Rise of Australia

Chapter 240 "London Contract"

The statement of the Portuguese Republican Party caused an uproar in Portugal, and quickly spread throughout most of Europe, becoming one of the hottest topics among European people recently.

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 quickly gain more favor from the European people.

After all, Australasia and Portugal are at war, and the Portuguese people have begun to oppose the rule of Carlos I, and even have a good impression of the enemy country Australasia.

Against the backdrop of Carlos I, Australasia and Arthur seemed to be the most just side.

As the saying goes, there is no harm without comparison. In order to maintain his autocratic rule, Carlos I borrowed this conflict with the fishermen in Australasia to establish an image of loving his people and not fearing powerful enemies.

However, he ignored the real public opinion in Portugal. Continuing to insist on the war was of no benefit to Portugal, and some of them were just to maintain the image established by Carlos I.

Coupled with the Portuguese government's tendency to offend Britain, Germany and Russia, the current trade between Britain, Germany and Portugal has gradually decreased, which has caused many Portuguese factories and private individuals to suffer major loss of interests.

In this way, the Portuguese was even more disappointed with Carlos for a while.After all, there are complete evidence and photos of the fishermen conflicting with Australasia at that time, and the fishermen in Australasia were indeed seriously injured, and their fish and property were also robbed.

The Portuguese government's statement on the fishermen's conflict incident is very vague, without any evidence, and it only relies on the fishermen's one-sided words.

If the current government continues to offend Britain and Germany, I am afraid that Portugal really has no place in Europe.

Britain and Germany now represented the powerful blocs of the Allies and the Entente, with Britain having an Entente with France, and France having an Entente with Russia.

And Germany has an alliance with Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which also means that Britain and Germany are related to all European powers.

Portugal offended all the European powers at once. Isn’t this really lighting a lantern in the toilet?

Thanks to the constitutional monarchy that Portugal had practiced for decades before Carlos I came to power, Portugal has many parties and republican, democratic supporters.

The ideas supported by these people run counter to the autocratic monarchy, and are 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 Republican Party and parties that support democracy, 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 is more than that. If there is a detailed polling agency at this time, a surprising conclusion can be drawn. The support rate of the Royal Portuguese government has experienced a sharp drop in a short period of time. At present, it is even less than [-]%.

This seems a bit exaggerated, but it can be gradually understood after thinking that the Kingdom of Portugal, even in history, only lasted for more than two years before disappearing.

Carlos I established a high-pressure oppression system and autocratic rule in Portugal, but it did not bring much benefit to the Portuguese.

It is not surprising that such a monarch who only cares about his own rights and only cares about his own status is eventually opposed by others.

Although Carlos I won some support from Portuguese civilians by virtue of his previous attitude of firmly protecting fishermen.

But after this incident, civilians have gradually begun to wake up, which is why the support rate of the Portuguese government has dropped sharply.

Carlos I was a little angry when he heard reports from his subordinates about the outbreak of multiple demonstrations across the country, but he was helpless.

But this is not the only bad news. After several hours of rescue, the hospital that treated Crown Prince Louis finally declared helplessly that the rescue of Crown Prince Louis was invalid.

This was another blow to Carlos I, and it also made Carlos I, who looked radiant before, suddenly aged a dozen years.

When Carlos I came to the government building again, the senior officials of the Royal Portuguese government were surprised to find that the king's hair was already gray.

At present, Portugal is in the midst of internal and external troubles. The foreign troubles from the peace talks with Australasia and the internal troubles of the domestic democratic liberals make the government very busy.

In order to keep his dominance, Carlos I finally decided to compromise with Australasia, concentrating all his energy on solving domestic troubles and protecting the royal government and his own dominance.

On October 1907, 10, the London peace talks, which had been suspended for five days due to an accident, resumed.

This time, the Portuguese ambassador, Herbert Simon, was obviously much more active, and he also officially recognized Portugal's defeat in this war.

Seeing that the Portuguese government finally started to realize the truth, Britain, Germany and Russia nodded in satisfaction.

Finally, after several days of negotiations, under the witness of the representatives of Britain, Germany and Russia, the representative of Australasia, David, and the representative of the Kingdom of Portugal, Herbert Simon, signed the "Australasian 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 known as the Macao-Portuguese "London Peace Treaty".

According to the provisions of the London Peace Treaty, Portuguese Timor will be ceded to Australasia as Portugal's compensation for Australasia, and Australasia will be recognized as having 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 this war.All Australasian fishermen affected by this conflict and war, Portugal should pay a sum of money to them, which was finally set at [-] Australian dollars per person.

There is also the Australasian fisherman involved in the fisherman conflict. The Portuguese government needs to pay him [-] Australian dollars in compensation and make a public apology to him.

As for war reparations, the Portuguese government needs to pay the Australasian government £500 million in compensation, which needs to be paid within three years.Amounts outstanding after three years carry interest of up to one-fifth per annum.

What does this mean? If the Portuguese government does not pay any funds within three years, the interest will be as high as 100 million pounds per year after three years. This is not a small amount of money.

Accumulating two years of interest is worth a dreadnought, so Arthur is happy to have Portugal delay the repayment.

Anyway, with the testimony of Britain, Germany and Russia, Arthur is not afraid of the Portuguese government's refusal.These three countries are old hooligans in Europe, and there are really not many countries that dare not give face to these three countries.

Of course, if the three countries of England, Germany and Russia can agree to come to sit in the peace talks, most of them still look at Arthur's face.

This kind of favor still has to be repaid. After all, to put it bluntly, the three countries of Britain, 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 weren't for the support of these three old rogue nations, it would be a while before Australasia would sign a real deal with Portugal.

Although Australasia is not afraid of the Portuguese army, the Portuguese navy is indeed a problem.

Of course, Germany and Russia are the main ones who have good relations.Although the main development goal of Australasia in the future is the navy, the navy of the British Empire is currently the most powerful in the world, and its shipbuilding industry and shipbuilding technology are naturally top in the world.

But as long as Edward is the king of England, it is impossible for Australasia to establish too close a relationship with the British Empire.

Among other things, even if Arthur 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 before, and Arthur's favorability in England, there is no need to worry about malice from Britain, unless Arthur has stood on the opposite side of Britain many times.

The previous airships set off an upsurge in research on airships in Europe, and Arthur was also willing to go along with it. Britain and Germany each presented an AU-2 airship.

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 was an improved and enhanced version of the AU-1, which was a copy of the Zeppelin LZ-1 rigid airship.

With such a relationship, Germany will study the AU-2 airship faster, and it will even be able to manufacture it by itself in a short time.

The gift given to Russia is different from that of Britain and Germany. This does not mean that there is a close relationship, but judging from Russia's scientific research capabilities, Britain and Germany have both developed the next generation of airships, and Russia may not be able to successfully master them. its technology.

Therefore, Arthur did what he liked and presented Russia with a batch of weapons and ammunition manufactured by military factories that were originally used in this war.

Australasia was well prepared for this war, and a lot of weapons and equipment were produced.

Although a lot of weapons and ammunition have been consumed under the strong firepower consumption of Australasia, there are still a lot of surplus.

These remaining weapons and ammunition are nothing to Australasia, but to the Russian Far East Army, it is a timely help.

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 has a little family property, and it can be regarded as a little bit prepared for possible future wars.

The honest Russians were very happy about this, and even Nicholas II sent a telegram to Arthur, thanking Arthur for the gift and admiring the friendship between Russia and Australasia.

　The first change, asking for a monthly pass!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)