Chapter 523: Those who should come will surely come
Time passed like this unknowingly year after year. Although nothing special happened in these two years, conflicts between European countries continued. Since the Second Northeast War and the Far East Naval War, the Tsarist Russian Empire
After the defeat, the domestic situation became out of control.
After losing all parts of Asia, Tsar Nicholas II could only focus on the struggle for the Balkans. He still put his hope in dreams, but as the Allied Powers such as the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Italy pressed forward step by step,
, in the Balkans at this time, Nicholas II still had some involvement.
However, in the past three years, the Far East Group has gradually withdrawn from the competition for hegemony and devoted itself to the construction of major sectors. At the same time, these three years were considered the most comfortable period for Li Ningyu. He successively and Hawaiian Queen Kaola
, Queen Helena of the Netherlands arranged the marriage and held a small wedding with Wan'er.
Now Li Ningyu has a son and four daughters. He enjoys family happiness almost every day. However, according to the international situation, Li Ningyu gradually becomes uneasy. A bad premonition is quietly approaching, and every time he passes
For a period of time, he would take the initiative to contact William II. Although he was just concerned on the surface, he actually paid close attention to the shot in Sarajevo.
It was that shot that triggered World War I on Earth. Although World War I was an all-out war that mainly took place in Europe, it eventually turned into a worldwide war that affected the whole world. At that time, most of the world's
Powerful countries were involved in this war, which was one of the most destructive wars in world history.
Throughout the course of the war, it was mainly a battle between the two major groups, the Central Powers and the Entente Powers. World War I ended with the victory of the Allied Powers and led to the Ottoman Empire in western Asia, southeastern Europe, northern Africa, and central Europe.
The four great empires of the German Empire, the Russian Empire in eastern Europe and northern Asia, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in central Europe collapsed and contributed to the establishment of the League of Nations.
As for the nature of the First World War, Li Ningyu understood it to be an unjust, predatory war in the nature of imperialist hegemony. Except for a few countries such as Serbia, which had the just nature of national liberation and self-defense, all others were unjust.
Justice cannot fundamentally change the nature of the entire war.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, worldwide imperialism has been on the rise. When Bismarck was prime minister, Germany was less involved in the struggle for colonies because of the initial establishment of the unified German Empire. Later, in view of the rise of domestic businessmen, businessmen demanded that the German government
To fight for overseas resources and markets, after William II came to the throne, Bismarck was dismissed and finally joined the Far East Group. However, later William II believed that Germany had too few colonies and insufficient raw material production areas and commodity markets, so he implemented the "World Policy"
, calling for the redrawing of global spheres of influence.
This naturally violated the respective interests of the old colonial powers Britain and France. With the first and second Moroccan crises, Tsarist Russia gained benefits, which also intensified the conflict between the two camps and made the possibility of war more and more likely.
The bigger.
The arms race in European countries was actually a fierce arms race between the two major military groups before the war.
Germany revised the new naval law and greatly expanded the size of its navy. In order to maintain its maritime power advantage and maintain security, Britain began to build dreadnoughts in 1901. However, when Germany also began to build dreadnought-type warships, Britain immediately adopted a two-to-one approach.
The naval policy of the United Kingdom was to maintain twice the number of dreadnoughts as the Germans to cope with it. After the second Moroccan crisis, it joined forces with France and Russia to implement a three-nation naval defense, that is, Britain in the North Sea, France in the Mediterranean, and Russia
In the Baltic Sea, they dealt with the German and Austrian navies respectively.
As for the army, from 1880 to 1903, the German standing army expanded from 420,000 to 870,000, France expanded from 500,000 to 800,000, and Russia also prepared to increase from 800,000 to 2.3 million. However, in the end due to various circumstances, the
It meets the standard, but its army has 1.3 million troops, which is the highest in Europe. However, its quality is very low and cannot be compared with the armies of Germany and France.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire also expanded its army from 270,000 to 800,000, and Italy's army expanded from 200,000 to 350,000. However, the quality of the armies of Austria and Italy was not as good as that of Germany and France. Finally, the United States also responded to the tense situation in Europe and increased its army from 30,000 to 350,000.
The number of people expanded from 4,000 to 160,000.
In the arms race among various countries, only the Far Eastern Corps did not participate. In the words of people who do not understand, the Far Eastern Group seems to be content with dominating Asia. However, they do not know that at the end of 1903, the Far Eastern Corps' Yanhuang-class aircraft carrier battle group
It already has five. According to Li Ningyu's plan, the Far East Corps will continue to add aircraft carrier battle groups in the next five years until it reaches 25, which means an increase of five every year.
When the first Moroccan incident occurred, Germany and France triggered two Moroccan crises in order to compete for their own national interests in Morocco. The first Moroccan crisis was when Kaiser Wilhelm II visited Tangier, an important port in northern Morocco, and finally
Claiming to protect Morocco's independence and territorial integrity, it strained relations with France, which was expanding in Morocco. This was the first Moroccan crisis.
However, after various final mediations, a conference was held in Algeciras in Europe, and finally the "Algeciras Resolution" was reached, which recognized that Morocco could become independent, but France and Spain were responsible for the police of Morocco.
, in which France controls Morocco’s customs and police.
William II was naturally dissatisfied with this, but everyone on earth knew that the person behind Spain was Li Ningyu, so William II compromised on the surface, and with the emergence of the second Moroccan crisis.
When a tribal uprising against the Sudan broke out in Morocco, the French authorities immediately took the opportunity to send troops to capture its capital, Fez. The German authorities asked France to cede some land as compensation, and under the pretext of protecting their own businessmen, they dispatched the gunboat "Leopard" to Morocco.
In the port of Agadir, war was about to break out. This action was called "Leap of the Leopard" by historians.
In the end, the British authorities were afraid that Germany would challenge their maritime hegemony, so they secretly supported France and had a very tough attitude. Then William II found Li Ningyu, but Li Ningyu didn't want to get involved in this matter at all, so in the end the German authorities had to
Forced to give in, it reached an agreement with France at the expense of giving part of it to Congo. Germany recognized Morocco as a French protectorate. Finally, France and Germany signed the Treaty of Fez, and France officially became a protectorate of Morocco.
However, this incident also made the resentment between Germany, Britain and France deeper during the two Moroccan crises. The Kaiser also threatened that he would not give in anymore, which further intensified the war crisis.
Then came the new problem of the Balkan Peninsula, which has always been called the powder keg of European countries. At that time, the Balkan Peninsula countries had two Balkan Wars for their own interests, which deepened the conflict between Austria-Hungary and Russia, and became the first
World War I laid a deep fuse.
There is also the Nia incident. The Austro-Hungarian Empire sent troops to annex Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was originally under its trusteeship, on the grounds of protecting expatriates. This aroused strong anti-Austrian sentiment in Serbia, which wanted to acquire these two places, and was extremely eager to rule the entire Balkan Peninsula.
The Slavs. However, the Austro-Hungarian Empire's sending troops made them want to be destroyed, so they opposed this action.
Then, at the most tense moment when Britain, Germany, and France were entangled in the second Moroccan crisis, Italy suddenly launched a war of aggression against Turkey. In fact, the cause of this war was that Italy had long planned to invade Turkey's North African territory of Tripoli.
and Cyrenaica.
Although it is a desolate place, it is of great strategic significance to Italy. In particular, Tripoli is located on the southern coast of the Mediterranean in North Africa, echoing Sicily and monitoring the narrower sea surface of the Mediterranean. Italy regards the occupation of Tripoli as a means to seize Mediterranean hegemony and
An important step in expanding to North Africa. In order to seize this land, Italy made a lot of preparations.
At that time, Italy had a secret treaty with France, and France had the obligation to support Italy on the Tripoli issue. In the 1901 agreement between Italy and the Russian Empire, Russia also guaranteed to give Italy the same support. Finally, Italy was involved in the second Moroccan crisis.
Take advantage of the situation and rob.
Italy suddenly issued an ultimatum to Turkey demanding the cession of Tripoli and Cyrenaica, saying that the area was disorderly and impoverished under Turkish rule, and that there were actions against Italian expatriates. In order to "protect its reputation and interests, Italy decided to use military force to protect its reputation and interests."
Occupy Tripoli and Cyrenaica" and also asked Turkey to "prevent any resistance to Italian troops."
Naturally, Türkiye immediately rejected these humiliating demands, and Italy went to war against Türkiye.
The Italian command decided to carry out a rapid military strike in the hope that Turkey would surrender if it could not put up serious resistance. Indeed, at the beginning of the war, Italy quickly defeated the small Turkish garrison in Tripoli and occupied the coastal areas of Tripoli. However,
Later, the local Arabs resolutely resisted the Italian invasion, preventing the Italian army from advancing further into the hinterland, and the war was prolonged.
In order to increase pressure on Turkey, the Italian fleet bombarded Beirut and the Dardanelle Strait. Turkey requested mediation from the great powers, but to no avail. Russia took this opportunity to once again propose the unilateral opening of the Black Sea Strait to the Russian fleet. Since Britain, France,
Germany objected, and the Turkish government rejected this request. The war lasted until the beginning of the Third Balkan War in 1905.
On June 28, 1905 in Bosnia, the Balkan Peninsula, which was the National Day of Serbia, Archduke Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was shot dead by a Serbian youth on his way home from a military exercise.
After this incident happened, the next second Li Ningyu received the news, he took a deep breath and sighed: "Good will be rewarded with good, and evil will be rewarded with evil. It's not that we won't be rewarded, the time has not yet come!".
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