It only remains here to trace the short career and ultimate fate of the Balkan League. After the remarkable military successes of the Allies over the Turks during October and November, an armistice was stgned with cer tain conditions on the 3d of December and peace negotiations opened between the belliger ents on the 16th in London. After an abortive session lasting till 29 Jan. 1913, the Balkan Allies broke off the negotiations and hostilities were resumed on 3 February. Contrary to European expectations, the Turk was defeated all along the line; the Allies had forced him back almost to the gates of his capital, and to save him from extinction in Europe the Triple Alliance (q.v.) insisted on peace. The Treaty of London (30 May 1913) ended the war and delimitated the new frontiers. But a quarrel had meanwhile broken out between Bulgaria and Serbia over the spoils. There had been small encounters between them for months, which drove Serbia and Greece to form an alliance against Bulgaria. Early in the morning of June 30 the Bulgarians violently attadced the Serbians. Within a week Bulgaria found
herself attacked on four sides, by Serbs, Greeks, Turks and a new arrival on the scene— Ru mania. Hopelessly defeated, Bulgaria had to surrender and agree to the terms of the Treaty of /3ucharest (10 Aug. 1913), by which she gained far less than she might have done had she been less irreconcilable in spirit and held together with her Allies. Thus the Balkan League lived barely a year; could it have been maintained or reconstituted, Germany would never have reached Constantinople in the greater war that was to follow exactly a year later. Perhaps, even, that war would not have happened, for, with Bulgaria on the side of Serbia, Montenegro, Rumania and Greece, an impassable barrier would have been laid in the path of the Austro-German Allies to the south east, a barrier that would have effectually ob literated any possibility of Turkey joining hands with her Teutonic patrons. For bibliog raphy see end Of BALKAN PENINSULA AND BAL KAN WARS. HENRI F. ICLEIN.
Editorial Staff of The Americana.