Mediterranean Hegemony Road

Franz Joseph I is in a good mood at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna!

He was a little surprised by the performance of the Bulgarian army. Although he knew that Serbia would definitely lose this war, he never thought it would end so soon!

Of course, these are all minor issues! The point is that Serbia has been taught a bad lesson and once again surrendered to Austria-Hungary!

The decision is back in Vienna again, and Franz Josef loves the feeling of being in control!

Ferdinand is very aware of current affairs, knows who is the boss in the Balkans now, and is willing to cooperate with Austria-Hungary's decision on the Serbian issue!

However, with the convening of the cabinet meeting, his good mood was broken! The reason is that Serbia was beaten too badly. It is estimated that Serbia suffered no less than 200,000 casualties in this war!

Serbia seems to be finished, someone inside Austria-Hungary has other ideas for him, annex Serbia!

On the surface, Serbia has suffered heavy losses, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire can easily annex it! In this regard, Bulgaria has already expressed its support. In exchange for the territory south of the Moldova River in Serbia, it is a reward!

Historically, Archduke Francis Ferdinand and Chief of General Staff Konrad von Herzendorf, the hawkish leader of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, have always advocated the annexation of Serbia! !

Chief of General Staff Konrad even publicly declared: Austria-Hungary must expand to the Adriatic Sea, the Balkans, the eastern Mediterranean, and parts of North Africa! !

At the end of 1907, Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister Erlenthal suggested to Conrad to annex northeastern Serbia, including Belgrade, and hand over the rest of Serbia to Bulgaria.

At the same time, the main war faction also proposed to use the "Trinity" to reorganize the Austro-Hungarian Empire, namely: the establishment of a new kingdom composed of Yugoslavs! The first thing to do is to annex Serbia and Montenegro!

History has shown that the "Trinity" was only used to scare the Hungarians, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire never really wanted to implement it!

However, the call for annexing Serbia has remained high! ! Both the central government and the Hungarian local government have plans to annex Serbia!

At the end of 1894, the domestic conflicts in the Austro-Hungarian Empire had not intensified, and the main war faction had not yet gained the upper hand!

The main war faction advocates taking advantage of the situation to divide Serbia, and there is not much difference on this point! However, on the handling of Serbia, the forces of all parties have had a fierce collision!

The Hungarians hope that the Serbian region can be placed under the Kingdom of Hungary, which is unacceptable to Austria; Austria proposed to set up a province directly, but it was strongly opposed by the Hungarians!

The two sides were still in dispute, and Franz Joseph I hesitated. Is it necessary to intensify domestic contradictions for a Serbia!

At this time, the drawbacks of the dualistic empire were exposed, and the conflict of interests of various parties in the country had spread to domestic and foreign affairs!

Since there is no agreement on the disposal of Serbia, there is no way to talk about annexation!

Franz Joseph I's political skills are not covered. How can a person who can build an empire by diplomatic means choose to intensify contradictions?

The plan to annex Serbia was shelved indefinitely!

However, this does not mean that Serbia has passed the border. In fact, its tragic fate has just begun. There is still a way of ruling in the world called "colonies"!

...

At the end of 1894, under the strong intervention of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the two countries ended the war!

However, at this time, the south of the Morava River in Serbia has all been occupied, and the vast areas of Leskovac, Kraljevo, Kragujevac and other areas in the north have also been occupied by the Bulgarians!

Belgrade, the capital, was also surrounded, so to speak, two-thirds of Serbia's territory,

Already under the rule of the Bulgarians!

The negotiation site of the two sides was chosen in Vienna, but the protagonists of the negotiation were not Bulgaria and Serbia. Serbia, which had lost everything, lost all negotiating chips!

Without the intervention of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Serbia will become history in at most half a month!

This negotiation has also attracted the attention of the foreign powers! The British, French, Germans, Italians, Russians sent representatives to participate!

In the negotiation on the bright side, the Bulgarian representative is arguing with the Serbian representative, and the major powers have exerted their influence!

Another Bulgarian representative team secretly arrived in Vienna long ago and reached a preliminary agreement in advance!

The gold-dollar offensive adopted by Ferdinand was still very effective. On the premise of not harming the interests of the country, the group, and their own interests, the Austro-Hungarian nobles still did not mind generating income for themselves!

So the Serbs were betrayed. Of course, the Austro-Hungarian Empire is still working hard to protect the interests of Serbia!

The major powers don't care what kind of spoils Bulgaria gets! Anyway, Serbia is the default sphere of influence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As long as Austria-Hungary does not directly annex Serbia, in essence, everyone is indifferent!

Of course, the scene is another matter. The Russian representative clearly supports Bulgaria! There is no doubt about this, even if there is no alliance to protect Russia, St. Petersburg will do the same just to block the Austro-Hungarian Empire!

Because of the "French-Russian Alliance", the French gave Russia a face, and tended to Bulgaria in their attitude!

The Germans undoubtedly chose the same attitude as the Austro-Hungarian Empire and supported Serbia.

The attitude of the British is very complicated. One moment they support Serbia on this issue, and another moment they support Bulgaria on that issue. The typical shit stick style, burying nails everywhere!

The Italians are in charge of making soy sauce, and it's good to attend the audition, it is not their turn to speak in the Balkans yet!

The wrangling continues, but the Serbs can't take it anymore! After Belgrade was besieged, all personnel and supplies were charged a transit tax by the Bulgarian army!

Now that winter has come, unfortunately the materials stored in Belgrade have been patronized by the Bulgarian army shells before, and the losses have been heavy!

The basic life of the people is now not guaranteed! It is necessary to buy food, coal and other necessities of life from the outside world!

It's a pity that all incoming and outgoing materials are required by the Bulgarian army, 95% of the transit tax is levied, and personnel enter and leave at 50 pounds per person!

Serbia had to ask for help from Austria-Hungary, but this time the Bulgarian delegation was very firm and refused to give in at all!