Chapter 728

It was unreliable to expect the African people to fight against the British invaders. If they really had such a strong fighting force, the colonial era would have ended long ago.

However, they still had to dig a hole. No matter how useful it was, it could at least delay the British's expansion.

There was a limit to the expansion of any country. As the world's number one colonial empire, the British Empire was no exception.

The population was a problem. The British Isles added up to only 30 million people. It ranked last among the four great powers in Europe. With the completion of the Fao and the European Union's industrialization, the comparison of everyone's strength was changing dramatically.

Without waiting for the 20th century, the British had become the third largest economy in Europe and the fifth largest in the world.

Of course, they were still the world's number one industrial power. In this era, agriculture still played a very important role in the economy, so much so that the British were ranked behind India.

There was nothing strange about it. Having more people didn't mean more power. At least, the economy was larger.

Unfortunately, the economy was not equal to the strength of a country. It was the industry that determined the strength of a country. The British Empire was still the world's most powerful country.

However, they suffered from expansion. The British population was less than two-thirds of France (including Sardinia) and less than half of Austria (including the Balkans). Among them were millions of disaffected Irishmen who yearned for independence every day.

The population was insufficient, but the British colonies were large. On average, each British had a colony of more than one square kilometer.

After the Near East War, the Government of London began to avoid war in Europe. It was not difficult to understand.

It was not easy to maintain this colonial empire. Thousands of colonists fell every year. If there were a few more major wars, the British would not be able to hold on.

This was the opportunity in Franz's eyes. Finding trouble with the British in the colonies seemed insignificant, but in reality, it was accumulating and slowly draining their manpower.

The Ethiopian War was a good opportunity. As long as they could bring tens of thousands of casualties to the British, Franz would be satisfied.

It was impossible to win against the British. The British Army was not the Italian Army. This kind of joke would not happen.

…

While the British army was on the way to Ethiopia, the London Peace Conference had changed. The diplomacy of the Russians was not flattering.

Sweden did support them, but it was not the work of the Russians. It was mainly the Kingdom of Denmark that played a role.

The Kingdom of Denmark was a member of the Nordic Federation. Sweden, as the leader, naturally had to take care of their feelings.

From now on, the Kingdom of Prussia had another enemy, the Nordic Federation.

Of course, the threat of this enemy was very small. The Danes would not be able to occupy a dominant position in the new government. At most, they would be hostile, but not to the point of starting a war.

The Federal Empire of Germany did feel threatened by Prussia, but it was useless. The Russians were unable to gain their support. In the end, they still chose to be neutral.

There was no need to talk about the rest of the countries. Switzerland was neutral because they claimed to be an eternal neutral country. There was no need for public relations. The rest of the countries were all supporters of Prussia.

The Kingdom. One Kingdom Monarch, Greece and supported the Kingdom of Federation to the Empire. The Kingdom. were. to the Kingdom of Russia. Russia @@ne-1. been.

Prussia was thousands of miles away, so it didn't matter if they offended it. The Russians, on the other hand, were too close for the Greeks to offend.

In terms of supporting countries, Russia was not only at a disadvantage in terms of numbers, but also in terms of influence.

In order to prevent the Russians from losing too badly, Wesenberg had to force himself to propose reducing the number of negotiators.

Apart from the three mediating countries such as the Fao and the United Kingdom, only the participating countries were present, and the representatives of the other countries were in the audience.

Fortunately, the representative of Russia, Clarence Ivanov, was smart enough to send away the four Central Asian countries and the Eastern Empire and sign an armistice treaty.

The might of Russia was still there. After satisfying their own interests, these countries decisively chose to remain silent. As for Prussia's allies, sorry, they had never formed an alliance, so naturally, there was no obligation to form an alliance.

Seeing that the situation was not in their favor, the Osman Empire also retreated. The Russians gave up the territory they claimed in the Caucasus region in the last war and retreated a little, ending the war between the two countries. (Note: Georgia region)

By July, only Prussia and Poland were left. Compared to the concessions in other areas, in Eastern Europe, the Tsarist government's attitude was completely different.

First of all, the Tsarist government did not recognize the definition of the Polish region. Handing over the Lithuanian region and part of Belarus was their limit.

However, the Prussia people still wanted the Latvian region and did not ask for Estonia. That was because it was too close to St. Peter's Castle, and the Government of Berlin was also afraid of provoking the Russians.

The representative of Prussia also made a territorial demand for the entire Belarus region. Obviously, they had reached an agreement to divide the area.

The Polish representative also made a territorial demand for the Ukrainian region, mainly the Volyn region, which extended to the Kiev region. Without the Lviv region, the Lower Western Ukraine was Austria's territory in this era.

If these conditions were agreed, it would mean that the Russian Empire would lose 860,000 square kilometers of land, more than 21 million people, and 30% of the industry.

At the same time, the Russian Empire would also lose its population advantage over Austria. After all, Central Asia had become independent, and the Far East and Caucasus had given up a lot of land.

With less land, the population would naturally also decrease. Fortunately, these areas were vast and sparsely populated. Except for the population of Central Asia, which had five to six million people, the other two areas only had 1.8 million people.

The Eastern Europe region was different. It was the core area of the Russian Empire. Any territory was precious, and the Tsarist government naturally would not give up easily.

The meeting reached an impasse again. The representatives of the three countries, Tsarist, and Russia, had a secret meeting. There was nothing to be embarrassed about. Weakening the Russians was something that the three countries were happy to see.

After all, the Russian Empire was too big. Once industrialization was completed, everyone's interests would be lost.

At the same time, the two countries, Tsarist, and Russia did not want to see the Kingdom of Prussia grow. On this point, the attitude of the British was the opposite. They wanted Prussia to make trouble for the two countries, Tsarist.

The French wanted to support Poland, and Austria had the opposite attitude.

How could they tolerate others on the side of the bed?

In order to contain the rise of Poland, Austria did not hesitate to support Prussia to obtain the Lithuanian region and block the Poles' sea access.

This was also creating contradictions. If the problem of the sea access could not be solved, the relationship between Prussia and Poland would break sooner or later.

Of course, they could also exchange land. Obviously, this was even more impossible. The Poles couldn't exchange the Warsaw region for the sea access, right?

The Kingdom of Prussia also couldn't fight a hard war and get no benefits in the end. The geographical location determined that expansion to the Lithuanian region was their only choice.

The contradictions between the three countries, Tsarist, and Russia, made the negotiations more complicated.

In the summer, the smell of gunpowder in Eastern Europe was once again strong. If the negotiations could not be reached, the war would continue to break out.

Although the Prussia people had the advantage on the battlefield, they had no money! Once the war broke out, the British would pay in the end.

The Government of London was not a spendthrift. They were always calculating the cost. Now that the goal of suppressing Russia had been achieved, if they continued to kill Russia, they wouldn't get much benefit.

Although Russia and Austria were allies, their allies were also dangerous when they were weak. If the Prussia people were lucky and won another major battle, the Tsarist government would collapse directly. Who knew if Austria would hit them when they were down?

The smart British wouldn't do something like paying their own money and letting their competitors take advantage of it.

Moreover, they had already lent a lot of money to Prussia and Poland. If the debt continued to increase, the possibility of it becoming bad in the future was also increasing.

To end this war, the three countries, Tsarist, and Russia must first reach an agreement. Otherwise, everyone would stab each other in the back, fan the flames, and the war would ignite again.

For the sake of the pound, Raislin must also persuade the two countries, Tsarist, and Russia to work together to pressure them and end the war.

Not only the British had this worry, but the two countries, Tsarist, and Russia were also worried. Everyone was a creditor, but Britain and France mainly lent money to Poland and Poland, while Austria lent money to Russia.

Currently, the British had lent the most, with a total of 320 million pounds. Austria was close behind, with a total debt of 240 million pounds. The French had the least, with 120 million pounds.

Regardless of whether they wanted to admit it or not, this war was actually a capital game. Without a doubt, the people behind the scenes were all winners. Everyone was working together.

Even if all these debts were dead, everyone could still recover the cost from other places. Of course, no one was willing to do that.

Why would a loan that could be recovered become a dead debt?

Don't look at how a few debtor countries had a lot of collateral. If something really happened, these collateral might not be able to be redeemed.

Take Poland for example, if the Polish government was destroyed, who could Britain and France ask for money?

In comparison, Austria still had an advantage. The distance was close, and if it didn't work out, they could cut a piece of land back to make up for the loss.

The French could also set their eyes on the Rhineland region. Anyway, it was a reasonable excuse to pay back the debt.

The British were miserable. Even if others dared to cut the land, the problem was, did they dare to take it?

All kinds of taxes, mines, and road rights as collateral, the prerequisite for them to be redeemed was to ensure the stability of the debtor country's regime.

This meant that after the war, they could continue to lend money to Poland and Poland. Otherwise, these two poor governments would either declare bankruptcy and default on their debts, or collapse because of a financial crisis.

Of course, the risk was directly proportional to the profit. In this war, the British made a lot of money.

Not only did they obtain the position of the world's hegemon, but they also had a few more underlings, ensured the safety of India, and completed the strategic layout of Eurasia.