In the second half of 19th century, Serbia gained statehood as the Kingdom of Serbia. It thus became part of the constellation of European states and the first political parties were founded, thus giving new momentum to political life. The May Overthrow in 1903, bringing Karađorđe’s grandson to the throne with the title of King Petar I opened the way for parliamentary democracy in Serbia. Having received a European education, this liberal king translated “On Liberty” by John Stuart Mill and gave his country a democratic constitution. It initiated a period of parliamentary government and political freedom interrupted by the outbreak of the liberation wars. The Balkan wars 1912–13, terminated the Turkish domination in the Balkans. Turkey was pushed back towards the Bosporus, and national Balkan states were created in the territories it withdrew from. Even though, war was meant to free region from Ottoman Empire Serbs at the time were fighting all nations living in Balkans.

The war began badly for Austro-Hungarian arms, as its forces were humiliated in operations against both Serbia and Russia. Two efforts to advance into Serbia—one in August 1914 and the other that December— resulted in decisive Serb victories. The empire’s armies staggered back in the face of their smaller but highly motivated adversary.

In October 1915, aided by Bulgaria as well as Germany, Austrian troops overran all of Serbia, then turned to occupy Montenegro as well. The pattern of critical help from Germany available to produce important Austrian victories held for the remainder of the war.

In the Balkans, Serbia was nearly driven out of the war in the fall. Attacked from the north by German and Austrian forces, and from the east by Bulgaria, which joined the war in October in order to help overwhelm the Serbs, the kingdom of Serbia was overrun. Only by a dramatic march westward through Albania to the Adriatic Sea and the assistance of the French navy did a remnant of the Serbian army survive. Like the story at Gallipoli, the Serbian campaign was a disaster limited only by a skilled naval evacuation of the defeated forces.

The new flare-up of combat in the Balkans spread the war to Greece. British and French forces had entered Greece in late 1915 in a futile effort to aid Serbia. A large contingent of their troops remained in the port of Salonika, on Greek territory, but without the consent of the Greek government. In 1916 the political establishment in Greece split: supporters of King Constantine clung to a neutrality colored by sympathy for the Central Powers. Meanwhile, former prime minister Eleutherios Venizelos and his faction favored fighting on the Allied side. Territory under the control of Venizelos joined the Allies in November while the country as a whole seemed to slide toward civil war.

The signal for Germany’s defeat was Ludendorff’s loss of heart. Pushed toward resigning by the dismal situation in France, he became even more disheartened by equally catastrophic news from other fronts. Germany’s allies—Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria—had been worn down even more brutally than Germany by the years of fighting. Their home fronts were even more dejected, and in the Austro-Hungarian case more divided, than Germany’s. Under General Louis Franchet d’Esperey—Americans who could not pronounce his name called him “Desperate Frankie”—the Allied army broke out of its pen at Salonika and produced a series of thumping victories. Franchet forced Bulgaria to ask for an armistice on September 25, liberated Serbia during October, and threatened to march on Vienna. Ludendorff stepped down on October 26, a sign that Germany was nearing the end of its role in the conflict. With the Habsburg Empire’s Slavic nationalities in full revolt as well, the government in Vienna sought an armistice on October 29.

As the fighting came to a close, a victorious Serbia with a winning army at its disposal controlled the construction of a Yugoslav (meaning “south Slav”) state.