Chapter 1120 The Balkan War breaks out

While exports to the Ottoman Empire are growing, East Africa's exports to other countries are equally good. Except for the Balkan Peninsula, there are no longer a few countries in the world actively preparing for war, including Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Russia, the United States, and Japan, including East Africa itself. After countries entered the 20th century, they were actively expanding their armaments.

In addition to the large-scale arms race among the great powers, the imperialist frenzy to carve up the world since the late 1990s has also activated non-great powers' investment in the military field.

Therefore, 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. However, Japan has obviously embarked on a completely different military expansion route from the United States and East Africa, and has not devoted all its energy to the economy. 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 their dependence on East Africa is relatively small. The main imports from East Africa are internal combustion engine vehicles, electrical equipment and other industrial products.

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 assembled.

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 relevant 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 can only be achieved through the land route mainly through the Baghdad Railway, which was very important to the Ottoman Empire. Conquest is obviously not an easy task.

The Ottoman Empire government of the Balkan Alliance 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.

Merk: "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 Alliance 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. The total number of troops on both sides exceeds one million. This can be regarded as the largest war in Europe in recent years!"

Since the end of the Franco-Prussian War, basically no large-scale war has broken out in Europe, and forty years have passed since the Franco-Prussian War, so what Merk said is not unreasonable.

Sweet: "The Balkan Alliance had the support of 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 real strength of the Balkan Alliance is not much stronger than that of the Ottoman Empire, and neither side has established a complete industry. Therefore, the Balkan Alliance's ability to complete military expansion mainly relies 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 suffered a worse fall in the war, which is more conducive to our victory." Ottoman Infiltration."

In Ernst's mind, if the Ottoman Empire was undefeated and miserable, it would not be conducive to the alliance between Germany and the Ottoman Empire. However, German diplomacy is currently in a mess. It can be said that except for Austria-Hungary, several other major powers in Europe will be destroyed. They have all become enemies, and without Italy as a troublemaker, the German camp's paper strength is too weak, which is likely to affect Germany's confidence in the war later.

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 is completely a An excuse, not Ernst’s true inner thoughts.

As far as the situation of the Ottoman Empire is concerned, it is hard to save the gods, 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 prevent Germany's military operations from causing the allies to rebel. Too much impact.

From a rational point of view, Ernst still hopes that Germany will win the final victory, but his reason tells Ernst that this is almost impossible to happen.

In the case that East Africa could not join the war, Ernst was not optimistic about Germany's future at all, and East Africa could not participate in the war for Germany's future.

Even if East Africa joined, the final result would be nothing more than three against four, or even three against five. Britain could curb East Africa's military operations in the final stage by bribing the United States and Japan.

Among the Allied camp, only Germany performed on the passing line. The performance of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the previous life made Ernst extremely distrustful of the Allies' victory.

East Africa had to guard against the United States. In terms of the national strength of the two countries, the United States is still above 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 the previous life, it is not impossible for East Africa to turn 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 much advantage over Germany. Unless Germany could defeat France at the beginning of the war like World War II, if it could not do this, Germany could only enter a stalemate, which was quite unfavorable for Germany.

Therefore, East Africa's final decision still depends on the changes in the situation on the European battlefield after the outbreak of the war. Unless one side gains a clear advantage, East Africa will not be able to end up.

This is understandable. In the previous life, the First World War itself was a war that was successively joined by various countries. For example, the Ottoman Empire and the United States joined the war later, and most countries chose to watch from the sidelines at the beginning.

This is also true for Britain. When Britain officially declared war on Germany, the war between France and Germany had already started, and Romania was also neutral in the early stage and joined the Allied camp in the later stage. European countries are still like this. East Africa, as an extraterritorial country, is even less likely to start standing before the outbreak of the war or in the middle of the war.

This round of the Balkan War can be seen as a rehearsal of the First World War. In fact, it also represents the game of multiple forces. After most of the forces of the Ottoman Empire were driven out of the Balkan Peninsula, the main contradiction of the entire Balkan Peninsula will be transformed into the contradiction between Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

After this round of war, Russia's influence in the Balkan Peninsula will be further enhanced, which is obviously not what the Austro-Hungarian Empire wants to see. Russia only needs to support Serbia and other countries to make the Austro-Hungarian Empire in a difficult position. Therefore, the conflict between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia in the past would break out before the conflict between Germany and France.