Chapter 240 "London Contract"
The Portuguese Republican Party's statement caused an uproar in Portugal, and quickly spread throughout most of Europe, becoming one of the hotly debated topics among European people in recent times.
Of course, this is also good for Australasia. At least it can quickly get rid of the suspicion of assassinating King Carlos I of Portugal, and it can also quickly gain more favor from the European people.
After all, Australasia and Portugal were at war, and the Portuguese people had begun to oppose the rule of Carlos I, and even had a favorable impression of the enemy country Australasia.
Under the backdrop of Carlos I, Australasia and Arthur seemed to be the most righteous party.
As the saying goes, there is no harm without comparison. In order to maintain his autocratic rule, Carlos I used this conflict with the fishermen in Australasia to establish an image of loving his people and not being afraid of powerful enemies.
But he ignored the real public opinion in Portugal. Continuing to insist on war would not do any good for Portugal. Some of it was just to maintain the image established by Carlos I.
In addition, the Portuguese government has gradually tended to offend Britain, Germany and Russia. Currently, trade between Britain, Germany and Portugal has gradually decreased, which has caused many Portuguese factories and private individuals to suffer significant loss of profits.
As a result, the Portuguese became even more disappointed with Carlos. After all, there is complete evidence and photos of the fishermen's conflict in Australasia at that time. The fishermen in Australasia were indeed seriously injured, and the fish catch and property they obtained were also robbed.
The Portuguese government's statement on the fishermen's conflict is very vague, without even any evidence, and only relies on the fishermen's words.
If the current government continues to offend Britain and Germany, I am afraid that Portugal will really have no status in Europe.
Britain and Germany currently represent powerful groups of the Allied Powers and the Entente Powers respectively. Britain and France have an Entente relationship, and France has an Entente relationship with Russia.
Germany has an alliance with Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which also means that Britain and Germany are related to all the great powers in Europe.
Portugal suddenly offended all the European powers. Is this really not lighting a lantern in the toilet?
Thanks to the constitutional monarchy that Portugal had for decades before Carlos I came to power, Portugal has many parties and republican, democratic supporters.
The ideas supported by these people were contrary to the absolute monarchy, and they were naturally within the scope of Carlos I's high-pressure attack.
The failure of Carlos I's plan this time is a good opportunity for the Republicans and pro-democracy parties, and it is also the reason why they have to stand up at the risk of being liquidated by the government.
The influence of this newspaper in Portugal does not stop there. If there were a detailed polling organization at this time, a surprising conclusion could be drawn. The public support rate of the Kingdom of Portugal's government has experienced a sharp decline in a short period of time. At present, it is even less than 40%.
This seems a bit exaggerated, but when you think about the fact that the Kingdom of Portugal only lasted for more than two years before disappearing, you can gradually understand it.
Carlos I established a high-pressure system and autocratic rule in Portugal, but it did not bring many benefits to the Portuguese.
It is not surprising that such a monarch who only covets his own rights and only cares about his own status is eventually opposed by others.
Although Carlos I relied on his previous attitude of firmly protecting fishermen, he won some support from Portuguese civilians.
But after this incident, civilians have gradually begun to wake up, which is also the reason why the Portuguese government's public support rate has dropped significantly.
After hearing reports from his subordinates about the numerous demonstrations that broke out across the country, Carlos I was a little angry, but he could do nothing about it.
But this was not the only bad news. After several hours of resuscitation, the hospital that treated Prince Louis finally declared helpless that the rescue of Prince Louis was ineffective.
This was another blow to Carlos I, and it also made Carlos I, who seemed so energetic before, suddenly age by more than ten years.
When Carlos I came to the government building again, the senior officials of the Portuguese government were surprised to find that the king's hair had turned gray.
Portugal is currently experiencing internal and external troubles. The foreign troubles arising from the peace talks with Australasia and the internal worries of domestic democratic liberals have made the government extremely busy.
In order to maintain his dominance, Carlos I finally decided to compromise with Australasia, focusing all his energy on solving domestic worries and protecting the royal government and his own dominance.
On October 18, 1907, the London peace talks, which had been suspended for five days due to an accident, resumed.
This time, the Portuguese ambassador Hebert Simon was obviously much more positive and officially recognized Portugal's losing position in the war.
Seeing that the Portuguese government had finally begun to show reality, Britain, Germany, and Russia nodded with satisfaction. Finally, after several days of negotiations, under the witness of representatives from Britain, Germany and Russia, the Australasian representative David, the representative of the Kingdom of Portugal, and the Portuguese representative Hebert Simon signed the "Australasia Agreement" in London with a smile on their faces. The Peace Treaty and Compensation Clauses for the Settlement of Fishermen's Conflicts and War Incidents with Portugal. Because it was signed in London, this treaty is also called the "London Peace Treaty" between Australia and Portugal.
According to the provisions of the Peace of London, Portuguese Timor would be ceded to Australasia as Portugal's compensation for Australasia, and Australasia would recognize Australasia's sovereignty over it.
In addition, Australasia has port berthing rights in Portugal's East Asian colonies, and both warships and civilian ships can freely enter and exit the ports of the East Asian colonies.
Then there is Portugal’s financial compensation for fishermen and the war. Portugal should compensate all Australasian fishermen affected by the conflict and the war, which was eventually set at fifteen Australian dollars per person.
There is also the Australasian fisherman involved in the fishermen's conflict. The Portuguese government needs to pay him 100,000 Australian dollars in compensation and publicly apologize to him.
As for war reparations, the Portuguese government needs to compensate the Australasian government for five million pounds, which must be paid within three years. Interest on amounts not repaid after three years can be as high as one-fifth per year.
What does this mean? If the Portuguese government does not pay any compensation within three years, the annual interest after three years will be as high as one million pounds. This is not a small amount of money.
Two years of accumulated interest would be worth a dreadnought, so Arthur was happy for Portugal to pay it back later.
Anyway, with the testimony of Britain, Germany and Russia, Arthur was not afraid that the Portuguese government would default on its debts. These three countries are old hooligans in Europe. There are not many countries that dare not give these three countries face.
Of course, most of the three countries, Britain, Germany and Russia, were able to agree to come and sit down for peace talks because of Arthur's sake.
Such favors still have to be repaid. After all, to put it bluntly, the three countries of England, Germany and Russia are related to Australasia. In addition, Australasia is far away from Europe. On the premise that there is no conflict of interest with these countries, It is very necessary to have a good relationship.
If it were not for the support of these three old rogue countries, it would have been some time before Australasia could sign a real contract with Portugal.
Although Australasia is not afraid of the Portuguese army, the Portuguese navy is indeed a troublesome problem.
Of course, Germany and Russia are mainly responsible for establishing good relations. Although the main development goal of Australasia in the future is the navy, the British Empire's navy is currently the most powerful in the world, and its shipbuilding industry and shipbuilding technology are naturally among the best in the world.
But as long as Edward was King of England, it was impossible for Australasia to have too close a relationship with the British Empire.
Apart from anything else, even if Arthur himself said that he didn't care about what happened before, would King Edward believe it?
However, relying on Arthur's good relationship with Queen Victoria and Arthur's favorability in the UK, there is no need to worry about malicious intentions from the UK, unless Arthur has repeatedly stood against the UK.
Previous airships set off an upsurge in airship research in Europe, and Arthur was willing to follow suit and donated an AU-2 airship to the United Kingdom and Germany.
I believe that judging from the technology of Britain and Germany, it is not difficult to quickly master the AU-2 airship.
Especially in Germany, the AU-2 airship is an improved and strengthened version of the AU-1, and the AU-1 is a replica of the Zeppelin LZ-1 rigid airship.
With such a relationship, Germany will research the AU-2 airship even faster, and it won't be long before it can even manufacture it itself.
The gifts given to Russia are different from those of Britain and Germany. This does not mean that there is a close relationship. It is just that judging from Russia's scientific research capabilities, both Britain and Germany have developed the next generation airship, and Russia may not be able to successfully master it. Its technology.
Therefore, Arthur did what he wanted and donated to Russia a batch of weapons and ammunition manufactured by arsenals and originally used in this war.
Australasia was well prepared for this war and produced a lot of weapons and equipment.
Although a lot of weapons and ammunition were consumed by Australasia's powerful firepower, there was still a lot left.
These remaining weapons and ammunition are nothing to Australasia, but they are a timely help to the Russian Far East Army.
Although the current situation in Russia is much more stable than in history, with Russia's investment in dreadnoughts, it is still the Far East Army that is suffering.
After obtaining this batch of weapons and ammunition reserves, the Russian Far East Army finally gained some wealth and was somewhat prepared for possible wars in the future.
The honest Russians were very happy about this. Even Nicholas II sent a telegram to Arthur, thanking Arthur for the gift and praising the friendship between Russia and Australasia.
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(End of chapter)