African Nationhood

Chapter 669 "Treaty of Versailles"

Because of the withdrawal of the United States, the original repayment agreement with Britain, France, and Italy could not be opened.

In the next few days, Shi Jintang, as the leader of Nanhua, participated in several meetings, mainly on the establishment of a republic in Austria.

After the surrender of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Austria was divided into only a small half of its territory.

Although their domestic political parties are very active and want to carry out democratic reforms, their choice of direction is a bit feeble.

The Allied Powers fought for four years to defeat the Allied Powers led by Germany.

Your broken Austria actually wants to merge with Germany. These people are really speechless.

Qusanggan had to send people to arrest these people and inform them that the "German Austrian Republic" was not allowed.

These people immediately gave up. They called US President Wilson and asked the American who proposed the "Fourteen Points" to support the Austrian parties in Europe.

These people are so naive.

Shi Jintang was very happy to sign the Treaty of Versailles on behalf of Nanhua.

74 warships of the German High Seas Fleet were detained in Scapa Flow, England, awaiting post-war settlement by the Allies.

This treaty is no different from the original time and space. The only difference is the part involving the territory of South China.

But when the German naval officers read in the newspapers that the negotiations were not going well and the war might restart, in order to prevent their warships from being confiscated by the British and used to attack Germany.

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They only divided some interests from the German mainland. The treaty stipulated that Germany would cede approximately 850 square kilometers of land in the western Eupen and Malmedy regions to Belgium.

President Wilson naturally had no choice. After all, Europe at this moment was the Europe of Britain and France.

Therefore, the US president was not included in the final list of signatories of the Treaty of Versailles.

German New Guinea in the Pacific and south of the equator, except for the islands claimed by South China, all belonged to Australia;

As for the action of dividing the German ships, it became out of control because of the ship-cutting drama of the German High Seas Fleet Navy.

Including 11 of the 10 battleships and all 5 battlecruisers, the tonnage of the sunken ships accounted for 95% of the seized warships.

德国海军官兵在1919年6月21日自沉军舰，导致74艘军舰里的52艘沉入大海。

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Because South China was strong and well-prepared, Belgium's Congo colony did not get the chance to participate in the war, and therefore it did not get any colonies in Africa.

After all, this signing has achieved Nanhua's strategic purpose, so he naturally wants to support it.

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Tanga in East Africa was entrusted to the South China Government;

At the same time, the ownership of the Finbon Railway was also handed over to Belgium. This railway is an important railway connecting Germany to the Alsace-Lorraine region and the Luxembourg iron ore. The benefits of this railway are amazing.

Because of this incident, President Wilson could no longer hold on and planned to return to the United States.

The former German Caroline Islands and Palau Islands north of the equator were acquired by Japan;
Samoa is given to New Zealand.

This behavior caused great anger among the Allied Powers.

So Britain, France and Italy decided to confiscate German merchant ships and shipbuilding factories and count them as additional supplies for compensation.

By the end of July, most of the sunken battleships and battlecruisers had been salvaged, and the Allies held a meeting to divide these battleships again.

The United States and Britain were evenly divided between 6 Dreadnought-class battleships and 4 battle cruisers.

Nanhua obtained 2 Dreadnought-class battleships, 1 battlecruiser, and 2 cruisers.

France received 1 Dreadnought-class battleship, 3 cruisers, 10 destroyers and 10 submarines;

Italy received 5 cruisers and 10 destroyers;

Greece, Portugal, and Romania were allocated a certain number of destroyers and torpedo boats;

In terms of non-warship assets, Nanhua received a 3-ton shipyard, three dredgers and two tugboats.

In this way, Nanhua returned home with a full load. It's just that these ships are corroded and flooded, and they need to be repaired before they can be driven away.

It is not easy to put these ships into service. After all, Nanhua's logistics do not match those of these German ships. In addition to sinking them, they can also be sold to some countries in South America.

For example, Chile and Brazil were all loyal users of German warships.

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In addition, some of Nanhua's warships have also reached the stage of elimination. The new season is about to begin, and the future ship revolution has also reached a critical period.

According to the wishes of the United States and Britain, all major naval powers will hold a naval quota meeting in the future.

The United Kingdom also proposed to ban the use of submarines as weapons of war worldwide. This proposal was opposed by South China and France and failed to be implemented.

In addition, the United States also saw clearly through this war that there will basically be no naval power in Europe that can stop their rise in the future. After all, the war debts of Britain, France, and Italy will have to be repaid for many years.

Japan in the Pacific has gradually aroused hostility from the United States, because both countries regard the Pacific as a space for future naval expansion.

As Japan expanded, the space for the U.S. Navy became smaller.

At this stage, Nanhua's navy is still concentrated in the Indian Ocean, and the Atlantic Ocean has not yet threatened the United States.

After all, it is impossible for Britain and France in Europe to allow South China to expand into Europe's core sphere of influence. The Mediterranean Sea and the Strait of Gibraltar are already the limits of South China's expansion.

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The Treaty of Versailles was mainly a plan to weaken Germany, but this treaty triggered mixed reviews from all walks of life in Europe and the United States.

The first and foremost is the British economist Keynes, who said in his book "The Economic Consequences of Peace": This is a "Carthaginian peace."

France, which Italy was about to defeat Germany, was compared to the Roman Empire, which defeated Carthage and completely destroyed it in the Punic War.

He believed that the Treaty of Versailles punished Germany too severely and that the burden of reparations imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles would destroy the German economy.

But in fact, Germany has returned to rapid economic growth in just over ten years.

At the same time, it also created an economic miracle, which has to be said to be a huge irony.

Because Britain did not advocate weakening Germany too much, Keynes was suspected of deliberately inducing the public to serve British national strategy.

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The general opinion in France was that the peace treaty punished Germany too lightly and was not enough to prevent a German comeback.

In particular, Wilson's "principle of national self-determination" led to the fragmentation of Eastern Europe, which had no strong neighbors to check Germany, and was therefore foolish.

French Marshal Ferdinand Foch bluntly criticized the Treaty of Versailles as a "surrender" to Germany and a "betrayal" to France.

He predicted that "this is not peace, but a 20-year truce."

Facts have proved that Marshal Foch was right about this matter. It must be said that this veteran has quite a strategic vision.

But soldiers cannot influence the thoughts of politicians, and politicians often think more complex and comprehensive than soldiers.

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The Americans were even more disappointed and returned disappointed.

Politicians and people in the United States were very disappointed with President Wilson. They felt that the United States had paid so much, but not only failed to spread the voice of the United States to the world, but it was also teased and humiliated by the leaders of Britain and France.

Even Wilson himself felt that the Paris Peace Conference was a huge failure in his political career.

He once bitterly told historian William E. Dodd: "What else can I do? I am negotiating in a very difficult position.

People think I have control over everything, how I wish I had that power. "

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Regardless of the opinions of all parties, it doesn't matter to Nan Hua.

Shi Jintang has no interest in staying here anymore. No matter how Britain, France and Italy decide in the future, Nanhua will have nothing to do with him.

Next, it was time for him to return to the country to take care of the important matters of enthroning the throne. He had been waiting for this moment for too long!

(End of this chapter)