Chapter 995: Harsh Conditions
Chapter 975: Harsh Conditions
The soft ear of President Robert, in the end, was not able to resist the successive persuasion of the crowd. on June 6, 1892, Robert on behalf of France and the anti-French alliance representative Weisenberg signed the Treaty of Vienna.
The content of the treaty was as follows:
1. France admitted defeat and took responsibility for the war.
2. France abrogated its suzerainty over Andorra, Monaco, and the Italian states and recognized the independence of each state.
3. France ceded the Duchy of Lorraine, the Province of Alsace, part of the Kingdom of Burgundy, the Duchy of Flanders, the Duchy of Artois, the Duchy of Savoy, part of Provence, the island of Corsica, and the region of Roussillon to the Anti-French Alliance. (The total area was 125,000 square kilometers.)
4, France to pay war reparations of 40 billion guilders to the Antifa Alliance, tentatively scheduled to be paid in 99 years, with a monthly interest rate of five thousandths.
(Note: The reparations are paid in annual increments, with the first payment of 15 million guilders, 1893-1900/annual increments of 1.5 million guilders, 1901-1910/annual increments of 3 million guilders, and 1911-1920/annual increments of 5 million guilders. ……)
5, the active forces of the French Army shall not exceed 50,000 men, and the militia reserve shall not exceed 100,000 men; the Army shall not be equipped with tanks, armored vehicles, and artillery of a caliber exceeding 100mm or more; the Navy shall not have an establishment of more than 5,000 men, and the displacement of the main ship shall not exceed 5,000 tons, and the total tonnage of the warships shall not exceed 50,000 tons; and it shall not develop any air power, including dirigibles and airplanes.
6. All domestic arsenals shall be closed, and no military industry shall be engaged in any research and development or manufacturing, and all land and naval equipment must be procured from Austria, Russia, Belgium and other countries.
7, in the reparations before the completion of the full payment, the Allied forces in France has the right to garrison, the number of troops in the years of peace not more than 250,000, military expenditure by the French government to bear eighty percent.
8. France ceded French Africa, French America and other overseas colonies to Austria.
……
Looking at this replica of the Treaty of Versailles in front of him, or a harsher treaty than the Treaty of Versailles, Franz was speechless for a long time.
To this day, the history in the memory of the previous life has lost its value. Whether this decision was right or wrong, Franz did not know. In any case, it was the common will of the countries of the Anti-French Alliance.
The French were unlucky to meet a group of allies who all wanted to weaken them, unlike the British and Americans who wanted to save the Germans’ energy.
Originally, the Russians also wanted to keep some energy for the French to counterbalance Austria, but unfortunately, the Tsarist government could not afford to pay the war reparations.
20% of 40 billion guilders, that is 8 billion guilders, such a large sum of money who dares to mention to give up, the Russian Empire’s nobles will have to remove the head of who.
Take this huge sum of money, south to India’s military expenses will be ready. As long as you take India, it doesn’t matter whether you check and balance Austria or not.
The only regret is that this huge sum of money is not a one-time arrival, delaying their great cause of going south. However, it was not a bad idea to make the money flow in a small amount, and it could make up for the financial hole of the Tsar’s government in the long run.
The man who takes the hand is short, the man who eats the population is soft. After sharing such a huge sum of money, the Russians were naturally too embarrassed to object when the countries slaughtered France.
Of course, opposition was ineffective. On the question of weakening France, the position of the countries was more firm than that of Austria, and they would not sell the Russians face at all.
Unless the Czarist government was willing to give up the reparations, and at all costs overturned the table and ran to join forces with the British.
This was clearly impossible. The interests of heaven and earth are the greatest, and the Czarist government is sensible and unlikely to sell its blood in aid of France.
In any case, the dust of the Continental War settled and Franz’s hanging heart finally fell.
After so many years of hard work, Austria, located in the land of four wars, finally got rid of the embarrassment of multi-front war.
Looking back, Franz now feel incredible. In the past forty years, Austria actually successively solve Prussia, Ottoman, France three big enemies.
Without the pressure, Franz was all relaxed. After secretly sighing inwardly, Franz quickly made a decision: “Arrange the withdrawal of troops according to the content of the treaty! But the matter of handing over the prisoners of war should be delayed for a while, and after the situation in France has been completely stabilized, then they will be released back, so as not to cause unnecessary turmoil.”
The treaty must be honored, but the specifics are yet to be considered.
Franz’s concern is not unfounded, from the current situation, once the main force of the allied forces withdrew, the situation in France is almost inevitable turmoil.
Once the prisoners of war are released, only with the remaining garrison in France, can control the situation, is really an unknown.
In case the situation collapses, and to reorganize the allied forces to intervene. With Austria’s national strength, it is barely able to hold out, but the allies can not afford to play.
The horror of the people’s war, Franz is well aware of. He had even less doubt about the revolutionary determination of the French people.
Based on the harsh terms of the Treaty of Vienna, just the slightest spark will be enough to detonate this powder keg.
Once the situation had deteriorated, it could not be resolved by a simple intervention. The tolerance of the countries of the Antifa alliance is limited, and if they are tossed back and forth a few times, their hearts and minds will be dispersed.
To avoid the worst, the best way is to hold on to the millions of prisoners of war. Without these people as the main force, even if a bunch of old and sick people make trouble, the threat is limited.
Prime Minister Karl: ”It is good to withdraw the army earlier, the allied logistics have always been supplied by us, withdrawing the army early the government can also reduce an expense.
Delaying the release of prisoners of war will be a problem. So far, the Allies have captured 4.12 million prisoners of war, so many people are a problem just to eat and drink.
Now that the war is over, the international community is staring at us ……”
More than a nuisance, it was a time bomb. The prisoners in Africa are okay, at the moment they are contributing to the cause of greening and finally have a stable job.
The prisoners of war in the European region are a different story, because of the hatred, it is necessary to separate the prisoners of war from the population, and the post-war reconstruction does not even dare to let them participate.
Now these guys can only stay in the camp every day, one by one, they are idle out of the problem, from time to time to toss out some laughable problems.
Franz rubbed his forehead and said helplessly: ”Then release the Italian prisoners of war first, and let the Italian state governments claim them themselves. French prisoners of war will be released first for good behavior, five thousand per day.
Prisoners of war making trouble? The enemy has surrendered, are we afraid of a bunch of POWs? Fearing bad political repercussions, we entrusted the Russians to manage them for us.
They have a lot of experience in this area, and the Ottomans are so stubborn, but weren’t they all tamed by them?”
There were times when Franz really envied the Russians, doing whatever they wanted and directly ignoring international opinion.
Originally thought that the Ottomans would toss some things after migrating to the Russian Empire, Franz was ready to provide condolence subsidies to the Tsarist government.
The reality was very much in the face, perhaps because the winter was too cold to make a fuss; or perhaps it was because they had experienced a social beating and learned to adapt.
In any case, the Ottomans who entered the Russian Empire behaved very peacefully. After all, the Ottoman immigrants who entered Siberia back then have now been attenuated by two-thirds, and not many dare to make trouble.
With the success, Franz didn’t mind outsourcing labor again, which would probably require less cost than even managing it himself.
As can be seen from the military expenses, Russian officers are very experienced in cost control, and are best at spending the least amount of money to do the most.
……
Foreign Minister Weissenberg: ”Your Majesty, this is the number of troops stationed in each country. The total strength totals 249,000: 120,000 troops from the Russians, 70,000 from Spain, 30,000 from Belgium, 11,000 from Switzerland, and 0.8 million from Sardinia ……”
Garrisoning France is not something Austria needs to worry about, there was a near fight within the Antifa alliance to grab the garrison. It may seem that the French only bear eighty percent of the military expenses, but the account can not be calculated this way.
The base of military expenditure is determined with reference to the average level of the Austrian army, the presence of armored units directly pulls up the average, not all countries’ armies are so costly.
For example, the Russian army’s per capita military expenditure is less than half of the Austrian army. Not only did the garrison in France have someone to help feed the army, the Tsarist government could also make a profit.
Especially significant for neighboring countries. Directly put their own troops on the border, there is someone to pay for the maintenance, but also does not affect the use of their own at all.
In addition to these direct gains on the surface, the hidden gains in the shadows are what everyone is really fighting over.
France’s family is very rich, despite being raided by the allied forces, but the remaining oil and water is still very rich.
Of course, direct raiding was the next best thing. The biggest benefit of the garrison was, in fact, smuggling.
As long as they were labeled as transporting munitions, the French had no right to ask questions and were able to evade customs duties perfectly.
However, there is a limit to smuggling, and moderation is most important to maximize the benefits. The Antifa Alliance has so many member states, if there are no rules and regulations, the market will soon be spoiled.
What everyone is competing for now is not only the garrison quota, but also the amount of smuggling in the underground market.
Austria did not participate, not because it does not see this market, mainly because the Vienna government has taken away the most valuable – talent.
If it were not for the chaos of the situation, everyone would have realized that France’s top wave of scientists and engineers had already emigrated en masse with their families and children.
In this regard Franz is very overbearing, regardless of whether it can be adopted for their own use, the first to get people over.
It can be said that after this battle, France’s high-end talents directly fault, and then after thirty years are not necessarily able to recover.
Such a big action did not cause a furor in the outside world, naturally less allies to cooperate. In return, Austria gave up the underground smuggling market in France.
(End of chapter)