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Now the war between Italy and the Ottoman Empire is still going on, and the countries of the Balkans are also ready to move. Among them, Bulgaria and Serbia were the first to reach an agreement, among which Serbia faced pressure from Austria-Hungary. At the time Serbia was very interested in an alliance with Bulgaria.

The sudden annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary in 1908 shocked the Balkan countries and accelerated their approach and alliance. Faced with the huge pressure from Austria-Hungary, Serbia hopes to get Bulgaria's support. Although King Ferdinand of Bulgaria was the son of Prince Saxe-Coburg Korda of the German royal family, he had hatred for Russia and Austria, but he also realized that an alliance with Serbia was necessary because the two countries were opposed to foreign threats. have a common interest.

However, the alliance between Bulgaria and Serbia has been difficult and not all smooth sailing, because the goals of the alliance between the two countries are not the same, and it can be said that each has its own plans. Bulgaria saw the Ottoman Empire as the number one enemy and wanted to use Serbia to help take Macedonia and Thrace. Serbia, on the other hand, regarded Austria-Hungary as the greatest threat, and also wanted to invade Macedonia, so the two sides failed to hit it off.

In November 1909, King Ferdinand made a special trip to Serbia with no positive results. After hearing the news, the Austro-Hungarian Empire took the opportunity to intervene and tried to destroy it, and also warned the Bulgarian king not to expect assistance from Serbia in future wars. And Austria-Hungary can help Bulgaria, and promises that once the Ottomans attack Bulgaria, Vienna will never sit idly by, and will assist Bulgaria to carve up Macedonia with Serbia. Kaiser Wilhelm II was also opposed to an alliance of the Balkan states, which made the proximity of Bulgaria and Serbia problematic.

At that time, Serbia was very interested in the alliance with Bulgaria, which had a great impact on the domestic situation. At that time, many radical organizations asked the government to form alliances with other Slavic countries as soon as possible to jointly deal with Austria-Hungary and Eisman. empire. In addition, due to the needs of foreign policy, Serbia is trying to consolidate the status of the Balkans, and for this reason, it is trying to expand its sphere of influence. According to Serbian Foreign Minister Milanovic, if they do not unite with Bulgaria, they will no longer be able to exert influence over Croatia and Slovenia.

Due to the changes in the Bulgarian government, the People's Party led by Geschov and the pro-Russian Progressive Party headed by Danev came to power last year to form a coalition government. They changed their negative attitude in the past and began to conduct serious discussions with Serbia on the issue of alliance. negotiation.

In April last year, the leader of the Serbian Radical Party Pasic and the Bulgarian ambassador to Serbia Tosev emphasized. Once the two countries form an alliance, the purpose is on the one hand to oppose the common enemy, but also to expand the territory of the two countries by dividing up the Ottoman Empire's territory in Europe, setting the tone of Serbia's alliance with Bulgaria at one time.

The Ottoman territory that Pasic is talking about here is obviously Macedonia. Since Serbs, Greeks, Turks, Bulgarians, Albanians, Romanians, etc. are mixed in its territory, Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece are all right. This territory has its own requirements. Hopefully, if not in full control, then at least some of it. The Bulgarian side Pasic agreed with the opinion, and the negotiations between the two sides have been accelerated since then.

In terms of European powers, especially Russia's approach to Bulgaria and Serbia played a pivotal role. Russia favored an alliance between Bulgaria and Serbia and had had extensive contacts with Bulgaria since 1910. Since Bulgaria is eager to reconcile its ambitions of "Greater Bulgaria" and hopes to gain Russia's support, it is also actively approaching Russia. However, during the negotiation process, the two sides discovered that there were great differences in strategic objectives.

The first is that Bulgaria's expectations are too high, hoping to obtain Thessaloniki and Adriatic Fort with Russian help (this is the essence of the plan to seize Macedonia). Russia, on the other hand, is worried that it will take on too many obligations to Bulgaria and involve itself in conflicts with other European powers, which is the last result Russia wants to see. Secondly, Russia insisted that the goal of the alliance between Bulgaria and Serveyan should be aimed at Austria-Hungary and should not be an enemy of Turkey, which of course was rejected by Bulgaria. As a result, the negotiations with Bulgaria also came to an impasse.

But since last year, Russia's attitude towards Bulgaria has become warm again. Efforts to push Serbia to get close to him, and to stress that only under the conditions of an alliance between the two countries, Russia can consider the issue of alliance with Bulgaria, thus injecting a boost to the negotiation between Serbia and Bulgaria.

Not only that, the Russian ambassador to Serbia Hartwig and the ambassador to Bulgaria Neryudov also began to actively participate in the diplomatic negotiations between the two sides, and put forward a mutually acceptable solution for the most thorny Mariton issue. The southeastern corner of northern Macedonia Bulgaria, the northwest corner to Serbia, the ownership of the land between the two (including Skopje) will be decided by the Russian tsar, and Romanovsky, the Russian military attaché in Bulgaria, has also suggested many details. be clarified. (Southern Macedonia was left to Greece, because the Greek navy needed to block reinforcements from the Ottoman Asian territories and cut off its most extensive sea transport.)

The settlement of the Macedonian issue has removed one of the biggest obstacles to the alliance between the two countries.

With the acceleration of the progress, the two countries finally signed a treaty of friendship and alliance between Bulgaria and Serbia on March 12, 1912, except that one of the two countries should be attacked and should bear military obligations to each other. It also stipulated that Ottoman Turkish rule in Kosovo and Macedonia should be ended, and a secret agreement was reached on the partition of Macedonia.

The military provisions attached to the treaty were as follows. Once the war broke out, Bulgaria should provide 200,000 troops, Serbia should provide 150,000 troops to fight together, of which 100,000 should be sent to Macedonia to help Bulgaria. The Russian government is very satisfied with this treaty, Foreign Minister Sassonov said with joy after hearing the news. "Good! No better! Now there are half a million bayonets to defend the Balkans - it will forever block the logic of German infiltration and Austro-Hungarian invasion!"

In addition to actively seeking to sign a treaty with Serbia, Bulgaria also tried to form an alliance with Greece. In 1910, after Veniziros became prime minister of Greece, he showed a strong interest in Bulgaria, and a committee composed of 10 famous politicians was established in the city to study how to improve the relationship between the two countries, and initially many specific plans.

In 1911, Bulgaria and Greece negotiated the Macedonian issue. Although they failed to reach an agreement, they increased the mutual understanding between the two countries. The Serbian-Bulgarian Treaty and the threat of Italy to bombard the Dardanelles prompted Greece to take a more aggressive approach.

In April 1912, Veniziros proposed an alliance between Greece and Bulgaria, and then at the request of Bulgaria, he responded positively to the Macedonian issue. , Bulgaria and Greece are negotiating in top secret.

Finally, on May 29, 1912, the Treaty of the Defensive Alliance of Paulo was signed, which stipulated that Bulgaria should provide 300,000 troops and Greece to provide 120,000 troops when fighting against Turkey.

After allied with Serbia and Greece, Bulgaria finally set its sights on Romania behind him, and Eder was waiting for them to come.