When the Italian and Balkan coalition forces advanced by leaps and bounds on the Austro-Hungarian border, the United States, far across the ocean, was indeed a little panicked.

The reason why the Americans did not participate in this war does not mean that they do not want to divide the interests.

It's just that the Americans want to participate in this war in a more important role, and they want to wait until the Entente and the Central Powers are exhausted from fighting, and then they will enter the war as mediators.

But unexpectedly, the Allies had already shown fatigue in the Entente's attack, and even the Allies were currently left with only two major powers left to survive.

If Italy and Australasia really joined forces to defeat Austria-Hungary, only the German Empire, which was struggling to support itself, was destined to hold out for long.

The current development of the situation and the imagination of the Americans can be described as two extremes. The Americans were surprised to find that the Entente could win the war without needing themselves.

This made the Americans a little anxious, and if they sat back and watched the Entente defeat the Allies and divide up the interests, and the Americans did not participate, there would be no hope of rising at all.

In order to carve up the benefits of this war, the Americans could not sit still and began to negotiate with Britain and ask to participate in this war.

With Australasia in the world, the Americans have had little impact on the war so far.

Even the arms trade, in which the United States has earned a lot of benefits in history, does not have an American share in this world.

Australasia was responsible for almost all the arms trade of Russia and the Balkan countries, and with the aid of Britain and France, the Entente's demand for arms imports was not so high, and naturally they would not rush to send money to the Americans.

The Americans have not been able to reap much of the benefits of the war, and they have not yet reversed their European identity.

At present, the United States is still a debtor country, and a large amount of capital and economy of the United States are still controlled by European countries.

Seeing that the current situation has exceeded his expectations, US President Wilson immediately decided to join this war as soon as possible to strive for more interests for the United States.

At the very least, the United States can develop better if it reduces Europe's control over the US economy.

However, the current status quo is that the Entente countries do not need the United States very much, and if the United States wants to force itself in and get a piece of the pie, it will depend on whether Britain and France agree or not.

U.S. President Wilson, while persuading Congress to launch a national mobilization, contacted Britain and France to join the war as Allied powers.

Although the United States could have directly declared war on Germany, the distribution of benefits after the war between fighting against Germany alone and joining the Entente against Germany was a different matter.

First of all, Germany's overseas territories had been basically divided up by the Allied powers, and it was impossible for the United States to obtain Germany's overseas territories on its own.

Although Germany still has a vast homeland, do the Americans have the courage to send troops to attack the German mainland without the permission of Britain and France?

Let's not talk about whether the Americans have the courage to do so, the current US army cannot be the opponent of the German army, and the Americans want to attack Germany with their own strength, which is tantamount to blocking the car with a mantis arm.

Britain and France maintained a completely opposite attitude towards the United States' proposal to join the Entente.

The British did not want the Americans to join in and get a piece of the pie, after all, the war had gone well so far, and the position of the five major powers of the Entente was also very solid, and there was no need for extraneous complications.

Although the strength of the Entente alone was destined to lead to more casualties, the current casualties were not unacceptable to Britain and France and the Entente as a whole.

After all, the two countries with the most casualties in the Entente so far in the war were France and Russia.

Although the British casualties were also high, the casualties of the regular army were only a few hundred thousand, and more were the casualties of the colonial troops.

Because of the high number of French casualties, the casualties of the regular troops have reached more than 5 million, and the death toll has exceeded 1 million.

The French naturally hoped that a great power like the United States would join the Entente and bear some of the pressure for themselves, as well as share some of the casualties for themselves.

The disagreement between Britain and France gave the Americans an opportunity to join the Entente, and then the Americans turned their eyes to Russia in an attempt to win over the Entente country, which suffered the most casualties.

The attitude of the Russians towards the United States' accession to the Entente was also supportive, asking that the United States not only promised to provide Russia with a part of the interest-free loan, but also promised to provide assistance to Russia for up to two years.

This is also a relief for the Russian government, which has experienced civil strife and is in dire need of materials and funds.

Therefore, the Americans quickly gained the support of Russia, agreeing that the United States would join the Entente in the war against Germany.

The only remaining Entente powers were Australasia and Italy. Arthur's attitude was very clear, that is, like the British, he did not agree with the United States joining the Entente to fight against Germany.

Although the entry of the Americans will bear some of the material pressure for Australasia, it will also take away a large amount of post-war benefits, which is not a good thing for Australasia.

What's more, the Americans are the direct competitors of Australasia after the war, and they are also the countries most likely to compete with Australasia for European talent.

For such potential competitors, it is natural to weaken them if they can be weakened, and it is even more impossible to give them a chance to develop.

Italy's opinion was very much in line with Italy's position in World War I, and it did not want to offend Britain and Australasia, and wanted the United States to join in to obtain a large amount of financial and material aid.

The incident in which the United States wanted to join the Entente aggravated the division of the Entente to a certain extent.

Britain and France already had a big rift in the distribution of strategic interests, while Russia, after experiencing civil strife, showed an attitude that valued money and materials more than feelings with other countries.

In other words, whoever can provide Russia with more material and financial support will also receive Russia's support.

This is a good good thing for the national interest, but it is not a good thing for the UK and Australasia.

Britain and Russia have a multifaceted conflict, and if France and the United States get closer, it is likely that they will also be closer to France and the United States.

In this way, the Entente camp became Britain and Australasia against France, the United States and Russia, plus an Italy like a wallgrass, and the distribution of interests after the war was not destined to be peaceful.

At the end of May 1917, the U.S. government met again with the Allies and promised conditions that would be almost impossible for the major powers to refuse.

First, the United States is willing to provide Britain, France, Russia, Australia, and Italy with an interest-free loan of $2 billion each, and provide at least 1 million combat troops and a main fleet to fight the war.

$2 billion is equivalent to about £400 million at the pre-war exchange rate, which is definitely not a small number.

You must know that before the war, Britain and France spent only more than $600 million a year on military expenditure, and this fund could provide for the military spending of Britain and France for at least three years before the war.

But since the outbreak of the war, military spending in various countries has skyrocketed exponentially. In 1915, Britain's military spending was as high as more than $10 billion, and last year's military spending was as high as more than $50 billion.

Compared with the exaggerated military spending of Britain and France, this $2 billion interest-free loan is nothing.

Still, for countries like Italy and Australasia, which are relatively economically underdeveloped, the $2 billion interest-free loan is still very useful.

You know, Italy's military spending last year was just over $1 billion, and this interest-free loan is enough for Italians to support them for another two years.

Australasia will benefit the most compared to other countries. In 1916, Australasia's total military expenditure was only $120 million, almost equivalent to $300 million.

This is also a military expense given that Australasia has nearly 1 million combat troops and the navy is fully deployed.

The reason why the military budget is so low is because in the treaty with the British, the British had to bear half of the military expenses of the Australasian army fighting in Europe, which was an expenditure of up to 60 million Australian dollars.

This also means that the $2 billion interest-free loan provided by the Americans will support Australasia in the war for about seven years.

With this interest-free loan, France and Russia were even more supportive of the Americans' entry into the Entente.

Even Italy was moved by the Americans, and finally agreed to the Americans joining the Entente to fight against Germany by a margin of 3 to 2.

However, the United Kingdom and Australasia are not without countermeasures.

First of all, all the German overseas territories currently occupied by the Entente were divided according to the existing occupied areas, and the Americans did not participate in the distribution of these areas.

The Americans were entitled to the distribution of the benefits of the occupied German lands, but also on the premise that the benefits were to be distributed according to the contribution of each country in the war, as previously agreed by the Entente.

Because the Americans joined the war relatively late, even if the Americans would get a piece of the pie, the Americans' contribution to the war would definitely not be too large.

In this way, even if the Americans entered the war, they would be at most on the same level as Italy in the distribution of benefits, and would not pose any threat to the distribution of interests of the four major powers of the original Entente.

On June 1, 1917, with the consent of the Entente powers, the Americans could not wait to declare war on Germany, and immediately sent a transport fleet to transport an army division and the headquarters of the American Expeditionary Force to Europe.

The U.S. Army has the smallest number of troops among the major powers, and even if President Wilson had already said in advance that Congress would be mobilized for a nationwide mobilization, it would take at least a little more than a month to be effective.

This also means that, at least until August, there will not be too many American troops on the European battlefield, and the American military will have little impact on the war.

This is also an opportunity for Australasia. After learning that the United States had joined the Entente in the war against Germany, he immediately contacted General Thomas, commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force, by telegram, and issued an order that the expeditionary force should capture Klagenfurt as soon as possible, and join forces with the Italian army to encircle Vienna and force Austria-Hungary to withdraw from the war.

As long as the Americans did not contribute anything to the defeat of Austria-Hungary, the Americans had no excuse or qualification to divide the interests of Austria-Hungary.

In this way, the Allies were left with Germany to resist stubbornly, and the Americans could only send troops to fight with the Germans if they wanted to get more distribution of benefits.

You must know that the interest-free loans provided by the Americans to the five major powers of the Entente countries alone amounted to $10 billion, plus the war expenses of the Americans, etc., the Americans spent at least $20 billion on this war.

If the post-war benefits of Germany were to be distributed alone, it would be difficult for Americans to get more than $20 billion in compensation.

After all, the distribution of interests in Germany included the five major powers of the Entente and the United States, and the six countries divided Germany, and the benefits allocated to each country were very small.

In fact, in addition to the United States, there is another country that also wants to join the Entente to declare war on Germany, and that is the island country.

But unlike the United States, the island nation does not have such a developed economic system as the United States, nor does it have a navy that is enough for Britain and France to pay attention to.

Even the island countries are very short of mineral materials, and the countries that join the Entente still need the assistance of Britain and France.

Therefore, Britain and France directly rejected the request of the island countries to join the Entente, and the attempts of the island countries to occupy Germany's colonies in East Asia by taking advantage of this war were also directly frustrated.

If they did not join the Entente, the island nation would have to declare war on Germany alone. However, the distribution of the interests of the Entente countries involved all of Germany's overseas territories, and if the island countries openly invaded and occupied Germany's East Asian colonies, it would be tantamount to endangering the interests of the Entente countries.

If the island countries really dare to do this, even if the United States is an ally of the island countries, it will definitely not be able to save the island countries.

Although Britain and France suffered heavy losses after the war, it was easy to clean up an island country.

You must know that last year, the military expenditure of the island countries was only 220 million US dollars, and even the military expenditure of Australasia could not reach, so how could the island countries have the courage to challenge the status of Britain and France?

Judging from the current strength shown by Australasia, if Australasia and the island country play against each other, the island country may not necessarily have a chance of winning.

Although Australasia is at a disadvantage in terms of the number of land forces, the navy of Australasia has completely blockaded the island country, and the air force is constantly bombing the major cities of the island country, and soon the island country will face the problem of material shortage.

For an island country like the island nation, which is desperately short of supplies, if the navy is not strong, there will never be a chance to rise.

As long as there is a blockade, the island nation will face a more serious predicament than Germany. The lack of supplies is enough to collapse the country internally.

The biggest change brought about by the US entry into the war is the attitude of public opinion in various European countries.

Beginning with the United States declaring war on Germany on 1 June, newspapers in various European countries generally sang the praises of Germany, and many media outlets even directly declared that Germany's defeat was already a matter of a short period of time, and that the people of the Entente countries would soon be able to cheer for victory.

After the United States joined the Entente, the number of Entente powers came to six, while the Allies had only two.

Even on paper, the Entente still maintained a huge advantage over the Allies. Such an advantage was not only in the population, economy and industry, but also in the land area, mineral resources and various material reserves of the Entente.

Compared with anything else, even if it is only compared to the consumption of manpower and materials, the Central Powers can never be the opponent of the Entente.

Even within the Central Powers, parts of the media in Germany and Austria-Hungary began to question the government's performance in the war.

The Germans could not have wanted to believe that the mighty German Reich was the inferior side in this war and had a good chance of losing it.

Thankfully, Germany is currently under the rule of a military junta, and the government's rule has not yet been shaken by the questioning of some newspapers.

The junta had such an advantage, the rear government understood the commanders of the front very well, and the German government and the Junker aristocracy remained staunch and were not affected.

However, although Germany was spared the crisis, Austria-Hungary was not so lucky.

There were already many forces in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Karl I had just ascended the throne and did not have such a high prestige, so the media in the Austro-Hungarian Empire could be described as speaking freely.

The major newspapers first questioned the government's decision-making in the war, and eventually even began to question the government and Karl I.

Under the influence of these newspapers, there has also been a crisis of confidence in the government.

Strikes and demonstrations broke out in factories and streets in Austria-Hungary demanding that the government stop the war and return to pre-war order.

Today, take a leave of absence and ask for a monthly pass!

(End of chapter)