Chapter 452: American Participation in the War and Its Influence

When Italy and the Balkan coalition forces were advancing rapidly on the border of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the United States, far across the ocean, was indeed a little panicked.

The reason why Americans did not participate in this war did not mean that they did not want to share the benefits.

It was just that Americans wanted to participate in this war in a more important role. They wanted to wait until the Allies and the Central Powers were exhausted before joining the war as mediators.

But unexpectedly, the Central Powers had already shown signs of fatigue in the Allied attack, and even the Allies were currently only left with two major powers.

If Italy and Australasia really joined forces to defeat the Austro-Hungarian Empire, only the struggling German Empire would be left, and it was destined not to last long.

The current development of the situation and the American imagination are two extremes. The Americans were surprised to find that it seemed that the Allies could win the war without them.

This made the Americans a little anxious. If they sat back and watched the Allies defeat the Central Powers and share the benefits, and the Americans did not participate, there would be no hope of rising at all.

In order to share the benefits from this war, the Americans could not sit still and began to negotiate with Britain to request to participate in this war.

Because of the participation of Australasia in this world, the Americans have had little impact on this war so far.

Even the arms trade that the United States has earned a lot of benefits in history has no share for Americans in this world.

Australasia almost bears all the arms trade between Russia and the Balkan countries. With the assistance of Britain and France, the demand for weapons imports from the Allies is not that high, and naturally they will not rush to send money to the Americans.

The Americans have not been able to gain a lot of benefits from the war, and have not reversed their status with Europe.

At present, the United States is still a debtor country, and a large amount of its capital and economy are still controlled by European countries.

Seeing that the current situation has exceeded his expectations, US President Wilson made a decisive decision to join the war as soon as possible to gain more benefits for the United States.

At least Europe's control over the US economy must be reduced so that the United States can develop better.

But the current situation is that the Allies do not need the United States very much. If the United States wants to force its way in to share a piece of the pie, it depends on whether Britain and France agree.

While US President Wilson persuaded Congress to launch a national general mobilization, he contacted Britain and France and requested to join the war as an Allied Power.

Although the United States could declare war on Germany directly, fighting Germany alone and joining the Allied Powers to fight Germany are two different things in terms of the distribution of benefits after the war.

First of all, Germany's overseas territories have basically been divided up by the Allied Powers, and it is impossible for the United States to obtain Germany's overseas territories on its own.

Although Germany still has a vast homeland, do Americans have the courage to send troops to capture Germany's homeland without the permission of Britain and France?

Let alone whether Americans have the courage, the current US military cannot be a match for the German army. If Americans want to attack Germany with their own strength, it is tantamount to a mantis trying to stop a chariot.

Britain and France maintained a completely opposite attitude towards the US proposal to join the Allied Powers.

The British did not want the Americans to join in and share a piece of the pie. After all, the war has been going very smoothly so far, and the status of the five major powers of the Allied Powers is also very stable, and there is no need to make trouble.

Although the power of the Allies alone is bound to lead to more casualties, the current casualties are not unacceptable to Britain, France and the entire Allied Powers.

After all, so far in the war, the two countries with the most casualties in the Allied Powers are France and Russia.

Although the British also suffered high casualties, the casualties of the regular army were only a few hundred thousand, and more were the casualties of the colonial troops.

Precisely because of the high casualties of the French, the casualties of the regular troops have reached more than 5 million, and the death toll has exceeded 1 million.

The French naturally hope that a great power like the United States can join the Allies, bear part of the pressure, and also share part of the casualties for themselves.

The disagreement between Britain and France gave the Americans an opportunity to join the Allies. Then, the Americans turned their attention to Russia, trying to win over this country in the Allied Powers with the most casualties.

The Russians also support the United States joining the Allies. The United States not only promised to provide Russia with a part of the interest-free loan, but also promised to provide Russia with up to two years of assistance.

This is also a timely help for the Russian government, which has experienced civil unrest and is in urgent need of materials and funds.

Therefore, the Americans quickly gained the support of Russia and agreed to the United States joining the Allies to fight against Germany.

The remaining Allied powers were only Australasia and Italy. Arthur's attitude was very clear, that is, like the British, he did not agree with the United States joining the Allies to fight against Germany.

Although the Americans' joining would bear part of the material pressure for Australasia, it would also take away a large amount of post-war benefits, which was not a good thing for Australasia.

What's more, the Americans were Australasia's direct competitors after the war, and they were also the countries most likely to compete with Australasia for European talents.

For such potential competitors, it is natural to weaken them if possible, and it is even more impossible to give them the opportunity to develop.

Italy's opinion was in line with Italy's position in World War I. It was unwilling to offend Britain and Australasia, and wanted the United States to join to obtain a large amount of financial and material assistance.

This time, the United States wanted to join the Allies, which to a certain extent aggravated the division of the Allies.

There is already a big rift between Britain and France in the distribution of strategic interests, and after Russia experienced civil unrest, it showed an attitude that valued money and materials more than feelings with other countries.

In other words, whoever can provide more material and financial support to Russia will also get Russia's support.

Doing so is indeed very helpful to national interests, but it is not a good thing for Britain and Australasia.

Britain and Russia have many conflicts. If France and the United States get closer, it is also likely to get closer to France and the United States.

In this way, the Allied camp has become Britain and Australasia against France, the United States and Russia. With Italy, which is like a fence-sitter, the distribution of interests after the war is destined to be not peaceful.

At the end of May 1917, the US government met with the Allies again and promised conditions that were almost impossible for major countries to refuse.

First, the United States is willing to provide Britain, France, Russia, Australia and Italy with an interest-free loan of US$2 billion each, and provide at least 1 million combat troops and a main fleet to participate in the war.

If the US$2 billion is based on the pre-war exchange rate, it is approximately equivalent to 400 million pounds, which is definitely not a small number.

You know, before the war, the annual military expenditure of Britain and France was only more than 600 million US dollars, which could provide Britain and France with at least three years of military expenditure before the war.

But since the outbreak of the war, the military expenditures of various countries have skyrocketed at an exponential rate. In 1915, Britain's military expenditure was as high as more than 10 billion US dollars, and last year's military expenditure was as high as more than 50 billion US dollars.

Compared with the exaggerated military expenditures of Britain and France, this $2 billion interest-free loan is nothing.

However, for relatively underdeveloped countries such as Italy and Australasia, this $2 billion interest-free loan is still very useful.

You know, Italy's military expenditure last year was only over 1 billion US dollars, and this interest-free loan is enough for the Italians to support them for another two years.

Compared with other countries, Australasia should be the biggest beneficiary. In 1916, Australasia's total military expenditure was only 120 million Australian dollars, which is almost equivalent to 300 million US dollars.

This is the military expenditure when Australasia has nearly 1 million combat troops and the navy is fully deployed.

The reason why the military expenditure is so low is that in the treaty with the British, the British have to bear half of the military expenditure of the Australasia troops fighting in Europe, which is an expenditure of up to 60 million Australian dollars.

This also means that the interest-free loan of 2 billion US dollars provided by the Americans can almost support Australasia in the war for seven years.

With this interest-free loan, France and Russia are more supportive of the Americans joining the Allies.

Even Italy was persuaded by the Americans and finally agreed to the Americans to join the Allies to fight against Germany with a 3-2 advantage.

However, Britain and Australasia are not without countermeasures.

First of all, all the German overseas territories currently occupied by the Allies are divided according to the existing occupied areas, and the Americans do not participate in the distribution of these areas.

The Americans can obtain the distribution of benefits from the occupied German land, but it must also be based on a premise, that is, the Allies agreed before that the benefits will be distributed according to the contributions of each country in the war.

Because the Americans joined the war relatively late, even if the Americans will get a share, the Americans' contribution to the war will definitely not be too great.

In this way, even if the Americans joined the war, they would be at most at the same level as Italy in the distribution of interests, and would not pose any threat to the original distribution of interests among the four major powers of the Allied Powers.

On June 1, 1917, after obtaining the consent of the Allied Powers, the Americans could not wait to declare war on Germany, and immediately dispatched a transport fleet to transport an army division and the headquarters of the American Expeditionary Force to Europe.

The number of American army troops is the smallest among the major powers. Even if President Wilson has persuaded Congress to mobilize the whole country in advance, it will take at least more than a month to achieve results.

This also means that, at least before August, there will not be too many American troops on the European battlefield, and the impact of the American army on the war will be minimal.

This is actually an opportunity for Australasia. After learning that the United States had joined the Allied Powers in the war against Germany, it was a decisive move to contact General Thomas, the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force, by telegram, and issued an order requiring the expeditionary force to capture Klagenfurt as soon as possible, encircle Vienna with the Italian army, and force the Austro-Hungarian Empire to withdraw from the war.

As long as the Americans did not contribute anything to defeating the Austro-Hungarian Empire, they would have no excuse or qualification to share the interests of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

In this way, the Allied Powers would only have Germany to resist stubbornly. If the Americans wanted to get more benefits, they could only send out their troops to fight the Germans with real swords and guns.

You should know that the interest-free loans provided by the Americans to the five major powers of the Allied Powers alone amounted to 10 billion US dollars. Adding the war expenses of the Americans, etc., the Americans spent at least 20 billion US dollars in this war.

If the post-war benefits of Germany were only distributed, it would be difficult for the Americans to get more than 20 billion US dollars in compensation.

After all, the distribution of Germany's benefits included the five major powers of the Allied Powers and the United States. The six countries divided Germany, and the benefits distributed to each country were very small.

In fact, in addition to the United States, there was another country that also wanted to join the Allies in declaring war on Germany, and that was the island country.

But the island country is different from the United States. The island country does not have such a developed economic system as the United States, nor does it have a navy that is worthy of the attention of Britain and France.

Even the island country is very short of mineral resources, and it needs the assistance of Britain and France to join the Allies.

Therefore, Britain and France directly rejected the island country's request to join the Allies, and the island country's attempt to take advantage of this war to occupy Germany's colonies in East Asia was directly shattered.

If it does not join the Allies, the island country can only declare war on Germany alone. However, the distribution of interests of the Allies involves all of Germany's overseas territories. If the island country openly invades Germany's East Asian colonies, it is equivalent to endangering the interests of the Allies.

If the island country really dares to do this, even if the United States is an ally of the island country, it will definitely not be able to save the island country.

Although Britain and France suffered heavy losses after the war, it is still easy to deal with an island country.

You know, the island country's military expenditure last year was only 220 million US dollars, which is not even as much as the military expenditure of Australasia. How can the island country have the courage to challenge the status of Britain and France?

Judging from the strength Australasia has shown so far, if Australasia fights against the island country, the island country may not necessarily win.

Although Australasia is at a disadvantage in terms of the number of army troops, the Australasia navy has completely blockaded the island country, and the air force is constantly bombing the major cities of the island country. Soon the island country will face the problem of shortage of supplies.

For an island country like the island country that is extremely short of supplies, if the navy is not strong, there will never be a chance to rise.

As long as the blockade is carried out, the difficulties faced by the island country are more serious than those faced by Germany. The lack of various materials is enough to cause the country to collapse internally.

The biggest change brought to Europe by the United States' participation in the war is the attitude of public opinion in European countries.

Since the United States declared war on Germany on June 1, newspapers in European countries have generally been bad-mouthing Germany, and many media have even directly declared that Germany's defeat is a matter of a short time, and the people of the Allied Powers can soon cheer for victory.

After the United States joined the Allies, the number of powers in the Allies came to six, while the Central Powers had only two.

Even if it is just paper data, the Allies still maintain a huge advantage over the Central Powers. Such advantages are not only in population, economy and industry, but also in the land area, mineral resources and various material reserves of the Allies.

No matter what, even if we only compare the consumption of manpower and materials, the Allies will never be the opponents of the Allies.

Even some media in Germany and Austria-Hungary in the Allies began to question the performance of the government in the war.

The Germans were unwilling to believe that the powerful German Empire was the disadvantaged party in this war and was likely to lose the war.

Fortunately, Germany is currently under the rule of the military government, and the government's rule has not been shaken by the doubts of some newspapers.

The military government has such an advantage. The rear government understands the commanders on the front line very well. The German government and the Junker nobles are still firm advocates of war and have not been affected.

However, although Germany was spared from the crisis, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was not so lucky.

There were many forces in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Karl I had just ascended the throne and did not have such a high prestige. The media in the Austro-Hungarian Empire could speak freely.

The major newspapers began to question the government's decision-making in the war, and finally began to question the government and Charles I.

Under the influence of these newspapers, the people also had some trust crisis in the government.

Strikes and demonstrations broke out in major factories and streets in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, demanding that the government stop the war and restore the pre-war order.

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