The Rise Of Australasia

Chapter 554 - 433: Sydney Negotiations_2

All waters from Southeast Asia to Antarctica would be controlled by Australasia, leaving the Island people with only the more distant Pacific Ocean to communicate with the outside world.

As a result, both the travel time required for shipping routes would substantially increase, and the cost of imported goods would also rise considerably.

Australasia could easily achieve Arthur’s plan to curb the enemy’s development.

Although the Dutch understood that their power in the Dutch East Indies had faded, it did not prevent them from bargaining fiercely during the negotiations, attempting to retain the islands of Sulawesi and Java Sea.

However, the ambitions of Australasia could not be stopped by a small country like the Netherlands; the Dutch Army couldn’t stop Australasia on the battlefield and had even less hope during the talks.

The negotiations stalled for three or four days, but Australasia’s position was very firm; all requested territories must be obtained, and the compensation could be reduced from £100 million to £70 million.

Seeing that there was no room for recovery on the territory issue, the two prominent Dutch representatives painfully agreed to Australasia’s demands after exchanging glances.

There was no choice; agreeing to the demands was already the best outcome for the Netherlands at this point.

If they agreed to the demands, the Netherlands could at least keep Sumatra Island, Kalimantan Island, and Java Island, retaining more than half of the Dutch East Indies with the presence of Java Island.

But if they didn’t agree to Australasia’s demands, not only would the other territories remain under Australasia’s control, but over half of these three significant islands were currently occupied by Australasians as well.

It was a choice between losing everything and losing half, and even the most foolish Dutchman would know how to decide.

Of course, nominally, the Netherlands retained control of the islands of Sulawesi, Kalimantan, and Java, but the Java Sea between these three islands was about to fall under Australasian control.

This meant that the Dutch rule on these three islands would depend on the goodwill of the Australasians.

If Australasia agreed, the Dutch would be the masters of this set of colonies. If Australasia disagreed, the Dutch East Indies colonies would fall without a fight, with just the separate blockade of the three islands.

After reaching an agreement on the issue of territory, both parties spent another half a month wrangling over the price and specific peace treaty details.

Finally, on February 25th, 1916, Australasia and the Netherlands officially signed a peace treaty to end the war.

Australasia could be described as an ocean of cheers, but the situation in Europe, thousands of miles away, was far from this.

The battles in the Verdun Region became tense again by the end of the month.

The Germans intended to seize the French, reducing the number of British and French troops launching campaigns in the Somme Region, by continuing with large-scale attacks in Verdun.

The British and French, however, also decided to launch large-scale battles in Verdun to slow down the Germans, hold on to this important fortress, and strengthen the French’s resolve to fight against Germany.

Although the starting points of the British, French, and Germans were different, their goal was the same: to gain an advantage in Verdun, and ideally, defeat or repel the enemy.

Under such circumstances, Germany launched violent attacks on the west bank of the Mars River, trying to capture key strongholds there and make a breakthrough in this battle.

Of course, it was not just on the west bank that the attack took place. The German Army also launched attacks on the east bank, with Dumont Town and Fuggs Town being the main targets of the east bank attack.

After entering March, the German Army quickly organized assault troops to launch attacks on the east and west banks.

The French Army also resisted desperately, trying to hold off the German offensive.

Because the French General Staff reinforced both the troops and firepower of the defensive areas, the defenses in various sectors of Verdun remained quite solid for a short time, and counterattacks by French soldiers could be seen in many areas, retaking numerous positions occupied by the Germans.

The French and German armies engaged in a long seesaw battle in the Verdun Region, and any position became a target for both sides to fight for with their lives.

According to the records of both armies, there were occasions when positions were contested more than ten times a day, with the flags on the positions changed more than ten times and countless soldiers were sacrificed on them.

There were even instances when soldiers from one side captured a position, just finished planting their flags and were about to deploy defenses, only to be repulsed and the position fall back into enemy hands.

Such seesaw battles were staged at various fortifications and positions in the Verdun Region, and it took hundreds or thousands of soldiers to sacrifice to capture or hold a position.

Fighting for some highlands and gun emplacements, the French Army even suffered as many as 20,000 casualties in a single day.

But compared to the overall number of casualties in the war so far, 20,000 wasn’t much; however, if calculated on the basis of 20,000 casualties per day, the annual number of casualties would reach more than 7.5 million, which shows how exaggerated this figure was. Experience new tales on мѵʟ