African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1580 Three Major Battles
In 1934, the main goal of Italy's military industry development was to achieve domestic production as much as possible. Benito wanted to realize Italy's ambition of rising to become a major power in Europe and even the world, and this required the establishment of an independent military industry.

This is a very difficult challenge for Italy. While Italy's research and development in the field of military technology is not bad, its resource shortage is too prominent.

Italy's sources of industrial raw materials can be described as a "hodgepodge from all over the world."

Strategic resources, including coal, oil, iron ore, copper, rubber, and cotton, are heavily reliant on imports, and even the most basic food production faces challenges.

Taking energy as an example, Italy's domestic coal production was extremely low and of very poor quality. In 1934, Italy mainly relied on imports of coal from Germany, East Africa, the Soviet Union, and Britain to maintain the operation of its domestic industries.

Germany has no shortage of coal resources and is relatively close to Italy, so German coal is Italy's main and most important import source.

Then there's East Africa. In coal exports to Italy, East Africa mainly acts as a middleman, transporting coal from South Asia and Australia to Italy for sale.

Trade between East Africa and Italy has always been good, after all, East Africa has been engaged in grain trade with Italy since the last century.

Thanks to the grain trade, the scale of trade between East Africa and Italy has continued to expand, and the types of trade have also been increasing, covering a wide range of agricultural products and minerals, such as rubber, coffee, tea, cotton, coal, and iron ore.

Then there was the Soviet Union. Trade between the Soviet Union and Italy was not affected by the ideologies of the two countries. After all, for Italy, the Soviet Union was separated from Italy by countries such as Germany and Austria-Hungary, and did not actually pose a great threat to Italy.

In its previous life, Italy was not very interested in sanctions against Russia within the Western bloc, and during the Cold War, it even flirted directly with the Soviet Union.

Finally, there's Britain. It's not surprising that Britain and Italy have trade relations, after all, Britain is the dominant power in the Mediterranean and controls the essential routes for Italy's imports and exports.

Regarding oil resources, Italy is in a relatively better position. Italian Libya is an important oil-producing region in the world, but it is too far away to meet immediate needs. At present, Italy's exploration of local resources is progressing slowly, and it will take time to fully realize the exploitation of oil fields.

Currently, Italy is accelerating the construction of the Libyan railway in hopes of leveraging East African resources to help it extract and refine Libyan oil.

After discussing energy, we come to metal minerals. After all, without metals, Italy would be completely unable to produce warships and artillery, and Italy happens to have a very poor endowment in terms of metal minerals.

Take iron ore as an example. Italy imports iron ore from a wide variety of sources, including Germany, East Africa, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom, as well as many other countries such as Sweden and France.

At the same time, due to the scarcity of iron ore, Italy's scrap steel recycling industry is also relatively prosperous.

Lacking energy and iron ore, Italy faced immense difficulties in developing its industry, yet in 1933, its steel production still increased to just over two million tons.

This is a remarkable achievement for Italy. Among the world's major powers, Spain's steel production is less than one million tons, while Italy's is more than twice that of Spain.

Therefore, Italy has actually reached the level of a great power. In terms of the steel industry, there are only nine countries that are more advanced than Italy.

There are only twelve countries in the world with a steel production exceeding one million tons.

These twelve countries are: East Africa, the United States, Germany, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, France, Austria-Hungary, Japan, Belgium, Italy, Canada, and Luxembourg.

Belgium and Luxembourg are too small in land area, and Canada is more focused on its colonial nature, therefore, they do not deserve the status of great powers.

Therefore, it is entirely feasible for Italy to compete for a place among the world's top ten powers.

Even Italy, one of the world's top ten powers, cannot yet achieve complete self-sufficiency in its military industry.

Italy's military industry can only support it in small-scale wars; in the event of a large-scale war, supply shortages will inevitably occur.

Even a portion of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's southwestern theater of operations was a formidable opponent for Italy, which can be seen as a reflection of the disparity in strength among the great powers.

Therefore, Benito had no choice but to swallow his pride and import weapons and ammunition from abroad to meet the current needs of the Italian army.

Benito said, "I will order all the nation's heavy weapons to be brought to the front lines to resolve our army's firepower shortage. If you still can't fight well, you can expect to be court-martialed!"

With the Prime Minister having said so, the Italian commanders at the front naturally had no excuse to shirk their responsibility and assured Benito that they would advance their troops to Venice within a month.

……

In a short time, Italy accelerated its offensive against the Brenta River defenses. Benito personally oversaw the battle and concentrated national resources to support the front lines. The Brenta River defenses finally began to falter, which quickly attracted the attention of Germany.

In Berlin, Adolf decided to further reinforce the Austro-Hungarian front.

"Currently, we have more than 200,000 troops in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, plus 150,000 Austro-Hungarian auxiliary troops, but this is far from enough."

"Drawing on the example of the southwest, Italy is accelerating its offensive in the Venice region. We must quell the Austro-Hungarian rebellion as soon as possible and completely take over the Austro-Hungarian Empire before the end of the year."

"Therefore, I have decided to send another 200,000 Imperial troops into Austria-Hungary to completely annihilate the Austrian coalition government within two months, and to completely end the war in Austria-Hungary by the end of the year."

"We need to stabilize the other regions of the Austro-Hungarian Empire before the Italians take Venice, and then negotiate the division of interests with Italy."

Adolf's orders were quickly implemented, and this war against Austria-Hungary also provided an opportunity for Adolf to further consolidate military power.

After all, German militarism was rampant, and the army even held a dominant position in national affairs. Therefore, only by completely taking control of the army could Adolf's rule be truly consolidated.

With reinforcements from Germany, the already disadvantaged situation of the Greater Austrian coalition government forces, also known as the Labour Party forces, has become even worse.

In late October 1934, German troops in East Prussia advanced south along the railway, outflanking Bohemia from the northeast and attacking the Bohemian Labour Party's sphere of influence from both sides. Simultaneously, German forces began diverting some troops to launch offensives in Slovakia and Garcia, encountering virtually no resistance and quickly occupying most of Slovakia.

These two regions were mainly controlled by the Austro-Hungarian local governments, with a small number of local ethnic armed groups also present. However, compared to the well-organized Labour Party armed forces, these local ethnic armed groups were basically a motley crew, and they surrendered without resistance as the German army advanced south.

In response to Germany's attack on the Austro-Hungarian-controlled territory, the Austro-Hungarian government in Budapest merely issued some condemnations.

Budapest is now in dire straits, barely able to save itself. While the coalition government forces, which are suffering repeated defeats at the hands of the German army on the northern and western fronts, have gained a huge advantage in the southeast.

By mid-October, the coalition government forces were less than 10 kilometers from Budapest. At the same time, the Hungarian local labor party finally took action, and through cooperation with the Croatian anti-Habsburg forces, they finally reorganized their armed forces.

In the weakly controlled southern part of Hungary, frequent attacks on the Hungarian government severely disrupted local social order, causing turmoil in the rear, affecting troop recruitment and food collection, and further exacerbating the crisis in Budapest.

At the same time, Croatians and Serbs in Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia officially raised their flags and publicly announced their intention to form the Yugoslav Republic with Serbia, breaking away from the rule of the Habsburgs, Hungary, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

This also signifies the formal collapse of Habsburg rule over the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which had previously at least nominally controlled most of the country.

Currently, the areas still under the control of the Austro-Hungarian central government, namely the Budapest government, are only parts of Hungary, Dalmatia, and eastern Venice.

The problem is that these three places are not connected and are already in a state of independent governance. The Venice region is also betrayed by Slovenia and Vienna. The former joined Yugoslavia, and the latter's Labour Party and the remnants of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Venice are clearly hostile.

Now, even the Austro-Hungarian Navy has been affected; they have completely lost contact with Budapest and are threatened by Yugoslavia.

This forced the Austrian commanders of the Austro-Hungarian Navy to temporarily shift some of their forces to the Dalmatia region, which remained loyal to the central Austro-Hungarian Empire in Budapest.

To prevent the so-called Yugoslav armed forces from posing a threat to Trieste and Fium (also known as Rijeka), the port of Zadar in Dalmatia became the new naval command center.

With the complete loss of power of the Habsburg dynasty, Dalmatia, though not seeking independence, began to make arrangements for its future. In early November 1934, after Yugoslavia declared independence, the Parliament of the Kingdom of Dalmatia quickly passed a bill.

The decision was made to strengthen the military buildup of the Kingdom of Dalmatia and to begin deploying troops along the border with Yugoslavia to prevent Yugoslavia from taking the opportunity to invade the Kingdom of Dalmatia.

As a result, the Kingdom of Dalmatia also strengthened its surveillance of Croatians and Serbs to prevent them from colluding with Yugoslavia.

Croats and Serbs in Dalmatia migrated to Yugoslavia, and Germans in Yugoslavia, namely Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia, also migrated to the Kingdom of Dalmatia.

Dalmatia is currently the only German-populated area that has not yet been affected by war, so those Germans who live near Dalmatia and do not want to be affected by war or political persecution have no choice but to go to Dalmatia.

The withdrawal of these Germans undoubtedly further propelled the separation of Yugoslavia from Austria-Hungary.

At the same time as the establishment of Yugoslavia, Britain and France accelerated their support for Yugoslavia.

Long before Yugoslavia sought independence, it had already made contact with countries such as Britain and France. Britain and France did not want Germany to take over the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire, so the two sides were in perfect agreement.

Italy, on the other hand, naturally expressed its support for Yugoslavia's independence, which would help alleviate the pressure on them at the front lines.

Therefore, with Italy's tacit approval, aid from Britain and France was quickly delivered to Croatia via the Adriatic Sea. The Yugoslav armed forces that received the aid rapidly grew stronger, encroaching on the former Austro-Hungarian territory and forming an alliance with Serbia, becoming the fifth important force within the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Besides Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary, the coalition government, and Yugoslavia, Western Ukraine, Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria also took the opportunity to encroach on Austro-Hungarian territory, but they could only engage in minor actions due to Germany's influence.

11 month 5 day.

The Greater Austrian coalition government on the eastern front finally advanced to the outskirts of Budapest, which ultimately became the last straw that broke the camel's back.

With Budapest besieged by the coalition government forces, the Austro-Hungarian government's external communications were completely cut off, which also meant that the Austro-Hungarian central government completely lost its ability to command other regions.

Almost simultaneously, Italy breached Padua, a key stronghold on the Brenta River, creating a breach. Italian troops surged into the rear of the Brenta River defenses like a tidal wave. With the Brenta River defenses breached, the day of the decisive battle in Venice was fast approaching.

Meanwhile, German forces were also approaching Vienna, and German vanguard troops and coalition government forces had already clashed in the suburbs of Vienna.

The three cities of Budapest, Venice, and Vienna were about to become the main decisive battles in the future power structure of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.

If Budapest falls, the central government of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, or the Habsburgs, will completely disappear from the historical stage, and it will be virtually impossible to rebuild the Habsburg dynasty.

If Vienna cannot withstand the German offensive, this round of the Austro-Hungarian Labour Party movement will completely decline and will be powerless to resist the German attack.

As for Venice, its importance is actually the least. If Italy were to conquer it, it would mean that Venice would completely return to the embrace of Italy, achieving the complete unification of Italy.

Under these circumstances, on November 9, the forces of the Greater Austrian coalition government launched an offensive against Budapest. However, as the seat of the Austro-Hungarian government, it was not easy for the Labour Party to capture the city, especially since Vienna was in crisis and the coalition government had redeployed some troops to Vienna.

Four days after the start of the Battle of Budapest, the German army officially launched its general offensive against Vienna. At the same time, in Bohemia, the sphere of influence of the coalition government forces was being eroded by the German army.

Today, the coalition government forces only control the southeastern part of Bohemia, and only the major city of Brno remains in their hands. It is only a matter of time before Bohemia falls.

Finally, there was the Venice battlefield. After the Brenta River defenses were breached, Italy was annexing Venice, and the Battle of Venice was about to begin. At the same time, the Austro-Hungarian army in Venice was also retreating to the east and the northern mountains, delaying the Italian advance.

The three battles broke out almost simultaneously, which would determine the future fate of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

(End of this chapter)