Chapter 855: Making things happen!
Chapter 838: Making things happen
Before a wave subsides, another wave rises.
In the British, French and Austrian arms race towards the climax of the three countries, Central Asia is again the storm clouds.
On July 11, 1887, British Governor-General in India Litton suddenly informed the Afghan government to send a delegation to visit Kabul.
The weasel paying a visit to the chicken was naturally ill-intentioned.
Although many years had passed since the last Anglo-Afghan war, the British colonization of Afghanistan had never ceased, and there was never any so-called friendship between the two countries.
The anti-British sentiment among Afghan folk has always been very serious, considering the inability to guarantee the security of the delegation and the reaction of the Russians.
In order to stay out of trouble, Abdur Rahman Khan Amir politely declined the British request.
Governor Litton, however, was not one to admit defeat, and made the request three times, with the intention of not stopping until it was granted.
Unable to resist the British pestering, in September, the Emir was forced to agree to the British demands.
The British went, the Russians naturally can not watch their little brother bullied, followed by the tsarist government also sent a delegation.
What happened after that, Franz is not sure, anyway, the British and Russians around the fight for Afghanistan.
Franz asked, “How do the Russians want our support?”
Austria and Afghanistan were thousands of miles apart, with a Persian empire in between.
The Viennese government did not like to reach out indiscriminately, and it was natural that there would be no Austrian influence in such a place where there was no interest and where it was out of reach.
In the Afghan region, the only two countries that really have a say are Britain and Russia.
This background, the tsarist government wants to obtain Austrian support, how to look at it all feel wrong.
Foreign Minister Weissenberg replied, “The Russians want us to help distract the British, preferably by finding something for the British government to do.”
Carefully recalling the original time and space Britain and Russia about the Afghan region of the fight, Franz finally realized that something was wrong, the second Anglo-Afghan war is gone.
After realizing that something was wrong, Franz instructed the crowd to take a break and hurriedly went to the secret room to take out the memoirs written at the beginning of the crossing and checked them.
Soon he was clear about the causes and consequences, by the influence of the Prussian-Russian War, some years ago the Russians could not care about the expansion of the Central Asian region.
Without the threat of the Russians, coupled with the heavy losses of the first Anglo-Afghan war, the British desire to seize the Afghan region is naturally not strong.
By the way, the “Anglo-Boer War” between Britain and Austria over South Africa also played a key role.
After spending hundreds of millions of pounds, nothing was gained in the end, which directly affected the British government’s colonial policy.
Under many factors, Afghanistan, which had little interest, was very lucky to escape.
Now that the Russians are making a comeback and once again aiming their expansion at Central Asia, Afghanistan, a small pro-Russian country, is an eyesore.
Back in the conference room, Franz picked up a cup of tea, took a sip before slowly said, “What do you think, we want to find a way to provoke the second Anglo-Afghan war how?”
The sudden reversal of the painting style, the crowd you look at me, I look at you, are all confused expression, completely do not know what the emperor’s gourd is selling drugs.
Seeing that the crowd did not react, Franz instructed his valet, “Fetch the map of Central Asia.”
……
“You see here Afghanistan, north of Central Asia Khanate, south of British India, east of the Far East Empire, west of the Persian Empire, can be said to be the heart of Asia.
Whoever masters this place will master the strategic initiative over Central Asia, West Asia and South Asia, and it is very important to both Britain and Russia.
Some years ago, the Russians were busy with European issues and had no time to pay attention to the Central Asian region, and the British could naturally not panic and slowly penetrate into the Afghan region.
Now that the Russians have turned around and redirected their expansion to Central Asia, pro-Russian Afghanistan has made things difficult for the British.
If the Russians act out of character, do you think the British will be relieved after the failure of diplomatic pull in Afghanistan?”
Prime Minister Carr: “Your Majesty, it’s not hard to make the Russians irritate the British, and it’s not hard to sabotage the British plans to pull Afghanistan together.
It’s just that we’re at a critical moment in the arms race, and the Afghan region, no matter how important it is, is no more important than the hegemonic position of the Royal Navy.
Even if the British government’s feelings were deeper, they would not provoke a second Anglo-Afghan war until the arms race is over.”
This is the most realistic problem, in the face of the two French and Austrian challengers, the British, no matter how big-hearted, have to prioritize.
Franz nodded, “Good! Under normal circumstances, the British would not start a second Afghan war in the midst of an arms race.
I didn’t expect the war to break out immediately either; dragging it back a bit would have served the same purpose.
Now all we have to do is to cheer up the Russians and tell the Tsarist government that this arms race will last for several years, so that they can rest assured of confronting the British boldly.
If necessary, the Foreign Office can also directly help the Afghan government to strengthen its confidence, for example: sponsoring a portion of the guns and ammunition.
Two Great Powers standing behind them should be able to bluff. If that’s not possible, simply send someone to take out the British envoys and intensify the conflict between the two sides.”
Bottom line, modesty and whatnot can all be discarded at critical moments. In order to create conflicts, even the method of assassination Franz came up with.
Of course, assassination is assassination, the pot is still dumped. Either let the Afghans get it on themselves or let the Russians take the blame, neither of which has anything to do with Austria anyway.
Foreign Minister Weissenberg: “Your Majesty, now that Afghanistan is essentially surrounded on all sides by the British, once war breaks out, neither we, nor the Russians will be able to whip it out.
Without our support, I’m afraid Afghanistan alone won’t be able to hold out for long.
If the British are allowed to occupy the Afghan region, it will not be as simple as it is now for the Russians to go south and try to go south again.”
It has to be admitted that the international situation facing Afghanistan now is really very bad.
The south is directly bordering the British; the Central Asian Khanate in the north is the British’s little brother; the Persian Empire in the west is also pro-British, or forced to be pro-British; the east is still safe for the time being, except that this line is not good either.
Once the war breaks out, Afghanistan will immediately fall into isolation, and even if there is international aid, it will be difficult to ship it in.
As an agricultural country, the loss of international aid, to fight against the British, the chances of winning are really too slim.
Afghanistan’s strategic location is very important, once the British occupied the place and operated, with the easy to defend and difficult to attack the terrain, Russia and then want to go south will be difficult.
Even the British can, in turn, respond to the Central Asia of a few little brother, to the tsarist government to trouble.
Franz shook his head, ”As long as we want to provide them with support, we will definitely be able to send it in.
The big deal is to send airships to airdrop supplies to them, and if the range is not enough, just land directly in Persia on the way back.
Even if the Persian government were to favor the British, they would have to pretend not to see anything on this issue.
Don’t underestimate Afghanistan, as long as they have enough weapons, they will be able to make the British burnt out, and it definitely won’t be over in the short term.
Even if the situation does get out of hand and the Brits do take over Afghanistan, we can still support Russia all the way along Central Asia.
As long as we don’t give the British time to run the place, I believe the Russians are still capable of defeating the British.”
This was genuine, Franz really had faith in Afghanistan, the Imperial Graveyard was not a reputation to be taken lightly.
Even if they couldn’t win, the Afghan population could drag it out. If the cities were lost there were still towns, and if the towns were lost there were still mountains.
Anyway, the people are still alive, the fight is not over.
In the original time and space, several major empires have been in Afghanistan, all were dragged down by the heavy military expenditure.
Unless the British go on a killing spree and commit genocide right off the bat, it will be hard to win.
In contrast, Franz’s confidence in the Russians was not quite there. The main reason was that the three great wars of recent decades had hurt the Russian Empire.
Other than that, just looking at the population Russian Empire is more than 30 million less than the same period in history, and the percentage of young adults is at least five percentage points lower than the same period in history.
Seemingly powerful Russian Empire, in fact, is in the weakest state, a short period of time, a wave of reckless okay, a protracted war really can not top.
If the British really do not count the cost, take San and the Russians against the gray livestock, the tsarist government is really not necessarily top.
Just because Franz had no confidence in the Russians didn’t mean that others didn’t have confidence in the Russians, and the cabinet was convinced.
(End of chapter)