Serbo-Bulgarian War
Encyclopedia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
and Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
that erupted on 14 November 1885 and lasted until 28 November the same year. Final peace was signed on 19 February 1886 in Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
. As a result of the war, European powers acknowledged the act of Unification of Bulgaria which happened on 6 September 1885.
Background
On 6 September 1885, BulgariaBulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
and the semi-autonomous Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
province of Eastern Rumelia
Eastern Rumelia
Eastern Rumelia or Eastern Roumelia was an administratively autonomous province in the Ottoman Empire and Principality of Bulgaria from 1878 to 1908. It was under full Bulgarian control from 1885 on, when it willingly united with the tributary Principality of Bulgaria after a bloodless revolution...
declared their unification in the city of Plovdiv
Plovdiv
Plovdiv is the second-largest city in Bulgaria after Sofia with a population of 338,153 inhabitants according to Census 2011. Plovdiv's history spans some 6,000 years, with traces of a Neolithic settlement dating to roughly 4000 BC; it is one of the oldest cities in Europe...
. Eastern Rumelia, whose population was predominantly ethnic Bulgarian, had been an artificial creation of the Berlin Congress seven years earlier. The unification took place against the will of the Great Powers, including Russia
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. The Austro-Hungarian Empire had been expanding its influence in the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
and was particularly opposed. Bulgaria's western neighbor Serbia also feared this would diminish its position in the Balkans. In addition, Serbia's ruler Milan Obrenović IV
Milan Obrenovic IV
Milan Obrenović was a Serbian monarch reigning as Prince Milan IV of Serbia from 1868 to 1882 and King Milan I of Serbia from 1882 to 1889.-Early years:...
was annoyed that Serbian opposition leaders like Nikola Pašić
Nikola Pašic
Nikola P. Pašić was a Serbian and Yugoslav politician and diplomat, the most important Serbian political figure for almost 40 years, leader of the People's Radical Party who, among other posts, was twice a mayor of Belgrade...
, who had escaped persecution after the Timok Rebellion, had found asylum in Bulgaria.
Lured by Austria-Hungary's promises for territorial gains from Bulgaria (in return for concessions in the Western Balkans), Milan IV declared war on Bulgaria on 14 November 1885. The military strategy relied largely on surprise, as Bulgaria had moved most of its troops near the border with the Ottoman Empire, in the southeast.
The pretext became a minor border dispute, known as the Bregovo Dispute. The river Timok
Timok River
The Timok is a river in eastern Serbia and for the last 15 km of its run a border between eastern Serbia and western Bulgaria.It derives the names in all these from the name it had in antiquity, Latin: Timacus....
, which formed part of the border between the two countries, had slightly changed its course over the years. As a result, a Serbian border guardhouse near the village of Bregovo
Bregovo
Bregovo is a town in the very northwest of Bulgaria, situated on the east bank of the Timok River close to its mouth. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Bregovo Municipality, Vidin Province. The town is located close to the city of Vidin near the national border crossings with...
had found itself on the Bulgarian bank of the river. After some denied requests from Bulgaria to evacuate the guardhouse, Bulgaria expelled the Serbian troops by force.
As it happened, the Ottomans did not intervene and the Serbian army's advance was stopped after the Battle of Slivnitsa
Battle of Slivnitsa
Called by historians the "Battle of the captains vs the generals," referring to the young Bulgarian army, whose highest rank went up to a captain, the Battle of Slivnitsa was a decisive factor in the victory of the Bulgarian army over the Serbians on November 17–19, 1885 in the...
. The main body of the Bulgarian army traveled from the Ottoman border in the southeast to the Serbian border in the northwest to defend the capital Sofia
Sofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...
. After the defensive battles at Slivnitsa and Vidin
Vidin
Vidin is a port town on the southern bank of the Danube in northwestern Bulgaria. It is close to the borders with Serbia and Romania, and is also the administrative centre of Vidin Province, as well as of the Metropolitan of Vidin...
(the latter's defence was organized by Atanas Uzunov), Bulgaria began an offensive which took the city of Pirot
Pirot
Pirot is a town and municipality located in south-eastern Serbia. According to 2011 census, the town has a total population of 38,432, while the population of the municipality is 57,911...
. At this point, the Austro-Hungarian Empire stepped in, threatening to join the war on Serbia's side if the Bulgarian troops did not retreat. No territorial changes were made to either country, but the Bulgarian unification was recognized by the Great Powers. However, the relationship of trust and friendship between Serbia and Bulgaria, built during their long common fight against Ottoman rule, suffered irreparable damage.
Serbian army
The total number of Serbian armed forces expected to take part in the military operation was about 60,000. The Serbian army's infantry weaponry stood up to the most modern standards of the time (MauserMauser
Mauser was a German arms manufacturer of a line of bolt-action rifles and pistols from the 1870s to 1995. Mauser designs were built for the German armed forces...
-Milovanovich single-shot rifles with excellent ballistic characteristics). However, the artillery was ill-equipped, having muzzle-loading cannons of La Hitte system
La Hitte system
The La Hitte system , named after the French general Ducos, Count de La Hitte, was an artillery system designed in March 1858 to implement rifled muzzle-loading guns in the French Army.-Conception:...
. King Milan IV divided his force into two armies, the Nishava and Timok armies. The first took the main objective, i.e. to overcome the Bulgarian defences along the west border, to conquer Sofia and advance towards the Ihtiman
Ihtiman
Ihtiman is a town in western Bulgaria, part of Sofia Province. It is located in the Ihtimanska Sredna Gora mountains and lies in a valley 48 km from Sofia and 95 km from Plovdiv, close to Trakiya motorway....
heights. It was there that the army was supposed to encounter and crush the Bulgarian forces coming from the southeast. Serbia's main advantages on paper were the better small arms and the highly educated commanders and soldiers, who had gained a serious amount of experience from the last two wars against the Ottoman Empire.
However, internal Serbian problems supplemented by king Milan's conduct of the war, nullified most of these advantages:
In order to collect all the glory for the victory he considered imminent, King Milan did not call the most famous commanders of the previous wars (Gen. Jovan Belimarković, Gen. Đura Horvatović
Đura Horvatović
Đura Horvatović was a Serbian general and military minister....
and Gen. Milojko Lešjanin) to command the army. Instead, he took the position of army commander himself and gave the divisional commands to less experienced officers like Petar Topalović of the Morava division.
Furthermore, underestimating the Bulgarian military strength and fearing mutinies for conducting such an unpopular war (and having indeed experienced the Timok Rebellion two years before), he ordered the mobilisation of only the first class of infantry (recruits younger than 30 years), which meant mobilising only about half of the available Serbian manpower. In doing so, he deprived the Serbian army of its veterans of the previous wars against the Ottoman Empire.
The timing for the beginning of the hostilities was very bad for the Serbian Army as it was in the middle of rearmament with modern weapons. The new De Bange steel, breech-loading cannons were ordered and paid for, but did not arrive until 1886.
The modern rifles, even though amongst the best in Europe at the time, still had issues of their own: they were introduced a rather short time (two years) before the outbreak of the war, so many of the soldiers were not very well trained to use them. More importantly, the theoretical capabilities of the rifle often mislead the Serbian officers, still lacking experience with it, to order volleys from distances of half a mile or more, wasting the precious ammunition for negligible results. Furthermore, the ammunition was purchased in quantities based on consumption of bullets by the previous, much older and slower firing rifles. The situation was made worse still by the contemporary Serbian tactics emphasizing firepower, and downplaying hand-to-hand fighting, which contributed to heavy casualties in such a fight for Neškov Vis in defence of Pirot.
Condition of the Bulgarian Army
Bulgaria was forced to meet the Serbian threat with two serious disadvantages. First, when the Unification had been declared, Russia had withdrawn its military officers, who had until that moment commanded all larger units of Bulgaria's young army. The remaining Bulgarian officers had lower ranks and no experience in commanding units larger than platoons (causing the conflict to be dubbed "The War of the Captains").Second, since the Bulgarian government had expected an attack from Turkey, the main forces of the Bulgarian Army were situated along the southeastern border. In the conditions of 1885 Bulgaria, their redeployment across the country would take at least 5-6 days.
Bulgarian advantages
The main Bulgarian advantage was the strong patriotic spirit and morale, as well as the feeling among the men that they were fighting for a just cause. The same could not be said about the Serbs. Their King had misled them in his manifest to the army, telling the Serbian soldiers that they were being sent to help the Bulgarians in their war against Turkey. This was why the Serbian soldiers were initially surprised to find that they were fighting Bulgarians instead, until they understood what was happening. Presumably, lying to his army was King Milan's only means to mobilize and command his troops without experiencing disobedience and unrest.Furthermore, while Bulgarian small arms were inferior to the Serbian, its artillery was greatly superior, boasting steel, Krupp
Krupp
The Krupp family , a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, have become famous for their steel production and for their manufacture of ammunition and armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th...
-designed breech-loading cannons.
Bulgarian strategic plan
There were two views on the Bulgarian strategy: the first, supported by Knyaz Alexander I, saw the general battle on the Ihtiman heights. The drawback of this plan was that in that case, the capital SofiaSofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...
had to be surrendered without battle. This could very well cause Serbia to stop the war and call in the arbitrage of the Great Powers. For this reason, the strategic plan that was finally selected by the Bulgarian command expected the main clash to be in the area of Slivnitsa
Slivnitsa
Slivnitsa is a town in western Bulgaria, 22 km away from Sofia, lying on the main road connecting the capital with the Bulgarian-Serbian border...
. Captain Olimpi Panov had an important role in this final decision.
16-19 November
Slivnitsa
Slivnitsa is a town in western Bulgaria, 22 km away from Sofia, lying on the main road connecting the capital with the Bulgarian-Serbian border...
city. To the right was steep mountainous terrain whilst the left wing had the easier Visker Hills towards Breznik
Breznik
Breznik is a town in western Bulgaria, 50 km away from Sofia. It is located in Pernik Province and is close to the towns of Bankya and Pernik. It has 4,500 inhabitants. Villages in the municipality include Dushintsi....
.
The three Serbian centre divisions also arrived on November 16 and halted to recover after the fierce Bulgarian delaying action in the Dragoman
Dragoman, Bulgaria
Dragoman is a small town in the Sofia Province, western Bulgaria. The town is located very close to the border with Serbia. the population is 3,522.-Honour:Dragoman Glacier on Smith Island, South Shetland Islands is named after Dragoman....
Pass. The Morava division was at some distance from its objective Breznik which lay to the south. The northern advance was bogged down along the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
.
The morning of November 17 came with rain and mist but not the expected Serbian attack. By 10 in the morning, Alexander ordered three battalions to advance on the right. They surprised the Danube division, who eventually rallied and pushed them back. The main Serbian attack began on the centre largely unsupported by artillery which had insufficient range. The weight of Bulgarian fire forced them back with some 1200 casualties. A relief column led by Captain Benderev recaptured the heights on the right and forced the Danube division back to the road.
At daybreak on November 18 the Serbians attacked the weaker left flank of the Bulgarian line. Just in time two battalions of the Preslav Regiment arrived to shore up the position. Further attacks in the centre were repulsed with heavy Serbian casualties and Benderev captured two further positions in the mountains.
On November 19 the Serbians concentrated two divisions for an attack on the Bulgarian left near Karnul (today Delyan, Sofia Province) in an attempt to join up with the Morava division. However, three battalions of Bulgarian troops led by Captain Popov from Sofia had held the Morava division in the Visker Hills and the flanking move failed. Alexander now ordered a counter attack which pushed the Serbians back on both flanks although nightfall prevented a complete collapse.
19-28 November
Slivnitsa was the decisive battle of the war. The Serbians fought only limited rearguard actions as they retreated and by November 24 they were back in Serbia. The Timok division in the north continued the siege of Vidin until November 29.The main Bulgarian army crossed the border in two strong divisions (Guchev and Nikolaev), supported by flanking columns, and converged on Pirot. The Serbian army dug in on the heights west of the town. On November 27 the Bulgarian Army flanked the right of the Serbian position with Knyaz Alexander personally leading the final attack. The Serbians abandoned Pirot and fled to Niš
Niš
Niš is the largest city of southern Serbia and third-largest city in Serbia . According to the data from 2011, the city of Niš has a population of 177,972 inhabitants, while the city municipality has a population of 257,867. The city covers an area of about 597 km2, including the urban area,...
.
End of war and peace treaty
The Serbian defeat made Austria-HungaryAustria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
take action. On November 28, the Viennese ambassador in Belgrade, Count Khevenhüller
Khevenhüller
Khevenhüller is the name of a Carinthian noble family documented there since 1356 which originally came from the Upper Palatinate in Franconia and which later had their prinicipal seat on Landskron Castle. In the 16th century the family split into the two branches of ...
-Metsch, visited the headquarters of the Bulgarian Army and demanded the ceasing of military actions, threatening that otherwise the Bulgarian forces would meet Austro-Hungarian troops. The ceasefire was signed on December 7 but that did not stop the Serbians from continuous unsuccessful attempts to conquer Vidin with the idea to use it in negotiations later, even after military activities had stopped on demand of their ally. On February 19, 1886 the peace treaty was signed in Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
. According its terms, no changes were to be made along the Bulgarian-Serbian border.
The war was an important step in the strengthening of Bulgaria's international position. To a large extent, the victory preserved the Unification of Bulgaria. The defeat left a lasting scar on the Serbian military, previously considered undefeated by the Serbs. Ambitious reforms of the army were carried out (which later, in part, contributed to the end of the House of Obrenović
House of Obrenovic
The House of Obrenović was a Serbian dynasty that ruled Serbia from 1815 to 1842, and again from 1858 to 1903. They came to power through the leadership of their progenitor Miloš Obrenović in the Second Serbian uprising against the Ottoman Empire, which led to the formation of the Principality of...
).
In popular culture
The Serbo-Bulgarian War forms the setting for George Bernard ShawGeorge Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
's 1894 play Arms and the Man
Arms and the Man
Arms and the Man is a comedy by George Bernard Shaw, whose title comes from the opening words of Virgil's Aeneid in Latin:"Arma virumque cano" ....
.