Chapter 1331 - 340: European Situation

Chapter 1331: Chapter 340: European Situation

In mid-1918, with a series of international events occurring and changes in domestic conditions in East Africa, the main three major tasks of the East African Government can be summed up as "digest," "build," and "expand the military."

Digest, as the name suggests, means to assimilate a series of achievements East Africa has obtained in recent years, especially newly developed overseas markets and colonies.

In the past few years, East Africa’s trade in South America, the Far East, and along the Indian Ocean coast has continuously expanded, injecting vitality into East Africa’s economic development through these new market shares.

Maintaining the stability of these markets and colonies involves the issue of "military expansion," because overseas markets and colonies without military maintenance are just phantasms. So the expansion process of the East African Navy is still steadily advancing, which is a necessary measure for a strong country.

Building mainly refers to the domestic economic construction situation, particularly in two aspects: reforming state-owned enterprises and guiding the free market, as well as improving market systems and legal construction.

The main content is basically guided by East Africa’s "Fourth Five-Year" plan launched in 1916, continuously deepening and progressing. This is the basic task of the East African Government or the minimum economic development goal, so it is not overly described.

Clearly, the hot economic development trend easily leads to the early completion of various indicators of the "Fourth Five-Year" plan formulated by East Africa.

Therefore, in 1918, the work focus of the East African Government was still on the topic of military expansion, for which Ernst held a meeting at the Rhine Palace.

Defense Minister Pripyat summed up the development of the East African Army in recent years: "As of 1918, the Defense Army has grown to an unprecedented scale of 850,000 people, with almost 650,000 in the army. The navy and marine corps also exceed 170,000, along with an air force of more than 20,000 people."

"Among them, the degree of motorization in the army is as high as seventy-five percent, and the navy’s ships total over 1.4 million tons."

"Our country’s military strength currently ranks behind the four countries of England, France, Germany, and Austria. If it is detailed, the Empire’s army strength should be ranked fourth in the world; the navy is in second place worldwide, while the air force ranks first in the world."

The Defense Ministry arrived at this conclusion mainly because the Tsarist Russian army is basically paralyzed. With the collapse of Tsarist Russia, the combat effectiveness of the Russian army plummeted. In last year’s war organized by the Russian Labor Party with Germany, the Russian Labor Party-led former Tsarist Russian army could not function at all, leading to a front line battlefield collapse over thousands of miles.

This also caused the Russian Labor Party to urgently stop the war and negotiate peace with the Allies, signing an armistice treaty.

Therefore, from the perspective of the East African Army, Russia is no longer enough to rank as a world military power, at least not until the Russian Labor Party restructured the army and cultivated its own military cadres. The Russian army is basically useless.

As for other countries, the few countries ranked before East Africa are only England, France, Germany, and Austria. In terms of comprehensive strength, actually, they may not necessarily rank before East Africa.

For example, the United Kingdom, the Royal Navy boosts the data of the entire British army, while the other three countries only exceed East Africa’s army scale in absence of wartime mobilization.

Therefore, Pripyat’s statement that the East African Defense Army’s strength ranks fourth in the world is not exaggeration, but rather a conservative claim.

As for the United States, which has joined the Allies, its military strength currently can be almost ignored. Even after a round of expansion, the current scale of the U.S. military is just tens of thousands, not even half of East Africa.

The main reason is that the U.S. standing army was too small before entering the war, with land and naval forces totaling just tens of thousands.

Pripyat said: "The Russian army system is paralyzed, soldiers are unwilling to fight, and many military commanders have fled. Coupled with Russia’s civil war, the Russian army is just a facade, while the U.S., although it has conducted a round of conscription, most new recruits have no combat power. The U.S.’s performance after entering the war is also quite timid, which will inevitably affect the combat effectiveness of the U.S. military."

After being successfully persuaded to join the war by England and France, the U.S. has far from shown the boldness it exhibited in earlier times, mainly because the combat power of the Allies is exceptionally strong now.

The fundamental reason for this outcome lies in Austria-Hungary, and Germany’s other two allies displaying combat strength far exceeding earlier eras.

Currently, Rudolph, the Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, has fully grasped national power. Compared to Emperor Franz, his energy is more vigorous, enabling better integration of national resources to support the war.

A key point manifests in the current Austrian-Hungarian military strength reaching nearly four million, something Austria-Hungary could not achieve in earlier times. Moreover, Italy’s dismantlement in the last century greatly impacted the fortune of Austria-Hungary.

Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire’s combat strength far surpasses historical levels, especially the Ottoman Empire, which has been considerably armed by Germany and East Africa, showing stronger performance than before.

In summary, the situation of World War I today is still quite unclear, even after the U.S. joined, due to Austria-Hungary showing performance better than that of earlier times, preventing the Allies’ morale from disintegrating upon America’s war declaration like before.

Development reached a limit for the Allies by mid-1918 in earlier times, but due to East Africa’s emergence and Ernst’s influence, the situation has completely altered.

The Allies’ biggest issue earlier was production and logistics, but until 1918 in this timeline, the Allies could still obtain a large amount of strategic materials from East Africa, allowing the Allied economy to be maintained.

Especially cotton, sugars, rubber, oil, and rare metals resources, the Allies still have substantial reserves. With Russia’s withdrawal from the war, there are basically no issues with food and other major mineral resources.

Due to the strengthened power of the Allies in this timeline, the Allies won more war spoils from Russia, including most of the Baltic Sea coastal Three Kingdoms, all of Poland, Moldova, and the entirety of Ukraine and Belarus.

These areas are principal grain and mineral production regions of Tsarist Russia, while also possessing almost half of Russia’s original industry.

In earlier times, the Allies could not adequately absorb these spoils to strengthen their power, but now it is uncertain.

As long as the Allies can digest the results from the Eastern front, even with the United States joining the Allies, it may not be able to change the European war situation.

This also involves the influence of Italy. No matter how one says it, Italy was one of the world powers in earlier times, but now even if Italy joins the Allies, it cannot constrain Austria-Hungary.

Correct, Italy has yet to enter the war, or rather the entire Apennine Peninsula maintains neutrality, with both the Pope Country and Naples being initially supported by Austria-Hungary.

Previously, Italy dared not join the war due to a disparity in strength, but now the concerns are even greater because of Austrian-Hungarian combat strength, which Italy cannot contend with. This may also be affected by the Italo-Austrian War in the last century, so the Kingdom of Italy long lost the aspiration of unifying the Apennine Peninsula.

Indeed, once a person’s spirit is destroyed, it becomes much harder to uplift them again—such is the case for nations too. In earlier times, Italy could wrestle with Austria-Hungary only built on a foundation of victories.

Now, Austria-Hungary’s status is excellent, especially after gaining a large amount of war spoils from Russia in tandem with Germany, even Hungary, which previously held back, has become active.

The benefits Austria-Hungary gained from Russia are most advantageous to Hungary, given the regions bordering Russia and Austria-Hungary are closer to Hungary, allowing them to receive more spoils post-war. This carrot entices even Hungary, a stubborn mule, making it impossible to resist such temptation, hence Hungary’s significant change in war attitude.