Chapter 529 Treaty, Nazis, Olympics

Under the cover of all the major events, some small things worth mentioning still happened in February 1920.

First of all, the Treaty of Spitsbergen signed by the World League in mid-February recognized that the Spitsbergen Islands belonged to Norway and had full and complete sovereignty.

But at the same time, the World League also stipulated that the area could never be used for war purposes, and that citizens of all contracting parties could enter and exit freely and engage in legitimate production and commercial activities under the condition of complying with relevant Norwegian laws.

This treaty made the entire Svalbard Islands (Spitsbergen Islands, Northeast Land, Edge Island and Barents Island) the first and only demilitarized zone in the Arctic region, allowing all citizens of the contracting parties to enter and exit freely.

Simply put, even if Australasia is a country in the southern hemisphere, it has a scientific research base in the Arctic because of this treaty, which is still very important for Australasia.

Countries adjacent to the Arctic Circle may not care, but for a country like Australasia far away from the Arctic Circle, it can also have the qualifications for scientific research in the Arctic.

Of course, this treaty has made Arthur pay attention to the development of the Arctic and Antarctic.

It is a good thing that Australasia can have a scientific research base in the Arctic. More importantly, Australasia has to defend the Antarctic, which is very close to itself.

As the only great power in the Southern Hemisphere, Australasia has a great influence on the Southern Hemisphere, and its sphere of influence can cover most of the coast of the Southern Hemisphere.

Especially in the case of Australasia's vast land area, there are actually many Antarctic territories that can be occupied and claimed.

There is no so-called Antarctic Treaty yet. The Antarctic continent is a piece of land that has not been explored and has not been developed.

When it comes to Antarctic mineral resources, its richness is not inferior to that of Australasia. First of all, coal and iron mines are very important for the development of industry. Antarctica has the world's largest iron ore snow storage area with extremely high iron grade, which can be mined and used by the world for more than 200 years.

At the same time, Antarctica also has a coal reserve of up to 500 billion tons, and both coal and iron reserves have considerable advantages.

In addition, Antarctica also has copper, lead, zinc, molybdenum, and a small amount of gold, silver, chromium, nickel, and cobalt. The reserves and types of mineral resources are quite rich.

Coupled with the oil and natural gas reserves that people talk about, Antarctica is like a mineral continent, which is why Arthur planned to occupy most of Antarctica.

In addition, Antarctica also has quite rich marine resources. The famous Antarctic krill is enough to catch 50 million tons per year without any impact on its reproduction.

How exaggerated is the number of 50 million tons? The current world population is about 1.66 billion people. On average, each person has to eat 60 kilograms of Antarctic krill per year to consume up to 50 million tons of catch.

And this is a renewable seafood product every year. Whether it is exported or used as food reserves, it can generate huge profits.

Of course, this is under the premise of protecting the marine environment. If such an event still happens, even if the population of Antarctic krill is huge, it will become a radiation product that everyone is afraid of, not to mention using it as food reserves or selling it abroad.

It also strengthened Arthur's confidence in protecting the ocean. As a country that relies heavily on the ocean, Arthur will never allow any country to cause serious damage to the ocean.

No matter how cold Antarctica is, it still cannot cover up the fact that Antarctica has many valuable resources.

Even if the resources of Antarctica cannot be developed for the time being, it is completely fine to occupy it and wait for the development of technical equipment in the future.

In order to influence the ownership of Antarctica as soon as possible, Arthur ordered the three major film studios to shoot movies about Antarctica, and declare Australasia's sovereignty over this territory in various ways.

In addition to the Treaty of Spitsbergen, on February 24, Germany also had a very famous historical event, that is, the famous Adolf Hitler founded the Nazi Party in Munich and officially started his political career.

Arthur still has some concerns about this, but judging from the current chaotic political situation in Germany, it is unknown whether the mustache can climb to a high position as in history. After all, William II is still in power and Germany is still a monarchy.

There were no major international events in March. Except for the World League's official announcement of a reduction in the proportion of German reparations, most of the remaining events were domestic events of the great powers.

It was just the beginning of April when the calm international community became turbulent again.

Under the intervention of the World League led by Britain and France, the Polish War of Independence broke out in Soviet Russia.

The leader of the Polish War of Independence, the bourgeois nationalist Pilsudski, under the leadership of Britain and France, put forward the slogan of recovering the territory of Poland before it was divided in 1772, and formally declared war on Soviet Russia.

You know, before the division of Poland, its territory also included the current Lithuania, Belarus and part of Ukraine, all of which are currently controlled by Soviet Russia.

With the support of Britain and France, Poland's independent armed forces quickly expanded from the initial thousands of people to more than 100,000 people. They formed an alliance with the intervention forces sent by the World Alliance and are advancing towards Lithuania and Ukraine.

The current situation in Russia is very complicated. A simple Russian civil war has evolved into an intervention war involving many countries.

The participating parties are Soviet Russia and other Soviet countries, with a total army of 1.7 million.

The other side is the lingering Tsarist Russia and Poland, the World Alliance intervention army, with a total army of 2 million.

The current civil war has lasted for several years, and the losses brought to Russia are almost devastating.

Since the First World War, Russia has entered a six-year war period, and the loss of national manpower is huge.

In the First World War alone, Russia's death toll exceeded 3 million, the number of injured and captured exceeded 8 million, and the total loss of manpower reached more than 11 million.

The civil war in recent years is not much less. Soviet Russia and Tsarist Russia have caused more than 2 million deaths and 4 million injuries.

What's more terrible is that since April, Russia has been experiencing a serious drought, accompanied by more serious diseases.

Typhus has killed tens of thousands of Russian soldiers, and coupled with the casualties of civilians in the civil war, Russia has lost at least 20 million people in these six years of war.

Of course, this does not count those who emigrated abroad and Russian civilians who died of non-war reasons, such as influenza.

The population of Tsarist Russia before the war was as high as 175 million. After six years, the population did not increase but decreased, leaving only 152 million, equivalent to the level in 1908.

Of course, during these six years, millions of Russian people also immigrated to Australasia, which is also one of the important reasons for the large-scale reduction in Russia's population.

It is worth mentioning that due to different policies and systems, most of the immigrants to Australasia are from Tsarist Russia or the previous Russian Provisional Government.

These Russian immigrants are called White Russians in the international community, and most of them are well-educated professionals.

Unlike the people of Soviet Russia, they do not support the Russian revolution, but just want a more stable life.

For Arthur, these people are the Russian immigrants that Australasia really wants, not the rebels who are clamoring for independence.

Compared with the domestic situation, the current civil war in Russia is an area that Arthur cannot touch yet.

Arthur can only wait for the result. At other times, he should try to avoid mentioning it, so as not to cause trouble and bring disaster to Australasia.

While the Australasia Football King's Cup was urgently prepared and promoted, time has quietly come to the Antwerp Olympic Games in Belgium.

Eight years have passed since the last Olympic Games, and this Olympic Games still attracted a lot of international attention.

Although the King's Cup, which Australasia spent a lot of money to prepare, has diverted some traffic, after all, the King's Cup is still being prepared, so people's attention is still involuntarily transferred to this Olympic Games.

On April 20, 1920, the 7th Summer Olympic Games officially began.

Although this Olympic Games was not as grand as the Australasia Olympic Games, it also attracted a large number of countries to participate.

According to the news released by Belgium, a total of 29 countries and regions registered for the Olympics, and the number of participating athletes reached 2,607.

It is worth mentioning that this Olympics adopted the athlete oath ceremony for the first time. This link was proposed by Coubertin in 1913, but the Germans obviously did not have this blessing and successfully avoided the opportunity to host the Olympics.

In addition to the athlete oath ceremony, the Antwerp Games also used the Olympic flag designed by Coubertin for the first time, which is the famous Olympic five rings.

Unlike the previous two Olympic Games, where the number of participants from the major powers was large, the host Belgium had the largest number of participants in this Olympic Games, and the number of participants far exceeded the second and third place.

From this point, we can also see a feature, that is, when small and medium-sized countries host the Olympics, the major powers will not pay too much attention.

Of course, one reason cannot be ruled out, that is, the British Empire feels that the current Britain has no rivals in the world, so it disdains to compete with other countries in this environment.

Without the competition from the Germans, the British government and Prime Minister Lloyd George felt that the pressure on them suddenly decreased a lot.

At present, France and the United States do not pose much threat to Britain, which has also made the British government relax in some places.

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