Empire Rising: Spain

Austria-Hungary could only turn its attention to another ally, one that was already implementing reforms: Spain.

Although Spain was also an extremely weakened empire, the current reforms had revitalized Spain, and it was not too much to call it a strong European nation.

With Germany not directly supporting Austria-Hungary, the most reliable ally for Austria-Hungary was Spain.

Of course, Austria-Hungary’s hope to maintain the status quo in the Balkans was definitely not placed solely on Spain. The main point was that the British did not wish to see Russia expanding its sphere of influence in the Balkan Peninsula, nor did they want to see the Russians controlling Constantinople and the straits.

After the Austrian-Hungarian diplomatic envoy contacted the Spanish Government, the Cabinet urgently convened a meeting and invited Carlo to attend.

Carlo was also aware of this part of history. Ultimately, a war did break out between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, known in history as the Tenth Russian-Turkish War.

The Tenth Russian-Turkish War in history ended with a Russian victory, but the spoils were divided among the UK, Austria, and Russia.

It’s worth mentioning that this war allowed Austria-Hungary to gain Bosnia and Herzegovina, indirectly sparking the First World War.

After all, the trigger for the First World War is very famous: Crown Prince Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo. Sarajevo is a city in Bosnia, and the reason for Ferdinand’s assassination stemmed from the conflict between Austria-Hungary and Serbia over the two provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Austria-Hungary hoped that Spain would fulfill its treaty obligations and provide diplomatic support to ensure that Austria-Hungary had enough confidence to oppose Russia’s forcible intervention in the Balkan Peninsula situation.

Carlo, familiar with the development of this historical period, naturally understood that Austria-Hungary did not participate in this war. Providing diplomatic support to Austria-Hungary had no cost for Spain.

Although it would offend Russia, Russia was at the easternmost end of Europe, and Spain at the westernmost, with no mutual interests between the two nations; if offended, then so be it.

Moreover, the Tsarist Russia’s life was not long to endure. The Ottoman Empire was a decaying ancient empire, and wasn’t Tsarist Russia the same?

Reforms were not thorough, giving Tsarist Russia a temporary reprieve, but how long this would last, Carlo knew very well in his heart.

The data on the surface of Europe’s five traditional great powers looks exaggerated, but the genuinely powerful nations were only three: UK, France, Germany.

In industry and economy, the UK, France, and Germany crushed Russia and Austria, being the top three mighty powers in the world at the time.

Russia won the war with the Ottoman Empire but ultimately had to concede to Austria-Hungary and the UK, the fundamental reason being Russia’s weakness and Britain’s strength.

If the disputes on the Balkan Peninsula involved only the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Russia, Russia might even be confident that after defeating the Ottoman Empire, it could wage war against Austria-Hungary, completely controlling the Balkans situation.

Unfortunately, Germany backed Austria-Hungary, and the UK backed the Ottoman Empire. For Russia to completely control the Balkans was extremely difficult, just like it is for Spain to control Gibraltar now.

Following the Cabinet meeting, the Spanish Government officially expressed its stance, agreeing to diplomatically support Austria-Hungary and backing the great powers in not interfering with the Balkan Peninsula situation.

With the support from the Spanish Government, the Austro-Hungarian Empire Government finally breathed a sigh of relief. Although Spain couldn’t compare to Europe’s five traditional great powers, it was definitely a strong nation in Europe.

Spain’s diplomatic support was still important to Austria-Hungary, and it was believed it could lead Russia to consider certain issues more carefully when planning for the Balkans.

As Austria-Hungary breathed a sigh of relief, Carlo had already begun preparing the armament factories to produce a new batch of weaponry and artillery shells.

The scale of the Tenth Russian-Turkish War was quite large, with both sides deploying troops numbering over a million and more than 4,000 artillery pieces.

In this war, both sides engaged in large army formations, equipped with rifled guns and artillery, and used railroads and battlefield telegraphs for communication.

This also made the battlefield scale larger, and the mode of warfare changed from previous battles. This war’s combat, characterized by wide frontal engagements and large depth, was worth learning by the Spanish Army.

And the warring parties would certainly need a large amount of weapons and equipment, which was a potential opportunity for Spain’s arms factories to export armaments.