Mediterranean Hegemony Road

Since you can't do it yourself, then supporting the puppet is also a good choice! The Ottoman Empire is indeed weak, but it can't stand the feud between Russia and Turkey! God knows, will the sultan go crazy someday, give it a shot?

Isn't the Armenian question an example? You can do it, why keep it a secret? The Russian Empire has done nothing less to suppress the rebellions of ethnic minorities, but when the news leaks, it has already been done! When have you ever been caught by the international community?

In the eyes of Russians, this is completely worrying about IQ! Oh, completely ignoring the disparity in national strength between the two sides! If the Armenian issue occurred in the Russian Empire, it is estimated that the people would be shouting twice, and most governments would pretend not to see it! !

The strategy of the Russian Empire has to start from the beginning, and it is all forced out!

The predecessor of the Russian Empire was the Principality of Moscow, located in the middle of the Eastern European plain. Most of the territory has a high latitude, a cold climate and a harsh environment. Therefore, the focus of the Russian expansion is to the south and west, followed by east, and finally north. .

To the north is the Arctic Ocean. It is well known that the Arctic Ocean has an extremely cold climate and poor navigation conditions. The long coastline of the Arctic Ocean is only a place where Murmansk can be used as an outlet. It is the only non-frozen port in the Arctic Ocean.

However, Murmansk is an estuary port with a high latitude and a cold climate. In August, the highest temperature in the daytime is minus 12 degrees, and the night is 0 degrees. In winter, the minimum temperature at night once reached minus 60 degrees. To develop a port on this icy wasteland, The difficulty can be imagined.

The road to the north was blocked, and to the west, the Russians and their western neighbors fought for hundreds of years. Part of the coastline of the east coast of the Baltic Sea has been seized from countries such as Finland, Sweden, Lithuania and Poland, but the Baltic Sea is a closed inland sea!

The Russian navy was limited to the eastern Baltic Sea, and wanted to go out unless they annexed the coastal countries such as Sweden, Germany, and Denmark. But no matter how big or small the coastal countries are, they are all small strongmen who can't be beaten to death, and none of them are easy to mess with.

First, Denmark's Kalmar dominated, and then Gu Erye's Sweden was awesome again. Now it's Germany's turn to rise again. Anyway, the Russian Empire can't settle it!

Let’s go south. Unfortunately, the Black Sea is more closed than the Baltic Sea. If you want to go out, you have to go through Turkey, and you have to go through the Mediterranean Sea to get out of Turkey.

The Russians had tried to snatch the Bosphorus from Turkey, only to be beaten back by the Anglo-French partnership in the Crimean War.

The current situation is obvious. Even if the Russian Empire can PK out Turkey, it has to be beaten back into the Mediterranean Sea. Therefore, the Russian Empire has put its strategic focus on the Far East!

In contrast, Europe is a hard bone, and the Far East is a soft persimmon!

The Russians have seized large tracts of land from the foodie empire and gained the natural port of Vladivostok (Vladivostok).

However, although Vladivostok is in good conditions, it has a freezing period, and is surrounded by the Japanese archipelago, the Korean Peninsula, and the Aleutian Islands. If the Russians want to go out of the Pacific Ocean, they have to go through it.

However, if you compare it, you will find that compared with the UK and Germany in Europe, the little troubles of Japan and North Korea are simply insignificant!

The Russian Empire has no plans to borrow the way. Since it has taken a fancy to it, it will be good to grab it soon! Anyway, Japan and North Korea at the end of the 19th century were weak chickens, and they were not in the eyes of the Russians.

Now that Russia has found the best breakthrough, naturally it will not stay in Europe and continue to fight the copy of hell. The navy wants to open the way to the Mediterranean in advance, but it is a precautionary measure. It is good to succeed, but it is okay to fail!

There is also a reason that cannot be said, just to brush the sense of existence! To support the Bulgarians coming out to grab the strait, there must be a navy, right?

Just like Bulgaria's pocket-sized navy, it's okay to catch smugglers in the offshore waters; if they set sail, maybe they will be directly destroyed by pirates?

the value of the Russian Navy,

Doesn't it show up? According to traditional practice, the Bulgarian navy is the Russian navy wearing a vest. From establishment to training, it should be done by the Russian navy, including command power!

As for Bulgaria's attitude, does this matter? Can you not eat the pie delivered to your door? Anyway, the future is part of the Russian Empire, just like several kingdoms in the German Empire, the present is for the future harvest!

After all, before the opening of the Siberian Railway, the power that the Russian Empire can put into the Far East is extremely limited, and the navy will become a spectator!

This is intolerable to the Admiralty. Whether it is out of personal interest or collective interest, the Admiralty must keep the Navy alive at all times!

Then the obedient Bulgaria entered the eyes of everyone. It just so happened that in the second Bulgarian war, the Bulgarian army performed well and won the true heritage of the Russian Empire! (Note: Before 1886, the Bulgarian Army was run by the Russians. From establishment to training, it was completed at the request of Russian instructors!)

Supporting Bulgaria to ban the Ottoman Empire's monopoly on the strait is a good choice!

As for whether Bulgaria will become bigger? Sorry, it doesn't exist! At least in front of the Russian Empire at its peak, even if Ferdinand unified the Balkans, he had to be an honest little brother!

At the end of the 19th century, in terms of comprehensive national strength, the British Empire was the worthy leader, followed by the Russian Empire, and Germany and the United States were still practicing their internal skills!

This ranking remained unchanged until 1905! The Franco-Russian alliance suppressed the German, Austrian-Italian tripartite alliance in Europe. In order to reduce the pressure on the European continent, all countries (except France) unanimously chose to lead the way.

Austria-Hungary must pretend to be a grandson and rely on Germany to barely compete with the Russian Empire, not to mention Bulgaria! After waiting for decades, Bulgaria has risen, and the two countries have long been tied together, and it is no longer a matter of personal understanding.

The Navy Minister's argument, as early as more than ten years ago, the Russian Empire already had a similar plan, but for various reasons, it has not been implemented.

From the time of Bulgarian independence, the Russian Empire had a strong influence and even mastered the Bulgarian army for a time, until 1885, that changed.

Now I put it up again. The difference from the past is that Bulgaria's strength is slightly stronger. In order to avoid causing dissatisfaction with the Bulgarians, Alexander III began to use Huairou methods!

It seems that the effect is not bad at present. The "big Bulgarian people" implemented by Bulgaria is essentially the same as the strategy of unification of the Slavic peoples proposed by the Russian Empire. The only difference is that the appetite is smaller!