The Rise Of Australasia
Chapter 520: Chapter 408: The Fall of Constantinople

Bulgarians might be fearless and good at fighting, but this doesn't mean they are simple-minded, muscle-bound fools.

On the contrary, when the allied forces were only a few kilometres away from Sofia, the furious criticism and accusations towards the Prime Minister from the Bulgarians began to turn into panic. Suddenly, the support for the Prime Minister started to increase.

At this moment, Ferdinand became rather shrewd, he refrained from being involved in the current affairs of Bulgaria, acting indifferent, waiting for the situation in Bulgaria to develop.

In fact, this indeed was the wisest decision he could make. For present-day Bulgaria, both the pro-war and pro-peace factions have their mistakes. Only by emerging from the current abyss in Bulgaria is it possible to save themselves and survive the war.

With Ferdinand refrained from getting involved, the Bulgarian government seemed to be quite chaotic. The pressure the Bulgarian government faced caused by the imminent army invasions and the quarrelling between the pro-war and pro-peace factions resulted in Bulgaria missing the last opportunity to defend Sofia.

On June 14, 1915, after a day of resistance, the Bulgarian army officially surrendered. The Allied forces officially occupied Sofia, gaining control over the city.

Almost at the same time, the Bulgarian government also declared surrender and ordered the Bulgarian military nationwide to cease resistance.

Without any resistance from the Bulgarian government and military, taking over all cities in Bulgaria became extremely smooth.

The Bulgarian army was fully disarmed and dispersed to different locations for surveillance, preventing any unforeseen incidents they might cause.

When the news of Bulgaria's official surrender was propagated to Europe and other parts of the world, the allied army in the Balkan front was celebrating in Sofia.

For the Allied Nations, Bulgaria's surrender boosted the morale of their entire alliance.

As a nation that joined the war considerably late in World War I, Bulgaria had publicly surrendered in just a few months, even without waiting for support from the Austro-Hunagrian Empire and Germany.

This symbolised one thing: the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Germany are already overwhelmed with their problems, and the Allies' victory is nigh.

People always pay special attention to their first time experiences. Even though Bulgaria's status among the parties of the Axis wasn't that important, it was the first to surrender, so the news of Bulgaria's surrender was widely reported by the media of the Allies and became the biggest news of June.

After deploying nearly one hundred thousand troops from Serbia, Romania, Greece, and Montenegro to control Bulgaria, Brigadier General Martin, with a remaining force of over four hundred thousand, set off from southern Bulgaria on a direct route to Constantinople.

The history of Constantinople traces back to a thousand years ago. Since the Eastern Roman Empire period, it has been one of the world's strongest fortresses.

Of course, at present, with the rapid development of artillery of various calibres, Constantinople doesn't seem to be that impregnable anymore.

To conquer this solid fortress, Brigadier General Martin pooled together 2000 cannons of at least 150mm calibre from the Balkan Nations, Russia, and even British and French, and launched a large-scale bombing on Constantinople.

Of course, besides launching an assault on Constantinople, Brigadier General Martin also decided to use a part of his forces to land on the Little Asia Peninsula controlled by the Ottoman Empire and cut off all logistic supplies to Constantinople from the rear.

The golden age of the Ottoman Empire is traced back to hundreds of years ago, the empire used to be a powerful country stretching through the Europe, Asia, and Africa continents.

Of course, now the Ottoman Empire can't be even considered a power, and its strength among secondary powers is also not considered very strong.

But currently, the Ottoman Empire still holds vast territories, including a small part of European territories including Constantinople and most of the Middle East.

However, this is primarily because the petroleum in the Middle East was yet discovered, and also that petroleum isn't as important as it was in the later period.

The Ottoman Empire did not know that there is a large amount of wealth, sufficient to bury the whole empire, under their land.

Without saying anything else, at least for the next 150 years, petroleum would definitely be one of the most important energy sources in the world, and all great nations are vying for this resource.

Australasia is not short of mineral resources, but the petroleum resources in Australasia are not that abundant, even more, not worth mentioning when compared to the total petroleum reserves in the Middle East.

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According to the data from later generations, the petroleum reserves in the Middle East alone account for nearly 70% of the total petroleum reserves in the world.

This implies that, as long as one can control the Middle East, they can control the price of petroleum worldwide, and counterbalance all petroleum-exporting countries, including Russia, which also has abundant reserves of petroleum and natural gas.

Therefore, previously occupying part of the Middle East, at least owning part of the petroleum reserves, is currently the most important thing for Australasia.

Luckily at present, the only competitors in the Middle East are Britain and the Ottoman Empire, and the real competitor is only Britain, so it shouldn't be a problem to at least obtain a part of the region.

In terms of occupying more regions, it can only be possible after World War II when Britain truly declined.

The reason why Brigadier General Martin decided to launch from the Little Asia Peninsula is also to implement Arthur's strategy of occupying a part of the Middle East.

After all, if no ground forces are landing, it would be nonsense to talk about occupying any regions.

From the current situation map of the Middle East, it can be seen that the regions of Kuwait, Oman, and Yemen are occupied by Britain. The other regions are controlled by the Ottoman Empire or the local Indigenous peoples.