An Cosantóir

www.military.ie the defence forces magazine | 31 Serbia and Russia drew back from outright conflict, however, as Germany, with its vastly superi- or army, was tied to Austria-Hun- gary through the Triple Alliance. The Second Balkan Crisis con- sisted of two Balkan Wars, the first of which took place in 1912 when the Balkan League (compris- ing Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro) went to war against the Ottomans to acquire historical territory they claimed was theirs. The League won a quick victory, driving the Ottoman Empire back to roughly the current borders with Turkey. In the Second Balkan War, in 1913, Bulgaria fell out with its for- mer allies in a territorial dispute over Macedonia. Greece and Ser- bia, joined by Romania, defeated Bulgaria in a couple of months and the resulting treaties saw a greatly reduced Bulgaria and an enlarged Serbia, which had now established itself as the most militarily power- ful country in the Balkans. With nationalism rampant in south-eastern Europe, the Austro- Hungarians, with their disparate empire that contained Austrians, Hungarians, Czechs, Poles, Ukrai- nians and Croatians, among oth- ers, grew very nervous of events in the region. To the forefront of their fears was the rise of a nationalistic, powerful and ambi- tious Serbia. Meanwhile, a shadowy group of ultra-nationalist Serbians called Union or Death was formed in 1911 with the intention of bring- ing about the unification of the Southern Slavs under the ban- ner of Serbia. The group, which became better known as the Black Hand, were inspired by the unifications of Italy (1870) and Germany (1871) and consisted pri- marily of high ranking of ficers in the Serbian army. One of the most influential of these was Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijevic, who had first come to prominence when he organised the coup that led to the assassination of King Alexander of Serbia and his German wife, Queen Draga, in 1903. It is generally accepted that Dimitrijevic and the Black Hand were behind the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sar- jevo. This act, along with unquali- fied suppor t from Germany, gave the Austro-Hungarians the pre- text they wanted to force Serbia into a war. On July 23rd, less than a month af ter the assassination, Austria-Hungary issued an ultima- tum to the Serbians. The onerous terms of the ultimatum, which Serbia was given 48 hours to com- ply with, included a demand that Serbia remove from its army and police force personnel named in a list provided by Austria-Hungary and also allow Austro-Hungarian police to actively take par t in investigations in Serbia. Due to a lack of international suppor t, Serbia agreed to accede to every thing in the ultimatum except for the demand to allow Austro-Hungarian police to oper- ate in Serbia, which it saw as too great a breach of its sovereignty. This one refusal suf ficed for Aus- tria-Hungary, and at 11am on July 28th they declared war on Serbia. Within seven days Germany, Rus- sia, France and Great Britain had also declared war and Europe fell into the abyss.

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