Update's done!
Part One Hundred Twenty-Four: The Balkan Powder Keg
Out With the Turks:
As Europe became embroiled in the Great War, the other nations that sat out on the sidelines were still affected by the conflict, and none more so than the Ottoman Empire. After the Treaty of Rome ended the invasion of Turkey, a token French force had remained in the Balkans helping to garrison the passage to the Black Sea and preventing a chaotic rebellion as had happened to Austria three decades prior. As the Great War escalated though, the French force was recalled to fight in Spain and Italy. With Turkey weakened, the ethnic strife in the Balkans began anew.
In Albania, the uprising that started after the Treaty of Rome festered with protests and frequent violence near Skadar. Once the foreign forces withdrew from the Adriatic coastal cities, the uprising flared into a full blown rebellion and groups began attacking Ottoman military camps near Lezhe and Kruje. At a conference between the different Albanian clan leaders in Kruje in May of 1909, the leaders of the Albanian clans met and declared their
besa, or promise[1], to unite in a struggle against the Ottomans. The clans, now united under the leadership of Xhemal Pasha Zogolli[2], spread the uprising from the Durrazzo vilayet and moved into the Kosovo vilayet. By now, the Albanians were joined by Serbia and the Bulgarians in revolt against the Ottomans. The new Albanian state scored important victories at the Zhur and Kacanik passes over the next year, blocking the railway northwest from Skopje and preventing the Ottomans from moving back into northern Albania. In 1910 at the Assembly of Prizren, the clans met again and declared an independent state of Albania. The borders of the state drawn up at Prizren were much larger than the eventual borders, claiming all of the Durrazzo, Kosovo, and Monastir vilayets[3].
As the Albanian rebellion spread, the rebellious sentiment spread anew throughout the Ottoman Balkans. The leaders of the autonomous regions of Serbia and Montenegro began demanding more rights. Clashes erupted in Banja Luka and Zvornik between Serb and Bosnian nationalists and Turkish authorities in August of 1909, inspired by the insurrection in Albania. The Serbs and Bosnians had been incited by a cultural revival led in part by Antun Knezevic, as a splinter from the Illyrian revival further north[4]. With Ottoman rail links to the autonomous region cut off by the Albanian rebellion, the leaders of the Serbian uprising began to march on Belgrade. The young prince Alexander I Obrenovic of Serbia, who had succeeded his father Milan IV upon his death in 1901, was sympathetic to the Serbian uprising and upon the arrival of the rebels in Belgrade declared the Serbian autonomous region fully independent of the Ottoman Empire.
A Latecomer to the Great War:
The main focus of the German offensive in 1909 switched from pushing into Poland, to pushing south and at least breaking out of the Alps. While Verona was a tempting target for the German Alpine forces, a breakthrough on the eastern side of the front was more important, as it would bring Illyria closer to ending their neutrality and joining the war of the German side. The German army was still encamped in the Valbelluna after enduring an Italian counteroffensive, but at the snows melted away in the southern Alps the army went on the offensive again. This time, the attempt to break out of the Valbelluna was successful, following the course of the Piave River. The capture of the village of Quero on April 22, 1910, was soon followed a week later by an Italian retreat from the southernmost ridge of the Venetian Alps. The German army had finally broken through to the Venetian plain. The breakthrough was solidified with the fall of Conegliano a month later.
The breakthrough in the Italian front was soon followed by feverish diplomatic activity in Ljubljana as the ambassadors of the warring power around the small monarchy tried to convince Illyria to assist either side or stay neutral. Illyria's reliance on the Italian ports of Trieste and Fiume made neutrality a sensible option, but as the German ambassador often pointed out, it also made them juicy territorial prizes should Illyria join the Alliance Carolingien[5]. King Adolf Anton and Prime Minister Anton Haus[6] frequently discussed the matter. The king was averse to becoming involved in the surrounding war, but Haus, who had previously had experience in the navy, saw the benefit of gaining the two large port cities. When the German army in Hungary neared Agram in June of 1910, the king consented and Illyria joined the war. The Illyrian army moved quickly to secure the east bank of the Isonzo River, defeating the Italian forces at the First Battle of Gorizia on July 2. The road west from Trieste was soon blocked and the city isolated from the rest of Italy by land. The mountainous terrain kept the Illyrian army from capturing Rijeka early on, though they won a small battle with Italian forces near Jelsane.
[1] The
besa was an important part of Albanian nationalism.
[2] Father of OTL King Zog.
[3]
Here's a map of the vilayets; Albania wants to have the OTL Ishkadra, Kosovo, and Monastir vilayets minus what's in Montenegro ITTL. That proposal may seem excessive, but in OTL the Albanian movement wanted a single vilayet with all that plus Janina.
[4] Knezevic plays a bigger role in OTL, so the develompent of Bosniak ethnic national identity is more broadened than being Muslim.
[5] Trieste and Fiume have always been rightfully part of Illyria as the Austrian successor state anyway, or so the nationalists say.
[6] Anton Haus is Slovene, and was the grand admiral of the Austrian navy during part of WWI in OTL. He still gets a naval education.