Chapter 162: 22) Strategy of the Russian Empire
Chapter 162: 22) Strategy of the Russian Empire
Chapter 162: 22) Strategy of the Russian Empire
Since they can not, supporting the puppet is also a good choice! The Ottoman Empire was indeed weak, but it could not resist the Russian-Turkish feud! Does God know the Sultan will not go crazy one day to give a little?
The Armenian question, isn't that an example? If you do it, you do it. How to keep it secret too? Suppression of minority rebellions, the Russian Empire has done a lot, but by the time the news leaked, they had already done it! Where has the international community ever caught you red-handed?
It seems to the Russians to be totally intellectually disturbing! Well, completely ignoring the gap between the two sides in terms of national power! If the Armenian problem had occurred in the Russian Empire, it would probably have been a couple of yells from the people, and the governments would have pretended not to see it!
The strategy of the Russian Empire had to start from the beginning. It was all forced out!
The Russian Empire, formerly known as the Grand Duchy of Moscow, was located in the middle of the Eastern European Plain, and most of its territory had high latitudes, a cold climate, and a harsh environment, so the Russians focused their expansion on the south and west, followed by the east and finally the north.
To the north is the Arctic Ocean, which is known to have an extremely cold climate and poor passage conditions. The long Arctic Ocean coastline has only one place in Murmansk that can be used as an outlet to the sea and is the only unfrozen port in the Arctic Ocean.
But Murmansk is an estuary port, high latitude, cold climate, in August the highest daytime temperature is 12 degrees and 0 degrees at night, and the lowest temperature at night in winter used to reach more than minus 60 degrees, in this kind of icy wilderness to develop the port, one can imagine the difficulty.
The way to the north was blocked and looked to the west, where the Russians fought their western neighbors for centuries. One after another, they grabbed part of the coastline of the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea from Finland, Sweden, Lithuania, and Poland, but the Baltic Sea is a closed inland sea!
The Russian Navy was confined to the eastern Baltic Sea and wanted to go out unless they annexed the coastal countries such as Sweden, Germany, and Denmark. But the coastal countries, regardless of size, are strong, and none of them are easy to mess around that much.
First, Denmark's Kalmar is dominant, then the Swedish bully again, and now it's Germany's turn to rise. Anyway, the Russian Empire is unable to put up!
Next south, it is a pity that the Black Sea is more closed than the Baltic Sea, and you have to go through Turkey to get out and cross the Mediterranean Sea after Turkey.
The Russians tried to seize the Bosphorus from Turkey, only to have the British and French gang up on them and beat them back in the Crimean War.
Now the situation is obvious. Even if the Russian Empire can remove Turkey and enter the Mediterranean Sea, they still have to be beaten back, so the Russian Empire has put its strategic focus on the Far East!
In contrast, Europe is a hard bone, and the Far East is a soft tomato!
The Russians had already seized a large area of land from Great Qing Dynasty and acquired the natural port of Vladivostok.
But although Vladivostok was in good condition, it had a freezing period and was surrounded by the Japanese islands, the Korean peninsula, and the Aleutian Islands, so the Russians had to borrow a route if they wanted to come out into the Pacific.
But a sharp contrast will reveal: compared with the British and German in Europe, this little trouble in Japan and Joseon is insignificant!
The Russian Empire had no plans to lend a hand. Since they had their eye on it, they grabbed it soon! Anyway, Japan and Joseon at the end of the 19th century were underdogs, not yet in the eyes of the Russians.
Russia has found the best opening to break through and naturally will not stay in Europe to continue fighting in circles of hell. The Navy wants to open the way to the Mediterranean in advance, but it is a saving grace. Success is certainly good. Failure does not hurt!
And the reason why you can't talk about it is to brush up on your presence! If you support the Bulgarians to come out and grab the straits, you must always have a navy, right?
Bulgaria's pocket-sized Navy now, it is okay to catch smugglers in the coastal area; if they set sail, pirates may directly destroy them?
The value of the Russian Navy is not shown? According to traditional practice, the Bulgarian Navy is the Russian Navy wearing a mask. From the creation to training are supposed to be handled by the Russian Navy, including the command!
As for the attitude of Bulgaria, does it matter? What is the importance of this? Can you not eat the pie that comes to your door? Anyway, the future is part of the Russian Empire, just like several kingdoms within the German Empire. Pay now for the future harvest!
After all, before the opening of the Siberian Railway, the power that the Russian Empire could put in the Far East was extremely limited, and the Navy is to be reduced to a spectator!
It is something the Admiralty can't tolerate. Whether for personal gain or the collective good, the Minister of the Navy has to keep the Navy in the picture at all times!
Then Bulgaria, who obeyed, came into the eyes of the crowd. It so happened that the Bulgarian Army did well in the Second Bulgarian-Serbian War, thanks to the Russian Empire! (Remark: Before 1886, the Bulgarian Army was Russian, from its creation to its training, all at the behest of Russian instructors!)
To support Bulgaria in outlawing the Ottoman monopoly of the Straits is a good choice!
As for whether Bulgaria will make it big? Sorry, there is no such thing! At least in front of the Russian Empire at its peak, if Ferdinand were to unify the Balkans, he would have to be a good boy!
At the end of the 19th century, in terms of general national power, the British Empire was the rightful boss, followed by the Russian Empire, Germany, and the United States are still practicing their internal strength!
This ranking continued unchanged until 1905! The Franco-Russian alliance suppressed the triple alliance of Germany, Austria, and Italy in Europe, and in order to relieve the pressure on the European continent, the countries (except France) chose, by chance, to divert the trouble to the east.
Austria-Hungary has to play the mascot, relying on Germany to counteract the Russian Empire, not to mention Bulgaria barely! And so decades later, Bulgaria rose, the two countries have long been tied together, the individual does not resolve they can untie it!
The Minister of the Navy's arguments, similar plans were already in place in the Russian Empire more than a decade ago, but for various reasons, they were never implemented.
From the time of Bulgaria's independence, the Russian Empire had a strong influence and even held the Bulgarian Army for a time until 1885, when it changed.
It is now brought up again and different from the past: Bulgaria is slightly stronger by so much, and in order to avoid causing discontent among the Bulgarians, it began under Aleksandr III to switch to the use of gentle tactics!
It seems to be working well so far, the 'Greater Bulgarian Nation' promoted by Bulgaria, and the Slavic national unification strategy proposed by the Russian Empire, are essentially the same. The only difference is that the appetite is smaller!