Balkan wars

Content

Introduction 3

• First Balkan War 4
• Second Balkan War 6
• Results of the Balkan wars as World War I background 7

Conclusion 12

References 13

Introduction

At the turn of XX - XXI centuries European civilization is at a crossroads: the bipolar system’s collapse as the backstage of a new world order, a global leadership’s problem and great powers’ responsibilities limits, «renaissance» of nationalism and multi-national states’ crises. But can we call these challenges new, if a Europe has faced the same a century ago?

The period from 1815 to 1914 went down in history as the era of the British domination, but at the beginning of the XX century Vienna model of international relations has entered a crisis phase.

On the one side, approaching sunset «Pax Britannica» raised the question about the place of Great Britain in the system of international relations, its influence on German plans to be new world power and on the triggering the mechanism of generation of the military-political Alliances (the Triple Alliance and the Entente). On the other side, small nations’ ambitions to implement their programs at the regional level have generated a series of major international crises.

Permanent transformation of present system of international relations makes very actual any research of global powers’ policy according to the conditions of growing crisis tendencies in the world.

Leadership of a global power on the international scene is determined now by how successfully it is implementing its goals at the regional level and in international cooperation. Especially this thesis is valid in relation to the regions, which can be classified as a «geopolitical centers». According to the category of «geopolitical centers» reasonably could be considered a region of Southern Europe and the Balkan Peninsula.