Chapter 156 A Visit To Romania
156 A Visit To Romania
Romania was a nation whose contributions to the Great War in Bruno's past life were less than significant. In fact, what it was most well known for was losing about one tenth of its population during the entire conflict.
By the time they entered the war in 1916, Romania had a population of roughly 7 million, and by the time the Armistice of Foc?ani was signed roughly a year later, over 700,000 soldiers and civilians had died due to causes related to the war.
It was an unmitigated disaster for the Romanians who had entered the war on behalf of the Allied Powers for the sake of seizing many lands that belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary as part of their ambitions to untie "Greater Romania."
Of course, the victory the Central Powers gained over the Kingdom of Romania in 1917, much like the one they gained over the Russian Empire that same year was nullified when the war finally ended in the Allied Powers favor a year after these treaties were signed.
Frankly speaking, if the Kingdom of Romania was not currently one of the world's largest producers of oil, and if it didn't lie on the eastern borders of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, then Bruno would have no interest in the region.
But... Bruno had already made substantial investments into Romania oil infrastructure as far back as 1901 when he came home from the war in the far east, and found himself with a large fortune which his family paid him for the patents of his more modern weaponry.
He was, of course, not the only one, with wealthy investors from the United States, Great Britain, and the Netherlands competing for these shares. And Bruno had ultimately walked away with the smallest number of these shares when compared to his competitors because his wealth at the time was not as vast as it was today. However, currently the German Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Russian Empire were investing heavily into their nations infrastructure, and Bruno's construction corporations that he either owned directly, or had substantial portions of ownership in indirectly, were reaping the benefits of these projects.
Because of this, Bruno wanted to connect the Romanian oil fields he had invested in to this transportation network that was being established. However, there were several problems with this.
For starters, Bruno's influence over the Kingdom was purely as a foreign investor into their oil industry. He had no close ties to the Romanian Royal Family like he did to the three great powers.