The Third Balkan War and the Second Franco-German Conflict.

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The Third Balkan War (28 July 1914 - 26 December 1916) is the term often applied to the unique and separate conflicts of the 12th Russo-Turkish war and the Second Franco-German War, the name the Third Balkan War, specifically applies to the war between Austria, Serbia, and Russia, in the Balkans. Although many of the belligerents in any case were inter-allied with each other and at the same-time at peace with the enemies of their respective allies.

The conflict is considered by historians as the beginning of the modern era as it greatly contributed to the modernization of The Ottoman Empire (Empire of Turkey) the growth of Pan-Islamic nationalism, the fall of the Russian Empire, and the rise of Germany as the primary power in mainland Europe. It had it's roots in the conflicts of the 19th century and it's terminus and resolution would directly give rise to the later Great War of the 40's in which millions would perish as a result of the advances of military technology made in the 3rd Balkan War such as the landship, poison gas, and airship design.
In these following chapters I hope to outline the causes and progression of the war, and its eventual outcomes on world history as the first modern war.
 
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THE BEGGINING OF THE MADNESS:

"The day of small nations has long passed away. The day of Empires has come."

- Joseph Chamberlain -

How fitting those words would prove to be, although uttered long before the 3rd Balkan War and the even more devastating Great War in times to come, they would prove ever more truer as the tensions between the great powers escalated and small nations came to be dominated or absorbed by their more powerful neighbors influence.
As the year 1914 progressed, few believed that it would be the start of yet another general European conflict, as the summer was notably peaceful and free from the tensions that had dominated the earlier year in the Balkans between the powers of Turkey, Russia, and Austria-Hungary. Few to none believed that any conflict in the Balkans would result in any war between the great powers, as wars in the Balkans were a common occurrence to many people at this time, and of little interest to nations whose declared sphere's of influence did not immediately include the region.
However it was out of the Balkan powder keg that the first modern conflict, the Third Balkan War, was born, and with it came the sweeping revolutions in technology, politics, and warfare that would contribute to, or either result in the Great War.
The assasination of Archduke Ferdinand and the Governor of Bosnia Oskar Potiorek in 28 June by the Bosnian nationalist Muhamed Mehmedbasic, was the main catalyst for the Third Balkan War, however the roots of the war lay in the competition between Germany and France, and Turkey and Russia, in France's desire to avenge it's defeat in the 1st Franco-German War, and Russia's ongoing, longstanding rivalry with the Ottoman dynasty. Muhammad Mehmedbasic, in part of a larger conspiracy of the Serbian terrorist organization, the Black Hand, insured that his own country would only further remain apart of Greater Austria.
 
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