Chapter 1352 The End of the War
After the second peace conference, the armies of Britain, France, Germany and Austria tacitly stopped the large-scale war. As public opinion shifted, many people speculated that the European powers might have secretly reached a deal.
This caused unrest within the Allied Powers and the Central Powers. After all, in addition to the four countries of Britain, France, Germany and Austria, the Allied Powers and the Central Powers also had allies won over by the four major powers.
The unusual actions of Britain, France, Germany and Austria caused deep anxiety within the two major camps, even for major powers such as the United States and the Ottoman Empire.
Diplomats from the United States and the Ottoman Empire went to London, Berlin, Paris, and Vienna to inquire about the news, but the results were not ideal.
Berlin.
"Your Majesty, the great Emperor of the German Empire, have your country and the Austro-Hungarian Empire concealed part of the truth from us? As allies, we have the right to know some things." The Ottoman Empire's Foreign Minister personally went to Berlin to ask William II.
William II did not choose to conceal the matter at this time, or it could be said that Germany had never concealed it from the beginning. After all, the two peace conferences were held in secret, and other allies except the Austro-Hungarian Empire were not aware of the actions of the two countries.
"Since your country wants to know the so-called truth, I will no longer hide it. We have indeed reached some consensus with Britain and France. After all, if this war continues, it will not be a good thing for us, the major countries involved in the war." William II said frankly.
The Ottoman Empire's Foreign Minister pretended to be somewhat dissatisfied and asked: "We are not angry that Germany wants to adjust its relations with the Allies, but why didn't you inform us? After all, we are an important member of the alliance."
As the "sick man of West Asia", the Ottoman Empire naturally did not have the courage to challenge Germany, so when facing William II, the Ottoman Empire's foreign minister could only pretend to be angry.
The reason why the Ottoman Empire performed in this way was actually related to its performance among the Allies. According to the performance of the Allies in the war, the Ottoman Empire ranked only ahead of Romania and was not as good as Bulgaria.
In fact, if Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire really fought a war, they might end up in an embarrassing situation. Although Bulgaria was the weakest among the allied countries, it was the country with the most martial virtues.
Although Germany has always performed well, it is a strong country after all, and it seems not as crazy as Bulgaria. Of course, if Prussia is listed separately from Germany, they can definitely be compared. After all, Bulgaria is "Prussia on the Balkan Peninsula."
William II comforted them, "Don't blame us for not informing you. This meeting with Britain and France was actually organized by East Africa. They only invited Britain, France, Germany and Austria. Even the United States was not invited to the Allied camp, so don't worry too much."
East Africa has become a "panacea" for the two major camps and their respective allies to explain. If the East African government does not invite you, that is the responsibility of the East African government. They cannot be the master of East Africa. After all, East Africa is also one of the world's major powers, and its strength is no less than any country in the world.
Although Britain, France, Germany and Austria look down on upstarts like East Africa and the United States, they have to admit the strong national power of East Africa and the United States in terms of specific data.
The industrial scale of these two countries is among the largest in the world, and their populations far exceed any of the four countries of Britain, France, Germany and Austria. Their railway mileage is also among the highest, their grain production ranks among the top, and their navies are also among the top four in the world. All other data are also not bad.
To be honest, even a conceited person like William II had to admit that East Africa and the United States have now become important political forces in the world that cannot be ignored.
William II said: "I think you should also know something about East Africa. We cannot interfere with their diplomatic decisions."
"Besides, a ceasefire at this time is also extremely beneficial to you. You have already taken over most of the southern Caucasus, and you joined the war relatively late. The losses you suffered are relatively small among the two major camps."
Of course, this is not entirely true. Although the Ottoman Empire joined the war late, it was the only country among the Allied Powers where the war took place on its own soil.
Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire was counterattacked by Serbia and entered Bosnia at the beginning of the war, and Russia also crossed the eastern border of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but the two places were obviously marginal areas for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Even Bosnia was not considered the legitimate territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at that time, but merely a military occupation zone.
But the situation was different in the Ottoman Empire. Iraq, the empire's granary, suffered great damage, and the ports along the Persian Gulf also suffered heavy losses. The Red Sea and the Mediterranean coast were relatively rich regions in the Ottoman Empire.
And these are not the worst. You should know that Istanbul, the political center of the Ottoman Empire, was also hit by enemy artillery fire during the war. It was the only capital of the Central Powers that was attacked on a large scale by the Allies.
Of course, there were gains and losses. The economy of the Ottoman Empire was severely damaged, but the Ottoman Empire's military losses were not high among the Allied Powers, only slightly higher than Romania, a country that was almost a bystander.
William II also used this point to say: "Germany paid the price of millions of lives for the war. Relatively speaking, your country's situation is better. Apart from the Persian Gulf War a few months ago, you have not encountered other large-scale battles."
This is actually related to the mobilization of the Ottoman Empire. The total population of the Ottoman Empire was only more than 20 million. With such a small population and an underdeveloped industry, the Ottoman Empire was simply unable to support the logistics of more troops.
If Russia had not collapsed suddenly and countries such as Austria-Hungary had been able to withdraw troops to support the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Empire would not have been able to hold on.
This can be seen from the time when Britain began its offensive against the Ottoman Empire. At that time, the Ottoman army was on the verge of collapse. Fortunately, the Baghdad Railway was unobstructed and the reinforcements from the allies were able to arrive in time, which prevented the deterioration of the battlefield of the Ottoman Empire. Finally, with the help of allies such as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire was able to turn defeat into victory.
William II said: "Continuing the war is definitely not good news for you, especially when the British navy is stronger than ours."
"The Ottoman Empire's economy is mainly concentrated in the coastal areas. If the war continues, your coastal economic centers will be further hit, if you can bear this cost."
After entering the Age of Discovery, the world's economy began to shift to coastal areas or areas with developed water transportation. East Africa is no exception. Although East Africa pays more attention to the inland economy, the total economic output of the east and west coasts of East Africa still accounts for the largest proportion.
This is the case in East Africa, let alone other countries in the world. Although Germany has a relatively balanced economic distribution, its cities and industrial bases are basically distributed along rivers, and it has an enviable developed inland water transport network.
The economy of the Ottoman Empire naturally could not escape this point. After all, foreign capital investing in the Ottoman Empire would definitely give priority to areas with convenient transportation, and their infiltration was originally from the outside to the inside.
The Far Eastern Empire is even more typical of this. The infiltration of capital from the great powers into the Far Eastern Empire was to first occupy the coast, build trading ports from south to north, and then gradually penetrate into inland areas through rivers.
Weijian II said: "Now, your performance has shown that you cannot sustain the continuation of the war. Of course, the situation of the Allied Powers is not much better. From the perspective of our own economy and development, we also believe that prolonging the war is not conducive to the progress of the empire."
"After all, no one knows how long this war will last. If it lasts for a few more years, the final winner will definitely not be us, but the United States, East Africa, Japan and other spectators of the war."
Although the United States had joined the Allied camp, William II did not consider the United States as one of its members. After all, given the United States' position, even if the Allies could really defeat Britain and France, they would not be able to cross the Atlantic to cause trouble for the Americans, at least militarily.
The Ottoman Empire's foreign minister was naturally well aware of William II's explanations, but he still reminded them: "How can you guarantee that the Allies will not go back on their word? Also, how can we protect our interests after the war?"
William II said: "Don't worry about this. After these years of war, at least the patience of European countries has been exhausted. We have to admit that we and other countries are under tremendous pressure."
"So looking forward to peace is not only our idea, but also the idea of other European countries. They also don't have the energy to continue to support the continuation of the war."
"As for the interests of the Central Powers, our situation is much better than that of the Entente. After all, we have obtained a lot of spoils from Russia. Didn't your country obtain a lot of land in the Caucasus?"
"We can always give an explanation to our people for the expansion of territory, but the Allies really gained nothing. What we should worry about next is not the armistice, but the Russian Labor Party. Will they go back on their word after stabilizing the domestic situation?"
William II's words also made the Ottoman Empire's Foreign Minister feel nervous. To be honest, Russia, or the Soviet Union, is a more terrifying monster than Tsarist Russia.
Although the Ottoman Empire and Tsarist Russia were sworn enemies, Tsarist Russia's military conquest was not enough to scare the upper class of the Ottoman Empire. After all, Tsarist Russia's backward social system and brutal rule were not much more corrupt and powerful than the Ottoman Empire.
But the Soviet regime is completely different. They are an ideological "monster". This can be seen from the past. It is extremely difficult for the Soviet Union to support a similar regime in the Arab region.
After all, Western society has been conducting military, infiltration and public opinion offensives against the Arab region for thousands of years, but it is difficult to support spokespersons in the Middle East. The United States continued this practice in the past, but in the 21st century, Arab countries have become increasingly dogmatic and conservative. This to a certain extent shows that pseudo-democracy and freedom have no market in the Arab region.
Of course, this is mainly aimed at the upper-level rulers of Arab countries. For them, it is cheaper to govern the country through religion.
The Labour Party's ideological attack is completely different. It is particularly inflammatory to the lower classes of society and does not take the upper-class route. This is also something that countries such as East Africa cannot guard against.
The Ottoman Empire's Foreign Minister said grimly: "The Labor Party is an evil organization. We should indeed be worried about the trouble they will cause us in the future. After all, our Allies are in the first place and are too close to Russia."
William II said: "This is also one of the reasons why we are considering an armistice. The Labour Party is very active in Europe. They have even infiltrated the army. I think this is very scary. After all, Tsarist Russia is a lesson for us."
The Labour Party's ideology had great appeal to the lower ranks of the military, and it was the negligence of Tsarist Russia during the war that led to the rise of the Russian Labour Party.
After all, if it were peacetime, the Tsarist government would not have to worry about changes in the war situation on the front line. Instead, they could use the army, a violent machine, to suppress the Labor Party's organizations.
However, it was the war that gave the Labour Party room to operate. In fact, referring to the last Paris Labour Party, they also relied on the war to gain power. However, the French government was obviously much smarter than Tsarist Russia. They would rather sell out their country than strangle the Paris Labour Party organization in its cradle.
William II said: "In short, the continuation of the war is definitely not a good thing for us. The main task of European countries now should be to stabilize the situation in their own countries and crack down on illegal political parties such as the Labour Party. The same is true for you."
The Ottoman Empire accepted this statement because the threat of the Labor Party was indeed imminent. It can be said that with Russia as the center, there were active Labor Party organizations from Northern Europe to Eastern Europe, to the Middle East, then to Central Asia, and finally to the Far East.
The success of the Russian Labor Party set a very bad precedent. After all, if you succeed once, you can succeed a second time, and that was indeed how things developed in the previous life. Eventually, a widely distributed alliance of labor party countries was formed across Eurasia.
Today's imperialist powers clearly do not have mature experience in dealing with such a country, especially the ideological weapons to deal with the Labour Party.
Even Ernst was the same. However, although Ernst had never eaten pork, he had seen pigs run. He did have some means to deal with the ideological weapons of the Russian Labor Party. However, if he really wanted to destroy the Russian Labor Party, there was only one way, and that was "isolation." This was the method used by the United States in its previous life.
Once "isolated", such a country will easily fall into economic difficulties and eventually self-collapse due to psychological gap.
…
Christmas Eve in 1919 was an unforgettable day for Europeans, because on this day countries such as Britain, France, Germany and Austria officially began peace negotiations, which also meant that the war that had lasted for five years was about to end.
Countries such as Britain, France, Germany and Austria held a public meeting in Paris, France, and had a heated debate on the issue of war.
Of course, this peace negotiation was held for the public to see. In fact, the general tone had already been set in the previous two secret peace meetings.
This public meeting basically represents the arrival of peace in Europe. The armies of both sides have officially ended all military operations and will withdraw to their countries after the meeting.
As for the end of the war, people in various countries had very complicated emotions. Some were happy, some were melancholy, some were confused, and some were hateful.
However, it was clear that most Europeans had had enough of the war, and large-scale celebrations took place in various European countries.
At the same time, a liquidation campaign was launched under the leadership of various governments. A large number of people were labeled as members of the Labour Party, traitors, Jews... Although they were arrested, they would bear the public's anger over the war. European governments were very clear about this. The public needed an outlet to vent. If the contradictions were not transferred to these special groups, the public would learn from the people who conquered the Bastille and point the guns at themselves.
(End of this chapter)
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