Chapter 434 Sydney Peace Talks

While France and Germany were once again engaged in fierce fighting over the Verdun region, in distant Australasia, the peace talks between the Netherlands and Australasia officially began.

Since December 15 last year, the Netherlands and Australasia have entered a temporary state of peace.

Both sides carried out military management of their respective occupied areas, and the time for the peace talks was set on February 3, more than a month later.

In fact, this is easy to understand. Although the Netherlands is also a monarchy, the power of the Dutch monarch was greatly weakened decades ago. The current monarch of the Netherlands, Queen Wilhelmina, has very little power, and the power of the government is controlled by political parties.

The Dutch government not only needs time to reach a unified opinion, but also needs time to come to Australasia in person to participate in the peace talks.

The location of this peace talk was placed in Sydney. The purpose of the Australasia side was very clear, which was to win the peace talks at home.

February 3, 1916, Australasia, Sydney.

The peace talks between the Netherlands and Australasia officially began. Participants included Dutch Foreign Minister Vittor, Ambassador to Australasia Reynolds and a series of government officials.

Australasia also sent a luxurious lineup of Foreign Minister Dezer, Defense Minister Raul and some officials.

At present, the entire Dutch East Indies is basically occupied by Australasia, and how to divide the land of the Dutch East Indies is also the most important issue in this peace talk.

Foreign Minister Dezer first put forward the requirements of Australasia, using the Sulawesi Sea, the Makassar Strait and the Bali Sea as the dividing line to divide the entire Dutch East Indies into north and south.

The islands of Sumatra, Java and Kalimantan in the west are under the management of the Dutch East Indies, and the islands of New Guinea, Sulawesi and its affiliated islands in the east are under the rule of Australasia.

In addition, Australasia also requires Bali, the Kangegan Islands and all the islands between Sumatra and Kalimantan.

These islands can bring Australasia extremely close to the Strait of Malacca, and at the same time, they can also become a nail inserted into the Dutch East Indies, controlling the entire Dutch East Indies through the Java Sea, the sea area between Sumatra, Kalimantan and Java.

As can be seen from the map, the three islands are distributed in a triangular shape, and the Java Sea and many islands are in the middle.

If the entire Java Sea can be controlled through these islands, the traffic between the three islands of the Dutch East Indies will be controlled in disguise.

In fact, this is the result of careful consideration by the Australasia government. The three core territories of Sumatra, Kalimantan and Java are still reserved for the River Rat East Indies. These three islands have nearly 30 million natives in total, which is also a blessing in disguise for the Dutch government.

At the same time, after the territorial scope of the Dutch East Indies is streamlined, the Dutch can better control these three islands and create higher value for the Dutch mainland.

Australasia was able to expand its sphere of influence again through the newly acquired territories, and obtain the entire New Guinea Island and Sulawesi Island.

Including these affiliated islands, they are basically habitable lands, rich in water resources, and strategically important.

Moreover, the total indigenous population of some occupied lands is only about 10 million, so it is not too troublesome to continue to use or expel them.

In addition to the territorial demands, Australasia also demanded at least 100 million pounds in compensation and a treaty that the Dutch East Indies would open ports to Australasia.

Although it does not intend to annex so much territory at one time, it is still necessary to try to control the Dutch East Indies and expand Australasia's sphere of influence to Southeast Asia and the Strait of Malacca.

Needless to say, the importance of the Strait of Malacca is an important link connecting East Asia and South Asia, and even Europe to East Asia.

When the oil resources of the Persian Gulf were transported to East Asia in later generations, they generally went through the Strait of Malacca.

Therefore, the Strait of Malacca is also known as the East Asian oil valve and the East Asian maritime lifeline.

This strait is the closest passage from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean, and it is also the only way from East Asia to Europe.

However, the British also regard the Strait of Malacca as very important, and even set up the Straits Settlements to manage these ports and nearby colonies for the three more important ports nearby.

If you want to obtain the Straits Settlements from the British, you must do so at a time when the British Empire is in great distress.

Judging from the current situation, the opportunity to obtain the Straits Settlements is not now, but it will take several decades until World War II.

But it is also necessary to plan ahead at present, and it can also expand the sphere of influence of Australasia and block the resource channel for the development of the island country.

You know, the island country is a country that is extremely short of resources. The population of this country is not small, and it even far exceeds that of some powerful countries.

But because the land area of ​​the island country is not large, and it is composed of a large number of islands, the mineral resources are not rich.

Whether it is various mineral resources or oil, which is becoming more and more important, most of the needs of the island country are imported, and they are imported from East Asia and even overseas.

If the Strait of Malacca can be controlled, when the island countries and Australasia become enemies, Australasia can cut off the resource trade between the island countries and Europe or other regions through the Strait of Malacca.

The waters from Southeast Asia to Antarctica will all be controlled by Australasia. If the islanders want to communicate with the outside world, they can only do so through the more distant Pacific Ocean.

In this way, not only will the time required for the route increase significantly, but the cost of imported materials will also increase a lot.

Australasia can easily achieve Arthur's plan to curb the development of the enemy.

Although the Dutch knew that the situation in the Dutch East Indies was over, this did not prevent the Dutch from bargaining frantically in the peace talks in an attempt to retain Sulawesi and the islands in the Java Sea.

But Australasia's ambitions could not be stopped by a small Netherlands. The Dutch army could not stop Australasia's actions on the battlefield, let alone in the peace talks.

The peace talks were deadlocked for three or four days, but Australasia's point of view was very firm. It must obtain all the required territories, but the compensation could be reduced from 100 million pounds to 70 million pounds.

Seeing that there was no room for recovery in terms of territory, the two important representatives of the Netherlands looked at each other and could only agree to Australasia's demands with great pain.

There was no way. Agreeing to the demands was the best result for the Netherlands at present.

If the request is agreed, the Netherlands can at least keep the three large islands of Sumatra, Kalimantan and Java. With Java, the Netherlands still owns most of the Dutch East Indies.

But if the request of Australasia is not agreed, not only other lands are still under the control of Australasia, but even these three more important islands are currently occupied by Australasia.

No matter how stupid the Dutch are, they know how to choose between losing everything and losing half.

Of course, the Netherlands does still control Sulawesi, Kalimantan and Java in name, but the Java Sea between these three islands will soon fall under the control of Australasia.

This also means that the Dutch rule over these three islands will depend on the face of the Australasia people.

If Australasia agrees, the Netherlands will be the ruler of this colony. If Australasia disagrees, there is no need for war. It only needs to blockade these three islands separately, and the Dutch East Indies colony will surrender without a fight.

After the land was agreed upon, the two sides spent another half a month arguing over the price and the specific peace treaty.

Finally, on February 25, 1916, Australasia and the Netherlands formally signed a peace treaty to end the war.

Because the peace treaty was signed in Sydney, it was publicly declared by the Netherlands and Australasia as the Sydney Treaty.

The Sydney Treaty stipulated that the Dutch government and the Dutch East Indies colony would cede all islands except Sulawesi, Kalimantan and Java to Australasia, and Australasia would have the right to use all ports in the Dutch East Indies.

The Dutch East Indies colonial government was not allowed to conduct any propaganda against Australasia's rule within its jurisdiction, nor to do anything that endangered Australasia's rule.

Australasia had the right of first refusal to purchase all Dutch East Indies resources, and Australasia was not allowed to hinder the export of goods from the Dutch East Indies to the Netherlands.

Then in terms of funds, the Netherlands paid a total of 56.25 million pounds in compensation to Australasia, which was paid in 15 years, with an annual compensation of 3.75 million pounds.

Once a delay occurs, the daily interest is 1% of the deferred compensation.

This also means that even if the compensation is only delayed for one year, the daily interest is as high as 37,500 pounds, which is definitely not a small amount.

The annual compensation of 3.75 million pounds may not seem much, but it is equivalent to a super dreadnought. Even if it is only used for naval expansion, it is enough to build the Australasia Navy into a top three navy in the world in these 15 years.

And this compensation is definitely not much for the current Netherlands. The more than 30 million natives on the three islands alone can bring millions of pounds of income to the Dutch government every year, and this is still an extremely conservative estimate.

If these natives are squeezed desperately, the value they can play will be higher.

Apart from anything else, the Dutch government's annual income from the Dutch East Indies definitely exceeds this indemnity. Even after paying the indemnity, they still have a lot of funds to build the country.

After the signing of the Sydney Treaty, all the terms were quickly implemented.

According to the consultations between the Dutch and Australasian governments, the Australasian army will officially withdraw from Sumatra, Kalimantan and Java from March 1, and return these three large islands to the rule of the Dutch East Indies colonial government.

After this contract was made public, it caused cheers in Australasian.

Under Arthur's vigorous cultivation, Australasians still have a high sense of national pride and national identity, and the expansion of national territory is also a good thing for all Australasians.

What's more, there is a compensation of more than 50 million pounds. Australasians proudly believe that Arthur will make good use of this compensation to build Australasia stronger and make the lives of all Australasians more secure.

Starting from March 1916, many celebrations were held in Australasia to celebrate the signing of the Sydney Treaty.

Australasia was a sea of ​​cheers, but the situation in Europe, tens of thousands of kilometers away, was not so good at this time.

The war in the Verdun area became tense again by the end of the month.

In order to delay the French and minimize the number of British and French troops launching battles in the Somme River area, the Germans had to continue to organize large-scale attacks in Verdun.

In order to make the Germans withdraw from Verdun and Eastern Europe, and also to prevent France from losing this important fortress and to strengthen the French people's belief in fighting against Germany, Britain and France also decided to launch a large-scale battle in the Verdun area to repel the German attack.

Although Britain, France and Germany had different starting points, their goals were the same, that is, to gain an advantage in the Verdun area, preferably to defeat or repel the enemy.

With both sides thinking this way, Germany once again launched a fierce attack on the west bank of the Meuse River, trying to seize important strongholds on the west bank as soon as possible to make a breakthrough in this battle.

Of course, it was not just an attack on the west bank. The German army also launched an attack on the east bank, and Douaumont and Voges were still the main targets of the attack on the east bank.

After entering March, the German army quickly organized assault troops to attack on the east and west banks.

The French army also fought desperately, trying to delay the German attack.

Because the French General Staff strengthened the manpower and firepower of the defense areas, the defense of various areas in Verdun was still very stable in a short period of time. In many areas, the French army counterattacked and recaptured many positions occupied by the Germans.

The French and German armies fought a very long tug-of-war in the Verdun area, and any position was a target for the two armies to fight for their lives.

According to the records of the armies of both sides, when it was exaggerated, the positions had to be fought for more than ten times in a day, the flags on the positions were changed more than ten times, and the number of soldiers sacrificed on the positions was countless.

Even after a soldier occupied a position, he just wanted to deploy defense after planting the flag, but was repelled by the enemy who organized a counterattack, and the position fell back into the hands of the enemy.

Such a tug-of-war was staged in many fortresses and positions in the Verdun area. It took hundreds of thousands of soldiers to conquer a position, and it also took many soldiers to defend a position.

For some high ground and artillery positions, the French army even paid up to 20,000 casualties in one day.

But 20,000 casualties are not many compared to the total casualties of the war so far, but if we calculate it based on 20,000 casualties per day, the casualties in a year will be as high as more than 7 million, which is enough to show how exaggerated this casualty figure is.

One chapter today, I went out and didn't come back until after 10 o'clock, rushing to finish the manuscript. Two chapters tomorrow!