Editing History of Bulgaria (section)

===The Balkan Wars===
{{Main|Balkan Wars}}
[[File:First Balkan war.png|thumb|350px|Map of [[Balkan League]] operations in 1912, Bulgarian forces in red]]
In the years following independence, Bulgaria became increasingly militarized and was often referred to as "the Balkan [[Prussia]]", with regard to its desire to revise the Treaty of Berlin through warfare.<ref>{{cite book|last= Dillon|first= Emile Joseph|title= The Inside Story of the Peace Conference|url= http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/1/4/4/7/14477/14477-h/14477-h.htm|access-date= 15 June 2009|orig-year= 1920|date=February 1920|publisher= Harper|isbn=978-3-8424-7594-6|chapter= XV|quote= The territorial changes which the Prussia of the Balkans was condemned to undergo are neither very considerable nor unjust.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Pinon|first=Rene|title=L'Europe et la Jeune Turquie: les aspects nouveaux de la question d'Orient|year=1913|publisher=Perrin et cie|location=Paris|isbn=978-1-144-41381-9<!-- (Nabu Press Edition)-->|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xL9DAAAAYAAJ&q=prusse+des+balkans|quote=On a dit souvent de la Bulgarie qu'elle est la Prusse des Balkans|language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=И аз на тоя свят. Спомени от разни времена |last=Balabanov|first=A. |year=1983 |pages=72–361}} (in Bulgarian)</ref> The partition of territories in the Balkans by the Great Powers without regard to ethnic composition led to a wave of discontent not only in Bulgaria, but also in its neighbouring countries. In 1911, Nationalist Prime Minister [[Ivan Geshov]] formed an alliance with Greece and Serbia to jointly attack the Ottomans and revise the existing agreements around ethnic lines.<ref name="Pundeff, 1992 pp 70-72">Pundeff, 1992 pp&nbsp;70–72</ref>

In February 1912 a secret treaty was signed between Bulgaria and Serbia and in May 1912 a similar agreement was sealed with Greece. [[Kingdom of Montenegro|Montenegro]] was also brought into the pact. The treaties provided for the partition of the regions of Macedonia and Thrace between the allies, although the lines of partition were left dangerously vague. After the Ottoman Empire refused to implement reforms in the disputed areas, the First Balkan War broke out in October 1912 at a time when the Ottomans were tied down in [[Italo-Turkish War|a major war with Italy in Libya]]. The allies easily defeated the Ottomans and seized most of its European territory.<ref name="Pundeff, 1992 pp 70-72"/>

Bulgaria sustained the heaviest casualties of any of the allies while also making the largest territorial claims. The Serbs in particular did not agree and refused to vacate any of the territory they had seized in northern Macedonia (that is, the territory roughly corresponding to the modern [[Republic of North Macedonia]]), saying that the Bulgarian army had failed to accomplish its pre-war goals at Adrianople (to capture it without Serbian help) and that the pre-war agreement on the division of Macedonia had to be revised. Some circles in Bulgaria inclined toward going to war with Serbia and Greece on this issue.

In June 1913, Serbia and Greece formed a new alliance against Bulgaria. The Serbian Prime Minister [[Nikola Pasic]] promised Greece Thrace to Greece [no reference] if it helped Serbia defend the territory it had captured in Macedonia; the Greek Prime Minister [[Eleftherios Venizelos]] agreed [no reference]. Seeing this as a violation of the pre-war agreements, and privately encouraged by Germany and [[Austria-Hungary]], Tsar [[Ferdinand of Bulgaria|Ferdinand]] declared war on Serbia and Greece on June 29.

The Serbian and Greek forces were initially beaten back from Bulgaria's western border, but they quickly gained the advantage and forced Bulgaria to retreat. The fighting was very harsh, with many casualties, especially during the key Battle of Bregalnitsa. Soon afterward, the [[Kingdom of Romania|Romania]] entered the war on the side of Greece and Serbia, attacking Bulgaria from the north. The Ottoman Empire saw this as an opportunity to regain its lost territories and also attacked from the south-east.

Facing war on three different fronts, Bulgaria sued for peace. It was forced to relinquish most of its territorial acquisitions in Macedonia to Serbia and Greece, Adrianapole to the Ottoman Empire, and the region of [[Southern Dobruja]] to Romania. The two Balkan wars greatly destabilized Bulgaria, stopping its hitherto steady economic growth, and leaving 58,000 dead and over 100,000 wounded. The bitterness at the perceived betrayal of its former allies empowered political movements who demanded the restoration of Macedonia to Bulgaria.<ref>Charles Jelavich and Barbara Jelavich, ''The Establishment of the Balkan National States, 1804–1920'' (1977) pp&nbsp;216–21, 289</ref>