In the second half of 1911, the air in Europe was filled with the smell of gunpowder, and several major European countries were restless.
The first person to cause trouble was of course the idiot William II in Tang Ning's words.
The place where William II caused trouble was in Morocco, next door to Portugal. This incident was the famous second Moroccan crisis in history.
"First Evolution"
On July 1, Germany sent the battleship Leopard to the Moroccan port of Agadir to declare Germany's interests in Morocco, which caused a violent backlash from France.
Everyone knows that Morocco is the sphere of influence of Spain and France. Spain occupies the northern part of Morocco, and the remaining Kingdom of Morocco is the sphere of influence of France.
This move by Germany seriously provoked France, but they found an excuse and France was blocked for a while.
Germany's move this time is under the guise of seeking compensation from France.
According to the resolution of the Algeciras Conference in 1906, France received a lot of benefits in Morocco, but France had to give Germany benefits in some aspects. However, as things later developed, Germany did not receive equivalent returns.
This action by Germany clearly meant to find trouble. William II obviously wanted to take the opportunity to defraud France in order to obtain excess treatment in Morocco.
However, William II obviously underestimated France. With the support of Britain, France was stunned this time.
The French government refused to give in on Morocco's interests, which put Germany in a dilemma, and the situation became a stalemate.
Without the support of Britain, France would obviously not have the courage.
But now that the Entente has been established, and with the support of Britain, France is very bold and is not afraid of the threat of war at all.
The quarrel between Germany and Britain was ultimately due to Wilhelm II's stupidity.
Originally, the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria, Italy, and the Anglo-Russian Entente faced each other. Although the situation was in favor of the Triple Alliance, the power was generally balanced. The two parties would not take action easily and would only maintain a stalemate.
Britain pursues the balance of power on the continent, and the two sides are in confrontation. Although France and Russia are weak, they have not yet reached the point where Britain can personally end the war.
In order to balance the balance of power in Europe, the UK may very well secretly provide blood to the two countries, but it will definitely not personally come to power and side with France as it does now.
The moment the Triple Entente of Britain, France, and Russia was established, the Triple Alliance of Germany, Italy, and Austria fell into a disadvantage.
If the Allies did not have Britain, William II could extract a lot of benefits from France. After all, France did not dare to declare war easily. Facing the threat of Germany, they could only take some steps back.
All the advantages that the Triple Alliance had gained were wasted by William II.
The relationship between Britain and Germany became tense when Germany launched an arms race, and finally turned hostile.
Under the leadership of German Emperor Wilhelm II, Germany began to mass-produce dreadnoughts in the 1890s. Britain viewed this as an attempt to challenge her maritime supremacy and began to change its policy toward Germany.
Britain began to change its strategy. William II, who was so clever, continued to tease Britain's bottom line, and finally pushed Britain directly into the Franco-Russian Entente.
On July 1, when the British discovered that German warships had arrived in Agadir, they mistakenly believed that Germany wanted to turn the port into a military port for the German army in the Atlantic. Therefore, in this confrontation between Germany and France, they completely sided with France.
On July 9, after William II saw that Britain was on the side of France, he did not challenge the two countries by overestimating his capabilities. He chose to negotiate.
"William II is still somewhat sane now, but this sanity will only last three years, and Germany will eventually fall into the abyss."
Tang Ning said with a smile that he understood the direction of history when he saw the three countries announcing that they would resolve the crisis through negotiations in the Portuguese newspaper United News.
When the world's attention is focused on Morocco, some countries with people who are addicted to food cannot bear their desires and have begun to reach out to North Africa.
On August 31, the early morning sunlight shone into the room, and Tang Ning slowly woke up.
Tang Ning first took off the jade arm that was carrying his wife Mary. His movement of getting out of bed woke Mary up. She opened her beautiful eyes in confusion and looked at Tang Ning who had already gotten up.
"You should take a rest." Tangning said caringly when he saw his wife woke up by him.
The country is on the right track, and Tang Ning is much more relaxed, so she has time to enjoy herself in some aspects.
In the past few days, Charlotte and Diana have had their periods, so as a wife, Mary has taken on a heavier service task than before. She has been very tired recently.
"Okay." Mary replied sweetly, then turned around and grabbed the quilt and fell asleep.
When Tangning walked out of the room, he happened to meet the waitress Anne walking over to report the matter to him.
"Your Majesty, I have just received news that Italy, in a very serious diplomatic posture, is issuing an ultimatum regarding North African territories to the Ottoman Empire for the first time.
The Italian Workers' State demanded that the Ottoman Turks hand over the remaining two territories in North Africa to Italy.
Italy's reason for requesting trusteeship was that Italians were being treated unfairly there. "
"Bring it over and show it to me."
Anne handed the telegram she had just received to His Majesty the Emperor.
Tangning took the telegram and looked at it carefully. He wanted to see how Italy, which is addicted to food, handles the North African issue.
Across the Italian Sea were the Ottoman North African possessions of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica.
These two territories are considered a desert land in North Africa and have limited economic value. Although they have no economic value, they have an important strategic position.
These two territories stood opposite Italy, especially Tripolitania, which faced Sicily.
Control them and you can control the narrower sea surface of the central Mediterranean.
In the process of carving up the North African territories occupied by the Turkish Porte government in 1881, Algeria (France began its invasion in 1830 and gradually turned it into a colony) and Tunisia (1881) successively became French protectorates.
Therefore, all Turkey's territories are owned by Western colonists except for these two areas. France is also prepared not to let go of the remaining two areas and is increasing its efforts to annex the Turkish provinces of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica.
France's attempt to push further was opposed by European countries, especially Italy, which had long wanted to establish colonies in North Africa.
In order to oppose France, Italy actively carried out political and diplomatic activities, reached agreements and tacit understandings with various powers (the most important result was the formation of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria), and they recognized Italy's interests in North Africa.
In order to prepare for the annexation of the two provinces of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, Italy continued to immigrate and send businessmen to the two places from 1880 to 1911, purchase land, and actively expand its power; it also sent naval officers to replace fishermen. Clothes, in the name of fishing for sponges off the coast of Tripolitania, conducted coastal surveys; instigated Italian Catholic priests to go deep into the interior to collect intelligence in the name of missionary work.
Looking at these operations, we can see that Italy learned the lesson of the failure in Ethiopia in 1896. They held back and kept trying to figure out the timing.
Now, when the second Moroccan crisis occurred, the current Italian government clearly believed that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
If it fails to act, Italy may lose its opportunity.
Therefore, this time, Italy used the unfair treatment of Italians in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica as an excuse to challenge Ottoman Turkey's territorial ownership of North Africa.
On the evening of August 30, 1911, Italy issued its first ultimatum to the Ottomans for the first time.
Tangning took a look at the contents of the ultimatum and felt that it was very uninteresting.
Italy's ultimatum has the tone of old imperialism.
The content of the ultimatum was high-sounding and without innovation. In essence, it threatened Ottoman Türkiye to withdraw from North Africa.
If he doesn't withdraw, the Italian Superman will blow up the head of a local chicken.
