The Balkan Wars were a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan states in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan states of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defeated it, in the process stripping the Ottomans of their European provinces, leaving only Eastern Thrace under the Ottoman Empire's control. In the Second Balkan War, Bulgaria fought against the other four original combatants of the first war. It also faced an attack from Romania from the north. The Ottoman Empire lost the bulk of its territory in Europe. Although not involved as a combatant, Austria-Hungary became relatively weaker as a much enlarged Serbia pushed for union of the South Slavic peoples. The war set the stage for the July crisis of 1914 and thus served as a prelude to the First World War.
The League of the Balkans was a quadruple alliance formed by a series of bilateral treaties concluded in 1912 between the Eastern Orthodox kingdoms of Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro, and directed against the Ottoman Empire, which at the time still controlled much of Southeastern Europe.
Ismail Qemali, sometimes spelled as Ismail Kemal in old diplomatic correspondence, was an Albanian politician and statesman who is regarded as the founder of modern Albania. He served as the first prime minister of Albania from December 1912 until his resignation in January 1914.
The First Balkan War lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and involved actions of the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire. The Balkan states' combined armies overcame the initially numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies, achieving rapid success.
The Macedonian Struggle was a series of social, political, cultural and military conflicts that were mainly fought between Greek and Bulgarian subjects who lived in Ottoman Macedonia between 1893 and 1912. The conflict was part of a wider guerilla war in which revolutionary organizations of Greeks, Bulgarians and Serbs all fought over Macedonia. Gradually the Greek and Bulgarian bands gained the upper hand. Though the conflict largely ceased by the Young Turk Revolution, it continued as a low intensity insurgency until the Balkan Wars.
The dissolution of the Ottoman Empire (1908–1922) was a period of history of the Ottoman Empire beginning with the Young Turk Revolution and ultimately ending with the empire's dissolution and the founding of the modern state of Turkey.
Themistoklis Sofoulis or Sophoulis was a prominent centrist and liberal Greek politician from Samos Island, who served three times as Prime Minister of Greece, with the Liberal Party, which he led for many years.
Emmanouil Tsouderos was a political and financial figure of Greece. During World War II, he was the internationally recognized Prime Minister of Greece from 1941 to 1944 as head of the Greek government in exile. He resigned in 1944, following a mutiny in the exiled armed forces
Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha was an Ottoman statesman and imperial administrator. He was twice the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire around the time of the Second Constitutional Era. He was also one-time president of the Turkish Red Crescent.
Alexandros Diomedes was a governor of the Central Bank of Greece who became Prime Minister of Greece upon the death of Themistoklis Sophoulis.
The Vilayet of Salonica was a first-level administrative division (vilayet) of the Ottoman Empire from 1867 to 1912. In the late 19th century it reportedly had an area of 12,950 square miles (33,500 km2).
The Cretan State was established in 1898, following the intervention by the Great Powers on the island of Crete. In 1897, the Cretan Revolt led the Ottoman Empire to declare war on Greece, which led the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Russia to intervene on the grounds that the Ottoman Empire could no longer maintain control. It was the prelude to the island's final annexation to the Kingdom of Greece, which occurred de facto in 1908 and de jure in 1913 after the First Balkan War.
The Principality of Samos was an autonomous tributary state of the Ottoman Empire from 1834 to 1912. The island of Samos participated in the Greek War of Independence and had successfully resisted several Turkish and Egyptian attempts to occupy it, but it was not included with the boundaries of the newly independent Kingdom of Greece after 1832. Instead, in 1834 the island was granted self-government as a semi-independent state.
Ioannis Poutetsis was a Greek revolutionary leader from the region of Epirus, in the early 20th century.
The Himara Revolt, was a Greek uprising during the First Balkan War that took place in the region of Himara, on November 18 [O.S. November 5] 1912. It successfully overthrew the Ottoman forces of the region, thus securing the coastal area between Sarandë and Vlorë for the Hellenic Army.
The Vilayet of Janina, Yanya or Ioannina was a first-level administrative division (vilayet) of the Ottoman Empire, established in 1867. In the late 19th century, it reportedly had an area of 18,320 square kilometres (7,070 sq mi). It was created by merging the Pashalik of Yanina and the Pashalik of Berat with the sanjaks of Janina, Berat, Ergiri, Preveze, Tırhala and Kesriye. Kesriye was later demoted to kaza and bounded to Monastir Vilayet and Tırhala was given to Greece in 1881.
Mehmed Ferid Pasha was an Ottoman statesman. He served as Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire from 15 January 1903 until 22 July 1908, at the time when the Sultan restored the 1876 Constitution following the Young Turk Revolution. Other than Ottoman Turkish he spoke the Albanian, Arabic, French, Italian, and Greek languages.
Konstantinos Karatheodoris (1841–1922) was an Ottoman Greek statesman, who was a member of the distinguished Phanariote Karatheodori family. He served as the Ottoman-appointed Prince of Samos from 1906 to 1907. He was the younger brother of the diplomat and statesman Alexander Karatheodori Pasha, who also served as Prince of Samos from 1885 to 1895.
Grigorios Vegleris was Prince of Samos briefly in 1912, succeeding the assassinated Andreas Kopasis. With the outbreak of the First Balkan War in October 1912, the exiled Samian political leader Themistoklis Sophoulis returned to the island and assumed control, declaring its union with the Kingdom of Greece.
Athanasios Stavroudis was a Greek chieftain of the Macedonian Struggle, soldier of the Balkan Wars and spy of the French army during the First World War.
