The Rise Of Australasia - Chapter 367

Chapter 367: Chapter 314: Preheating before the Olympic Games

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The Ottoman Turkish Empire’s territories in Europe were rapidly consumed by Balkan states, with the Albanian region seizing the opportunity to declare independence.

Currently, Turkey can only control the capital, Constantinople, and the surrounding land within fewer than twenty miles.

As for the spoils of war, the Serbian army occupied most of Macedonia, northern Albania, and the new Zappa state.

The Greek army held territory from southern Macedonia to Thessaloniki, the Bulgarian army held eastern Macedonia and parts of the Sevres region, and Montenegro had expanded its land to the east.

In summary, each country had its gains, roughly achieving their strategic goals.

But it wasn’t over; the issue in the Albanian region was the more explosive matter of this war.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy hoped to establish an autonomous Albanian state, but Serbia occupied some areas in northern Albania, successfully obtaining access to the Adriatic Sea.

Serbia’s expansion received strong support from Russia, but it brought about strong opposition from Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Especially the Austro-Hungarian Empire, after Serbia officially occupied northern Albania and acquired the port, they expressed their opinion to Serbia, asking them to withdraw from northern Albania immediately, otherwise, they would have to mobilize in some areas to ensure their interests in the Balkan Peninsula.

Germany promptly gave strong support to the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s actions, while the underprepared Russia chose to back down, on the one hand, persuading Serbia to yield, and on the other hand, handing the problem over for discussion at the congress of great powers.

Although the situation in the Balkans temporarily calmed due to intervention from the great powers, in fact, it was precisely because of their interference that the Balkan situation was destined to become more intense.

Of course, none of this currently concerns Australasia.

As time entered April of 1912, the Sydney Olympics also entered the final preparation stage.

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This was a world event created by Arthur with the power of the whole of Australasia, and over 25 countries and more than 3,000 athletes have signed up to participate.

In fact, from late February to early March, many foreign athlete delegations have come to Australasia, entering a tense and exciting training phase.

Some powerful nations have already launched training in their countries, and they already prepared to go to Australasia to participate in the final Olympic event.

The good news is that the Balkan war did not affect the holding of the Sydney Olympics, even though the Balkan countries were deeply embroiled in war, they still sent a certain number of athlete teams to participate in the Olympics.

Actually, it’s normal, as the great powers generally stand behind Balkan nations. It would be inappropriate for these Balkan countries to ignore it when the great powers are participating.

To make this Olympic Games and Australasia more famous worldwide, Arthur decided to use a global voyage to boost Australasia’s global fame, as well as to promote the Sydney Olympics.

Of course, this is not a simple global voyage. The first global voyage in history dates back to the mid-fifteenth century.

At that time, the global voyage used large sailing ships and directly opened up the Age of Great Navigation and Colonial Era lasting hundreds of years, also being one of the main reasons why Europe reached the pinnacle of the world.

After the global voyage, Europeans finally realized how small the place they lived in was, and that beyond Europe, there were vast lands and a large population.

The global voyage that Arthur planned would use an airship made in Australasia, specifically the AU-3 airship, to make an airborne global voyage.

Undertaking a global voyage by air, this is a great milestone that no one has yet achieved.

If Arthur can champion the airship’s global voyage, it will also give Australasia a stroke of bright color in aviation history.

Speaking of this, it’s necessary to mention the AU-3 airship developed by the Aerospace Research Institute.

The development speed of airships is relatively slow compared to that of airplanes, which is actually due to Arthur’s formulation, where the importance of airplanes is greater than that of airships.

However, with the accumulation of technology over so many years, along with a certain investment in the development of airships, updating the airship to the third generation, to be precise, the second generation in the research of the Aerospace Research Institute, is quite easy.

Another reason why Arthur promotes global voyages by airship is to attract the attention of European countries once again after the last Aus-Portuguese War, and let European countries invest their budget in the research and development of airships.

AU-3 Airship, has made a significant upgrade in performance compared to the previous generation of airships.

Especially the increase in flight speed, giving the AU-3 airship genuine global voyage capability.

After Arthur had assigned the task, the Aerospace Laboratory commenced the intense planning for the global voyage. They carefully pondered upon the choice of stopovers during the flight with the goal of accomplishing this meaningful global journey in the shortest time possible.

For a global voyage, there lies an essential difference between the first and the second time.

Just as people only remember the champion in a competition, the news will also focus on the first global flight.

After all, pioneers are always more commendable than followers. Why shouldn’t the second or subsequent flights be inevitable after the first?

The Aerospace Laboratory decided to commence the global voyage on April 10th, with Sydney as the departure point. The first stopover would be Hawaii in the United States, followed by Los Angeles, and then London, United Kingdom. Next would be Berlin, Rome, Delhi, and finally, Batavia, before returning to Sydney.

Accounting for Sydney, the airship would only need to stop at eight points to complete this planned global flight.

In fact, if the Aero-Laboratory wished, it could further reduce the number of stopovers.

But after all, the purpose of this voyage was not just to carry out a rapid global flight. It was also intended to use the first-ever global flight as a gimmick to promote Australasia and the Sydney Olympics.

Therefore, the choices of these stopovers had some hidden intentions. It was necessary to stop in Hawaii during the trip across the entire Pacific Ocean.

Arthur didn’t favor the global journey he painstakingly planned to sink in the Pacific Ocean because of any missteps or accidents. That would truly lead to amusement.

Following Hawaii, the next stop Los Angeles, a major western city in the United States, was crucial for gaining worldwide fame.

The same was true for London, United Kingdom. It was believed that the British people would not refuse. The reasons for not choosing Paris or Berlin were either the proximity to London or the route seemed out of the way.

The choice for the final stopover, Batavia, was purposeful for Arthur. It was an opportunity to flaunt the power of Australasia through the global flight, and also aid Australasia to better control Southeast Asia.

Although Arthur didn’t intend to directly annex Dutch East Indies, it was indeed necessary for Australasia to hold a considerable authority in this region.

The Aero-Laboratory had quickly finalized its plans, and the media controlled by the royal financial group had swiftly published the news.

On April 8, 1912, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Russia Nation sent their congratulations to Arthur through telegrams and inquired if there was any assistance needed.

Unexpectedly, the British party was the quickest to send a telegram, an occurrence completely unlike the reign of Edward VII.

Despite the constant congratulatory messages from the British Royal Family to Arthur during the reign of Edward VII, they typically lagged behind the German Royal Family and the Russian Monarchy. At times, they were amongst the last of the European powers to send their congratulations.

What surprised Arthur further was that the British Government also sent a congratulatory telegram. They proposed the aim of a deeper cooperative relationship as well as strategic cooperation in areas of economy and military.

Though unclear on the intentions of the British Government, it was definitely advantageous for Australasia to cooperate with the world’s leading power.

Under Arthur’s guidance, the Australasian Government responded with a telegram to the British Government expressing their welcome to further strategic cooperation.

Both parties continued their communications and astonishingly, they were able to draw up a simple agreement a day before the global flight. They decided that after the Olympics, Australasia would send a diplomatic team to London, United Kingdom to discuss official cooperative matters.

In expressing their advance congratulations on the success of the global flight, the telegrams from Germany and Russia subtly mentioned their hope to introduce Australasia’s latest airship technology, in the event of a successful flight.

Naturally, Arthur wouldn’t refuse. After all, the cost of constructing an airship wasn’t low. The price of selling it to foreign countries would be even higher.

If it was about exporting technology, the money earned could be greater. Even though this was the most sophisticated airship technology in Australasia, having already completed several generations of military aircraft research, who would worry about the currently fragile status of the airship?

Arthur’s definitive agreement cheered up the Germans.

Originally, William II presumed that Australasia intended to align with Britain. However, it now seemed that maybe they just intended to avoid war and declared neutrality, refraining from getting involved in the struggles between the two major military blocs.

Even though Germany might lose a valuable ally during the war, befriending Australasia with its advantageous geographical location was undeniably more worthwhile than antagonizing them.

In his conversation with Nicholas II, both parties extended courtesies to each other’s families. Crown Prince Aleksei Smith’s hemophilia was miraculously cured by Rasputin, which cheered up Nicholas II tremendously.

However, what Nicholas II didn’t foresee was that Rasputin, who had cured his child, regarded by the Empress as a saint, was one of the primary causes for the collapse of the Russian Empire.

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