Chapter 348 The Second Balkan War and the South American Conflict
As time entered May, the public exhibition of White Herding Deer and Xiaobai also officially began.
As one of the few wild white herd deer, Xiaobai is treated like a national treasure at the Royal Sydney Zoo.
There are dedicated zoo staff to take care of the food and drink, for fear that Xiaobai will have any problems.
What they eat is fresh grass, twigs and leaves specially harvested. What you drink is flowing river water drawn from the river to ensure the cleanness of the water source.
The ticket sales at Sydney Royal Zoo have also been very noisy recently.
Because many people asked to start the pre-sale in advance to avoid the hard work of going to the zoo, not only would they not be able to see Xiaobai, but they might not get a chance to see it next time.
As a result, the Sydney Royal Zoo, which allows pre-sale of tickets, has seen an even crazier rush to buy tickets.
Perhaps it’s because white herds are so rare to see, but Sydney has been so busy lately with so many people.
Not only the citizens of Sydney, but also tourists from all over the country and even from all over the world come, making Sydney, which was already crowded, even more crowded and busy with traffic.
However, this has allowed Sydney's GDP to develop more rapidly. Since the Sydney Olympics last year, tourism has become a major economic pillar industry in Australasia, especially in cities near Sydney and Melbourne.
Because the southeastern region of Australia is the core part of Australasia, this region also receives the most tourists.
Not only have two large cities with a population of one million been born, but there is also a trend of giving birth to urban agglomerations in southeastern Australia.
In order to limit the current wave of pre-purchased tickets for Sydney's Royal Zoo, the Royal Zoo has also issued regulations to only pre-sell tickets for a maximum of three days.
If it were not for this restriction, I am afraid that tourists from other places who come to the Royal Sydney Zoo would face an exaggerated situation where all the tickets within one or two months are sold out, and tickets after two months will even have to queue up to buy them. .
However, this has made the Royal Zoo's ticket revenue soar. The previous daily ticket cost was only a few thousand Australian dollars during peak periods.
The current ticket revenue can easily exceed 10,000 Australian dollars, and the Royal Zoo in Sydney is also expected to enter a profitable state.
However, all this is temporary.
As Kent Butler purchases more wild and rare animals from all over the world, the cost of daily operation of the Royal Zoo in Sydney will also rise.
You must know that every precious wild animal needs a different living environment.
In particular, rare animals from all over the world not only have strict requirements for their living environment, but the environment of each ethnic group is also very different.
Even just arranging the living environment for these creatures is enough to put the Royal Zoo into a state of loss for a long time.
Fortunately, the Royal Zoo is the property of the royal family consortium after all. Backed by the tyrannical royal family consortium, these expenses are only a small number.
With the successful display of the white herd deer at the Royal Zoo, various reports about the white herd deer have been reported by major media around the world.
Yes, although only a few days have passed, the hunting of the white herd deer is definitely big news. Therefore, the foreign media did not care about the thousands of pounds of airship tickets, and they all brought camera equipment and organized people to arrive in Australasia. West Asia.
Fortunately, Australasia is the originator of airship voyages around the world, and it was also the first country to establish an airship airline and launch a global voyage business.
In addition, Australasia's airship technology leads the world, so airship companies from various countries will also consider stopping in Australasia when planning airship voyage routes around the world.
Since then, airships have been better inspected and maintained in Australasia. These technologies have not been properly mastered by airship companies in other countries.
Especially after a major problem occurs, it can only be sent to Australasia for repairs, which makes the current round-the-world flight indispensable without the participation of Australasia.
Don't underestimate the stopping points of the global voyage. They are basically chosen to be large cities and capitals in various countries around the world, so that big capitalists and high-ranking officials can board them. The main customers of the airship are basically these people.
Because of the novices, there are many more tourists in Australasia than before, which has also had a certain impact on Sydney's urban security.
But this is no longer what Arthur has to worry about now, because not long after Xiaobai entered the Royal Zoo, the world situation became chaotic again.
The London Contract signed more than half a year ago was eventually torn up by the Balkan Alliance.
The Balkan Alliance, which originally shared the same hatred against the Ottoman Turkish Empire, was eventually divided into two camps due to the uneven distribution of interests.
Of course, one of the camps has only one country: Bulgaria. Who made Bulgaria the most profits in the last Balkan War?
Moreover, another camp also joined the Kingdom of Romania, which also turned the situation in the Balkans into one of all countries fighting against Bulgaria, that is, the Anti-Bulgarian Alliance.
Logically speaking, Bulgaria should be the weaker party in the face of several enemies and should try its best to avoid war or seek outside help.
In fact, Bulgaria did the same thing. Because Serbia, the main country in the anti-Bulgarian alliance, had good relations with Russia, and Russia was one of the four major powers of the Entente.
In order to seek protection, Bulgaria quickly hooked up with the Central Powers, which lacked allies, or to be precise, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which wanted to reach out to the Balkans.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire was worried about the previous Balkan Alliance uniting together, and could only sit back and watch Russia control the situation in the Balkans.
Seeing Bulgaria coming to the door, Austria-Hungary naturally had no excuse to refuse.
After the anti-Bulgarian alliance among the Balkan countries took shape, Bulgaria did not hesitate to sign a sovereignty defense treaty with the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The treaty stipulated that Austria-Hungary would provide loans to Bulgaria to help Bulgaria maintain armaments and domestic order.
And when Bulgaria's homeland security was seriously threatened, troops were sent to protect Bulgaria's independence and territorial integrity.
This treaty gave Bulgaria enough confidence. Bulgaria's top leaders confidently believed that with the help of Austria-Hungary and the guarantee of Bulgaria's security, Bulgaria could sit back and relax and even take the initiative to launch attacks on the Balkan countries.
In fact, Bulgaria did exactly that.
On May 19, 1913, after obtaining the consent of Germany and Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria took the lead in launching an attack on Greece and Serbia.
The 350,000 Bulgarian troops were divided into 100,000 combat troops against Greece, 150,000 combat troops against Serbia, and 100,000 reserve troops, and launched a mighty offensive.
In order to fulfill the alliance and get a share of the war, Romania declared war on Bulgaria on May 23, on the pretext that Bulgaria caused damage to the Romanian border when mobilizing its troops.
On the same day, Montenegro also declared war on Bulgaria. After just one year, the Balkans once again fell into a brutal war.
But this is not over yet. The Turkish government, which thought it had waited for the opportunity, also declared war on Bulgaria at the end of May, demanding the recovery of its territory.
For a time, the entire Balkans, except for the Bosnia region occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the multinational Albania, was plunged into the dark clouds of war.
At this time, the Austro-Hungarian Empire originally wanted to fulfill the agreement signed with Bulgaria at that time.
Even Austria-Hungary has prepared enough troops and plans to launch an attack on Serbia to relieve Bulgaria's military pressure.
You must know that at this time, Bulgaria was already under siege by the Anti-Bulgarian Alliance and the Ottoman Turkish Empire. It suffered repeated setbacks and retreated across the board.
If support is not provided in time, Bulgaria's defeat is almost certain.
But the problem is that Russia stands firmly behind Serbia and expresses support for the war provoked by Serbia.
Russia has the help of Britain and France behind it. If the Austro-Hungarian Empire acts rashly, it is very likely to directly provoke a war between the Allies and the Entente. There is no doubt about Russia’s firm support for Serbia. Because Serbia has been Russia's long-standing staunch ally and the guarantee of Russia's interests in the Balkans.
The reason why Russia can easily control the Balkan countries is due to Serbia.
Britain and France were also very firm in their support for Russia. They even called Arthur directly to ask about Arthur's attitude and even his overt and covert intentions. If the Austro-Hungarian Empire was firm in its attitude, Britain and France would not hesitate to launch a war.
The statements of Britain and France were actually asking about Arthur's attitude.
After all, Australasia is one of the four major powers of the Entente. It is impossible to survive alone when a conflict breaks out between the Allies and the Entente.
Unless Arthur wants to change jobs midway like Italy, he must firmly support Britain, France and the Entente in order to protect his status as the four major Allied powers and the distribution of interests after the war.
After receiving the inquiry telegram from the British and French governments, Arthur responded quickly, saying that Australasia was ready for battle at any time and would do its best to support Britain, France, Russia and the entire Allied Powers.
The firm attitude of the four major powers of the Allied Powers made the three major powers of the Allies, especially the most powerful country, the German Empire, feel strong pressure.
Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire had already sharpened its sword towards Serbia, the German Empire finally decided to stop the Austro-Hungarian Empire's actions after thinking for a long time.
In June 1913, William II’s attitude could be seen in a letter sent from Berlin to Vienna to Emperor Franz: “It is true to support Bulgaria, but if you do not hesitate to launch a war for this purpose, A war between the Allied Powers is not worth the gain. It is not that we are afraid of them, but at present, the military preparations for launching a world-level war have not been completed. We should suspend military actions against the Allied Powers and wait until the military Let’s talk after preparations are completed.”
Even the slightly proud and eccentric William II had to admit that he faced extremely huge pressure when facing the four major powers of the Allied Powers.
France and Russia are located on the east and west sides of Germany respectively. This also means that if it wants to fight the Allies, Germany will have to face the pressure of a two-front war.
If the French and Russian armies are enough to contain the German army, then the combined fleets of Britain and France can also crush the German High Seas Fleet.
After Australasia joined the Entente, the overall strength of the Entente was not significantly improved.
Of course, this does not mean that Australasia is not strong. In fact, the overall strength of the Allied Powers is too strong. Even if Australasia is added, the increase in this ratio is actually not high.
Although the current overall strength seems to be that Italy is stronger than Australasia, William II, who has visited Australasia many times, understands that the overall strength of the army and navy, Australasia is stronger than Italy.
More importantly, Australasia is not in Europe. As long as the mainland is not damaged, it can compete with the Allies in consumption.
Although the other three major powers of the Entente have their home base and core interests in Europe, they all have a large land area and a larger population.
If they compete with the Allied Powers for consumption, the final result faced by the Allied Powers will be defeat.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire was Germany's staunchest ally. After receiving William II's letter, Emperor Franz had no choice but to terminate domestic military operations even if he was unwilling.
Bulgaria's biggest trump card gave up on Bulgaria. Facing the siege of several other countries, Bulgaria was retreating steadily and almost all the land gained in the First Balkan War was lost.
On June 15, 1913, Bulgaria, which had been unable to wait for military support from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, finally understood the seriousness of the matter.
The Bulgarian army's all-out attack was changed to all-out defense, and their goal changed from victory in the war to defending the homeland.
On June 17, following a great battle between the Greek army and the Bulgarian army, the Greek army finally won, setting the final tone of the war.
Bulgaria's defeat has already appeared, and even if Ferdinand wants to persist, he may not be able to sustain it for another month.
The wise abandonment of Germany and Austria-Hungary satisfied Britain, France and Russia, and also gave Arthur a temporary sigh of relief.
If World War I broke out early, it would not be good news for Arthur.
First, Australasia's domestic preparations are not very sufficient, and it is difficult to ensure that it will have sufficient military power after the war is over.
Secondly, the complete change in the world situation may also cause Arthur to lose the opportunity to predict everything.
After all, the war broke out early, which also meant that everything in the original world was advanced or even changed.
Arthur's advantage as a time traveler will also be wiped out, which is not good news for Arthur.
Before Britain, France, Russia and other great powers could take a break, conflict broke out again in South America at the end of June 1913, and soon attracted the attention of the major powers and the world.
This part of South America has three major powers: Brazil, Argentina and Chile.
The comprehensive strength of these three countries is similar. In addition to the obvious differences in land area, the population, economy and industrial scale are also similar.
This also leads to the fact that although these three countries have territorial disputes, it is basically unlikely that a large-scale war will break out.
If you want to win the war, you must bet on the destiny of the country and spend everything you have.
None of the three countries has such courage and courage. After all, losing the bet means falling behind the other two countries.
The previously vigorous South American naval competition also represented the conflicts and disputes between these three countries.
In addition, Chile has the world's largest saltpeter mine and is an important saltpeter mining area in the British Empire and the world.
Therefore, after the conflict broke out in this area, it quickly attracted the attention of the British Empire, the Allied Powers and the world.
This conflict has nothing to do with Brazil, the largest country in South America. The main protagonists are the two largest countries in southern South America, Chile and Argentina.
A few decades ago, neither Chile nor Argentina had such a large land area.
During these decades of expansion, they expanded a large amount of land to the south, and these lands were all adjacent to each other.
Facing a very narrow national border, it is impossible not to have any problems.
This has also led to the long-term relationship between Argentina and Chile not being very good, and the two sides have had considerable conflicts along the national border.
The two countries were previously under Spanish colonial rule. After independence, the Andes Mountains formed a natural dividing line.
But the problem is that this is just a simple dividing line on land and does not determine the boundaries of offshore straits.
This has also led to ongoing disputes over the ownership of the three islands at the boundary of the Beagle Channel, Picton, Lennox Island and Nueva Island.
Although the combined area of these three islands is only more than 300 square kilometers, the Beagle Channel where these three islands are located has a very important geographical location and rich seabed resources.
Whichever of the two countries can occupy this strait will gain some advantages over the other country.
For two countries that are evenly matched, this is the key to breaking the balance.
In 1902, Argentina and Chile signed a General Treaty of Arbitration, entrusting their conflicts to the British Empire for arbitration.
But because Chile had good relations with the British Empire, Chile naturally gained ownership of these three islands and became the victor in the conflict.
But that doesn't mean the conflict is over. On the contrary, the Argentines were not satisfied with the arbitration, and the conflict with Chile did not end because of the arbitration. Instead, it became more intense, and the two countries even tended to form hatred.
Asking for a monthly ticket!
(End of chapter)