African Entrepreneurship Record

And Russia is now actively promoting the "Great Slavism" propaganda, which can unite the Poles, Ukrainians, and Yugoslavs around St. Petersburg, after all, they all belong to the branches of the Slavs.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire could not even reach an agreement with its own Hungarians. Hungary also actively promoted various privileges of its own nation within the empire, which further split the consensus within the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Rudolf's words also made the atmosphere in Schönbrunn Palace begin to become solemn, including the hawkish Conrad, who had to consider carefully in the face of a large amount of factual evidence.

Franz spoke at this time: "After saying so much, Rudolf, what kind of plan do you think the empire should choose to be the safest?"

Since Rudolf said so much, there should be a solution. After all, the Austro-Hungarian Empire cannot choose to do nothing because of too many disadvantages. For example, Serbia, such a small country, is so jumping in front of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If it is not punished, it is obviously a humiliation of the dignity of the empire.

Rudolf: "According to my idea, we should actively expand the army, especially improve the military finances, first make up for the gap between us and other major powers, and then declare war on Serbia."

It's basically the same as saying nothing. After all, the issue of military expenditure is not something Austria can decide unilaterally, and it cannot bypass Hungary. If Hungary could be persuaded, it would not be so indecisive now.

Conrad said: "In terms of military expenditure, we can only start a war first, and then slowly negotiate with Hungary. Nothing will be a problem in a state of war. Of course, it would be better if we can raise military expenditures without Hungary."

As one of the cores of the empire, Hungary is definitely opposed to the annexation of Serbia by the empire. After all, Serbia plus Bosnia, Croatia, and Slovenia in the political map of the empire may change the original dual core, which is equivalent to sharing the original Hungarian political power.

Conrad's words contradicted each other, but there was a factor that Conrad did not name, that is Russia. If Russia went to war with the empire because of the Serbian issue, Hungary would be tied to the chariot. After all, Russia was in the eastern part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Hungary would bear the brunt and face the threat of Russia.

After summarizing the views of the two, Franz thought for a long time and finally said: "In this case, let's put pressure on Serbia first! After all, putting pressure on Serbia does not mean that we must go to war. If Serbia can compromise, perhaps there is no need to take further radical measures."

Franz's idea is very good, but Serbia, a country that made its fortune by extreme nationalism, obviously did not have the habit of compromising with major powers at this time. However, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had no choice, and the war between the two countries was only a matter of time.

Sure enough, in July, after the Austro-Hungarian Empire made its political demands to Serbia with the help of the Sarajevo incident, the Serbian military government refused.

The two countries entered into a tense relationship, which was considered a provocation by the hawks in the empire, and the extreme media also increased the exaggeration of the Serbian threat theory.

Originally, because Archduke Ferdinand was not dead, the plan proposed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire this time was much more relaxed than the same period in history, but under the choice of Serbian extreme nationalism and the military government, the situation began to develop in the worst direction.

The last time the public opinion in the Austro-Hungarian Empire was patient, it fermented further and broke out completely. The national advocacy wave was huge, demanding severe punishment for Serbia.

In fact, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was just like Serbia, with serious internal nationalism, but Hungary was involved in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, so it was difficult to form a joint force. This time, the public opinion in the Austro-Hungarian Empire portrayed Serbia as a common enemy, which was barely a preliminary consensus.

At the same time, Rudolf, the crown prince, also went to Hungary for lobbying. With the help of his mother's influence in Hungary and the exchange of some interests, the Hungarian government finally made concessions.

This was difficult for Archduke Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire in his previous life. After all, Archduke Ferdinand himself had a bad reputation in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, especially his idea of ​​establishing a tripartite empire and incorporating the Slavs into the core of the empire, which would definitely cause dissatisfaction among the Hungarians.

Rudolf was completely different. Influenced by Ernst, Rudolf was originally dissatisfied with the dualistic empire, but Hungary had already become a trend, so Rudolf had to hold his nose and endure it, but he would never allow a second "Hungary" to appear in the empire, that is, Ferdinand's idea, unless Hungary was divided into two.

For Rudolf, it was basically impossible to implement Germanization in the empire again. He could only settle for the second best and make a weakened version of "Austro-Hungarianization", that is, to integrate Austria and Hungary into a new nation, at least to form a main ethnic concept in his own country.

This is a combination of two, so Rudolf could not give any privileges to other ethnic groups to prevent the second "Hungary" from appearing in the empire.

Of course, Rudolf's ideas were just ideas. After all, Franz was still the emperor of the empire. Before he took power, these ideas only appeared in Rudolf's mind.

July 26, 1914.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire issued a final war ultimatum to Serbia. Two days later, Serbia refused again and began the final war mobilization.

On the 28th, the Austro-Hungarian Empire finally declared war on Serbia, and only one day later, Russia announced its support for Serbia and the Tsarist government issued a mobilization order.

At the same time, Russia declared war on Austria-Hungary and Germany successively, and also dragged Germany into the muddy water, because Germany's wooing of Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire completely reduced the relationship between Russia and Germany to the freezing point.

After Russia declared war, William II led Germany and did not hope that the war would break out immediately, but hoped that Russia would stop military mobilization, but was rejected by Russia. Germany had no choice but to declare war on Russia. Subsequently, Germany declared war on its old rival France, and Britain followed suit and declared war on Germany on August 4.

A war that swept across the five top powers in Europe broke out completely. Other European countries, except Serbia, Belgium and other countries, temporarily waited and watched to prevent themselves from being splashed with blood.

The United States, East Africa and other foreign countries were very excited. The two governments hypocritically advised Europe to remain calm and expressed a neutral attitude of not participating in the European war.

After confirming that the major European powers were involved in the war, the East African government restarted its naval expansion plan. The shelved naval construction plan restarted funding and various factories worked overtime to produce in response to the large number of orders that might be brought about by the European war.

With the war in Europe already a foregone conclusion, East Africa began to set its sights on the world market outside Europe, including Germany's colonies.

Of course, the East African government certainly did not want to invade Germany's overseas territories by force, but in the First World War, Germany was no longer able to guarantee the security of its overseas territories. In this case, the East African government was naturally willing to be Germany's receiver.

Including German Central Africa (Cameroon, Gabon) and German Pacific Islands (New Guinea, Mariana Islands), East Africa was most interested in German Central Africa. As for Germany's Pacific territories, it could continue to accumulate East Africa's advantages in the Pacific region. In this way, in the Pacific region, East Africa's territory could cover most places, from Alaska in the north to New Guinea close to Australia, further expanding East Africa's influence in the Pacific region.

On the day Germany declared war on Russia, the East African embassy in Germany immediately took action to discuss with the German government.

At this time, Germany had no other choice. Even if these overseas territories were in its hands, it would be difficult to guarantee their safety. It would be better to exchange them with the East African government for relevant support.