Chapter 1120 The Balkan War breaks out
While exports to the Ottoman Empire are growing, East Africa’s exports to other countries are also doing well. Except for the Balkan Peninsula, there are no longer a few countries in the world that are actively preparing for war. Britain, France, and Germany , Austria, Russia, the United States, Japan, including East Africa itself, and other countries have been actively expanding their armaments since entering the 20th century.
In addition to the large-scale arms race among the great powers, the imperialist craze for carving up the world that began in the late 1990s has also activated investment in the military field by non-great powers.
So at the beginning of the 20th century, there were signs of war everywhere in the world. The clouds of a war that might sweep the world had been quietly brewing for nearly two decades, and the center of the storm was Europe.
Among the great powers, the only ones that can sit firmly on the Diaoyutai are the United States, East Africa and Japan. These three countries have almost no strong enemies, but Japan has obviously embarked on a completely different military expansion route from the United States and East Africa. Focus all your energy on economic development.
When East Africa was transporting strategic materials to the Ottoman Empire, orders from other regions were also relatively active, such as Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Many of the resources Russia needed needed to be imported from East Africa, focusing on non-ferrous metals, internal combustion engine vehicles, electricity, communications, Tropical agricultural products and many other aspects.
The British and French can obtain many important war preparation materials through their own colonies, such as cotton, rubber, sugar, etc., but are less dependent on East Africa. Their imports from East Africa are mainly industrial products such as internal combustion engine vehicles and electrical equipment. .
In East Africa’s foreign trade, Germany and Russia ranked first and second respectively, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire ranked third, followed by the Far Eastern Empire, the United States, Britain and France.
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In October 1912, the Balkan League was formally formed. The Balkan League consisted of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro. As a result, the anti-Ottoman Empire forces on the Balkan Peninsula were basically completed. Rally.
The Balkan Alliance has more than 700,000 troops and more than 1,000 artillery pieces. The Ottoman Empire only has more than 700,000 people, and the number of artillery pieces is basically the same as that of the Balkan Alliance.
Although East Africa launched related trade with the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Empire government did not transfer the acquired materials to the European front immediately. From the Persian Gulf to Europe, it can only be achieved through land routes mainly through the Baghdad Railway. , and this conquest of the Ottoman Empire was obviously not an easy task.
The Ottoman Empire government of the Balkan League issued an ultimatum, requiring the Ottoman Empire to allow the various ethnic groups in Macedonia and Thrace to gain autonomy in accordance with the provisions of the 1878 Treaty of Berlin, but the Ottoman Empire flatly rejected it.
Before October 20, 1912, the Balkan Alliance declared war on the Ottoman Empire one after another, and the First Balkan War began. The Balkan Alliance burst out with strong war potential and gained a huge advantage as soon as the war started.
Rhine City.
The war potential of the Balkan countries is quite shocking to the East African military. Four small Eastern European countries alone have mobilized more than 700,000 troops, which is almost twice the size of East Africa's army before it completed its military expansion.
Merkel: “Among the Balkan Alliance, Bulgaria, the most populous country with a population of only four million, mobilized more than 300,000 troops. Montenegro, with a population of only a few hundred thousand, also organized an army of tens of thousands. "
"The entire Balkan League has a population of less than 10 million, less than one-third of the Ottoman Empire, but It has assembled more troops than the Ottoman Empire, with the total number of troops on both sides exceeding one million. This is the largest war in Europe in recent years!"
Since the end of the Franco-Prussian War, there has basically been no large-scale war in Europe! , and forty years have passed since the Franco-Prussian War, so what Merk said is not unreasonable.
Sweite: "The Balkan Alliance was supported by Britain, France and Russia to complete its military expansion and preparations for war. As for the Ottoman Empire, Germany did not provide corresponding support, but instead put the Ottoman Empire at a disadvantage." The true strength of the Balkan Alliance It was not much stronger than the Ottoman Empire, and neither side had established a complete industry. Therefore, the Balkan Alliance's ability to complete military expansion mainly relied on the support of external forces.
Ernst said: "Judging from the current situation, the Ottoman Empire will suffer a big loss in this war, but this is exactly what we want to see. After all, the Ottoman Empire fell even worse in the war. It will also be more conducive to our penetration of the Ottoman Empire.”
In Ernst’s mind, if the Ottoman Empire is undefeated, it will not be conducive to the alliance between Germany and the Ottoman Empire. However, Germany’s current diplomacy is not good. It is a mess. It can be said that except for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it has turned several other big countries in Europe into enemies. In addition, without Italy as a troublemaker, the paper strength of the German camp is too weak, which is likely to affect Germany later. confidence in war.
If Germany does not launch a war, it will be very detrimental to East Africa now. Therefore, Ernst hopes that the Ottoman Empire can replace Italy and give Germany confidence in the war. As for the penetration of East Africa into the Ottoman Empire , that was completely an excuse, not Ernst’s true inner thoughts.
As far as the situation of the Ottoman Empire is concerned, it is difficult for gods to save it, but it is still better than the 25 boys who jumped to the Allied camp before the war in the previous life - Italy is much more beneficial to Germany, at least it can make Germany's military operations It will not be too affected by the rebellion of allies.
From a rational point of view, Ernst still hopes that Germany will win the final victory, but reason tells Ernst that this is almost impossible to happen.
Since it was impossible for East Africa to participate in the war, Ernst was not optimistic about Germany's future at all, and it was impossible for East Africa to participate in the war for the sake of Germany's future.
Even if East Africa joins, the final result will be nothing more than three against four, or even three against five. Britain can contain the military actions in East Africa by buying off the United States and Japan in the final stage.
In the Allied camp, only Germany performed on the passing line. The performance of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in its previous life made Ernst extremely distrustful that the Allies could win.
East Africa must beware of the United States. In terms of national strength, the United States is still ahead of East Africa. Any wrong choice may put East Africa at a disadvantage in the subsequent competition with the United States.
Of course, if Germany can achieve more brilliant results than in its previous life, it is not impossible for East Africa to switch to the German camp at the end of the war, but this is almost impossible to achieve.
World War I was a long war of attrition, and Britain and France had too great an advantage over Germany. Unless Germany could defeat France in the early stages of the war like World War II, if it could not do this, Germany would have no choice but to Entering a stalemate stage, which is quite detrimental to Germany.
So the final choice in East Africa still depends on the changes in the situation on the European battlefield after the war breaks out. Unless one side gains a clear advantage, East Africa will not end.
This is understandable. In the previous war itself, various countries participated in the war one after another. For example, the Ottoman Empire and the United States joined the war later, and most countries chose to sit on the sidelines at the beginning.
The same is true for the United Kingdom. When the United Kingdom officially declared war on Germany, the war between France and Germany had already started. Romania was neutral in the early stage and joined the Allied Powers camp in the later stage. This was also the case for European countries. East Africa, as an extraterritorial country, even It is impossible to start taking sides before the war breaks out, or in the middle of the war.
This round of Balkan War can be seen as a preview of World War I, and it actually represents a game between multiple forces. After most of the forces of the Ottoman Empire are expelled from the Balkan Peninsula, the main conflict in the entire Balkan Peninsula will transform into Russia and Austria-Hungary. The Contradictions of Empire.
After this round of war, Russia’s influence in the Balkans will further increase. This is obviously not what the Austro-Hungarian Empire wants to see, and Russia only needs to support countries such as Serbia, which is enough to make the Austro-Hungarian Empire It’s hard to get off the tiger, so the conflict between Austria-Hungary and Russia in the previous life would break out before the conflict between Germany and France.
(End of this chapter)