Only a few days
passed after the end of the First Balkan War before the victorious allied
forces of Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and Montenegro began to quarrel.
The main cause of the Second Balkan War was the greediness of the
Bulgarians. The Bulgarians were unsatisfied with the peace deal, and
believed they deserved more territory then what they had received.
They asked the other allies to secede some of their territory. Most
notably they asked from Greece the capital city of Macedonia "Thessalonica"
and from Serbia "Monastir".
Naturally the stance of Bulgaria brought fear
to the other members of the alliance as Bulgaria was very powerful. It
had established a very large and powerful army as a result of foreign
assistance and clearly had an ability to fight all the other members on its
own.
Bulgaria's stance became more and more
unreasonable and aggressive towards the other allies as the days went
on. The allies decided that it was time to act and Serbia, Greece and
Montenegro met in a secret meeting. At the secret meeting it was
decided that their was no choice and a war would have to occur to secure the
peace treaty. In such, on 17th of June 1913 Serbia, Greece and
Montenegro launched a massive coordinated surprise attack on Bulgaria.
The Greek army at this time had been
strengthened considerably by volunteers from various countries outside
Greece. The Greek army rushed to face the Bulgarians with great
heroism and courage. Though Bulgaria fought side by side with the
Greeks in the first Balkan War they clearly were not friends.
The Greek soldiers were jubilant at the
thought of fighting against the Bulgarians. The hatred towards the
Bulgarians was considerable on the Greek side as a result of thousands upon
thousands of Greeks having been slaughtered by the Bulgarians in a futile
attempt by the Bulgarians to change the "ethnic Greek" character
of Macedonia only ten years earlier. The Greeks were ready to avenge the
attempted genocide of their people in Macedonia at hands of the
Bulgarians only ten years earlier, see Paulos
Melas.
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Directly Related:
Elefterios
Venizelos · Possibly the greatest
Greek politician of the 20th century. He was Prime Minister of
Greece during the most trying of times.
Paulos
Melas · A
national Greek hero who fought for the preservation of Hellenism in
Macedonia in the early 20th century.