Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 344 Arms Trade
Although the war was effectively prevented from expanding further through successive statements from Britain and Spain, any discerning person could see that the situation in Europe had changed dramatically after Germany and Russia entered the war.

The Three Emperors' Alliance became a thing of the past, and what followed was the confrontation between the German-Austrian alliance and Russia.

Although Germany, Austria and Italy protected the Triple Alliance Treaty very well, the relationship between Italy, Germany and Austria was no secret.

Not only Spain, but many European countries including France, Russia and even Britain believed that Italy had signed an unknown alliance treaty with Germany and Austria.

The purpose of signing this alliance treaty was also very simple. Germany and Austria wanted to make up for the gap after the loss of Russia. After all, Italy is also a powerful country.

Italy is trying to find a strong supporter to rely on, after all, the performance of the Italian army is well known to all European countries.

Even though Italy has a much larger population than Spain, it can never compare to Spain in terms of its voice in continental Europe.

The main reason for this phenomenon is that the Italian army's combat effectiveness is relatively poor. Even in the last stage of the Bourbon dynasty, the combat effectiveness of the Spanish army was considered above average.

After Carlo's many reforms and improvements in weapons and equipment, the current combat effectiveness of the Spanish Army is not only the best in Europe, but is definitely one of the strongest among the armies of European countries.

Although Italy's army's combat effectiveness is relatively poor, it is not without benefits for the German-Austrian alliance to win over Italy.

First of all, Italy's agricultural and industrial scale is still worthy of recognition. Although its industrial scale is not as large as that of other European powers, it is still quite superior to that of non-power countries.

Italy is adjacent to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which is adjacent to Germany. This geographical location is also very important, because it means that during wartime, Italian supplies can also be transported to Germany through the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

As mentioned before, Germany is located in a four-war zone in Central Europe, with two powerful powers, France and Russia, to the east and west, and the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and Denmark to the north.

In addition, Germany's naval power did not have an advantage over its competitors, which led to Germany being easily cut off from logistical supplies during the war and falling into an isolated and helpless situation.

Italy is obviously a good addition. Although it cannot provide much help to Germany militarily, it can prove its strength as a great power in other aspects.

Faced with the Triple Alliance that was already showing its potential, even if the Germans looked down on Italy, they had to look for other helpers for the Triple Alliance.

Although Britain's warning made France give up the idea of ​​joining the war, the French did not intend to give up the gradual contact with Russia.

On the contrary, we may not reach an alliance treaty in this war, but we will definitely get closer to Russia in this war.

If Russia wins the war, it might slow down the process of forming a Franco-Russian alliance, but if the German-Austrian alliance wins the war, the Franco-Russian alliance might have the corresponding terms before the war ends.

Unlike these countries that have their own allies or need to have their own allies, Britain and Spain are in a rather awkward situation when it comes to alliance.

Of course, the real embarrassment lies with Britain.

Because Britain has major conflicts with France and Russia, and the German, Austrian and Italian alliance on the other side has the participation of three major powers, this also means that it is impossible for Britain to join any of them. They will more likely balance the power gap between the two major military groups, so that Britain, as a special existence, will have more say.

As for Spain, as long as it wants, it can join any military group.

First of all, Spain's geographical location is too important. Secondly, Spain's overall strength is not weak. It is even stronger than Italy and is almost at the same level as the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was affected by the fact that the number of the main ethnic groups in the country was not large, and the independence of states such as Hungary was too strong, which affected the country's overall strength.

If all the tens of millions of people in the Austro-Hungarian Empire were Austrians, the country's overall strength would not necessarily be weaker than Germany's.

Spain’s shortcoming is that its population is relatively small, even smaller than that of Italy, a rising star.

Spain is an old and powerful country that has dominated Europe for hundreds of years, while Italy was unified only after Carlo became the King of Spain.

Logically speaking, Spain's population should be larger than Italy's. But the reality is that Spain's population lags behind not only other powers, but also far behind Italy.

However, due to its own comprehensive strength, the population gap has been ignored by other countries.

Compared with Spain, the British situation is somewhat embarrassing.

Britain is undoubtedly the most powerful country in the world, but the British policy of glorious isolation has made them increasingly distant from the European continent.

In addition, the British owned the most colonies in the world, including the richest colony, India, which also created a large gap between European countries and Britain.

Looking at all the European powers, I really don't find any country that has a good relationship with Britain. Needless to say, there are conflicts between Britain, France, Britain and Russia, and there is also a deep hatred between Britain and Spain.

On the contrary, the relationship between the British and the German-Austrian alliance is not that bad. This may be the only alliance that Britain may join.

This is indeed true in history. At the end of the 19th century, the British almost reached an alliance treaty with the Germans. If such an alliance treaty could be reached, the outcome of World War I would have changed greatly.

Unfortunately, the conservative and isolationist British Prime Minister Robert Gascoigne-Cecil strongly opposed Chamberlain's proposal to form an alliance with the German Empire, which ultimately led to the abortion of the possible Anglo-German alliance.

Of course, the Chamberlain here does not refer to Arthur Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister who promoted the appeasement policy during World War II, but his father Joseph Chamberlain.

At this time, the Chamberlain family was considered a rising star in British politics. Although Joseph Chamberlain did not compete for the highest position of prime minister, he also stirred up the British political arena as the leader of the opposition in history.

In addition to Arthur Neville Chamberlain, his second son who successfully became the British Prime Minister and was recorded in world history, his eldest son Austen Chamberlain also entered the British Cabinet many times in the early 20th century, and held important positions such as Chancellor of the Exchequer or Foreign Secretary.

Although the current situation of the British is very embarrassing, in fact, only the British are concerned about Britain's embarrassing situation.

On the European continent, people were more concerned about the situation of the war.

Just as Spain and Austria-Hungary had signed a related trade agreement, France and Russia also accelerated the signing of a trade agreement after the outbreak of war.

The main content of this trade agreement is that France will supply Russia with the strategic materials it needs. After all, it is a bit too difficult for Russia to rely on its own industry to compete with the industries of the two industrial powers, Germany and Austria.

In addition to reaching a trade agreement with Russia, France also signed a loan agreement with Russia. At this time, the French government, which had already paid off the 50 billion franc indemnity, was still quite rich, and the hundreds of millions of francs loaned by Russia were just a drop in the bucket for the French government.

The support of the French also gave Russia the confidence to continue the war. If Russia relied solely on its own economic and industrial support, it would probably go bankrupt in a few months. Germany and Austria-Hungary could only watch and worry about France's support for Russia.

With France supporting Russia, Germany and Austria may not be Russia's opponents in a war of attrition. What Russia lacks is economy and industry, and France can make up for this shortcoming.

Russia itself has a population of over 100 million, so for Russia, the loss of any number of people in a war of a relatively small scale is acceptable.

As for Germany and Austria-Hungary, they certainly could not accept losing too many troops in this war. The combined population of Germany and Austria-Hungary was not as large as that of Russia, and the population growth rate was far behind that of Russia.

In terms of manpower consumption, even if the soldiers of Germany and Austria-Hungary could achieve a casualty ratio of 1:3 with Russia, it would still be a loss for Germany and Austria.

Especially in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Austrians, as the main body, were limited and could not withstand such consumption.

This also means that Germany and Austria can only seek a quick victory in this war, otherwise they can only look for an opportunity to negotiate with Russia.

France's continuous blood transfusion to Russia is actually good news for Spain. This actually means that it is not so easy for Germany and Austria to win this war.

The longer the war lasted, the more money Spain, as a neutral country, could earn and gain.

In the month before the war, the three participating countries of Germany, Austria and Russia were basically in a state of emergency mobilization.

A large amount of weapons, equipment and strategic materials were mobilized to the front line, and many reservists and able-bodied men were also drafted into the army and began emergency training lasting several months.

As the three kingdoms expanded their armies, they also faced a huge gap in weapons.

Take the Austro-Hungarian Empire as an example.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire's pre-war standing army had only about 27 men, but a month later this number had reached nearly 40.

Although each country would stockpile certain weapons and equipment for strategic reserves, it was impossible for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which had a standing army of only 27 people, to stockpile too many weapons and equipment.

After all, weapons are being updated and replaced very quickly in this era. If too many weapons and equipment are stockpiled without a war breaking out, these obsolete stockpiled weapons will become scrap metal after the weapons are updated.

The weapons and equipment stored in all the arsenals of the Austro-Hungarian Empire combined were less than 10 rifles. After fully arming the army, there was still a shortage of more than 3 rifles within the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

These gaps were naturally filled by Austria-Hungary's allies Italy and Spain, among which Spain made the greatest contribution.

There are two types of rifles sold by Spain. The first is the current Maxim M1 rifle, and the other is the obsolete Vitali M1884 rifle.

There is still a big gap in the performance of these two rifles, and there is also a big gap in price.

The Vitali M1872 rifles currently owned by Spain are basically second-hand rifles eliminated by the Guards, the Royal Army and the Colonial Army, and their selling price is less than half of that of a new one.

As for another new rifle, the Maxim M1884 rifle, because it is the current rifle, most of the ones available for purchase are the latest products produced by the Royal Ordnance Factory.

This also resulted in the price of a Maxim M1884 rifle being almost three times that of a Vitali M1872 rifle, and the rifle bullet equipped with smokeless gunpowder was more than twice the cost of a black powder bullet.

In the arms trade with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not choose either of the two rifles, but chose to purchase both rifles simultaneously to equip its army.

Those more elite Austrian troops were definitely equipped with the most advanced Maxim M1884 rifles.

As for the rest of the army, which consisted of Czechs, Hungarians and soldiers of other nationalities, they had to make do with second-hand weapons: Vitali M1872 rifles.

However, because black powder bullets are cheaper than smokeless powder, these soldiers holding second-hand rifles can also get an advantage, that is, the supply of bullets is more sufficient than that of soldiers holding new rifles.

In the first month of the war alone, Austria-Hungary ordered more than 2 rifles from Spain and more than 1 rifles from Italy.

It was also this war that prompted Spain to begin the process of re-equipping some of its colonial troops.

Only a few divisions of the colonial army were able to re-equip themselves first, and the combat effectiveness of these divisions is still worthy of recognition.

In the battle against the African natives, the colonial divisions played a much greater role than the colonial garrison regiments. These colonial divisions were also baptized by war, and if a war broke out in the European continent in the future, they would also be able to play a certain role on the Spanish battlefield.

Compared with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Germany's shortage of weapons and equipment was not so serious.

On the one hand, Germany's own military industry is relatively strong. On the other hand, Germany has more reservists and a much larger inventory of weapons and equipment than the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

In fact, it was quite exaggerated that the Austro-Hungarian Empire had a standing army of 20 and stockpiled more than 10 rifles.

The Germans had a regular army of nearly 50 men, and they had stockpiled nearly 20 rifles.

In addition, Germany's domestic military factories accelerated production and provided it to the army, which meant that Germany did not face any problems with insufficient weapons and equipment even though its army expanded by hundreds of thousands in the first month of the war.

Germany even had the ability to provide some weapons and equipment to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, including light artillery that the Austro-Hungarian Empire was in dire need of.

Although the Polish region is a large plain, there are still many mountainous terrains at the border between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Poland.

These terrains are not suitable for large-caliber heavy artillery to join the battlefield. Instead, small-caliber artillery can play a vital role.

First of all, small-caliber artillery shells are easier to transport, and with sufficient logistical supplies, their firepower is unmatched by those large-caliber artillery.

Secondly, small-caliber artillery is easy to move. The situation on the front battlefield is quite complicated, and heavy artillery may not be dismantled in time, resulting in being captured by the enemy.

Light artillery does not have such troubles. If the soldiers want, they can dismantle the artillery and move it to a new position at any time.

This is the first update of 4200 words, and there will be another update later.

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(End of this chapter)