Serbo-Bulgarian War

End of war and peace treaty[edit]

The Serbian defeat made Austria-Hungary take action. On 28 November, the Viennese ambassador to Belgrade, Count Rudolf of Khevenhüller-Metsch, visited the headquarters of the Bulgarian Army and demanded the cessation of military actions, threatening that otherwise the Bulgarian forces would face Austro-Hungarian troops. The ceasefire was signed on 28 November,^[8] but that did not stop the Serbians from continuing unsuccessful attempts to conquer Vidin with the idea to use it in negotiations later, even after military activities had stopped on demand of their ally. On 3 March 1886 the peace treaty was signed in Bucharest. According to its terms, no changes were to be made along the Bulgarian-Serbian border.^[9]


The war was an important step in the strengthening of Bulgaria's international position. To a large extent, the victory preserved the Bulgarian unification. The defeat left a lasting scar on the Serbian military, previously considered by the Serbian people to be undefeated. Ambitious reforms of the army were carried out (which later, in part, contributed to the end of the Obrenović dynasty).^[3][10]


King Milan's poor judgment and leadership are generally considered as the main reasons behind Serbia's defeat in the conflict.^[11][12][13] Milan believed the conflict would entail "taking a walk to Sofia" and thus mustered only one-third of the Serbian army's manpower, as he was in constant fear of possible plots against him and wished to keep the rest of the military within Serbia's borders.^[14] Milan decided to declare war on his own personal whim and based on his own interpretation of the terms of the Congress of Berlin. Prominent Serbian statesman and politician Stojan Novaković and other Serbian political leaders did not share the king's enthusiasm for the war. Novaković advocated reaching a peaceful settlement with the Bulgarians and believed that the Balkan countries should cooperate, as had occurred during the rule of Prince Mihailo Obrenović. Novaković criticised Milan's actions as authoritarian, pretentious and not founded on facts.^[15]


The Serbian population was generally unenthusiastic and did not support the war, and did not understand the reasons behind it.^[16] According to the academic Slobodan Jovanović, the Serbian population generally viewed the conflict as Milan's "cabinet war". Politician Milan Piroćanac believed that Milan did not start the war for patriotic reasons, but that he instead wished to secure funds from abroad in order to repay his numerous debts to the Austro-Hungarians.^[17] A number of Serb officers and civil servants were against the war, describing the Bulgarians as the Serbs' "neighbours" and "Orthodox brothers". The academic Milan Đ. Milićević recounted that many Belgraders protested against the war and commented that Serbs and Bulgarians "are almost the same people". Milan's consort Natalie was also opposed to the war.^[18] On the other hand, part of the Serbian military establishment fully supported the war effort, citing Bulgarian atrocities against Serb civilians, including murder, theft and rape, in southern Serbia and what the Serbian leadership called Old Serbia, which was still under Ottoman control.^[19] After the war, Milan turned his attention to modern-day North Macedonia, where Serbian and Bulgarian interests were conflicted.^[15] The Serbian army and political elite drew numerous lessons from the war, and proceeded to modernise and adapt the military and its tactics to the demands of modern warfare.^[20]