Smarting under this feeling, "the Russian Government began to reorganize its army, to construct strategic railways, and to do everything in its power to insure Russia against a like humiliation in the future." [notes 1]
In the early fall of 1912, war broke out between Turkey and the Balkan states of Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece. The time was favorable for joint action against the Ottoman Empire, for that power had been weakened by the Turco-Italian war and by internal troubles in Albania and Macedonia. The Christians in Macedonia had been oppressed for years, and conditions were not improved when the Young Turks came into power in 1908. A spirit of discontent began to manifest itself in secret revolts and assassinations, which was aggravated by the ineffective efforts of the Turkish officials to allay it. These unjust and unwise measures caused the Serbs, the Bulgars, and Greeks in Macedonia to suspend their hatred of each other and thus made it easier for the Greek and Bulgarian Governments to bury their difference and act together against the common enemy. The Albanians, despite their historic friendship for the Porte, were also chafing under recent grievances. Revolts broke out in 1910 and 1911, in which the Montenegrins made common cause with the insurgents. This brought
- ↑ Hayes, II, 708.
