Report of the International Commission To Inquire into the Causes and Conduct of the Balkan Wars

Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment, 1914. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Good. iv, [6], 413, [5] pages. Illustrations. Maps. Fold-out maps. Appendices. Some wear to edges of boards and spine, some foxing, small pieces missing from side margins The circumstances which attended the Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913 were of such character as to fix upon them the attention of the civilized world. The conflicting reports as to what actually occurred before and during these wars, together with the persistent rumors often supported by specific and detailed statements as to violations of the laws of war by the several combatants, made it important that an impartial and exhaustive examination should be made of this nation by an independent authority was to inform public opinion and to make plain just what is or may be involved in an international war carried on under modern conditions. In July, 1913, an International Commission of Inquiry to study the recent Balkan was and to visit the actual scenes where fighting had taken place and the territory which had been devastated. The result of the work of the International Commission of Inquiry is contained in the following report. This report, which has been written without prejudice and without partisanship, is respectfully commended to the attention of the government, the people and the press of the civilized world. This work opened with an Introduction that addressed Why this Inquiry?. This was followed by chapters on The Origin of the Two Balkan Wars; The War and the Noncombatant Population; Bulgarians, Turks, and Servians; The War and the Nationalities; The War and International Law; Economic Results of the Wars; The Moral and Social Consequences of the Wars; the Outlook for the Future of Macedonia and Appendices. The Report of the International Commission to Inquire into the Causes and Conduct of the Balkan Wars is a document published in Washington D.C. in 1914 by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The International Commission consisted of university professors and other prominent individuals from France, Great Britain, United States, Germany, Austria and Russia. Among the members of the Commission there were three Nobel Prize winners. The Commission went to the participating countries at the beginning of August 1913 and remained until the end of September. After returning to Paris all the material was processed and released in the form of a detailed report. The report speaks of the numerous violations of international conventions and war crimes committed during the Balkan Wars. The information collected was published by the Endowment in the early summer of 1914, but was soon overshadowed by the beginning of the First World War. According to Mark Levene in 2020, the report is "thoroughly documented and still highly regarded"