The Rise of Australasia

After the Olympics and the hot air balloon global voyage began to cool down, the ongoing Balkan War in Europe and the peace talks of the Balkan nations once again became the focus of discussion among European countries.

Actually, this is only natural. The vastness of Europe has gone for decades without a large-scale war. A conflict involving multiple European countries, with both sides mobilizing millions of soldiers, is already enough to enter the Europeans' field of vision and be talked about with great interest.

The peace talks between the Balkan countries and Turkey were scheduled to take place in London, the capital of the British Empire. With the British Empire witnessing these negotiations, it naturally gained the trust and recognition of other countries.

At this time, London is crowded, and the rich are driving various types of cars, shuttling along the well-connected roads in London.

The ladies gather in threes and twos, holding a drink called Cola, sipping it through a straw now and then, chatting and laughing with their friends.

With such a prosperous scene, it is no wonder that London is the capital of the world's most powerful country and one of the most developed cities in the world at present.

For all Londoners, and even British people and Europeans, the ongoing Balkan War seemed to be a war that existed only in history and folk tales.

Knights clad in magnificent armor seem to need only one charge to defeat their enemies and scatter them in flight.

The European old-timers, whose memories have been washed away by time, don't know that war is cruel to anyone and is a ruthless harvesting machine for any life.

From the beginning to now, the casualties on both sides of the Balkan War have exceeded tens of thousands. The number of soldiers killed alone is already tens of thousands.

If it weren't for the fact that the peace talks were being held in London, perhaps the cruel war would have nothing to do with London at all.

But even with the peace talks taking place in London, the lives of the European old-timers remain unaffected.

Although the London peace talks have been going on for more than half a month, progress has been almost zero.

Any progress in the negotiations will be affected by the Powers, who will then destroy the progress.

The reason is straightforward: although the Balkan War seems to be the result of the Balkan countries' dissatisfaction with Ottoman Turkey's oppressive policies in the Balkan region, it is still a political game between the Austro-Russian-led Powers in the Balkan region.

The involvement of the Powers has made this land extremely chaotic and has also directed the progress of the peace talks towards a direction that some people might not understand.

To put it bluntly, after more than half a month of negotiations, the only consensus reached by both parties is Ottoman Turkey's acknowledgment of defeat in this war.

There has been no other progress, and the half-month peace talks might as well have been about the representatives of various countries enjoying life in London.

The most anxious about this negotiating process should be the Balkan nations.

Turkey is not in a hurry. After all, the longer the peace talks drag on, the more power Turkey can accumulate internally, and perhaps even seize the opportunity to launch a counterattack and reclaim the occupied territories.

However, for the Balkan countries, the total mobilization within the country is a burden. Each day the mobilization continues, the immeasurable damage caused to the country's economy and industry mounts.

Being able to achieve an earlier peace agreement and demobilize reservists sooner, allowing these people to return to their previous production and life, is the most desirable.

Moreover, the Balkan nations have occupied a large number of new territories and need to formulate new policies to occupy and absorb them.

If the situation drags on like this, it is inevitable that extremists from Turkey will influence the situation domestically.

These newly occupied fat morsels are, of course, more reassuring the sooner they are consumed.

Unfortunately, at present, the disputes between the Powers are very intense, mainly divided into German-Austrian-Italian Ottoman Turkey and Russia supporting the Balkan Alliance.

The Balkan Alliance has significant disagreements about dividing the spoils, leading to the current peace talks seemingly without any hope of reaching a consensus.

Besides the German-Austrian-Russian trio directly involved, Britain and France maintain a neutral attitude towards the peace talks.

For Britain and France, as long as the situation in Constantinople remains stable, they can accept the peace talks developing in any way.

However, should there be a risk of Constantinople falling into Russian hands, Britain and France would not object to direct involvement and interfere in the peace talks using various means.

Italy, which is relatively close to the Balkan War but had no plans to interfere in or participate in the peace talks, also took advantage of the Balkan War to occupy the Dodecanese Islands in the Aegean Sea.

It is worth mentioning that Italy took advantage of the Balkan nations declaring war on Turkey and seized the opportunity to win a significant victory on the battlefield, successfully forcing the Turkish government to sign the Treaty of Lausanne.

The signing of the treaty allowed the Italian government to breathe a sigh of relief and also enabled Italy to acquire the territories of Tripoli and Xilaniya, successfully expanding its colonial territories in North Africa.

In fact, if it were not for the Balkan War, Italy would probably have had to expend more effort to reach an agreement with Turkey.

With the Balkan nations' containment, most of Turkey's forces in Europe were exhausted, and after losing a sufficient number of soldiers, the Turkish army suffered a swift and crushing defeat, followed by the signing of the treaty.

In this sense, the Balkan nations could also be considered benefactors of Italy, as they attracted a fair amount of animosity on Italy's behalf.

To repay the favor of the Balkan nations, Italy immediately announced its intentions to occupy the Aegean archipelago and turned its attention to the newly independent region of Albania after the war.

The failure of the peace negotiations greatly troubled the Russian representative. To ensure that the Balkan situation leaned towards Russia, the Russian representative visited the British and French representatives and inquired about their opinions on the Balkan peace negotiations.

Although Britain, France, and Russia stood firmly together due to their mutual agreements, their attitudes towards Constantinople and the Bosphorus Straits were surprisingly unified—they absolutely refused to allow Russia to control Constantinople.

Moreover, since Germany and Austria were also leaning towards Turkey in the negotiations, after consulting with their domestic authorities, the Russian Empire eventually chose to back down.

On August 17, 1912, the Balkan Agreement, also known as the London Agreement, was officially signed, finally bringing long-awaited peace to the Balkan region.

The Balkan Agreement stipulated that all Turkish land west of the Enos-Midia line, except for Albania, would be ceded to the Balkan League member states.

Albania, on the other hand, was granted independent status but was under the supervision of Russia, Britain, France, Germany, Austria, and Italy. The issue of the Aegean islands was to be handled by Germany, Austria, Italy, and Russia.

The signing of the London Agreement caused the Ottoman Turkish Empire to lose all its European territories west of Constantinople, and the influence of the Balkan League countries expanded directly across the entire Balkan Peninsula.

However, at the same time, the Balkan nations faced a rather serious problem: the distribution of benefits after the war.

Serbia's plan to obtain a port in northern Albania was thwarted by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Albania gained an independent status, supervised by the Six Great Powers.

But as one of the two major powers in the Balkan Alliance, Bulgaria, although its invasion of Constantinople suffered some setbacks, its conquest of other territories went smoothly.

Looking at the four Balkan Alliance countries, Bulgaria occupied the most land in this war, from the eastern part of Thessaloniki to the western part of Constantinople. The total area of the newly acquired territories even surpassed the sum of the territories acquired by Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece.

Although the benefits were indeed allocated this way before the war, and Bulgaria indeed provided the most troops.

The problem was that Serbia's expansion to an outlet to the sea was sabotaged by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but Bulgaria's expansion encountered no such setbacks.

Furthermore, as Greece looked enviously at Bulgaria's expansion, Bulgaria, being the country with the most territorial gains in this war, was also bound to become the target of all parties.

On August 21, 1912, just four days after the signing of the London Agreement, Greek Foreign Minister Corizis, responsible for signing the agreement, appeared in the capital of Romania, Bucharest.

In the reception hall of the Romanian Foreign Affairs Department, Greek Foreign Minister Corizis spoke facetiously to the old man before him.

The old man was the Foreign Minister of Romania, a politician with great status and prestige in Romania.

"Your Excellency Corizis, if you have come here just to invite Romania to join the alliance against Bulgaria, please return! Romania has no interest in involving itself in your disputes." The old man laughed and shook his head at Corizis, showing no interest in his proposal to join forces against Bulgaria.

"Your Excellency Tyrol, it's not that we want to go against Bulgaria. I believe you can see from the current situation that, after Bulgaria has gained new territory, it now ranks first in terms of land area among all Balkan nations.

As long as they can integrate the people in the new land, their population size will approach that of Romania." Greek Foreign Minister Corizis was not discouraged by Tyrol's rejection of his proposal and continued to speak.

"However, you must know that the bravery and combat skills demonstrated by the Bulgarians in this war are enough to put their army's strength above the Balkan nations. If Bulgaria is allowed to integrate its newly acquired territories, they will undoubtedly become the dominant power in the Balkan region.

As a neighbor of Bulgaria, is your esteemed country really indifferent to the imminent rise of Bulgaria?" Corizis chuckled.

No country or strongman can allow a threat to grow unchecked before their eyes.

All the Balkan nations had great ambitions, and Corizis did not believe that Romania could truly allow Bulgaria to rise and allow a power that could threaten its status and security to emerge on its doorstep.

"Before coming to Romania, we have reached a consensus with Serbia. As long as your country is willing, we can form a joint army that outnumbers the Bulgarian army by several times. After completely defeating Bulgaria, Romania will receive its rightful reward: the South Dobroga area." Corizis continued, speaking words that tempted Tyrol.

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