The city's name, Sarajevo, was the capital and economic center of Bosnia-Herzegovina, occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Although the emergence of the core technology of mechas delayed the war that should have started, the contradiction did not disappear because of this, it was just delayed.
After the world entered the 19th century, the world entered the colonial era. At first, Arthur brought only a republic to Europe and eliminated the aristocracy, but he did not, or could not, eliminate capitalism at that time.
The highest stage of the development of capitalism must also be imperialism.
The old imperialist countries carved up most of the divisible colonies in the world.
But the emerging imperialist countries are obviously unwilling.
The economic development of capitalist countries is seriously uneven, and Europe's emerging powers are beginning to challenge the existing hegemony in order to compete for more territory.
The competition between the emerging empire and the remaining established powers became the main conflict, especially the German Empire led by Wilhelm II.
It has the support of Galant, and it is also the first country to obtain Tesla's mecha core technology, so it has developed very fast in these years.
In the late 1880s, in order to compete for world hegemony, Germany pursued the Eastward Policy and extended its influence into the Near East. It tried to build a railway to connect it with the European Railway and form a direct route from Hamburg and Berlin via Constantinople and Baghdad. The Great Railway of the Persian Gulf.
This railway not only allowed German forces to control Turkey; it also seriously threatened the Caucasus, Persia and other regions.
The British Empire in this era was not as powerful as it was in the past. The British Isles was the homeland of the Celts, and the Brittanians had always been very concerned about this land.
When Arthur defeated West France, he took control of the British Isles, which continues to this day.
For these hundred years, the British Empire was Britannia's bridgehead and agent in Europe.
Of course, it itself maintains a certain degree of autonomy.
And they also relied on the support of Britannia to have colonies in North and South Africa, and even took advantage of the disintegration of Beichen to successfully set foot in West Asia and India.
The power of fate is sometimes so wonderful.
The German plan to build the Baghdad Railway directly violated British interests in West Asia, North Africa, and British India, and also violated the interests of Britannia.
Germany's aggressive plans in Africa and its dumping policy in South America also sharply contradicted it. Germany is actively strengthening its navy in an attempt to compete with these established maritime powers for maritime hegemony.
The contradiction between Germany and France also prompted France to move closer to Britain and France.
France attempted to regain Alsace and Lorraine from Germany and actively prepared for a "revenge" war.
In order to prepare for war, the European powers frantically expanded their armies and prepared for war. Since 1883, Germany has passed new military bills every year to increase its military budget.
By 1910, Germany had 760,000 active troops armed with new equipment. There are even a large number of mecha troops.
The British army, including several subordinate colonies, increased to 410,000.
France passed a new military bill in 1911, changing the two-year military service system to three years, and changing the service age from 21 to 45 years old to 20 to 48 years old, increasing the army to 770,000.
Tsarist Russia already had an army of 1.3 million soldiers on the eve of the war. The great powers also actively expanded their navies, and the naval competition between Britain and Germany was the most intense.
In 1912, Britain and Germany held disarmament negotiations. Britain insisted that the ratio of the two navies should be 2:1, while Germany demanded that the ratio be set at 16:10. The negotiations finally broke down, and both sides increased military spending even more frantically.
On the eve of the war, the military budgets of Germany and Austria reached 14 billion marks, and the military budget of the Allied Powers also reached 4.766 billion marks.
The two major groups each held military meetings to discuss and formulate combat plans in an effort to preemptively strike. The German Chief of Staff once said: "We are ready. For us, the faster the war, the better."
The bourgeois propaganda agencies of various countries are also active in spreading chauvinist sentiments.
The bourgeois imperial scholars tried their best to defend the war, propagating that it could solve the problem of "overpopulation" and save the industrial and commercial crisis, and even claimed that war could have a "eugenic" effect on mankind.
The German cavalry general even openly shouted: "War is the father of all things... War is not only a biological law, but also a primary law, and therefore an indispensable factor for civilization.
Against this background, the Balkan Peninsula, where Serbia is located, has become the center of focus.
The Balkan Peninsula is located in southern Europe and borders the Mediterranean Sea. It has long been ruled by the Turks. Since the 19th century, with the decline of the Ottoman Empire, some countries in the Balkans have become independent one after another.
Since the southern Slavs are mainly inhabited here, they are of the same origin as the Russians, and Tsarist Russia is the main force in attacking and weakening Turkey. Therefore, the countries in the Balkan Peninsula have close ties with Tsarist Russia.
The Balkan Peninsula is located in the southeast of Europe, separated from Asia by only the Turkish Strait, and is at the junction of Asia and Europe. Because the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea lie across it, it has become a transportation artery and throat between Asia and Europe. And it is only separated from Africa by the Mediterranean Sea, so it is an important transportation point between Asia, Europe and Africa, so it is not surprising that it has become a battleground for the world's powers.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Austro-Hungarian Empire began to step up its involvement in the Balkans, especially in an attempt to prevent Bosnia and Herzegovina from merging with Serbia. Bosnia and Herzegovina was still two provinces under Turkish rule at the time.
In 1908, Austria-Hungary took advantage of the Turkish revolution to annex Bosnia and Herzegovina, which aroused great anger among the Serbian people.
Serbia and Montenegro began to deploy armed forces, and Tsarist Russia prepared to support Serbia in fighting Austria-Hungary.
Austria-Hungary also mobilized troops to the border, and war was imminent. At this time, Germany came forward to support Austria-Hungary.
At the same time, Tsarist Russia was also negotiating a border agreement with Beichen in the Far East. Beichen insisted that they were the successors of the Yuan Dynasty and should inherit the land left by the Yuan Dynasty from ancient times, and asked for the Lena River as a boundary.
If it is really successful, plus Nanchen's land and islands, this civilization will be the largest civilization in human history, bordering the North Pole to the north and the Antarctic to the south, running through the entire earth and connecting the three oceans.
The announcement of mecha core technology is of greatest help to countries with complete industrial systems. In this era, when it comes to industrial systems, no country is more complete than Beichen.
The huge mecha army has become the basis for their outward expansion.
It really echoes that sentence: I sat up in shock when I was dying of illness, and the great powers turned out to be me.
Of course, Tsarist Russia would obviously not agree. They also insisted that they were the successors of the Great Mongol Empire. In order to avoid a two-front war, Tsarist Russia chose to negotiate with the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
That is to say, it recognized the fait accompli that Austria-Hungary had annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina and formed an alliance.
From the early 19th century, Tsarist Russia was eager to open up a passage south to the Mediterranean, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire attempted to expand southward to the Adriatic Sea.
Britain and France wanted to protect the transportation lifeline leading to the Indian Ocean and the Far East for trade with Beichen. Therefore, the Balkan Peninsula became an area fiercely contested by Russia, Austria, Britain and France. There have been many wars, so this place is also called a powder keg. .
Of course, this time, there is another important reason, or rather, a name - Nikola Tesla.
As the creator of the core technology of mechas and alternating current technology, he can almost be said to be a strategic existence in the hearts of countries around the world.
In the past few years, there has been a rumor circulating around the world.
That is, Tesla once landed on the legendary Sky Island, and his mecha technology was obtained from the Sky Island. There are even photos circulated.
Because mecha technology is so far ahead of its time, many people suspect that this technology does not come from humans, so this rumor is undoubtedly extremely credible.
Some capable heads of state from around the world have confirmed this through their respective channels.
Everyone wants to get Tesla and get the secret of Sky Island from him
And he is in Serbia, on the Balkan Peninsula.
In the 20th century, Serbia, which got rid of the rule of the Turks, became increasingly powerful in the Balkans and became the core of the Yugoslavs' opposition to foreign rule and their struggle for national unity.
The two Balkan Wars promoted the national movement of the Yugoslavs in Bosnia and Herzegovina under Austro-Hungarian rule. They demanded the merger with Serbia and the establishment of a greater Serbian state.
The development of the Yugoslav national unity movement centered on Serbia made the rulers of the Habsburg dynasty extremely uneasy.
Therefore, Austria-Hungary stepped up preparations for war with the goal of destroying Serbia, and it was Archduke Ferdinand and the Austro-Hungarian Chief of General Staff who presided over the formulation of the war plan to invade Serbia.
By this time, anti-Austrian propaganda and patriotic groups had emerged in Serbia. In 1908, the "National Defense Council" was established, and in 1911, the "Black Clothes Council" (also known as "Unification or Death") was established.
Both organizations were influenced by European anarchist trends.
The "National Defense Council" advocated guerrilla warfare to prevent the Austro-Hungarian Empire from annexing Serbia, and recruited and trained volunteers.
The "Black Hand" advocates taking terrorist actions, and its goal is to "realize national ideas and unify all Serbian nations."
The Black Hand's activities include single-line contact, secret activities, absolute obedience, and the courage to sacrifice.
At the beginning of the 20th century, there were many assassinations in the Balkans, and many young patriots committed themselves to carry out these terrorist activities.
On June 12, 1914, Ferdinand went to his castle in Konopiste to hold talks with Kaiser Wilhelm II to predetermine a course of action for launching a war. The alliance treaty signed between Tsarist Russia and them became their center of gravity. agent.
The Kaiser suggested that Austria-Hungary take advantage of this favorable situation to attack Serbia.
With strong support from Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire decided to hold large-scale military exercises in Sarajevo, Bosnia, near the Serbian border.
The time was chosen on June 28, which is the anniversary of Serbia’s conquest by Turkey (June 28, 1386). This exercise used Serbia as the imaginary enemy and dispatched two corps. Ferdinand and his wife decided to go to Sarajevo for inspection in person.
This action of the Austro-Hungarian Empire greatly angered Serbian nationalists, and the "Black Hand" and the local secret nationalist group "Young Bosnia" in Bosnia formulated a plan to assassinate Ferdinand.
The Serbian government had been aware of the assassination of Ferdinand in advance and opposed the action, fearing that the incident might have dire consequences.
The Serbian government tried to prevent Black Hand members from leaving the country, but border guards linked to the Black Hand allowed them to cross into Bosnia.
The Serbian government also reminded the Austria-Hungary government through its minister to Austria-Hungary that Ferdinand's life would be in danger if he went to Bosnia. But the Austro-Hungarian government ignored this warning.
The assassination of the sole heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire was undoubtedly a big event. Whether he was a member of the "Black Hand" or not was no longer important.
Germany and Austria are already eager to launch a war and reshuffle the world situation, and this incident is undoubtedly the best excuse.
On July 23, 1914, Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia, giving Serbia 48 hours to respond. The content of the ultimatum was extremely harsh, requiring that all anti-Austrian activities be stopped, officials and citizens who carried out anti-Austrian propaganda be punished, and the "murderers" of the Sarajevo incident should be jointly tried by Austro-Hungarian representatives.
On July 25, Serbia responded and accepted all other conditions except for the joint trial, but Austria-Hungary was still dissatisfied. On the same day, Austria-Hungary severed diplomatic relations with Serbia.
Declared war on Serbia on July 28.
On August 1, Germany declared war on France. On August 4, Britain declared war on Germany on the pretext that the German army had violated Belgium's neutrality.
On August 6, Tsarist Russia marched towards Central Asia, which was another channel into the Pacific Ocean bypassing Ottoman Turkey and Persia.
Central Asia covers an area of about 4 million square kilometers and is very close to Tsarist Russia. It is only bounded by the Caspian Sea and the Ural River from the European part of Tsarist Russia.
Tsarist Russia is rich in mineral and energy resources, including oil, natural gas, coal, iron ore, etc.
The extraction and export of these resources was crucial to the economic development of Tsarist Russia. However, because Tsarist Russia is located in the north, the temperature in winter is extremely low, and most ports will be blocked by ice, causing exports to be blocked.
Therefore, opening up seaports and establishing ice-free ports can effectively solve this problem and improve Tsarist Russia's export capabilities and international competitiveness.
They attempted a breakthrough in the Far East, but were thwarted by Beichen.
So they turned to the Balkans and wanted to open up the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. But in the end they had to compromise due to various reasons, so they turned to Central Asia.
Central Asia is a land of three continents and five seas. It is close to Asia, Europe and Africa. The Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea are also very close to it. It can be entered from the southeast and northwest. Therefore, from ancient times to the present, Central Asia Its strategic position is very prominent.
In a sense, this place is more important to Tsarist Russia than the Balkans.
But for this reason, the powerful countries in the surrounding areas will set their sights on Central Asia. If Tsarist Russia wants to occupy Central Asia, it must compete with other powerful countries.
But at this moment, all major European countries were involved in the war.
Their enemy is currently only Beichen.
On September 13, Beichen also formally declared war on Tsarist Russia, and the next day, Nanchen also declared war on Tsarist Russia.
Out of its own interests, Italy declared neutrality at the beginning of the war, but later turned to the Allies and declared war on Germany and Austria.
Because the Ottomans were hostile to Tsarist Russia and their movement toward Central Asia touched their bottom line, they joined the Allied forces in fighting in November.
At the end of December, Britannia declared war on Germany.
At this moment, except for the Great Egyptian Empire, which has not yet expressed its stance, almost all countries in Asia and Europe are involved in this war.
The world war broke out. (End of chapter)
