sultan's crescent

Chapter 132 suddenly enlightened

As soon as you get out of Topkapi Palace, you can see the whole Constantiniya from the headland. At this time, the city can be said to be empty.

The townspeople came out of their homes one after another, preparing to celebrate the sultan's wedding. People's faces were beaming, and everyone was looking forward to the wedding.

Seeing this scene, Emperor Sai the Great couldn't help but sigh with emotion, this is the convenience of the imperial capital.

The political attribute of Constantiniya as the imperial capital is itself a bonus. Under this status, no matter what, it will become the most prosperous city in the entire Ottoman Empire.

What's more, Constantinier's own conditions are not bad.

The most notable is its geographical advantage.

Constantiniya is located at the meeting point of the Eurasian continent, on the east bank of the Bosporus Strait, connecting the two continents of Asia and Europe.

It can be said that the reason why the financial revenue of the Ottoman Empire was the highest in Europe before the seventeenth century was that Suleiman the Great gave François I the poor 100 million Ducat gold coins, and the geographical advantages of Constantinier It matters a lot.

And from the fact that Constantiniya is an important hub of trade and cultural exchanges between the East and the West, it can be seen that the Ottoman Empire was not at all a barrier on the so-called East-West Silk Road.

After the last prosperity of the overland Silk Road in the early Yuan Dynasty, the long-term wars and desertification of the Mongolian Khanates made it difficult to restore this road.

At this time, the trade between the East and the West, the land Silk Road is a fart, and the bulk is at sea.

There are three old trade routes on the sea:
One, the northern line.From the Black Sea to Constantinople, this line is for the sale of Slavic slaves (this is also one of the main sources of the sultan’s harem, the blond big boobs are the sultan’s favorite, and Se the Great looks down on the behavior of his ancestors buying blond female slaves. ), wood, horses and other Slavic specialties.

Second, the middle line, China, Southeast Asia, India, the Persian Gulf, and the Levant.

Three, the southern line, China, Southeast Asia, India, the Red Sea, Alexandria, Egypt.

These three roads are the legendary old shipping routes, and they are also the confidence for the Venetians to become famous in the Mediterranean and run rampant.

Until Portugal's Da Gama figured out a new route, the Venetians were in a hurry.

For Portugal, the difference in the price of spices between Lisbon and Venice is the wealth of the country. Therefore, it is its strategic goal to completely block the old trade routes and monopolize the east-west trade.

Facts have proved that since the age of great voyages, except for a certain eastern power that has not kept up with the times, all European countries have basically performed well.

In the 1490s, it controlled the east coast of Africa and harassed the southern route of the old trade route.

In 1506, occupied Socotra Island, controlled the exit of the Red Sea, and blocked the southern route.

In 1507, Hormuz was captured, the Persian Gulf was controlled, and the center line was cut off.

In 1507, captured Makastan and controlled Oman.

In 1509, the Battle of Diu defeated Egypt supported by Venice and Ottomans.

In 1511, he took control of Malacca and intervened in the production of spices.

From 1517 to 1520, warships were frequently sent to blockade the Red Sea.

This made Venice very uncomfortable. From 1502 to 1505, the import of spices on the old trade route dropped by 2/3, and the price of spices in Venice skyrocketed. This is also the largest price increase since 1453, due to the Portuguese blockade.

As a beneficiary of the old trade routes, Venice, once the old trade routes were blocked, the significant transshipment profits in European trade would be lost.

But at the same time, because of Ottoman's expansion in the Eastern Mediterranean and Southeast Europe, Venice had a sense of distrust towards Ottoman, and Ottoman did not set foot in trade routes, so the ally first chose Egypt.

In 1503, Venice established the Spice Committee and secretly contacted Egypt to discuss countermeasures against the sharp drop in spice imports.Subsequently, it financed the Egyptian navy and instigated war against Portugal.

As a result, it has been explained above.

By this time, if Venice does not exert its strength, it will have to wait to die, so this group of people directly approached the Ottoman Empire.

Ottoman was a latecomer in terms of air routes. After taking control of Egypt in 1517, he faced the problem of blocking old trade routes for the first time.

Due to the strong national power of the Ottomans, they quickly launched an offensive against Portugal. The Venetians gave both technology and people, and greatly helped the Ottoman Empire prepare for the navy.

In the 16s, the Ottoman Empire broke the Portuguese blockade, and the import of spices from the old trade routes rebounded.

In 1547, Yemen was occupied, and in 1550, Bahrain was occupied.

In 1557, it took control of Oman and took away the hegemony of the Western Indian Ocean.

So far, the Ottomans have controlled the western Indian Ocean, and Portugal has been involved in the eastern Indian Ocean, and the old trade routes have been revitalized.

In the 16s, Spain and Portugal merged, and Portugal gradually became weaker, and was replaced by the Netherlands in the 80th century.

With the weakness of the Ottomans, the Netherlands completely controlled the spice trade. Under the competition of the new trade routes and the influence of the Dutch, the old trade routes were gradually abandoned.With the gradual decline of the old trade routes, Venice was completely reduced to an ordinary city.

This is also the reason why the financial revenue of the Ottoman Empire was not as good as that in 1700, and the Akche silver coins used in the calculation of financial revenue during this period were still depreciated.

Therefore, in order to revive the glory of the Ottoman Empire in the future, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf region must be involved. The former has already been obtained, and the latter will be asked for by the Qajar Dynasty.

As for whether this will attract Daiying's attention, let's not say that Daiying has not completely eaten India during this period, and he is unable to look around.

Even if India is completely swallowed up, at this time, with the fall of the Safavid dynasty, Persia has fallen into a three-party separatist regime.

With the power projection of the Ottoman Empire on the Iranian plateau, doing something during this period is not something that exceeds the standard.

Moreover, the anti-French war that has already begun will involve the main energy of the continental European countries, and Dai Ying naturally has to join it.

If you don’t ask the Persians for something during this period, when will you ask for it? Wait until Napoleon fails, takes the British to eat India, France is a man with its tail between its legs, and Russia is eyeing it.
Emperor Se the Great is not stupid, as long as he does not cross the Zagros Mountains and actually controls the western part of the Iranian Plateau, Daiying will not react too violently.

As for whether to help France or not in this Napoleonic War, you will not end up participating in the war.

Selim actually made a certain decision. First of all, the Napoleonic War in the original time and space. Did Dai Ying make a full-scale move?
This question is difficult to say, but the aid provided by the British to the two countries of the peninsula has more than 300 million pounds a year.

There is another example to illustrate the strength of Daiying. Since 1808, its average annual military expenditure for allied countries is equivalent to France's annual fiscal revenue.

As far as Emperor Se the Great is concerned, Britain may not have done its best.

In 1786, British Prime Minister Pitt announced in the House of Commons: "The vitality and national destiny of this nation are based on national debt."

The financial system of the United Kingdom determines its unrivaled financing ability. If the United Kingdom expands the scale of national debt and borrowing, it is difficult to predict how much power it can invest.

Of course, France can take this risk. Jouferry once said: "You can't become a great country if you stay in the back garden forever."

This may also be the reason why the French are committed to fighting for hegemony.

The French nation is the most imperial nation, and the least like the imperial subjects.

They are imperial because they believe they can influence the world and build a world empire.

At the same time, they believe that world civilization should have French characteristics and the imprint of the French nation.

This idea is associated with the French nation as God's chosen people, and they shoulder the mission of spreading Catholicism and loyalty to the monarch.

After the French Revolution, rationalism, republican thought, and secularization became the new imperial mission of France.

But no matter what the form is, compared with other empires, France is most like the fusion of empire and nation, and France can be understood as an "expanding nation".

Unlike the nations of the Ottoman, Habsburg and other empires, the French did not accept a pluralistic and multi-ethnic empire.

France must first belong to the French, possessing the peculiar qualities of the French nation.So Gary Wilder mixed the two concepts and proposed the "National State of the French Empire", which seems quite accurate to describe the French and their empire.

With the blessing of this god-level buff, and the land of France is really very good, it provides a very stable lower limit.

From the Thirty Years' War to the Napoleonic Wars, most wars for supremacy were fought on German and Spanish soil, leaving the French mainland spared much damage.

This is the confidence that France dares to fight for hegemony.

But does the Ottoman Empire have such confidence?
From the perspective of ethnic issues, Emperor Sergei's reform of weakening national consciousness through religious narratives is still in its infancy, and it will have to wait for it to be effective.

If there is any defeat at this time, it will shake the confidence in the conversion of Orthodox Christians.

What's even more frightening is that if the Ottoman Empire participated, France would still be defeated in the end.

The French National People's Congress can slap their ass and go straight back to the borders of 1789, can the Ottoman Empire do it?
This is a dream. In any case, Dai Ying has to give the Austrians and Russians enough compensation.

Where does this compensation come from? It must come from the Ottoman Empire. Can the indemnity plus land plus humiliation treaty be less?
Impossible, with the proficiency of bringing people all over the world to sign a contract, and the experience of drafting treaties in continental Europe for hundreds of years.

As long as the Ottoman Empire is defeated, it is simply a professional counterpart, and the emperor is still playing tricks.

From the perspective of the battlefield, once the Ottoman Empire starts fighting, the flames of war will inevitably burn on the mainland.

Although Moldavia and Serbia are not the main investment areas, the economic damage of the war to the Ottoman Empire is indeed huge.

In a sense, these places are the raw material production areas and markets of the first batch of industrialized areas. Once they are destroyed by war, it will undoubtedly slow down the speed of industrialization envisaged by Emperor Se the Great.

Of course, in addition to these two points, there is actually another possibility, that is, France won.

So how much benefit can the Ottoman Empire get?
Once the entire anti-French war entered the peak period of Napoleon, Emperor Sebastian didn't even have to think about it. There would definitely be radicals in the imperial government who hoped to form an alliance with France.

Their expansion goal must be in Europe. The problem is that the benefits of eating the land in Europe are far less than the investment in the Ottoman Empire.

There are too many ethnic groups on this pile of land. The historical process of how the later Austrian Empire became the Austro-Hungarian Empire and eventually disintegrated cannot be seen by others, but it does not mean that Emperor Sai the Great cannot see it.

Habsburg has not left any obvious legacy after so many years of operation. Isn't the Ottoman Empire laying mines for itself?

Selim found it extremely difficult to assimilate the current Balkan ethnic groups, otherwise he would not have thought of using Indian means to do this.

What's more, even if he really eats it, Selim can guarantee that there will be no problems while he is alive, but what if there is a subsequent thunderstorm.

The succeeding sultan may not have this ability to deal with it.

This is the most intuitive benefit that the Ottoman Empire can get, but what can France get?
He can directly unify the French-speaking part of Europe, he can directly dismember Germany and create a bunch of vassals, he can bring the entire Iberian Peninsula under control, he can expand his colonies outward, and he can let Maozi go back.

This is out of balance. In the original time and space, Austria and Russia finally turned their faces on the issue of the Ottoman Empire because of what?
The Russians' greed is certainly an important reason, but the main reason is that Austria can get too little in return.

There are Yugoslavs in this area but there are no Germans. Is it possible for Austria to do such a stupid thing as making wedding dresses for Russians out of medieval hatred?

It is for this reason that the British Empire, which is the most adept at cutting needles, successfully divided the Austro-Russian alliance, so that Austria not only did not send troops in the Crimean War in 1853, but even gave them relentless supplies. unwilling.

Among other things, even if Austria does not send troops, just transporting supplies to the Russians is enough to disgust Britain and France. If they want to win the Crimean War, Britain, France, and Turkey must pay a greater price.

In the final analysis, if Emperor Sergei formed an alliance with France, he would end up miserable if he lost the war, but he would not benefit if he defeated it.

That being the case, why go up?

Judging from the geography of the Ottoman Empire, his strategy in the short term is actually similar to that of the UK in the past.

After all, both Persia and Africa can be the expansion direction of the Ottoman Empire. While making efforts in these places, Emperor Sai the Great needs a Europe that is unable to pay attention to him.

The British are well versed in this, and the Vienna Conference in 1815 benefited the most from it.

Austria has painstakingly maintained stability for 30 years, but in the end it has nothing, just making wedding dresses for the British.

So, the Ottoman Empire is not up. From the perspective of this time and space, losing is nothing more than the Vienna system, and winning.
You can't win, maybe you can draw.

Either of these two situations is beneficial to the Ottoman Empire, it just takes time.

And the revival of a country just needs to be calm.

Selim gradually withdrew his thoughts. It has to be said that sometimes, when a person stands on a high mountain, his thoughts will suddenly become much clearer.

Constantinier is very important, very important. If the later generations of Turkey hadn't lost a large area of ​​the Balkan Peninsula, resulting in no strategic buffer, it would be crazy to move its capital.

In the past few days, for some reason, there have been some rumors that Selim will move the capital. He has not found out why such rumors will spread when he is about to get married, but the danger of such remarks cannot be ignored.

Constantiniya is located on an important sea trade route between the East and the West. It has a strategic location and plays an important role in controlling and supervising maritime trade.

At the same time, it has superior geographical conditions. Constantiniya is located in a hilly area, surrounded by oceans and straits, forming a natural fortification.

Equally important is the political symbolic significance of Constantinier: the Ottoman Empire chose this place as its capital, marking the empire’s inheritance and continuation of the ruins of the Roman Empire, declaring the authority and dominance of the empire to the outside world, and inheriting the glory of the ancient empire .

The future generations of Turkey have not been forced to abandon this place, let alone Emperor Se the Great. He came out of Jinmen today to meet his relatives. Since this place has belonged to the Ottoman Empire since 1453, he will always belong to it.

　Thanks to panzer5, p club player ecstasy, Geng Dong, Sunshine Avenue and book friend 928.db's monthly pass. After a few days of talking about picking up relatives, I finally went out.

　　This is two chapters in one
　　
　
(End of this chapter)