In the Russo-Turkish War, the British always sided with Ottoman Turkey, not because the British had any good feelings for Turkey, nor because the British and Turkey were allies, but because supporting Turkey against Russia was an important part of Britain's policy of balancing the European continent.

As the world's leader, Britain will not sit idly by and watch any European country unify Europe, and a unified European power is far more threatening to Britain than the rise of the Chinese Empire and the United States.

In order to curb the expansion of the Russians in Central Asia, Britain and the Chinese Empire cooperated, and in order to curb the expansion of the Balkan Peninsula and the Caucasus in Russia, the British did not hesitate to support Turkey.

Even when necessary, the British would personally go into battle to fight in the war, the Ninth Russo-Turkish War (Crimean War) was the most obvious example, when the British pulled in allies such as France and then personally went into battle to help the Turks.

Now that Turkey is about to be completely defeated, the British will naturally not remain indifferent, and will soon make the reaction that a world leader should have.

British Prime Minister Benjamin? Disraeli soon sent a fleet of the British Royal Navy into the Aegean Sea, crossed the Dardanelles and entered the Sea of Marmara, assuming a posture of war with Russia in order to force the Russians to abandon their plans to attack Constantinople.

At this time, the Russians were also afraid of repeating the Ninth Russo-Turkish War of 1853, and were beaten by the European powers because of the anger of the public, so they also took what they wanted, and soon forced Turkey to sign an armistice in January, followed by the Treaty of San Stefano in March.

In this treaty, the Russians gained unprecedented benefits, and the main core treaty includes four points:

The first is Turkey's recognition of the complete independence of Serbia and Negoro, and the second is Russia's acquisition of southwestern Bessarabia, as well as Adahan, Kars, Batumi, and Bayasit; the third was the establishment of the Great Principality of Bulgaria, which stretched from the Danube River in the north to the Aegean Sea in the south; Stretching from the Black Sea in the east to Lake Ohrid in the west, and including almost all of Macedonia, it was nominally part of the Turkish Sultan and occupied by Russian forces for two years.

Finally, the Bosphorus will be open to warships of the Black Sea littoral states, which means that in the future, Russian warships will be able to freely enter and leave the Black Sea and reach the Mediterranean.

These conditions were of many benefits to Russia, such as the establishment of the Grand Bulgarian Duchy, which was still nominally part of the Turkish Sultanate, but was in fact a vassal state of Russia.

It is no surprise that independent Serbia and Montenegro will become a vassal state of Russia.

If this treaty were implemented, Russia would not dare to claim the entire Balkan Peninsula, but it would be able to extend its influence to the Mediterranean Sea through the Principality of Bulgaria and the right of passage of warships through the Bosphorus.

Naturally, the rest of Europe, especially Britain and Austria-Hungary, strongly opposed this situation.

Austria-Hungary, as a dual country with most of its territory in the Balkans, is naturally extremely dissatisfied with Russia's forcible intervention in the Balkans and its attempt to Slavize these regions, while Britain is motivated by the need to contain Russian expansion, especially in the direction of the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf.

Immediately, these two countries joined forces to exert enormous pressure on Russia.

Under this huge pressure, the Russians also had to spit out a large number of fruits of victory in the war, and with the mediation of Germany, the Treaty of Berlin was signed.

With the signing of the treaty, the Grand Bulgarian Principality became a small principality, Serbia and Negro were also taken over by Austria-Hungary, and Russian warships were not allowed to pass through the Bosphorus.

It can be said that the signing of the Treaty of Berlin, even though it was a partition of Ottoman Turkey by European countries, but more importantly, Britain and Austria-Hungary and other countries prevented Russian expansion.

After the Treaty of Berlin, Russia and Austria-Hungary did not completely break up, but their differences were irreconcilable, and the alliance of the three emperors was probably not confident that Bismarck would be able to last long.

This series of events in Europe had a very limited impact on the distant Chinese Empire, which was not concerned with this series of affairs, especially during the Berlin Conference, because of the distance, and was not capable of caring about it.

When the nations were negotiating, the Empire's diplomats were not even given the opportunity to attend, but only watched their final signing ceremony at the end.

In the eyes of the European countries, especially the European powers, the statehood of the Chinese Empire was not much stronger than that of the sixties, and the international influence of the Empire in 1878, especially in Europe, was as neglected as the United States.

Even though the United States and the Chinese Empire have greatly increased their industrial strength and developed rapidly in the last two decades, they are well-deserved leaders in their respective fields, such as the United States in the Americas and the empire in Asia.

But in the eyes of the traditional powers of Europe, and even in the eyes of the German Empire and the Kingdom of Italy, two new powers that had just been unified for a few years, the presence of the United States and the empire was very weak.

The people in the empire may not feel much about this, but the imperial diplomats stationed in Europe are very deeply touched.

In the diplomatic arenas of London and Paris, the diplomats of the empire and the diplomats of the United States were like brothers and sisters, often alone in the corner watching a large number of European counterparts talking.

At a diplomatic reception in London, the diplomats of the empire were discussing trade affairs between the two countries with the Americans, and said that the trade volume between the two countries has increased year by year, and that diplomatic exchanges between the two sides should be increased, and diplomatic consulates should be added to facilitate the exchange of businessmen between the two countries.

When the Spanish consul who was passing by heard their conversation, he showed a look of surprise: "The trade volume is more than 30 million every quarter, how is this possible!" ”

The diplomats of China and the United States looked at each other, and they both saw a hint of ridicule in each other's eyes!

These Spaniards are probably because they were 300 years ago!

Since the outbreak of the American Civil War, trade between the nascent Chinese Empire and the United States has increased dramatically every year, starting with the arms trade.

Both of these are very typical of the new generation of countries, separated by the Pacific Ocean, although there are contradictions and conflicts between the two countries in Hawaii and Alaska.

But as in the relationship between the Empire and England and France, despite the conflicts and contradictions, peace and trade were still the mainstream.

As the industrialization of the empire became more and more prolonged, it brought not only domestic industrial and commercial development, but also a huge market.

The industrialization of the empire requires a large number of industrial raw materials, such as cotton, coal, and rubber used as industrial raw materials, as well as some mechanical products with a relatively high technical level, especially various equipment, as well as some daily industrial products, such as woolen wool, daily hardware, chemical products, etc., which are all materials that the empire needs to import in large quantities every year.

In addition, many products produced by the empire, especially agricultural and mineral products and primary processed products, as well as a small number of high-end machinery products, represented by traditional export goods such as raw silk, tea, porcelain, etc., and then there were soybean products, mainly soybean cakes and soybean oil, which began to develop on a large scale in the seventies and were already exported in large quantities.

These are all needed by Western countries, in addition to Southeast Asia, the Americas and other backward countries and regions are also the market of the empire's industrial products, such as cotton spinning is the empire's main fist products exported to Asian countries, and some low-end mechanical products are also because of the low price and competitiveness.

In the field of high-end industrial products, the empire is dominated by ordnance products, and the famous Linde rifle is the best representative of them.

It can be said that with the progress of industrialization, the empire has gradually joined the global trade system, and with the continuous increase of the empire's economic aggregate and the increasing consumption of industrial products by the people, the empire's economic system will occupy an increasingly important position in the global system.

And the most important thing is that the empire did not adopt a policy of closing the country or unilateral trade sanctions, and basically adopted a relatively less restrictive free trade policy.

This kind of policy is most popular in the UK!

Therefore, in contemporary times, although the contradictions between empires and countries are not small, the trade between them is getting deeper and deeper.

Although there were some contradictions between the empire and the United States, relations between the two countries eased greatly after the seventies, and the amount of trade became larger and larger.

The amount of oil imported by the empire each year, and the amount of raw silk imported by the United States, can be seen how large the trade between the two countries was.

In 1877, the Empire imported about half a million barrels of crude oil from the United States, which is quite a large number, and the Empire is now the second largest oil exporter to the United States.

In order to open up the kerosene market of the Empire, the oil industry in the United States made great efforts, not only accepting the Imperial Oil Company's stake in several oil exploitation enterprises, but even aiding the construction of oil refineries for free, and in order to promote kerosene, many policies such as sending kerosene lamps free of charge were adopted.

This led to the explosive growth of the kerosene market in the empire in the seventies!

The contemporary kerosene is the main finished product of oil, and opening the kerosene market is equivalent to opening the oil market.

With the help of the exploration and refining technology obtained from the United States, the Imperial Oil Company is exploring oil fields in the empire itself and surrounding Asia, and has already begun to develop oil fields on Sakhalin Island.

At the same time, the United States, as an emerging industrial country, although the estimated status is very low, and the army does not have tens of thousands of people, but its consumption power should not be underestimated, and in just a few years, the United States has surpassed the European countries and become the second largest consumer of raw silk after Britain.

As a country that supplies more than 95 percent of the world's raw silk exports, the empire has naturally become the largest supplier of raw silk to the United States.

At present, among the many trading countries of the empire, although Britain has the largest proportion, it is still not more than 40 percent as in previous years, and has now dropped to more than 30 percent.

While several other European countries, such as France and Germany, were relatively small and scattered, the United States was the second largest trading nation in the empire with an eighteen percent share of trade.

As for some countries in Asia, although the empire basically monopolized the markets of these countries, the total amount of the market was not large because the total market was relatively small.

Although the three countries of Japan, Vietnam, Thailand and other countries have large populations, they are all poor jingle bells, and they do not get much trade profit from them.

The empire's share of trade with the United States is getting bigger and bigger, and it's a big business of millions and tens of millions, which seems inconceivable to some of Europe's traditional powers, but already declining countries.

In the memory of many European countries, China is still an uncivilized country, and the United States is a group of slaves and cowboys.

But few people really value the strength and potential of these two countries.

The diplomats of China and the United States stationed in Europe are deeply touched by the contempt for these European countries.

After the arrogant Spanish consul left, the imperial consul in London with a beard lowered his voice, and then said to the American consul beside him: "It's a pity that Spain occupies a rich land like Cuba!" ”

The American consul smiled and said, "Yes, these Spains still think it's still the sixteenth century, I heard that there are many riots in the Philippines, but they still refuse to give up!" ”

Immediately, these two people just looked at each other and smiled!

Then the American consul looked at the self-proclaimed high-class Europeans in the hall, looked back at the imperial diplomats with beards, and said, "The hall is a little dull, why don't we go to the balcony and talk!" ”

The diplomat of the empire nodded: "That's exactly what I mean!" (To be continued.) )