Abstract

This paper examines the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Balkan “wars of liberation” by critically reassessing them as imperial and colonial projects rather than purely anti-Ottoman struggles. It argues that the Pan-Slavic ideology promoted by Serbia and Montenegro—and supported by major European powers—functioned as a legitimizing framework for territorial expansion into Albanian-inhabited lands. Through an analysis of political rhetoric, military campaigns, and contemporary archival evidence, including the 1912 memorandum The Heads of the Malësia Highlands Against the Montenegrin Invasion, the study highlights the systematic dehumanization, displacement, and mass violence inflicted upon Albanian populations, both Muslim and Christian. The findings suggest that the violence associated with the Balkan Wars and World War I represented not an abrupt rupture but a continuation of long-standing hostilities and colonial ambitions. By reframing these conflicts within a colonial and imperial context, the paper challenges dominant liberation narratives and emphasizes the lasting demographic, political, and moral consequences for the Balkans and Europe as a whole.

Pan-Slavic Rationale

In the 19th century, the anti-Ottoman and “Pan-Slavic” movement began to grow among the governments of the Slavic Orthodox nations of the Balkans. Through out the 18th and 19th century, this idea – fuelled by Russia, France and Europe – led to the birth of imperialist and colonialist goals in Serbia and Montenegro. The goals were to drive the Ottomans out of Europe, while at the same time expand onto its former territories – Albanian territories. Serbia and Montenegro, during its “war of liberation” against the Ottomans in the years 1878-1912 led to some of the most appalling atrocities the world had ever seen. It also plunged the Balkans into 100 years of continued atrocities and even genocide.

This type of “liberation rational” was in fact an imperial and colonial agenda. In order to control public opinion and encourage enlistment in the military, a “noble” goal was needed which would “unite Christian Europe”. Thus creating an antagonist – the Ottoman Turks and the Muslims (meaning Albanians as well). This resulted in the implementation of a dehumanising agenda where Albanians had no value, and were thus to be killed, expelled or assimilated.

The South Slavic atrocities against the Albanians does not start in 1878. It has, in fact, a long history. This can be can be seen in a document titled “The Heads of the Malësia Highlands Against the Montenegrin Invasion”.

This document, located in the National Archives in London from 1912, was signed by the cheiftains of the Malësia Highlands. It was a memorandum to the European powers requesting help to halt the Montenegrin-Serbian invasion of Albania and Malesia. The document states the following:

“The five regions of the Malësia of Shkoder: Hoti, Gruda, Kastrati, Shkrel and Kelmendi, who are united with blood, language, land, customs and the Kanun. The five tribes of Mali I Zi, Mirdita, Dukagjin, Puka and Kthella who are of the Catholic and Islamic faith. As or the economical aspect, they are bound to the Vilayet of Scutari, which spreads to Kavajë, where a Montenegrin invasion would be a catastrophe for Malësia.

We have for 3 years spilled our blood for the freedom and progress of the Albanian state against the Turkish rule. We have fought with the Montenegrins against Turkey but when we saw the intentions of Montenegrin invading Malësia, we abandoned them. The Montenegrins, like the Slavs of the Balkans, all along, during the war with Turkey, have for centuries committed many atrocities on Albanians on both catholics and muslims where our churches have been burned, our priests murdered, our children massacred and they have stolen all the wealth of Shkoder.

Therefore, the centuries-old hostility of the Balkan Slavs against the Albanians is at its height. We are getting permission to send you our prayer to the Great Powers of Europe, which have made it a duty to take care of the freedom and the development of Albania. Malësia is therefore an inseparable part of the body of Albania and any attempt to detach it from the stump of Albania will shed blood as in previous times“.

It is rather interesting how this colonial agenda of Serbia and Montenegro was so easily sold to the powers of Western Europe. The Balkan Slavic propagandists knew exactly how to persuade the West to gain support for this agenda. Russia benefited as they desired a coastal exit, and England and France wanted to weaken the Ottoman Empire. But what was the result of this “liberation war” against the Ottomans?

Despite the war only lasting a full year, (1912-1913) around 200 000 Muslims were killed, 120 000 of them being Albanians, of all ages, sexes, both Christian and Muslims. It should be noted that the Serbian and Montenegrin forces killed 30 000 Albanian Catholic Christians in Kosovo and Macedonia.

A minimum of 50 000 Albanians were massacred in Kosovo, and 30 000 Albanians were massacred in Novi Pazar. Not to mention the destruction of an entire part of Europe, which would lead to World War I. Ironically, this war also started after the Serb Gavrilo Princip murdered the Archduke of Austria Prince Ferdinand. The war claimed 20 million lives and reshaped the maps of Europe.

Statistics of Albanians killed

1912-1913: 50,000-60,000 Albanians killed by Serbo-Montenegrin forces. Source: Aggression Against Yugoslavia Correspondence. Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade. 2000. p. 42. ISBN 978-86-80763-91-0. Retrieved 29 April 2020.

120,000 killed in northern Albania. Source: On the Albanian-Serb Relations” (PDF). Kosovo Public Policy Center: 83. “120,000-270,000 Albanians were killed and approximately 250,000 Albanians were expelled between 1912 and 1914.”

Around 170,000 – 270 000 killed.

1914-1918: 200,000 killed in all areas, according to Robert Elsie; Bejtullah D. Destani, eds. (2018). Kosovo, A Documentary History: From the Balkan Wars to World War II. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 115, 201–205, 237. ISBN 9781788311762.

1914-1918: 150,000 Albanians dying from hunger. Source: “Famine in Albania: Awful Harvest of Death”. The Sun (Sydney). 1915. p. 5.

1918-1921: 66,000-77,000 Albanians killed by by Serbian forces.

Sources: 1. Department of State, United States (1947). Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States. U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 740–741. Retrieved 19 August 2023.

2. Aggression against Yugoslavia correspondence. Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade. 2000. ISBN 978-86-80763-91-0. Retrieved 19 August 2023.

3. Ramet, Sabrina Petra (19 February 2018). Balkan Babel: The Disintegration Of Yugoslavia From The Death Of Tito To The Fall Of Milosevic, Fourth Edition (more than 12,000 Kosovar Albanians were killed by Serbian forces between 1918 and 1921, when pacification was more … ed.).

1919-1920: 22,000 Albanians killed in Lumë and Dibër by Serbian forces. https://insajderi.org/nl/letra-e-hasan-prishtines-drejtuar-mpjse-britanike-me-1921-serbet-per-dy-vjet-kane-vrare-22-mije-shqiptare/

1921-1925: 12,700 Albanians killed, according to sources from 2025, Balkanacademia.com. Another 20,000-30,000 killed by Serbs. (Latifi, 2025, Balkanacademia.com).

1930-1931 47,000 Albanians killed by Serbs (https://balkanacademia.com/2025/05/11/47000-albanians-were-killed-by-serbs-in-1930-1931/)

During World War I, the Balkan Slavic nations continued to massacre Albanians. This time, the Bulgarians joined in and killed 50 000 Albanians only in Kosovo. 150 000 Albanians starved to death in the Great War. Up until the end of the war, 200 000 Albanians were killed by the Serbs and Motnenegrins.

The Balkan Leagues expansionist war was thus responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, most of them innocent civilians. Despite the rational of “liberating Europe”. What the Ottomans had done to the Balkans for 500 years became bleak in comparison to what Serbia and Montenegro did to the Balkans in just 100 years. 121 years of Serbian and Montenegrin oppression and atrocities against the Albanian people, as well as countless atrocities committed against Macedonians, Croatians and Bosniaks in the decades that followed.