Chapter 306: War Smoke
As time entered the end of 1911, people all over the world finally breathed a sigh of relief, finally getting through a disaster year full of crises and frequent conflicts.
What happened in 1911 was basically not good news for all European people.
The second Moroccan crisis made the confrontation between the two major European military groups a reality. The contradiction between Britain and Germany deepened, further promoting a more radical naval arms race.
And more importantly, all European powers are participating in this naval arms race. This also means that these powers have a clear understanding that war is not far away and they are preparing for war.
In addition, major European powers are also stepping up their efforts to expand the size of their armies. From the 300,000-strong military expansion of the Italian and Austro-Hungarian Empire to the 500,000-strong military expansion of France, Russia and Germany, all prove that the situation currently facing Europe is very serious, and war seems to be about to break out.
The crazy expansion of the army and navy of these powerful countries has also led to explosive growth in their military enterprises.
The most obvious example is the Krupp Factory, a famous German military enterprise. In 1873, it only had 9,000 employees, but it grew to 43,000 in 1902. By the end of 1911, the number of employees at the Krupp factory had reached 70,000.
The British military industry is also very large, with more than 100,000 people engaged in the military industry.
The British military industry has two major characteristics. First, it gives priority to the development of warship and merchant ship manufacturing industries, which is also in line with the British navy's priority.
The second is that private arms factories occupy an important position, which is different from the royal arms factories in Australasia.
Among the arms factories in Australasia, the Royal Arms Factory of the royal family accounts for 87% of the market of all arms factories in Australasia. Only a small share of weapons that some arms factories are unwilling to produce will be sold to some private companies. Produced by military workshops.
In addition, the arms industries of France, Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire are also very large. The armaments and soldiers of these great powers are also benefiting from the very large arms industry.
This can also be seen in Australasia. There are currently 15,000 people working in the military industry in Australasia.
If you include the aviation research laboratories and agricultural machinery factories hidden in the dark, the number of people working in the military industry has exceeded 20,000.
Compared with the expansion of standing armies, the number of reserve troops brought by major European powers is even more exaggerated.
With the exception of the British Empire, the focus of European powers' military expansion was actually the army.
This has also led to the exaggeration of the number of armaments and soldiers of the major European powers so far.
At present, among all the major powers in Europe, Russia has the largest number of soldiers, with 1.1 million regular troops and 5.65 million reserves.
Ranking second is France, with 710,000 standing troops and 5 million reserve troops.
Followed closely by Germany, with 700,000 standing troops and 4.9 million reserve troops.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire has 400,000 standing troops and 3 million reserve troops, Italy has 380,000 standing troops and 1.8 million reserve troops, and the British Empire has 250,000 standing troops and 1.2 million reserve troops.
Although major European countries have already announced military expansion, the progress of military expansion is also different.
At present, the most successful military expansion should be Germany and France. So far, Germany and France have summoned more than 200,000 reservists to join the standing forces and launched long-lasting training. The one with a relatively slow pace of military expansion should be the Tsarist Empire, which has the largest number of reserves.
I have to admit, the decadence of this country is shocking. Even though the military expansion has been announced for several months, only tens of thousands of troops have been recruited so far. Even these tens of thousands of people have not arrived at the scheduled training location and are still being transported on the road.
If the military expansion of these powerful countries is completed, then during future wars, Europe may usher in an unprecedented war involving tens of millions of soldiers, which will cause immeasurable losses to the major European countries.
In addition to the confrontation between the two major military groups in Europe, the shadow of the Balkans has also become very dense.
The Balkan countries are either preparing for war or preparing for war.
In order to prepare for future wars, Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Mendinego and other Balkan alliance countries have announced military expansions. The armies of Bulgaria and Serbia have exceeded 300,000 and 200,000 respectively. Even the smallest number of troops in Mendinego is It has also exceeded 35,000 people.
The Balkan Alliance has the support of the Tsarist Russian Empire. The weapons and equipment they need to expand their army are naturally purchased from the Tsarist Russian Empire.
To this end, the Tsarist Empire eliminated some of the weapons currently being equipped and sold them to the Balkan countries at a price slightly lower than the market price.
The Tsarist Empire, on the basis of the previous order of 50,000 rifles, ordered 150,000 rifles and tens of millions of rounds of ammunition from Australasia to prepare for domestic military expansion.
This also made Arthur feel the huge profits from selling arms. Even though the war has not yet started, European countries are only preparing for war, and the only one ordering weapons from Australasia is Russia, which has made the military factories hundreds of thousands of Australian dollars.
If the war really breaks out and all European countries are short of weapons, the profits from the arms trade will expand to tens or even hundreds of millions of Australian dollars.
To this end, Arthur generously gave tens of millions of Australian dollars to the Royal Ordnance Factory, allowing the arsenal to work hard to produce and reserve at least one million rifles, hundreds of millions of rounds of ammunition, and tens of thousands of guns for future wars. Artillery and millions of rounds.
Anyway, Australasia has both British-made weapons and German-made weapons, as well as weapons and equipment developed and produced by Australasia itself.
Within Europe, British-made and German-made weapons are more popular, and there is basically no difficulty in exporting weapons.
Arthur was even thinking that if countries used military aircraft and showed importance to aircraft during World War I, then whether the first two generations of aircraft could be built in large quantities and sold on a large scale.
Anyway, Australasian military aircraft have already reached the third generation, and research on the fourth generation is already underway.
As long as the fourth-generation military aircraft is successfully developed in the future, the sale of the first two generations of military aircraft to major European powers will not affect Australasia's aircraft research. Anyway, affected by the war, they want to Catching up with Australasia is not possible.
The cost of these aircraft is tens of thousands or even tens of thousands of Australian dollars, and the profits brought by large-scale sales to European countries are no lower than arms exports.
Please take a day off from 5,000 words today, and happy May Day!
(End of chapter)