Chapter 1668 Yugoslav Ambassador
The dramatic shift in the strategic direction of the Republic of Yugoslavia first spread to the eastern side of the Dinara Mountains, namely the Kingdom of Dalmatia.
January 19, 1938.
Split.
At the Embassy of the Republic of Yugoslavia, Ambassador Tahervich looked at the telegram in his hand with a somewhat solemn expression. Minister Moderov inquired about it.
"Your Excellency, what should we do next?"
Ambassador Tahervich tapped the table and said, "The president has really given us a difficult problem. Improving relations with the Kingdom of Dalmatia is not an easy task."
Minister Moderov was somewhat dismissive of Tahervich's explanation, knowing full well that Tahervich was currently conflicted.
Because Tahervich himself was a hardliner, or rather, a Yugoslav who preferred to take a hard line against the Dalmatian Kingdom.
As a native Croatian, Tahervich naturally inherited the common Croatian attitude towards the Dalmatian Kingdom, a usurped state.
Before the Kingdom of Dalmatia, this land had long been inhabited by Croatians, and even after being ruled by the Austrian Empire, the local population remained predominantly Croatian.
However, starting from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, especially from the late 19th century, a large influx of so-called "German" immigrants completely changed the population structure of Dalmatia.
The Croatians who originally lived here had two choices: assimilate with the Germans or leave. Those who chose neither option were basically destined for physical extermination.
Therefore, Ambassador Tahervic had little affection for the Kingdom of Dalmatia, and after becoming an official of the new Yugoslav Republic, his political stance was "reclaiming lost territory."
This so-called lost territory naturally refers to the territory of the Dalmatian Kingdom.
At the beginning of the establishment of the Republic of Yugoslavia, the ruling class of the new country was relatively "inexperienced" and lacked mature experience in governing the country.
Therefore, it was easy for someone like Ambassador Tahervic to rise to power because his hardline stance was endorsed by the Yugoslav leadership, leading to his assignment to the Kingdom of Dalmatia, a country he disliked.
It's easy to imagine how bad it would be for a diplomat with strong emotions to deal with the Kingdom of Dalmatia.
Ambassador Moderov said, "Your Excellency, no matter what we think, the government's order has been issued, and it is best to follow it."
Ambassador Tahervic scoffed and said, "I know exactly what to do, I'm just a little unwilling!"
"Letting Dalmatia go means that we have forever lost the chance to take back this homeland."
"And we have become the sinners of Yugoslavia!"
Ambassador Moderov reassured him, saying, "Your Excellency, the current situation in the Balkans and Europe clearly demonstrates that Yugoslavia's biggest problem is how to ensure the country's security."
"Compared to this, improving relations with the Kingdom of Dalmatia seems insignificant."
"Our dispute with the Dalmatian Kingdom is nothing more than a territorial dispute, but even if we defeat the Dalmatian Kingdom, nothing will change."
"East Africa, Germany, and Italy will probably not stand idly by while we reclaim the Dalmatian Kingdom."
Tahervich sighed and said, "Yes! The Kingdom of Dalmatia itself is not strong, but it has the German bloc behind it, not to mention East Africa, which has a deep relationship with the Kingdom of Dalmatia."
“We probably can’t get past Germany either. Although the Germans look down on people of Dalmatian descent, their relationship with them is definitely better than that of outsiders like us.”
"Those damned German barbarians!"
Ambassador Tahervic's last words also revealed the core reason for Yugoslavia's current anxiety: the Germans were too powerful.
Germany was already a huge burden on Yugoslavia, and when you add its many Central and Eastern European allies, it became even more suffocating.
Yugoslavia was almost entirely surrounded by German influence. To the north was Germany, to the east Bulgaria and Romania were loyal henchmen of Germany, and to the west Dalmatia was also a German state.
Only Albania and Greece to the south offered Yugoslavia a slight sense of security.
Ambassador Moderov said, "There's nothing we can do about it. Yugoslavia became independent too late. If Yugoslavia had become independent in the 19th century and united all the Yugoslavs, we wouldn't be facing this predicament today."
"At that time, there was also the powerful ally of Tsarist Russia. If we had made good use of that, perhaps by the end of the 19th century, Yugoslavia could have become a new European power."
As an East Slavic country, Tsarist Russia was considered by Moderov to be half one of his own, but unfortunately it was replaced by the Soviet Union.
Ambassador Tahervic said, "Hmph, if Yugoslavia had actually achieved that in the 19th century, it would have been at least a regional power."
“It’s not impossible to even unify the entire Balkan Peninsula, but unfortunately Yugoslavia was established too late, so now we can hardly even compete with Bulgaria.”
The Yugoslavs' ambition was to conquer the entire Balkans. The Kingdom of Serbia once attempted to do so, but ended up gaining nothing and losing a significant amount of population and land before being unified by Croatia.
Ambassador Moderov said, "It's too late to think about these things now. The situation in the Balkans is almost entirely controlled by the Germans."
"Only a handful of countries did not completely submit to Germany, but look at Greece, Albania and Montenegro, their size is not as big as ours, so Yugoslavia can only rely on itself."
"What we need now is time to develop, so improving relations with the Kingdom of Dalmatia is quite important."
Yugoslavia had considerable potential, with a population of over ten million and a land area of nearly one hundred thousand square kilometers, making it a medium-sized country in Europe.
Therefore, by improving its industrial and military strength, Yugoslavia was not without the ability to fight even against Germany.
However, for an agricultural country like Yugoslavia, developing industrial and military capabilities on its own would take decades. But military development alone, with the support of France and the Soviet Union, was highly feasible.
However, even if Yugoslavia relied entirely on military aid, it would still need at least two to three years to prepare.
Ambassador Tahervic said, "Hopefully, we can complete the armament of the entire country before Germany launches the war. The requirements are not high; the best-case scenario is that we can make Germany wary and allow us to remain a neutral country!"
The biggest concern for the Yugoslav government now is that Germany will annex Yugoslavia. In this regard, Yugoslavia does not believe that Germany is a peace-loving country.
After all, from Prussia to the unification of Lesser Germany, and then to the annexation of Austria-Hungary, Germany's territory has been expanding for decades, and Germany itself has a strong militaristic character.
Therefore, when the Yugoslav government was neighbors with Germany, it was impossible not to worry about being annexed by Germany.
Of course, the Yugoslav government would have preferred to avoid war with Germany if possible, given the vast disparity in national strength between the two countries and the absolute lack of any hope of victory.
Ambassador Tahervic said, "Our best model for Yugoslavia is Switzerland, although Yugoslavia's land is not as barren as Switzerland's, and its terrain and land area are much better than Switzerland's."
"But we can learn from the Swiss, arm ourselves to the teeth, become a tough porcupine, and let other countries know that Yugoslavia is not someone to be trifled with!"
Ambassador Moderov agreed, saying, "Yugoslavia had no other choice, and we could not leave our fate in the hands of the Germans."
Ambassador Tahervich said, "Alright, let's stop here for now! Get the car ready, we're going to see King Charles I."
As a diplomat, Ambassador Tahervic could do little more than carry out orders from his superiors to buy Yugoslavia more time and a better external environment for development.
Minister Moderov said, "I will arrange the vehicles right now..."
About twenty minutes later, Ambassador Tahervich and Minister Moderov boarded the embassy's car and headed toward the Dalmatian Palace in Split.
The car the two were in was a civilian vehicle made in East Africa, where cars undoubtedly dominate the market in the Kingdom of Dalmatia.
Although neighboring Germany is also an industrial powerhouse, the scale of its automotive industry is nowhere near that of countries like East Africa or the United States.
Therefore, apart from those countries with their own automobile industries, the vast majority of cars circulating in the European market come from East Africa and the United States.
In the Central and Eastern European and Southern European markets, East African cars have a greater advantage, while in Western and Northern Europe, American cars are also very competitive.
As the only peninsula in Europe, East Africa is the only part of Dalmatia, so Dalmatia's cars are basically imported from East Africa.
Split, as the political center of the Kingdom of Dalmatia, has a considerable number of East African cars on its streets, which suggests that the Kingdom of Dalmatia's economic development is relatively backward; otherwise, there would be even more vehicles on the streets.
For a small country like Dalmatia, there's no need to worry about energy security, so importing cars and fuel is just a matter of affordability; nobody cares.
Looking out the car window at the view of Split, Ambassador Tahervich felt a surge of frustration.
"These Dalmatians are living quite well. Split, as a small city, is almost on par with Zagreb in every aspect, and there are significantly more cars on the streets than in Yugoslavia."
Ambassador Moderov said, "After all, Dalmatia is backed by East Africa, so they were able to receive strong support from East Africa immediately after their establishment as a nation."
"Germany also attaches great importance to the Kingdom of Dalmatia, and a large portion of the bauxite from the Kingdom of Dalmatia is exported to Germany."
"With the support and investment of these two countries, and given that the Kingdom of Dalmatia itself is not large, it is easy for it to develop economically."
"Now the Kingdom of Dalmatia has built a new railway, which will enable transportation throughout the country to connect the north and south."
East Africa hasn't put in a lot of effort to support Dalmatia, but it's enough to make neighboring countries envious.
Because the Kingdom of Dalmatia is only about the size of a city in East Africa, even a small amount of money could significantly boost Dalmatia's economy.
For example, the north-south trunk railway that the Dalmatian Kingdom wanted to build was a project that would have been extremely difficult for the Dalmatian Kingdom to complete.
Dalmatia lacked related industries, and of course, the size of the Dalmatian Kingdom was insufficient to support the development of an independent railway-related industry.
Therefore, the Dalmatian Kingdom naturally had no choice but to seek help from East Africa or other countries, with East Africa being the first option.
The Dalmatian North-South Railway is clearly not a major project for East African railway companies, with a total length of only about 200 kilometers, which is equivalent to a city-level project in East Africa.
Therefore, the railway was successfully completed in less than six months.
Ambassador Moderov said, "This is what it means to have a powerful backer. If Tsarist Russia were still in power, we in Yugoslavia might have enjoyed the same treatment."
"But it's not too late now. Although the Soviet Union is ideologically different from us, we are still Slavic countries after all. With the addition of France, the scale of aid we can get is quite considerable."
Ambassador Tahervich nodded and said, "Our population is several times that of the Kingdom of Dalmatia, and our conditions are much better than those of Dalmatia. With the aid of the Soviet Union and France, it will not be a problem for us to become a powerful country in the Balkans in just a few years."
"Economically, it should at least surpass Bulgaria, and even surpass Romania."
Currently, the strongest powers in the Balkans, excluding Germany and the Ottoman Empire, are Bulgaria and Romania.
Overall, Romania is the strongest in terms of population, land area, resources, industry, and other aspects. During World War I, Romania initially watched from the sidelines but later participated passively. Its oil resources brought it a fortune, so it lived a very comfortable life.
After the war, Romania's economy also developed rapidly, and it expanded its territory to the east.
Bulgaria's military is relatively prominent in the Balkans, and its army's combat effectiveness is recognized by neighboring countries. Moreover, Bulgaria's size is among the top in the Balkans.
In reality, the small countries in the Balkans, with the exception of the Kingdom of Dalmatia, Albania, and Montenegro, are all quite similar.
Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and Greece all have land areas of around 100,000 square kilometers.
Of the three countries—Dalmatia, Montenegro, and Albania—Albania, the largest, has an area of just over 20,000 square kilometers, and most of the land in these three countries is mountainous.
Of the three countries, the Kingdom of Dalmatia had the advantage of a larger population, approaching two million, which was also the source of Dalmatia's confidence in its previous confrontation with Yugoslavia.
Ambassador Tahervich said, "During the Austro-Hungarian Empire, if it weren't for the trouble in East Africa, the Kingdom of Dalmatia wouldn't have nearly two million more people today."
"In other words, without the so-called mixed-race Germans, Dalmatia could support at least two million Yugoslavs, which would greatly enhance our national strength and population."
For these countries in the Balkans, two million people is already a very large number, after all, there are only two countries with a population of more than ten million.
(End of this chapter)
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