Chapter 958: Chapter 715: Plan to Divide the United States
Due to the territorial expansion, the National Day celebrations in 1929 were grander than usual, but they weren’t grand enough to necessitate a military parade.
With Australasia’s gradually increasing power, Arthur no longer needed to use parades to boost national pride and unity.
Moreover, military strength should be kept as confidential as possible, as the unknown are always the most feared.
After National Day, ti quickly advanced to January 15th, 1929.
This was the date agreed upon by the nations to hold peace talks, and it was also the eagerly anticipated ti for the partitioning of Arica.
Arthur also attached great importance to this negotiation, as, naturally, one would take as large a share as possible of the benefits.
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The team Australasia sent to the negotiations was led by Deputy Pri Minister Darren Watson, accompanied by several Cabinet Ministers and key governnt officers.
They had set out in early December and had no problem reaching London by January 15th.
The current dire state of Arica was well understood by all nations. Resolving Arica’s chaotic situation sooner was beneficial for other countries as well.
After all, what everyone wanted was a relatively stable region, not to clean up the ss left by the now-defunct Arican governnt.
Only a stable region could generate profits for the nations, whereas a chaotic region would add to the political and financial burdens.
On January 15th, the peace talks officially comnced.
The first item discussed at the negotiations was the division of the United States’ Atlantic Fleet.
When the Pacific squadron surrendered previously, the Britain-France-Australia tripartite had already taken their shares. Thus, what remained to be divided was the United States’ Atlantic Fleet, which still had nearly 20 main battleships and a large number of small and dium-sized warships.
Just as Arthur had done before when dividing the Atlantic Fleet, Australasia didn’t have much demand for warships, which allowed the main strength of the United States’ Atlantic Fleet to be divided almost entirely between Britain and France.
Britain naturally took the lion’s share, directly taking 15 dreadnoughts, 3 battlecruisers, and a large number of small and dium-sized warships.
This almost cleaned out the United States’ Atlantic Fleet’s assets and significantly strengthened the Royal Navy’s prowess.
In the current situation, the once more expanded Royal Navy had pulled far ahead of other countries.
Just looking at naval strength alone, France, Australasia, and the Island Nations all together might not be a match for the British.
Of course, this was just a unilateral prediction by the British Governnt. They had made this seemingly wild but actually not too far off estimation based on naval size and technological level of all nations.
Nobody really knew how an actual naval battle would turn out and it may only beco clear who was stronger and who weaker when war truly broke out.
Of course, if only naval size was taken into account, the British Empire was more than capable of crushing other nations.
After Britain had its fill of the at, it was naturally France’s turn to pick at the bones.
Due to Australasia’s withdrawal, the French also got their hands on 3 dreadnoughts and 2 battlecruisers, to so extent strengthening their own naval forces.
It is worth ntioning that the French specifically requested complete acquisition of Arica’s submarines, even willingly trading the state of New xico for them.
The British naturally had no objections, as New xico could be used to win over xico and incidentally make xico a surprising force in North Arica against France.
Moreover, not just France, xico could also contain Australasia’s developnt in North Arica.
As ntioned earlier, much of the west coast of Arica once belonged to xico, and in this war, xico naturally demanded these lands.
However, biceps cannot twist thighs; Texas State and California State were occupied by France and Australasia respectively, and xico naturally had no way to contest.
This situation was favorable for the British. Although Texas declared independence to beco the Lone Star Republic, France was clearly the power behind it.
This also indicated that xico would certainly have so conflicts with France, and it was very possible that this could lead to war in the future.
Tying down part of the French forces in North Arica ant Britain would beco even more influential in Europe.
The sa logic applied to Australasia. Even if California were to beco independent in the future, Australasia would surely have a hand in its control.
xico naturally had designs on this region with a population already exceeding 5 million, and with xico as a check, at least Australasia’s developnt would not be so smooth.
Such a strategy could resolve the threats of two strong enemies in North Arica, and this made the British Governnt quite generous in their decision to hand over all Arican submarines to France.
After Britain and France had their share, the United States’ Atlantic Fleet truly had nothing left but a little soup.
Of course, if each country only got a few small and dium-sized warships, then the remaining twenty-plus countries could each have a sip of soup without a problem.
Most nations didn’t mind this since what they were interested in was gaining a slice of Arican Territory, not the warships.
Even if they could get one or two battleships, could their national strength compare to that of the Powers?
It would be better to gain more on the territory side or secure more profits, as these were tangible gains they could secure.
After all, the exorbitant annual maintenance costs of warships don’t just fall from the sky; they have to be covered with real silver and gold.
For small countries, having too many warships is not a good thing, as the size of the country has already determined the sustainable scale of its military.
The British receiving the majority of the Atlantic Fleet seed to make the Royal Navy much stronger, but in fact, Arthur was even happier about this.
The annual maintenance costs for 15 dreadnoughts and three battlecruisers are not a small figure.
This seed to greatly strengthen the Royal Fleet, but it was also destined to take up a large portion of Britain’s naval budget.
The remaining budget for the military beca even smaller, naturally reducing what the British could invest in aircraft carriers.
Add to that the task of dealing with Arica, and in the coming years, the British investnt in aircraft carriers should decrease more and more, until either a main battleship retires or the Arican economy recovers.
But either of these two events would take a long ti. After all, Arica had not only experienced an economic crisis but also a severe ravaging by the war.
For Arica’s economy to recover to its heyday, it would take at least five to ten years, which is simply impossible otherwise.
Five to ten years are crucial for the developnt of a country, and aircraft carrier-related technology could even advance by leaps and bounds in such ti.
That was also Arthur’s opinion regarding Australasia’s opportunity to develop aircraft carriers. Not to ntion surpassing Britain in the number of carriers, but at least taking a significant step ahead in carrier technology.
As for whether the British would maintain a very large Royal Fleet and also vigorously develop aircraft carriers at the sa ti, that was almost an impossibility.
The British Navy’s most famous policy in the past was that the size of the Royal Fleet was equal to the combined strength of the world’s second and third navies.
But now, having received the Arican fleet, the Royal Navy’s fleet size had even surpassed the combined strength of the second, third, and fourth navies.
This is an exaggerated figure, and the naval maintenance costs are enough to give the British Empire a headache.
It was for this reason that Germany and Russia both expressed no need for ships, asking to exchange their rightful share of warships for actual funds, with the warships being exportable to any country.
The French naturally accepted Germany and Russia’s requests gladly. After all, both Germany and Russia owed the French a significant amount of debt.
The French didn’t even need to provide any funds; they could simply forgive so debts from these two countries to obtain their rightful share of warships.
Though not many, the additional warships provided a significant supplent for France, whose naval scale had already fallen noticeably behind.
Over 100 years ago, France was the undisputed superpower of Europe, and now, both their army and navy had declined considerably.
After the division of warships, all nations turned their attention to the next issue, naly the disposition of Arican territory.
It was clear to all countries that Arica was definitely to be divided and dismbered.
But the specifics of the division mostly depended on the views of the three Powers – Britain, France, and Australia.
In the current world order, it was very difficult for small countries to have a say, almost impossible to assert any decisive authority.
The fate of Czechoslovakia in history proved this point: the fate of small nations could only be controlled by more powerful countries, even when it ca to territorial and sovereign issues.
The good news was that the British visibly valued the role of the World Alliance, which ant that the belligerent countries were still assured a share of the spoils.
As the second topic comnced, so countries suggested that since the United States had many states, each belligerent country could be allocated one U.S. state.
However, this proposal was quickly rejected by Britain, France, and Australia.
Distributing the spoils this way, though seemingly fair, was the most unfair thod due to the vast differences in land area and population of each state; moreover, Britain, France, and Australia definitely wouldn’t agree to let small nations take so much of the territory they had fought hard for.
Aside from so originally neutral countries, there were clearly three factions in the eting, led respectively by Britain, France, and Australasia.
As long as these three countries agreed on a proposal for the division of the United States, the other small and dium-sized countries would have no choice but to accept it.
Ultimately, it was the British who first put forth their proposal:
Britain would reclaim its original 13 colonies and establish two new governnts there.
The French would obtain Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Mississippi, as well as the sovereignty of the Lone Star Republic.
Australasia would get the territories of Hawaii, Alaska, California, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Arican Pacific Islands.
Based on this, Michigan would be integrated into Canada to beco Canadian territory.
Beyond that, a United Arican Governnt would be established centered on Illinois, which all belligerent countries could manage jointly, and all belligerent countries would enjoy the highest authority within the United Arican Governnt.
This so-called United Arican Governnt was essentially the new United States. Under the British proposal, the new United States still maintained a large area, including so central and eastern regions.
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