Chapter 462: Expansion Plan

If the First Balkan War was a fairly rapid battle, then the time taken for the Second Balkan War was even shorter than the last one; from Bulgaria declaring war to requesting peace negotiations, it actually only took a month and a half.

Fortunately, this war was fought quite tragically; whether it was Serbia or Bulgaria, or Greece and Romania, they each mobilized a large number of troops and purchased a large amount of weapons and equipment from various European countries.

Gao Da's idea of taking advantage of this war to sell Spain's stockpiled weapons and equipment was also realized. Spain exported a large amount of weapons and equipment in this war; just rifles alone, nearly 30,000 were sold, along with dozens of machine guns, hundreds of artillery pieces, and matching bullets and shells.

After these two Balkan Wars, the Great Powers could be said to have had their own gains, except for Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which supported Bulgaria.

Because of the defeat, Bulgaria had to give up most of the land in Macedonia in the peace negotiations, and was even forced to cede Southern Dobruja in the northeast to Romania.

This also led to the territory Bulgaria actually gained after the end of the Balkan Wars being very limited; although the territory had expanded a lot, compared to the casualties the two wars brought to Bulgaria, such territorial expansion was far from enough.

If one had to say which countries gained the most in the two Balkan Wars, it would certainly be Serbia and Greece.

After defeating Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece could unscrupulously carve up the land of Macedonia.

As the country with the biggest gains, Serbia's land area grew from 48,000 square kilometers before the war to 86,000 square kilometers after the war, with its land area almost doubling.

In terms of population, Serbia's population also grew from 2.9 million before the war to 4.4 million after the war, with a net population increase of over 1.5 million.

Greece was the country with the second most abundant gains. The area of Macedonia and Thrace gained by Greece reached as high as 25,000 square kilometers, and this land brought Greece a population of nearly 2 million, raising Greece's total population to over 4 million all at once.

The scale of territory gained by Romania and Montenegro was not much different, both only having a few thousand square kilometers, and the population was only over 100,000.

Bulgaria, which lost a large piece of newly acquired land in the Second Balkan War, only gained a piece of worthless territory, and the total population increase was only over 100,000.

As for Albania, which gained independent status after the end of the First Balkan War and did not participate in the Second Balkan War, its population was only about 800,000, which was still very small compared to other Balkan countries, only slightly leading Montenegro.

For Serbia and Greece, this war greatly improved their countries' comprehensive strength, formally growing from tiny countries into small countries, and they also had a certain status in Europe.

Although Romania's gains were not that great, by effectively stopping Bulgaria's expansion, it ensured that Romania still maintained its status as the number one power in the Balkans.

Romania's population after the war had already risen to over 6 million; apart from the Ottoman Empire, it was considered unique in the Balkan region.

This was also the reason why King Carol I of Romania was willing to join the Anti-Bulgarian Alliance. In Carol I's view, it was very necessary to maintain Romania's advantage compared to other Balkan countries.

Romania was already under great pressure from Russia, so it naturally did not want another country that could threaten it to appear behind it.

With the end of the war on the Balkan Peninsula, 1906 had also almost come to an end.

From the Balkan War, one could also see that the European situation under the control of the European Great Powers was becoming increasingly scorched, and war could break out at any time in the new year.

At the government summary report meeting at the end of 1906, Gao Da also put forward a brand-new plan for the coming year, requiring Spain and Portugal to fully expand their military to cope with the more scorched European situation.

It was mentioned before that after the formation of the United Kingdom of Spain and Portugal, the armies of the two countries were integrated together.

The original Portuguese army was also reorganized, establishing three infantry divisions, one colonial division, and five colonial garrison regiments.

In this way, the military composition of the United Kingdom of Spain and Portugal became: 15 infantry divisions, 5 cavalry divisions, 4 artillery divisions, 5 engineer regiments of domestic troops, and 4 colonial divisions, 40 colonial garrison regiments of colonial troops, as well as the Royal Guard Division that only obeyed Gao Da's orders.

The total number of domestic troops was 212,000, the number of colonial troops was 169,000, and the number of guards was 15,000, for a total military force of 396,000.

The current number of troops in the United Kingdom of Spain and Portugal was still too small. Even counting the colonial troops, a total army of 396,000 could only rank at the bottom among the European Great Powers.

No matter how powerful the combat effectiveness of the Spanish army was, it was impossible to use only 396,000 people to fight against the armies of hundreds of thousands or even millions of European countries.

It was precisely because of this that a comprehensive military expansion across the entire Iberian Peninsula was very necessary; doing so, apart from coping with the upcoming war, was also to improve Spain's control over various regions.

After Gao Da put forward the request for military expansion, the Spanish government quickly passed the relevant proposal and allocated a large sum of money to the defense department.

For the whole of 1906, the Spanish government's total fiscal revenue had increased to 1.6561 billion pesetas, total fiscal expenditure had decreased to 1.6484 billion pesetas, and the annual fiscal surplus was 7.7 million.

One must know that Spain had just ended the war with Britain; being able to turn a loss into a profit in the first year after the war ended, the government had still put in a lot of effort.

And do not look at the government's annual surplus of only 7.7 million pesetas; if one added the post-war reparations that the British government needed to pay, in reality, the funds the Spanish government could currently use were still very large.

Regarding the total fiscal budget for the new year, after a long period of estimation by the finance department, a surprising figure was finally given: 1.6572 billion pesetas.

The reason was also simple: after the formation of the United Kingdom of Spain and Portugal, the economies of both sides would certainly usher in a period of prosperity.

Although it was mostly Portugal that enjoyed the benefits, Spain could also benefit from it. A large number of Spanish industrial products flooded into the Portuguese market, which could promote the improvement of Spain's industry and economy.

On this basis, Spain's total fiscal revenue for the new year would certainly have further improvement. If fiscal revenue increased, the related expenditure would certainly also have a certain proportion of growth.

In this 1.6572 billion pesetas of total fiscal expenditure, the proportion of military spending by the defense department reached as high as 29.46%, with a total fiscal budget as high as 488.2 million pesetas; military spending had a relatively large increase compared to last year.

On one hand, Spain's naval construction had already yielded results; the currently serving Dreadnought-class battleships had reached 5, and in 1907, another Victory-class battleship was expected to serve, which would also firmly fix Spain's naval strength in the top two in the world.

It was precisely because of the large investment in the navy that the Spanish government had to increase the military budget step by step.

Fortunately, the number of Spanish troops was not large, and the number of domestic troops was even smaller, effectively reducing a part of the military expenditure.

And in the new year's army expansion plan, according to Gao Da's instructions, after a long period of discussion by the defense department, it was finally decided to increase the domestic troops of the United Kingdom of Spain and Portugal to about 424,000.

The United Kingdom would form 28 infantry divisions, 9 cavalry divisions, 8 artillery divisions, and 8 engineer regiments, further improving Spain's army military strength.

Regarding colonial troops, because colonial troops had to manage all the colonies of Spain and Portugal, the number of colonial troops also had to have a huge increase.

Fortunately, most of the soldiers in the colonial troops were composed of local indigenous people, and the salaries of these indigenous people were far lower than the salaries of domestic soldiers, which could also be considered a disguised reduction in Spain's military expenditure.

Spain currently had 4 colonial divisions and 40 colonial garrison regiments; after discussion by the defense department, it was finally decided to expand to 12 colonial divisions and 26 colonial garrison regiments. The total number of colonial troops was nearly 290,000.

In this way, the total number of Spanish domestic troops and colonial troops would reach an exaggerated 714,000, which on the surface looked to be on the same level as the total number of troops of Germany and France. ===== CHAPTER 463 =====