Chapter 295: Expansion Of The Allied Nations
The Oman Region is officially known as the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman, and it was once a country spanning two continents.
During the reign of the previous Sultan Said bin Sultan, the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman occupied vast territories, its territorial area including not only modern Oman but also parts of the UAE and Pakistan’s Gwadar region.
Of course, this also included Oman’s East African territories, which is why it was said that Oman once spanned two continents.
However, after the old Sultan passed away, his two sons respectively inherited the Omani homeland and the East African territories, and they fell out because of this.
The current Sultanate of Muscat and Oman only controls the modern Omani homeland, and all other lands have belonged to other countries.
Spain’s colonial target is only the Omani homeland, and even though Oman still controls East African territories at this time, Carlo will not have any extraneous thoughts.
After all, Oman’s East African territories are located on the East African coast, right in the north of Portugal’s Mozambique Colony.
This area is exactly on the longitudinal line connecting Britain’s Cairo and Cape Colony, and any country occupying a colony here will surely incur the hatred and retaliation of the British.
Carlo did not pay too much attention to Spain’s colonial war, as it was a war with no suspense at all for Spain.
Compared to most African indigenous people, the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman has a somewhat higher civilization level, but that’s all.
Facing European colonists, they can hardly form strong resistance, and with no other European countries intervening, Spain’s colonial war is impossible to fail.
And the facts proved it to be so. After the Spanish Army arrived in the Arabian Peninsula, it immediately launched an attack on the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman.
This former maritime power that had contended with European countries and even defeated Portuguese colonial aggression has now weakened into an ordinary small country with no distinctive features.
When the Sultanate still controlled the East African territories, they provided the Omani homeland with substantial fiscal revenue every year, which also allowed Oman to build a navy of considerable scale.
When losing the East African territories, Oman not only lost a treasure land that provided substantial fiscal revenue but also lost most of the navy stationed in the East African territories.
This has led to the current Sultanate of Muscat and Oman being in a terrible state both in military strength and economic strength. When facing the Spanish Army’s attack, the current Sultan Turki bin Said tried every means to stop Spain’s offensive, but all were ineffective in the face of Spain’s steel guns and cannons.
On April 22, 1883, just one and a half months after the Spanish Army set off, the Spanish Army had already occupied nearly one-third of Oman’s land.
Spain’s attack on Oman was launched from north to south, with the first target being the capital Muscat of the Sultanate of Muscat.
The Middle East is a land covered with deserts, which leads to a common phenomenon in Middle Eastern countries: vast land with sparse population, and the population generally concentrated in areas with less desert.
Although Oman is a medium-sized country stretching about 1,000 kilometers from north to south, in reality, the vast majority of Oman’s population is concentrated in the two northern regions, especially the Muscat region where the capital is located, which has over 60% of the entire Sultanate’s population.
This also means that although Spain only occupied one-third of Oman’s territory, it has actually controlled the vast majority of Oman’s population.
Of course, Oman’s population is not large either. The entire Arabian Peninsula has only three or four million people, and Oman’s population is only one-tenth of the Arabian Peninsula’s population.
After occupying northern Omani territory, there is no need to rush the occupation of central and southern regions of Oman next.
Anyway, most areas to the south are deserts, with very few Omanis here, which will not have any impact on Spain’s colonial rule.
Other European Powers will not be interested in this desert either. The British even hope that Spain occupies the vast desert in southern Oman, so they themselves can occupy the most fertile region in the Middle East, the Mesopotamian Plain.
At the same time as Spain launched the colonial invasion of Oman, sales personnel from the Royal Arsenal were also contacting the dynasty behind Vietnam.
It is worth mentioning that when Spain’s sales personnel revealed their identity and expressed willingness to sell weapons and equipment to them, the other party not only did not show any urgent desire to purchase weapons but instead hoped to mediate the war with France through Spain’s relations.
The sales personnel went to great lengths to learn that this country was internally divided into two factions regarding the war with France. One faction advocates fighting France to the end, as losing Vietnam would expose their southern border to the risk of French invasion.
The other faction advocates seeking peace with France, as the country has never won against European Powers in wars, and there is no need to go to war with a great power like France over Vietnam.
Because the representative figure of the peace faction controls diplomacy and military power, Spain’s weapons and equipment are difficult to sell for the time being.
Carlo did not expect that even equipment delivered to their door would be rejected, preferring to believe in that slim hope of peace rather than picking up weapons to resist.
There is no way around it; the plan to delay the French offensive speed through weapon sales can only be put on hold temporarily. With the parties choosing the attitude of the peace faction, what can Spain do?
The perspective returns to Spain. After occupying more than one-third of Oman’s territory, Carlo officially announced the establishment of the Oman Colony and built a larger-scale naval base in the colonial capital Muscat for resupply of the Spanish Navy and civilian ships along the way.
The news of adding a new colony did attract the attention of Spaniards on that day, but it quickly lost heat.
After all, most of Oman’s land is desert. Although the entire land is half the size of Spain, the developable land is only the northern mountainous areas and coastal regions, with very poor economic value.
There are a few other things worth mentioning in
First is the earthquake that occurred in Ischia, Italy, on July 28, causing over 2,000 deaths and nearly 10,000 wounded.
This was a rare major disaster. Upon learning of the Italian earthquake, Carlo and the Spanish Government each sent condolence telegrams to Italy and donated some materials.
Carlo, after all, comes from the Italian Royal Family and is Italian by bloodline. He certainly cannot ignore a disaster in Italy, and donating 1 million pesetas can also bring him closer to the Italians.
The Spanish Government also friendly donated some materials to help the Italian Government better restore post-disaster order and rebuild the affected areas.
At the end of September 1883, German Emperor William I encountered an unsuccessful assassination attempt.
It is worth mentioning that at the time, William I was riding in a customized car produced by the Royal Mercedes-Benz Automobile Company, with steel plates installed on the car windows.
This also caused the assassin’s attempt to fail. Apart from being somewhat frightened, William I suffered no injuries.
This successful defense against assassination also drew the attention of royal families across Europe to the special customized cars launched by Royal Mercedes-Benz.
The so-called special customized car is actually a modified car that sacrifices some speed. Steel plates are added to the car doors, windows, and front and rear windshields, maximizing the safety of the occupants.
Of course, because these steel plates greatly increase the car’s weight, the top speed of such a modified car is only 25 kilometers per hour, and it can generally only maintain around 18 to 20 kilometers per hour.
Although such speed is not fast, for the sake of their own safety, the royal families of European countries still purchased large quantities of such customized cars.
Moreover, compared to the speed of horses and carriages, even 20 kilometers per hour is faster than carriages.
Under the lead of the royal families of various countries, European nobles purchased large quantities of cars, which also led to a massive increase in car sales in the second half of 1883, with branch factories in various countries making a fortune.
At the end of October, another piece of news once again drew Carlo’s attention to the European situation.
Since the formation of the German-Austro-Italian alliance last time, the European situation had not changed at all. The French focused on outward immigration and expansion, while the British were busy opening up colonies on one hand and suppressing colonial rebellions on the other, so Europe had been calm for a while.
But on October 30, 1883, Romania, which had just been renamed the Kingdom of Romania, secretly joined the military alliance formed by Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, which also allowed Carlo to see the future breakup of the Three Emperors Alliance.
The reason Romania was willing to join the Three Emperors Alliance is also simple: Romania’s geographical location.
As the northernmost country among the Balkan states, Romania can be said to be the front line of the Balkan states against Russia.
But due to Romania’s own insufficient strength, it also needs external factors to guarantee its safety.
In the situation where both sides have a common enemy, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Romania hit it off, and both sides signed an alliance treaty for joint defense.
The treaty stipulates that once Romania’s border is attacked, the Austro-Hungarian Empire shall immediately join Romania’s side to help Romania defend.
At the same time, if the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s eastern borderline is also attacked, Romania shall dispatch at least 100,000 troops to help the Austro-Hungarian Empire defend.
Although not explicitly stated, the common enemy that the two countries are guarding against is already obvious. Only Russia would make the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Romania so wary; Balkan countries do not have this qualification.
At this time, the Russians are still unaware that their allies Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire have been extremely wary of them in secret, even almost proactively attacking to deal with this threat.
Under the leadership of the new Tsar Alexander III, Russia during this period has always shown a relatively low-key attitude both internationally and in the Balkan situation.
However, due to Russia’s vast territory and population, European countries’ defenses against Russia have never weakened.
Even the most powerful British Empire believes that the most threatening country in Europe currently is Russia.
As in history, the formation of the Allied Powers will be faster than that of the Entente Powers.
The alliance treaty between Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Italy has been concluded, and even a country like Romania has joined the Allied Powers.
But on the Entente side, there is no sign of the Franco-Russian Alliance yet, and the British are even less likely to join France and Russia under the current European situation.
In fact, from the current European situation, it can be seen that Germany’s ambition is great. They have pulled in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy, which also means Germany regards both France and Russia as enemies.
Once Germany can defeat France again, Germany will become the undisputed European Hegemon, and challenging the British Empire will be no issue.
After all, although the British are strong, they are detached from the European Continent. The British Isles are separated from the European Continent by the English Channel, making it difficult for the British to intervene in the European Continent’s situation, unless in a situation as chaotic as a world war.
After Romania joined the Three Emperors Alliance, Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire also successively invited Spain to join the alliance.
However, the two countries did not reveal the situation of the Three Emperors Alliance but tentatively invited Spain to join a defensive alliance against France.
In fact, for the current European situation, Spain joining the Three Emperors Alliance may not be a bad choice.
First, with Spain, the Three Emperors Alliance will become even stronger. The German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy, and Spain are all great powers; the union of the four great powers is not to be underestimated by any country.
Second, the union of the four great powers can also attract more European small and medium-sized countries to join.
Countries like Romania also need to take sides; not all countries can remain neutral without being coveted by great power countries.
An Allied Powers with the four great powers is the best choice to side with. After all, there are only eight great powers in the world, and the United States, this great power, is far across the Atlantic Ocean and cannot participate in the European situation.
But this does not mean that there are no downsides to Spain joining the Allied Powers.
The union of the four great powers will certainly arouse the wariness of France and Russia, or even the British, which will lead to the rapid formation of the Anglo-French-Russian Alliance.
At this time, the German-Austro-Italian-Spanish alliance is clearly not yet a match for the three great powers of Britain, France, and Russia. Except for Germany being able to match the national strength of Britain, France, and Russia, the other three great powers are not on the same level as Britain, France, and Russia.
Moreover, Carlo does not want to completely stand on the opposite side of France yet. Even though there is competition with France at this time, Spain can still obtain some funds from France for its own development.
If completely standing on the opposite side of France, French capital is out of the question. Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire cannot provide Spain with sufficient funds for development, which means that after joining the Allied Powers, Spain’s development will have to rely on itself.
For these reasons, Carlo rejected the invitations from Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, stating that Spain does not intend to join the defensive alliance against France.
Of course, Carlo also ordered the Spanish Government to reiterate its attitude of jointly developing North Africa with Italy.
At least in the North Africa region, Spain and Italy will advance and retreat together, jointly guarding against France, the biggest strong enemy.
After receiving the promise from the Spanish Government, the Italian Government no longer insisted on inviting Spain to join the defensive alliance. After all, Spain’s attitude has indicated that it will not join the French side and will lean towards Italy as much as possible while remaining neutral.
