The Rise Of Australasia

In order to alleviate the pressure on the Balkan States, finding new allies within the Balkan Region became extremely important for Britain and France.

After much consideration, the British turned their attention to what was once the strongest country in the Balkan Region, Turkey, which a hundred years ago was one of the Powers.

Since the multiple Balkan Wars, the current Turkey was no longer as mighty as the Ottoman Turkey once was, and the emergence of the Republic was not well-received in the eyes of Britain and France.

Especially after the end of World War I, a large expanse of land and sea, including Constantinople and the Strait of Constantinople, were forced to become demilitarized zones, just like Rhineland in Germany.

What's worse for Turkey is that it actually holds a portion of European territory, namely the Edirne region snatched from Bulgaria after the Balkan Wars ended.

The land area here might not be vast, but it is located near one of Europe's once most flourishing cities, Constantinople.

More importantly, this is a very scarce plain region for Turkey, and also one of the most important grain-producing areas on the entire Balkan Peninsula.

If the entire area becomes a demilitarized zone, it will be tantamount to delivering the fat to the mouths of the Balkan States. For the Republic of Turkey, which had completed its revolution, this was undoubtedly a national pain and a problem the Turkish government constantly sought to solve.

But Constantinople and the strait are not only vital for the Balkan States, but also for the Black Sea countries.

Of course, there aren't really many countries along the Black Sea coast at present; Russia and Turkey have already occupied more than two-thirds of the coastline, with the remaining coastline divided between Romania and Bulgaria.

Why did the British place such importance on Turkey?

The power of Turkey was actually far from being strong, but its influence over Constantinople was definitely the strongest besides the Powerful Nations.

Once Turkey could be brought into its embrace, Britain would be able to completely blockade the Strait of Constantinople and block the resource acquisition routes of the German-Italian-led Allied Nations.

Let it be known that Romania and Bulgaria were both belligerent countries. As long as Turkey could join the British side, it meant that the ships of Romania and Bulgaria would never be able to leave the Black Sea.

For Romania and Bulgaria to trade, they could only do so by land. However, these two countries have few neighbors, and a significant portion of them are their enemies.

As a result, the only way for Romania and Bulgaria to obtain resources was to cooperate with the Germans, gaining resources through railway means.

But the Germans themselves were already short on resources. As a result, apart from Romanian petroleum which could help the Germans, Romania and Bulgaria in other respects became a burden to Germany.

More importantly, if Turkey could be brought into this Balkan war, then the advantage held by Romania and Bulgaria would also vanish.

Turkey's territory in the Balkan Region might be small, but it possesses the entire Little Asia Peninsula in the Asian region, a total area of 785,000 square kilometers with a population close to 17 million.

Such strength was fully capable of rivaling South Slavia and Romania, the two major Balkan powers, and posed a significant threat to Bulgaria.

What's more important is that the countries that participated in the partitioning of the Bulgarian occupation area included a share for Turkey. Although those lands were originally occupied by Bulgaria from Turkey, there were still some contradictions between the two countries.

As time moved into 1937, the negotiations between various European countries and Turkey became the biggest news in the world.

Due to the European conflict, the venue for the negotiations was chosen to be Istanbul, also known as Constantinople to the European People.

Historically, this conference actually took place in Montreux, Switzerland, but at this time Switzerland was clearly not suitable for such a high-level multilateral conference, especially one leaning towards the British side.

As one of the victors of World War I, as well as one of the Four Great Powers of the Allies, Australasia naturally qualified to participate in this conference, and as a main character no less, being part of the final determination alongside the representatives of Britain and France.

It is worth mentioning that Russia, although also one of the Four Great Powers of the Allies, was clearly not welcomed by the Britain-France-Australia Three Nations during this conference.

Still, Russia participated in the conference, as they are also a Black Sea coastal nation, and Russia's Black Sea Fleet has always been one of Russia's three major main battleships groups.

But all of Russia's three major fleets had certain problems, and even the present Russia was utterly unable to solve the issues faced by these fleets.

Russia's three major fleets are the Baltic Fleet, the Black Sea Fleet, and the Far East Fleet, the latter also being known as the Pacific Squadron.

The Baltic Fleet once was one of the Tsarist Russia's main fleets, receiving the highest military expenditure budget among the three major fleets every year.

But since the current Russian Government took power, the importance of the Baltic Fleet had clearly fallen behind the other fleets.

Of course, it is not just the current Russian Government to blame.

During the period of change in Russia, it lost a vast amount of territory, including half of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland, among other regions.

This resulted in Russia's Baltic coastline shrinking from its original length of thousands, or even several thousand kilometers, to a pitifully short distance of less than 200 kilometers.

The only remaining coast harbored the city that was once most important to Tsarist Russia and also served as the capital, Saint Petersburg.

But since the current powers in Russia took control, not only has the capital been moved to Moscow, Saint Petersburg was also forced to undergo a name change.

Although the Baltic Fleet has not been decommissioned, its treatment is indeed no longer on par with that of the Black Sea Fleet and the Far East Fleet, having fallen from the premier fleet of Russia to the least regarded.

The situation with the Black Sea Fleet isn't much better. The environment around the Black Sea is quite complex, and it itself is an inland sea thousands of kilometers away from any ocean.

To reach the Atlantic Ocean or the Indian Ocean from the Black Sea, ships must pass through the Strait of Constantinople, the Aegean Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the Strait of Gibraltar, or the Suez Canal.

Since the time of the Russian Empire, Russia has yearned for control over Constantinople and the Strait of Constantinople. Unfortunately, throughout the centuries of Russian history, the Strait of Constantinople has never been in Russian control, and the Black Sea Fleet has always faced difficulties in gaining access to the sea.

Compared to the Baltic Fleet and the Black Sea Fleet, the situation of Russia's Far East Fleet is actually much better.

Setting aside how the fleet's base at Vladivostok came to be, Vladivostok is indeed the relatively best environment among the three major Russian harbors.

However, the geographical location reveals that Vladivostok is situated in the Sea of Japan, which is almost completely encircled by the Island Nation's territorial waters.

This is also the cause of the strained relationship between Russia and the Island Nation. Russia had finally found a warm-water port in the Far East—though in reality, it is only half ice-free—and yet this port is almost blockaded by the Island Nation; the Far East Fleet still faces similar issues to those of the Black Sea Fleet when attempting to access the sea.

Fortunately, relative to the situation in Constantinople, the Island Nation is undoubtedly the weaker party, and though the Russian Far East Fleet does face some restrictions, accessing the sea is not a significant challenge.

It was precisely because of the difficulty the Black Sea Fleet faced in gaining sea access that Russia placed such emphasis on Constantinople and was even willing to participate in this conference as one of only two neutral countries, despite being eyed with hostility by other nations.

On January 14, 1937, representatives from the United Kingdom, France, Australasia, Russia, Greece, South Slavia, Turkey, Albania, and other countries formally attended the conference in Constantinople to discuss wartime measures concerning Constantinople and its strait.

The debate over the passage of various countries' warships through the Strait of Constantinople was rather intense.

Of course, the main issue was the dispute between Britain and Russia over the blockade of the Strait of Constantinople.

Russia naturally did not want to be blockaded by the Strait of Constantinople, but the British also wanted to firmly control the strait, presenting an inherent contradiction.

However, looking around the conference, all participating nations except for Turkey were allies of the British, which also served to illustrate who, in fact, was the decision-maker at this conference.

The Russian representative advocated for the blockade of the Strait of Constantinople, forbidding any belligerent countries' warships from passing through. Countries along the coasts of the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea could pass through the strait, but would face tonnage restrictions.

Such a proposal was naturally unacceptable to the British.

As a Black Sea coastal nation itself, this approach placed almost no restrictions on Russia. In contrast, Britain itself, as a belligerent and a non-Black Sea or Aegean Sea coastal country, would have its warships barred from entering the Strait of Constantinople.

In order to prevent Russia from strengthening its position in the Mediterranean and the Balkan Peninsula, the British put forward their own opinion, insisting on equal rights for both non-Black Sea coastal countries and Black Sea coastal countries in this matter.

In other words, the Representative of Britain suggested that, although Russia was a Black Sea coastal country, Britain should also enjoy the same rights as Russia.

At the same time, the British proposed that during wartime, all belligerents may freely pass through the Strait of Constantinople, and any blockade of the strait must be agreed upon by a vote of more than 65% from the conference participants.

Such a proposal seemed somewhat underhanded to the Russians.

After all, except for Turkey, all countries at the conference were allies of the British. Britain and its allies accounted for six votes, equivalent to 75%.

This meant that achieving 65% of votes was an easy task for the British, who could then block the Strait of Constantinople without restraint.

But it was different for Russia. It had few countries it could persuade to its side, and was very likely to have only its own vote.

Is this not equivalent to saying that after all the debate, the Strait of Constantinople still ended up under British control?