The Rise of Australasia

What Arthur didn't expect was that the Dutch would compromise so decisively, so decisively that it caught Arthur and most of the governmt by surprise.

They originally thought that a war would break out betwe the Dutch East Indies, but the Kingdom of the Netherlands surrdered without a fight.

At Arthur's indication, the Australasian governmt agreed to the request of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and asked the Dutch governmt to sd represtatives for peace talks in Batavia, the capital of the Dutch East Indies.

Although admitting defeat directly would cause a significant loss of face betwe governmts, it is currtly the best method for the Dutch governmt.

If a war broke out with Australasia, the navy of the Dutch East Indies would not stand a chance against Australasia's navy.

Without the support of the navy, the Dutch East Indies army would be defeated one by one.

If the military strgth of the Dutch East Indies was completely wiped out by Australasia, ev if Australasia did not occupy the Dutch East Indies, the ts of millions of indigous people within its territory would be ough to directly overthrow the tire Dutch colonial governmt.

At least peace talks could minimize the Dutch losses. Dutch Prime Minister Simms did not believe that Australasia had the appetite to swallow the whole Dutch East Indies.

Ev if Australasia did have such an idea, the powers would likely interve and put a stop to it.

After all, small altercations don't amount to much, and the powers would turn a blind eye in the interest of maintaining good relations.

But if Australasia were to annex the tire Dutch East Indies, Australasia's pottial and comprehsive strgth would rise a notch, and its influce in Southeast Asia would be greatly hanced.

This would be something that of the great powers would like to see, since it would affect their positions in Southeast Asia and ev East Asia.

Therefore, the Dutch Prime Minister was confidt that ev if peace talks took place, the Dutch losses would not be too heavy, and at least they could resolve this dispute in a way that would not cripple them.

As for the future, it wasn't a significant concern for Prime Minister Simms. Based on the normal term of the Dutch Prime Minister, Simms' term would d in 93, which would also be his last term as Prime Minister.

Yes, since first becoming the Dutch Prime Minister in 874, Simms had served three non-consecutive terms.

Giv his age, it wasn't likely that he would have another shot at becoming Prime Minister after this term, so there was no need for him to take responsibility for the next Prime Minister, right? Just leave this big problem of Australasia to the future Dutch governmt and just take things as they come for now.

After understanding this point, Simms's mood actually improved a lot, and he was ev able to play some tricks with his secretary.

On August 7, 9, the peace talks betwe the Dutch governmt and the Australasian governmt officially began in Batavia, the capital of the Dutch East Indies.

The peace talks were led by several Dutch governmt ministers and the Governor of the Dutch East Indies. This was a humiliating negotiation, so naturally, the Dutch Prime Minister Jim Simms did not want to be involved.

No one could guarantee how the situation in Southeast Asia would develop in the future. If the Dutch East Indies were to be lost by the Netherlands in the future, these peace talks might be remembered by many Dutch people and regarded as the culprit and origin of the loss of the Dutch East Indies.

By that time, wouldn't the Dutch governmt officials involved in these peace talks become scapegoats?

As a wily politician, Simms naturally wanted to avoid such a situation from happing.

After all, having be an official for decades, Simms was not willing to have his final political career tainted by such an incidt, which could lead to a complete dial of all his political achievemts and his tire political career.

Besides the Dutch and Australasian sides, the peace talks also involved the British ambassador and the German ambassador as neutral witnesses.

The United Kingdom has the greatest influce in the Southeast Asian region, and Germany is the country with the best relationship with the Netherlands. Hce, they were naturally invited as neutral witnesses for these peace talks.

Of course, there are other powerful countries with influce in the Southeast Asian region, such as France trched in the Southeast Asian pinsula and the United States in the Philippines.

Unfortunately, since the last Moroccan crisis, the Frch have strgthed their vigilance against Germany, with all their atttion focused on hancing their domestic military equipmt.

As for the United States, although its economy and industry are already top-tier, it is still looked down upon by old powers like the United Kingdom and France as a nouveau riche.

Ev the German Empire, which has be unified for only a few decades, looks down upon the upstart United States.

This has led to the United States having strong economic and industrial capabilities but not much influce internationally, just a bit higher than countries like the Island Nation.

Of course, a significant reason for this is the previous policy of spldid isolation in the United States governmt.

The so-called spldid isolation policy can be divided into military and economic aspects. In terms of military, they refrain from participating in other international military disputes, except for defding their homeland.

In terms of economics, they implemted various policies to restrict exchanges with foreign countries as much as possible.

This has led to the fact that, although the United States has grown quite strong, European countries still harbor prejudice towards it, believing that the United States is merely a nouveau riche, far behind the European powers in terms of both heritage and strgth.

Of course, this statemt is correct in some respects. At least in advanced and top-notch technology industries, the United States is still no match for the currt European countries.

The reason for the rapid rise of the United States in later history was that it attracted a large number of European talts during the two world wars, thus filling the gap in its top-notch technology and talt.

But now, if the United States wants to attract a large number of top talts from Europe just like in history, it depds on whether Arthur and Australasia agree.

August 7, Batavia.

The peace talks begin officially, with Foreign Minister Andrew and Secretary of State Kt represting Australasia.

From the very beginning, Minister Andrew set very strict demands, requiring the Dutch East India Colonial Governmt to hand over all the ringleaders involved in the attack on Australasian merchants and cede all islands east of Bali and south of the Banda Sea.

Moreover, they also seek shared jurisdiction over New Guinea Island, with the establishmt of West New Guinea to be jointly administered by the Dutch governmt and the Australasian governmt.

In addition to that, there's financial compsation. In light of the good attitude of the Dutch governmt, Minister Andrew gerously stated that the Dutch governmt only needs to pay million pounds in compsation and meet all the conditions set forth by the Australasian governmt to perfectly resolve the dispute betwe the two countries.

Although peace talks usually started with high prices followed by gradual haggling, the high prices set by Australasia still made it hard for the Governor of Dutch East Indies to bear.

Bali is a large island east of Java and very close to it. Once all islands east of Bali are ceded, it means that Australasian influce is very close to the core of the Dutch East Indies, Java Island.

While the Dutch still control hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of land in western New Guinea, they still have to pay million pounds in compsation, which is ough to build four dreadnoughts. If the Dutch were willing to spd that much, they would have built dreadnoughts themselves a long time ago, so why would they need to compromise with Australasia so humbly?

Th, the Dutch side put forth their own conditions.

The Dutch governmt is willing to apologize to the Australasian governmt over this matter and provide 0,000 pounds in humanitarian compsation.

In addition, the Dutch governmt is also willing to work with the Australasian governmt to investigate and uncover the real culprits behind the attack on Australasian merchants, and hand them over to the Australasian governmt.

These are all the conditions of the Dutch, which do not involve any land compsation and only 0,000 pounds in funding.

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