The Rise Of Australasia-Chapter 1061 - 792: The Bouba Peace Talks, Franco-Australian Alliance

Chapter 1061 -792: The Bouba Peace Talks, Franco-Australian Alliance

Although the French were not clear about the secret plotting between Germany and Italy, this did not mean the French had no response to the German-Italian agreement.

In fact, the French had long been aware of the crisis caused by the rise of such authoritarian governments in Italy and Germany, and they had tried, together with the British, to strengthen restrictions on the Germans to ensure that German military power would not expand as rapidly as Italy’s had.

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But the bad news was that France was currently the world’s second-leading power, and France was also the British Empire’s biggest and most direct competitor.

Compared to Germany, which was domestically rather chaotic and had not yet regained its strength, the British were clearly more concerned about French power.

It was for this reason that the French plan for the second round of military restrictions on Germany not only failed to be implemented but even led to a relaxation of British restrictions on Germany.

By then, the French knew they could not rely on the British, which was why they turned to Austria for an alliance.

At least when it came to restraining the Germans, the Austrian Empire was very willing to cooperate. After all, Austria was Germany’s neighbor and had no conflicting interests with France, making it a superior ally.

After the German-Italian agreement was exposed, France urgently contacted the foreign affairs department of the Austrian Empire to discuss whether to devise a potential defensive alliance plan in response to the relationship between Germany and Italy.

The French proposal received strong affirmation from Austria. On Christmas day, the French Foreign Minister made an urgent visit to the Austrian Empire to discuss this nascent defensive alliance plan.

This defensive alliance plan was purely a joint response to Germany and Italy. According to the French proposal, the first clause of the defensive alliance plan stipulated that an attack on either France or the Austrian Empire would be considered an attack on the entire alliance.

Within one week, the other allied nations in the defense pact were expected to provide diplomatic support and initiate military mobilization domestically.

Within two weeks, the defensive alliance was to mobilize a portion of its military forces to the nation under attack to fulfill the obligations of the entire defense alliance.

Although the defensive alliance’s clauses did not specify which country’s aggression it was aimed at, the answer was quite obvious.

Aside from those two somewhat crazed countries, Germany and Italy, nobody would attack powerful nations like France and the Austrian Empire without any warning.

In addition to this defensive pact, France also signed a series of economic cooperation agreements with Austria, aimed at helping Austria recover its economy and return to its former glory, better to address the two enemies, Germany and Italy.

This complete defensive alliance treaty, in fact, was all benefit and no harm for Austria.

For this reason, the Austrian side signed the treaty even faster than France, as if they were afraid France might have second thoughts.

Actually, France would certainly not have second thoughts. After all, there were not many powerful nations France could now woo, and aside from Austria, the stronger allies France might attract were perhaps only Spain and Poland.

But the problem was, neither Spain nor Poland could be considered powerful nations. Moreover, both had their own domestic issues and could offer little assistance to France.

The United Kingdom might be a more suitable ally. Perhaps only when Germany regains the power it had prior to World War I will the British understand that Europe’s most formidable adversary is still Germany.

As France and Austria’s defensive alliance became public, the European situation obviously became even more clouded in mystery.

Those with eagle eyes could see that the German-Italian agreement and the Franco-Australian defensive pact were targeting and guarding against each other, and some media had even begun to boldly predict that, in the near future, it was very possible that a war would break out between Germany-Italy and France-Austria.

Whether such predictions were bold or not aside, they indeed attracted a segment of European citizens.

It wasn’t that the European citizens were curious about war; in fact, it was because they were already afraid of wars like World War I.

The people all feared another war in Europe on the scale of World War I, where several powerful nations would take part, and casualties could easily breach ten million.

Although the British made no statement in this regard, Australasia still contacted Britain and France, indicating they would set aside the peace negotiations concerning the Chaco War and put an end to this long-standing conflict.

Australasia’s proposal was accepted by Britain and France, and this round of peace talks was scheduled for early 1932 in Oran City, Argentina, near the Chaco region.

Having peace talks in a third country not involved in the war also symbolized the impartial nature of the Britain-France-Australia negotiations.

On January 3, 1932, in Oran City, Argentina,

After more than a week’s meticulous preparations, representatives of the Britain-France-Australia Three Nations, along with those of Bolivia and Paraguay, arrived in Oran City, Argentina.

In addition, Chile and Argentina’s foreign representatives, who were also participating in the peace talks, were to supervise the peace in the Chaco region after the agreements were reached, representing the Britain-France-Australia Three Nations in maintaining order in South America.

Why was Brazil not included? Because compared to Chile and Argentina, Brazil was the least close to Britain and France among the three strongest countries in South America.

Naturally, the British were also not willing to include Brazil in such peace talks, lest Brazil benefit from the Chaco War.

On January 3rd, formal peace negotiations regarding the Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay began.

Given the extensive casualties sustained by both parties, the peace talks between the two countries became sincere and were no longer perfunctory as before.

However, it was clear that without the intervention of the Powers, diplomatic negotiations alone between these two nations would never end the war.

With the advantage in the war, Paraguay chose to be greedy. Paraguay demanded the annexation of the entire Chaco region, pushing the front line to the Teisosog swamp.

Bolivia naturally would not take this lightly. Not to mention the severe loss the entire Chaco region would represent for Bolivia, the human casualties already suffered by Bolivia made it unwilling to endure such a vast loss of land.

After all, the peace talks solved the problem with Paraguay, but they did not resolve the sentiments of the Bolivian people.

Once the people learned that the war not only caused numerous civilian casualties but also resulted in extensive land loss, they would likely rage against the government’s foolish rule with protests or even armed conflicts.

However, Bolivia was indeed at a disadvantage on the front line, which was Bolivia’s biggest trouble during the negotiations.

If the peace talks did not yield results, the Paraguayan army’s advance would still reach near the Teisosog swamp, essentially fulfilling the conditions demanded by the Paraguayan diplomatic representatives.

As for whether they could use the time of the peace talks to let the military recover and later launch a full-scale counteroffensive, the Bolivian government had also vetoed this plan.

After all, while Bolivia was regaining strength, the Paraguayan army was also recovering its vigor.

Paraguay had the support of two powerful nations, the United Kingdom and Australasia, gaining supplies at a speed and scale that current Bolivia could not match.

The Britain-France-Australia Three Nations naturally did not wish to see the peace talks between the two countries at a stalemate. Under the influence of the three Powers, both Paraguay and Bolivia amended their terms, and finally, the peace talks made some progress.

Firstly, from Paraguay’s side. As the ones with the advantage in the war, Paraguay still demanded the majority of the Chaco region’s land, about 180,000 square kilometers.

With this land expansion, Paraguay’s territory would considerably increase, and when facing Bolivia again, at least it would not be at too big a disadvantage in terms of strategic depth and land area.

More importantly, most of the petroleum in Northern Chaco was located in the area Paraguay requested.

This meant that Paraguay could rely on the obtained land to amass vast wealth, which could be utilized to elevate the nation’s economy and other sectors to a new level.

In this shift of fortunes, it was difficult to say who would be stronger between Paraguay and Bolivia in the future.

Even if another Chaco War erupted, without the aid of the Powers, Paraguay would not fear Bolivia.

The conditions Paraguay offered were actually quite reasonable. Even if Paraguay annexed 180,000 square kilometers of land in Northern Chaco, there would still be about 80,000 square kilometers left for Bolivia.

At least Bolivia would also gain land, making this war look not so much an utter defeat.

But Bolivia also proposed another condition, which was to gain navigation rights through Paraguay to the Atlantic Ocean.

Through past history and wars, Bolivia had completely become a landlocked country.

It is well-known that sea transport remains the most important means of economic exchange. Without access to the sea, Bolivia’s development had already fallen noticeably behind other strong countries in South America, and the gap was widening further.

After losing to Paraguay again, Bolivia was no longer a South American power. If it did not find a way to secure a seaport to accelerate domestic economic development soon, Bolivia might vie for the title of the weakest nation in South America in the next ten years.

Compared to gaining direct access to a seaport, Bolivian diplomatic representatives were clearly aware of their predicament.

They only requested that Bolivian ships be allowed to navigate through the Paraguay River to the Atlantic Ocean.

The Paraguay River is a major river in South America, flowing through Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and finally to Argentina; after passing through Rosario, it joins the Atlantic Ocean.

Although it’s a long journey from Bolivia to reach the Atlantic, it is still better than having no access at all.

After careful consideration, the Paraguayan diplomatic representatives ultimately agreed to the Bolivian representatives’ proposal, stating that Bolivian ships could be allowed passage through the Paraguay River within Paraguayan territory.

But the condition was that these passing ships must be non-military and not carry too much weapons and equipment.

This point was also strongly demanded by Paraguay to be included in the contract as a constraint on Bolivia.