Rise of Australia

Chapter 196
If the nationwide general strike in Russia was the factor that forced Russia to agree to admit defeat, then the series of revolutions caused by this bloody incident was the reason why Russia had to ask for more support from the international community.

This so-called revolution is actually a long period of social unrest.After the end of the Russo-Japanese War, terrorist attacks, strikes, peasant protests, riots and uprisings continued to occur in various regions of the Tsarist Russian Empire, which made the Tsarist Russian Empire have enough internal troubles like a crisis of national annihilation.

This so-called revolution has no organization, no purpose, and not even a single cause.

If we talk about the reason, it is mainly due to the national turmoil in the past few decades and the dissatisfaction of the Russian people with the Romanov dynasty.

Of course, the ineffective domestic reforms in Russia decades ago and the demands of some ethnic minorities for liberation are also one of the reasons.

This revolution became more intense after the failure of the Russo-Japanese War. Although it was not on the scale of history, it can definitely be called a crisis of national annihilation.

After the restart of the German-Russian negotiations, the progress is very fast.Seizing Russia's new defeat and internal and external troubles, the Germans promised a large amount of loans to help Russia stabilize domestic order and restore domestic production.

And willing to support Russia's future expansion in the Far East, Germany is willing to provide Russia with a batch of German-made equipment at cost price, and is willing to waive the provisions in the treaty about reminding France to travel to the Franco-Russian treaty.

On the French side, it is only willing to provide Russia with a small loan to help Russia stabilize production in Europe.

As for matters in the Far East, France did not mention it at all, obviously no longer supporting Russia's actions in the Far East.

Such an obvious gap did not lead Russia to abandon the alliance with France.

But things turned around.

In the original history, because of Russia's disastrous defeat in the war, the competition between Britain and Russia in the Far East, Near East and Central Asia basically disappeared.

But it's different now.Although Russia has experienced failure, it is more like having to admit defeat because of a domestic crisis.

Give Russia a few more years to develop, and Russia will still be the hegemon in the Far East.

Not to mention the issues of the Near East and Central Asia, Russia's power in these two regions has not weakened, and its competition with Britain continues.

Because the competition still exists, there has been no progress in the reconciliation between Britain and Russia that occurred in history, and it was even worse because of the last fisherman crisis.

Although Russia and the United Kingdom finally reached a settlement on the fishermen's crisis due to French mediation, they did not resolve the crisis in the Far East and the Near East.

To put it simply, Russia, which was defeated in history, is no longer the main opponent of the British hegemony, but Russia, which has not experienced much failure, is still the biggest opponent of the United Kingdom in the Far East and Near East of Central Asia, especially India and the Middle East .

How important was India to the British Empire?The British Empire is an empire because of the title and resources of the Indian Empire.

Without India, the British Empire would be just a small United Kingdom.

Because Russia still poses a threat to India, Britain's attitude towards Russia remains vigilant and hostile, and the signing of the Anglo-French agreement did not lead to reconciliation.

The contradiction between Britain and Russia has also become one of France's most troublesome problems.After the Anglo-French Entente, both Britain and Russia became France's theoretical allies, and they were France's powerful support against Germany.

But the problem is that there are also obvious contradictions between Britain and Russia, and it is impossible to eradicate them in a short time.

More importantly, Russia has begun to contact Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Russia's ambitions for the Far East are well known.

But France does not want Russia to continue to focus on the Far East. The French hope that Russia will fulfill its ally obligations and contain a large number of German main forces in the east of Germany.

If France continues to vigorously support Russia, not only is it not in its own interests, but it will also cause dissatisfaction in Britain.

Because the areas that Russia is currently attaching importance to are precisely the areas that the British Empire also attaches importance to.Russia and the British Empire have a strong competitive relationship in the Far East, Near East, Central Asia and other regions. Naturally, France is not allowed to provide a lot of support to Russia, so that Russia can once again have the power to deploy these regions.

The conflict with the United Kingdom and France's non-support of the Far East's actions made Russia disappointed with the alliance with France, and it was also wary of the alliance between Britain and France.

Under such a premise, the Germans' desperate wooing and willingness to support the Far East made the Russians feel the only warmth.

At the end of May 1905, Kaiser Wilhelm II and Tsar Nicholas II met near the island of Bjork in the Gulf of Finland to discuss a possible German-Russian alliance treaty.

Compared with the French, Kaiser Wilhelm II appears to be much richer.

In the first negotiation, William II promised Tsar Nicholas II a free aid of [-] million marks and a private loan of [-] million marks.

Because the German automobile factory Wilhelm II also participated, so the [-] million mark free aid, Wilhelm II can also take it out without blinking an eye.

And winning over Russia is also very important for the German Empire.As long as Russia is willing to remain neutral during the conflict between France and Germany, Germany can avoid fighting on two fronts, concentrate all its superior forces on the western front, and seek a short-term solution to France.

This is what Prussia did in the previous Franco-Prussian War, and the Germans also firmly believed that a stronger German Empire would accomplish such tasks more easily.

The negotiations went very smoothly, but many ministers in Russia believed that if Russia stood on the side of Germany in future wars and assumed corresponding obligations, it would destroy the Russian-French alliance agreement.

Moreover, Russia's diplomacy should be based on the Russia-France alliance, and Russia, which already relies heavily on French capital, also needs a lot of French loans.

Russia is also divided into two factions. One faction supports the continuation of the Russia-France alliance, maintains good relations with France, and seeks a certain amount of reconciliation with the United Kingdom to reach a further level of the Anglo-French-Russian Entente.

The other faction believes that France obviously relies more on the treaty with the United Kingdom at present, and its support for Russia is concentrated in Europe.

However, Russia's Far East policy is still one of the most important policies. Russia still needs to maintain its hegemony in the Far East and other regions, and keep its hard-won ice-free port.

But insisting on the Far East policy will lead to competition with Britain and dissatisfaction from France.

Rather than having a bigger conflict with Britain in the future, forcing France to choose between Russia and Britain (in fact, Russians of this faction believe that France will choose Britain), it is better to give up or weaken the cooperation with France in advance , in exchange for Germany's support for Russia.

Nicholas II didn't know how to choose for a while, but an official's proposal made Nicholas II's eyes shine.

Didn't Germany declare that it would exchange for Russia's support of Germany in future conflicts with loans and weapons, as well as a large amount of support from the Australian region to the Russian Far East?
So why not ask Australia for its opinion?

With the development of Australia's arms industry in the Russo-Japanese War, Australia's status in the Far East is also quite special.

First of all, Australia's industry has developed, and the industry has reached a certain scale.

Especially in terms of military industry, because of the integration of British and German weapon systems, Australia's military industry is also extremely developed.

In addition, it has sufficient mineral resources and a large labor force, and compared to other powers, Australia is very close to the Far East, and the materials can arrive within a week.

During the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian army relied on a large number of weapons and equipment from Australia, which was barely balanced with the island army in terms of defense.

Although Russia also understands that Australia's weapons are also exported to island countries, but without any diplomatic relations, this is the norm in the international community.

After receiving Nicholas II's request, William II raised his eyebrows, but quickly agreed to Nicholas II's request.

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(End of this chapter)