February 14, 2026 • 37 mins
After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, it didn't take the newly-independent nations of Greece and Bulgaria long to begin bickering over their borders. Throughout the early 1920s, small bands of peasants from both countries routinely crossed the border to steal livestock, damage property and harass locals. This untenable situation reached a breaking point in 1925, when a Greek border guard was fatally shot while crossing into Bulgaria to retrieve his dog (who had strayed away on dog business). This single incident sparked a cavalcade of chaos that eventually caught the attention of the League of Nations.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back, folks. Is that time of the week where
we share one of our favorite classic episodes.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Max.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Look, man, you and I are both animal people, as
is RPELLNL. I love love, love, love pretty much every
non human animal, and I was thinking about this as
we're going to today's classic episode. Two questions for you, Max. One,
(00:29):
have you ever seen John Wick?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Yeah, it is amazing. Actually, I was introduced the series
with John Wick.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Two.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
I had a friend group of friends that would go
to matinee movies together. This is back when we're all bartenders,
so doing stuff Tuesday afternoon was like our go to
no one around and we were off right. I never
seen the first one. They're always come to see this.
I'm god, I don't want to see some dumb action movie.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
It captured me immediately.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
I'm like, this is so awesome.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
And that's the that's the second question there, building off
our mutual adoration of John Wick. How far would you
go for your pet?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Uh? Yeah, I would. I would start a world war.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
I mean nukes would.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Fly, nukes would fly, heads will roll, as the yeah
yeah yeah said. This classic episode is about something called
the War of the Stray Dog. As we're going to
find after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, these newly
independent nations started beefing over their borders, Greece and Bulgaria.
(01:34):
This was one of those slow.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Burned things, right.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
It starts with small transgressions which escalate. There's an untenable,
unsustainable situation, and it reaches a breaking point in nineteen
twenty five when a border guard's dog runs away. Here
we go the War of the Stray Dog. Ridiculous History
(02:02):
is a production of iHeartRadio. Let's open today's show with
(02:30):
some statistics. It's often said that people could be either
dog people or cat people, meaning they prefer one pet
over another. According to a fairly arbitrary poll reported by
today dot Com, seventy four percent of us listening today
find ourselves being dog people, and a way to get
(02:52):
into today's episode is to ask how far would you
go for a dog? Welcome to the show. My name
is Ben.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
My name is no Ben. When you say do people,
do you mean some sort of hybrid Island of Doctor
Moreau type monstrosity or talking about dog efficient fans of dogs?
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah, as mentioned people who prefer dogs or people who
prefer cats. We have yet to ask our super producer
Casey Pegram and this question. So I'd like to ask
both you guys. Noel, you strike me as more of maybe.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
A cat person. I am a fan of the movie
Cat People and the accompanying Georgio Moroder soundtrack, and I
do like cats. I don't know why. They're a little
less needy.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
They're less work. They're they're less work.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
They're self sufficient. Dogs. While they do give you unconditional love,
sometimes I feel like they just vomit love on you
to the point where you're like, can we turn off
the love hose please?
Speaker 1 (03:46):
I feel like sometimes I get the sense, and I'm
not going to profile you, but I've gotten the sense
before when we hang out that you don't like dogs.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Well, that's the thing. I'm dating a girl and have
been for a while who has a lovely little dog
who I enjoy. He does some cute things like he
gets under the covers at night and kind of spoons
with my leg, which I enjoy, But he also does
things we're in the middle of the night. He'll get
on top of my head and start flipping his body
around in circles like he can't get comfortable. And he's
a humper, and he's he just does something. He does
(04:16):
some things that rubbed me the wrong way. I'm not
gonna lie, but he also does something that I enjoy.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
So you're you're maybe on the fence about dogs in general.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
I'm cat people. Yeah, oh what about you? Casey?
Speaker 4 (04:25):
Oh man, this is this is tough. I'm real fifty
to fifty on this. I love dogs and cats. I've
had more dogs than cats. But the one cat I
did have lived to be about eighteen or nineteen years
old and was a great cat. So I'd say, I'd
say both.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
That's awesome, you know, And that seems like that seems
like the kind of answer I would expect from Casey.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
You know, Casey on the cat and Dog case.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
And today's episode, Well you haven't said yours. Yeah, no,
I haven't. Today's episode brings us to no, no, sir,
no sir, my friends, well being a decent human being.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I love dogs and cats. Wow, that was that was
very pointed, very pointed.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Now I'm messing with you. I don't I love I
love animals in general, and it's not to be to
bleak about it, but it's true that in several generations,
a lot of the wild animals that we can see
today are going to be gone. So I'm a little
bit bittersweet about it. You know, we created dogs in
(05:32):
a very real sense, right they are if you think
about it, dogs are genetically modified organisms or GMOs.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, and I mean the purebred ones are kind of
those Island of Doctor Moreau monstrosities in some ways.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
We're talking about some I believe. Now I'm not a
you know, a dog doctor, I'm not a veterinarian, but
I believe that there are a couple of breeds that
require human assistance, yeah, to reproduce.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
That's right, what I mean, even like just the features
that humans consider cute or desirable sometimes are not good
for the health of the dogs, right as bread them
to be something that we like, but not necessarily with
their best interest in mind.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Whereas cats self domesticated, which I think is fascinating. But yeah,
so I am a lover of all animals, including serpents
and insects. There are a couple animals I wouldn't necessarily
want to have in my house all the time, like
a snake, like snakes. Snakes are very happy outside and
(06:33):
that's where I will leave them.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Yeah, well, you know listeners right in, Am I a monster?
I don't think you're an acquiring minds wants to know mine.
My mind wants to you want to know if you're
a monster. I want to know if my others think
I'm among.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Not everybody, not everybody cares for dogs. And there's nothing
wrong with that. I did.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
I let me backtrack a little bit. I did not
say I didn't like dogs. I said there are some
qualities they have that annoy me a little bit, but
I do, I do see the good in them. Okay,
I believe specifically, the phrase was vom at love. Yes,
but turn off the love houses, And I said, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
But we can agree that overall, in general people love dogs.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Yeah, and we'll often put themselves in harm's way to
protect them.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
There we go, nineteen twenty five. Boom, we got there.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
We did.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
So to explore this story, we have to look at
the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire ruled an area of
the world that included a lot of different people, nations, languages, religions,
and ethnicities, and two of the peoples that they ruled,
(07:39):
or two of the nations that were under the rule
of the Ottoman Empire were the Greeks and the Bulgarians.
In eighteen thirty two, Greece becomes independent, and then in
nineteen oh eight Bulgaria becomes independent. And this is a
very big deal to them because while they were under
the thumb of the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Empire was
(08:01):
Islamic and the Greeks and Bulgarians were Christians of the
Eastern Orthodox Church.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
And Bulgaria is considered a Balkan nation, and it is
along the coastline of the Black Sea. It has a
very vast and varying terrain, including mountains, and includes the
Danube River, the famous Blue Danube of classical music fame.
And it also, to some of what you said, Ben
(08:31):
has a very culturally diverse population. And this plays into
our story in terms of dividing up some of these
areas post war.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Right exactly so, the Ottoman Empire falls, the Balkan League
begins to carve up the European side of this empire,
forming Albania, which many of us will recognize from its
multiple references in films like Taken and They Left Macedonia
(09:02):
and Western Thrace. Bulgaria and Greece ostensibly had a lot
of reasons to get along. They shared a religion, they
both were independent from a former empire. They both also
wanted Macedonia and this led to tension. This resulted in
a number of conflicts between the two sides along the border,
(09:25):
leading to the Second Balkan War of nineteen thirteen. And
as we know just from hearing that date, nineteen thirteen,
there is a much bigger war on the horizon. World
War One breaks out. Bulgaria sides with Germany, Austria and
Hungary and launches an attack against Serbia, and then they lose.
(09:48):
The Allies win, and Greece has sided with the Allies,
and so they are rewarded for participating with the good guys,
a job well done. For a job well done, Winners
write the history books. And Bulgaria is forced to give
up Western Thrace. And this is a big deal because
giving up this specific area means that they lose their
(10:13):
access to the Aege and c It's.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Right, and so here's the thing. By nineteen twenty five,
the tension between Greece and Bulgaria were kind of reaching
a boiling point. This region is no stranger to these
kinds of tensions that have continued on throughout history, but
this is one in particular we're been talking about. The
two countries had been at each other's throats for many,
many years, and there were these, I don't know what
(10:37):
you'd call them, kind of little splinter factions, peasant groups
that would cross the border between the countries because they
shared a border, and they would do all kinds of damage,
property damage, mischief, plundering livestock, and often there would be
little skirmishes that would result from these seemingly innocuous enough
(10:59):
kind of acts of anarchy. But you know, there's a
powder k kind of situation and one little spark can ignite,
you know, a forest fire, right.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Right, And it's still sort of you know, technically it's
terrorism to not to drop the T word to arbitrarily,
but yeah, you're right. And all these were groups like
the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization MRO and the Internal Threecian
Revolutionary Organization ITTRO IMRO and ITTRO, and these organizations had
(11:28):
some control, you know what I mean, over specific areas.
There was a town called Petrick in southwestern Bulgaria bordering Greece,
and it was run by MRO. It was almost an
autonomous area, They ran the town, you know what I mean. Like,
you've ever heard those stories about areas in a city
(11:49):
where even the police won't go watch out kid, you
know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah, because they only they like you know, it's sort
of like a Gangs of New York kind of situation
where they literally have everyone in their pocket, they own
the streets. They it's sort of like a mafia kind
of situation almost.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Yeah, kind of similar, just in terms of control, That's
what I mean. We're not equating these at all.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
I mean in terms of like the ubiquity of a
territory being owned by sort of a shadowy organization.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Yeah, I'm I think your examples. But the reason I'm
doing a little bit of prologue with mine is because
this is how the Islamic stayed at operated.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
But these groups, we would imagine were not as as
violent and did not commit as many reprehensible acts, but
they were there. They were challenging rule of law. They
were also greatly contributing to these growing tensions. And in
nineteen twenty three, there's a prime Minister of Bulgaria's name
(12:49):
is Alexander Stamboliski. He tries to he tries to get
everyone to chill out just a little bit, you know
what I mean. He says, let's Greece, let's get along.
Can't we all just get along? And then for the
rest of the European continent, Hey, Bulgary is not that bad,
you know what I mean, We're not crazy. And then
(13:11):
the people of Bulgaria responded by ousting him in a coup.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Oh absolutely, I want to point out one little detailed
we've gotten to you. Yeah, after World War One and
after the Balkan War, Bulgaria and Greece were for the
first time independent nations, and they weren't used to this, right.
This border was a super fuzzy prospect, the idea that
(13:36):
now we're two different things, where exactly is this border?
That was a big part of why these tensions were there,
because it was sort of like, no, you don't get
to say where the border is. And it just feels
like they maybe didn't do the leg work of properly
defining the border in the immediate aftermath of being free
of the Ottoman Empire.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Right, Well, that's the thing about borders, man, That's right.
They both felt like they defined it very well. They
just didn't agree on what the good definition was.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
That's absolutely right. So during one of these what would
have been discurbaged, yeah, exactly, up to seventy up to
the numbers, a little fuzzy Bulgarians were killed, and this
(14:23):
was really starting to contribute to suspicions by the Greeks
that Bulgaria was actually supporting this Macedonian movement for independence
that was going to lay claim to this territory within
the Hellenic border. Can we talk a little bit about
(14:44):
this notion of the Hellenic border? Ben sure.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Yeah. As we mentioned earlier, the thing about this region
is that this separation, this independence created a conflict because
of these areas that the folks just couldn't agree on.
And those areas were what we call Western Thrace and Macedonia. Right,
(15:08):
So Greece believed the Bulgaria was encouraging a Macedonian separatist movement,
you know, because they were.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yeah, and most likely for completely selfish reasons, in order
to kind of upset the apple cart and maybe get
some allies with the Macedonian separatists.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
It's some of that sweet sweet land, you know what
I mean. So everyone is itching for a reason to
have a genuine fight for this border tension to spark
an out and out conflict.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
And they have.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Guards at the border, as you do, right, And there's
a border guard on the Greek side. And this guy,
like many people, owns a dog, and he's so used
to being on the border, or so used to these
border tensions at least, that he brings his dog along
with him. But he Greece at the time, doesn't have
(16:01):
a leash law. That's the problem.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Yeah, And I guess that's kind of why maybe this
is dubbed the War of the Stray Dog, which I
would argue is a misnowherre because this dog was not astray.
This dog belonged to this man who was a very
loving gentle master. But the dog did stray from ah
see that this is a semantic Yeah, yeah, So the
dog strays, the dog makes a run for it. I
don't know, you probably saw a squirrel or something, you know,
(16:23):
one of those famous Bulgarian squirrels.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Oh yeah, we know, so well, they're great. They're top
notch squirrels.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Big big squirrels, very huge, very large physically. So the
dog bolts for the Bulgarian side, right, And the way
I've read it was the gentleman gives chase to the
dog and then ends up in Greek territory.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
And this is on October eighteenth, nineteen twenty five. It's
a police called the Demere Couple pass and naturally, as
you said, no, the guy goes after his dog. It's like, oh, no, Sparky,
you can't be here, or mister pickles, what are you doing?
Or whatever whatever. The most popular Greek name for a
dog is Casey. Will you make one up, just to
make up a dog name, mister sprinkles, mister sprinkles, Casey
(17:11):
on the case.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
On the case. I would argue god names would be
good for dogs Greek gods. So you got like Zeus
the dog or Apollo. You know, Artemis would be a
good dog. You call it Artie for short.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
What about muses? You know, I've always been partial to
the name Calliope. And we don't know the gender of
the dog. But anyway, this guy is yelling for his dog,
like ah, you can't be here, come back, come back,
and he chases after his dog because he's a responsible
pet owner, as he said. But in the Bulgarian side
of the border, there are also centuries, and they're also
(17:49):
guards and so a century shoots the soldier dead and
the guy the guy never reconciles with his pooch, and
this proves to be the first shot of what we
now know as the War of the Stray Dog. As
soon as one shot goes off, both sides of the border,
(18:10):
guards on both sides start firing their rifles. There's a
lull we can imagine people are reloading. A Greek captain
goes into the the no man's land under a white
flag and he's, you know, he's waving his flags like
everybody calm down. Maybe he's saying, where's the dog. Maybe
he's saying, just stop shooting. This is a misunderstanding. The
(18:33):
Bulgarians see the flag and they shoot him too, along
with his private who came along as a sidekick.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Damn yeah, I know. Not cool. There was some real
hot headed triggerman going on over there on the on
the Bulgarian side. This was of course, also near the
border town of Petris, which gives a subtitle to this conflict,
the Incident at Petrick Slash the War of the Straight Dog.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
And things may have ended there. Some would say, I
don't think so, because at this point the Bulgarian size
killed three people.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Yeah, but they'd killed seventeen had died before, right, sure,
and that didn't start the war. So what happens we
have It takes not just the killings. It takes sort
of a wily, crafty military mastermind to kind of set
things in motion, right.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Right, right, forty seven year old Lieutenant General Theodoros Pangolos,
who is a dictator of Greece. He's the military dictator.
He learns about these killodes, he as we can only imagine,
slams his fist on the table and says, the Bulgarians
these treacherous dogs, which would be a poor choice of
(19:47):
words on his end, but you know, who knows if
he knew about the dog. At this point, this guy,
being a military dictator, was very much authoritarian, ruling with
an iron fist. He said, we are going to show
these Bulgarians what's what. And this is again, just weeks
after this guy installed himself as the leader of the country.
(20:11):
He orders an entire army corps to the area, and
he sends a forty eight hour ultimatum to Sophia, the
capital of Bulgaria, where he says, I demand the following
first apologize for the shootings. Second, prosecute any soldier who
fired a shot, and third, compensate the families of the
(20:32):
fallen soldiers. Compensate them six million Greek drachmas. And that's
within forty eight hours. If not, there will be a war.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
I will evade.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
But here's the thing, Noel, after he issued that forty
eight hour ultimatum, he went ahead and invade it before
the forty eight hours up, just.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
To really show them that he meant business. And I
don't know, that seems like a weird flex.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
You know.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
It's sort of like I make the ultimatum, if you're
just gonna break it before the other side has a
chance to act.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Yeah, it feels like it was just a pr thing.
Maybe for his domestic side. He wanted war. So they
go through Bulgaria, this Greek army corps. They're doing horrible things.
They're burning villages, they're looting, they're pillaging. They also start
striking out at anything they consider a Macedonian enclave, like
(21:27):
you're not so separate, now, are you?
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Pop Pop pop, And this is all for it's from
the Greek perspective, like if he's looking to use us
to his advantage, it's to what claim more sweet sweet Land,
claim more territory, just to move that border further and
further away from them.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Yeah, it's complex because it's it's partially that ultimately that
that's gonna be one of their goals to increase their
geographic holding me they're holding. But also it's a hearts
and minds thing on the dictator's end, because he wants
the people to see him as a competent and powerful leader.
(22:06):
You know what I mean. He's still got that new
car smell on him, dictator wise, so he wants to
prove that he's Look, the easiest time for a dictator
to be conquered in a coup is shortly after they
have been installed in a coup that they create, That's right.
So he needs to get as popular as he can
before the next angry, hot headed lieutenant general takes his head.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
This doesn't exactly apply, but I think it's just a
great line. There's a line in Red Dead Redemption two
where a general is trying to start a conflict with
the Native Americans because they keep breaking the basically, the
Americans keep breaking treaties with the Native Americans, and there's
a line where one of his lieutenants is kind of
like he understands the plight of the Native Americans. He
(22:49):
says of his boss. Last war didn't go so well
for him, so he figured he'd start a new one.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Maybe yet, you know what, that's a good lie So
how do they do these belligerent Greek soldiers fair with
their looting and pillaging?
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Well, you know, initially, pretty well they had the element
of surprise. I maybe that's why it was the element
of surprise. They say, we're going to give you a
clock on this, and then when they just go ahead
and do it, Yeah, it doesn't really Yeah, it's not
very sportsmanlike, shall we say? Right? So yeah, So initially
they blast in there, knock down the enemy's defenses and
(23:27):
drill into Bulgaria, of course, raping and looting on and
I'm adding raping. You gotta assume there's a little raping
going along with and burning all these I mean really
really scorched earth kind of warfare. Not nice, right.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Their idea is that they're going to occupy that town.
I mentioned TODP. Patrick because they wanted to incentivize the
Bulgarian government, I guess. But but more more was an
excuse to invade, and as you said in the beginning,
they are they're doing okay primarily because they have this
(24:11):
element of surprise. So once that element of surprise wears off,
the Greek army finds itself in a bit of a quagmire.
It's still recovering from getting walloped, getting its can I
say this on air, getting it's ass kicked from the
(24:35):
nineteen nineteen to nineteen twenty two war with Turkey, and
so it didn't have all the infrastructure needed to sustain
an army and operate in Bulgaria. So Pangalos decides that
Greece needs allies, and Athens ask Serbia to help them
punish Bulgaria. And then they say, look, if you help us,
(24:58):
if you help us fight the these dirty Bulgarians, then
we're going to give you a railroad corridor to a
port city as well as the zone and control in
the region.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
This is so funny to me because this sort of
like making counting your chickens before they hatch kind of logic. Right,
It's like saying, hey, here's what I'm going to give
you if we reign supreme here once we control all
that sweet sweet borderland.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Right, But that's I mean that's how they game.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
That's how the game is played. It's very much making
the T shirts before you make it right. You're placing
bets on who the winner will be. And if you win,
you win big. If you lose, you look like a
real Vegas baby.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
I don't know why. I just like that phrase. So
the Bulgarian side does the same thing in their difference
of course. Oh no, like you said, every said, that's
what what is, it's what is done, what is done.
But they don't go to just a single nation. They
go to the brand spanking new League of Nations.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Now, if you're asking me, I would add a caveat
like a bunch of babies.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Why why would you're at that?
Speaker 2 (26:01):
I just feel like that's sort of like cry going
to your mommy and saying, like, you know, little Stevie's
picking on me, come help, come, you know, give him
a spanking.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
But that's literally what the League of Nations was supposed
to be for, right, It was.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
To prevent I don't know, man, I just figured sort
out your own stuff, leave the League out of it.
It was all right, I'm being a little hard. It
was meant though, you know it.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
It was meant to, at least on paper, exercise diplomacy
between nations to prevent multi national wars, you know what
I mean. So this should be exactly what the League
of Nations is good at doing. They intervene in the
war through diplomacy, and they go to the dictator of
(26:45):
Greece and they say, hey, hey, Buckeroo, you know, I
know you're a big deal, and you gotta you know,
rule your people with an iron fist and all that
slow jazz, but stop invading folks. And whatever they say
persuades the general now and he says, all right, you
guys rule that I can't can't keep invading h So
(27:10):
I'm gonna pull my troops back. But by the time
he finally comes to heal, I feel like I'm using
so many dog terms.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Well that's important. By the time your pun game is strong,
that's is that even a pun?
Speaker 4 (27:24):
You know?
Speaker 2 (27:25):
It's sort of like Elanis Morrisett's song ironic. Is anything
in that song actually ironically? I don't know.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Well, we will doggedly chase upon it if we can
find one. Fifty Bulgarians are dead. By the time the
guy finally says okay, League of Nations l own.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
I'm out. I comply with your ruling, okay, and I
you know what, I'm gonna walk back what I said
about the Bulgarians being babies for one of the League
of Nations. You're right, Ben, it is what it's for
because Greece was super overstepping, right they were. Well, I mean,
you know, war is what is it? War never changes,
you know, from the Fallout games, it doesn't matter. I
(28:04):
feel like Pangalos was being super opportunistic and overstepping and
really jumping the shark, shall we say, in his invasion efforts,
and also not to mention the non sportsmanlike way, he
totally gave them a clock on the offer of reparations
and then completely went back on that very dirty So
(28:27):
here's the thing. The League of Nations side with the
Bulgarians and they give them a little help. They send
them some troops from some member nations.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Correct, Yeah, And then they say, look, we don't want
this to get ugly.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
In my head these guys are all calling calling this
dictator these weird names like Bukaroo, Bucky Partner. They do ask,
they do ask for the dictator to pay some kind
of financial compensation to Bulgaria.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Well, he did burned down like villages. I mean, there's
gonna be you know, some rebuilding costs associated with this.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Did you see how much they asked them to pay?
Speaker 2 (29:08):
It wasn't an insignificant amount.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
It was forty five thousand pounds, forty five thousand British pounds.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
That's it. That's it. That's not much. That's not much
at all. That's not gonna that's token. I think this
has recent enough been that we could inflation calculate that
bad boy.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Or correct casey, could I get the queue for a
handy dandy inflation calculator calculating perfect All right, forty five
thousand pounds in nineteen twenty two is equal to dramatic
pause two point four nine or so million pounds in
(29:48):
twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
And we didn't really see a figure for how much
damage the Greek invasion costs. But I've seen many sources
indicating that there was much burning and pillaging and looting
and sacking going on. So right, this seems like a
pretty insignificant sum. But Pangelos was still very unhappy with it.
He felt that the League of Nations had given him
(30:09):
a raw deal because they had they had cided against
him before as well, hadn't they been well, he.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Already felt that they were incredibly imbalanced and hypocritical because
he said, he said, look, we all know that the
League of Nations has two sets of rules, one for
nations that are powerful like Italy, ah, and one for us,
the little guys like Greece, and you guys are unfairly uh,
(30:38):
punishing us for things that you would be absolutely fine
with another nation doing.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Oh, we're just trying to make our make our nut,
you know. Yeah, we're just trying to flex a little
bit of you know, why why can't we be conquerors?
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Right?
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Everyone else gets to conquer?
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Why is everybody so pro Bulgarians? That's that's we're we're
taking some poetic license here, but yeah, yeah, he is.
He is not happy with it, and he feels that
he has been humiliated in front of his nation and
on salable stage. He feels that Greece as a nation
(31:15):
has been humiliated with his name on the marquee and uh.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Because here's the thing, man, when you're a dictator, I mean,
your source of power comes from your ability to like
flex and be a strong man, and like say, you know,
I am a beyond reproach and I have an iron
fist and no one can mess with me. It's like
the same as being like a I don't know I'm
using this example again, but like being a mob boss.
As soon as someone sees weakness in you, or you
(31:39):
are messed with and not paid or whatever it is,
you are open to being overthrown, my friend.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
And yeah, as I had mentioned earlier, when is the
most likely time for a military dictator to be overthrown.
It's right after he overthrows someone, that's right, Or you know,
it's right after they overthrow somewhere.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
He attempts it anyway.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Yeah, and so we can only imagine that at this time, Penglos,
General Penglos, is privately worried that this may affect his
ability to rule or the people's trust in him. And
it turns out that he is absolutely right. He has
been seen as weak on the domestic and international stage.
(32:25):
So the very same people, the very same cadre of
officers that helped him become dictator, by that summer, they
overthrow him and they replace him with the old guy,
the earlier president of Greece.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Just you know, I mean, oftentimes these powerful men are
representative of something going on beneath the surface, and when
the shadowy cabals that run things for real beneath the service,
even under a dictatorship, has to answer to somebody a
(33:01):
lot of the time, right, right.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Like, even in democracies like the US, the president has
to answer to Cheryl Crow at some point.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
She is such a monster.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
I had no idea we had picked such a powerful enemy.
But yeah, you're absolutely right. No, you're absolutely right. He
is overthrown. He vanishes from the public eye. We know
a little bit about what happens to him next, and
it's not especially pretty, nor is it noble or glorious.
He's implicated in a corruption scandal. He resurfaces to endorse
(33:37):
the pro Nazi collaborationist regime in Greece during the you know,
the rise of the Nazi Party. He passes away in
nineteen fifty two. But get this, his grandson, who shared
the name Theodoros Pengalos, became deputy Prime Minister of Greece.
So they kept her in the family.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Yeah, they really did. And O G. Panglos withdrew from
public life and wasn't really hurt from again, and you know,
because he kind of retired in shame. And this, this
whole all because of a straight dog, all because of
a dog.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
We don't even know the dog's name. But I think
Casey made an excellent choice with mister Sprinkles.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
I like it too. I'm gonna go with Zeus the dog.
Here we go a Zeus.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Yeah, and we we. I guess we could speculate and
say the guy, the guy probably named his dog something Greek, right, Hey,
maybe it was Pangelos. Maybe that's why the dictator got
so mad, But we sadly don't know what happened to
the dog afterward. And for playing a very small part
(34:44):
in this story, this unknown dog has one that has
won the name in history. It's called the Incident at Patrick,
but a lot of people nowadays call.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
It the War of the Straight Dog.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
We hope that you have enjoyed this episode, this brief
look into one of the many ridiculous causes for war
throughout human history. Let us know some of your favorite
stories about ridiculous causes for war. And hey, if you
have any cool pet pictures, you can send them. I
(35:19):
don't want to volunteer both of you, guys. I just
love seeing other people's pets. You can send them to
us on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter. You can also
find our favorite part of the show your fellow listeners
on our Facebook page.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Ridiculous Historians can also check us out on Instagram or
we are Ridiculous History. You can check me out independently.
If you want to see pictures of me walking around
eating croissants with my kid, that is at Embryonic Insider.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
And if you want to see my various misadventures here
and abroad, as well as disguises and costumes, you can
follow me at Ben Bolan on Instagram. Thanks to our
super producer case Pegram, thanks to Alex Williams who composed
our track, Thanks to our research assistant Gabe and Noel.
(36:06):
Thank you man. You know, I don't think you're a monster.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
I think you're a pretty cool dude. Be you sure? Yeah?
You kind of hurt my feelings at the top of
the show. Really why because you said you're a normal,
nice human being who likes all animals, and that imply
that I am some sort of sub human monster. No,
not at all. I'm just kidding. I am if nothing else,
I am melodramatic.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
We all need a bit of drama in our lives.
And I'll tell you what. I can confidently say that
none of the three of us would start a war
over a dog. Okay, I can with ninety percent certainty.
Even as I was saying that, I was thinking, well,
I don't know. It depends on the dog, and it
depends on the board.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Really well, back about it. I mean, you know, if
you see you see an opportunity, I say, go for it.
We'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Welcome back, folks. Is that time of the week where
we share one of our favorite classic episodes.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Max.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Look, man, you and I are both animal people, as
is RPELLNL. I love love, love, love pretty much every
non human animal, and I was thinking about this as
we're going to today's classic episode. Two questions for you, Max. One,
(00:29):
have you ever seen John Wick?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Yeah, it is amazing. Actually, I was introduced the series
with John Wick.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Two.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
I had a friend group of friends that would go
to matinee movies together. This is back when we're all bartenders,
so doing stuff Tuesday afternoon was like our go to
no one around and we were off right. I never
seen the first one. They're always come to see this.
I'm god, I don't want to see some dumb action movie.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
It captured me immediately.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
I'm like, this is so awesome.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
And that's the that's the second question there, building off
our mutual adoration of John Wick. How far would you
go for your pet?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Uh? Yeah, I would. I would start a world war.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
I mean nukes would.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Fly, nukes would fly, heads will roll, as the yeah
yeah yeah said. This classic episode is about something called
the War of the Stray Dog. As we're going to
find after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, these newly
independent nations started beefing over their borders, Greece and Bulgaria.
(01:34):
This was one of those slow.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Burned things, right.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
It starts with small transgressions which escalate. There's an untenable,
unsustainable situation, and it reaches a breaking point in nineteen
twenty five when a border guard's dog runs away. Here
we go the War of the Stray Dog. Ridiculous History
(02:02):
is a production of iHeartRadio. Let's open today's show with
(02:30):
some statistics. It's often said that people could be either
dog people or cat people, meaning they prefer one pet
over another. According to a fairly arbitrary poll reported by
today dot Com, seventy four percent of us listening today
find ourselves being dog people, and a way to get
(02:52):
into today's episode is to ask how far would you
go for a dog? Welcome to the show. My name
is Ben.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
My name is no Ben. When you say do people,
do you mean some sort of hybrid Island of Doctor
Moreau type monstrosity or talking about dog efficient fans of dogs?
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah, as mentioned people who prefer dogs or people who
prefer cats. We have yet to ask our super producer
Casey Pegram and this question. So I'd like to ask
both you guys. Noel, you strike me as more of maybe.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
A cat person. I am a fan of the movie
Cat People and the accompanying Georgio Moroder soundtrack, and I
do like cats. I don't know why. They're a little
less needy.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
They're less work. They're they're less work.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
They're self sufficient. Dogs. While they do give you unconditional love,
sometimes I feel like they just vomit love on you
to the point where you're like, can we turn off
the love hose please?
Speaker 1 (03:46):
I feel like sometimes I get the sense, and I'm
not going to profile you, but I've gotten the sense
before when we hang out that you don't like dogs.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Well, that's the thing. I'm dating a girl and have
been for a while who has a lovely little dog
who I enjoy. He does some cute things like he
gets under the covers at night and kind of spoons
with my leg, which I enjoy, But he also does
things we're in the middle of the night. He'll get
on top of my head and start flipping his body
around in circles like he can't get comfortable. And he's
a humper, and he's he just does something. He does
(04:16):
some things that rubbed me the wrong way. I'm not
gonna lie, but he also does something that I enjoy.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
So you're you're maybe on the fence about dogs in general.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
I'm cat people. Yeah, oh what about you? Casey?
Speaker 4 (04:25):
Oh man, this is this is tough. I'm real fifty
to fifty on this. I love dogs and cats. I've
had more dogs than cats. But the one cat I
did have lived to be about eighteen or nineteen years
old and was a great cat. So I'd say, I'd
say both.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
That's awesome, you know, And that seems like that seems
like the kind of answer I would expect from Casey.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
You know, Casey on the cat and Dog case.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
And today's episode, Well you haven't said yours. Yeah, no,
I haven't. Today's episode brings us to no, no, sir,
no sir, my friends, well being a decent human being.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I love dogs and cats. Wow, that was that was
very pointed, very pointed.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Now I'm messing with you. I don't I love I
love animals in general, and it's not to be to
bleak about it, but it's true that in several generations,
a lot of the wild animals that we can see
today are going to be gone. So I'm a little
bit bittersweet about it. You know, we created dogs in
(05:32):
a very real sense, right they are if you think
about it, dogs are genetically modified organisms or GMOs.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, and I mean the purebred ones are kind of
those Island of Doctor Moreau monstrosities in some ways.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
We're talking about some I believe. Now I'm not a
you know, a dog doctor, I'm not a veterinarian, but
I believe that there are a couple of breeds that
require human assistance, yeah, to reproduce.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
That's right, what I mean, even like just the features
that humans consider cute or desirable sometimes are not good
for the health of the dogs, right as bread them
to be something that we like, but not necessarily with
their best interest in mind.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Whereas cats self domesticated, which I think is fascinating. But yeah,
so I am a lover of all animals, including serpents
and insects. There are a couple animals I wouldn't necessarily
want to have in my house all the time, like
a snake, like snakes. Snakes are very happy outside and
(06:33):
that's where I will leave them.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Yeah, well, you know listeners right in, Am I a monster?
I don't think you're an acquiring minds wants to know mine.
My mind wants to you want to know if you're
a monster. I want to know if my others think
I'm among.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Not everybody, not everybody cares for dogs. And there's nothing
wrong with that. I did.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
I let me backtrack a little bit. I did not
say I didn't like dogs. I said there are some
qualities they have that annoy me a little bit, but
I do, I do see the good in them. Okay,
I believe specifically, the phrase was vom at love. Yes,
but turn off the love houses, And I said, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
But we can agree that overall, in general people love dogs.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Yeah, and we'll often put themselves in harm's way to
protect them.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
There we go, nineteen twenty five. Boom, we got there.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
We did.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
So to explore this story, we have to look at
the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire ruled an area of
the world that included a lot of different people, nations, languages, religions,
and ethnicities, and two of the peoples that they ruled,
(07:39):
or two of the nations that were under the rule
of the Ottoman Empire were the Greeks and the Bulgarians.
In eighteen thirty two, Greece becomes independent, and then in
nineteen oh eight Bulgaria becomes independent. And this is a
very big deal to them because while they were under
the thumb of the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Empire was
(08:01):
Islamic and the Greeks and Bulgarians were Christians of the
Eastern Orthodox Church.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
And Bulgaria is considered a Balkan nation, and it is
along the coastline of the Black Sea. It has a
very vast and varying terrain, including mountains, and includes the
Danube River, the famous Blue Danube of classical music fame.
And it also, to some of what you said, Ben
(08:31):
has a very culturally diverse population. And this plays into
our story in terms of dividing up some of these
areas post war.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Right exactly so, the Ottoman Empire falls, the Balkan League
begins to carve up the European side of this empire,
forming Albania, which many of us will recognize from its
multiple references in films like Taken and They Left Macedonia
(09:02):
and Western Thrace. Bulgaria and Greece ostensibly had a lot
of reasons to get along. They shared a religion, they
both were independent from a former empire. They both also
wanted Macedonia and this led to tension. This resulted in
a number of conflicts between the two sides along the border,
(09:25):
leading to the Second Balkan War of nineteen thirteen. And
as we know just from hearing that date, nineteen thirteen,
there is a much bigger war on the horizon. World
War One breaks out. Bulgaria sides with Germany, Austria and
Hungary and launches an attack against Serbia, and then they lose.
(09:48):
The Allies win, and Greece has sided with the Allies,
and so they are rewarded for participating with the good guys,
a job well done. For a job well done, Winners
write the history books. And Bulgaria is forced to give
up Western Thrace. And this is a big deal because
giving up this specific area means that they lose their
(10:13):
access to the Aege and c It's.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Right, and so here's the thing. By nineteen twenty five,
the tension between Greece and Bulgaria were kind of reaching
a boiling point. This region is no stranger to these
kinds of tensions that have continued on throughout history, but
this is one in particular we're been talking about. The
two countries had been at each other's throats for many,
many years, and there were these, I don't know what
(10:37):
you'd call them, kind of little splinter factions, peasant groups
that would cross the border between the countries because they
shared a border, and they would do all kinds of damage,
property damage, mischief, plundering livestock, and often there would be
little skirmishes that would result from these seemingly innocuous enough
(10:59):
kind of acts of anarchy. But you know, there's a
powder k kind of situation and one little spark can ignite,
you know, a forest fire, right.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Right, And it's still sort of you know, technically it's
terrorism to not to drop the T word to arbitrarily,
but yeah, you're right. And all these were groups like
the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization MRO and the Internal Threecian
Revolutionary Organization ITTRO IMRO and ITTRO, and these organizations had
(11:28):
some control, you know what I mean, over specific areas.
There was a town called Petrick in southwestern Bulgaria bordering Greece,
and it was run by MRO. It was almost an
autonomous area, They ran the town, you know what I mean. Like,
you've ever heard those stories about areas in a city
(11:49):
where even the police won't go watch out kid, you
know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah, because they only they like you know, it's sort
of like a Gangs of New York kind of situation
where they literally have everyone in their pocket, they own
the streets. They it's sort of like a mafia kind
of situation almost.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Yeah, kind of similar, just in terms of control, That's
what I mean. We're not equating these at all.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
I mean in terms of like the ubiquity of a
territory being owned by sort of a shadowy organization.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Yeah, I'm I think your examples. But the reason I'm
doing a little bit of prologue with mine is because
this is how the Islamic stayed at operated.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
But these groups, we would imagine were not as as
violent and did not commit as many reprehensible acts, but
they were there. They were challenging rule of law. They
were also greatly contributing to these growing tensions. And in
nineteen twenty three, there's a prime Minister of Bulgaria's name
(12:49):
is Alexander Stamboliski. He tries to he tries to get
everyone to chill out just a little bit, you know
what I mean. He says, let's Greece, let's get along.
Can't we all just get along? And then for the
rest of the European continent, Hey, Bulgary is not that bad,
you know what I mean, We're not crazy. And then
(13:11):
the people of Bulgaria responded by ousting him in a coup.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Oh absolutely, I want to point out one little detailed
we've gotten to you. Yeah, after World War One and
after the Balkan War, Bulgaria and Greece were for the
first time independent nations, and they weren't used to this, right.
This border was a super fuzzy prospect, the idea that
(13:36):
now we're two different things, where exactly is this border?
That was a big part of why these tensions were there,
because it was sort of like, no, you don't get
to say where the border is. And it just feels
like they maybe didn't do the leg work of properly
defining the border in the immediate aftermath of being free
of the Ottoman Empire.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Right, Well, that's the thing about borders, man, That's right.
They both felt like they defined it very well. They
just didn't agree on what the good definition was.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
That's absolutely right. So during one of these what would
have been discurbaged, yeah, exactly, up to seventy up to
the numbers, a little fuzzy Bulgarians were killed, and this
(14:23):
was really starting to contribute to suspicions by the Greeks
that Bulgaria was actually supporting this Macedonian movement for independence
that was going to lay claim to this territory within
the Hellenic border. Can we talk a little bit about
(14:44):
this notion of the Hellenic border? Ben sure.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Yeah. As we mentioned earlier, the thing about this region
is that this separation, this independence created a conflict because
of these areas that the folks just couldn't agree on.
And those areas were what we call Western Thrace and Macedonia. Right,
(15:08):
So Greece believed the Bulgaria was encouraging a Macedonian separatist movement,
you know, because they were.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yeah, and most likely for completely selfish reasons, in order
to kind of upset the apple cart and maybe get
some allies with the Macedonian separatists.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
It's some of that sweet sweet land, you know what
I mean. So everyone is itching for a reason to
have a genuine fight for this border tension to spark
an out and out conflict.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
And they have.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Guards at the border, as you do, right, And there's
a border guard on the Greek side. And this guy,
like many people, owns a dog, and he's so used
to being on the border, or so used to these
border tensions at least, that he brings his dog along
with him. But he Greece at the time, doesn't have
(16:01):
a leash law. That's the problem.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Yeah, And I guess that's kind of why maybe this
is dubbed the War of the Stray Dog, which I
would argue is a misnowherre because this dog was not astray.
This dog belonged to this man who was a very
loving gentle master. But the dog did stray from ah
see that this is a semantic Yeah, yeah, So the
dog strays, the dog makes a run for it. I
don't know, you probably saw a squirrel or something, you know,
(16:23):
one of those famous Bulgarian squirrels.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Oh yeah, we know, so well, they're great. They're top
notch squirrels.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Big big squirrels, very huge, very large physically. So the
dog bolts for the Bulgarian side, right, And the way
I've read it was the gentleman gives chase to the
dog and then ends up in Greek territory.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
And this is on October eighteenth, nineteen twenty five. It's
a police called the Demere Couple pass and naturally, as
you said, no, the guy goes after his dog. It's like, oh, no, Sparky,
you can't be here, or mister pickles, what are you doing?
Or whatever whatever. The most popular Greek name for a
dog is Casey. Will you make one up, just to
make up a dog name, mister sprinkles, mister sprinkles, Casey
(17:11):
on the case.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
On the case. I would argue god names would be
good for dogs Greek gods. So you got like Zeus
the dog or Apollo. You know, Artemis would be a
good dog. You call it Artie for short.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
What about muses? You know, I've always been partial to
the name Calliope. And we don't know the gender of
the dog. But anyway, this guy is yelling for his dog,
like ah, you can't be here, come back, come back,
and he chases after his dog because he's a responsible
pet owner, as he said. But in the Bulgarian side
of the border, there are also centuries, and they're also
(17:49):
guards and so a century shoots the soldier dead and
the guy the guy never reconciles with his pooch, and
this proves to be the first shot of what we
now know as the War of the Stray Dog. As
soon as one shot goes off, both sides of the border,
(18:10):
guards on both sides start firing their rifles. There's a
lull we can imagine people are reloading. A Greek captain
goes into the the no man's land under a white
flag and he's, you know, he's waving his flags like
everybody calm down. Maybe he's saying, where's the dog. Maybe
he's saying, just stop shooting. This is a misunderstanding. The
(18:33):
Bulgarians see the flag and they shoot him too, along
with his private who came along as a sidekick.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Damn yeah, I know. Not cool. There was some real
hot headed triggerman going on over there on the on
the Bulgarian side. This was of course, also near the
border town of Petris, which gives a subtitle to this conflict,
the Incident at Petrick Slash the War of the Straight Dog.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
And things may have ended there. Some would say, I
don't think so, because at this point the Bulgarian size
killed three people.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Yeah, but they'd killed seventeen had died before, right, sure,
and that didn't start the war. So what happens we
have It takes not just the killings. It takes sort
of a wily, crafty military mastermind to kind of set
things in motion, right.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Right, right, forty seven year old Lieutenant General Theodoros Pangolos,
who is a dictator of Greece. He's the military dictator.
He learns about these killodes, he as we can only imagine,
slams his fist on the table and says, the Bulgarians
these treacherous dogs, which would be a poor choice of
(19:47):
words on his end, but you know, who knows if
he knew about the dog. At this point, this guy,
being a military dictator, was very much authoritarian, ruling with
an iron fist. He said, we are going to show
these Bulgarians what's what. And this is again, just weeks
after this guy installed himself as the leader of the country.
(20:11):
He orders an entire army corps to the area, and
he sends a forty eight hour ultimatum to Sophia, the
capital of Bulgaria, where he says, I demand the following
first apologize for the shootings. Second, prosecute any soldier who
fired a shot, and third, compensate the families of the
(20:32):
fallen soldiers. Compensate them six million Greek drachmas. And that's
within forty eight hours. If not, there will be a war.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
I will evade.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
But here's the thing, Noel, after he issued that forty
eight hour ultimatum, he went ahead and invade it before
the forty eight hours up, just.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
To really show them that he meant business. And I
don't know, that seems like a weird flex.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
You know.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
It's sort of like I make the ultimatum, if you're
just gonna break it before the other side has a
chance to act.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Yeah, it feels like it was just a pr thing.
Maybe for his domestic side. He wanted war. So they
go through Bulgaria, this Greek army corps. They're doing horrible things.
They're burning villages, they're looting, they're pillaging. They also start
striking out at anything they consider a Macedonian enclave, like
(21:27):
you're not so separate, now, are you?
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Pop Pop pop, And this is all for it's from
the Greek perspective, like if he's looking to use us
to his advantage, it's to what claim more sweet sweet Land,
claim more territory, just to move that border further and
further away from them.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Yeah, it's complex because it's it's partially that ultimately that
that's gonna be one of their goals to increase their
geographic holding me they're holding. But also it's a hearts
and minds thing on the dictator's end, because he wants
the people to see him as a competent and powerful leader.
(22:06):
You know what I mean. He's still got that new
car smell on him, dictator wise, so he wants to
prove that he's Look, the easiest time for a dictator
to be conquered in a coup is shortly after they
have been installed in a coup that they create, That's right.
So he needs to get as popular as he can
before the next angry, hot headed lieutenant general takes his head.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
This doesn't exactly apply, but I think it's just a
great line. There's a line in Red Dead Redemption two
where a general is trying to start a conflict with
the Native Americans because they keep breaking the basically, the
Americans keep breaking treaties with the Native Americans, and there's
a line where one of his lieutenants is kind of
like he understands the plight of the Native Americans. He
(22:49):
says of his boss. Last war didn't go so well
for him, so he figured he'd start a new one.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Maybe yet, you know what, that's a good lie So
how do they do these belligerent Greek soldiers fair with
their looting and pillaging?
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Well, you know, initially, pretty well they had the element
of surprise. I maybe that's why it was the element
of surprise. They say, we're going to give you a
clock on this, and then when they just go ahead
and do it, Yeah, it doesn't really Yeah, it's not
very sportsmanlike, shall we say? Right? So yeah, So initially
they blast in there, knock down the enemy's defenses and
(23:27):
drill into Bulgaria, of course, raping and looting on and
I'm adding raping. You gotta assume there's a little raping
going along with and burning all these I mean really
really scorched earth kind of warfare. Not nice, right.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Their idea is that they're going to occupy that town.
I mentioned TODP. Patrick because they wanted to incentivize the
Bulgarian government, I guess. But but more more was an
excuse to invade, and as you said in the beginning,
they are they're doing okay primarily because they have this
(24:11):
element of surprise. So once that element of surprise wears off,
the Greek army finds itself in a bit of a quagmire.
It's still recovering from getting walloped, getting its can I
say this on air, getting it's ass kicked from the
(24:35):
nineteen nineteen to nineteen twenty two war with Turkey, and
so it didn't have all the infrastructure needed to sustain
an army and operate in Bulgaria. So Pangalos decides that
Greece needs allies, and Athens ask Serbia to help them
punish Bulgaria. And then they say, look, if you help us,
(24:58):
if you help us fight the these dirty Bulgarians, then
we're going to give you a railroad corridor to a
port city as well as the zone and control in
the region.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
This is so funny to me because this sort of
like making counting your chickens before they hatch kind of logic. Right,
It's like saying, hey, here's what I'm going to give
you if we reign supreme here once we control all
that sweet sweet borderland.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Right, But that's I mean that's how they game.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
That's how the game is played. It's very much making
the T shirts before you make it right. You're placing
bets on who the winner will be. And if you win,
you win big. If you lose, you look like a
real Vegas baby.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
I don't know why. I just like that phrase. So
the Bulgarian side does the same thing in their difference
of course. Oh no, like you said, every said, that's
what what is, it's what is done, what is done.
But they don't go to just a single nation. They
go to the brand spanking new League of Nations.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Now, if you're asking me, I would add a caveat
like a bunch of babies.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Why why would you're at that?
Speaker 2 (26:01):
I just feel like that's sort of like cry going
to your mommy and saying, like, you know, little Stevie's
picking on me, come help, come, you know, give him
a spanking.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
But that's literally what the League of Nations was supposed
to be for, right, It was.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
To prevent I don't know, man, I just figured sort
out your own stuff, leave the League out of it.
It was all right, I'm being a little hard. It
was meant though, you know it.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
It was meant to, at least on paper, exercise diplomacy
between nations to prevent multi national wars, you know what
I mean. So this should be exactly what the League
of Nations is good at doing. They intervene in the
war through diplomacy, and they go to the dictator of
(26:45):
Greece and they say, hey, hey, Buckeroo, you know, I
know you're a big deal, and you gotta you know,
rule your people with an iron fist and all that
slow jazz, but stop invading folks. And whatever they say
persuades the general now and he says, all right, you
guys rule that I can't can't keep invading h So
(27:10):
I'm gonna pull my troops back. But by the time
he finally comes to heal, I feel like I'm using
so many dog terms.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Well that's important. By the time your pun game is strong,
that's is that even a pun?
Speaker 4 (27:24):
You know?
Speaker 2 (27:25):
It's sort of like Elanis Morrisett's song ironic. Is anything
in that song actually ironically? I don't know.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Well, we will doggedly chase upon it if we can
find one. Fifty Bulgarians are dead. By the time the
guy finally says okay, League of Nations l own.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
I'm out. I comply with your ruling, okay, and I
you know what, I'm gonna walk back what I said
about the Bulgarians being babies for one of the League
of Nations. You're right, Ben, it is what it's for
because Greece was super overstepping, right they were. Well, I mean,
you know, war is what is it? War never changes,
you know, from the Fallout games, it doesn't matter. I
(28:04):
feel like Pangalos was being super opportunistic and overstepping and
really jumping the shark, shall we say, in his invasion efforts,
and also not to mention the non sportsmanlike way, he
totally gave them a clock on the offer of reparations
and then completely went back on that very dirty So
(28:27):
here's the thing. The League of Nations side with the
Bulgarians and they give them a little help. They send
them some troops from some member nations.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Correct, Yeah, And then they say, look, we don't want
this to get ugly.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
In my head these guys are all calling calling this
dictator these weird names like Bukaroo, Bucky Partner. They do ask,
they do ask for the dictator to pay some kind
of financial compensation to Bulgaria.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Well, he did burned down like villages. I mean, there's
gonna be you know, some rebuilding costs associated with this.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Did you see how much they asked them to pay?
Speaker 2 (29:08):
It wasn't an insignificant amount.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
It was forty five thousand pounds, forty five thousand British pounds.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
That's it. That's it. That's not much. That's not much
at all. That's not gonna that's token. I think this
has recent enough been that we could inflation calculate that
bad boy.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Or correct casey, could I get the queue for a
handy dandy inflation calculator calculating perfect All right, forty five
thousand pounds in nineteen twenty two is equal to dramatic
pause two point four nine or so million pounds in
(29:48):
twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
And we didn't really see a figure for how much
damage the Greek invasion costs. But I've seen many sources
indicating that there was much burning and pillaging and looting
and sacking going on. So right, this seems like a
pretty insignificant sum. But Pangelos was still very unhappy with it.
He felt that the League of Nations had given him
(30:09):
a raw deal because they had they had cided against
him before as well, hadn't they been well, he.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Already felt that they were incredibly imbalanced and hypocritical because
he said, he said, look, we all know that the
League of Nations has two sets of rules, one for
nations that are powerful like Italy, ah, and one for us,
the little guys like Greece, and you guys are unfairly uh,
(30:38):
punishing us for things that you would be absolutely fine
with another nation doing.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Oh, we're just trying to make our make our nut,
you know. Yeah, we're just trying to flex a little
bit of you know, why why can't we be conquerors?
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Right?
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Everyone else gets to conquer?
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Why is everybody so pro Bulgarians? That's that's we're we're
taking some poetic license here, but yeah, yeah, he is.
He is not happy with it, and he feels that
he has been humiliated in front of his nation and
on salable stage. He feels that Greece as a nation
(31:15):
has been humiliated with his name on the marquee and uh.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Because here's the thing, man, when you're a dictator, I mean,
your source of power comes from your ability to like
flex and be a strong man, and like say, you know,
I am a beyond reproach and I have an iron
fist and no one can mess with me. It's like
the same as being like a I don't know I'm
using this example again, but like being a mob boss.
As soon as someone sees weakness in you, or you
(31:39):
are messed with and not paid or whatever it is,
you are open to being overthrown, my friend.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
And yeah, as I had mentioned earlier, when is the
most likely time for a military dictator to be overthrown.
It's right after he overthrows someone, that's right, Or you know,
it's right after they overthrow somewhere.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
He attempts it anyway.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Yeah, and so we can only imagine that at this time, Penglos,
General Penglos, is privately worried that this may affect his
ability to rule or the people's trust in him. And
it turns out that he is absolutely right. He has
been seen as weak on the domestic and international stage.
(32:25):
So the very same people, the very same cadre of
officers that helped him become dictator, by that summer, they
overthrow him and they replace him with the old guy,
the earlier president of Greece.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Just you know, I mean, oftentimes these powerful men are
representative of something going on beneath the surface, and when
the shadowy cabals that run things for real beneath the service,
even under a dictatorship, has to answer to somebody a
(33:01):
lot of the time, right, right.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Like, even in democracies like the US, the president has
to answer to Cheryl Crow at some point.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
She is such a monster.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
I had no idea we had picked such a powerful enemy.
But yeah, you're absolutely right. No, you're absolutely right. He
is overthrown. He vanishes from the public eye. We know
a little bit about what happens to him next, and
it's not especially pretty, nor is it noble or glorious.
He's implicated in a corruption scandal. He resurfaces to endorse
(33:37):
the pro Nazi collaborationist regime in Greece during the you know,
the rise of the Nazi Party. He passes away in
nineteen fifty two. But get this, his grandson, who shared
the name Theodoros Pengalos, became deputy Prime Minister of Greece.
So they kept her in the family.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Yeah, they really did. And O G. Panglos withdrew from
public life and wasn't really hurt from again, and you know,
because he kind of retired in shame. And this, this
whole all because of a straight dog, all because of
a dog.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
We don't even know the dog's name. But I think
Casey made an excellent choice with mister Sprinkles.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
I like it too. I'm gonna go with Zeus the dog.
Here we go a Zeus.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Yeah, and we we. I guess we could speculate and
say the guy, the guy probably named his dog something Greek, right, Hey,
maybe it was Pangelos. Maybe that's why the dictator got
so mad, But we sadly don't know what happened to
the dog afterward. And for playing a very small part
(34:44):
in this story, this unknown dog has one that has
won the name in history. It's called the Incident at Patrick,
but a lot of people nowadays call.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
It the War of the Straight Dog.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
We hope that you have enjoyed this episode, this brief
look into one of the many ridiculous causes for war
throughout human history. Let us know some of your favorite
stories about ridiculous causes for war. And hey, if you
have any cool pet pictures, you can send them. I
(35:19):
don't want to volunteer both of you, guys. I just
love seeing other people's pets. You can send them to
us on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter. You can also
find our favorite part of the show your fellow listeners
on our Facebook page.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Ridiculous Historians can also check us out on Instagram or
we are Ridiculous History. You can check me out independently.
If you want to see pictures of me walking around
eating croissants with my kid, that is at Embryonic Insider.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
And if you want to see my various misadventures here
and abroad, as well as disguises and costumes, you can
follow me at Ben Bolan on Instagram. Thanks to our
super producer case Pegram, thanks to Alex Williams who composed
our track, Thanks to our research assistant Gabe and Noel.
(36:06):
Thank you man. You know, I don't think you're a monster.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
I think you're a pretty cool dude. Be you sure? Yeah?
You kind of hurt my feelings at the top of
the show. Really why because you said you're a normal,
nice human being who likes all animals, and that imply
that I am some sort of sub human monster. No,
not at all. I'm just kidding. I am if nothing else,
I am melodramatic.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
We all need a bit of drama in our lives.
And I'll tell you what. I can confidently say that
none of the three of us would start a war
over a dog. Okay, I can with ninety percent certainty.
Even as I was saying that, I was thinking, well,
I don't know. It depends on the dog, and it
depends on the board.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Really well, back about it. I mean, you know, if
you see you see an opportunity, I say, go for it.
We'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
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Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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