Chapter 986: Draft Disposition of the Law of Treaties
Chapter 966 The Draft Disposition of France
After a series of bargaining, on December 17, 1891, the Anti-French League finally reached an agreement and signed the Draft Disposition against France.
By this time, the conference on the division of the spoils was almost completed. All that was needed was to get the French to sign it at the Vienna Peace Conference to establish its legality.
Although the countries of the Anti-French Alliance had agreed in advance, it was still a sign of efficiency that a preliminary agreement could be reached in less than two months.
After getting the signed treaty, Franz was very skeptical that everyone was going so fast in order to get home for Christmas as soon as possible.
The “draft” is indeed a “draft”, in addition to the general framework of agreement, the specific details are basically blank, even many clauses are ambiguous.
For example: the slaughter of the territory of France, only a place name, the specific boundary line is not reflected in the treaty.
It seems to be very clear, but in fact it is a huge gap. In the thousands of years of European history, the same name of the jurisdiction of the area is not static. There is no clear agreement in the treaty as to what period of time is to prevail.
As a vested interest, for Austria, this is obviously a good thing. The lack of an explicit agreement meant that there was more room for maneuver, and a slight shift in the boundary line was not a problem.
As the borderline is not clearly defined, the amount of compensation is also not fixed, but only the proportion of each country’s share is agreed upon, and the details can be negotiated again.
In any case, it is necessary to leave something for the Vienna Peace Conference to do, and listen to the opinions of various countries, or else there will be no way to perform the drama later.
The content of the treaty was as follows:
Territorial aspects
Austria recovered the Duchy of Lorraine, the province of Alsace, and part of the Kingdom of Burgundy (the Franche-Comté region), totaling about 47,000 square kilometers;
The Burgh of Flanders and the Burgh of Artois (northern Pas-de-Calais region) were transferred to Belgium, with an area of about 12,000 square kilometers;
The Duchy of Savoy (Haute-Savoie, Savoie) was assigned to Switzerland, with an area of about 10,300 square kilometers;
Part of Provence was given to the Kingdom of Sardinia, with an area of about 23,000 square kilometers;
Corsica was given to Tuscany, with an area of about 8,682 square kilometers;
The recovery by Spain of the region of Roussillon, with an area of about 24,000 square kilometers;
Independence of Andorra (468 square kilometers) and the restoration of Monaco to its original territory (20 square kilometers).
War reparations
Austria 33.4%, Russian Empire 20%, German Confederation 25.5%, Belgium 15.5%, Spain 0.3%, Switzerland 0.2%, all Italian states shared 4.5%, Montenegro, Greece and Armenia each took 0.2%.
France needs to pay a total of 50 to 80 billion guilders war reparations (the specific figures of Vienna and the meeting to determine), the countries to form a joint bank to the French Government to provide loans to pay reparations, the monthly interest rate of five thousandths of a percent, ninety-nine years of debt repayment and interest payments.
……
Despite its best efforts, Austria was not able to completely divide France. It was not even able to drive the French out of the Mediterranean.
It was not that it could not be done, but it could not be done. It was fine to cede land after losing a battle, but there had to be a limit to the cession, and preferably a juridical basis for it.
As a substantial European hegemony, Austria has become the biggest beneficiary of the rule system, naturally, to maintain the rules of the game.
In this context, the partition of France Austria are under the banner of recovering lost territory, get the land is also the former God Luo’s homeland.
This argument is indeed a little far-fetched, but there is a legal basis is better than none. Plus the fist is big enough, barely also considered legitimate.
In contrast, the land divided amongst the allies was less elaborate. With the exception of Spain’s, which barely found historical support, all the others could be considered defeat cessions.
It’s not that Franz isn’t willing to give more, the problem is that the allies are limited in size, and shoving it down their throats might choke them to death.
Moreover, the distribution of benefits should be fair, and must be able to convince the public. If the line is crossed, the prestige that Austria has built up with great difficulty will be lost.
A careful study of the distribution of benefits program will know that the treaty is full of compromise **** sex. Except for the Russian reparations, which were agreed in advance, the rest was based on their respective contributions.
For example: Spain on the battlefield in the soy sauce, in addition to the pre-agreed can recover the lost territory, the share of the war reparations is only symbolic.
Belgium, on the other hand, because of its heavy losses in the war, made a not inconsiderable contribution and received a lot of territory and reparations.
The German Confederation, which also made a significant contribution, received the second largest share of the war reparations after Austria because it did not receive any territorial compensation.
The Kingdom of Sardinia seems to have gotten more territories, but in fact it was based on the premise that the Duchy of Savoy was divided among the Swiss, and had a compensatory nature.
Moreover, these benefits were not something that they could eat alone, but had to be divided with other Italian states later on.
This is still the result of Austria’s intention to take care of, otherwise in the war against France in the limited contribution of the Italian states, to be able to independence is good, still want what bicycle?
This is also considered to follow the British tactic of burying nails, it is estimated that the future relationship between the Kingdom of Sardinia and Switzerland will not be good, and the relationship with other states is very likely to be no better.
Putting down the text of the treaty, Franz asked: “How come there is no content about the distribution of colonies?”
Franz is not fussed, as the world’s third colonial empire, the French have a lot of colonies, including many high-quality assets. It is reasonable that it should be something that everyone is fighting for, but now the draft actually did not mention it.
Weissenberg explained, “Your Majesty, the issue of colonies has indeed been discussed, only that everyone has more than enough.
Belgium was busy with post-war reconstruction and had no extra energy to run the colonies; Spain still had the Philippine War to fight and couldn’t be bothered to fight for the colonies.
Originally the Russians wanted French Indochina, but unfortunately there were the British watching. We couldn’t even compete with the British in the Far East, and the Russians even less so.
The rest of the countries were pretty much the same, limited by their national strength, even if they had determined the colonial interests at the conference, they weren’t capable of holding on to them, so they simply shelved that part.”
There’s no mention of the German Confederation, and that’s because the German-Austrian merger was already in the works. Now it was only to set Austria’s image that the German Confederation was separately involved in the post-war distribution of benefits.
Otherwise, Austria would have taken too much, easily triggering an imbalance in everyone’s heart.
As a matter of fact, some people are already unbalanced. Otherwise, there would not have been the question of “shelving” the distribution of colonies.
The most fertile “French Africa” was swallowed by Austria, and the rest of the French colonies were scattered all over the world, which had their own special characteristics, and were not at all accessible to everyone.
Since they were out of reach, they were naturally out of sight, out of mind. The allies did not participate in the distribution of colonies, Austria naturally can not force everyone to endorse.
Franz nodded: ”Since none of them are willing to participate, then the issue of the colonies will be fine for us to solve on our own.
In addition to the French Africa that we have already taken, we have to get as much as we can of the French colonial islands overseas, as well as the French American portion.
As for the French Central and Southern Peninsula, we can’t care about it for the time being, if the British want it then just give it to them, we can’t stop it anyway.
These are all small problems, the real trouble is still the French debt problem.
The final war reparations, whether it is 50 billion, or 80 billion, the French can not afford to pay, debt default is bound to happen.
These problems must be taken into account, once the French debt default, what measures we should take, what measures we can take, it is best to be clearly agreed in the treaty.”
If it was a few tens of billions of francs, it was estimated that the French government would have given it all up by biting its teeth, but unfortunately the Anti-French Alliance wanted the S.H.I.E.L.D..
Even according to the minimum standard of 50 billion shields, converted to that is 183,000 tons of gold, sold France are not necessarily able to get together.
Not only can’t you pay back the principal, you can’t even pay back the interest. According to the monthly interest rate of five thousandths of a percent, the interest alone is 250 million guilders per month.
Not to mention the French, even Austria, the printing shield, can not afford this debt.
Can not afford to pay it does not matter, Franz was not prepared to let the French to pay. With this debt pressure, Austria has enough reasons to prohibit the French to develop armaments.
In fact, the original time and space of the French to limit Germany’s plan is also correct, but in the implementation of the time went wrong, but in turn, to their own death.
Prime Minister Karl reminded, “Your Majesty, the amount of this debt is too great for the French to pay back.
Even if the Paris government is willing to agree, the French people’s will oppose it. Once all the French people boycott, I’m afraid that not only will we not be able to get the reparations, but we will have to continue to hitch our military expenses to it.
For the sake of the Empire, it is best to set an amount of reparations that is within their reach. It will both limit France’s growth and avoid the pressure of public opinion.”
It’s no longer news that if you can’t pay it back, you don’t pay it back, and reneging on a debt is no longer news. If they really pushed it, France would probably enter a long period of anarchy, and then the mountains would be filled with guerrillas.
This is continental Europe, and there are many extreme measures that can’t be taken. If the worst happens, Austria can’t really do anything about it.
The so-called military rule of France was more of a threat than a reality. The Antifa Alliance is strong, but if you can’t see the return, I’m afraid no one is willing to accompany the Austrian madness.
Franz nodded: “The prime minister is right, the French really can not afford this indemnity. If you push it, it will be unattractive.
However, this amount of reparations was adopted by the Anti-French Alliance Conference, which means that most of our allies recognize this figure, and we can’t easily change it.
In two months, the Vienna Peace Conference will begin, and then we will discuss it at the conference, and let the French find a way to persuade the countries to reduce the amount of reparations.
As long as the French government is willing to disband their army and promise not to develop armaments, we won’t make things difficult for them on the issue of reparations.”
Frankly speaking, Franz did not think that such a huge figure of reparations could be passed in the internal meeting of the Anti-French Alliance.
According to the prior plan, Franz would be satisfied as long as the French could be made to bear the reparations of 3 billion guilders.
It wasn’t that it couldn’t be more, it really didn’t make sense. The loss of overseas colonies, the mainland has suffered the baptism of war in France, has long been that the rich and powerful French Empire.
Three billion guilders of reparations, every month just the interest is 15 million. To make up the monthly reparations, the newborn French government not only had to disband the army, but also to save money.
The offer of a huge indemnity was in itself meant to turn the allies against it, rather to induce the Russians to oppose it, and to put the Russians on the opposite side of the West, Switzerland, Belgium, and Sardinia.
However, the plan did not change as quickly as it should have, and it is not known whether the Russians found out about the plan or were seduced by the amount of the huge indemnity. In any case, the Russian representatives did not jump out to oppose it.
No one objected, and Austria was unlikely to come out against it herself. Add up the losses held out by all sides, and then the astronomical amount of reparations came out.
The good thing is, it’s only a draft, and there’s still room for change. If a formal treaty was signed, it would be forcing the French government to play dead.
A similar case happened in the original time and space. The French offered the Germans 600-800 billion gold marks in reparations right after WWI, and then it was cut all the way down to 132 billion gold marks.
In the end it was hopelessly realized that the defeated Germans still couldn’t afford to pay the reparations. In order to enable the Germans to pay the reparations, the Allied Powers came up with the brain-dead way of offsetting the debt with industrial products.
Not only did they save the industry for the enemy, but also allowed German manufacturing to enter the British and French colonies unhindered through the reparations. The capitalist consortia took advantage of this opportunity to make a fortune, and the aftermath of this was an economic depression at home, with no one investing in manufacturing.
With such a precedent, Franz was naturally on guard. Always remind themselves that reparations are only a means of suppressing the enemy, not the ultimate goal.
(End of chapter)