Chapter 459

The idea of the Serbian government was extremely beautiful, but it could only be said that the ideal was plump, and the reality was skinny.

Let alone anything else, the Austro-Hungarian Empire firmly opposed Serbia obtaining Albania in the war, and supported the Albania region to obtain independence.

The reason was also very simple: the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not want to see its arch-enemy, Serbia, obtain Albania as an outlet to the sea.

The original Serbia was just a small landlocked country; although the combat effectiveness of this country's public was fierce, it was ultimately just a small trouble.

If Serbia were allowed to obtain an outlet to the sea, Serbia would be more easily able to obtain material resources from overseas; I believe Russia, this old opponent of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, would also be willing to transport more supplies to Serbia by sea to disgust the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Originally, Serbia had no other thoughts; the Serbian government was just thinking of fighting for reason and getting the Albania region it was thinking of.

But what the Serbian government did not expect was that under the circumstances of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's firm opposition, except for Russia expressing support, other great powers had no reaction.

Even Serbia's ally, Bulgaria, expressed silence on this, and had no idea of helping Serbia compete for Albania.

If it were just the Austro-Hungarian Empire's opposition, that would be one thing; behind the Austro-Hungarian Empire stood Germany, and Germany was also participating in this peace negotiation.

The outcome was also very obvious; Russia alone could not fight for Albania for Serbia amidst the opposition of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Britain also felt that Serbia was a bit greedy and did not recognize Serbia obtaining Albania.

If Serbia were really allowed to obtain Albania, let alone the outlet to the sea of Albania, just the territory would be enough to let Serbia double its own territory.

In this way, a powerful Serbia would also cause not-small trouble for Britain's little brother, Greece; Britain did not want any accidents to appear on the Balkan Peninsula again, and it would be best if there were not even a trace of an accident.

After many days of negotiation and fighting, it was finally under the insistence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that it was determined that Albania would become independent after this war.

The Serbian government, unable to obtain Albania, suffered a huge blow; their hatred for the Austro-Hungarian Empire became deeper, and at the same time they were somewhat dissatisfied with their ally, Bulgaria.

Although they still needed Bulgaria to contend with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, this did not mean that Serbia would eat this muffled loss.

In the subsequent negotiations, the Serbian government immediately changed its attitude, did not recognize Bulgaria obtaining the whole of Macedonia, and hoped that it could also get a share in the partition of the Macedonia region to compensate for its loss of being unable to obtain the Albania region.

The Greek government, which had not spoken before, also immediately expressed its attitude, stating that it did not recognize Bulgaria's territorial partition plan, and hoped that it could also obtain South Macedonia, including a large piece of territory including Thessaloniki.

In this way, this peace negotiation evolved into internal strife among the Balkan Alliance.

Another Balkan Alliance country, Montenegro, which was Montenegro, did not have much say.

Montenegro obtained territory close to one-third of its national land in this war, which was already quite good for Montenegro.

After all, Montenegro's own size was limited, and it was impossible to seek territory equivalent to its homeland size like Bulgaria and Serbia.

Even if Montenegro could obtain so much territory, relying on the hundreds of thousands of people within the country, it was highly likely that it could not assimilate it in a short time.

Moreover, the territory of the Ottoman Empire in Europe was only so much; if Montenegro were allowed to obtain too much territory, the countries with more powerful strength would naturally obtain less.

Montenegro, which got that one-third of the territory, had already exited the territorial competition, and the remaining three countries, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece, started the competition for the land of Macedonia.

Macedonia at this time was not the Republic of North Macedonia in later generations, but a Macedonia region with a broader area.

The Macedonia region included the Republic of North Macedonia in later generations and Greece's Central Macedonia, West Macedonia, and East Macedonia regions, as well as a portion of territory in southwestern Bulgaria, with a total area reaching a shocking 70,000-plus square kilometers.

Just from the territorial area, one could see the purpose of the three Balkan countries competing for Macedonia. If Bulgaria were allowed to obtain the complete Macedonia region, Bulgaria would become the well-deserved strongest country in the Balkan region.

Serbia and Greece certainly did not want to let Bulgaria become the regional hegemon, and they also wanted to get a share in the Macedonia region, which led to the internal contradictions of the Balkan Alliance.

As the peace negotiations progressed, this internal struggle of the three Balkan countries gradually evolved into four.

Was it that Montenegro rejoined the competition for land in Macedonia? It was not; they were still very far from the Macedonia region.

Speaking of this Balkan country that joined the partition of land, one had to mention the respective positions of the European great powers for these three countries in the peace negotiations.

The British Empire was naturally on Greece's side, and Serbia, as a trouble-maker for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, naturally obtained Russia's support.

Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire certainly would not support Serbia, and they also had no great interest in supporting Greece. For Bulgaria, whose royal family came from the German region, they were still quite optimistic.

The combat effectiveness of the Bulgarian army was quite fierce, and Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire believed that such a Bulgaria could play a certain role, and could also help contain Russia.

And precisely because of this, in the peace negotiations, Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire stood on Bulgaria's side, supporting Bulgaria in obtaining Macedonia and Thrace.

Because Bulgaria had the support of two major great powers behind it, Serbia and Greece did not have much chance of winning.

In order to prevent Bulgaria from dominating alone with the support of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Britain proposed a new solution to the Greek government, and that was to pull in a new ally to join the partition of territory.

Who was this ally?

Actually, the only country on the Balkan Peninsula that had not joined this peace negotiation was Romania, north of Bulgaria.

Although Romania did not join this war, Romania certainly would also not want to see Bulgaria's rise.

The Greek government quickly adopted the British government's suggestion, sent diplomatic representatives to quickly go to Romania, and lobbied Romania to join the competition for territory, jointly targeting Bulgaria.

The Greek diplomatic representatives could be said to be whipping their horses to speed, and they quickly came to Romania's capital, Bucharest, and saw the King of Romania, Carol I.

It was worth mentioning that this Carol I, who looked white-haired, also came from the German region.

And Carol I came from the royal family of the German region, the House of Hohenzollern. The House of Hohenzollern was the royal family of Germany, which actually also meant that the relationship between Romania and Germany certainly could not be bad.

Facts were indeed so. As early as nearly twenty years ago, Romania concluded a secret alliance with Germany, in order to exchange for the support of this emerging super great power, Germany.

Germany at that time also hoped to see pro-German forces blossom everywhere in Europe, and naturally was also willing to form an alliance for Romania.

And precisely because Romania had a secret alliance with Germany, after the Greek ambassador found him and proposed a plan to jointly target Bulgaria, King Carol I of Romania was somewhat hesitant.

Although according to the Greek diplomatic representative's statement, Romania did not need to pay any price to obtain a small piece of land, if doing so violated Germany's interests, then for Romania, it would be somewhat not worth the loss.

After all, the South Dobruja region that Greece proposed for Romania to demand from Bulgaria was far inferior to the Macedonia region in terms of area and population.

If there were not enough benefits, Romania would not want to get involved.

Seeing that Carol I was somewhat hesitant but unable to make up his mind, the Greek diplomatic representative could only constantly persuade this aged king: "Respected King Majesty, I come with great sincerity on this trip.

We can temporarily not consider the problem of South Dobruja, and only consider the situation in the Balkan region after this peace negotiation.