Under the cover of all kinds of major events, in February 1920, some small things still happened that are worth mentioning.

The first was the Treaty of Spitsbergen, signed by the World Union in mid-February, which recognized the Spitsbergen Islands as belonging to Norway and full and complete sovereignty.

At the same time, however, the World League has stipulated that the area must never be used for war purposes, and that citizens of all States Parties are free to enter and leave and engage in legitimate production and commercial activities, subject to the relevant Norwegian laws.

The treaty made the entire Svalbard archipelago (Spitsbergen, Northeast, Ej and Barents) the first and only demilitarized zone in the Arctic, allowing free access for all citizens of the signatory countries.

To put it simply, even if Australasia is a southern hemisphere country, because of this treaty, it has a scientific research base in the Arctic, which is still important for Australasia.

Countries adjacent to the Arctic Circle may not care, but countries such as Australasia, which are far from the Arctic Circle, can also have the qualifications to conduct scientific expeditions in the Arctic.

Of course, this treaty has brought Arthur's attention to the development of the Arctic and Antarctic.

It is a good thing that Australasia can have a scientific research base in the Arctic, and more importantly, Australasia has to defend the South Pole, which is very close to itself.

As the only great power in the southern hemisphere, Australasia still has a great influence on the southern hemisphere, and its sphere of influence can also cover most of the southern hemisphere's coast.

In particular, when Australasia is very extensive, there are many Antarctic territories that can be occupied and claimed.

There is no so-called Antarctic Treaty, and the Antarctic continent is an unexplored land that has not yet been developed.

When it comes to the mineral resources of Antarctica, it is in no way inferior to Australasia in terms of richness. Antarctica has the world's largest iron ore snow storage area, with extremely high iron grades and can be mined for more than 200 years in the world.

At the same time, Antarctica also has up to 500 billion tons of coal reserves, and coal and iron reserves have considerable advantages.

In addition, Antarctica also has copper, lead, zinc, molybdenum and a small amount of gold, silver, chromium, nickel and cobalt, and the reserves and types of mineral resources are quite rich.

Coupled with the much-talked-about oil and gas reserves, Antarctica is a mineral continent, which is why Arthur is planning to occupy most of Antarctica.

In addition, Antarctica is also rich in marine resources. The famous Antarctic krill is enough to catch 50 million tons a year without affecting the reproduction of its species.

How exaggerated is the figure of 50 million tons? At present, the world's population is about 1.66 billion people, and the average person needs to eat 60 catties of Antarctic krill every year to consume up to 50 million tons of fish.

And it's a seafood that's renewable every year, and whether it's exported or used as a food reserve, it's capable of generating huge benefits.

Of course, this has to be done on the premise of protecting the marine environment. If such an event continues to happen in future generations, no matter how large the Antarctic krill population is, it will become a radioactive product that everyone talks about, let alone use it as a food reserve or sell it to the outside world.

It also strengthened Arthur's confidence in protecting the oceans, and as a country that is very dependent on the sea, Arthur will never allow any country to cause serious damage to the oceans.

No matter how cold it is in Antarctica, it still can't hide the fact that Antarctica has many valuable resources.

Even if the resources of Antarctica cannot be developed for the time being, it is perfectly fine to occupy them and wait for the development of technical equipment in the future.

In order to influence the ownership of the Antarctic as soon as possible, Arthur ordered the three major studios to make films about the Antarctic, and in various ways to assert Australasia's sovereignty over the territory.

In addition to the Spitsbergen Treaty, on February 24, a very famous historical event took place in Germany, that is, the famous Adolf Hitler founded the Nazi Party in Munich and officially began his political career.

Arthur still has some concerns about this, but judging from the current chaotic political situation in Germany, it is unknown whether the mustache will be able to climb to the top as it has historically, after all, Wilhelm II is still in power, and Germany is still a monarchy.

There was nothing international in March, except for the official announcement by the World League to reduce the proportion of German reparations, and most of the rest was what happened at home of the Great Powers.

The time has just entered the beginning of April, and the calm international community is in turmoil again.

With the intervention of the world coalition led by Britain and France, the Polish War of Independence broke out in Soviet Russia.

The leader of the Polish War of Independence, the bourgeois nationalist Pilsudski, under the leadership of Britain and France, raised the slogan of recovering the territory that had existed before the partition of Poland in 1772 and formally declared war on Soviet Russia.

You must know that before the partition of Poland, the territory also included parts of what is now Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine, all of which were currently controlled by Soviet Russia.

With the support of Britain and France, the Polish Independence Armed Forces (POA) had rapidly expanded from a few thousand to more than 100,000 men, forming an alliance with the intervention forces sent by the World Alliance, and were advancing towards Lithuania and Ukraine.

At present, the situation in Russia can be described as very complicated, and a simple Russian civil war has evolved into an intervention war involving many countries.

The fighting side was Soviet Russia and other Soviet states, with a total of 1.7 million troops.

On the other side were the surviving Tsarist Russia and Poland, the World Alliance Intervention Army, with a total of 2 million troops.

The current civil war has been going on for several years, and the domestic losses have been almost devastating.

Since the First World War, Russia has entered a period of war that lasted for six years, and the loss of national manpower was enormous.

In the first war alone, Russia suffered more than 3 million dead, more than 8 million wounded and captured, and a total loss of more than 11 million manpower.

The civil wars of the past few years have not been too much, and Soviet Russia and Tsarist Russia together have caused the tragic end of more than 2 million dead and 4 million wounded.

To make matters worse, starting in April, Russia was experiencing a rather severe drought, accompanied by a relatively serious disease.

Typhus has killed tens of thousands of Russian soldiers, and combined with the civilian casualties of the civil war, Russia has lost at least 20 million people in the six years of the war.

Of course, this does not take into account those who emigrated abroad and Russian civilians who died for non-war reasons, such as the flu.

Tsarist Russia, with a population of 175 million before entering the war, has declined in the past six years, leaving only 152 million people, equivalent to the level of 1908.

Of course, millions of Russians have also immigrated to Australasia during these six years, which is one of the important reasons for the large decline in Russia's population.

It is worth mentioning that, due to differences in policies and institutions, most of the immigrants to Australasia were from Tsarist Russia, or from the previous period of the Russian Provisional Government.

This Russian emigration is known in the international community as White Russia and is mostly well-educated professionals.

Unlike the masses of Soviet Russia, they did not support the Russian revolution, but only wanted a more stable life.

For Arthur, these were the Russian immigrants Australasia really wanted, not the rebels who were fighting for independence.

Compared with the situation at home, the current civil war in Russia is an area that Arthur has not yet touched.

Arthur could only wait for the result, and at other times, he tried to avoid mentioning it, so as not to get into trouble and cause harm to Australasia.

While the Australasian Copa del Rey was urgently preparing and publicizing, the time had crept into the time for the Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium.

Eight years have passed since the last Olympic Games, which have attracted a lot of international attention.

Although the Copa del Rey, which was organized by Australasia at a great cost, took away part of the traffic, after all, the Copa del Rey is still being prepared, so people's attention is still involuntarily shifted to this Olympics.

On April 20, 1920, the 7th Summer Olympic Games officially began.

Although this Olympics is not as grand as the Australasian Games, it also attracts a large number of countries to participate.

According to the information released by Belgium, a total of 29 countries and regions have registered for the Olympic Games, and the number of athletes participating in the Olympic Games has reached 2,607.

It is worth mentioning that for the first time, the Olympic Games introduced the oath-taking ceremony of athletes, which was proposed by Coubertin in 1913, but the Germans clearly did not have this blessing and successfully avoided the opportunity to host the Games.

In addition to the oath-taking ceremony, the Antwerp Games also used for the first time the Coubertin design of the Olympic flag, the famous Olympic rings.

Unlike the previous two Olympic Games, which were attended by the great powers, the host country Belgium had the largest number of participants, and the number of participants far exceeded the second and third places.

A characteristic can also be seen from this point, that is, when small and medium-sized countries host the Olympic Games, the great powers do not attach too much importance to them.

Of course, it cannot be ruled out that the British Empire felt that Britain no longer had any international rivals, so it did not bother to compete with other countries in this environment.

Without German competition, the British government and Prime Minister Lloyd George felt much less stressed.

At present, France and the United States do not pose much of a threat to the UK, which has also made the British government relax in some places.

3000 words for the third update, ask for a monthly pass, ask for support!

(End of chapter)