The Rise Of Australasia

Chapter 335: Chapter 291: The Leap of the Leopard and the Italic War_2

France's repeated refusals have also angered the German people. Both sides believe the other party is at fault, and ev protests and initiatives demanding the governmt declare war have be dless among the public.

On March 7, the German main army moved towards the Frch border, and the situation seemed to have an implicit inttion of waging war.

The Frch were not willing to lag, and merely one day after receiving the news, afternoon of March 8, the Frch main army likewise set off, heading to the border area adjact to Germany.

Due to the German army's strgth, the Frch directly announced mobilization in parts of the border area to guard against possible unprovoked warfare by the Germans.

Both parties' actions directly prompted continuous conflicts along the German-Frch border, seemingly prompting millions of troops to struggle for survival at the behest of the upper echelons.

After France announced its military mobilization, Germany also declared military mobilization, and William II directly ordered the German Geral Staff to issue battle plans to all armies.

Now, the oil drum had be directly ignited.

Originally, the British wanted to watch the German-Frch struggle, let the German-Frch relations become ev worse, and directly eliminated the possibility of a German-Frch alliance.

But the British did not think of waging war against Germany at this time, for before the frequt launches of the super dreadnoughts, the number of German dreadnoughts was not much differt from that of Britain, and the advantage of the navy was not significant.

It goes without saying that the German army is considered the best in the world, and solely relying on the power of the Frch is not ough to resist the German army.

At this time, the British governmt had no idea that Germany's goal was only to blackmail France's Congo colony and still thought that the Germans were really angry and wanted to gage in a real war with France.

More importantly, if war comes, the Germans occupying Agadir and establishing a naval base on the Atlantic coast would seriously threat Britain's waterway from Europe to the Cape of Good Hope, so the British strongly opposed Germany's occupation of the Moroccan port.

On March , 9, Britain formally interved, warning the German Ambassador to Britain: "This matter (the Second Moroccan Crisis) affects the interests of the British more deeply than any other evt, and the British Empire will resolutely refuse to recognize and oppose any solution without the participation of the British people."

The intervtion of the British did not make the Germans pay atttion, and the German governmt insisted on negotiating the crisis with France alone.

But the Germans did not expect that the British attitude in this crisis would be so firm that it would directly push the British-German relationship into the abyss.

On March 7, 9, British Minister of Finance, Raul George Miller, gave a speech in London that shocked the world, stating, "I am prepared to make a great sacrifice for peace...

But if we are forced into such a situation that only by giving up the important superior position that Britain has fought for over cturies with heroic spirit and victorious performance, peace can be maintained, and if such humiliation of Britain is imposed on the issue of Britain's vital interests as if she no longer plays any role in the world family of peoples, th I must emphasize that the peace obtained at such a cost is an insufferable humiliation for our great Empire."

The speech had a strong smell of gunpowder and directly brought the currt German-Frch conflict to the forefront, declaring the British's strong support for France.

What's worth mtioning is that the speaker of the speech was not the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Grey, who has always opposed and ev be hostile to Germany, but the Minister of Finance, Raul George Miller, who has always advocated peace and fridly relations towards Germany.

Such a change has hanced the deterrce of the speech. On the day the speech ded, the British governmt announced that the navy was on alert.

If Raul George Miller's speech is to express the position and attitude of the British people, th the announcemt of the Royal British Navy tering a state of readiness is to declare how firm the position of the British people is.

If the Germans continue to be tough, a war with the British and Frch is very likely to erupt. This is something the Germans don't want to see either because many of their dreadnoughts are still in the shipyard and it will take quite a while to launch officially.

Within one or two years, at least, the Germans are not willing to see a war betwe Britain and France. After being discouraged by many people in the governmt, William II reluctantly allowed the governmt to explain the actions of the German governmt to the British people.

On March 0, 9, after the British Navy had completed war preparations, the Frch governmt officially notified Britain, declaring that Germany had no inttion of setting foot on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. Their purpose was just after Morocco was placed under Frch protection, to demand suitable compsation from the Frch people in other respects.

On March 4th, Germany reduced its compsation demands in certain aspects and reoped negotiations with France, which calmed the tse situation in Europe that was on the brink of war.

However, at the same time, it is worth noting that the British firm stance led to the rapid deterioration of relations betwe Britain and Germany. The positive impression of William II among the British no longer existed, and the good attitude of Germans towards Britain also disappeared directly.

The contradictions betwe Britain, France, and Germany were irreconcilable, and the Germans' hatred for Britain and France was insurmountable.

Ev this hatred would grow more and more as time passed until it became intolerable, perhaps marking the true arrival of the World War.

It is worth mtioning that during this crisis, another noteworthy evt occurred in the European region. However, due to the intse conflict betwe Britain, France, and Germany, and the immint war, not many people paid atttion to this evt.

In March of this year, the Agadir Incidt attracted the atttion of the whole of Europe and ev the world.

This also led Italy to believe that it had an opportunity to achieve its ambition to annex Tripoli.

At the d of March, the Italian newspaper Heartfelt God Society suddly began to aggressively attack the Turkish governmt for its mistreatmt and coercion of Italian immigrants in Tripoli.

Under the intse propaganda campaign of the major Italian newspapers, the Turkish governmt had be portrayed as a devil doing all sorts of evil, and the Italian immigrants in Tripoli were in urgt need of rescue by the Italian governmt.

Feeling almost ready, in April 9, the Italian governmt officially notified the Turkish governmt and issued a final notice. The Italian governmt claimed that Turkish rule had plunged Tripoli into chaos and poverty, Italian terprises in Tripoli faced hostility from Turkey, and the lives of Italian immigrants were threated.

As a result, being forced to care for and protect its own dignity and interests, Italy decided to carry out a military occupation of Tripoli and Xilani and demanded that the Turkish army provide assistance and take measures to guard against any possible resistance actions against the Italian army.

The outrageousness and absurdity of this treaty were rare ev in history.

Naturally, the Turkish governmt flatly rejected Italy's ultimatum and angrily called the Italian governmt greedy, shameless, and absurd clowns.

On April 7th, Italy officially declared war on Turkey.

The Ottoman Turkish Empire was already in a state of decay at this time, and facing the aggression of the Italian powers, the Turkish governmt called on the major powers of Europe to interve.

However, long before this, the Italian governmt had gone through several decades of diplomatic efforts, successively signing the rewal of the Triple Alliance, the Italo-Frch Agreemt, and the Italo-Russian La Kuan Jie Agreemt, allowing Germany, France, Russia, and other European powers to recognize Tripoli as an area of Italian influce.

Since there were prior agreemts, the European powers could not condemn Italy for its bullying behavior and had to pretd not to see it. Some powers ev advised the Turkish governmt to accept Italy's unreasonable demands to avoid a sinful war that should not have occurred in the first place.

In fact, the real reason that the European powers were unwilling to help Turkey was that the Ottoman Turkish Empire was now in a close relationship with Germany.

Moreover, in the d, Italy and Turkey were actually on the same side, both being part of the allied camp. With both Allies fighting each other, the Entte powers were more than happy to watch the drama unfold. Thus, how could they possibly interve?

On the German side, having just suffered a diplomatic defeat in France, the German governmt had lost face.

Furthermore, both Italy and Turkey were Germany's allies, and favoring either side would damage the relationship with the other.

The German governmt could only express its inability to help, and except for providing some funds to the Turkish governmt, there were no further actions tak in diplomacy.