Chapter 379 Reactions of Various Countries and the Impact of the War

On August 6, the war in Europe broke out in full swing, with the Central Powers and the Allied Powers going to war with each other, and six of the world's eight major powers all joined the war.

The outbreak of the war was certainly unexpected, but the neutrality of a country caught many people by surprise.

As a member of the Allied Powers, the Italians publicly expressed their neutral intentions to the outside world after the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on Russia.

This also led to the Allied Powers, which were originally at a disadvantage in comprehensive strength, and the gap between them and the Allied Powers became even larger after the loss of Italy, which had a good naval strength.

Unless the German army can create a huge advantage on land, otherwise, if the war continues, the situation will definitely be one-sided.

The day after the declaration of war, that is, August 5, the Australasian Ministry of Defense was urgently preparing the personnel and weapons needed for the offensive, preparing to launch an attack on the German colonies in the Pacific as soon as possible.

The first and second divisions participated in the attack, which were the two most elite divisions in the Australasian regular army.

And the entire Australasian Navy also cooperated with the army's offensive.

Although the Australasian navy also had the task of helping Britain patrol the Indian Ocean, the war had just broken out, and it would take some time for the British to mobilize the army, which would give the Australasian navy some free time to help with the domestic offensive.

The lethality of the navy's naval guns was huge, and the German colonies basically had no large-scale fleets. As long as they were close to the coast of the German colonies, they would be the enemy's biggest threat.

As for the aircraft and tanks, which might pose a greater threat, at least for now, Arthur had no intention of exposing them.

While Australasian was planning an offensive, the war in Europe was already in dire straits.

Thanks to the developed railway and road networks in Europe, especially in Western Europe, the German and French troops arrived at the border in a very short time and had successfully exchanged fire.

From August 3 when Germany declared war on France to now, in just four days, more than a million German and French troops had fought each other on the border, and the blood flowed like a river, which was horrible.

According to rough statistics from Germany and France, the casualties of the German and French armies in these four days were 27,000 and 35,000 respectively.

If it weren't for the fact that it would take some time to transport all kinds of heavy weapons, and that many troops were urgently dispatched from other areas and had not arrived at the border for long, the number of casualties on both sides would probably have doubled.

On the Eastern Front, the fighting was equally fierce.

Germany declared war on Russia as early as August 1, and the exchange of fire on the German-Russian border had lasted for nearly a week.

As for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, although the Austro-Hungarian Empire was the last to declare war on Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was the first country to provoke the war. On the border between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Serbia, more than 500,000 troops from both sides had gathered and were fighting fiercely.

If Franz I had not received William II's letter and retained most of the main forces for the war against Russia, the number of soldiers in the war between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Serbia would probably have exceeded one million.

However, Franz I did not completely listen to William II's advice. William II suggested that Franz I could take defensive measures against Serbia if necessary, but Austrian Prime Minister Berchtold believed that even if the Austro-Hungarian Empire used only a small part of its troops, it could completely capture Serbia.

Therefore, the border between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Serbia was not only very fierce, but the offensive and defensive battles had their own victories and defeats, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire could not chew this hard bone for a while.

In addition to France, Germany, Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the four countries that had already exchanged fire, Britain and Australasia were not just verbally participating in the war. The corresponding strategic materials were being transported to Europe frantically, and the British and Australasia expeditionary forces were also in intensive preparation.

The good news is that the Russians took advantage of the opportunity to go abroad to buy weapons in the Balkans in the previous two Balkan wars and purchased a large number of advanced weapons and equipment for themselves.

In addition, before the war, a new batch of weapons and equipment from Australasia had just arrived at the port of Vladivostok, which also led to Russia not lacking weapons and equipment in a short period of time, and the progress of military expansion was also very smooth.

Only with sufficient weapons and equipment can Russia's reputation as the bulldozer of Europe be fully brought into play.

Compared with several other European powers, Russia has a larger core population, and looking at the huge number of casualties, it is not too distressed.

The current war is still only the home field of the six major powers, and other small European countries have not yet participated.

According to the historical progress, many small European countries, including Italy, should participate in the war within a year.

But the current situation is different from the history, and Arthur dare not guarantee whether the time for these countries to participate in the war will change, or even directly not participate in the war.

Since the end of July, the war trend between the two camps has become a hot topic in the news around the world.

And when the war really broke out, the whole world was shocked. All news reports in Europe, America, Asia, Africa, and Australia are all about this war.

At this time, even if the US president broke out a scandal, it could not take away the heat of this war at all.

After all, this is a war related to the entire world situation, and it is also a war related to the fate of all countries in the world.

For such news, perhaps only the United States on the other side of the Pacific Ocean in Europe seems to be more relaxed.

As the only two powers that did not participate in the war, the United States was far away from the European battlefield. As long as the United States did not actively participate, the war would basically not affect the United States.

This also led to the Americans' attitude towards this European war being relatively relaxed. Even many news outlets did not mind the big deal. They specially opened many expert sections to publish various experts' assessments of the chances of victory of both sides in this war to attract American people to buy their newspapers.

It must be said that this trick is indeed very effective. According to unsourced reports in the United States, since the end of July, the sales of newspapers in the United States have almost doubled.

This war has not only attracted the attention of Americans, but also attracted the attention of many countries in Asia, which has nothing to do with the war.

If the country in Asia that pays the most attention to this war should be the island country that has recently lost its status as a great power.

Although this war does not seem to have much to do with the island country, after all, the only participating country that has a relationship with the island country, Britain, has also abandoned the alliance with the island country because of reaching further cooperation with Russia.

But this does not prevent the island people from paying attention to this war. The reason is simple. Germany also has colonies in Asia. This colony is of great importance to the island country. If it can obtain this colony, the power and strength of the island country will also usher in a considerable increase.

As for why the island country has set its sights on Germany's colonies instead of Russia, there is no way. Now the four major powers of the Allied Powers are too powerful. Even if the island country has reached an alliance with the United States, it still dares not to anger Russia before the Allied Powers weaken.

Unless the Russians are in disarray, otherwise, the island country does not intend to take action against Russia under the current situation.

However, there are other actions within the island country. After all, the chaotic situation in Russia can be ignited at a point, and it is impossible for the island country to have no small actions.

At present, every government meeting of the island country has to discuss the situation of the European war.

It is precisely because of the attention of many countries to this European war that many people seem to be unable to keep up with the times if they do not talk about this war.

If someone does not know the outbreak of this war, then there is no doubt that this person will be ridiculed by everyone around him.

This is actually determined by the status of Europe. As the most developed region in the world, Europe is not only the center of the world, but also determines the world situation.

The GDP of several major European powers alone accounts for more than half of the world's GDP.

If we don't count the two exceptions of Australasia and the United States, Europe absolutely accounts for the majority of the world in all aspects, even if all other countries are added together, it is only a small part.

It is precisely because of Europe's relatively important strategic position that once the European war broke out, commodity prices around the world, including in Europe, rose a lot.

Among them, the most seriously affected region is Europe. According to statistics from European countries, the increase in commodity prices in countries affected by the war is about 15%, and the increase in commodity prices in countries affected by the war is more than 5%.

You know, it has been less than ten days since the outbreak of the war. If it continues, the impact of the European war on countries around the world can be imagined.

In addition to Europe, the United States and Australasia have also been affected to a certain extent. Australasia is okay. Arthur has already stockpiled some industrial equipment in advance. As for other mineral resources and materials, Australasia can basically produce and sell them by itself.

The United States has a lot of trade with European countries, which has also caused the prices of some American goods to rise by about 5% to 10%.

If it weren't for the suppression of various governments, I'm afraid that reports on rising prices in various countries would continue. Under the premise of panic buying of supplies by the public, the speed of price increase would be faster.

The impact of rising prices on Australasia is not too great. After all, under Arthur's advance layout, Australasia is in a state of overcapacity in more important food production, medical supplies, etc.

Even rising prices are good news for Australasia. Even if trade with the Allies will reduce prices to a certain extent due to the relationship with the allies, Australasia can also make more profits in trade with Britain, France and Russia after prices rise higher and higher. These funds can be used for national development and war.

Arthur's royal consortium can also make a lot of money from this. You know, the current production capacity of military factories and medical groups is very oversupplied. If Arthur hadn't put out a lot of money every year to make up for the losses caused by large-scale stockpiling, I'm afraid the military factories and newly established medical groups would have collapsed long ago.

And the reason why Arthur worked so hard to stockpile a large amount of supplies was not to sell them to Britain, France and Russia during the war?

Although it is somewhat unethical to take advantage of rising prices and sell them to allies at high prices, compared with the situation in history when Britain, France, Russia, especially Russia, had money but could not buy supplies, Australasia can provide enough supplies of all kinds, which is also good news for Britain, France and Russia.

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