The nationalist state and the system of state mobilization are also a product of recent times, and their energy is staggering. Before and after World War I, the Balkans were called the powder keg of Europe, but this powder keg did not have an astonishing industrial capacity, but only fanatical nationalism and an astonishing mobilization capacity, which made them far more powerful than the Manchus at the same time.
The Manchus were the sick man of East Asia, and the Ottoman Empire was the sick man of West Asia, but the combat effectiveness of these two sick men was not the same. The Ottoman Empire was able to inflict 250,000 casualties on the British Empire in the Battle of Dardanelles, and the First World War sent Australia and New Zealand out of centrifugal force (Australia mobilized a total of 410,000 people at that time, and the Battle of Dardanelles suffered more than 28,000 casualties in the First World War, and the First World War caused 0.6% of Australia's population loss), and the Ottoman Empire was not weak.
During the First Balkan War, the Balkan coalition deployed 715,000 troops against the 500,000-strong Ottoman Empire. The specific strength of the Balkan Union was 350,000 troops from Bulgaria, with a population of 4.33 million (1910 census); Greece, with a population of 2.63 million and a total male population of 1.32 million, sent 110,000 troops; Serbia had a population of only 2.91 million (1907 figures) and a full 220,000 troops; Montenegro has a population of only a few hundred thousand people, but it also dispatched an army of 35,000 people. The total population of the four countries of the Balkan League is just over eight figures, but the strength of the army is about the same as that of the Manchu Qing and the Republic of China at the same time.
Before the fall of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, it had only formed a new army of 14 towns and 28 associations, with a total strength of more than 131,800 troops. This is the Manchu Qing Dynasty's "hope of the whole village", because in 1911, the Manchu Qing Dynasty allocated a total of 54,360,1901 taels of silver to the New Army troops, and the defense army with more troops than the New Army only got 1913,000,940 taels, and the Manchu Qing's own son the Eight Banners Army only got 8,863,629 taels of silver (which could only support the Beiyang Army for two towns and a little more than the New Army). At that time, if the Qing army started a war with Bulgaria and Serbia, it would definitely be more than lucky. After Yuan Shikai took power in 1912, he expanded the Beiyang Army, absorbing more than 40,000 troops from the old-fashioned patrol battalion, and turned the strength into 12 divisions, 16 brigades and 220,000 people, plus other incorporated troops, Yuan Shikai had more than 300,000 troops in his hands, and the strength was about the same as that of Bulgaria, which had only one percent of China's population.
During the Republican period, Bulgaria and other countries participated in World War I. Bulgaria mobilized a standing army of 400,000 men at the beginning of the war, and 616,680 strong men were incorporated into the army, and Bulgaria mobilized a total of 1.27 million people into the battlefield during the entire World War I, with a total of 30% of its citizens (that is, all available male citizens) participating in the war. The Serbs also raised an army of 700,000 people (a quarter of the population) in one go, and the "Balkan powder keg" countries sent more than a tenth of the population to the battlefield, showing amazing mobilization ability. At the same time, the Republic of China had a total of "878,000 troops". The Beiyang Army also has no equipment advantage over the above-mentioned Balkan countries, and there are a total of 324 new artillery pieces in the six towns of Beiyang, and 900 artillery pieces have been captured in a single battle in the melee of the Balkan countries, and their artillery is still the latest product of the Krupp, Skoda and other arsenals, and the Beiyang Army is envious when they see it. The Bulgarian infantry was also praised by the German military, believing that they were second only to the German infantry in quality, and Bulgaria also received the title of "Prussia of the East".
These Balkan countries also do not have strong industrial capacity, Bulgaria's industrial output value is not as good as that of the Republic of China, and Serbia was complained by the British ambassador that "there are more cattle than people", and these Balkan countries are really not powerful industrial countries. They had only fanatical national sentiment and a full mobilization of Bulgarian, Greater Serbian, Pan-Slavist organizations. From 1893, the "Supreme Council of Macedonia and Adrianople" began a widespread national mobilization in Bulgaria, and the Serbs demanded money and equipment from Tsarist Russia with the help of the Slavic Society, the Moscow Slavic Charity Committee, and other organizations. With the investment of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Tsarist Russia, the Balkan countries, with high nationalist sentiments, had the courage to gamble and fight in the First World War......