1915 treaty between Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire
Map of the territorial changes (horizontal shaded lines) of the Convention of SofiaCloser view of the same
The convention of Sofia between Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) was signed on 6 September (24 August O.S.) 1915. It rectified the border between the two countries in Bulgaria's favour in order to bring Bulgaria into the First World War on the side of the Central Powers.
A defensive alliance between Bulgaria and Turkey had been concluded on 19 August 1914, but negotiations for Bulgaria's intervention in the war did not begin between the two parties until May 1915. It quickly became clear that Bulgaria sought a rectification of the border, and Germany and Austria-Hungary put pressure on their Ottoman ally to accept.[1] The Austro-Hungarians for their part were convinced that a Turco-Bulgarian alliance would keep Greece and Romania neutral. The German ambassador to Turkey, Hans von Wangenheim, was unconvinced by the proposed alliance, believing that Romanian neutrality could only be secured by Austro-Hungarian territorial concessions. The Austro-Hungarian ambassador, Johann von Pallavicini, convinced the Ottomans to accept a border rectification, but Bulgaria initially refused to consider abandoning their neutrality—the only condition on which the Ottomans would yield territory.[2]
On 6 August 1915, the British launched an offensive on Gallipoli that exposed Turkey's grave shortage of munitions. On 17 August, the Turkish minister of war, Enver Pasha, wrote to the German chief of staff, Erich von Falkenhayn, to see if an Austro-German offensive against Serbia was forthcoming. When told that it hinged on Bulgaria's intervention, which in turn hinged on a Turco-Bulgarian pact, the Ottomans reached a quick agreement with Bulgaria on 22 August.[2] They ceded the Maritsa river and its left bank to a depth of 1.5 kilometres.[3] This gave Bulgaria control of the railway to the Aegean port of Dedeagach.[4] It also left Edirne (Adrianople) vulnerable to Bulgarian attack, but signature of the accord was dependent on a military convention being signed between Bulgaria, Austria-Hungary and Germany.[2]
In addition to the Bulgarian-Ottoman convention, Bulgaria also signed a treaty of alliance with Germany and a military convention between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria in Sofia on 6 September. Bulgaria agreed to allow the transit of German and Austro-Hungarian supplies through its territory to the Ottoman Empire and to invade Serbia with a large force.[2] By November, Turkey's critical supply problem, which had threatened to destroy the regime in August, had been resolved.[5]
Silberstein, Gerard E. (1967). "The Serbian Campaign of 1915: Its Diplomatic Background". American Historical Review. 73 (1): 51–69. doi:10.2307/1849028. JSTOR1849028.
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 Ottoman 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 Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires, were one of the two main coalitions that fought in World War I (1914–1918). It consisted of the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria; this was also known as the Quadruple Alliance.
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 still controlled much of Southeastern Europe.
The Treaty of Berlin was signed on 13 July 1878. In the aftermath of the Russian victory against the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, the major powers restructured the map of the Balkan region. They reversed some of the extreme gains claimed by Russia in the preliminary Treaty of San Stefano, but the Ottomans lost their major holdings in Europe. It was one of three major peace agreements in the period after the 1815 Congress of Vienna. It was the final act of the Congress of Berlin and included the United Kingdom, Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the Ottoman Empire. Chancellor of Germany Otto von Bismarck was the chairman and dominant personality.
The Congress of Berlin was a diplomatic conference to reorganise the states in the Balkan Peninsula after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, which had been won by Russia against the Ottoman Empire. Represented at the meeting were Europe's then six great powers: Russia, Great Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Germany; the Ottomans; and four Balkan states: Greece, Serbia, Romania and Montenegro. The congress concluded with the signing of the Treaty of Berlin, replacing the preliminary Treaty of San Stefano which had been signed three months earlier.
The Treaty of London or the Pact of London was a secret agreement concluded on 26 April 1915 by the United Kingdom, France, and Russia on the one part, and Italy on the other, in order to entice the latter to enter World War I on the side of the Triple Entente. The agreement involved promises of Italian territorial expansion against Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and in Africa where it was promised enlargement of its colonies. The Entente countries hoped to force the Central Powers – particularly Germany and Austria-Hungary – to divert some of their forces away from existing battlefields. The Entente also hoped that Romania and Bulgaria would be encouraged to join them after Italy did the same.
In diplomatic history, the Eastern question was the issue of the political and economic instability in the Ottoman Empire from the late 18th to early 20th centuries and the subsequent strategic competition and political considerations of the European great powers in light of this. Characterized as the "sick man of Europe", the relative weakening of the empire's military strength in the second half of the nineteenth century threatened to undermine the fragile balance of power system largely shaped by the Concert of Europe. The Eastern question encompassed myriad interrelated elements: Ottoman military defeats, Ottoman institutional insolvency, the ongoing Ottoman political and economic modernization programme, the rise of ethno-religious nationalism in its provinces, and Great Power rivalries. In an attempt to triangulate between these various concerns, the historian Leslie Rogne Schumacher has proposed the following definition of the Eastern Question:
The "Eastern Question" refers to the events and the complex set of dynamics related to Europe's experience of and stake in the decline in political, military and economic power and regional significance of the Ottoman Empire from the latter half of the eighteenth century to the formation of modern Turkey in 1923.
The Reinsurance Treaty was a diplomatic agreement between the German Empire and the Russian Empire that was in effect from 1887 to 1890. The existence of the agreement was not known to the general public, and as such, was only known to a handful of officials in Berlin and St. Petersburg. The treaty played a critical role in German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's network of alliances and agreements, which aimed to keep the peace in Europe as well as maintaining Germany's economic, diplomatic and political dominance. It helped calm tensions between both Russia and Germany.
The Bosnian Crisis, also known as the Annexation Crisis or the First Balkan Crisis, erupted on 5 October 1908 when Austria-Hungary announced the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, territories formerly within the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire but under Austro-Hungarian administration since 1878.
The Bulgarian First Army was a Bulgarian field army during the Balkan Wars, World War I and World War II.
The July Crisis was a series of interrelated diplomatic and military escalations among the major powers of Europe in the summer of 1914, which led to the outbreak of World War I. The crisis began on 28 June 1914, when Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb nationalist, assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg. A complex web of alliances, coupled with the miscalculations of numerous political and military leaders, resulted in an outbreak of hostilities amongst most of the major European states by early August 1914.
The Allies or the Entente was an international military coalition of countries led by France, the United Kingdom, Russia, the United States, Italy, and Japan against the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria in World War I (1914–1918).
The Austrian Empire and its predecessor, the Archduchy of Austria, was one of the most prevalent states in Europe throughout its history. The following is Austria's military history from the 18th century.
The Serbian campaign was a series of military expeditions launched in 1914 and 1915 by the Central Powers against the Kingdom of Serbia during the First World War.
World War I or the First World War, also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers. Fighting took place mainly in Europe and the Middle East, as well as in parts of Africa and the Asia-Pacific, and in Europe was characterised by trench warfare; the widespread use of artillery, machine guns, and chemical weapons (gas); and the introductions of tanks and aircraft. World War I was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, resulting in an estimated 10 million military dead and more than 20 million wounded, plus some 10 million civilian dead from causes including genocide. The movement of large numbers of people was a major factor in the deadly Spanish flu pandemic.
The Kingdom of Bulgaria participated in World War I on the side of the Central Powers from 14 October 1915, when the country declared war on Serbia, until 30 September 1918, when the Armistice of Salonica came into effect.
The Bulgarian Crisis refers to a series of events in the Balkans between 1885 and 1888 that affected the balance of power between the Great Powers and the conflict between Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire. It was one of several episodes in the continuing Balkan Crisis as vassal states struggled for independence from the Ottoman Empire but achieved a mosaic of nascent nation-states (Balkanisation). They featured unstable alliances that frequently led to war and eventually to the First World War.
In World War I, Albania had been an independent state, having gained independence from the Ottoman Empire on 28 November 1912, during the First Balkan War. It was recognised by the Great Powers as the Principality of Albania, after the Ottoman Empire officially renounced all its rights in May 1913. Being a fledgling new country, it quickly unravelled and just a few months after taking power, its German ruler, Prince Wilhelm, was forced to flee. After World War I broke out, anarchy took hold of the country as tribes and regions rebelled against central rule. To protect the Greek minority, Greek control was established in the southern districts replacing the Northern Epirote units beginning in October 1914. In response to this, Italy, although officially neutral at the time, also sent troops into the port of Vlorë, while Serbia and Montenegro took control of northern regions. In 1915 Serbia was overrun by combined German, Austro-Hungarian, and Bulgarian forces; the Serbian army retreated across the mountain passes of northern Albania, towards the Adriatic. Italian troops drove the Greeks from southern Albania and brought almost all Albanian territory under their control. Austrian forces invaded in June 1916; Austro-Hungarian forces remained in Albania until the end of the war when a multinational Allied force broke through and pushed them out in 1918.
The Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces occupied Serbia from late 1915 until the end of World War I. Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia on 28 July 1914 marked the beginning of the war. After three unsuccessful Austro-Hungarian offensives between August and December 1914, a combined Austro-Hungarian and German offensive breached the Serbian front from the north and west in October 1915, while Bulgaria attacked from the east. By January 1916, all of Serbia had been occupied by the Central Powers.
An Ottoman–Bulgarianalliance was signed in Sofia on 19 August (6 August O.S.) 1914 during the opening month of the First World War, although at the time both the signatories were neutral. The Minister of the Interior, Talaat Pasha, and President Halil Bey of the Chamber of Deputies signed the treaty on behalf of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) and Prime Minister Vasil Radoslavov on behalf of the Kingdom of Bulgaria. The Ottoman–Bulgarian alliance was probably a prerequisite for Bulgaria's joining the Central Powers after Turkey entered the war in November.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
