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Why was the Balkan League formed?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Map of Balkan states, with dark purple for countries usually included: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Albania, North Macedonia, Romania, and Bulgaria. Light purple marks countries sometimes included: Moldova, Greece, and Turkey.
Balkans

The Balkan League was formed in the spring of 1912 under the auspices of Russia with the primary objective of expelling the Ottoman Empire from the Balkans and seizing Macedonia from Turkish control.12

While the alliance was ostensibly created to limit the growing influence of Austria-Hungary in the region, it was driven by the shared realization among Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro that they could only achieve their national goals by uniting against a common enemy. This shift in strategy was prompted by the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, which enforced centralized control and denied concessions to the Christian nationalities in Macedonia.12

By 1911, these nations recognized that their individual interests—such as Serbian territorial ambitions and Greek desires for union with Crete—were best served by a collective military effort against the Ottomans, who were already weakened by their ongoing conflict with Italy.2