“The Final Push Against the Eternal Enemy” The Serbian Preparations for the First Balkan War

Abstract

The Ottoman Empire played an important role in the formation of the Serbian nationalism. It wasperceived as an archenemy that had to be pushed away from the Balkans. The paper explores theSerbian preparations for the potential conflict with the Ottoman Empire at the end of the XIX century.From 1878 to1912 Serbian state invested huge resources in its military in order to be prepared forexploiting any favorable opportunity for penetrating into the “Serbian historical lands” –Kosovo andMacedonia. Apart from the army, the preparatory work encompassed all the aspects of social lifesuch as education, art or public discourse. Decades of meticulous work brought results in Octoberof 1912 when Serbia’s citizens responded in formidable numbers to the mobilization call. However,Serbian war preparations were too focused on defeating the Ottoman troops which was linked withtroublesome history of the Serb-Turkish relations during the entire XIX century. Problems of postwarorganization of the new territories were hardly tackled in detail. Moreover, the Serbian national projectwas too narrow for encompassing diverse ethnical and religious communities which lived in the formerOttoman possessions in the Balkans.