Chapter 324 Anti-Bulgarian Alliance
After the popularity of the Olympic Games and the airship circumnavigation gradually declined, the ongoing Balkan War in Europe and the peace talks among the Balkan countries have once again become the focus of discussion among European countries.
In fact, this is normal. There has not been a major war in the vast Europe for decades. A war like this involving multiple European countries and involving millions of soldiers on both sides is enough to enter the eyes of Europeans and be talked about.
The peace talks between the Balkan countries and Turkey were held in London, which is the capital of the British Empire. As the witness of the peace talks, the British Empire will naturally be more trustworthy and recognized by other countries.
At this time, London was crowded with people, and wealthy people traveled in all kinds of cars on the roads that extended in all directions in London.
The ladies were in twos and threes, holding a cup of drink named Coke in their hands, taking a few sips from a straw from time to time, and joking with their friends around them.
With such a prosperous appearance, it deserves to be the capital of the most powerful country in the world and one of the most developed cities in the world.
To all Londoners, even Britons and Europeans, the ongoing Balkan War seemed to be a war that existed only in history and folklore.
The knights were wearing gorgeous armor, and it seemed that with just one charge, they could kill the enemy to pieces and scatter them in all directions.
These European gentlemen, whose memories have been washed away by time, have no idea that war is cruel to everyone, and war is a ruthless harvesting machine to any life.
From the beginning of the Balkan War to the present, the combined casualties of both sides have exceeded tens of thousands. Tens of thousands of soldiers simply died.
If London had not been the venue for the peace talks, perhaps such a cruel war would have nothing to do with London.
But even if such a peace negotiation takes place in London, it will still not affect the lives of European gentlemen.
Although the London peace talks have been going on for more than half a month, the progress has been almost zero.
Every time there is a little bit of progress in the peace talks, the great powers will exert their own influence, thus destroying the progress.
The reason is also very simple. Although the Balkan War seems to be the Balkan countries' dissatisfaction with the oppressive policies of Ottoman Turkey in the Balkans, it is actually still a political game in the Balkans between the great powers led by Austria and Russia.
The participation of the great powers has made this land extremely chaotic, and has also made the progress of this peace negotiation go in a direction that is somewhat incomprehensible.
To put it more bluntly, the peace talks lasted for more than half a month, and the only consensus reached by the two sides was that Ottoman Turkey admitted its defeat in this war.
There has been no other progress at all. The peace talks for more than half a month can be said to be representatives of various countries enjoying life in London.
Those who are most anxious about this peace talks should be the Balkan countries.
Turkey is not too impatient. After all, the longer the peace talks are delayed, the more Turkey will be able to accumulate strength. Maybe it can wait for an opportunity to launch another counterattack and regain the occupied land.
But for the Balkan countries, domestic general mobilization is a burden to the country. If the general mobilization lasts for one day, the damage to the country's economy and industry will be immeasurable.
The sooner peace talks can be reached, the sooner the reserve force can be disbanded and these people can return to their previous production and life.
Moreover, the Balkan countries have a large amount of newly occupied land and need to formulate new policies to occupy and digest it.
If it continues like this, it is inevitable that Turkish extremists will not have an impact on the domestic situation.
Naturally, the sooner these fats that have occupied the mouth are eaten into the stomach, the more reassuring it will be.
However, the current quarrel among the great powers is very fierce. They can be roughly divided into Germany and Austria, which support Ottoman Turkey, and Russia, which supports the Balkan Alliance.
The Balkan Alliance has considerable disputes over the division of spoils. These fierce conflicts have led to the current peace talks seeming to have no hope of reaching consensus.
Except for Germany, Austria and Russia, which were directly dismissed, Britain and France held a neutral attitude towards this peace negotiation.
For Britain and France, as long as the situation in Constantinople is stable, they can accept whatever situation the peace talks develop.
But if there is a risk of Constantinople falling into the hands of Russia, then Britain and France would not mind participating directly and using various means to interfere in the peace talks.
Although Italy, which was relatively close to the Balkan War, had no intention of intervening or participating in this peacekeeping mission, Italy also invaded and occupied the Dodecanese Islands in the Aegean Sea during the Balkan War.
It is worth mentioning that Italy took advantage of the opportunity when the Balkan countries declared war on Turkey, and while Turkey was tired of responding, it won a major victory on the battlefield and successfully forced the Turkish government to sign the Treaty of Lausanne. The signing of the treaty relieved the Italian government and allowed Italy to obtain the territories of Tripoli and Cyrenaica, successfully expanding its colonies in North Africa.
In fact, if there was no Balkan War, I am afraid that Italy would have to spend a lot of effort to reach a contract with Turkey.
With the Balkan countries in check, most of Turkey's troops in Europe were exhausted. Without sufficient troops, the Turkish army suffered a defeat so quickly and had to sign a contract.
It seems that the Balkan countries can also be regarded as Italy's benefactors, attracting a lot of hatred for Italy.
In order to repay the kindness of the Balkan countries, Italy immediately expressed its intention to invade the Aegean Islands and set its sights on the Albanian region, which declared independence during the war.
The peace talks did not go smoothly, which gave the Russian representatives a headache. In order to ensure that the situation in the Balkans is closer to Russia, Russian representatives visited representatives of the United Kingdom and France and asked Britain and France for their opinions on the Balkan peace talks.
Although the three countries of Britain, France, and Russia stood firmly with each other because of mutual entente.
But when it comes to Constantinople and the Black Sea Straits, the attitudes of Britain and France are surprisingly unified, that is, Russia will never be allowed to control Constantinople.
In addition, Germany and Austria also favored Turkey in the peace talks. After the Russian representatives asked for instructions at home, the Tsarist Empire finally chose to give in.
On August 17, 1912, the Balkan Contract, the "London Contract", was officially signed, finally bringing long-lost peace to the Balkans.
The Balkan Contract stipulates that all Turkish land territories west of the line from Enez to Midina on the Caspian Sea, except Albania, will be ceded to the Balkan Alliance countries.
Albania gained independent status, but was supervised by Russia, Britain, France, Germany, Austria and Italy. The issue of the Aegean Islands will be handled by Germany, Austria, Italy and Russia.
The signing of this London Contract caused the Ottoman Turkish Empire to lose all European territory west of Constantinople, and also allowed the power of the Balkan Alliance countries to directly expand to the entire Balkan Peninsula.
But at the same time, the Balkan countries are also facing a more serious problem, which is the distribution of interests after the war.
Serbia's plans to gain an access to the sea from northern Albania were foiled by Austria-Hungary, and Albania was granted independent status under the supervision of the six major powers.
However, Bulgaria, which together with Serbia is the two major powers in the Balkan Alliance, suffered a lot of setbacks in its attack on Constantinople, but its operations in capturing territories in other regions progressed very smoothly.
Looking at the four countries of the Balkan Alliance, Bulgaria occupied the most land in this war. From eastern Salonika to western Constantinople, the total area of newly acquired territory even exceeded that of Serbia, Montenegro and Greece. the total territory.
Although interests were indeed divided in this way before the war, Bulgaria did send the most troops.
But the problem is that Serbia's expansion to gain access to the sea was undermined by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but Bulgaria's expansion did not suffer any setbacks.
Coupled with Greece's jealousy of Bulgaria's expansion, as the country that expanded the most territory in this war, it is reasonable for Bulgaria to become the target of public criticism.
On August 21, 1912, four days after the signing of the London Contract, the Greek representative responsible for signing the contract, Greek Foreign Minister Corizis, appeared in the capital of Romania, Bregast.
In the reception hall of the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Greek Foreign Minister Coritsis spoke righteously to the old man in front of him.
The old man's identity is Romania's Foreign Minister, a politician with great status and prestige in Romania.
"Your Majesty Corizis, if your purpose of coming here is just to get Romania to join the alliance against Bulgaria, then please come back! Romania has no interest in participating in the dispute between you." The old man smiled. He shook his head at Coritsis, and had no interest in the plan proposed by Coritsis to unite against Bulgaria.
"Your Excellency Tyrol, it is not that we are going to deal with Bulgaria. I believe you can see from the current situation that after acquiring new territory, Bulgaria has ranked first among all the countries in the Balkans in terms of land area. As long as they can integrate the new territory The population size of the people in the land will also reach a level similar to that of Romania." Greek Foreign Minister Coritsis was not frustrated because Tyrol rejected his proposal and continued.
"But you have to know that the bravery and skill shown by the Bulgarians in this war is enough to make their military combat effectiveness superior to that of the Balkan countries. If Bulgaria is allowed to integrate the newly acquired territory, they will become a well-deserved Balkan The strongest country in the region. As a neighbor of Bulgaria, do you really want to be indifferent to Bulgaria's upcoming rise?" Korizis said with a smile.
No country or strong person can allow the immediate threat to continue to grow.
The Balkan countries all have considerable ambitions, and Corizis does not believe that Romania can really allow Bulgaria to rise and allow the emergence of a powerful country around itself that can threaten its status and security.
"Before coming to Romania, we have reached a consensus with Serbia. As long as your country is willing, we can form a joint army several times larger than the Bulgarian army. After completely defeating Bulgaria, Romania will also receive its due rewards. , that is the South Dobroga region." Corizis continued to speak, but what he said made Tyrol a little moved.
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(End of chapter)