Chapter 487: The Wave of Immigration (Seeking Monthly Votes!)

The 1912 that just ended was a brilliant year for the European public, but for many Germans and French, it was a year they absolutely did not wish to remember.

From the outbreak of the World War on July 17, 1912, to 1913, a total of four and a half months had passed.

In these four and a half months, what changes had actually occurred in Europe?

According to rough statistics from various military observer groups, in the past four and a half months, the cumulative casualties of European armies reached as high as 3 million, with civilian casualties reaching as high as 1. million.

This war was not only the most tragic war in human history, but 1912 was also the year with the highest number of casualties caused by war in human history.

According to statistics, at least 350, 00 French soldiers were killed on the battlefield, at least 200, 00 German soldiers, 150, 00 soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and 300, 00 Russian soldiers were killed; the number of dead soldiers had already exceeded one million.

Such a scale of casualties is extremely exaggerated; one must know that this is only data for four and a half months. If extended to 12 months, the death toll could potentially increase to nearly 2. million.

Deaths and casualties are completely different; wounded soldiers can continue to participate in battle after recovery, while dead soldiers can only be hastily buried, representing a permanent loss of this population for the nation.

Judging by the current casualties of European countries, except for Russia, most European countries should be in a stage of negative population growth.

The impact of the war on Europe is extremely huge, and the trauma brought to the participating countries is also difficult to erase in a short time.

However, because Britain and Spain did not join this war, this also led to the continuous growth of Europe's overall industry and economy.

Whether it was Britain or Spain, both gained too many benefits from this war.

By the beginning of 1913, the general mobilization of European countries was already more than half complete.

The French army reached an exaggerated 2. million, while the German army reached 3. million. The Russian army also barely exceeded 2 million, the Austro-Hungarian army reached 1. million, the Serbian army 300, 00, the Bulgarian army 200, 00, and the Montenegrin army 150, 00.

Currently, the total number of troops possessed by the Allied Powers and the Central Powers combined already exceeds ten million, and in reality, there are only a few great powers in all of Europe with a population exceeding ten million.

From this aspect, one can also see that the scale of this war is extremely huge; Belgium and Luxembourg have already been destroyed, and more countries will be forced to be dragged into this super war later.

In order to prevent other countries from gaining too many benefits from this great war, Yu Kaluo signaled the Spanish government to contact Britain and sign a peace and trade treaty with them.

The purpose of signing this treaty is also very simple, and that is to join forces with Britain to monopolize all of Europe's import and export trade, preventing other countries outside of Europe, especially the United States, from interfering in European trade.

There are many victim countries of the two World Wars, and it is not as if there are no countries that rose to power because of the two World Wars.

The United States is definitely the country that benefited the most from the World War, and the United States also successfully became a world hegemon through the two World Wars; this point is something that must be guarded against.

Before the outbreak of the World War, even if the United States' industry and economy were at the top, it could not allow the United States to enter the ranks of hegemony.

The reason is also very simple: the United States was still relatively backward in military technology, and a large reason for the rise of American industry was the investment of European capital, which also caused the United States to owe huge foreign debts, and the creditors were precisely the various European countries.

Before the outbreak of World War I, the impression the United States gave to all European countries could only be described with one word, and that is "nouveau riche."

The American government was indeed very rich, but apart from having money, they had no other merits.

At this time, the United States only had a navy scale that could be considered passable; the army only had a pitiful few tens of thousands of people, and it was simply not a military nation of the great power level.

This is also the reason why European countries did not value the United States at all; besides its industrial scale and economic scale being that of a great power, in other aspects, it was more like a non-great power nation.

What truly allowed the United States to rise were the opportunities brought by the two World Wars.

Because both World Wars affected most of Europe, only a few European countries were able to be spared.

This also led many European civilians fleeing the chaos of war to immigrate to the United States one after another. The United States received a large number of European immigrants during the two World Wars, which not only significantly increased its own population but also solved the problem of a lack of domestic technical talent.

A large number of scientists and technical experts were mixed in among these civilians and immigrated to the United States together.

This also led to the United States obtaining a large number of scientists and technical experts after the two World Wars, allowing American military technology to improve rapidly; this is also the reason why the United States was able to be the first to develop the atomic bomb.

There are many examples of these scientists, with the more famous ones being Einstein, Fermi, Teller, and Bohr, among others.

It can be said that the fact that the United States was able to be the first to develop the atomic bomb is largely due to the talent aid from various European countries.

If the United States had not obtained a large amount of talent from Europe, let alone being the first to develop the atomic bomb, it would have already been quite difficult to catch up with Europe in military technology.

Yu Kaluo wanting to join forces with Britain to monopolize European trade is, in reality, also to prevent the United States from gaining too many benefits in this war.

Britain and Spain not joining this war can also attract more immigrants through their own economic environments, especially those scientists and technical immigrants, who are the targets Spain is vigorously wooing.

Compared to letting the United States gain benefits, Yu Kaluo can more readily accept letting Britain gain benefits.

Because Britain is a member of Europe, it is relatively easier to deal with. Britain relies on its navy; Spain has already surpassed them once in dreadnoughts, and there is still one more opportunity to widen the gap with aircraft carriers later.

Plus, Spain has already taken the lead in developing airplanes, so even if the future navy cannot exceed Britain's, it will basically be at the same level as Britain's, and there is no need to worry about the threat brought by Britain.

The threat from the British mainland is truly limited; what the British rely on is precisely the wealth and resources brought by their vast colonies.

As long as Spain's navy is at the same level as Britain's, Spain can threaten Britain's colonies, thereby significantly reducing the threat from Britain itself.

But the United States is different. The United States is truly too far from Spain; once the United States is allowed to develop, it will not be easy for Spain to deal with the United States.

Moreover, the United States possesses great potential based on its own territory alone; even if Spain integrates Portugal and Morocco, it is still far inferior to the United States in terms of mainland area and development potential.

Therefore, for Yu Kaluo, if there is an opportunity to follow the development of the United States, it must certainly be implemented at all costs.

Before that red empire was born, the United States was Spain's greatest threat. As for Britain, Germany, and the like, their threats were actually not that great.

Germany will suffer a lot of weakening after this World War; the weakened Germany will not pose much of a threat to Spain. Even if Germany can still develop rapidly as it did in history, what they hate is France, which has nothing to do with Spain.

Spain only needs to build a large number of military fortresses on both sides of the Pyrenees to easily block a German invasion.

Even if France surrenders quickly in World War II, Spain does not need to worry; after all, by then Germany will be locked in a death struggle with that red empire, and Spain will still have the opportunity to watch the show.

After the outbreak of the war, the choices of the British government and the Spanish government were basically the same. Neither government was willing to interfere in the war too early, and both wanted to gain more benefits from the war.

Spain's main partners were France and Russia, while Britain's main partners were Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Spain would occasionally sell supplies to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, just as Britain would sell supplies to France.

After all, making money is not shameful. As for whether the act of selling supplies to both the Central Powers and the Allied Powers would disrupt the situation on the European battlefield, for Spain and Britain, it was actually not that important.

The arms and supplies Spain sold to the Austro-Hungarian Empire were all on a small scale, and the purpose was precisely to prevent the Austro-Hungarian Empire from transferring these supplies to Germany, thereby indirectly aiding the enemy.

The supplies Britain sold to France were also basically food or medical supplies; they rarely sold arms to France to avoid France gaining a firepower advantage after receiving British arms aid.

Britain and Spain could be considered to have a tacit understanding; the two countries jointly carved up at least 70% of the trade market share of the Central Powers and the Allied Powers, with the remaining share carved up by other small and medium-sized European countries.

This also led to the United States, far away in the Americas, being unable to get a piece of the pie at all. Although they had hoarded a large amount of supplies, because of the long distance, it also required more time to transport them, and they were abandoned by both the Central Powers and the Allied Powers.