Toplica uprising

Toplica Uprising
Part of Serbian Campaign of World War I
Date 21 February–25 March 1917 (1 month and 4 days) Location Toplica District, Bulgarian-occupied Kingdom of Serbia Result Uprising suppressed
Belligerents
Chetniks	Kingdom of Bulgaria  Austria-Hungary
Commanders and leaders
Kosta Vojinović Kosta Pećanac Uroš Kostić Milinko Vlahović Jovan Radović	Alexander Protogerov Petar Darvingov Tane Nikolov
Units involved
Chetnik detachments: Toplica Jablanica Ibar-Kopaonik Pirot Krajina	Morava Oblast forces IMARO detachments
Strength
10,000	60,000 artillery airplanes
Casualties and losses
c. 20,000 Serbian casualties in penal expeditions

The Toplica Uprising (Serbian: Топлички устанак) was a Serb rebellion in 1917 carried out by Serbian guerrillas (Chetniks) in the Toplica District against the Bulgarian occupation force in the eastern part of the Kingdom of Serbia, occupied since October 1915. The rebellion lasted from 21 February to 25 March 1917.

In October 1915, Kingdom of Serbia, which had throughout fall 1914 managed to withstand and repel three Austro-Hungarian invasions, found itself under attack again. This time it was a joint Austro-Hungarian, German, and Bulgarian invasion from two directions that included Austro-Hungarian Third Army, German Eleventh Army, and Bulgarian First and Second armies. Outnumbered and outmatched, the Serbian Army was defeated by December 1915. However, rather than surrendering and capitulating, the Serbian military and political leaders decided on a long and arduous army retreat south towards Albania in hopes of reaching the Adriatic coast for evacuation and regrouping. As a result, the invading Central Powers forces occupied the entire territory of the Kingdom of Serbia. In the immediate division of spoils, Kingdom of Bulgaria got the area of Pomoravlje, which had been a target of Bulgarian nationalism.

The primary cause for the rebellion was the policies passed by the occupiers. Constant denationalization, including closing Serbian schools, prohibition of the Serbian language and traditions, and burning of books, and looting, requisition, internment, provoked the population. Romania entering the war in August 1916 awakened hope in the Serbian population of a breakthrough of the Salonika Front, some arming themselves and taking to the forests.Kosta Vojinović began the organization of resistance, and in the summer of 1916 established a band in Leposavić, the core of the future Ibar–Kopaonik Detachment. At the end of September 1916, the Serbian High Command sent Kosta Pećanac, reserve infantry lieutenant and veteran Chetnik vojvoda, by airplane into Toplica. He was given the task to establish a secret resistance organization to be activated when the Allies and the Serbian Army break the Salonika Front and arrive at Skoplje. The peak of Serbian discontent came with the Bulgarian announcement of conscription of local Serbs aged 18–50 for military service. Massive flights to the mountains from Bulgarian recruit commissions began. The first armed conflicts began on 20 February between fleeing conscripts and Bulgarian chases.

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