Chapter 537: The Irish War of Independence
If the previous global situation was relatively stable, the Greco-Turkish War, like the domino effect, instantly ignited the world and caused various crises to erupt in this already turbulent era.
The protagonists in this crisis were all the countries in the world, but the crisis was of varying magnitudes, and some countries were negligible in comparison to the overall global situation.
Firstly, Russia Nation.
With the launch of the summer offensive, Russia's situation was instantly reversed.
In the long run, the United Kingdom and France still hoped that Tsardom of Russia would win the war. However, due to their own selfish interests, there was a large gap between the victory they hoped for and the victory Tsardom of Russia anticipated.
Thanks to careful preparations, a multi-national coalition composed of the Russian army, Polish Army, International Intervention Joint Army, and the Lithuanian Army surrounded Soviet Russia and focused their attack on Ukraine.
The strategy given by the command of the International Intervention Joint Army was quite clear: to eliminate Soviet Russia's ability to connect with the outside world, turning them into a domestic threat for Russia instead of a global crisis.
From a Russian map, it can be seen that the current attack direction of the multinational coalition forces is towards Ukraine.
If Ukraine is lost, Soviet Russia, like a few years ago, will be essentially surrounded by Tsarist Russia, with hostile countries like Poland nearby.
Thus, the United Kingdom and France would not have to worry about the threat from Soviet Russia. Under such circumstances, the Russian civil war would become a controllable event that could bring major benefits to other countries, rather than a crisis.
This has led to a rather peculiar phenomenon: the target of the multi-national coalition's attack has never been Moscow; it has always been the key cities in Ukraine.
Of course, there are some differences in the implementation of specific strategies. For example, Poland is very interested in the Baltic States, having liberated Lithuania and currently advancing towards Latvia and Estonia.
The ambition of the Polish has been initially exposed; after controlling Lithuania, they have become interested in other Baltic countries, seemingly driven to establish a Baltic Federation.
Naturally, Tsarist Russia would not want to see Poland completely occupy the Baltic States, since their capital, Saint Petersburg, is not far from the Baltic States, which should be the territory of the Tsar rather than coveted by stupid Polish people.
Under Nicholas II's command, a Russian army group was also advancing towards the Baltic States, aiming to recapture Estonia and Latvia and push the control line to the border of Lithuania, seeking the opportunity to retake Lithuania at any time.
In the south, the Intervention Forces from the International League landed in Ukraine and, together with a part of the Polish and Russian forces, attempted to eliminate Soviet Ukraine in a short period of time.
In order to save Ukraine and prevent the Soviet regime from being destroyed, Soviet Russia deployed heavy troops in the Ukrainian region and was putting up a strong resistance.
However, the International League's Intervention Forces were also going all out in this conflict. Whether Soviet Russia can survive this time is not certain. At the very least, Ukraine is currently in grave danger.
The British have also been having headaches recently; the Irish issue has become a major problem affecting British rule, which may ignite the British situation at any time if not handled carefully.
As is well known, the full name of the United Kingdom is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which is a union of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland.
However, in reality, the Irish people in the Kingdom of Ireland do not hold a high position in the British Empire and are even being marginalized, which is why the Irish have always wanted independence.
There is no need to elaborate on the intertwined relationship between Ireland and England. What is most critical is that during World War I, the British heavily recruited Irish people to go to the front line without proper pension plans or compensation measures for these Irish soldiers, leaving a large number of returning Irish dissatisfied.
These Irish soldiers only realized after returning home that their years of military service not only failed to bring them any honor or extra income, but they also had to bear higher taxes.
This is only for ordinary people; soldiers who became disabled in the war and had no source of income would suffer even worse consequences, with their families broken and lives ruined.
Under such circumstances, the situation in Ireland has been unstable since the end of the war, like a barrel of dry gunpowder that could explode if ignited.
Obviously, the British situation is everywhere a spark, and it is impossible not to ignite the barrel of gunpowder that is Ireland.
On August 11, 1920, a very ordinary football match was held in Dublin, the capital of Ireland.
Ordinarily, there was nothing worth mentioning about this, but for some reason, some protesters against the British government entered the football field, causing a disturbance to the match.
The police from the United Kingdom, no one knows what they were thinking, chose the most inappropriate way, that is, to open fire on the demonstrating crowd, causing two deaths and four injuries in the parade crowd, while also accidentally wounding two spectators.
The blind shooting of the British police made the chaotic situation in the football field even more terrifying.
The angry Irish masses rushed forward, killing two police officers on the scene while they were changing their ammunition.
It didn't end there, as the blind actions of the British police led to more Irish people joining the parade and the new Sinn Féin party that opposed British government rule.
Founded in 1905 by former Irish Republic President Arthur Griffith, Sinn Féin advocated the use of force to build a united Irish Republic.
The military organization of Sinn Féin, known as the Irish Republican Army, grew significantly in size after this incident, with a growing desire among the Irish to resist the British government.
On August 12, with no response from the British government in support, Ireland unilaterally declared the establishment of an independent Irish Parliament and declared Ireland officially independent. Enjoy new stories from empire
The Irish parliament and the Republican Army reached a cooperative agreement, with the parliament declaring that the Irish Republican Army would act as the official army of the Irish Republic, waging war against the British government and reclaiming the entire Irish territory.
On August 13, the situation escalated even more.
Under the leadership of Dan Breen, soldiers kidnapped several members of the Royal Irish Constabulary and tortured them to reveal the location of the Gelly explosives storage they were guarding.
The soldiers of the Royal Irish Constabulary refused to confess, which led to their execution by the enraged Republican Army soldiers, marking the official start of the Irish War of Independence.
Seeing the situation in Ireland spiraling out of control, the British government finally panicked and stepped forward, condemning the massacre of British soldiers by the Irish Republican Army and vowing to suppress the Irish rebellion by force.
At this point, the Irish parliament had already publicly declared the 1916 declaration of independence as Ireland's founding symbol and declared the entire country under military control.
The Irish parliament held a press conference, stating that British rule in Ireland was illegal and violated the interests and independence rights of the Irish people.
The Irish parliament demanded that all British forces immediately withdraw from Irish territory and called on "all free countries of the world" to recognize Irish independence and condemn the invasion of other countries' independence by the British Empire.
Now the British government, including King George V, were furious and publicly called for a determined military crackdown on Ireland.
As the world's most powerful nation, Britain was not only humiliated by the scale of the rebellion in its own country but also laughed at by almost every other country.
The French and Americans were the first to enjoy the spectacle, even though the Americans themselves were facing an independence war in the Philippines; this didn't prevent them from taunting the British.
The chaos in Britain allowed Soviet Russia to breathe a sigh of relief, as after all, most of the forces in the world alliance were provided by the British and commanded by the British.
Even if they were not withdrawing their intervention forces, the attention of the British would certainly be greatly distracted, allowing the Soviet forces at the front to catch their breath.
Arthur did not express any opinions on the Irish War of Independence, as it was impossible to ridicule the British Empire, which was still an ally.
However, Arthur ensured the support of the British to prevent further escalation of the Philippine War of Independence and the British firefighting efforts from abandoning Australasia's actions in the Philippines.
The so-called Irish War of Independence, in a nutshell, involved the armed forces of some Irish parties launching a variety of unexpected attacks on the property of the British government, undermining British rule in Ireland, and at the same time, acquiring some weapons and funds.
At this time, the actions of the Irish army were rather despicable, including the assassination and persecution of high-ranking government officials, and even the brutal massacres that could be seen in the Irish War of Independence.
But it's not easy to say who is right and who is wrong, as British rule in Ireland is no less disgraceful and neither side can mock the other.
The first to be reported and attracting worldwide attention was the local Irish police chief, John Millington.
John Millington was a purebred Englishman, who, after the outbreak of the Irish War of Independence, was targeted by some extremists in the Republican army. They visited John Millington's residence late at night with their subordinates, tortured, and shot the British police chief in front of his family.
Of course, it's not easy to say who is right and who is wrong in this matter either. John Millington's reputation in Ireland was not good, and due to the British superiority over the Irish, John Millington committed many atrocities in Ireland, arbitrarily arresting and even shooting Irish protestors, making the news of his execution highly celebrated by the Irish, even to the point of rejoicing.