At the time of the renewed fierce exchange of fire between France and Germany over the Verdun area, peace talks between the Dutch and Australasia began in earnest in distant Australasia.

Since 15 December last year, the Netherlands and Australasia have been in a state of temporary peace.

The two sides took military control over the areas they occupied, and the peace talks were scheduled for a little more than a month later, on 3 February.

In fact, it is easy to understand that although the Netherlands is also a monarchy, the power of the Dutch monarch has been greatly weakened decades ago, and the current monarch of the Netherlands, Queen Wilhelmina, has very little power, and the power of the government is controlled by political parties.

The Dutch government needed time not only to reach a unified opinion, but also to come to Australasia in person to participate in the peace talks.

The venue for this peace talks was placed in Sydney, and the Australasian side had a clear goal of winning the peace talks at home.

3 February 1916, Australasia, Sydney.

The peace talks between the Netherlands and Australasia officially began, with the participation of Dutch Foreign Minister Vitol, diplomatic ambassador to Australasia Reynaud and a series of government officials.

Australasia also sent a luxurious lineup of Foreign Secretary Daizer, Defense Secretary Raul and some officials.

At present, the entire Dutch East Indies are basically occupied by Australasia, and how to divide the land of the Dutch East Indies is also the most important issue in this peace talks.

Foreign Minister Dai Ze first put forward the demand of the Australasian side to divide the entire Dutch East Indies into north and south with the Sulawesi Sea, the Makassar Strait, and the Bali Sea as the dividing line.

To the west, the islands of Sumatra, Java and Kalimantan were administered by the Dutch East Indies, and to the east the islands of New Guinea, Sulawesi and their affiliated islands were administered by Australasia.

In addition to this, Australasia also claims Bali, the Cornian Islands, and all the islands in between Sumatra and Kalimantan.

These islands would bring Australasia close to the Strait of Malacca, and would also serve as a nail in the coffin for the Dutch East Indies, controlling the entire Dutch East Indies through the Java Sea, the halfway point between Sumatra, Kalimantan and Java.

As you can see from the map, the three islands are distributed in a triangular pattern, with the Java Sea and many islands in between.

If the entire Java Sea can be controlled through these islands, it will control the traffic between the three islands of the Dutch East Indies in disguise.

In fact, this is already the result of careful consideration by the Australasian government. The three core territories of Sumatra, Kalimantan and Java, which together are home to nearly 30 million indigenous people, are still reserved for the river rat East Indies, which is also a blessing in misfortune for the Dutch government.

At the same time, the reduction of the territorial scope of the Dutch East Indies allowed the Dutch to better control the three islands and create higher value for the Dutch mainland.

Australasia, on the other hand, was able to expand its sphere of influence again with its newly acquired territories, and gain access to the entire islands of New Guinea and Sulawesi.

The islands, including these affiliated islands, are largely habitable and have abundant water resources, and their strategic position is also very important.

Moreover, the total indigenous population of some of the occupied lands is only about 10 million, and it is not too much trouble to continue to use them or to expel them.

In addition to the territorial claims, the Australasian side demanded at least £100 million in reparations, as well as a treaty on the opening of the port of the Dutch East Indies to Australasia.

Although it is not intended to annex so many territories at once, it is still necessary to grasp the Dutch East Indies as much as possible and expand the sphere of influence of Australasia to Southeast Asia and the Strait of Malacca.

Needless to say, the Strait of Malacca is an important link connecting East and South Asia, and even Europe to East Asia.

In later generations, when the oil resources of the Persian Gulf were transported to East Asia, they generally took the Strait of Malacca.

As a result, the Strait of Malacca is also known as the oil valve of East Asia and the lifeline of the East Asian sea.

The strait is the closest passage from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean, and it is also the only way from East Asia to Europe.

However, the British also regarded the Strait of Malacca as very important, and even set up Straits Settlements to manage these ports and nearby colonies for the sake of the three more important ports in the vicinity.

The Straits Settlements could only be acquired from the British at a time of great peril.

As things stand, the opportunity to acquire the Straits Settlements is not now, but will have to wait until World War II a few decades later.

However, it is also necessary to plan ahead at present, and it can also expand the sphere of influence of Australasia by the way and block the resource channel for the development of the island nation.

You know, the island nation is an extremely resource-poor country. The size of the population of this country is not small, and even far exceeds that of some of the great powers.

However, because the island country is not a large country in terms of land area and is composed of a large number of islands, it is not rich in mineral resources.

Whether it's a variety of mineral resources or oil, which is now becoming increasingly important, the vast majority of the island nation's demand is imported, and it is imported from East Asia and even overseas.

If the Strait of Malacca can be controlled, when the island country and Australasia become hostile, Australasia can cut off the resource trade between the island country and Europe or other regions through the Strait of Malacca.

Australasia will control all the seas from Southeast Asia to Antarctica, and the islanders will have to communicate with the outside world through the farther Pacific Ocean.

As a result, not only will the time required for the route increase dramatically, but the cost of imported goods will also increase significantly.

Australasia was able to easily carry out Arthur's plan to contain the enemy's development.

Although the Dutch understood that the tide of the situation in the Dutch East Indies was gone, this did not prevent the Dutch from haggling over the peace talks in an attempt to keep the islands of Sulawesi and the Java Sea.

But Australasia's ambitions were not something that a small Dutch could stop, and the Dutch army could not stop Australasia's actions on the battlefield at all, and it was even more hopeless in peace talks.

The peace talks were deadlocked for three or four days, but Australasia's view was firm that all the claimed territories must be obtained, and that the reparations could be reduced from £100 million to £70 million.

Seeing that there was no room to recoup the losses in the territory, the two important Dutch representatives, after looking at each other, could only agree to the Australasian demand with great pain.

No way, agreeing to the request at the moment is already the best outcome for the Netherlands.

If they agree to the request, the Netherlands will at least keep the three large islands of Sumatra, Kalimantan and Java, with Java Island in it, which is equivalent to the Netherlands owning most of the Dutch East Indies.

However, if the Australasian demands are not agreed, not only will the other lands remain under the control of Australasia, but even the three more important islands are currently occupied by Australasian people.

None and half, the Dutch, no matter how stupid they are, know what to choose.

Of course, the Netherlands did still nominally control Sulawesi, Kalimantan and Java, but the Java Sea in the middle of these three islands was about to fall into Australasian control.

This also meant that Dutch rule over the three islands would depend on the face of the Australasian people.

If Australasia agreed, the Netherlands would be in charge of the colony. If Australasia did not agree, there would not even be a need for war, only the three islands would be blockaded separately, and the Dutch East Indies colony would surrender without a fight.

After the land negotiations were reached, the two sides went through another half-month tugie over the price and the specific peace treaty.

Finally, on February 25, 1916, Australasia and the Netherlands formally signed peace talks to end the war.

Because the peace treaty was signed in Sydney, this treaty was also publicly declared by the Netherlands and Australasia as the Sydney Treaty.

Under the Treaty of Sydney, the Dutch government and the Dutch East Indies colony ceded all islands except Sulawesi, Kalimantan and Java to Australasia, and Australasia had the right to use all the ports of the Dutch East Indies.

The Dutch East Indies Colonial Government shall not engage in any propaganda against Australasian rule within its jurisdiction, nor shall it do anything against Australasian rule.

Australasia has the right of first refusal to purchase all the resources of the Dutch East Indies, and Australasian goods from the Dutch East Indies must not be hindered in any way by the Netherlands.

Then in terms of funds, the Netherlands paid a total of 56.25 million pounds to Australasia, which was paid over 15 years, and 3.75 million pounds per year.

In the event of an extension, the daily interest is 1% of the deferred indemnity.

This also means that even if the compensation is only deferred for one year, the interest will be as high as 37,500 pounds per day, which is definitely not a small amount.

The annual reparations of £3.75 million may not seem like much, but it is also equivalent to a super-dreadnought. Even if it is only used for naval expansion, it will be enough to build the Australasian navy into a top three navy in the world in these 15 years.

And this reparation is definitely not much for the Netherlands at the moment. The more than 30 million indigenous people of those three islands alone would bring millions of pounds to the Dutch government every year, which is still an extremely conservative estimate.

If you desperately squeeze these natives, the value that these natives can play will be even higher.

Among other things, the Dutch government's annual income in the Dutch East Indies definitely exceeded this reparation, and even after the reparations were paid, they had a lot of money to build the country.

After the signing of the Sydney contract, all the terms were quickly enforced.

According to the agreement between the Dutch and Australasian governments, the Australasian army will be formally withdrawn from Sumatra, Kalimantan and Java from March 1, and the three large islands will be returned to the Dutch East Indies colonial government.

When the contract was made public, it caused a lot of cheers in Australasia.

Under Arthur's vigorous training, Australasian people still have a high sense of national pride and national identity, and the expansion of the national territory is also a good thing for all Australasian people.

Not to mention the fact that there is also a reparation of more than 50 million pounds, and Australasian people are proud to believe that Arthur has made good use of this indemnity to build Australasia stronger and make the lives of all Australasian people more secure.

From March 1916 onwards, a number of celebrations were held across Australasia to celebrate the signing of the Sydney Treaty.

Australasia can be described as a sea of joy, but tens of thousands of kilometers away in Europe, the situation is not so rosy at this time.

Fighting in the Verdun region re-intensified by the end of the month.

The Germans, in order to hold back the French and minimize the number of people in the Somme campaign, had to continue to organize a large-scale offensive at Verdun.

In order to let the Germans withdraw their troops in the Verdun area and Eastern Europe, Britain and France also decided to launch a large-scale campaign in the Verdun area to repel the German attack in order to prevent France from losing this important fortress and strengthen the French people's belief in resisting Germany.

Although the British, French and German had different starting points, their aim was the same, that is, to gain an advantage in the Verdun area, preferably by defeating or repelling the enemy.

With both sides in mind, the Germans launched another fierce offensive on the west bank of the Maas River, trying to seize important positions on the west bank as soon as possible and make a breakthrough in this battle.

Of course, it's not just about the West Bank. The Germans also launched an offensive on the east bank, and Duaumont and Fergus remained the main targets of the east bank offensive.

After entering March, the German army quickly organized assault forces to carry out assaults on the east and west banks.

The French army also put up desperate resistance, trying to hold back the German offensive.

Because the French staff strengthened the troops and firepower of the defensive areas, the defense of the Verdun areas was still very solid in a short time, and the French army could also be seen in many areas to recapture many positions occupied by the Germans.

The Franco-German army engaged in a very long tug-of-war in the Verdun area, and any position was the target of the two armies.

According to the records of the armies of both sides, when the position was exaggerated, the position had to be fought over more than ten times in one day, the flags on the position were changed more than ten times, and the number of soldiers who died on the position was innumerable.

Even after a certain soldier occupies a position, he has just planted a flag and wants to deploy a defense, but the enemy who organized a counteroffensive is repulsed, and the position falls back into the hands of the enemy.

Such tug-of-war was fought in a number of fortresses and positions in the Verdun area, and it took hundreds of soldiers to conquer a position, and many soldiers to defend a position.

For the sake of part of the heights and batteries, the French army even paid a maximum of 20,000 casualties in a single day.

However, the casualties of 20,000 are not much compared to the total casualties of the war so far, but if we calculate the casualties of 20,000 in a single day, the casualties in a year will be as high as more than 7 million, which is enough to see how exaggerated this casualty figure is.

Today's chapter, I didn't come back until more than ten o'clock, and I rushed to the draft. Two shifts tomorrow!

(End of chapter)