austria-Hungary to let the Balkan states fight it out by themselves. Austria confidently expected that the Balkan states would be beaten by the Turks. It was a great disappointment, therefore, for both Austria and Germany when, in the short space of a few weeks, the allies had become masters of the Turkish provinces in Europe. The war for liberation was properly finished at Lulé-Bourgas on October 31 for Bulgaria, at Salonica on October 27 for Greece, and at Monastir on October 28 for Serbia. If by that time, by the end of October or, perhaps, November, a treaty of peace could have been concluded, the question of a just ethnographic partition should have been solved. But now there began a war for conquest, which was to end with the capture of Adrianople by Bulgaria on March 13, 1913, of Yaniña by the Greeks on February 24, and of Durazzo and Scutari on April 9 by Serbia and Montenegro.

Unhappily, this war for conquest was also the end of the Balkan League. Encroachments on foreign nationalities did not fail to revive ancient mutual animosities. Serbia and Greece, having become masters of Macedonia, began by very summary means to assimilate the local population. Bulgaria grew impatient to conclude peace with Turkey in order to turn against