Under the embarrassment of several people, Portugal directly became the biggest victim, and not only that, but Alendhal's previous proposal to reduce Portugal's reparations was also rejected by Salisbury.

After all, eight million pounds is not a small amount, anyway, it is East Africa that is the "wicked person", and Britain who takes the money, then naturally there is no need to let Portugal pay less, and even Salisbury unscrupulously thought that the asking price of East Africa to Portugal was too low before, and it would really make money in doubling the UK.

This idea was despised by Austria-Hungary and East Africa, and it really didn't end well to be allies of the British.

It was Alenthal who said: "48 million pounds may already be the limit that Portugal can afford, and if it is doubled, the Portuguese government may directly repay the debt, and they are now not the Portuguese imperial colonial powers that once dominated the world." ”

In the 19th century and before, the world was dominated by Portugal and Spain, which accounted for the vast majority of the colonies.

Now Spain still has some strength, and Portugal is completely declining, so the situation facing Portugal in the future will definitely be more difficult, but most of the colonies left by Portugal now are not of much value, such as Portuguese Goa, East Timor, Sao Tome and Principe are small colonies.

With the East and Britain reaching a settlement, the next negotiation meeting was a pomp and circumstance, and the Portuguese representative Gers also noticed the changes in Salisbury.

Most of the time, Salisbury was debating with East Africans, and the scene was very intense, but when it came to Portugal, Salisbury was vague and sometimes even went straight to the play.

And Gers naturally has no power to parry in the face of East Africa, this is the gap in national strength, everyone can sell a face to East Africa, a new force that has risen, and Portugal, who! Haven't heard of it.

Of course, this is also related to the proximity of Portugal and Britain, everyone knows that Portugal belongs to the vassal of Britain, so naturally it is not their turn to intervene in the Portuguese problem first, don't you see that the British are not in a hurry? That's why they are even more reluctant to speak for the Portuguese.

At the time of the Venice Conference, the East African government also had many private exchanges with Britain, and the betrayal of the Kingdom of Portugal to protect Britain's interests in South Africa had been recognized by both countries, and Britain could make a lot of money at the same time.

As for the huge military spending before, in the final analysis, it was still eaten by Britain's own military-industrial interest groups, so Britain did not lose at all, although the South African war did not meet the optimistic expectations before the war, but it was the best result for the current British government to be able to exit the game with dignity.

The Venice Conference was held in June, and although the basic ideas were determined in March, Britain and East Africa waged a fierce war of words in order to save face for the two British allies, Portugal and the Boers.

At the end of March, the East African government began to cease military operations in Cape Town, as previously promised, and began to repatriate captured British soldiers.

The first batch of 523 British troops returned to Britain on April 26, 1889, which greatly restored the popularity of the British government, and the British prisoners of war were very popular with the local people, after all, Britain was not large, and more than 60,000 prisoners of war could be distributed in almost every region.

So the living conditions and safety of these prisoners of war were of great concern to the British people, and more than 60,000 families were involved.

In fact, it should be more than 80,000 families, after all, East Africa will not be reborn, and it is impossible for the 20,000 British soldiers who died to resurrect them and hand them over to the British.

Moreover, a large part of the 20,000 British soldiers who died in the British army were not because of war, but because of diseases and other problems, of which 1,000 and 8 were missing, and East Africa did not dare to say that they were familiar with themselves, let alone the British troops who fought in the South African battlefield.

In fact, the British army's casualty figures are already relatively good compared with the coalition forces, with a total of 170,000 killed and more than 300,000 wounded and sick, which is enough to cause a plague in South Africa.

And so it is true that East Africa is still cleaning up the mess of Angola and Mozambique, especially with new spending on medicines, which was presented to Venice in June.

East Africa's claims against Portugal increased instead of falling, directly exceeding 50 million pounds, which also forced the Portuguese government to speed up the negotiation schedule, and the 120,000 captured Portuguese troops were completely Pixiu, only entering and not leaving.

Unlike the British, Portugal could not afford to toss, especially the issue of prisoners, and the total population of Britain was close to 40 million, so the importance of 60,000 prisoners of war to the British government was almost negligible, which was not as much as the trouble of workers' troubles.

The population of Portugal is only about 3 million, and 120,000 prisoners of war can basically connect a large part of the population in Portugal itself.

Therefore, the Portuguese government must ensure the safety of 120,000 Portuguese prisoners of war, otherwise the angry people can directly overthrow the Portuguese government.

With the Portuguese compromise, the Venice Conference was finally closed on June 28, and the three parties to the war signed an armistice in the presence of the international community led by Count Ehrenthal.

In accordance with the provisions of the armistice:

The East and Britain were immediately stopped, and the troops of both sides withdrew to the pre-war border between the two countries, and the British were required to reimburse the British prisoners of war for a total of three million pounds for consumption and medical treatment during their stay in East Africa.

Portugal ceded Angola and Mozambique to the Kingdom of East Africa and paid 40 million pounds in war reparations to East Africa.

Due to the financial pressure of Portugal, this part of the war reparations was paid by the British in advance, of course, the original two million pounds were converted according to the value of Angola and Mozambique, that is to say, East Africa obtained two Portuguese colonies for the value of two million pounds, completely settled the question of the ownership of Angola and Mozambique.

Dejurely, Angola and Mozambique are no longer associated with Portugal.

Finally, there was the Boer question, the Boer Republic was abolished and incorporated into the territory of East Africa, and Orange became part of the Kingdom of East Africa, bounded by the Orange and Tuguela rivers, with Britain to the south and East Africa to the north.

As for the opinion of the Boers, it was completely ignored by the East and Britain, and the Boer Republic could not even retain the government-in-exile.

After all, the premise of the government-in-exile is that the popular base of the Boer Republic still exists, just like Poland, although occupied by Tsarist Russia, but the land is indeed Polish, so the British Polish government-in-exile is of great use, and can incite nationalist sentiment in Tsarist Russia at any time to achieve the goal of deterring Tsarist Russia.

East Africa was too decisive in the former Boer Republic, that is, in the Orange region, and directly drained the local Boer popular base, so even if the Boer Republic's government-in-exile was retained, it was meaningless, except for barking at East Africa across the Orange River, and spending more British taxpayers' money had no effect.

Of course, the British government had a deeper consideration, that is, there were too many Boers in the Cape Town colony, and if the Boer Republic government-in-exile was retained, not only would it not threaten East Africa, but it might instead promote local forces that were not conducive to British rule.

The population of the Cape Town colony is more than 60 percent of the Boers, so the Boer Republic, a "big trouble," naturally cannot stay longer.

(End of chapter)