The Balkan Wars: 1912-1913 | Page 7

political life and experience. Each for himself
without regard to others or even without thought of a future day of
reckoning seems to be the maxim of national conduct among the
Balkan peoples. The spirit of strife and division possesses them; they
are dominated by the uncontrolled instinct of national egoism and greed.
The second Balkan War, alike in its origin, course, and conclusion, was
a bald exhibition of the play of these primitive and hateful passions.
The history of the world, which is also the high tribunal of the world,
proves that no nation can with impunity ignore the rights of other
nations or repudiate the ideal of a common good or defy the rule of
righteousness by which political communities achieve it--justice,
moderation, and the spirit of hopeful and unwearying conciliation. In
their war against Turkey in 1912 the Balkan nations, for the first time
in history, laid aside their mutual antagonisms and co-operated in a
common cause. This union and concord marked at least the beginning
of political wisdom. And it was vindicated, if ever any policy was
vindicated, by the surprise and splendor of the results.
My hope for the Balkan nations is that they may return to this path
from which they were too easily diverted in 1913. They must learn,
while asserting each its own interests and advancing each its own
welfare, to pay scrupulous regard to the rights and just claims of others
and to co-operate wisely for the common good in a spirit of mutual
confidence and good will. This high policy, as expedient as it is sound,
was to a considerable extent embodied in the leadership of Venizelos
and Pashitch and Gueshoff. And where there is a leader with vision the
people in the end will follow him. May the final settlement of the
European War put no unnecessary obstacle in the way of the normal
political development of all the Balkan Nations!
J. G. S.
President's Office Cornell University July 13, 1916
Postscript. I remarked in the foregoing Introduction, that Roumania
would not abandon her neutrality till fortune had declared more
decisively for one or the other group of belligerents. That was written
seven weeks ago. And within the last few days Roumania has joined
the Allies and declared war against Austria-Hungary. I also noted that
the unstable equilibrium which had been maintained in Greece between
the party of King Constantine and the party of Venizelos had already

been upset to the disadvantage of the former. Roumania's adhesion to
the cause of the Allies is bound to accelerate this movement. It would
not be surprising if Greece were any day now to follow the example of
Roumania. Had Greece in 1914 stood by Venizelos and joined the
Allies the chances are that Roumania would at that time have adopted
the same course. But the opposition of King Constantine delayed that
consummation, directly in the case of Greece, and indirectly in the case
of Roumania. Now that the latter has cast in her lot with the Allies and
the former is likely at any tune to follow her example, I may be
permitted to quote the forecast which I made in the Preface to the
Second Edition of this volume under date of November 26, 1914:
"If this terrible conflagration, which is already devastating Europe and
convulsing all the continents and vexing all the oceans of the globe,
spreads to the Balkans, one may hazard the guess that Greece,
Montenegro, Servia, and Roumania will stand together on the side of
the Allies and that Bulgaria if she is not carried away by marked
Austro-German victories will remain neutral."
J. G. S.
September 1, 1916.
[Map: map1.png Caption: The Balkan Peninsula before the Wars of
1912-1913.]

I
TURKEY AND THE BALKAN STATES
The expulsion of the Turks from Europe was long ago written in the
book of fate. There was nothing uncertain about it except the date and
the agency of destiny.
THE TURKISH EMPIRE IN EUROPE
A little clan of oriental shepherds, the Turks had in two generations
gained possession of the whole of the northwest corner of Asia Minor
and established themselves on the eastern shore of the Bosphorus. The
great city of Brusa, whose groves to-day enshrine the stately beauty of

their mosques and sultans' tombs, capitulated to Orkhan, the son of the
first Sultan, in 1326; and Nicaea, the cradle of the Greek church and
temporary capital of the Greek Empire, surrendered in 1330. On the
other side of the Bosphorus Orkhan could see the domes and palaces of
Constantinople which, however, for another century was to remain the
seat of the Byzantine Empire.
The Turks crossed the Hellespont and, favored by an earthquake,
marched in 1358 over the fallen walls and fortifications into the city of
Gallipoli. In