Balkan Wars in the context of "Slavs"

North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the north. It constitutes approximately the northern third of the larger geographical region of Macedonia. Skopje, the capital and largest city, is home to a quarter of the country's population of over 1.83 million. The majority of the residents are ethnic Macedonians, a South Slavic people. Albanians form a significant minority at around 25%, followed by Turks, Roma, Serbs, Bosniaks, Aromanians and a few other minorities.

The region's history begins with the kingdom of Paeonia. In the late sixth century BC, the area was subjugated by the Persian Achaemenid Empire, then incorporated into the Kingdom of Macedonia in the fourth century BC. The Roman Republic conquered the region in the second century BC and made it part of its larger province of Macedonia. The area remained part of the Byzantine Empire, but was often raided and settled by Slavic tribes beginning in the sixth century CE. Following centuries of contention between the Bulgarian, Byzantine, and Serbian Empires, it was part of the Ottoman Empire from the mid-14th until the early 20th century, when, following the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913, the modern territory of North Macedonia came under Serbian rule.

Balkanization or Balkanisation is the process involving the fragmentation of an area, country, or region into multiple smaller, and often hostile, independent states. It is usually caused by differences in ethnicity, culture, religion, and geopolitical interests.

The term was first coined in the early 20th century, and found its roots in the depiction of events during the Balkan Wars (1912–1913) and World War I (1914–1918), specifically referring to incidents that transpired earlier in the Balkan Peninsula.

Skopje is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It lies in the northern part of the country, in the Skopje Valley along the Vardar River, and is the political, economic, and cultural centre of the country. As of the 2021 census, the city had a population of 526,502. Skopje covers 571.46 km (220.64 sq mi) and includes both urban and rural areas, bordered by several municipalities and close to the borders of Kosovo and Serbia.

The area of Skopje has been continuously inhabited since at least the Chalcolithic period. The city — known as Scupi at the time — was founded in the late 1st century during the rule of Domitian, and abandoned in 518 after an earthquake destroyed the city. It was rebuilt under Justinian I. It became a significant settlement under the First Bulgarian Empire, the Serbian Empire (when it served briefly as a capital), and later under the Ottoman Empire, which ruled the city for over five centuries. In 1912, following the Balkan Wars, Skopje was annexed by the Kingdom of Serbia. It became part of Yugoslavia after World War I and, following World War II, became the capital of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, one of its constituent republics. In 1963, a major earthquake devastated the city, after which it was largely rebuilt with international assistance. Skopje became the capital of independent North Macedonia in 1991.

The Church of Greece (Greek: Ἐκκλησία τῆς Ἑλλάδος, romanized: Ekklēsía tē̂s Helládos, IPA: [ekliˈsi.a tis eˈlaðos]), part of the wider Greek Orthodox Church, is one of the autocephalous churches which make up the communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Its canonical territory is confined to the borders of Greece prior to the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913 ("Old Greece"), with the rest of Greece (the "New Lands", Crete, and the Dodecanese) being subject to the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. However, most of the dioceses of the Metropolises of the New Lands are de facto administered as part of the Church of Greece for practical reasons, under an agreement between the churches of Athens and Constantinople. The primate of the Church of Greece is the archbishop of Athens and All Greece.

Northern Epirus (Greek: Βόρεια Ήπειρος, Vóreia Ípeiros; Albanian: Epiri i Veriut) is a term used for specific parts of southern Albania which were first claimed by the Kingdom of Greece in the Balkan Wars and later were associated with the Greek minority in Albania and Greece-Albania diplomatic relations in the region. First used by Greece in 1913, upon the creation of the Albanian state following the Balkan Wars, it was originally used in a political and diplomatic context rather than a clearly defined geographical one. Today, the term is used mostly by Greeks and is associated with the existence of a substantial ethnic Greek minority in the region and had acquired in the past irredentist connotations (Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus).

With the outbreak of the First Balkan War (1912–13) and the Ottoman defeat, the Greek army entered the region and claimed it. The term started to be used by the Kingdom of Greece in 1913, upon the creation of the Albanian state following the Balkan Wars, and the area's incorporation into the latter. During this period, the Greek Army and Greece-backed irregulars used violence against local Albanians and have been accused of atrocities against civilians. In the spring of 1914, the Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus was proclaimed by ethnic Greeks and pro-Greek parts of the population with official support by Greece and recognized by the Albanian government, though it proved short-lived as the First World War started. Greece held the area between 1914 and 1916 and unsuccessfully tried to annex it in March 1916. In 1917 Greek forces were driven from the area by Italy, in accordance with a general consensus in the Entente, and as a result Italy took over most of southern Albania and part of northwestern Greece. The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 awarded the area to Greece, however the area reverted to Albanian control in November 1921, following Greece's defeat in the Greco-Turkish War and local politics like the creation of the Albanian Autonomous Province of Korçë under French-Albanian administration. During the interwar period, Greece and Albania followed a détente while Greece officially recognized Albanian control over the region and focused more on promoting minority rights for Greek language and culture. The situation of the Greeks in Albania during this period was influenced by the fluctuations in the relations between the two countries, which was also linked with Greece's treatment of its Cham minority.

The Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus (Greek: Αὐτόνομος Δημοκρατία τῆς Βορείου Ἠπείρου, romanized: Aftónomos Dimokratía tis Voreíou Ipeírou) was a short-lived, self-governing entity founded in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars on 28 February 1914, by the local Greek population in southern Albania (Northern Epirotes).

The area, known as Northern Epirus to Greeks and with a substantial Greek population, was taken by the Greek Army from the Ottoman Empire during the First Balkan War (1912–1913). The Protocol of Florence, however, had assigned it to the newly established Albanian state. This decision was rejected by the local Greeks, and as the Greek Army withdrew to the new border, an autonomous government was set up at Argyrokastron (modern Gjirokastër), under the leadership of Georgios Christakis-Zografos, a distinguished local Greek politician and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, and with tacit support from Greece.

The Protocol of Corfu (Greek: Πρωτόκολλο της Κέρκυρας, Albanian: Protokolli i Korfuzit), signed on 17 May 1914, was an agreement between the representatives of the Albanian Government and the Provisional Government of Northern Epirus, which officially recognized the area of Northern Epirus as an autonomous self-governing region under the sovereignty of the prince of the newly established Principality of Albania. The agreement granted the Greeks of the districts of Korytsa (Korçë) and Argyrokastro (Gjirokastër), which form Northern Epirus, wider religious, educational, cultural and political autonomy, inside the borders of the Albanian state.

After the end of the Balkan Wars (1912–1913), the subsequent peace treaties ceded the region to Albania. This turn of events catalyzed an uprising among the local Greeks, which led to the Northern Epirote Declaration of Independence, on 28 February 1914. The International Commission of Control, an organization responsible for securing peace and stability in the region, eventually intervened and the Protocol of Corfu was signed on 17 May 1914. However the protocol's terms were never fully implemented because of the politically unstable situation in Albania following the outbreak of World War I, and it was eventually annulled in 1921 during the Conference of Ambassadors.

At the Congress of Berlin (13 June – 13 July 1878), the major European powers revised the territorial and political terms imposed by the Russian Empire on the Ottoman Empire by the Treaty of San Stefano (March 1878), which had ended the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878. The Congress was the result of escalating tensions; particularly British opposition to Russian hegemony over the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans, through the creation of a Russian-aligned 'Greater Bulgaria'. To secure the European balance of power in favour of its splendid isolation achieved after the Crimean War, Britain stationed the Mediterranean Fleet near Constantinople to enforce British demands. To avoid war, Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of the newly formed German Empire, was asked to mediate a solution that would restore the Ottoman Empire's position as a counterbalance to Russian influence in the Mediterranean and the Balkans, in line with the principles of the 1856 Treaty of Paris.

Attended by delegates from Europe's then six great powers: Russia, Great Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Germany; the Ottomans as well as representatives of four Balkan states (Greece, Serbia, Romania and Montenegro), the Congress culminated in the Treaty of Berlin (13 July 1878). This agreement essentially dismantled the autonomous Greater Bulgarian State envisaged at San Stefano, and reorganised the borders of south-eastern Europe. The main results were the Austro-Hungarian forcible occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the British de facto annexation of Cyprus under false pretenses, and the formal recognition of the self-declared independence of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro; allies of Russia in the previous war. While the settlement averted war, it exacerbated nationalist grievances in the Balkans and deepened the rivalry between Britain and Russia (The Great Game), contributing to long-term regional instability that foreshadowed the Balkan Wars and World War I.

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 Balkans had been in a state of turmoil since the early 1900s, with years of guerrilla warfare in Macedonia followed by the Young Turk Revolution, the protracted Bosnian Crisis, and several Albanian Uprisings. The outbreak of the Italo-Turkish War in 1911 had further weakened the Ottomans and emboldened the Balkan states. Under Russian influence, Serbia and Bulgaria settled their differences and signed an alliance, which was originally directed against Austria-Hungary, on 13 March 1912, but by adding a secret chapter to it essentially redirected the alliance against the Ottoman Empire. Serbia then signed a mutual alliance with Montenegro, and Bulgaria did the same with Greece.