Serbia emerged from the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913 significantly enlarged, through invading Albanian territories, and more assertive, but also exhausted and entangled in regional rivalries that contributed to the chain of events culminating in the Serbian assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the outbreak of World War I.
Serbia’s expansionist, irredentist and colonial movements and territorial desires led to the triggering of the July Crisis of 1914. The price Serbia paid was catastrophic: hundreds of thousands of military deaths and roughly 800,000–1.2 million total population losses (military and civilian) out of a pre-war population of about 4.5 million. Not to mention 200,000 dead Albanians which Serbia’s army massacred up to 1918, something Serbia did nothing to atone for.
The Balkan Wars as a Catalyst
In the First Balkan War (1912), Serbia, allied with Bulgaria, Greece, and Montenegro, drove the Ottoman Empire out of most of its remaining European territories, and invaded Albanian lands, massacring 150,000 Albanians.
Serbia, illegally, doubled in size, gaining the Albanian regions of Kosovo, parts of Macedonia, and other lands. The Second Balkan War (1913) saw Serbia fight its former ally Bulgaria over the division of spoils, further increasing Serbian territory and confidence.
These victories boosted Pan-Slavic chauvinism and irredentist ambitions toward South Slav populations living inside Austria-Hungary. Vienna viewed the strengthened Serbia as an existential threat to the stability of its multi-ethnic empire. Serbian expansion and the resulting tensions helped poison relations between Belgrade and Vienna, setting the stage for confrontation.
The Assassination and the July Crisis
On 28 June 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Serb terrorist affiliated with the Young Bosnia movement and supported by the Serbian secret society “Union or Death” (Black Hand), assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo. Elements of Serbian military intelligence, notably Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević (“Apis”).
Austria-Hungary, backed by Germany’s “blank check” of support, issued a harsh ultimatum to Serbia. Serbia did not meet the ultimatum, which provided Vienna the pretext to declare war on 28 July 1914. Russia’s decision to mobilize in support of Serbia, followed by Germany’s declarations of war on Russia and France and the invasion of neutral Belgium, rapidly escalated the regional crisis into a world war.
Serbia started World War One
Despite starting World War One, Serbia mobilized around 450,000–500,000 men. It achieved remarkable early successes against Austria-Hungary but suffered devastating losses. By the end of the war: Military deaths are estimated between 300,000 and over 400,000.
When including civilians who died from combat, occupation, disease (especially the 1915 typhus epidemic), and famine, total Serbian losses reached approximately 800,000 to 1.2 million — one of the highest proportional losses of any nation in the war.
Serbia continued to massacre and murder Albanians during World War One like they had done in 1912 during the Balkan War
Despite being invaded by Austro-Hungary after the Serbs murdered the Archduke, the massacres of Albanians continued, no different than 1912. Serbia’s armies murdered 200,000 Albanians between 1912 and 1918. Ironically, these atrocities were re-paid with blood; 150-200,000 Serbs died in the freezing Albanian mountains in 1915 after the loss against Austro-Hungarian troops.
Serbia’s casualties were disproportionately heavy relative to its size. The war that began partly over South Slav extremism and imperialism and Serbian irredentism ultimately devastated the very population that had fueled those aspirations.
References
Christopher Clark, The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 (2012/2013): Emphasizes Serbian nationalism, the Black Hand, and state complicity in the assassination as key destabilizing factors in the Balkans that contributed to the July Crisis.
Richard J. Evans (interview/BBC): “Serbia bore the greatest responsibility for the outbreak of WW1. Serbian nationalism and expansionism were profoundly disruptive forces and Serbian backing for the Black Hand terrorists was extraordinarily irresponsible.”
Nathan Goldwag, “Rogue State: Was Serbia Responsible For World War One?” (blog, 2019): Discusses Serbian irredentism and links to the assassination.
Encyclopedia 1914-1918 Online – Serbia article: Details the assassination, ultimatum, and Austria-Hungary’s declaration of war on Serbia.
