Chapter 315 Pre-Olympic Games
The territory of the Ottoman Turkish Empire in Europe was eaten up by the Balkan countries in a short period of time, and the Albanian region also took the opportunity to declare independence.
At present, all Turkey can control is the capital Constantinople and less than twenty miles of surrounding land.
In terms of the results of various countries, the Serbian army occupied most of Macedonia, northern Albania and Novo Zapar Oblast.
The Greek army occupied territory from southern Macedonia to Thessaloniki, the Bulgarian army occupied eastern Macedonia and parts of Thrace, and Montenegro expanded some lands to the east.
In general, several countries have gained something, and they can be considered to have initially achieved their strategic goals.
But this is not over yet. The problem in Albania is the more explosive issue in this war.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy hoped to form a self-made Albanian state, but Serbia occupied some areas in northern Albania and successfully gained access to the Adriatic Sea.
Serbia's expansion received strong support from Russia, but attracted strong opposition from Italy and Austria-Hungary.
Especially the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After Serbia formally occupied northern Albania and gained access to the sea, the Austro-Hungarian Empire expressed its opinions to Serbia and demanded that Serbia immediately withdraw its troops from northern Albania. Otherwise, it would have to use military mobilization in some areas to ensure that Austria-Hungary Hungarian Empire's interests in the Balkans.
Germany quickly gave strong support to Austria-Hungary's actions, while Russia, which was ill-prepared, chose to give in. On the one hand, it persuaded Serbia to make concessions, and on the other hand, it handed the issue to the Great Powers Conference for discussion.
Although the situation in the Balkans fell into a brief calm due to the intervention of the great powers, in fact, precisely because of the interference of the great powers, the situation in the Balkans is destined to become more dire.
Of course, all this has nothing to do with Australasia at the moment.
As time entered April 1912, the Sydney Olympics also entered the final stage of preparations.
This is a world event created by Arthur with all the efforts of Australasia. Currently, more than 25 countries and more than 3,000 athletes have signed up to participate.
In fact, since the end of February and the beginning of March, many foreign athlete delegations have come to Australasia to enter into intense and exciting training sessions.
Some powerful countries with sufficient strength have already carried out various trainings in their own countries, and are currently preparing to go to Australasia to participate in the final Olympic Games.
The good news is that the Balkan War did not affect the holding of the Sydney Olympics. Even though the Balkan countries were deep in war, they still sent a certain number of athlete teams to participate in the Olympics.
In fact, this is normal. Behind the Balkan countries are generally the great powers, and the great powers are all involved. It is also inappropriate for these Balkan countries to ignore it.
In order to make the Olympic Games and Australasia more famous around the world, Arthur decided to use a circumnavigation to build Australasia's popularity around the world, and also to promote the Sydney Olympic Games.
Of course, this is not a simple voyage around the world. The first circumnavigation of the world dates back hundreds of years to the mid-fifteenth century.
At that time, large sailing ships were used to sail around the world, which directly opened up the Age of Discovery and Colonization that lasted for hundreds of years. It was also one of the main reasons that brought Europe to the top of the world.
After sailing around the world, Europeans realized how small the place they lived in was, and then they realized that there was a very extensive land and a large population outside Europe.
The circumnavigation planned by Arthur will use an airship made in Australasia, the AU-3 airship, to conduct an air circumnavigation.
Navigating around the world by flying is a great milestone that no one else has achieved yet.
If Arthur could propel an airship around the world, it would also make Australasia a significant part of aviation history.
Speaking of which, we have to mention the AU-3 airship developed by the Aeronautical Research Laboratory.
The development speed of airships is still relatively slow compared to that of airplanes. This is actually the reason why Arthur established that airplanes are more important than airships.
However, with so many years of technological accumulation and a certain amount of investment in airship research and development, it is still very easy to upgrade the airship to the third generation, or to be precise, the second generation studied by the aviation research laboratory.
Arthur also had another purpose in promoting the airship's circumnavigation, which was to once again attract the attention of European countries after the last Macao-Portuguese War, so that European countries would invest their budgets in the research and development of airships.
The AU-3 airship has a huge improvement in performance compared to the previous generation airship.
In particular, the increase in flight speed gives the AU-3 airship the ability to truly sail around the world.
After Arthur assigned the mission, the Aeronautical Laboratory began to make intensive arrangements for the circumnavigation of the world, carefully considering the choice of stopping points during the circumnavigation, and striving to complete this meaningful circumnavigation in a shorter time. For a circumnavigation, there is a fundamental difference between the first time and the second time.
Just as people only remember the winner in a race, the first circumnavigation of the world will only be covered in the news.
After all, pioneers are always more admirable than tracers. After the first voyage around the world, shouldn't a second and more voyages be inevitable?
After research and decision by the aviation laboratory, the circumnavigation of the world will begin on April 10. The starting point is Sydney. The first stop is Hawaii, the second stop is Los Angeles, the third stop is London, England. Then Berlin, Rome, Delhi, Batavia and finally back to Sydney.
Even including Sydney, the airship will only stop at eight locations to complete the planned circumnavigation.
In fact, the aerospace lab could even eliminate a few more stops if it wanted to.
But after all, the purpose of this circumnavigation is not simply to complete a fast circumnavigation, but to use the gimmick of the first circumnavigation of the airship to promote Australasia and the Sydney Olympics.
Therefore, the selection of these stopping points seems to have some ulterior motives. Needless to say Hawaii, after all, it spans the entire Pacific Ocean, and it is necessary to stop in Hawaii in the middle.
Arthur didn't want the circumnavigation he had worked so hard to plan to sink in the Pacific Ocean just after it started because of any mistakes or accidents. That would be fun.
Next up is Los Angeles, a large city in the western United States that is necessary to make a name for itself around the world.
The same is true in London, England, and I believe the British people will not refuse. As for why I didn’t choose Paris or Berlin, it was because it was either too close to London or it seemed uneasy.
The final choice of docking Arthur in Batavia was also intentional. Using a circumnavigation to demonstrate Australasia's strength would also allow Australasia to better control Southeast Asia.
Although Arthur did not intend to directly annex the Dutch East Indies, it was still necessary to have the right to speak in this area.
The plans for the aviation laboratory were finalized very quickly, and the media controlled by the royal consortium released the news very quickly.
On April 8, 1912, Britain, Germany, and Russia sent telegrams to Arthur one after another, congratulating him and asking if there was anyone who needed help.
What Arthur didn't expect was that the British side was the fastest in sending telegrams. This situation was completely different from the Edward VII period.
During the reign of Edward VII, although the British royal family never failed to congratulate Arthur, it generally lagged behind the German and Russian royal families, and was even the last among the European powers in some cases.
What surprised Arthur even more was that the British government also sent a congratulatory telegram to Arthur, and also expressed its intention to further establish cooperative relations and strategic cooperation in economic and military fields.
Although I don’t understand the purpose of the British government, Australasia must be the one who takes advantage by cooperating with the world’s largest power.
At Arthur's behest, the Australasian government sent a telegram back to the British government, expressing its welcome to further strategic cooperation.
The two sides continued to flirt with each other, but they reached a simple agreement the day before the round-the-world voyage, and agreed that after the Olympics, Australasia would send a diplomatic team to London, England, to discuss formal cooperation matters.
In addition to expressing their advance congratulations on the circumnavigation, the telegrams from Germany and Russia also mentioned in a very metaphorical manner that if the circumnavigation was successful, they hoped to introduce new airship technology from Australasia.
Naturally, Arthur would not refuse this. After all, the cost of building an airship was not low, and the price for selling it to the outside world was even more expensive.
If you introduce technology, you can make more money. Although this is the most advanced airship technology in Australasia, militarized aircraft have been studied for several generations, so who cares about the current extremely fragile airship?
Arthur's decisive agreement also made Germany feel a lot better.
Originally, William II thought that Australasia was planning to move closer to Britain. Now it seems that it may just be to avoid war and declare neutrality and not participate in the struggle between the two major military groups.
Although Germany may have lost a powerful assistant during the war, Australasia's excellent geographical location makes it more valuable to make friends than to offend.
During the conversation with Nicholas II, both parties also exchanged greetings with their children. Crown Prince Alexei's hemophilia was miraculously cured by Rasputin, which also made Nicholas II feel much better.
Of course, what Nicholas II never expected was that Rasputin, who cured his own child and was regarded as a saint by the queen, was one of the culprits that led to the collapse of the Tsarist Empire.
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(End of chapter)