Born Then
1912–1913

Life during the Balkan Wars

Be born in a place it hit, a few years before it began, and see what it did to five ordinary lives.

What it meant for ordinary people

Balkan states took nearly all Ottoman land in Europe in 1912, then fought each other over it in 1913. Civilians on all sides were driven out of their villages, and hundreds of thousands of Muslims fled to Anatolia.

Deaths: about 120,000 to 200,000 soldiers, plus many civilians.

How hard it hits each person in the game (risk of death, of being conscripted, of leaving) comes from scholarly estimates.

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