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Outgrowth

CHAPTER V

THE BALKAN WARS

Two important events grew out of the work of the Young Turk even while he was completing his revolution. One of these was the seizure of Tripoli and Cyrenaica by Italy. For a long of Work of time Italy had been working towards the economic Young Turk. conquest of these provinces so that the Young Turk gave only the immediate incentive. Italy had established steamship lines from Tripoli to Tunis, Alexandria and Rome. She had developed commercial and banking relations with the provinces. She had established a parcels post, opened and patrolled internal lines of communication in order to further the commerce of the provinces. In every possible way she had made the provinces economically attached to her and dependent upon her. Italy's position in the provinces had been recognized in 1901 by France in return for Italy's recognition of the French position in Morocco. At the conference of Algeciras, the principle of Italian interests in the provinces was recognized by all the Great Powers. But in this recognition, the Triple Alliance had reckoned on the old Turkey, not on the Young Turk. To thwart the plans of Italy, the Young Turk immediately set to work. With the administration in his hands this was not difficult, although he had no means of replacing, for the benefit of the province, what he was destroying in Italian development. Italians were subjected to mistreatment, all concessions were refused, the parcels post was destroyed by poor administration and by the veiled attacks of the natives upon the lines of communication. In short, Italy was made to feel that her influence was at an end. Wishing to complete her work in a peaceful manner she tried negotiation, but this failed. She had gone too far and had spent too much, to give up; and so she prepared for war.

War with

The time was propitious. The Agadir incident1 had attracted the interest of Europe for the moment. Germany was too deeply involved with France to interfere with her ally. In September, 1911, war was declared. Italy hoped by prompt action and a swift decisive attack, to force the Turk to accept the inevitable. She, therefore, gave notice to the Great Powers that she would not interfere with the Dardanelles. The Young Turk was not 1 See Part II, Chap. 4.

Italy.

easily convinced that he could not hold the provinces. He did what he could to make Italy's military occupation unprofitable and then sat down to wait. Had there been no other difficulties in his way, the Young Turk might have succeeded, but Albania was in rebellion and the affairs of Macedonia were rapidly approaching a crisis. Turkey was, therefore, compelled to make a peace by which she recognized Italy's right to the provinces, Italy keeping possession of a group of islands in the southern Aegean to insure the completion of the peace terms.

Significance

War.

The significance of the Italian war with Turkey is to be found in two directions. First of all, it went a step further in completing the internal disorder of Turkey and precipitating the Balkan wars. In the second and far more important place, it had a tremendous influence in precipitating the diplomatic crisis of Italian in the Near East. It was difficult enough for Germany to retain her influence in Turkey when her ally, Austria, seized Bosnia. The Young Turk would not understand why Germany could not aid Turkey if she wanted to do so, and came near having his eyes opened to see that his country was but a pawn in the hands of the Central Powers. Her helplessness, however, made it impossible for Turkey to resent Austria's breach of faith, beyond a boycott. It was even more difficult to explain the Italian seizure of Tripoli. Germany resented the Italian move very keenly. It was a declaration of Italian independence of her two allies, Germany and Austria. The seizure of Bosnia, Italy naturally interpreted as an intention on the part of Austria to strengthen her position on the Adriatic. In spite of Austrian assurances to the contrary, Italy strongly opposed this step taken by Austria. The question of the Adriatic was too vital a matter to her. She continued to believe that Austria was playing a two-faced If Austria failed to reach the Aegean by way of Salonica there could be no question of her intention to make safe the possession of the Adriatic. Italy's attack on Tripoli, therefore, could only be interpreted by Germany and Austria as a declaration of independence which Germany tried to modify as far as possible by accepting the right of Italy to seize the provinces. Such a position further embarrassed Germany's position in Turkey. Her influence there might have been seriously compromised had it not been that, at the critical moment, France refused to loan the Turk any more money and Germany was able to purchase forgiveness by furnishing the Turk means to carry on the war. Thus, Germany, the head of the Triple Alliance, was sanctioning the work of one of her allies while furnishing the money to another ally, with which to carry on the war. Germany

probably saw that the possession of Tripoli would tend to draw Italy away from the Triple Alliance and toward the Triple Entente. This was true, in case of war, because these provinces would be at the mercy of the fleet of the Western Powers. In order to combat this tendency, Germany was forced to acquiesce in Italy's work, hoping thus to save the actual breakup of the Triple Alliance, and, in case of war, to keep Italy from actively joining the Western group of states.2

So much for the first event that was precipitated by the Young Turk revolution. The other event, more important because so clearly more disastrous to Turkey, to the plans of Germany, and to the Triple Alliance, as well as to the general diplomatic situation in the Near East, was the Balkan war. The immediate causes of the Balkan wars were: the Cretan question, the Macedonian question, The Balkan and the war between Italy and Turkey. The more remote causes, of course, are to be found in the whole course of the Turkish rule in Europe.

Wars.

One of the unfortunate inheritances of the Young Turk was the Cretan question. In 1897, after the Turko-Greek war, Crete was given its autonomy by the Great Powers, and, in 1898, Prince George,

The
Cretan
Question.

son of the King of Greece, was appointed by the ministry as governor of Crete. He remained until 1908, when he retired as the result of internal conditions and his own folly in dealing with the islanders. The Great Powers then asked the King of Greece to appoint a successor. A former minister of Greece was appointed to the post. The revolution in Turkey led to a Cretan proclamation of the union of Crete with Greece. The . Powers refused to accept this proclamation, but announced themselves as ready to discuss the subject with the Turk. Failing to agree upon definite action, they decided to withdraw from the island, though they still refused to the Cretan the right of union. For several years things were at cross purposes. The Turk began to hope for the re-attachment of Crete to Turkey and to force the issue, laid an embargo upon Greek products.

In 1910, Venizelos, the Cretan prime minister, recognizing the hopelessness of securing any action by the Powers, resolutely turned

Venizelos.

his back upon Crete and entered Greek politics for the purpose of preparing Greece for the settlement of the question. He was definitely prepared for a union with the Balkan states and recognized that the Greek dream of a united Hellas must

2 The German-Italian negotiations, after war was begun in 1914, show clearly enough that Germany had no hope of securing Italy's active aid but did hope to keep her from giving aid to Germany's enemies.

give way to a more practical scheme. Greece might secure the Hellenic Islands of the Aegean, but she must content herself with only a part of Macedonia instead of the whole.

With this idea firmly fixed in mind, Venizelos, first of all, as Prime Minister of Greece, reorganized the finances, the army, the navy, and strengthened the allegiance of the nation to the dynasty. He then began his propaganda to secure to Greece the Island of Crete and to

[graphic][merged small]

MR. VENIZELOS-THE GREEK PRIME MINISTER.

drive Turkey from Europe. In all probability, he could never have prepared Greece for this step had it not been that the Turkish boycott had struck at a vital spot in Greek affairs. More than anything else, it forced the nation to follow its new leader and to substitute for the idle dream of uniting Macedonia to Greece the practical plan of a Balkan Union.

The second cause of the war was the Young Turk's treatment of Macedonia and the general recognition that, in time, Macedonia would, under such treatment, become an integral part of the Turkish

ization and secretaries to carry on the business of the League in the intervals between the Conferences".

The League of Nations Commission as finally constituted was made up of two representatives from each of the five Great Powers, and one each from five of the smaller states. Upon the presentation of a request from other of the smaller and newly formed states, the Commission was enlarged by the appointment of four additional members representing four of these states.1

The Commission met continuously from February 3 to 13 and in that time worked out a tentative plan for presentation to the general session on the 14th. The two problems which presented the greatest difficulty were, first, the establishment of an international military force to execute the will of the League, and, second, the recognition of racial equality among the peoples of the League. The first question was strongly insisted upon by France, which feared an attack from Germany before the machinery of the League could be put into operation, but it was finally discarded by an almost unanimous vote, only France and Czecho-Slovakia voting for the article. The second question, presented by Japan, the recognition of race equality by the Congress, and the League, was withdrawn as presenting a problem too complicated for the Commission to work out during the Peace Congress.

On the 14th of February the general session heard and adopted the report of the Commission which was presented by President Wilson and it was ordered printed and presented to the nations for examination and discussion. President Wilson immediately started home to attend to pressing public business and to answer objections to the League that were raised in America. From February 14 to March 14, President Wilson remained away from the Conference. The members of the League of Nations Commission gave their attention to other matters and permitted full discussion of the proposed draft of a League.

In America the Senate presented some very serious objections to the proposed League and the public press gave much attention to the problem. On the eve of the President's return to the Conference, the Republican leaders in the Senate circulated a resolution written by Mr. Lodge, which demanded that the League of Nations' constitution be revised and that the League constitution be delayed until after the peace terms with Germany were concluded. The resolution pro

I See International Reconstruction Pamphlet June, 1919, No. 139, p. 830831 for list of members.

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