Greece’s Roman Road

Seemingly dissatisfied with her husband's inattentiveness, Queen Olga turned to George and said angrily, "George, are you not going to say something?".

George picked up the napkin, wiped his mouth in a hurry, and said slowly: "For Constantine, this matter, whether his plan succeeds or fails, is a rare experience, and with my own From a point of view, there is a real possibility of success, although it is unlikely.”

I saw that Queen Olga was very dissatisfied when she heard her husband's supportive attitude, imitating George's tone, shaking her head and said: "Whether it is success or failure, it is a rare experience, George, you are really a good father. So far, Constantine's plan has spent 4 million francs, and depending on the situation, the cost will continue to be high, you better be mentally prepared."

The so-called Constantine's plan was to fund explorers to go on expeditions to central Africa. The explorers would receive honor and money, while Constantine would get colonies.

The reason for taking such a risky chess is that he was forced to help.

Greece is a country that became independent from the Ottoman Empire in 1830, but the Greek peninsula is really not a suitable place for farming and development, with rolling hills and lack of resources.

The theme of the 19th century was empire and conquest, wars were frequent, and the strength of a country depended on the output of coal and iron.

And Greece is not only sparsely populated, but also lacks coal and iron mines.

Lignite is rich in content, but it has low calorific value, large combustion dust, and high sulfur content. It is the lowest quality coal. In the 19th century, this kind of coal could only be used to generate electricity.

As for iron ore, there is no iron ore in Greece at all.

In the 19th century, without coal and iron, such a country could only play soy sauce and have no sense of existence.

Greece was such a country. By 1882, Greece had been independent for 50 years. The industry was still in a primitive state, and the transportation was backward, resulting in closed and conservative rural areas, outdated concepts, and backward agriculture. It even cost precious foreign exchange imports every year. food.

It's fine if she can't become an industrial country, but according to Greece's resource endowment, she can't even become an agricultural country.

The country's strength is weak, and it can only be allowed to be arranged by the great powers, followed by the buttocks of the great powers, acting as a younger brother. Britain and France are still the protectorate of Greece.

Economic backwardness naturally leads to political chaos. The term of the prime minister elected to power is as short as a dozen days, but as long as a year or so, changing like a marquee.

Due to the long-term backward and barbaric rule of the Ottoman Turks, although a constitution was formulated and universal suffrage was implemented, it was suddenly implemented. There were many drawbacks in the election process, and corruption in elections emerged one after another.

Industry cannot be developed, and agriculture is not enough.

In order to maintain the country, Greece could only borrow a lot of foreign debts. The foreign debts in the 19th century could not be paid in full after borrowing, so they had to be discounted.

Although nominally, Greece has become independent, the policies of this country are always influenced by various imperialist countries. Britain, France, and Russia have profound influence in Greece. In fact, Greece has never been independent.

In the Crimean War of 1853, Britain, France and Turkey on one side, Russia on the other side, and nearly one million troops fought on the coast of the Black Sea. The attention of Ottoman Turkey was almost completely attracted by the Russians, and the Turks had no time to take care of Greece.

Seeing this situation, the people in Greece were furious, and the nationalists shouted to recover the country and restore its glory. It was at this moment.

At that time, King Otto I was under great domestic pressure, and he was happy to take this opportunity to expand his territory, to enhance his prestige in the hearts of the Greek people, to mobilize the army, and to prepare for the war.

As a result, Otto's actions aroused great dissatisfaction with Britain and France. British and French ambassadors came together, severely reprimanded King Otto, and sent a fleet to assemble in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Under the huge pressure of Britain and France, Otto could only compromise, but the Greek people were seriously dissatisfied, thinking that he was incompetent and weak, and Otto was deposed by the Greeks.

In the original history, in the later World War, Greece staged a similar scene again, but this time the party involved was Constantine himself.

When confronted with such a muddy situation in Greece, even if he was a transmigrator, Constantine was devastated for a while.

The mouse is pulling the tortoise, there is nowhere to go.

Once inadvertently, I heard King George say that European explorers are conducting expeditions in southern Africa, and he often sponsors some money.

Constantine, who heard this, was moved. Isn't this a good opportunity to break the game? The bad situation in Greece will not change in a short time. People are not rich, and horses are not fat. It is better to try Check out opportunities abroad.

If it fails, it will only lose some money. If it succeeds, if Greece can obtain an African colony rich in resources, it may not be able to hold the tail of the second industrial revolution and grow stronger.

At that time, the world was almost completely divided up. Only southern Africa was in a state of inconvenient transportation and was in a wild state. The indigenous Africans lived in the tribal era and were too backward. The cheap raw materials and commodities that the imperialist countries desperately needed were dumped in the market, and it could not provide them.

Only Britain and France established several strongholds in southern Africa due to colonial activities and overseas trade, such as the Cape Town colony.

So there are still large blank lands in the interior of southern Africa, such as the Congo River Basin.

Then, in a river with such a large flow of water as the Congo River, why does no one travel up the river by boat for commercial and adventure activities?

The reason is also very simple. The lower reaches of the Congo River flow smoothly and the river is wide. It flows into the Atlantic Ocean from the west coast of Africa. However, if you sail inland along the river for about tens of kilometers (near Matadi), you will encounter the waterfall area in the lower reaches of the Congo River. There is a series of waterfalls that hinder people from upstream. With a veil of mystery, her true face is still unknown.

In 1816, after the Napoleonic Wars, the Geographical Society of London was surprised that three centuries after the estuary of the Congo River had been discovered, there was still so little information about the river, so they commissioned Admiral Tucker to take the The sailing ship Congo is responsible for exploring whether the Niger River and the Congo River are connected.

This expedition was a huge disaster. They were stopped by the waterfall and could only cross the waterfall area on foot. The 65-person expedition team, including several experts and scholars, died one after another.

In the next half century, no scientific expedition dared to venture to the Congo River again.

A series of waterfalls on the Congo River has greatly reduced people's interest in this area. No matter how rich the resources of the Congo River Basin are, the transportation is inconvenient, and the water transportation is not accessible. If it cannot be transported, it is meaningless.

Unless a country decides to spend huge sums of money on railways in the Congo River basin, bypassing the waterfalls of the Congo River and other tributaries of the Congo River.

This is almost impossible until the data and geographical information of scientific expeditions are not available to understand the resource status of Congo.

In the original time and space, the commodities produced in the early days of the Congo River basin were rubber and ivory. With these two commodities, the huge investment in railway construction would have to wait until the Year of the Monkey to make money.

In the original time and space, King Leopold II of Belgium was in charge of this role, but after Leopold II in this time and space asked a geographer, UU read www. uukanshu.com did not make up their minds.

It is precisely because the development of the Congo River Basin requires a lot of investment, and the specific conditions such as geography, society, and natural resources are still unclear. As a result, no other countries have shown much interest so far.

After Constantine knew about this situation, he told George I his thoughts. After listening to Constantine's reasons, George I also felt that there was a possibility of success.

This possibility depends on two conditions:

It is difficult for the First Congo region to develop and gain profits.

Colonial powers such as Britain and France have vast colonies. Instead of investing money in the Congo River Basin, which is hot, hot, and rainy, and the return risk is relatively high, it is better to invest in other places with higher returns and lower risks, such as South Africa in the United Kingdom. , France, Vietnam, much more beneficial than the Congo River basin.

This point determines that Britain and France will not stalk and entangle desperately in the Congo region.

The location of the Second Congo River Basin is important.

Open the map and you will understand that the Congo River Basin is located in the center of Africa. If a powerful country occupies this place and has a firm foothold, it will definitely attack everywhere, expand in Africa, and other countries that colonize the fringes of Africa. are very passive.

This determines that, whether Britain, France or Germany and Italy, these countries that have the will of colonial expansion, even if they have the idea of ​​occupying the Congo Basin, other countries will strongly oppose it.

Combining these two points, it seems impossible for a country like Greece that is weak and can be controlled by them at will, but it is the most likely to get the Congo.

After thinking about these two points, whether or not to bet heavily on Congo, there is only one decisive question left, is Congo worth betting heavily?

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