By this time two Austrian armies had been shattered, over three hundred and fifty thousand prisoners taken, and nearly a million men put out of action.  Germany, however, was sending reinforcements as fast as possible, and putting up a desperate defense.  Nevertheless everything was encouraging for Russia and she entered upon the winter in a very different condition from her condition in the previous year.  Then she had just ended her great retreat.  Now she had behind her a series of successes.  But a new difficulty had arisen in the loss of the political harmony at home which had marked the first years of the war.  Dark days were ahead.

CHAPTER VI

HOW THE BALKANS DECIDED

For more than half a century the Balkans have presented a problem which disturbed the minds of the statesmen of Europe.  Again and again, during that period, it seemed that in the Balkan mountains might be kindled a blaze which might set the world afire.  Balkan politics is a labyrinth in which one might easily be lost.  The inhabitants of the Balkans represent many races, each with its own ambition, and, for the most part, military.  There were Serbs, and Bulgarians, and Turks, and Roumanians, and Greeks, and their territorial divisions did not correspond to their nationalities.  The land was largely mountainous, with great gaps that make it, in a sense, the highway of the world.  From 1466 to 1878 the Balkans was in the dominion of the Turks.  In the early days while the Turks were warring against Hungary, their armies marched through the Balkan hills.  The natives kept apart, and preserved their language, religion and customs.

In the nineteenth century, as the Turks grew weaker, their subject people began to seek independence.  Greece came first, and, in 1829, aided by France, Russia and Great Britain, she became an independent kingdom.  Serbia revolted in 1804, and by 1820 was an autonomous state, though still tributary to Turkey.  In 1859, Roumania became autonomous.  The rising of Bulgaria in 1876, however, was really the beginning of the succession of events which ultimately led to the World War of 1914-18.  The Bulgarian insurrection was crushed by the Turks in such a way as to stir the indignation of the whole world.  What are known as the “Bulgarian Atrocities” seem mild today, but they led to the Russo-Turkish War in 1877.

The treaty of Berlin, by which that war was settled in 1878, was one of those treaties which could only lead to trouble.  It deprived Russia of much of the benefit of her victory, and left nearly every racial question unsettled.  Roumania lost Bessarabia, which was mainly inhabited by Roumanians.  Bosnia and Herzegovina were handed over to the administration of Austria.  Turkey was allowed to retain Macedonia, Albania and Thrace.  Serbia was given Nish, but had no outlet to the sea.  Greece obtained Thessaly, and a new province was made of the country south of the Balkans called Eastern Rumelia.  From that time on, quarrel after quarrel made up the history of the Balkan peoples, each of whom sought the assistance and support of some one of the great powers.  Russia and Austria were constantly intriguing with the new states, in the hope of extending their own domains in the direction of Constantinople.