The Rise Of Australasia

Chapter 746 - 559: The Busy Countries, The Busy World

If the Allies were united against a common enemy during World War I, they were in utter chaos following the war.

This chaos was no joke. After the Russian civil war, and the threat of independence wars faced by the United States and the United Kingdom, France also faced a significant crisis.

In September 1921, Krim convened a meeting with the leaders of 12 major tribes in the Rif region. They collectively passed the "National Declaration," signifying the de facto independence of Northern Morocco and openly resisted French and Spanish occupation.

Speaking of the Moroccan region, it is no stranger to conflict. The presence of great powers led to two Moroccan crises, eventually being partitioned by France and Spain.

However, due to the resistance of the Moroccan people, France and Spain only occupied the plains of Morocco, with some mountainous areas still under the control of Moroccan tribes.

Starting from 1921, Spain intensified its occupation of Morocco and invaded the Rif Mountains.

Unexpectedly, under the leadership of local tribal leader Abdul Krim, the Rif defeated an entire Spanish army of twenty thousand in late July. A subsequent exemplary attack on Melilla in August forced over 3000 Spanish soldiers to surrender.

Since then, the forces resisting colonial rule in Morocco have been increasingly strengthened, worrying both France and Spain, the two countries that had partitioned Morocco. They decided to swiftly eradicate the resistance.

However, due to their lack of concern for the Rif, France did not bolster its military presence in Morocco but instead assigned heavier duties to colonial troops to keep locals from threatening French Morocco.

The French even mocked the Spaniards’ weaknesses, being defeated by a tribe of less than twenty thousand people and losing over 23,000 soldiers.

But soon, the French would stop laughing.

With the signing of the "National Declaration," the Moroccan rebellions, including that of the Rif, were defined as an independence war.

Krim, revered in the Rif for his defeat of the Spaniards, rapidly formed a united Rif army from various tribes.

Perhaps it was the passion for independence and freedom that made this army exceptionally powerful.

In the two months of late September and October, the Rif army almost ran unopposed in Spanish Morocco, successively defeating multiple Spanish forces and almost liberating more than half of the territory.

The Spanish, thrown into disarray, swiftly dispatched a hundred thousand troops to quell the rebellion, but they were quickly repelled by the Rif forces, who had a better knowledge of the terrain.

Seeing the situation escalating beyond their control, the Spanish quickly reached out to France, requesting to form an alliance to jointly attack the Rif Republic.

Keep in mind, the Irish War of Independence had just ended, and the fervor for such independence wars was still high among people worldwide.

If the Rif War of Independence was recognized by other countries as a just war, even powerful France would have to consider the opinions of its domestic and foreign populace.

The troubles in Morocco were a relief to the British, indicating powerful nations worldwide were preoccupied with their own wars.

Under such circumstances, Britain’s previous issues with Ireland would be overshadowed. They also had the chance to plan their following strategy and advance their own armament while other countries were engaged in warfare.

Although the French didn’t explicitly support Irish independence previously, some obscure forces influenced both the French and British people.

The British, of course, held a grudge. Whilst France and Spain were in the midst of negotiations, a wave of strikes and demonstrations had already erupted within France.

Not only in France, but many sympathetic Europeans also held strikes and demonstrations, expressing their support for the independence struggle in the Rif.

Yes, it was that surreal. The French people did not agree with their government’s aggression in the Rif, demanded the government’s withdrawal from the region, and supported Rif’s independence.

Under such circumstances, many French soldiers enforcing brutal policies in Morocco refused to fire at the Moroccan people and even fraternized with the Moroccan forces.

Many Muslims in North Africa also supported the independence of the Rif. Resolving the Rif’s problem with force no longer seems viable.

Under such a backdrop, a secret meeting was held in London on October 25, 1921. Participating countries included the British Empire, the United States, Australasia, France, and the Island Nation.

Theoretically, these five countries were the strongest in the world at the time. None of the powers, including Italy, were suitable opponents.

The first agenda of the five-nation conference was the "Treaty on the Territories and Territories of the Pacific Islands."

The background of this issue was quite complicated. The United States wanted to expand in the Pacific, Britain wanted to contain American expansion. The Island Nation wanted to have greater rights in the Pacific, while Australasia was the most powerful country in the West Pacific.

However, this time the topics did not have any intentions of partitioning territories, rather they were more about the countries mutually promising to respect each other’s territorial rights, avoiding more disputes.

The most important part was the stipulation that the five signing nations should respect their territorial rights over islands situated in the Pacific Ocean region. In case of any disputes about the Pacific region that cannot be satisfactorily resolved through diplomatic channels, a treaty signatories’ meeting should be convened to settle the matter.

If the Pacific region rights of the signing nations were threatened by other countries, the treaty signers should consult each other comprehensively to take the most effective measures, either jointly or individually, to manage the situation.

This so-called Five Nations Treaty also expressly stated that the agreement between the British Empire and the Island Nation signed in London on July 13, 1911, should be terminated.

Each of the five nations signed this treaty for their own individual purposes, but generally speaking, they all did so to protect their own rights in the Pacific.

In fact, one point to be considered here is that theoretically, the Philippines, a country along the Pacific coast controlled by the United States, should be protected.

After Australasia signed the treaty, attacking the territory of the Philippines was, in effect, bound by an additional constraint.

But, in reality, Arthur also considered the changes brought about by this treaty. However, the Five Nations Treaty mentioned that if conflicts among contracting nations could not be resolved through diplomatic channels, a treaty signatories’ meeting should be held to work it out.

Among the five nations, Australasia had already gained the support of France and the United Kingdom and therefore had an advantage in terms of votes.

The reason Arthur firmly stood by the United Kingdom during the Irish War of Independence was to ensure the British would firmly stand by Australasia during the Philippines War of Independence.

This was a clear exchange of interests. For the United Kingdom and Australasia, the outcomes in Ireland or the Philippines did not matter. What mattered were their attitudes of mutual support among allies, and achieving their strategic objectives.

Although the treaty regarding the territorial rights of influence in the Pacific Islands, also known as the Five Nations Treaty, seemed simple, it still took nearly ten days to finalize.

This caused the next meeting to be scheduled for November 4, 1921.

The upcoming meeting was extremely crucial as it was concerning the long-proposed Naval Limitation Treaty.

A treaty that concerned the national naval distribution should naturally be discussed by the world’s five strongest nations and not the smaller ones.

This was the way of the world. The strong dictated the weak, the weak dictated the weaker.

On the first day of the second topic, the United States was the first to draw its bow based on the current research situation and eagerly proposed a scheme about naval armament restrictions that was advantageous to the United States:

Firstly, all signing countries of the Naval Limitation Treaty should immediately stop constructing main battleships;

Secondly, each nation should decommission a portion of their old warships to ensure their total naval tonnage falls within the specified numbers;

Thirdly, considering the current total naval tonnage and the economic and industrial situations of each nation, the ratio of the navies of each country should be set as follows: 500,000 tons of main battleships for the United Kingdom and the United States, and 300,000 tons for France, Australasia, and the Island Nation.

The auxiliary warship proportions would be determined according to specific conditions under the benchmark of the main battleship tonnage ratios.

The calculation scheme proposed by the United States was notably ambitious, firstly directly specifying that the tonnage of the United States military would be the same as that of the United Kingdom, thereby bridging the gap between the U.S. and British navies.

Secondly, the tonnage of the Island Nation’s warships would be the same as that of Australasia. This represented that the allies of the United States and the United Kingdom were at the same level.

Considering the United States’ superior geographic position, as well as its status as the world’s leading country in terms of industry and economy, it was destined to be stronger than the United Kingdom under this division.

This was the United States’ preliminary probe towards the United Kingdom as well as its first show of ambition to become the world’s hegemon.

Moreover, the 5:3 tonnage ratio would also determine the naval gap between the United States and the Island Nation as well as Australasia.

Given that the Island Nation, this little ally, was not very obedient, the United States could be viewed as hitting three birds with one stone: becoming a maritime hegemon alongside the United Kingdom and establishing naval superiority over both the Island Nation and Australasia.

However, this proposal that benefited only the United States promptly incited the opposition of all other nations.

The British would never agree to share the naval hegemony with the United States, and Australasia could not agree to have its naval scale on the same level as the Island Nation.

The Island Nation, too, had exceptional ambitions. They were keen to reduce the gap with the UK and the U.S., that is, they did not want a considerable difference such as the ratio of 5:3.

As a result, disputes within the meeting were fierce.

The United States advocated a 5:5:3:3:3 ratio, the United Kingdom pushed for a 7:5:4:4:3 ratio, France suggested a 5:5:5:4:3 ratio, and the Island Nation proposed a 5:5:4:3:3 ratio. As for Australasia, it also proposed a 7:5:4:4:3 ratio. (From first to last, the ratio is the UK: the United States: France: Australasia: the Island Nation)