Greece to roman road

In April 1907, the Royal Palace in Syntagma Square welcomed two solemn-looking and worried visitors, Prime Minister Alexandros and Foreign Minister Venizelos.

Venizelos successfully led the Crerit people's uprising in 1896. After the war, he officially entered the political arena and was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece by King George.

Since King George was away in Russia on a state visit, Constantine received the two men in the conference room.

"Your Highness, according to the news from our consulate in Salonika and the ambassador in Constantinople, there is a revolution in the Ottoman Empire," Venizelos said with a serious face.

As a neighboring country, Greece will be affected by major changes in the Ottoman Empire, both economically and politically.

"What's the specific situation?" Constantine said seriously.

"According to the consular response in Thessaloniki, it is probably due to the continuous chaos caused by the three Balkan countries, Serbia, Bulgaria and the armed forces supported by Greece in recent years fighting for Macedonia, causing huge commotion in Macedonia and increasingly dissatisfied Macedonia. msl supported this revolution," said Prime Minister Alexandros.

Since the armed forces supported by Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria have entered Macedonia unscrupulously, although the goals of the three countries are different, the basic purpose of each country is to expand their influence among Orthodox Christians and find legal basis for gaining Macedonia.

However, although the Ottoman Empire continued to decline, Macedonia was still a territory of the Ottoman Empire, and the Ottoman Empire maintained its rule here for nearly 500 years.

During the rule of the Ottoman Empire, as conquered people, Christians were discriminated against in all aspects. In terms of taxation alone, the taxes that Christians had to pay were generally 5-2 times that of MSL.

The laws and religious precepts of the Ottoman Empire stipulated that Christians were allowed to convert to Islam, but Muslims were not allowed to convert to other religions.

During these long 500 years, many original Orthodox Christians converted to Christianity in order to reduce taxes and became MSLs.

In addition to conversion, some MSL in Macedonia migrated from Asia Minor and settled in Macedonia.

As the decline of the Ottoman Empire's national power continued, its ability to control Macedonia was increasingly weakened. The chaos caused by the competition between the three countries in Macedonia naturally made the local MSL quite dissatisfied.

The armed forces of the three countries ignored the local MSL, while the Ottoman Sultan's government was weak and the social order was out of control, which made the Macedonian MSL clearly realize that the Ottomans were terminally ill and must rely on reforms to change the sluggish social status quo.

Some young and progressive Ottoman officers who had received a European education, were open-minded and knowledgeable, finally took action.

"Currently, a group of Ottoman revolutionary troops have entered Salonika. They are marching towards Constantinople under the slogan of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity"," Venizelos said.

The current Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Hamid II, is not a fatuous monarch, with sophisticated and ruthless political skills. It's just that he was very unlucky and inherited an empire that was about to end its lifespan.

Not long after becoming Sudan, the Ottoman army was defeated by the Russian army in the Russo-Turkish War of 1878.

Even after the Ottoman Empire was defeated by Greece again in 1897, Hamid II relied on the support of the army and was still able to control the political situation of the Ottoman Empire and generally maintain the Ottoman situation.

"The news came back from Vienna that the Austro-Hungarian Empire seemed to be intending to take advantage of the Ottoman Empire's civil strife to formally annex the mandated Poch," Venizelos continued.

"However, there seems to be controversy within Austria-Hungary. Hungary is opposed to the annexation of Boch, because Boch is a place where Slavs live. After the annexation of Boch, the number of Slavs will increase, threatening the status of the Magyars."

"Also, King Ferdinand of Bulgaria has declared in Sofia that Bulgaria is officially independent, called the Kingdom of Bulgaria, and has given himself the title of Tsar."

Bulgaria was still an Ottoman vassal state, and the Ottoman Empire still had nominal suzerainty over Bulgaria, although Bulgaria had in fact gained independent status.

Now, Bulgaria and the Ottomans have officially become state-to-state relations, and there is no longer any connection.

When Constantine heard Ferdinand calling himself Tsar, he sneered and felt that Bulgaria was overestimating its capabilities.

At the end of the 19th century, the title of the monarch seemed to be no longer so sophisticated. It seemed that any cat or dog could be called the emperor.

Strictly speaking, in Europe, only the successors of the Roman Empire could be called emperors.

Whether in the East or the West, the emperor is supreme.

Because of this, Russia claimed to be the successor of the Eastern Roman Empire, and the Russian monarch regarded himself as the Tsar.

Now a small Bulgarian monarch dared to call himself Tsar.

"Your Highness, now that the Ottoman Empire is in civil strife, should we in Greece follow the example of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and continue to expand its northern borders?" Prime Minister Alexandros said, looking at Constantine who was deep in thought.

In the last war, the Greek army took extraordinary risks and captured Salonika, but actually gave up during negotiations and returned it to the Ottomans. Naturally, the Greek people were unwilling to accept it.

But now that the Ottomans are too busy taking care of themselves and the disorganized army, it is impossible to stop the Greek army from advancing in Macedonia. This is a good opportunity to take Salonika again.

After hearing Alexandros's suggestion, Venizelos, who was familiar with diplomatic work, hurriedly said: "Your Highness, Prime Minister, please don't act rashly. Once Greece does this, it will become a target of attack by all countries."

"Whether it's the Austro-Hungarian Empire's annexation of Poch or Bulgaria's independence, in fact their goals have been achieved long ago, and now they are just approved in name."

"The great powers are still inclined to maintain the current situation in Europe, and this attitude will not change because of the Ottoman revolution."

"And, to take a step back, even if the major powers do not interfere, the three Balkan countries are currently coveting Macedonia. Once Greece takes military action, Serbia and Bulgaria will definitely not sit back and watch Greece expand. The Balkans will immediately fall into chaos because of the robbery of Macedonia. "

Alexandros is proficient in domestic affairs, has mediocre diplomatic skills, and is not sensitive to international situations.

Venizelos was just the opposite of him, with outstanding diplomatic skills but poor domestic affairs.

Constantine thought to himself as he analyzed the two people's views.

After the Russo-Japanese War, Russia, the famous European steamroller, was inextricably linked to the Asian dwarf, and was still in a weak position.

During this war, social conflicts in Russia intensified and domestic revolutions broke out. In the end, Russia had to hold its nose and sign a contract with the Japanese.

It is precisely because the Russo-Japanese War exposed many problems in Russia that the current Russian Prime Minister Stolypin, with the support of the Tsar, is undergoing reforms and flawless expansion.

Otherwise, when Ottoman falls into civil strife, the Russians will not stop anyway.