Chapter 457: Balkan War

The formation of the United Kingdom of Spain and Portugal has garnered much attention in Europe, with many newspapers viewing the establishment of this new nation as a revival of Spanish hegemony.

Benefiting from the land area and population provided by Portugal, Spain has firmly secured a position in the top four of the world power rankings reported by major European newspapers, sometimes even surpassing France to rank third in the world.

Spain has grown step by step from a backward country on the verge of falling out of the ranks of great powers to a super-power in the world's top four; such a process is something other European countries would not even dare to imagine.

Although it had long been expected that Spain would annex Portugal, when this day truly arrived, there were still many countries that felt extremely envious and jealous.

If one were to speak of who felt this most deeply, it would likely be the Austro-Hungarian Empire, whose original comprehensive strength was far superior to Spain's.

Once upon a time, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was hailed as one of the five great powers of Europe, competing for hegemony in Europe alongside Britain, France, Germany, and Russia.

But now, let alone the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was not widely recognized as one of the five great powers, even Russia, one of the widely recognized four great powers, has been squeezed down by the later-rising Spain.

It cannot be said that Russia is not powerful, because for most great powers, the current Russia remains a huge trouble.

Especially for great powers that are not strong, such as the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy, facing this behemoth of Russia creates a sense of helplessness.

Yet Spain has managed to surpass such a Russia and is recognized as one of the new four great powers. This further reflects the strength of Spain's current military power, and it is the kind recognized by all European countries.

Is it that the Austro-Hungarian Empire lacks ambition?

Not at all.

Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire was directly excluded from the German region by Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire also found a new direction for expansion, which is to expand toward the Balkan Peninsula in the southeast.

They have also achieved quite a lot in this long period of time; the Bosnia and Herzegovina region has already been controlled by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and they are plotting against Serbia and the lands further south.

When the Austro-Hungarian Empire learned the news of the formation of the United Kingdom of Spain and Portugal, they first sent a congratulatory telegram to the Spanish government, and then accelerated their pace of aggression toward the Balkan Peninsula.

If Spain could become a widely recognized super-power by annexing Portugal, why couldn't the Austro-Hungarian Empire become one of the five respected great powers again by annexing a group of small countries on the Balkan Peninsula?

As long as the Austro-Hungarian Empire annexes these small countries on the Balkan Peninsula, the Austro-Hungarian Empire will have the confidence to contend with Russia.

Even if Russia is also eyeing this land, the Austro-Hungarian Empire is not afraid in the slightest. After all, behind the Austro-Hungarian Empire is the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria, and Italy, and the purpose of this powerful military group is precisely to confront France and Russia.

Driven by ambition, the Austro-Hungarian Empire frequently mobilized troops in the Bosnia and Herzegovina region, appearing to have intentions of invading Serbia.

The frequent movements of the Austro-Hungarian Empire made Serbia feel a crisis, and also made other Balkan Peninsula countries feel threatened.

Speaking of these countries on the Balkan Peninsula, their fates are relatively similar. They were all once subject to the rule of the Ottoman Empire, exploited by the brutal rule of the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of years.

Having finally managed to obtain independent status by taking advantage of the decline of the Ottoman Empire, what they face is the covetousness of powerful great powers like the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia.

At this time, the various countries of the Balkan Peninsula do not have major conflicts, and in order to resist threats from the outside, they are still willing to stand together.

On June 22, 1906, two relatively powerful countries on the Balkan Peninsula, Serbia and Bulgaria, concluded the "Serbian-Bulgarian Military Alliance," agreeing that both sides should jointly safeguard the peace and stability of the Balkan Peninsula and jointly deal with enemies from outside the Balkan Peninsula.

The hypothetical enemy of this military alliance, in addition to the arch-enemy of the Balkan peoples, the Ottomans, also included the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the ranks of hypothetical enemies.

Serbia hopes to obtain Bulgaria's help so that it can better resist the invasion of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Bulgaria, on the other hand, hopes to unite with Serbia to confront the Ottoman Empire, thereby obtaining more land in the south.

Because each took what they needed, Serbia and Bulgaria hit it off immediately; they spent only a few short days signing this military alliance treaty and impatiently began to reorganize and prepare for war.

Of course, the reorganization and preparation for war by the two countries were not to deal with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but to seize large tracts of territory from the Ottoman Empire.

At this time, the territory of the Balkan Peninsula still had certain differences from later generations; Albania had not yet become independent from the control of the Ottoman Empire, and the Ottoman Empire still controlled large tracts of European territory, which was also the target of Serbia and Bulgaria.

In order to better deal with the Ottoman Empire, Serbia and Bulgaria also planned to pull in Greece to jointly partition the large tracts of territory of the Ottoman Empire in Europe.

Even if this large tract of territory were divided equally, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece could each expand their own national land area by more than half.

For the Balkan countries, which have little land and few people, this is simply a great opportunity not to be missed.

Sure enough, when Greece learned of the plan of Serbia and Bulgaria to attack the Ottoman Empire, they joined in without hesitation.

At this time, the only Balkan countries that had not joined the alliance were Romania and Montenegro. Romania and Serbia are separated by Bulgaria; it is impossible for them to obtain land in this operation, which is also the reason why Romania is not interested in this action.

Although Montenegro has the least territory and population among the Balkan countries, they still actively lobbied the Balkan countries and finally joined the alliance.

It was precisely after the Principality of Montenegro officially joined the alliance that the original Serbian-Bulgarian alliance officially evolved into the Balkan Alliance.

All Balkan countries except Romania joined this alliance, which also made the leading Serbia and Bulgaria very confident. They believed that with the power of the alliance, they could easily defeat the Ottoman Empire, and this action would allow their territory and population to increase significantly, and they would have greater confidence to confront threats outside the Balkan Peninsula in the future.

Under the pressure of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Balkan Alliance was thus quickly formed.

Although the main purpose of the Balkan Alliance was to compete for the European territory of the Ottoman Empire, they also had the purpose of resisting threats from outside the Balkan Peninsula led by the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The countries of the Balkan Alliance held discussions for several days. In order to prevent the war from being forcibly interfered with by European great powers, and in order to be able to capture more territory of the Ottoman Empire, they decided to declare war on the Ottoman Empire quickly and get the fruits of victory first.

And so, a sudden war broke out just like that.

When Gao Da learned that a war had broken out on the Balkan Peninsula, he and Prince Hu An Fernando were inspecting the construction of a large food processing plant in Portugal.

This food processing plant was established with Spanish capital investment; after completion, it could provide thousands of jobs and create millions of pesetas in economic value.

For the Portuguese government, such a factory is very important. Portugal itself does not have much of an industrial base, and if they want to improve the domestic economy, they can only pin their hopes on the investment of Spanish capital.

Fortunately, after the two countries merged, Spanish capital also increased its interest in investing in Portugal. Although Portugal's mineral resources are more barren compared to Spain's, Portugal's labor costs are relatively low, and it is entirely feasible to build some food processing plants.

In addition to investing in factories, some Spanish nobles also chose to go to Portugal to invest in agriculture. The large plains possessed by Portugal are very suitable choices whether used for reclaiming arable land or for animal husbandry.

Compared to Spain, Portugal can also be considered a place with vast land and few people. Portugal still possesses large tracts of undeveloped land within its borders; rather than letting these lands continue to lie waste, it is better to sell or lease them to Spanish capital so they can carry out agricultural development.

Although the outbreak of the Balkan War was not in Gao Da's plan, Gao Da was not surprised by it at all. The European situation at this time had already undergone huge changes compared to the same period in history; even if the World War broke out early, Gao Da would not be surprised at all.

In order to deal with the volatile European situation, Gao Da also planned to carry out a larger scale of military expansion in Spain and Portugal to deal with the European war that could break out at any time.

Currently, the Ministry of Defense of the United Kingdom of Spain and Portugal is already conceiving various details of the military expansion; once the details are confirmed to be correct, it will be about time for Spain to carry out a major military expansion.

In addition to the number of active-duty ground forces, Gao Da also intends to increase the number of reserves of the United Kingdom to over 1 million.

Perhaps Spain will not join the World War too early, but no matter when it joins the World War, it must be prepared to fight a hard battle.

In addition to the expansion of the ground forces, Gao Da also ordered the research and development projects for airplanes and tanks to speed up progress, striving to have Spain equipped with a portion of airplanes and tanks before the outbreak of the World War.

Especially tanks; as long as they can be brought out in the First World War, they will be the undisputed kings of the battlefield.

Now, European countries have no defense against things like tanks; even if tanks have this or that defect and have a very high breakdown rate, they are still great killers on the battlefield.

Upon learning that a war had broken out on the Balkan Peninsula, Gao Da did not rush to issue orders, but instead let the diplomatic department pay attention to the reactions of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia.

Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia can no longer enter the top four in the European rankings, the situation on the Balkan Peninsula still depends on the expressions of these two countries.

There is no way around it; other European countries are simply too far away from the Balkan Peninsula. Moreover, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia have their own military groups behind them; if these two countries want to stir up trouble, it is very likely that the World War will break out at this moment.

Gao Da's worry is not without reason, because the Austro-Hungarian Empire indeed has the idea of attacking Serbia.

If one stands from the perspective of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, one can actually understand the thoughts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. At this time, the Austro-Hungarian Empire has the powerful military group of the Triple Alliance standing behind it; although Russia also has the French alliance behind it, the domestic turmoil in Russia at this time has not yet ended, and they may not necessarily be able to spare the effort to interfere in the war on the Balkan Peninsula.

As long as the Austro-Hungarian Empire can conquer Serbia in time, even if Russia has the strength to mobilize troops to help, it will not be able to change the situation on the battlefield.

Unless Russia wants to start a full-scale war between the two major military groups, otherwise, after the war on the Balkan Peninsula ends, no matter what thoughts they have, they must stop.

For the Austro-Hungarian Empire, this is not only an opportunity to conquer Serbia, but also an opportunity to thoroughly insert its hand into the Balkan Peninsula and conquer the Balkan countries.

The Balkan Peninsula is more like an inverted triangle, with the gap of the Aegean Sea on the right side. Although Serbia is located in the northern part of the triangle, the southern part of Serbia is already close to the central region of the triangle.

This actually also means that if Serbia can be conquered, the Austro-Hungarian Empire will border most of the Balkan countries, except for Greece, which is located in the southernmost part.

If such a situation can be achieved, the Austro-Hungarian Empire can advance to continue attacking the southern part of the Balkan Peninsula, conquering Bulgaria and the European territory of the Ottoman Empire.

It can retreat to hold Serbia and the Bosnia and Herzegovina region, stabilizing its own vast territory. This is simply a very cost-effective deal; let alone the Austro-Hungarian Empire, any European country would likely be tempted if they were in its place.

Italy, next door to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, is drooling over a tiny Albania; now that the Austro-Hungarian Empire has the opportunity to conquer more than half of the Balkan Peninsula, not taking action would be a disservice to such a good opportunity.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire thought so, and they indeed did so.

On one hand, the Austro-Hungarian Empire mobilized more than 100, 00 troops, divided into two major armies deployed in Bosnia and the southern border respectively, ready to attack Serbia at any time.

On the other hand, the Austro-Hungarian Empire urgently contacted its two allies, Germany and Italy, seeking the support of the two allies.

If they could obtain the support of the two allies, even if they had to face Russia in this war, the Austro-Hungarian Empire would not be afraid in the slightest.

Italy might not even need to express its attitude; as long as the German government nods, the Austro-Hungarian Empire will immediately launch the war.

What the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not expect was that before the German government had expressed its attitude, the Italian government had already expressed its interest in this matter.

The Italian government first proposed to the Austro-Hungarian Empire that Italy could directly join this war to help the Austro-Hungarian Empire attack Serbia, at the cost of the Austro-Hungarian Empire needing to support Italy's occupation of the Albania region.

This proposal was quickly rejected by the Austro-Hungarian Empire; even if Italy is its ally, they are unwilling to let Italy set foot on the Balkan Peninsula.

The rejected Italian government was somewhat disappointed; they had originally seen a good opportunity for expansion on the Balkan Peninsula, but did not expect that their ally would not want to let them touch Albania at all, even though they were still very far away from Albania.

Yes, in the eyes of Italy at this time, Italy is the country most qualified to occupy Albania.

Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire laid out its plans on the Balkan Peninsula earlier, they are simply too far away from Albania, with a Serbia in between.

On the contrary, Italy is separated from Albania only by the sea, with the closest point being only seventy-odd kilometers away.

Why should the land right at my doorstep still depend on the expressions of a country hundreds of kilometers away?

The Italian government, rejected by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was quite dissatisfied. They felt disappointed for the first time in the Triple Alliance military group, because it currently looks like Italy is dispensable in this military alliance and will not obtain too many benefits after the war.

If even the Balkan Peninsula is not something the Austro-Hungarian Empire is willing to let Italy touch, what land can Italy hope to occupy after the war?

If it were Italy in a normal state, being rejected would be the end of it; at worst, they could temporarily give up on Albania.

But Italy at this time is different; they were also stimulated by Spain.

One must know that the connection between Italy and Spain is even deeper. The current King of Spain, Gao Da, is an Italian prince; the royal families of the two countries can be said to be one family.

Why is it that Gao Da can lead Spain to become a super-power, while Italy, despite originally occupying an advantageous position, has had no progress for so many years?

Why is it that the Spanish army can have such excellent performance in war, while the combat effectiveness of the Italian army is not valued by European countries?

Now that even its own allies do not respect its demands, is such an Italy really what it wants?

For the current King of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele III, he is quite dissatisfied at this time.

Since the King is dissatisfied, the government must resolve the King's dissatisfaction.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire's rejection of Italy's request is easy to handle; anyway, the alliance is not decided by the Austrian brothers. At worst, they can take it to the Germans and let the Germans preside over justice.

Coincidentally, the Italian government learned that the Austro-Hungarian Empire was also seeking Germany's support to deal with Russia's possible interference.

Without the slightest hesitation, the Italian government immediately contacted the German government, hoping to obtain the support of the German government so as to join in the partition of the Balkan countries.

In order to show its sincerity, Italy also promised the German government that Italy would only occupy Albania, and the remaining areas, even if captured, would be handed over to the Austro-Hungarian Empire or Germany without compensation.

In the eyes of the Italian government, its request is quite reasonable. The Austro-Hungarian Empire occupied Bosnia and still wants Serbia; Italy only wants an Albania of lower value. This shouldn't be excessive, right?

Everyone is part of the Triple Alliance; surely Germany cannot just respect the request of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and not respect the request of Italy?

When Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire took their dispute over the Balkan Peninsula to Germany, the German government did not have a very good way to deal with it.

The Triple Alliance formed by Germany has an obvious flaw compared to the alliance of France and Russia, which is that the three countries of the Triple Alliance are adjacent to each other, making it easier to lead to disputes over territory.

France and Russia have a Germany sandwiched between them, and Russia has no overseas colonies, so naturally, it is impossible for there to be conflicts between it and France.

To speak of the conflict between Falanxi and Eguozheng Prefecture, one must trace it back to the Napoleonic era a hundred years ago. At that time, Napoleon conquered most of Europe, only to eventually meet his Waterloo in Eguozheng Prefecture.