Consequences of the Balkan Wars for the Great Powers

• Many of the Great Powers could see the danger of being dragged into further conflict over troubles in the Balkans

  • In July 1913 the German army reached its largest size in history after the Reichstag agreed to a further 130,000 troops
• Germany’s Schlieffen Plan, created in 1905, underwent a series of amendments by military officials

  ▪ These amendments resulted in a reduction of the number of attacking troops and alters their course
• Plan No. 9, which had been drawn up in 1908-9 after Germany showed their complete commitment to Austria-Hungary, was altered

  • Whereas the plan used to state that Russia would offer a speedy attack on East Prussia, to divert troops from France, it now said that Russian forces would be split, and half would be sent to the Southern Front to attack Austria-Hungary
• The Austrians had two plans, Plan R (Russia) and Plan B (Balkans)

  • Plan B ran a direct counter to the Schlieffen Plan which Germany had shared with the Austrian’s
  • The mobilisation order had to be written in 27 different languages and the dual monarchy was slow making the plans hard to implement
• The French had developed the highly aggressive ‘Plan XVII’ in the wake of its Three-Year Service law of 1913

  • This involved the entire French army attacking Loraine simultaneously
  • It showed the confidence of the French High Command at this time
  • The French mobilisation was centred on precise use of railway timetables
• The entente powers strengthened their commitments to each other as a result of the Balkan Wars
• France had now made it clear that if Russia was attacked by Austria-Hungary over the situation in the Balkans, they would support Russia
• In 1912 the Anglo-French Naval Agreement was concluded which guaranteed British naval protection of France’s coastline in case of an attack by Germany
• After FBW, Russia - seemed entirely possible it would support Serbia and Bulgaria against Turkey as its client states - supported by France.
• After FBW, AH - feared a multi national Yugoslav empire.