Greece to roman road

1901, Sofia, Royal Palace.

The new Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Bulgaria, Karaoui is delivering a State of the Union address to King Ferdinand I.

"Prime Minister, how is the situation in Macedonia?" Ferdinand I asked worriedly.

Like previous Bulgarian rulers in history, Ferdinand was also determined to establish a new Byzantine Empire.

However, after the war between Greece and the Ottomans in 1896, Greece's territory expanded significantly and its population increased dramatically, which put Bulgaria, which had been ranked first among the three Balkan countries in terms of strength, under tremendous pressure.

"Your Majesty, according to intelligence, forces supported by the Greeks have also appeared in Macedonia." Karawi also frowned.

In Bulgaria's position, Macedonia, which has an important strategic location, is indispensable if it wants to develop further, especially the ports on the Aegean Sea, which are strategic locations that Bulgaria dreams of.

Southern Bulgaria is only a hundred kilometers away from the Aegean Sea. However, because Macedonia and Thrace are still under the jurisdiction of the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria's trade routes have to go around in a big circle and rely on the ports on the Black Sea coast for international trade. This is a serious problem. Influenced the development of Bulgaria's economy.

"According to the information we learned from the embassy in Greece, after the 1896 War, Greece's economy developed extremely fast, with an economic growth rate of more than 8% every year," Karavi quoted the ambassador as saying.

"In your opinion, will the gap in strength between us and Greece become larger and larger as time goes by?" King Ferdinand asked worriedly.

When Karawi heard this, he remained silent and was really analyzing the specific data of Greece in his mind.

"Culturally, Greece has implemented compulsory education, and almost all children of school age have received education. The country's literacy rate has reached 50%, and the number of college students has reached 50,000."

"Economically, Greece has the Congo colony, and Greece as a whole gets an annual income of 60 million francs from there (mainly from colonial companies). Greece exports textiles, medicines, and agricultural products every year, with an output value of 600 million francs. It is said that last year Greece's fiscal revenue Reaching 500 million francs”

(Due to the relationship between the Latin Monetary Union, the exchange rate between the franc and the Greek currency drachma and the Italian lira is 1:1:1)

Seeing King Ferdinand's increasingly gloomy face, Karavi wisely stopped reporting on the situation in Greece.

Hearing this, Ferdinand also regretted a little. During the Greek-Ottoman War in 1896, a coup happened in Bulgaria. He was a new king. He was an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and had just become the Grand Duke of Bulgaria. The situation in Bulgaria was relatively chaotic. At the same time, The great powers were strongly opposed to expanding the scale of the war, so Bulgaria could only watch Greece annex Ottoman territory.

It seems now that it would have been better if Bulgaria had had a tougher attitude at that time. At worst, it would not have allowed Greece to successfully expand its territory.

Now the Greek economy is soaring, especially when I heard that Greece had found an oil field with an annual output of 80,000 tons in Albania. Ferdinand was like a fly when he heard the news.

"Your Majesty, the situation is now obvious. The Macedonian issue cannot be delayed any longer. The longer it takes, the better it will be for Greece," Prime Minister Karaoui said firmly.

"you mean?"

"Now we should act decisively to completely resolve the issue of Macedonia's ownership. While the gap between the two countries is still within a certain range, we should immediately let our forces in Macedonia take action, either for independence or autonomy, to stir up the situation in the Balkans and disrupt the development of the Greeks. Steps, don’t let the rhythm follow the Greek beat.”

Callaway, who has a sharp eye, has a keen understanding of the situation in the Balkans and can see Greece's plan at a glance.

The Greeks are currently very restrained on the Macedonian issue because they do not want to cause more trouble and seize the opportunity to develop the economy and absorb the benefits gained from the Ottomans.

Moreover, after all, Macedonia is nominally a territory belonging to the Ottomans. No matter how many small moves Bulgaria makes, it will not mean much in a short time and this will not change.

Ferdinand pondered for a moment, and the Prime Minister's words did make sense.

"What do you think we should do? Prime Minister"

"This is not difficult. Your Majesty, notify our soldiers in Macedonia and ask them to act as soon as possible to make some noise to attract the attention of European countries and force European countries to pay attention to the Macedonian issue. Whether it is independence or something, let the Balkans The situation became chaotic”

Most of the residents in Macedonia are Christians. At the end of the 19th century, the liberation of Christians from pagans naturally attracted the support of people from all over Europe.

By creating chaos in Macedonia and making big news, the Macedonian issue is put on the agenda of European politicians.

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In May 1901, a French merchant ship anchored in Salonika was attacked. The raging merchant ship burned on the sea near the pier for three full hours. The flames soaring into the sky almost destroyed Salonika. All citizens took note of this incident.

Just the day after this incident, an explosion occurred at an Ottoman bank branch in Thessaloniki, killing more than 50 people.

An organization called the "Thessaloniki Assassins" openly claimed responsibility for this incident in newspapers and declared the independence of the Macedonian people.

For a time, the unrest in the Balkans became mysterious and attracted the attention of the whole of Europe.

France and Britain immediately put pressure on the Ottoman authorities, requiring the Ottoman government to play an active role in ending the local chaos.

The shareholders behind the bank that exploded were almost all British and French capitalists.

At the same time, ethnic organizations close to Bulgaria are becoming more and more vicious in rural areas.

For those villages that were emotionally close to Greece, armed bandits brutally looted and massacred them, using horrific methods to deal with these people.

On August 2, the uprising officially kicked off in southern Macedonia. From Bitola to Kruvoshe, from the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea, there were irregular armed uprisings everywhere, participating in the riots.

After the initial victory of the uprising, several leaders who led the uprising established a "Kruivoše Republic" in Kruiše.

The ambassadors of Britain, France, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Germany personally visited the Ottoman Grand Vizier and asked the Ottoman Empire to take measures to maintain the situation and prevent it from deteriorating further.

At this time, no country wanted to cause more trouble in Europe: Britain was mired in the Boer War and had no time to care about anything else; Russia, with the extension of the Trans-Siberian Railway, was making every effort to expand in the direction of Asia, with ambitious plans to establish a "Yellow Russia";

News of the uprising reached Athens, and citizens with fanatical nationalism came to the Capitol and shouted slogans, demanding support for Macedonian independence and the liberation of Christians.