Chapter 315 Warm-Up Before the Olympics

The Ottoman Empire's European territory was devoured by the Balkan countries in a short period of time, and the Albanian region also took the opportunity to declare independence.

At present, Turkey can only control the capital Constantinople and the surrounding land less than 20 miles away.

In terms of the results of the war in various countries, the Serbian army occupied most of Macedonia, northern Albania and Nova Zapar Province.

The Greek army occupied the territory from southern Macedonia to Thessaloniki, the Bulgarian army occupied eastern Macedonia and part of Thrace, and Montenegro expanded some land to the east.

In general, several countries have gained something, and they have achieved their strategic goals.

But this is not over yet. The problem of the Albanian region is the more explosive problem in this war.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy hope to establish a self-made Albanian state, but Serbia occupied some areas in northern Albania and successfully obtained access to the Adriatic Sea.

Serbia's expansion was strongly supported by Russia, but it attracted strong opposition from Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Especially the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After Serbia formally occupied northern Albania and gained access to the sea, the Austro-Hungarian Empire expressed its opinions to Serbia and demanded that Serbia immediately withdraw its troops from northern Albania, otherwise it would use military mobilization in some areas to guarantee the interests of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the Balkan Peninsula.

Germany quickly gave strong support to the actions of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, while Russia, which was not well prepared, chose to give in. On the one hand, it persuaded Serbia to make concessions, and on the other hand, it handed the issue to the Great Power Conference for discussion.

Although the situation in the Balkans fell into a brief calm due to the intervention of the great powers, in fact, it was precisely because of the intervention of the great powers that the situation in the Balkans was destined to become more dire.

Of course, all this has nothing to do with Australasia at present.

As time entered April 1912, the Sydney Olympics also entered the final preparation stage.

This is a world event created by Arthur with the national strength of Australasia. At present, more than 25 countries and more than 3,000 athletes have signed up to participate.

In fact, since the end of February and the beginning of March, many foreign athlete delegations have come to Australasia to enter the intense and exciting training session.

Some powerful countries with sufficient strength have already carried out various training in their own countries, and are now ready to go to Australasia to participate in the final Olympic Games.

The good news is that the Balkan War did not affect the holding of the Sydney Olympics. Even though the Balkan countries were deeply involved in the war, they still sent a certain number of athlete teams to participate in this Olympics.

In fact, this is normal. The Balkan countries generally stand behind the powerful countries. The powerful countries are all involved. It is not appropriate for these Balkan countries to ignore it.

In order to make this Olympic Games and Australasia more famous worldwide, Arthur decided to use a round-the-world voyage to promote Australasia's worldwide reputation and also promote this Sydney Olympic Games.

Of course, this is not a simple round-the-world voyage. The first round-the-world voyage in history dates back to the mid-fifteenth century hundreds of years ago.

The circumnavigation at that time used large sailing ships, which directly opened up the Age of Exploration and the Age of Colonization that lasted for hundreds of years, and was also one of the main reasons for Europe to reach the top of the world.

After the circumnavigation, Europeans realized how small the place they lived in was, and that there was a very wide range of land and a large population outside Europe.

The circumnavigation planned by Arthur will use the airship made by Australasia, namely the AU-3 airship, to carry out an aerial circumnavigation.

Using flying to circumnavigate the world is a great milestone that no one else has achieved so far.

If Arthur can promote the circumnavigation of the world by airship, it will also make Australasia a significant part of aviation history.

Speaking of this, we have to mention the AU-3 airship developed by the Aviation Research Laboratory.

The development speed of airships is relatively slow compared to that of airplanes. This is actually the reason why Arthur formulated that airplanes are more important than airships.

However, with the accumulation of technology over the years, coupled with a certain investment in the development of airships, it is still easy to upgrade airships to the third generation, or more accurately, the second generation developed by the Aviation Research Laboratory.

Arthur also had another purpose in promoting the airship's circumnavigation, which was to attract the attention of European countries again after the last Australian-Portuguese War, so that European countries would invest their budgets in the research and development of airships.

The AU-3 airship has a huge improvement in performance compared to the previous generation of airships.

In particular, the increase in flight speed has enabled the AU-3 airship to have the ability to truly circumnavigate the world.

After Arthur issued the task, the aviation laboratory began to make intensive arrangements for the circumnavigation, carefully considering the choice of stopover points during the circumnavigation, and striving to complete this meaningful circumnavigation in a shorter time.

For a circumnavigation, the first and second times are essentially different.

Just as people only remember the champion in a competition, the news will only report the first circumnavigation.

After all, pioneers are always more admirable than followers. After the first circumnavigation, shouldn't the second and more times be inevitable?

After the research of the Aviation Laboratory, it was decided that the round-the-world voyage would start on April 10, with Sydney as the starting point. The first stop was Hawaii, the second stop was Los Angeles, the third stop was London, followed by Berlin, Rome, Delhi, Batavia, and finally returned to Sydney.

Even if Sydney is included, the airship will only stop at eight locations to complete the planned round-the-world voyage.

In fact, if the Aviation Laboratory is willing, it can even reduce a few more stops.

But after all, the purpose of this round-the-world voyage is not simply to complete a quick round-the-world voyage, but to use the gimmick of the first round-the-world voyage of the airship, which is also to promote Australasia and the Sydney Olympics.

Therefore, the selection of these stops seems to have some ulterior motives. Hawaii is naturally needless to say, after all, it is across the entire Pacific Ocean, and it is necessary to stop in Hawaii in the middle.

Arthur didn't want the round-the-world voyage he had worked so hard to plan to sink in the Pacific Ocean just after starting because of any mistakes and accidents, which would be fun.

The next stop is Los Angeles, a large city in the western United States, which is necessary for making a name for itself worldwide.

The same is true for London, England, and I believe that the British people will not refuse it. As for why Paris or Berlin was not chosen, it was because they were either too close to London or not on the way.

Arthur also had a purpose in finally choosing to stop in Batavia. Using the round-the-world voyage to demonstrate the strength of Australasia can also facilitate Australasia to better control Southeast Asia.

Although Arthur did not intend to annex the Dutch East Indies directly, it was still necessary to have the right to speak in this area.

The plan of the aviation laboratory was determined very quickly, and the media controlled by the royal consortium also released the news very quickly.

On April 8, 1912, Britain, Germany, and Russia sent telegrams to Arthur one after another, congratulating him and asking if he needed help.

What Arthur did not expect was that the British side sent telegrams the fastest, which was completely different from the Edward VII period.

During the reign of Edward VII, although the British royal family never missed congratulating Arthur, they usually lagged behind the German and Russian royal families, and sometimes even the last among the European powers.

What Arthur didn't expect was that the British government also sent a telegram of congratulations to Arthur, and also proposed to further establish a cooperative relationship and strategic cooperation in the fields of economy and military.

Although he didn't understand what the British government's purpose was, it was definitely Australasia that benefited from cooperating with the world's first superpower.

At Arthur's instruction, the Australasia government sent a telegram back to the British government, expressing its welcome for further strategic cooperation.

The two sides exchanged glances and reached a simple agreement the day before the round-the-world voyage, and agreed that after the Olympics, Australasia would send a diplomatic team to London, England to discuss formal cooperation matters.

In addition to expressing early congratulations on the round-the-world voyage, the telegrams from Germany and Russia also mentioned metaphorically that if the round-the-world voyage was successful, they hoped to introduce Australasia's new airship technology.

Arthur would not refuse this, after all, the cost of building an airship is not low, and the price of selling it to foreign countries is even more expensive.

If the technology is introduced, the money can be made more. Although this is the most advanced airship technology in Australasia, military aircraft have been studied for several generations. Who cares about the extremely fragile airship at present?

Arthur's decisive agreement also made the German side feel much better.

Originally, William II thought that Australasia was going to get closer to Britain. At present, it seems that it may just be to avoid war, declare neutrality, and not participate in the struggle between the two major military groups.

Although Germany may lose a powerful assistant during the war, Australasia's excellent geographical location is definitely more valuable than offending.

During the conversation with Nicholas II, both sides also greeted each other's children. Crown Prince Alexei's hemophilia was miraculously cured by Rasputin, which also made Nicholas II feel much better.

Of course, what Nicholas II could not have imagined was that Rasputin, who cured his own child and was regarded as a saint by the queen, was one of the culprits who led to the collapse of the Tsarist Russian Empire.

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