The Rise Of Australasia-Chapter 1357 - 980 The Full and The Starving
Chapter 1357: Chapter 980: The Full and The Starving
Chapter 1357 -980: The Full and The Starving
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Regarding the cession of German territory, we must mention the remaining territorial scope of Germany after World War I.
As a country that had already been partitioned after the war, Germany had very limited land left to cede.
Ultimately, among the three countries of Britain-France-Australia, only France was effectively poised to annex German territory.
The United Kingdom and Australasia, not sharing a border with Germany, were destined not to turn any acquired German land into native land.
To prevent France from gaining too much advantage, the United Kingdom and Australasia reached an agreement that Germany’s total ceded territory should not exceed 15% of its existing mainland, while priority should be given to military occupation to effectively counter the possibility of German revenge after recovery.
First is the territory Germany needed to cede.
Gdansk was to be directly annexed by Poland, which would establish a Kingdom Government and become the most powerful country in the Central European region.
All the land north of the Kiel Canal was to be ceded to Denmark, with the canal itself to be jointly managed by the Britain-France-Australia Three Nations.
Saarbrucken, north of Alsace and Lorraine Area, was to be ceded to France, which was the only territory France could acquire after this war.
Cilicia, situated between Bohemia and Poland, was to be placed under Polish government trusteeship for 20 years, after which a referendum would be held to decide the fate of the entire Cilicia region.
Besides the ceded territories, the entire German mainland was to be divided into three parts, to be occupied by the military forces of the Britain-France-Australia Three Nations.
The disputes regarding the areas of military occupation and the specific allocation among the countries were substantial.
The remaining German mainland was still vast, and whoever could control the larger and more economically developed areas represented gaining more benefits in the war.
In such contention for benefits, the Britain-France-Australia Three Nations were in no mood to yield.
At this point, no one cared about the tacit agreements formed during the war, and the diplomatic representatives of the three parties had only one idea, which was to fight with all their might to secure more benefits for their own countries.
First was the proposal put forth by Australasia, which was roughly based on dividing lines along several German rivers.
The lands west of the Elbe River and north of Nuremberg were to be occupied by Australasia, all the German territories east of the Elbe River were to be occupied by Britain, and the land south of Frankfurt and east of the Rhine River were to be occupied by France.
Such an allocation would distribute the important regions of the Ruhr District, Berlin, and Munich among the three countries, while also fulfilling Australasia’s plan to occupy the Ruhr District.
However, Britain and France clearly did not approve of this proposal.
The Frenchmen, in particular, were covetously eyeing the Ruhr District and did not accept that they would only occupy Munich and the Southern Germany region.
The British, while accepting the Western Australasia-Eastern Britain division, preferred to have the Weser River, rather than the more easterly Elbe River, as the boundary line between the two countries’ occupation zones.
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The Weser River and the Elbe River are both German rivers flowing from south to north, but the Elbe River is situated along the line from Hamburg to Magdeburg, already quite close to Berlin.
The Weser River, on the other hand, is generally located in the central-western part of Germany, with the urban cities of Bremen and Erfurt along its banks, clearly much closer to the western Ruhr District.
The dispute between the United Kingdom and Australasia over the boundary line of their occupation zones was actually about the control of the Central German region, specifically the area from Hanover to Magdeburg.
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This region includes Hanover, Thuringia, the greater part of Saxony and the Magdeburg area, with a total population exceeding 10 million.
This is also why the United Kingdom and Australasia are vying for it, for whoever can control this region with a population of millions can naturally extract more benefits.
The Frenchmen’s appetite is also large.
The Frenchmen want to occupy the southern Moselle area of the Rhineland, which is north of the Alsace Lorraine Area, and at the same time wish to occupy the entire Southern Germany and the Frankfurt area.
The reaction of Australasia to this was just one, which was to mock the Frenchmen for being too naïve.
The real reason the British allowed Australasia to occupy a vast amount of German land, including the Ruhr District, was firstly, that they were utterly unable to prevent Australasia from occupying these areas, and secondly, they understood that even if Australasia occupied them, it was destined not to be able to annex them.
Moreover, Australasia could not exert too profound an influence on Europe; the hegemon of Europe would still be the United Kingdom.
But France was a different case. If France were to occupy such a vast stretch of land, would France resist the temptation to become the hegemon of Europe?
The German land the Frenchmen wanted to occupy had a population of more than 20 million Germans, among which the Moselle and Fortenberg areas directly bordered Alsace.
According to the nature of the British, the British Government would under no circumstances agree to let France occupy so many areas.
Moreover, the power of France had already declined; although it could still be considered a Powers, there was already too large a gap between it and Britain-Australia.
Whether it’s opposition from the United Kingdom or opposition from Australasia, or even both countries opposing together, France would not be able to acquire such vast areas.
This also meant that, regarding the division of the occupied zones among the countries, it only needed to resolve the dispute between the United Kingdom and Australasia.
Ultimately, it was the side of Australasia that chose to make concessions.
In fact, it was not so much making concessions. After all, Australasia had already gained significant advantages in Northern Europe and the Baltic Sea area, making concessions in the sparsely populated areas of Hanover and Thuringia would not affect Australasia’s strategic deployment in Europe.
After a few days of discussion, the occupation of Germany by the Three Countries was officially formed.
France occupied the German area to the east of the Rhine River and south of Frankfurt, with Saarbrucken being directly ceded to France, while other areas were under military occupation in the form of garrisons, until it was ensured Germany would not launch another war.
The land on both banks of the Rhine River and west of the Weser River was militarily occupied by Australasia. However, through forceful arguments, the Australasian diplomatic representatives also obtained the military control over Bremen, which was not a bad deal on balance.
The vast territory east of the Weser River was occupied by the British, which naturally included the Capital City of Berlin.
However, the military occupation of Britain-France-Australia would not interfere with the domestic affairs of Germany Mainland but would oversee Germany’s military forces.
Moreover, the Three Countries had preemptive rights to dispose of German assets in their respective occupied zones. The specific amount of compensation and the assets that the German government had to transfer would be determined according to the scale of compensation agreed upon in the later Congress.
In general, at this meeting, all three countries, Britain-France-Australia, had gains, and Germany also avoided the possibility of its Territory being split into pieces.
The one country that suffered the most loss was only Russia Nation. It was obvious that Britain-France-Australia had already become another interest group, which completely excluded Russia Nation from the cake-sharing table, leaving Russia Nation with nothing but reparations and without any other spoils of the war.
