Editing Ferdinand I of Bulgaria (section)

== Balkan Wars (1912–1913) ==
{{Main|Balkan Wars}}
Like many other rulers before him, Ferdinand desired the creation of a "new [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantium]]", a desire that has to be interpreted as wanting to create a significant, essentially Christian, Balkan power, given that Bulgaria and Bulgarians had neither cultural, ethnic, historical nor linguistic affinity with the old [[Byzantine Empire]], which was quintessentially [[Roman Empire|Roman]] and, evolving through the centuries, [[Greece|Greek]].<ref name="Aronson86">[[#Aronson1986|Aronson, 1986, ''Crowns In Conflict'']], p 86</ref> In 1912, Ferdinand joined the other Balkan states in an assault on the Ottoman Empire to free occupied territories. He saw this war as a new crusade declaring it, "a just, great and sacred struggle of the Cross against the Crescent."<ref name="Aronson87">[[#Aronson1986|Aronson, 1986, ''Crowns In Conflict'']], p 87</ref> Bulgaria contributed the most and also lost the greatest number of soldiers. The [[Great Powers]] insisted on the creation of an [[independent Albania]].<ref name="Louda297"/> Though the [[Balkan League]] allies had fought together against the common enemy in the [[First Balkan War]], that was not enough to overcome their mutual rivalries. In the original documents for the Balkan League, Serbia  had been pressured by Bulgaria to hand over most of [[Vardar Macedonia]] after it had conquered it from the Ottoman Empire. However Serbia, in response to the new Albanian state receiving territory in the north that it had expected to gain for itself, said that it would keep possession of the areas that its forces had occupied. Soon after, Bulgaria began the [[Second Balkan War]] when it invaded its recent allies Serbia and Greece to seize disputed areas, before being attacked itself by Romania and the Ottoman Empire. Although Bulgaria was defeated, the 1913 [[Treaty of Bucharest (1913)|Treaty of Bucharest]] granted the Kingdom some territorial gains. The region of [[Western Thrace]], giving access to the [[Aegean Sea]] was secured.<ref name="Louda297"/>