Reaction in the Balkan States
Who persuaded the king to revise the constitution?
Balkan Wars
Serbia was frustrated in the north by Austria-Hungary's incorporation of Bosnia. In March 1909, Serbia was forced to accept the annexation and restrain anti-Habsburg agitation by Serbian nationalists. Instead, the Serbian government looked to formerly Serb territories in the south, notably "Old Serbia" (the Sanjak of Novi Pazar and the province of Kosovo). On 15 August 1909 the Military League, a group of Greek officers, took action against the government to reform their country's national government and reorganize the army. The League found itself unable to create a new political system, until the league summoned the Cretan politician Eleutherios Venizelos to Athens as its political adviser. Venizelos persuaded the king to revise the constitution and asked the League to disband in favor of a National Assembly. In March 1910 the Military League dissolved itself. Bulgaria, which had secured Ottoman recognition of her independence in April 1909 and enjoyed the friendship of Russia, also looked to districts of Ottoman Thrace and Macedonia. In August 1910 Montenegro followed Bulgaria's precedent by becoming a kingdom.