Chapter 459 Train Peace Talks
Although Germany has announced a comprehensive armistice, this does not mean that the war has completely ended.
Before German representatives formally signed a peace treaty, Germany was still in a state of war with the Allied Powers.
If the theme during the war was how to defeat Germany, then the theme now after the temporary armistice is to discuss how to carve up Germany.
Although the purpose of all countries is to obtain sufficient profits, at the same time, they will teach Germany a profound lesson.
However, different countries also have certain differences in their attitudes towards Germany. For example, the French want to weaken Germany as much as possible, annex more land, and even completely eliminate the possibility of Germany competing with France again.
But the British would never agree to this. It is possible to weaken the Germans, but only within a reasonable range.
Otherwise, France, which has regained its feet by exploiting Germany, will be Britain's biggest enemy in Europe. By then, France will have no rivals on the European continent, and the British will have no choice but to compete with France themselves.
This is unacceptable to the British. It runs counter to the continental balance policy that the British have always implemented, and will also greatly harm the British position on the European continent.
Therefore, it can be expected that the next peace talks will turn into competition within the Allied Powers.
Germany, which has been lost everywhere, will have no power to resist, but the disputes among the countries within the Allied Powers will make this peace negotiation more exciting.
On December 15, 1917, three days after the official armistice, all representatives of the Allied Powers gathered together to discuss the specific matters of the contract with representatives sent by Germany.
It is worth mentioning that the first unconditional surrender agreement for Germany was signed on a train. One of the carriages of this train was once the exclusive carriage of French Emperor Napoleon.
Because Germany was established almost on top of the French, which made the French hold a grudge to this day and decided to take revenge when the contract was signed.
This Napoleon's royal carriage, code-named 2419D, was collected by France directly after Germany signed the armistice agreement and placed in a museum.
The French used this method to avenge their humiliation decades ago, but this did increase the contradictions and hatred between Germany and France.
When the news that Germany officially signed the unconditional surrender agreement spread throughout the world, it also officially represented the end of the world war that had lasted three years and four months.
It was also on the same day that Australasian Prime Minister Kent met Arthur with an excited face, and couldn't wait to say: "Your Majesty, Germany has officially surrendered unconditionally!" Arthur finally breathed a sigh of relief and ordered the maid to open the door
. A bottle of red wine and celebrate with Prime Minister Kent.
Such a scene was staged all over the world at the same time, and most of the Allied countries fell into carnival and celebration.
Suppressed by the long war, these people urgently need to release their emotions. Whether it's roaring, shouting, getting drunk, or taking to the streets to celebrate with your relatives, friends, or strangers you don't know, it's a good way to vent your emotions.
While Arthur breathed a sigh of relief, his heart couldn't help but feel a little heavy.
Under the influence of Arthur and Australasia, this world war that originally lasted for more than four years in history only lasted three years and four months and ended in a hurry. The consumption of Britain and France, especially the consumption of the British, was not as good as So serious in history.
Although the Americans also participated in the war, their contribution to the war was not great. Even if they were fully prepared, they only participated for half a year.
Even at the moment before the victory of the war, the American Expeditionary Force in Europe did not have more than 200,000 troops, which was destined that the Americans would not receive too many benefits.
This also resulted in the war not being as brutal as in history. The Allied Powers had less than 30 million mobilized troops, more than 14 million casualties, and more than 5 million deaths.
The Allies mobilized more than 15 million troops, suffering 9.4 million casualties and 4.1 million deaths.
The situation of the Allied Powers is much better than that of the Central Powers. Even France and Russia, which suffered relatively heavy casualties, are far less serious than in history.
Even now, Russia is still able to maintain a constitutional monarchy, and the capitalist government has even suppressed the workers' union. This is completely different from the situation in history.
Arthur even doubted whether that country would still appear in history, and whether Russia could still grow into a world-class country?
The different changes in these situations make the future World War II unpredictable, and it is not even certain whether Germany will launch World War II as it did in history.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire was not disintegrated after the war as it was historically. It still retains the main areas of Austria, Hungary and Bohemia. It is okay to be a lower-class power.
In short, the world after the war seems to be a bit chaotic, and the difference from the original history is really huge.
The future experience that Arthur was originally proud of has become a bit useless in this context. He can only promote the development of Australasia more vigorously and ensure that Australasia can rely on its own strength at any time to protect Take good care of your country and people.
While celebrating the victory, Arthur also did not forget to ask the government to actively pursue the interests of Australasia.
All of Germany's Pacific colonies, that is certain, are something that no country can wrest from the mouths of Australasia.
In addition, Arthur also issued instructions to vigorously recruit German scientific and technological talents, technical workers and scientific research and military-industrial enterprises, including more important industrial enterprises.
Germany was bound to go through a long period of chaos after the war. The famous 500,000 Mark bread incident also occurred in history, which all proved that the situation of the Germans after the war was not good.
Under such a premise, if we can attract some outstanding German talents to immigrate to Australasia, it will be much more useful than fighting for some compensation.
If Arthur remembers correctly, it seems that the reparations owed by Germany during World War I have not been paid off until the 21st century.
Rather than fighting for a proportion of those reparations, it is better to get some practical benefits, such as equipment, talents and technical workers from German military factories and chemical plants and some industrial enterprises, including talents from the German education system, etc.
Australasia's policy of attracting talents adheres to the principle that if it cannot get it, it will never let other countries get it. It is not unacceptable for German talents who are unwilling to go to Australasia.
However, these people will be closely monitored by the Royal Security Intelligence Service. If they have the intention to travel to other countries, especially the United States, these talents will be assassinated by the Royal Security Intelligence Service.
The Australasian side of the current peace talks is sending its ambassador to France, Carles Puyol, and the real representative of the peace talks, Prime Minister Kent, is about to leave, specifically responsible for future peace talks and competing for interests.
There is no way to dispatch the Prime Minister. After all, in order to vent their anger on the French, the French President has decided to personally participate in the peace talks.
The British did not give in too much and sent Prime Minister Asquith as a representative.
Under such circumstances, if other countries sent representatives with lower positions, they would look down on the British and French heads of state.
After comprehensive consideration, Australasia decided to send Prime Minister Kent as the final representative.
Although it will take a month for Prime Minister Kent to go to Europe, this benefit distribution meeting is destined to last for a long time. After all, carving up Germany is a big project.
Of course, Prime Minister Kent is not the only one heading to Europe. Because this benefit distribution involves all aspects of the country, almost all departments will send personnel, even department ministers or deputy ministers to go there in person.
Before going to Europe, ministers of each department also need to have some plans for the benefits they need, so that they can better claim their needs after arriving in Europe.
When he saw the list of war losses and claims handed over by the ministers of various departments, Arthur finally understood why Germany was saddled with a debt of 226 billion marks after World War I. (Reductions were made in 1921 because it was too much.)
Various countries did spend a lot on the war, but everyone wanted to use war reparations to recover all the expenses at once, and even earn some profits.
For example, Australasia's actual expenses in this war did not add up to more than 300 million pounds.
However, the total value of the claim list given by the financial department is as high as 1.7 billion pounds. Coupled with the technology, factories, technical talents, etc. that Germany needs to transfer, the total value of the claims is as high as more than 2 billion pounds.
Arthur couldn't help but take a breath. He didn't expect the finance department to be so capable of telling lies. But after all, he was also seeking more benefits for the government, so Arthur agreed to the claim form without saying much.
It would be best if we could win so much. If we could not win, there would be no loss for Australasia.
It is estimated that other countries have a greater appetite than Australasia. After all, the compensation of more than 200 billion marks in history is not so easy to collect.
In addition to demanding reparations, Arthur also issued another order to the Treasury, which was to use this reparation opportunity as much as possible to transfer Australasia's foreign debt.
Although Australasia's finances are very healthy, it has also borrowed large amounts of foreign debt from countries including Britain, France, Germany, and the United States in the past ten years.
Needless to say, Germany can use reparations to offset its foreign debt. It would be best if the remaining foreign debts of Britain, France and the United States could be offset by Germany's reparations. Let the Germans help them pay off their debts, which can also reduce their own pressure.
Finance Minister Kevin was a little reluctant to hear Arthur's request at first. After all, all Australasia's foreign debts would not be repaid until around 1925 at the earliest.
Moreover, apart from the United States, it does not owe much foreign debt to other countries. It owes about 10 million pounds to the United Kingdom and 15 million pounds to France.
The majority of the government's foreign debt is actually the royal family and the United States. The government owes the royal family £110 million and the United States $2.2 billion, which translates to approximately £440 million in pounds.
Although the government's foreign debt is as high as nearly 580 million pounds, the government's available funds have exceeded 750 million pounds, so there is no need to worry about the pressure of foreign debt.
What's more, a foreign debt like the United States has only been owed for just half a year. There is no need to rush to repay it. It is an interest-free loan anyway.
However, Arthur's next words instantly made Finance Minister Kevin change his mind.
Arthur looked at Kevin, who was obviously unwilling to give up Germany's reparations, and asked with a hint of meaning: "Minister Kevin, are you really sure that the Germans can repay all the reparations?"
If only Australasia wanted Germany is not unable to repay the 2 billion pounds.
However, there are more than ten countries demanding compensation, and the total compensation figure is absolutely astronomical.
Even if various countries impose certain reductions and exemptions on Germany as appropriate, they will never be less than the real losses of each country.
No matter how developed Germany is, it will not be able to repay the expenses of the six major powers and many Balkan countries in this war, not to mention that the current situation in Germany is not very good.
It is certain that Germany will repay the reparations, but it is not certain how much it will be able to repay.
It will definitely not be a loss for Australasia to use the compensation that may not be fully obtained to repay the foreign debt that Australasia has already obtained.
Especially if Germany's reparations can be used to repay the foreign debt to the United States, it will be equivalent to $2 billion in free whoring in Australasia.
After receiving the mission assigned by Arthur, Prime Minister Kent and his party hurriedly boarded a warship and headed for Europe after several days of preparation.
This time, Prime Minister Kent was riding a battlecruiser, which was much faster than a normal battleship. It was not during a war anyway, so there was no need to worry about harassment from enemy warships.
Traveling to Europe could take a month if traveling on a super-dreadnought. But if you take a battlecruiser, you can reach Europe in about 25 days.
In order to celebrate the victory of this war, Arthur ordered the royal consortium to distribute a batch of supplies to the people for free so that the people can spend this Christmas better.
Some canned and meat products that were supposed to be transported to Europe were generously distributed to the people by Arthur now that the war was over.
At the same time, intense preparations are being made for rewards and rewards for combat soldiers, that is, rewards and rewards for all people in the country who have contributed to the war.
After Christmas, when all Australasian troops return to the country, Arthur will hold a grand celebration ceremony and reward all meritorious personnel.
This war was a good opportunity, an opportunity to rapidly expand the Australasian aristocracy.
If nothing unexpected happens, after the enfeoffment ceremony, Australasia will have a new group of nobles to strengthen the entire Australasian noble class.
In addition, Arthur will not be stingy with the three major medals and various rewards. Even the royal consortium has already prepared up to 20 million Australian dollars to reward these soldiers, and a sum of funds will be used as pensions. , distributed to the families of all fallen soldiers.
Because aircraft and tanks have already appeared in the war, the designers who researched aircraft and tanks will also receive the rewards they deserve during the enfeoffment ceremony.
Because Arthur valued soldiers and scientific researchers the most, these people were also the most likely to receive knighthood rewards.
There are certain differences between the nobility hierarchy in Australasia and the UK, but overall they are basically similar.
The lowest level of nobility is the more honorary title of knight, followed by the real nobility at the bottom baron, then viscount, earl, duke, and finally the king at the top.
The status of marquess in the UK is actually very embarrassing. At first, this title generally referred to earls in areas close to Wales, and eventually evolved into a first-level title above the earl and below the duke.
However, the number of marquises in the UK is very small, and they have the lowest sense of existence among the five levels of British aristocracy.
The noble hierarchy in Australasia directly merges marquis into earl. Anyway, all the nobles in Australasia are new-style nobles, that is, nobles with only titles and no territories.
The way for these new nobles to obtain benefits is to join the Nobles United Financial Group, which is controlled by the royal family and distributes dividends to all nobles every year.
Although they do not have their own territory, the nobles will obtain some castles and manors to ensure that the new nobles of Australasia can live a luxurious life.
By creating a joint consortium of nobles, these nobles can be better tied to the royal chariot, and the interests of all nobles and the royal family can be more closely united.
The status of these new aristocrats all comes from the king and the royal family, and all their sources of income also come from the joint aristocratic syndicate controlled by the royal family.
In this way, it is impossible for the new nobles to betray the royal family, let alone Arthur.
Due to historical reasons, Australasia has too few nobles. In order to consolidate their status and that of the royal family, at least hundreds of nobles must be enfeoffed this time, and more nobles will be added in the next few decades to protect the next generation of monarchs, and even the Australasian royal family in the future. power and status.
Through the Ministry of Defense's statistics on casualty soldiers in recent days, Arthur finally got the total number and specific list of Australasia's casualties in the war.
Through the army's rotation system, almost all Australasian regular soldiers went to the battlefield, effectively training the army's combat effectiveness and allowing the soldiers to see blood.
Of course, this cannot avoid casualties, especially if each division must persist for at least half a year.
Australasia's two Guards divisions and four conventional divisions have a main force of more than 100,000 troops. The total casualties exceed 25,000 and the death toll exceeds 8,000. The casualties are acceptable.
The real casualties were the more than 1 million indigenous troops. Australasia sent more than 80 colonial divisions to Europe, nearly 1.6 million indigenous troops.
The casualties of these indigenous armies were as high as 900,000, and the death toll exceeded 400,000, making Australasia directly one of the countries with the most casualties, with total casualties even exceeding Italy.
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(End of chapter)