Undoubtedly the
Germans based great hopes upon the Bagdad railway which was to
carry their influence to the East, and even threatened the rule
of England in Egypt and India. Undoubtedly there was talk, too,
of a Slav railroad to run from the Danube to the Adriatic which
would cut off Germany from access to the Southern Sea. Francis
Deloisi, the Frenchman, in his book published before the great
war, called "De la Guerre des Balkans a la Guerre Europeenne,"
says, "In a word, the present war (Balkan) is the work of Russia,
and the Danube Asiatic railway is a Russian project. If it succeeds,
a continuous barrier of Slav peoples will bar the way to the
Mediterranean of the path of Austro-German expansion from the
Black Sea to the Adriatic. But here again the Romanoffs confront
the Hapsburgs, the Austro-Serb conflict becomes the Austro-Russian
conflict, two great groups are formed, and the Balkan conflict
becomes the European conflict."
Another reason for an immediate war was the loan by France to
Russia made on condition that additional strategic railways were
to be constructed by the Russians in Poland.
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