On Oct. 8, 1912, the tiny Kingdom of Montenegro declared war on
a weakened Ottoman Empire, kicking off what is now known as the
First Balkan War. Three other Balkan states in league with the
Montenegrins—Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia—rapidly followed suit,
waging war on the Turks, the old imperial enemy, while drawing
upon a wellspring of national sentiment in each of their
homelands. By March 1913, their blood-soaked campaigns had
effectively pushed the enfeebled Ottomans out of Europe. Yet by
July, Greece and Serbia would clash with Bulgaria in what’s
known as the Second Balkan War—a bitter month-long struggle that
saw more territory change hands, more villages razed and more
bodies dumped into the earth. Some 200,000 soldiers died in less
than a year, while countless civilians were slaughtered in
pogroms or died of disease and starvation. The conflict, as
argued here, in many senses set the tone for the future of war
and ethnic strife in the 20th century. More Photography from
Time - Scenes from Pakistan’s H