The history of the Balkan peninsula had been dominated since the 14th century by the Ottoman Empire which held the territory. As a result of the 19th century decline in Ottoman power, the inhabitants became restless. The First Balkan War from October 1912 to May 1913 had soundly beaten the armies of the Sultan and driven the Turks out of vast stretches of Balkan territory.
In June, Bulgaria a steadily growing (via military conquest) principality, angry over the creation of the state of Albania and dissatisfied with recent territorial gains, declared war on Greece and Serbia in a Second Balkan War. Her goal was to act quickly to aquire territory by force before the diplomats, especially Russian, could intervene to deny her claims again.
The contestant armies, which soon included Romania against Bulgaria fought themselves to exhaustion and, after a devastating battle at the Bregalnica River in Macedonia, Bulgaria capitulated in July. As a result of her defeat, Bulgaria lost the territory she had recently gained in the First Balkan War and by her rash behavior, had destroyed her special relationship to Russia, sworn protector of the Slavs. Now the only Russian ally in the Balkans was the rather weaker and backward Serbia itself. That country and her conflict with the Germanic Austrian Empire would soon become the proximate cause of the next global conflagration.
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