Bulgarian Empire

Chapter 158: 18) Balkan Situation

In the late 19th century, as Austria-Hungary continued to infiltrate Serbia, those with insight within Serbia believed that if Serbia did not expand into the Aegean region, the country would sooner or later be annexed by Austria-Hungary.

That is why Serbia adopted a radical expansionist policy, including the propagation of national separatism everywhere. A series of messy ideas set the stage for the collapse of Yugoslavia later.

In addition to the Macedonian region, the other countries are also expanding into other regions. The most famous is the 'Greater Bulgaria' and 'Greater Serbia' plans and, of course, the 'Greater Greece' and 'Greater Montenegro' plans.

The Great Bulgarian Plan, a Bulgarian national ideal of unification, aimed at restoring the largest frontier in the history of Bulgaria.

Bulgarians, of course, have not been foolish enough to really go to restore the largest frontier in history. When it is time to give up, it still chooses to give up!

The target areas developed include the plain between the Danube and the Balkan Mountains, the North, and South Dobruja, the Sofia region, Pirot, Vranje, Northern Thrace, and parts of Eastern Thrace, Macedonia, and other areas.

They aimed the main target at the Turks, not stupid enough to put the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Greece, and other countries in the circle, and even then, it was beyond the capacity of Bulgaria at the time.

The Greater Serbia Project is attractive, which again is Greater Serbianism, the concept of national unification proposed by Serbian nationalists.

Well, the basic goal is to unify the areas where Serbs are concentrated, and there are claims for areas where Serbs are a minority.

This area would be difficult to define, with a larger Serbian state being advocated for the western Balkans in southeastern Europe.

The latter was even worse. When the strength of the radicals expanded at the end of the 19th century, it encompassed the entire nation of Yugoslavia.

For the most basic objectives, the regional area includes Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Albania, Macedonia, Croatia, Slovenia, etc.

If we go by the radicals' goals, the tiny Balkan region, which already can't accommodate Greater Serbia, has involved Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, the Austrian region, and even has an interest in Moldova. (not necessarily accurate, from Baidu, for reference only)

Of course, this group of radicals is only a minority of a minority and is the radical of radicals. It can be understood as madness!

And that's not all. Slavic nations are influenced by Pan-Slavism and openly advocate the unification of the world!

You read that right, right after the establishment of Yugoslavia after WWI, there were advocates of unifying the Slavic nations of the world and establishing a Great Slavic Empire with the Serbs at its core! Even the great strategic idea of unifying the Soviet Union came out!

Well, just take it as a joke! What country doesn't have a few crazy people? There were just a few more lunatics in Serbia in those days!

Blind nationalism, which had neither economic nor military power and lacked international support, could only have disastrous consequences. Greater Serbianism eventually became the trigger for the outbreak of World War I!

The Greeks are still self-aware, perhaps because the first "Greek-Turkish War" woke up the Greek nationalists, and the Megali Idea was just a dream, and after shouting twice, they felt tired and stopped shouting!

Greater Montenegro plan, which Yugoslavia was created once realized, except that he is one of the unified, well, at least they completed it, right? Perhaps feeling that the result is not so wonderful, and later became independent!

But all of this in this time and space, under the butterfly effect of Ferdinand, have changed fundamentally!

Of course, these plans still exist, but the 'Greater Serbia Plan' was just called out and died.

The situation in the Balkans before 1892 was basically the same as in the parallel time. Not much changed. At most, the Bulgarian government built a few more church schools outside and a little more widespread.

From the Bulgaria-Russia Alliance's establishment, history turned for the worse here! First, Ferdinand provoked the arms race in the Balkans, followed by the devastating economic crisis, which was that little bit bigger!

Then, beginning in 1893, the Greek and Serbian governments were forced to stop their efforts to expand in the Macedonian region for financial reasons. After the Bulgarian-Serbian War, Serbia even shut down most Serbian schools and churches directly!

Time entered 1895, and Serbia, which had been ambitious, was now licking its wounds and did not have the energy to come out and make a fuss.

Now the most active instead is Montenegro, which is working to establish the Kingdom of Montenegro!

Gergios I of Greece was still hiding in the shadows, looking for an opportunity to give the Ottoman Empire hell, similar to Ferdinand's idea.

The two sides tacitly agreed to export the revolution to the Ottoman Empire, although Ferdinand lit a fire, and if the Greek government did not cooperate, the Greeks in Turkey would never have made such a fuss now.

The Macedonians depended on the Serbs until 1860, after which they shifted to depend on the Bulgarians. The main factor responsible for this was the Russian Empire's single-handed promotion.

The Russians led the Macedonians to Bulgaria regarding religion and diplomacy, and the attitude of the Russian Empire had a huge impact on all the Orthodox populations of the Balkans!

This influence became more evident after the Russian-Bulgarian alliance and the Orthodox faith areas in the Balkans drew closer to each other and Bulgaria. Taking advantage of this, Ferdinand's government accelerated its penetration into the Balkans.

The more miserable should be Romania, watching the expansion of the Balkan countries. Carol I had no place to show their ambition but to watch the scene in peace!

The west is Hungary and Serbia, the north river in Russia's Ukraine and Moldova, the south is Bulgaria, and the east is the Black Sea, surrounded by strong enemies. There is no place to expand.

The Romanians were ready to come out and get a piece of the pie during the Bulgarian-Serbian War. Still, they chose to support Serbia because of their relationship with Austria-Hungary.

But Serbia was defeated too quickly, so fast that the war was over before Romania had time to mobilize the whole country. Who could not help but call his neighbor in the north the Russian Empire? And the Russian Empire happens to be an ally of Bulgaria. Anyway, the Romanians are afraid to bet!

More than seventy percent of the country's main forces were placed on the Moldovan and Ukrainian fronts. Carol I was confident in his ability to use his troops, but he did not think that a partial Romanian division would be able to defeat Bulgaria.

Coupled with the situation in Romania at that time was also unstable, and a new round of peasant revolts could break out at any time, Carol I finally chose to abandon the Serbs.

... (As for the situation in the Ottoman country, just think about it! (There are only three words: Smoke and Fire!)