Greece to roman road

"Greece still needs time, so at present, the Greek government's position is still neutral," Constantine reiterated again.

"The development and construction of Macedonia need to be consolidated, the production of our military supplies, and the war-weariness of the people. You know, our people participated in two wars in 1912 and 1913. These all need time to ease."

Having said this, Constantine thought of a more critical question and hurriedly asked: "Since you and the British ambassador talked about Greece's participation in the war, and even the British raised the conditions for Thrace, did the Prime Minister ask them? , the issue of ownership of the Strait after the war."

Venizelos shook his head, his face showing a bit of loneliness, and he was obviously not too satisfied with the conditions of the British ambassador.

"Of course it was involved, but he changed the subject and did not go into more detail on the issue of Greece's participation in the war. Except for Thrace, in the words of the ambassador, I was not granted authority outside of Thrace."

"The international situation is not yet mature. Even if Greece wants to participate in the war, the Allies will have to use more chips. They obviously lack sincerity," Constantine said meaningfully.

"I know that you have been very close to the British for a long time, so you should also know that the British's conditions are just to test our Greek tone. As you said, the Allies should have concluded an agreement to carve up the Ottoman Empire. , and we in Greece don’t even have the right to know.”

Venizelos is the Prime Minister of Greece. Since he became Prime Minister, he has continued the tradition of Greek diplomacy and is close to the United Kingdom.

Even though Constantine thought of the frequent interference in the internal affairs of Greece by Britain in the original time and space, in order to promote Greece's participation in the war, King Constantine and Venizelos, the prime minister, as well as the Royalists and Liberals surrounding them, formed two factions. The incompatibility of water and fire tore the entire Greek ruling class apart, but Constantine still did not interfere.

Venizelos performed his duties as Foreign Secretary with distinction and had many friends in London politics.

Probably due to their common origins and experiences, Venizelos established a deep friendship with Lloyd George, the current British Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Lloyd George also came from a civilian background and was also a lawyer by profession. Then he entered politics and rose to prominence. He is now the British Chancellor of the Exchequer.

If Constantine remembers correctly, Lloyd George should be the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1916.

Venizelos's resume is very similar to that of Lloyd George. He was also a civilian from Crete. He later entered the University of Athens to study law and obtained a lawyer's qualification. Later, he also became a lawyer and led the revolution in Crete. Enter politics.

Of course, Venizelos is now Prime Minister of Greece. (At that time, Crete was still a territory of the Ottoman Empire)

According to Constantine's understanding, not only did the two have similar experiences, but they also had similar political views.

In order to save Britain's precarious finances and cope with the Anglo-German naval shipbuilding competition, Lloyd George took drastic measures against the rich British people and proposed to increase property tax, inheritance tax, tobacco and alcohol tax, land tax, etc.

After Venizelos came to power, similar tax policies were adopted in order to ease Greece's financial strain, including the previous tax reform in Greece, which was a progressive tax, which essentially increased taxes on the rich.

Constantine speculated that it was precisely because of the similarity between the two that Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister in the original historical time and space, strongly supported Greece under the leadership of Venizelos in participating in the Greco-Turkish War.

Constantine valued the personal relationship between the two.

Although it is a bit embarrassing to say it, the United Kingdom is indeed the world hegemon now. As a small and medium-sized country in the Balkan Peninsula, known as the powder keg, Greece needs to curry favor with the United Kingdom.

Weak countries need to do a better job in diplomacy.

Just like Japan during the Russo-Japanese War, a backward country in Asia, went to the British financial industry to raise funds, and later went to the United States.

(During the Russo-Japanese War, Japan tried to make international loans because of the huge cost of the war)

If it had not been for the signing of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance Treaty, how could the London financial community have loaned money to Japan.

Japan was an ally of Britain, and that was Japan's most conspicuous identity at the time.

Therefore, Constantine valued Venizelos very much, both in British politics and especially for his personal relationship with Lloyd George.

"Compared to Greece, Russia's status is obviously more important to the Allies."

Constantine reminded Venizelos.

As an important will among the Allied Powers, Russia was responsible for containing the German army on the Eastern Front and dealing with the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the Allied Powers system.

Although Constantine could not guess the specific content of the agreement between the three Allied Powers to carve up the Ottoman Empire.

But the Russians’ demands must be related to the Black Sea Strait.

Greece is close to the Dardanelles Strait. Once it joins the war, it will also make demands on the Ottoman Empire's ownership of the strait. This is inevitable.

There are a large number of Greeks living along the Dardanelles-Bosphorus Strait, and the Greeks have a deep historical connection with the Strait. It is reasonable for Greece to make such a request.

"Our demands conflict with Russia. Considering Russia's attitude, Britain and France will naturally not be so active. It is also a hidden worry for Greece," Constantine also said with some helplessness.

This is probably also an important reason why Greece has made up its mind to be neutral in history.

On the one hand, Britain and France planned to let Greece join the Allied Powers in the war, but on the other hand, they did not have favorable conditions.

How could the Greeks be willing to join the war.

In order for Bulgaria to participate in the war, the Germans promised a lot, including Macedonia, Thrace, the border between Serbia and Bulgaria. After Romania entered the war, they also allowed Bulgaria to obtain part of Romania's territory.

Venizelos also had a headache when he heard Constantine talking about the same goals between Greece and Russia. This was also a major obstacle to Greece's participation in the war.

Greece was under great pressure after joining the war and faced war in several directions, but the Allies could not provide conditions that would tempt Greece.

"In short, you can continue to contact the Allied Powers and try to strive for favorable conditions for Greece, or you can show your attitude to the outside world on the side of the Allied Powers," Constantine said to Venizelos.

Venizelos was a little surprised when he heard Constantine's instructions: "What about you, Your Highness the Crown Prince?"

"My view, and that of the Greek royal family I represent, in this war is that Greece remains neutral," Constantine said, pointing to himself.

"As the war continues, the competition between the two camps for the Balkan countries becomes more intense, and Greece is caught in the middle, making it difficult to be left and right."

"This can ease the relationship with the two camps. In a short period of time, we will not offend either side and try to buy some time for Greece. This way, the army will have more time to prepare for war."

Constantine's method was nothing more than not to offend both sides, a typical wallflower who favored both sides.

"In the future, diplomats from the two camps will always keep asking about our attitude when wooing Greece. This is how we will respond when the time comes."

Historically, Greece did the same thing.

The royal family advocated neutrality, and the Prime Minister requested participation in the war on the side of the Allied Powers.

Although people can't help but sneer at the cowardice of the Greeks in history and feel that they are too cowardly, in the end, judging from Greece's efforts and gains in World War I, Greece made a lot of money.

In the original historical time and space, Greece entered the war in 1917. After fighting for a few months, the First World War ended. Then the Greeks obtained land near Thrace and Smyrna.

In contrast, Italy entered the war in 1915 and Romania entered the war in 1916. Compared with Greece, they joined the war earlier.

As a result, Romania was destroyed in four months. Although the Allies were defeated and Romania received Transylvania from the Austro-Hungarian Empire as compensation, the country experienced a catastrophe after all and was occupied by the Allies for more than two years. , countless supplies were looted and suffered heavy losses.

Italy, well, Italy's results in World War I were so insignificant that they can't even be remembered.

In comparison, historically Greece should have suffered the least losses among the Balkan countries, but its results have been impressive.

Although the Greek royal family was called virtuous because of its insistence on remaining neutral during the war, the so-called Greek King Constantine favored Germany because he married a German princess.

This reason is too far-fetched to convince.

If this theory is followed, then there will be no war at all: William II and Nicholas II are still cousins, and they have a good relationship in private.

There is no end in which Germany and Russia are at war with each other.

Queen Victoria of England was William II’s grandmother.

Historically, Greece's investment in World War I was small and its profits were large. The neutrality advocated by the Greek royal family also had a share of the credit.

Otherwise, according to Venizelos's proposal, Greece would have entered the war in 1915.

Venizelos considered Constantine's proposal with a solemn expression and believed that it was indeed beneficial to Greece, so he nodded in agreement.

·······

Through the window sill, Constantine watched the car carrying Venizelos slowly drive out of the gate of the manor and finally disappear, with a serious expression on his face.

Crown Princess Sophie, who walked into the room, saw Constantine's appearance and asked with concern: "What's wrong with you?"

Constantine told her about the different attitudes he and Venizelos had towards dealing with the Central Powers.

"Isn't this great? Although you have different political opinions, you all love Greece in your own way," Sophie explained to Constantine.

Noting that the solemn look on Constantine's face did not ease at all: "Do you have any other worries?"

"Since Venizelos took office, he has achieved a lot. He is widely respected in the political arena. The Liberal Party he leads is getting stronger and stronger. It is already the largest party in the Greek Parliament. More and more officials in the Greek political arena are from Venizelos's Liberal Party, many speculative politicians, for the sake of profit and future, continue to join Venizelos's banner and join the Liberal Party." Constantine changed the topic and chatted with Sophie about the situation of the Greek Parliament.

"In order to compete with the Liberal Party, other political parties, that is, members of Congress who have different political views from Venizelos, organized together and now have formed a powerful political party, which is the People's Party." Constantine continued to introduce dullly .

Sophie just listened carefully, acted as a good confidant, and let Constantine speak.

"The Liberal Party and the People's Party are now the two largest political parties in the Greek Parliament, and the battle is very fierce."

Seeing the confusion on Sophie's face, Constantine explained: "Originally, it is common for politicians to fight against each other in the political arena."

"But I'm worried that the fight between the two parties will resonate with the current situation in Greece and eventually lead to intensified partisan conflicts in Greece."

Under the leadership of Venizelos, the Liberal Party's political purpose is very clear, which is to advocate taxing more on the wealthy, providing more benefits to workers and farmers, and establishing an insurance system.

The Liberal Party's proposition naturally aroused opposition from the big landowners and the bourgeoisie. After all, the Liberal Party wanted to take more money from their pockets to subsidize other classes, so how could they agree willingly.

The People's Party's ideas are diametrically opposed to those of the Liberal Party, advocating that the government should not actively intervene in the economy, cutting taxes to reduce the burden on enterprises, and opposing welfare policies, believing that this will cause the Greek people to become lazy.

The People's Party naturally has the support of Greece's wealthy class.

For example, Banning, the former Governor of Congo, joined the People's Party and became a member of Parliament after returning to Greece.

There are many nobles like Banning who also joined the People's Party.

Today's Greek nobles not only have fiefs granted by the royal family, but also have generous dividends from the Purple Robe Foundation. They obviously belong to the wealthy class of Greece.

The operation of the Purple Robe Foundation is very smooth. Now the money used for dividends every year is basically more than 20 million drachmas. Since there are not many nobles in Greece, only a dozen people, the amount of money each person receives Very tempting.

Therefore, members of parliament also call the People's Party the royalist party.

Regarding Constantine's neutral position, industry was very influential in Greek society and many people agreed with it.

For example, Greece's large landowners and bourgeoisie, as well as the People's Party, which also represents the wealthy class in time, also advocated remaining neutral and not getting caught up in the tragic war between the two camps.

Greece's participation in the war had no intention of affecting the property and business of these people.

Among the nobles, there are also those who support the neutral position.

Their reasons were more complicated and they were unwilling to fight on the side of the Allies, especially the German army.

On the one hand, the German army is powerful, and on the other hand, some officers in the Greek army are pro-German.

Because the relationship between Greece and Germany has always been good, many officers in the Greek Army have studied and served briefly in Germany.

This group of people also prefers the neutrality of the People's Party.

"Everyone saw the actions of these noble congressmen and mistakenly thought that I was supporting the People's Party behind the scenes and suppressing Prime Minister Venizelos and the Liberal Party under his leadership," Constantine quietly complained to Sophie.

"The People's Party, in order to enhance its momentum, also acquiesced to this statement."

Constantine cannot openly distance himself from the relationship and support the People's Party.

As the crown prince, Constantine himself is indeed one of the rich and powerful people protected by the People's Party, not to mention the nobles who joined the People's Party.

It is undoubtedly a foolish thing to go against the interests of one's own class.

But Constantine also supported Venizelos's policy. During the war, if the government did not tax the rich more, how could it cope with the huge consumption of the war.

Constantine was worried that the struggle between the two sides was too fierce and the contradictions were sharp. In the international context of the Allies and the Entente wooing Greece, the Greek ruling class was divided, leading to the tearing of the entire country from top to bottom.