Chapter 1120 The Balkan War breaks out
While exports to the Ottoman Empire are growing, East Africa's exports to other countries are equally impressive. Except for the Balkans, 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 craze for carving up the world that began in the late 1990s also activated non-great powers’ investments in the military field.
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. 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 are less dependent on East Africa. 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 League has more than 700,000 troops and more than 1,000 artillery pieces. The Ottoman Empire only has more than 700,000 artillery pieces. The number of artillery pieces is basically the same as that of the Balkan League.
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 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 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.
Merck: “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!”
Sweet: "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." , neither side has established a complete industry, so the Balkan Alliance mainly relies on the support of external forces to complete its military expansion.
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, Germany's diplomacy is currently in a mess. It can be said that except for Austria-Hungary, several other big countries in Europe will be defeated. 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 impossible to be saved by gods, but it is still much more beneficial to Germany than Italy, the second-fifth generation who jumped to the Allied camp before the war in the previous life. At least it can prevent Germany's military operations from causing the allies to rebel and suffer too much. Big impact.
Logically speaking, 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 at the beginning of the war like World War II, if it could not do this, Germany could only enter a stalemate stage, and this would This is quite detrimental to Germany.
Hence, East Africa’s final decision 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, 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 is still the case for European countries. East Africa, as an extraterritorial country, is even less likely to fight before the war breaks out. , or start taking sides 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 unable to move. Therefore, in the previous life, Austria-Hungary The conflict between the Reich and Russia would break out before the conflict between Germany and France.
(End of this chapter)