Chapter 457

The formation of the United Kingdom of Spain and Portugal received much attention in Europe, and quite a few newspapers even regarded the establishment of this new country as the revival of Spanish hegemony.

Thanks to the land area and population provided by Portugal, Spain steadily ranked in the top four in the world great power rankings reported by major European newspapers, and sometimes could even surpass France, ranking third in the world.

Spain grew step by step from a backward country that was about to fall out of the great powers into a super great power in the top four of the world; such a process was something other European countries dared not even think about.

Although it had long been expected that Spain would annex Portugal, when this day truly arrived, there were still quite a few countries that felt very envious and jealous of this.

To speak of the one that felt this most deeply, it might be the Austro-Hungarian Empire, whose comprehensive strength was far beyond Spain's originally.

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

But now, let alone the Austro-Hungarian Empire, one of the five great powers not widely recognized, even Russia, one of the four great powers that was widely recognized, was squeezed out by the subsequently rising Spain.

It could not be said that Russia was not powerful, because Russia at this time was still a huge trouble for most great power countries.

Especially for great powers that were not powerful like the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy, facing this behemoth, Russia, would produce a sense of powerlessness.

But Spain actually surpassed such a Russia and was recognized as one of the new four great powers. This also further reflected the power of Spain's current military strength, and it was the kind recognized by various European countries.

Was it that the Austro-Hungarian Empire had no ambition?

It was not.

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, and that was expanding toward the Balkan Peninsula in the southeast.

They also achieved quite a few accomplishments in this long time; the Bosnia and Herzegovina region had already been controlled by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and they were plotting against Serbia and land 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 subsequently accelerated the pace of aggression against the Balkan Peninsula.

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

As long as the Austro-Hungarian Empire annexed these small countries on the Balkan Peninsula, the Austro-Hungarian Empire would possess the confidence to contend with Russia.

Even if Russia was also staring at this piece of land, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was not afraid at all. After all, behind the Austro-Hungarian Empire was the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria, and Italy; the purpose of this powerful military group was precisely to contend with France and Russia.

Driven by ambition, the Austro-Hungarian Empire frequently mobilized troops in the Bosnia and Herzegovina region, seemingly having actions to invade Serbia.

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

Speaking of these countries on the Balkan Peninsula, their fates were relatively similar. They had all submitted to the rule of the Ottoman Empire and had been exploited by the brutal rule of the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of years.

Having finally obtained independent status by taking advantage of the weakness of the Ottoman Empire, what they faced was the covetousness of powerful great powers like the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia.

At this time, the various Balkan countries did not have major contradictions, and in order to resist the threats from the outside world, they were still willing to stand together.

On June 22, 1906, two relatively powerful countries on the Balkan Peninsula, Serbia and Bulgaria, concluded the "Serbo-Bulgarian Military Alliance," agreeing that both sides should jointly protect 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 nation, the Ottomans, also added the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the ranks of hypothetical enemies.

Serbia hoped to obtain Bulgaria's help, so that it could better resist the invasion of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. While Bulgaria hoped to unite with Serbia to contend with the Ottoman Empire, thereby obtaining more land in the south.

Because each took what they needed, Serbia and Bulgaria could be said to have hit it off; they only used a few days to sign this military alliance treaty, and couldn't wait to start preparing for war.

Of course, the preparation for war of the two countries was not to deal with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but to snatch a large piece of territory from the Ottoman Empire.

The territory of the Balkan Peninsula at this time was still somewhat different from later generations; Albania had not yet become independent from the control of the Ottoman Empire, and the Ottoman Empire still controlled a large piece 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 piece of European territory of the Ottoman Empire.

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

For the various Balkan countries with little land and few people, this was 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.

The Balkan countries that had not joined the alliance at this time were only Romania and Montenegro. Romania and Serbia were separated by Bulgaria, and they could not obtain land in this operation, which was the reason why Romania was not interested in this action.

And although Montenegro's territory and population were the smallest among the various Balkan countries, they still actively lobbied the various Balkan countries and finally joined the alliance.

And it was precisely after the Principality of Montenegro officially joined the alliance that the original Serbo-Bulgarian alliance officially evolved into the Balkan Alliance.

Except for Romania, all Balkan countries joined this alliance, which also made the leaders, Serbia and Bulgaria, very confident; they believed that with the help of the alliance's power, they could easily crush the Ottoman Empire, and this operation would let their territory and population increase significantly, and they would have greater confidence to contend with threats outside the Balkan Peninsula in the future.

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

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 outside the Balkan Peninsula, headed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The various countries of the Balkan Alliance held a few days of discussion; in order to prevent the war from being forcibly interfered with by European great powers, and in order to be able to take down more territory of the Ottoman Empire, they decided to declare war on the Ottoman Empire quickly, taking the fruits of victory first.

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

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

This food processing plant was invested and built by Spanish capital; after completion, it could provide thousands of job positions and create millions of pesetas in economic value.

For the Portuguese government, such a factory was very important. Portugal itself did not have many industrial foundations, and if they wanted to improve the domestic economy, they could only pin their hopes on the investment of Spanish capital.

Fortunately, after the merger of the two countries, Spanish capital also increased its interest in investing in Portugal. Although Portugal's mineral resources were more barren compared to Spain's, Portugal's labor cost was relatively low, and building some food-type processing plants was completely fine.

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, whether used for reclaiming farmland or for animal husbandry, were very suitable choices.

Portugal, compared to Spain, could also be considered vast and sparsely populated. Portugal still possessed a large piece of undeveloped land; rather than letting this land continue to be abandoned, it was better to sell or rent it to Spanish capital, letting them carry out agricultural development.

Although the outbreak of the Balkan War was not in Gao Da's plan, Gao Da was not surprised by this at all. The European situation at this time already had 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 changing 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 National Defense of the United Kingdom of Spain and Portugal was already conceiving various details of military expansion; when the details were confirmed to be correct, it would be about time for Spain to carry out a large military expansion.

In addition to the number of active-duty army personnel, Gao Da also planned to increase the number of reserve personnel of the United Kingdom to more than 1 million.

Perhaps Spain would not join the world war too early, but no matter when it joined the world war, it had to be prepared to fight a hard battle.

In addition to the military expansion of the army, Gao Da also instructed the research and development projects of airplanes and tanks to speed up progress, striving to let Spain equip a portion of airplanes and tanks before the outbreak of the world war.

Especially tanks; as long as they could be brought out in the First World War, they would be the well-deserved kings of the battlefield.

Now, various European countries had no defense against things like tanks; even if tanks had this or that defect, and had an extremely high breakdown rate, they were still big killers on the battlefield.

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

Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia could no longer enter the top four in Europe, the situation on the Balkan Peninsula still had to look at the faces of these two countries.

There was no way; other European countries were too far from the Balkan Peninsula. And behind the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia were their respective military groups; if these two countries wanted to do something, it was very likely that the world war would break out at this moment.

Gao Da's worry was not unreasonable, because the Austro-Hungarian Empire did indeed have the idea of invading Serbia.

If one stood from the perspective of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, one could actually understand the Austro-Hungarian Empire's thoughts. At this time, behind the Austro-Hungarian Empire stood the powerful military group of the Triple Alliance; although behind Russia was also the French alliance, Russia's domestic unrest at this time had not ended, and they might not be able to spare their hands to interfere in the war on the Balkan Peninsula.

As long as the Austro-Hungarian Empire could conquer Serbia in time, even if Russia had the strength to mobilize troops to help, it would not be able to change the situation of the battlefield.

Unless Russia wanted to set off a comprehensive war between the two major military groups, otherwise, after the end of the war on the Balkan Peninsula, no matter what thoughts they had, they would have to stop.

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

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

This actually also meant that if it could conquer Serbia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire would be adjacent to most of the Balkan countries, except for Greece, which was located in the southernmost part.

If such a situation could be achieved, the Austro-Hungarian Empire could continue to attack the southern part of the Balkan Peninsula and conquer Bulgaria and the European territory of the Ottoman Empire.

It could retreat to defend Serbia and the Bosnia and Herzegovina region, stabilizing its vast national land. This was simply a quite cost-effective deal; let alone the Austro-Hungarian Empire, any European country would be tempted if it were in its place.

Italy, next door to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was drooling over a small Albania; now that the Austro-Hungarian Empire had the opportunity to conquer most of the Balkan Peninsula, not acting 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 100,000 troops, divided into two major armies deployed on the border of Bosnia and the southern border, 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 it could obtain the support of the two allies, even if this war had to face Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was not afraid at all.

Even Italy did not need to express its attitude; as long as the German government nodded, the Austro-Hungarian Empire would immediately launch the war.

What the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not expect was that before the German government 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 was its ally, they did not want Italy to set foot on the Balkan Peninsula.

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

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

Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire laid out the Balkan Peninsula earlier, they were too far from Albania, and there was a Serbia in between.

On the contrary, Italy was separated from Albania by the sea, and the closest point was only more than 70 kilometers away.

Why should the land at my doorstep still look at the face of a country hundreds of kilometers away?

The Italian government, rejected by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was quite dissatisfied; they felt disappointed with the military group of the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria, and Italy for the first time, because currently it seemed that Italy was dispensable in this military group, and would not obtain too many benefits after the war.

Even the Balkan Peninsula the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not want to let Italy touch; what land could Italy hope to occupy after the war?

If it were Italy in a normal state, being rejected meant being rejected; at worst, it would just temporarily abandon Albania.

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

One must know that the origin of Italy and Spain was deeper. The current King of Spain, Gao Da, was an Italian prince, and the royal families of the two countries could be said to be one family.

Why could Gao Da rule Spain to become a super great power, while Italy, under the circumstances of originally occupying an advantage, instead had no progress for so many years?

Why could the Spanish military have such excellent performance in the war, while the combat effectiveness of the Italian military was not valued by various European countries?

Now even its own ally did not respect its demands; was such an Italy really what it wanted?

For the current King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel III, he was quite dissatisfied at this time.

Since the king had dissatisfaction, the government had to solve the king's dissatisfaction.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire rejected Italy's request, which was easy to handle; anyway, the alliance was not decided by the Austrian brother, at worst, make a scene to the Germans, letting 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 also contacted the German government, hoping to obtain the German government's support, thereby joining in the partition of the various 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 taken down, would be gratuitously transferred to the Austro-Hungarian Empire or Germany.

In the view of the Italian government, its request was quite reasonable. The Austro-Hungarian Empire occupied Bosnia and still wanted Serbia, while Italy only wanted an Albania with lower value; this should not be excessive, right?

Everyone was one of the Triple Alliance; Germany couldn't just respect the Austro-Hungarian Empire's request and not respect Italy's request, right?

When Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire made a scene to Germany because of the dispute on the Balkan Peninsula, the German government had no good way to deal with this.

The Triple Alliance formed by Germany had an obvious defect compared to the alliance of France and Russia, and that was that the three countries of the Triple Alliance were next to each other, which more easily led to disputes regarding territory.

France and Russia were sandwiched by Germany, and Russia had no overseas colonies, so naturally it could not have conflicts with France.

If one wanted to speak of the conflict between France and Russia, that had to be traced back to the Napoleonic era a hundred years ago. At that time, Napoleon conquered most of Europe and finally encountered Waterloo in Russia.