The Rise Of Australasia - Chapter 342

Chapter 342: Chapter 296: The Batavia Agreement (Request for monthly votes!)

If the conditions of Australasia seemed to be a bit of a lion’s roar, then the conditions proposed by the Dutch Government were simply nonsense.

It was absolutely impossible for the Australasian Government to mobilize so many people just for a compensation of 100,000 pounds and an apology.

Such conditions were akin to dismissing beggars, and only strengthened the resolve of Kent, who was originally determined to take advantage of the Dutch.

“If your country doesn’t have much sincerity in the peace talks, then I think it’s better to let the military strength of both sides decide the outcome. The conditions of the peace talks can be decided by the victorious side in the war, regardless of the outcome, we will not have any objections.” Minister Kent sneered at the Dutch representative and put forward his own opinions.

Kent was a graduate of the Military University and had once served as Australasia’s Minister of Defense.

Kent, imbued with a military atmosphere, spoke in a straightforward manner, unlike the hypocritical politicians.

“This…” The Dutchman was dumbfounded, not expecting such an aggressive stance from the representative of Australasia, who was considering solving the issue through military action in just a few words.

“Mr. Kent, since you have come to participate in these peace talks, it is reasonable to assume that Australasia has an intention for peace talks. Why not give the Dutch government more time to discuss, and I believe they will come up with satisfactory conditions.” In the end, the Germans couldn’t stand it any longer, looked at Kent with a slight smile, and eased the awkward atmosphere at the conference table.

“Governor, you better hurry to telegraph your country and come up with a satisfactory solution.” With that, the German representative looked at the Governor of the Dutch East Indies and said unhappily.

Although Germany and the Netherlands have always had a good relationship, it doesn’t mean that the Germans are willing to give up a good relationship with Australasia to help the Dutch unconditionally.

Since the Second Moroccan Crisis made the Germans feel isolated and helpless, the German government has been even more proactive in attracting allies, which is why they were willing to accept the invitation of the Dutch government and participate in these peace talks as a neutral party.

However, the problem is that the Netherlands is now completely incomparable to Australasia in terms of comprehensive strength or strategic position.

Australasia’s unique geographical location allows it to detach itself from the main contradictions in Europe and watch the development and changes in the European situation.

The reason why William II wanted to make friends with Australasia was that he valued Australasia’s advantageous geographical location and believed that Australasia could provide unexpected assistance to Germany in the conflict between Germany and France.

Of course, with Britain’s involvement, the conflict between Germany and France has now evolved into a conflict between Britain-France-Russia and Germany-Austria-Italy.

The special relationship between Australasia and Britain has greatly reduced the chance of Australasia directly joining Germany in the conflict.

But don’t forget, Australasia has a lot of mineral resources that Germany needs domestically. It can completely reach a trade agreement with Germany in a neutral way, which is what Germany needs in the war.

Moreover, Australasia can now serve as a fallback option for Germany, while German New Guinea is a gift prepared by William II for Arthur.

Though William II was rash in his actions, as an emperor of a country, he had to have some wisdom.

Germany directly became enemies with Britain and France. Even though William II was confident in the German army, he still has some worries at times.

In terms of the army, William II believed that he could bear the weight of a coalition between Britain, France, and Russia. However, in terms of the navy, the alliance between Britain and France put immense pressure on William II.

Britain was already the world’s number one naval power. The previous Two-Power policy claimed that the British navy’s tonnage would surpass the total of the second and third-most powerful navies.

Even though Germany is now catching up in the navy as much as possible, William II does not think that the High Seas Fleet can surpass the Royal Fleet of the British Empire.

If France’s fleet was added, although its achievements in dreadnoughts are far inferior to Germany’s, the numerous pre-dreadnought battleships would still be enough to cause headaches.

After the German representative spoke, the British representative did not say anything further.

The first day of peace talks ended on an unhappy note, but it was clear that the true positions of Britain and Germany were leaning towards Australasia, which caused the Dutch government to abandon its last bit of complacency, negotiating its bottom line even under the bright lights late at night.

On the second day, both Australasia and the Dutch government made demands that were much more reasonable than the ones on the first day.

On the Australasian side, the requirements changed to the coastal areas along the Flores Sea, which meant giving up the claim to the large island of Dragon Eye east of Bali, and giving up the joint control of New Guinea.

Australasia’s demand then changed to the Nusa Dungara Islands, the Southwest Islands, the Southeastern Islands, the Aru Archipelago, the Cay Islands, and other islands in the northern part of Australasia and the southern part of the Dutch East Indies.

This island group includes East Timor Island, as well as Flores Island and Alo Archipelago, where the Lakalantu Kingdom is located.

With these islands, Australasia would be able to establish a complete defensive island chain in the northern region, along with New Guinea and New Zealand, forming a fully-fledged defense island chain in both the north and east.

This would greatly strengthen the defense capabilities of Australasia’s native land, combined with the increasingly powerful Australasian navy, capable of repelling enemies while avoiding war risks to their homeland.

This also means that, at least before World War II, the homeland of Australasia would basically be secure.

As for the World War II period, by then, Australasia’s various weapons would undoubtedly have blossomed. The concern for homeland security would not be Australasia, but rather other countries with a direct competitive relationship with Australasia.

On the Dutch side, they were willing to offer the entire East Timor Island, as well as Rhode Island to the west of East Timor Island and the Leti Islands to the east as territorial compensation.

As for economic compensation, the Dutch finally became more generous, willing to compensate 500,000 indigenous people and one million pounds.

However, the appetite of Australasia was evidently not limited to this, and the negotiations once again reached a deadlock – the Dutch government frantically bargained, while the representatives of Australasia tried to secure as many benefits for their country as possible.

Australasia did not have many opportunities to expand its territories, considering its few neighboring countries.

At present, except for the Dutch East Indies, most of the neighboring regions are colonies of powerful countries.

This made it difficult for Australasia to expand its territories, and considering Arthur’s goal had always been to develop the homeland, Australasia had only used war and conflict to expand its territories twice since its establishment.

On August 29, 1911, after more than ten days of tense negotiations, Australasia and the Dutch government finally reached an agreement called the Australasia-Dutch Batavia Agreement.

The Batavia Agreement stipulated that both sides would cease hostilities in the Dutch East Indies region from the date of the agreement’s signing and resume good diplomatic relations prior to the conflict.

To express their apologies to Australasia, the Kingdom of the Netherlands ceded all islands and archipelagos east of Bali Island, south of Flores Sea and Banda Sea, and west of New Guinea.

At the same time, the Kingdom of the Netherlands offered £100,000 in compensation to the attacked Australasian merchants and £1 million to the Australasian government, which represented all Australasian citizens.

In the end, the Australasian side gave up its demand for the western part of New Guinea Island, considering it constituted nearly a quarter of the entire Dutch East Indies with an area of hundreds of thousands of square kilometers.

After the treaty was signed, both Australasia and the Dutch breathed a sigh of relief.

For Australasia, it had gained tens of thousands of square kilometers of land and millions of indigenous people without losing a single soldier or even just a declaration by the government, along with £1 million in compensation from the Dutch side; it was surely a win-win.

After all, Arthur’s original intention in sending Charles Wynne to the Dutch East Indies was merely to integrate rubber companies and manor houses in Southeast Asia and control the rubber industry there.

Who could have imagined that some shortsighted individuals in the Dutch East Indies would bring such huge losses to their country by provoking them?

As for the Dutch government, although they had ceded many islands and archipelagos, the main islands of the Dutch East Indies were not affected.

The good news was that the most important island, Java, still had a large island called Bali to the east, which prevented the Australasians from directly reaching Batavia and Java Island.

After all, it was just some islands in the south of the Dutch East Indies, right? With a population of just over a million indigenous people, the damage to the wealthy Dutch East Indies wasn’t that big anyway.

It’s much better than losing New Guinea Island or even jeopardizing Java Island! Such a loss would have truly overturned Dutch rule in the East Indies and ignited public outrage in the Netherlands.

As for the archipelago that was ceded now, the Dutch government guided domestic public opinion to pretend that the government had resisted in many ways, only to change the colossal demand of the Australasians into a few small archipelagos.

After all, the public could see the huge military disparity between the two sides, and with some guidance of public opinion, the Dutch would only vent their anger on the Australasians without paying too much attention to their government’s powerless performance in this incident.

With a relatively peaceful conclusion, the conflict in Southeast Asia also came to an end. It was undoubtedly one of the most peaceful and friendly resolutions of any conflict in recent years.

However, for Australasia, accepting these islands ceded by the Dutch would take some effort and might even require the use of military force.