Greece’s Roman Road - Chapter 275

“Greek-Roman Road (!

After controversy, despite the strong opinion of the army, Constantine took into account the importance of occupying Alexandroupolis as soon as possible, and the Greek navy was still given the order to occupy Alexandroupolis.

Constantine naturally understood that the naval commander Cantoriotis had his own careful thoughts in this move.

In recent years, the Greek navy has spent about 220 million drachmas every year.

By comparison, the Army spends around $360 million a year.

The Navy’s funds account for about 40% of the Navy’s and the Army’s, while the Army’s military expenditures have reached 60%.

This data made Cantoriotis, the commander of the navy, feel a crisis.

Because the proportion of the Greek Navy’s funding in the total funding is shrinking year by year.

In other words, the Greek government’s support for the navy is slowly decreasing, and more and more emphasis is placed on the army.

The Greek Army has played an important role in all the wars that Greece has participated in, winning a large area of ​​territory for Greece.

In contrast, the Greek Navy’s record is much inferior. In previous wars, the Greek Navy played a secondary role and never played the leading role.

So far, the most dazzling record of the Greek navy is the defeat of the Ottoman navy in the last war and the recovery of many islands in the Aegean Sea.

Unlike the army, the construction of the navy is expensive and the construction period is long. The construction time of a warship is calculated in months, and the construction time of the main battleship is as long as one or two years, not to mention the technical requirements of the crew of the navy. It is high and needs to be cultivated over the years.

Before the battle, the army can more easily overthrow troops if the situation requires it.

In other words, if the navy cannot get attention in peacetime, and if necessary, it will be too late to crawl.

At present, Greece’s annual fiscal revenue is about 1.4 billion. The annual investment in military expenditure alone has reached 580 million. In peacetime, military expenditure accounts for 40% of Greece’s fiscal revenue.

As for wartime, it is not easy to calculate. Victory is above everything else. In a war, the government will naturally give priority to meeting the needs of the army and try its best to raise money for the army.

In fact, 40% of Greece’s funding is not high in Europe.

In the Balkans, where wars are frequent, the situation is unstable, and the national sentiment is frenzied, the economies of Serbia and Bulgaria are in a mess.

The military expenditures of major European countries also remain high, and most of the basic military expenditures account for 50% of their fiscal revenue.

Seeing that the war is over now, Greece has completely established its position in the Balkans through this war. In a short period of time, Greece has no other war needs, so the reduction of high military expenditure will definitely be raised by the government. work schedule.

Within a year, Greece had participated in two consecutive wars, and the huge consumption generated almost made Prime Minister Venizelos collapse.

Without the inspiring news of the continual victories from the front, the Greek government would now be bankrupt as funds dry up.

The current government finances are completely in the same place. Seven or eight billion drachmas have been issued in national debt. At present, the government has completely suspended any non-essential spending in order to maintain the consumption of funds for the army.

The huge war hole in the Greek government, I still don’t know how to fill it.

If the Greek navy has been unable to play its role for a long time, and the army has made great achievements, then it is conceivable that in order to save military expenses, the Greek government will naturally have an idea of ​​​​navy funds.

The reason why Cantoriotis actively applied for the Greek navy to attack, and the navy to undertake the important task of occupying the capital of Western Thrace, was also to prove the importance of the navy to the government and remind the military and political leaders of the necessity of building a navy in Greece.

Without a navy, what’s the point of an army’s unprecedented victory if Western Thrace cannot be captured in time?

According to the request of the Russians, the place of negotiation of the war was placed in Bucharest, the capital of Romania.

The navy, on the way to **** Prime Minister Venizelos to the Dardanelles, carried 2,000 marines by the way and landed in Alexandroupolis. After that, there was almost no effective resistance. successfully occupied the city.

All the European powers sent special envoys to Bucharest to participate in the talks, while the warring countries in the Balkans sent their prime ministers to Romania to participate in the talks.

At the meeting, Prime Minister Venizelos, made the request of Greece.

The requirements are mainly divided into two aspects, territory and reparations.

Among them, in terms of territory, Greece asked Bulgaria to cede to Greece: Western Thrace, Eastern Macedonia, Pirin Macedonia, Eastern Rumelia and other provinces, about 80,000 square kilometers of territory.

In terms of reparations, Bulgaria repaid Greece one billion drachmas, and for the captured Bulgarian soldiers, the Bulgarian government paid to redeem and pay all expenses during the captivity, 300 drachmas per soldier.

After Prime Minister Venizelos expressed the request of the Greek government, the representatives of Romania and Ottoman Turkey were not polite at all.

Romania demanded the entire Dobroga from Bulgaria.

The Ottoman Empire, on the other hand, is seeking to reclaim East Thrace, a territory lost in the last war.

Edirne, the capital of Eastern Thrace, was of great significance to the Ottoman Empire and was a barrier to Constantinople.

Only the Prime Minister of Serbia, Pasic, looked at the prime ministers of the three countries in high spirits at the meeting and felt a little appetizing.

Due to the pressure of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire’s close proximity, Serbia finally failed to participate in the war.

In order to deter Serbia and dispel the idea of ​​taking the opportunity to take a piece of the pie from Bulgaria, which was about to be defeated, Konrad, the chief of the general staff of the Austria-Hungary Empire, directly ordered the Second Army of the Austria-Hungary Empire, 200,000 people, across the Danube River, in A half-month live-fire military exercise was held near Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.

After the “evil deeds” of the Austro-Hungarian Empire were spread in Serbia, the people in Serbia who were originally dissatisfied with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, after witnessing the blatant insults of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to Serbia, even gritted their teeth with hatred.

Thinking of this, Prime Minister Pasic couldn’t help feeling sorry for Serbia’s missed opportunity for territorial expansion.

In 1885, Serbia was defeated by the Bulgarian army and had no chance to avenge it.

The territorial claims made by the three countries to Bulgaria were sent back to Bulgaria, which caused an uproar, and even caused turmoil in the capital Sofia.

Citizens and students took to the streets, chanting slogans demanding that the government not cede Bulgarian territory.

They even came to the embassies of the major powers in Sofia and asked them to help Bulgaria.

The monetary loss is second, mainly the territorial requirements of the three countries. If all of them are met, then Bulgaria will not only lose the territory it gained after the last Balkan War, but even lose most of the old territory.

Bulgaria is located in the southeastern part of the Balkan Peninsula in Europe, bordering Romania to the north (on the Danube River), the Ottoman Empire to the southeast, Greece to the southwest, Serbia to the northwest, and the Black Sea to the east.

Eastern Bulgaria borders the Black Sea, and the Danube is the boundary river between Bulgaria and Romania.

The Balkan Mountains traverse central Bulgaria like the backbone of the Bulgarian nation.

The Balkan Mountains divide Bulgaria into the Danube Plain in the north and the Thracian Lowlands in the south.

To the north of the Balkans is the vast Danube Plain, and to the south are the Rhodope Mountains and the lowlands of the Maritsa Valley.

Other places are just fine, mainly Eastern Rumelia, which is required by Greece, directly ceded the territory south of Bulgaria’s Balkan Mountains. This piece of territory alone occupies almost half of Bulgaria’s traditional territory.

The meeting was deadlocked on the issue of territory ceding.

The Greek diplomatic delegation headed by Venizelos was under enormous diplomatic pressure.

The attitude of the major European powers is also very clear, and naturally they do not want to see Greece dismembering Bulgaria.

If Greece does get Eastern Rumelia, Bulgaria will lose half of its citizens and territory, leaving only nearly 50,000 square kilometers of territory south of the Danube and north of the Balkan Mountains.

Then the consequence is that Greece will become the strongest country in the Balkans, and no other country can check and balance, and the situation in the entire Balkans will turn towards Greece.

Of course, Venizelos also had his own reasons for requesting Bulgaria to cede Eastern Rumelia.

Although the population of Eastern Rumelia is mostly Bulgarian, hundreds of thousands of Greeks also live there.

After Bulgaria merged with Eastern Rumelia in 1885, the Ottomans who originally lived here were directly expelled by Bulgaria and their property was looted.

The original Ottoman land was directly confiscated by the Bulgarian authorities, and the Greeks living there were also discriminated and oppressed.

Under such conditions, Greeks were often expelled and looted due to the high level of nationalism in Bulgaria.

Every year there are Greeks from Eastern Rumelia who are forced to leave their homes and go to Greece to make a living.

Now that Greece has defeated Bulgaria, the Greek people naturally hope to take back Eastern Rumelia and change the tragic fate of the Greeks there.

Due to special historical factors, the Balkans have been ruled by multiple empires and kingdoms successively. As a result, people with very different ethnicities and religious beliefs live in a mixed environment, making the situation here very complicated, like a mess.

For the same piece of land, everyone can find conclusive historical evidence to prove his ownership.

The special envoys of the major countries participating in the meeting have different attitudes towards Greece’s requirements.

Among them, the Russian envoy hoped that the traditional settlements of the Bulgarians would be preserved. After all, the Bulgarians also belong to the Slavic nation. Russia’s influence in the Balkans is mainly due to Pan-Slavism, and naturally they do not want to see the territory of the Slavic nation being ceded.

Although Greece has a good relationship with Russia, Greece is still closer to Britain and France.

Among them, Germany and Austria-Hungary also obviously favored Bulgaria, and their attitudes were very strong in regard to Greece’s request for Eastern Rumelia.

Not only did not agree with Greece’s request to obtain Eastern Rumelia, but also tried to persuade Prime Minister Venizelos to agree to the withdrawal of the Greek army from Western Thrace.

As for Britain and France, they supported Greece’s acquisition of some territories, but they also disagreed with Greece’s move to cede Eastern Rumelia.

As Greece’s request has been dissent from all countries, especially Greece’s request to obtain Eastern Rumelia’s proposal, almost none of the countries participating in the meeting agreed with Greece’s opinion.

After half a month of negotiations, Greece had to make concessions under strong pressure from various countries.

On July 28, 1913, the countries finally negotiated the Bucharest contract in Bucharest.

So far, the Second Balkan War ended with the victory of Greece, the Ottoman Empire, Romania and the defeat of Bulgaria.

The treaty states:

First, Bulgaria acknowledged its defeat to all countries and was primarily responsible for the war.

Second, ceded 50,000 square kilometers of territory including East Macedonia, Pirin Macedonia, and Western Thrace to Greece; ceded the entire Dobroga to Romania; returned Eastern Thrace to the Ottoman Empire.

3. Bulgaria pays 600 million drachmas in compensation to Greece.

Fourth, considering the financial difficulties of Bulgaria, Greece will release the Bulgarian prisoners accordingly according to the progress of Bulgaria’s payment of reparations. During the detention period, these Bulgarian soldiers will pay their living expenses through unpaid labor.

Fifth. After the contract is signed, the two countries officially end the state of war, and the armies of the two sides cannot attack each other again.

Sixth. The Bulgarian Government guarantees the fair and legal treatment of Greeks living in Bulgaria and guarantees their personal safety.

After the content agreed at the meeting was passed back to Athens, Constantine read it in detail. There were dozens of armistice treaties, but the core issues were just that.

Although before this, Constantine had expected that Bulgaria’s proposal to cede Eastern Rumelia was unlikely to succeed, but he still felt a little disappointed after knowing that it was rejected.

In the current situation in Europe, without obvious changes, it is difficult for Greece to expand to its surrounding areas.

Otherwise, like the Bucharest meeting this time, it will be suppressed by the tacit cooperation of the major countries.

But what is gratifying is that ~www.mtlnovel.com~ Through two Balkan wars, Greece has almost completely obtained the entire Macedonia region, and Greece’s territory has nearly doubled!

After the data collation of the General Staff, the casualty data of the Greek army in this war has been sorted out.

The Greek army suffered 68,000 casualties, including 32,000 Congolese indigenous black soldiers and 36,000 native Greek soldiers.

As for the Bulgarian side, due to the storming of the Greek army’s well-defended defense line, the casualties were relatively large, with 120,000 casualties and 160,000 prisoners.

After this battle, the Bulgarian Army was hit hard by the Greek Army, and the army of more than 500,000 people was wiped out by the Greek army.

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