This result—evidently the consequence of an immense extension of exclusive influence throughout Central and Eastern Europe—has permitted the German General Staff to take over at will certain strategic points or regions of the greatest importance, over which it exerted no direct influence before the war. Zeebrugge, on the North Sea, for instance; Trieste, Pola, and Cattaro on the Adriatic; the Bulgarian coasts of the Ægean; the Ottoman Straits; the Turkish, Bulgarian, and Roumanian shores of the Black Sea, have always been strategic points or districts of exceptional value. This value, however, has become vastly greater now that these points or districts form part of a single military system under the directing and organizing power of the Berlin General Staff. At present, these essential strategic points and districts are the strongholds of the Pan-German frontiers. They are, in fact, connected by continuous fortifications, defended in the most effective way the world has ever known by an intensive system of barbed-wire entanglements, deep-dug subterranean shelters, machine-guns, and heavy artillery. The internal military organization of Pan-Germany is being carried forward with uninterrupted speed. Factories of war-material have been judiciously distributed throughout the whole territory, with the double object of utilizing raw materials near their source of origin, thus avoiding useless transportation, and of making possible the swift dispatch of munitions to any threatened sector of front. For this reason the Krupp firm, at the outbreak of war, established important branch factories, not only in Bavaria, but also in Bulgaria and Turkey. The railway system and strategic automobile roads in Pan-Germany have been developed very swiftly—notably in the Balkans and in Turkey, where the need was relatively great. Back of every military front railroads running parallel with that front have been constructed, so that reinforcements may be sent to any given point with the maximum of speed. All this, taken as a whole, has converted Pan-Germany into one gigantic, extremely powerful fortress.