The Russians backed Servia.

The French laughed and so did all Europe when the Turkish troops manned by German officers were beaten back to Constantinople and the Bosphorus.
Austria extended the hand of friendship to Bulgaria and induced her to attack her allies, Servia and Greece, thus making the second Balkan war.

The result was the loss by Bulgaria of part of the territory she had acquired and a further augmentation in the importance of Servia.
Bulgaria has never forgiven either Servia or Austria for this defeat.
The Servians are the pure-blooded Slavs, while the Bulgarians have a Turkish admixture, whence their great fighting qualities.

The Roumanians just north of Bulgaria are Italians, and the defeat of Turkey in Africa by Italy did not lessen the importance of this enterprising nation on the Danube, fronting Austria-Hungary and Russia.
Both Austria and Germany were losers in all three wars; while the treaty ending the second Balkan war magnified Servia of the Slav race of Russia.

This is the important and crucial point in race and geography.
Austria, as the hand of Germany, still demanded a union of all these Balkan states with Turkey and under the aegis of Austria,--which meant, of course, Germany.
The aim of Germany in alliance with Turkey was, through Austria in _quasi_-sovereignty over the Balkan states, to carry German influence by the Bagdad railroad right through Asia Minor to the Persian Gulf.
Germany would thus be, when the work was finished, a mighty military empire with rail communications cleaving the center of Europe and extending through Asia Minor to Eastern waters.