Promises Must Be Kept: Pacta sunt servanda (8)

"What do you mean?"

"Have you forgotten? Constantinople was advance payment from the start. Being able to easily swallow Bosphorus Strait sovereignty just for occupying it first was all us giving advance considering their future role."

And then the insatiable appetite revealed itself - opening the Middle Eastern front under the pretext of choking the Ottoman's throat and advancing to Jerusalem. The desert campaign stretched endlessly across sun-scorched lands, while diplomats spoke of holy sites and strategic necessity.

Who's calling who cowards now? While they sit in their colonial offices, addicted to building others' armies by thoroughly shaking down colonial forces, principalities, and allies - extracting every resource and man they can muster. The blood price paid in foreign coin, while they count their growing influence from safe distances.