Chapter 425: Chapter 112: The Creditor’s Trouble
 

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Expecting the African people to resist the British invaders is highly unreliable. If they truly had such formidable combat strength, the colonial era would have ended long ago.

However, it’s still necessary to dig pits for them, regardless of how effective it may be, it can at least slow down the British expansion.

Every country’s expansion has a limit, and the Great British Empire, being the world’s foremost colonial empire, is no exception.

Population is a major weakness, as the British Isles only have a combined population of thirty million. Among the four major European powers, it ranks last, and with the industrialization of France and Austria complete, a surprising shift in power balance is underway.

There’s no need to wait until the twentieth century, as for now, the UK has fallen to third in Europe and fifth in the world in terms of economic output.

Of course, they are still the world’s foremost industrial power. At this time, agriculture still accounts for a very important proportion of the economic output, hence why the British rank even behind India.

It’s not surprising; a larger population doesn’t necessarily mean greater strength, but it does mean a larger economy.

Unfortunately, economic output doesn’t equate to national power, industrial strength determines a nation’s strength, and the Great British Empire remains the most powerful country in the world.

However, their expansion is disadvantaged by their population. The British population is only two-thirds that of France (including Sardinia) and half that of Austria (including the Balkans). This includes several millions of Irish who are disillusioned and yearn for independence.

The shortage in population is underscored by the vast land size of the British colonies, averaging over 1 square kilometer per British person.

After the Near Eastern War, the London Government has started to avoid European wars, which is not too hard to understand.

Maintaining this colonial empire is not easy, as tens of thousands of colonists fall every year. If they were to fight a few more major wars, the British wouldn’t be able to withstand the pressure.

This is the opportunity seen by Franz, causing trouble for the British in the colonies might seem trivial on the surface, but over time, these small amounts can accumulate to exhaust their manpower.

This Ethiopian war, for example, is an excellent opportunity. Just causing tens of thousands of casualties to the British would satisfy Franz.

Winning against the British is out of the question, the British Army is not the Italian Army, and such a laughable incident won’t happen this century.

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As the British Army made its way to Ethiopia, changes had already taken place at the London Peace Conference, and the Russians’ diplomatic maneuvers were really nothing to boast about.

Sweden indeed supported them, but it was not due to Russian efforts, the real influence came from the Kingdom of Denmark.

Supporting kith not reason, the Kingdom of Denmark is to be a member of the soon-to-be established Nordic Federation, and naturally, Sweden, being the elder, had to consider their feelings.

From now on, the Kingdom of Prussia has gained another enemy, the Nordic Federation that is about to be established.

Of course, this enemy is a small threat. The Danes cannot dominate the new government and are at most hostile to Prussia—there’s no chance of them instigating a war.

The German Federation Empire did genuinely feel threatened by Prussia, yet it was of no use, for the Russians failed to gain their support, and in the end, they chose to remain neutral.

As for the other countries, there’s no need to mention them, Switzerland is neutral as it’s known as the Eternal Neutral Country, and it doesn’t need any public relations work; the remaining countries are supporters of Prussia.

Nearly forgot, the Montenegro Duchy and Greece are also in support of Russia. The former has always been supported by Russia, while the latter is just looking to cling to a powerful ally.

Prussia is far away and can be offended without any repercussions. But Russia is at arm’s length and Greece cannot afford to offend.

Considering the nations in support, Russia is not only at a disadvantage in terms of quantity, but also in terms of weight.

To prevent Russia from losing too disgracefully, Wessenberg had no choice but to propose a reduction in the number of negotiation representatives.

Apart from the three mediating countries of England, France, and Austria, only the belligerents were present, with representatives from other countries being no more than spectators.

Fortunately, the Russian representative, Clarence-Ivanov, was astute enough to send away the Four Central Asian countries and the Eastern Empire, signing a ceasefire treaty with them.

The Russians still had their prestige, and after securing their own interests, these countries promptly chose to remain silent. As for Prussia’s allies, sorry, but they never truly formed an alliance, so there were naturally no obligations of alliance.

Seeing the unfavorable situation, the Ottoman Empire also backed down. Russia gave up the territories gained in the Caucasus region in the previous war, and even retreated a bit, ending the war with the Ottomans. (Note: now the Georgia region)

By July, only Prussia and Poland were left. Compared to the concessions in other regions, the Tsarist Government’s stance in Eastern Europe was drastically different.

Firstly, regarding the definition of the Polish Region, the Tsarist Government did not acknowledge it, handing over the Lithuanian Region and a part of the Belarusian Region was their limit.

However, the Prussians also wanted the Latvian Region, not making any claims on Estonia as it was too close to St. Petersburg, and the Berlin Government was also afraid of provoking the Russians.

The Prusso-Polish representatives also made territorial claims on the entire Belarusian Region, evidently having reached an agreement to partition this area.

The Polish representatives made claims to the Ukraine Region, primarily extending from the Volen Region all the way to the Kiev area. Without parts of Lvov, in this era, Western Ukraine was part of Austria’s domain.

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If these terms were agreed to, it would mean that the Russian Empire would lose 860,000 square kilometers of land, more than 21 million people, and thirty percent of its industry.

At the same time, the Russian Empire would also lose its population advantage over Austria, after all, the Central Asia region had already gained independence, and considerable land had been abandoned in the Far East and Caucasus regions.

With less land, the population naturally decreased as well. Fortunately, these areas were sparsely populated; except for Central Asia, which had a population of five to six million, the other two regions had only one to two million people.

The situation in the Eastern Europe region was different, as this was the core area of the Russian Empire. Every piece of territory here was valuable, and the Tsarist Government naturally would not easily let go.

The conference once again reached a deadlock, and the representatives of England, France, and Austria held a private meeting. There was no shame in it; weakening the Russians was something the three countries were happy to see.

After all, the Russian Empire was too vast. Once it completed industrialization, everyone’s interests would suffer.

At the same time, France and Austria did not want to see the Kingdom of Prussia grow too strong, while the British felt the opposite, wanting Prussia to cause trouble for France and Austria.

The French wanted to support Poland, while Austria held an opposing attitude.

One does not permit others to sleep soundly by the side of his bed.

In order to contain the rise of Poland, Austria was willing to support Prussia in obtaining the Lithuanian Region, blocking the Polish access to the sea.

This was also a way of creating conflict. Without resolving the issue of sea access, relations between Prussia and Poland would inevitably fracture sooner or later.

Of course, they could also exchange territories. Clearly, that was even more unlikely; the Polish couldn’t possibly trade away the Warsaw region just for sea access, could they?

The Kingdom of Prussia also couldn’t fight a hard battle and end up with nothing. Due to geographical position, expanding into the Lithuanian Region was their only choice.

The contradictions among England, France, and Austria made the negotiations even more complicated.

By summer, the smell of gunpowder in the Eastern Europe region thickened again, and if an agreement couldn’t be reached, war would break out once more.

Despite the Prussians having the advantage on the battlefield, they were out of money! If war broke out again, it would ultimately be the British who paid.

The London Government was not willing to be a big spender; they calculated costs at all times. Now that the objective to suppress Russia was met, continuing the fight would not bring them much benefit, even if they defeated Russia convincingly.

Regardless of the fact that Russia and Austria were allies, in times of weakness, allies could also be dangerous. If the Prussians were lucky and won another major battle, the Tsarist Government might collapse directly, and who knew if Austria would kick them while they were down?

Shrewd British would not spend money and effort to let competitors reap the benefits.

Moreover, they had already loaned a considerable amount of money to both Prussia and Poland, and as the debt kept rising, the possibility of it becoming bad debt also increased.

To end this war, England, France, and Austria first had to reach an agreement. Otherwise, everyone stabbing each other in the back and fanning the flames could reignite the war at any moment.

In light of the British Pounds, Reis also had to persuade France and Austria to join forces and pressure them to end this war.

The English weren’t the only ones with these concerns; France and Austria were similarly worried. Everyone was a creditor; it’s just that the English and French mainly lent money to Prussia and Poland, while Austria lent money to Russia.

Currently, the British had lent out the most, with a total amount of 320 million British Pounds; Austria followed closely behind with a debt total of 240 million British Pounds; even the French, lending the least, had 120 million British Pounds out.

Whether acknowledged or not, this war was also a capital conflict. Undoubtedly, the hidden hands behind were the winners, working together to manipulate the market.

Even if these debts were all to go bad, everyone could still recoup costs from other areas. Of course, nobody wanted to do that.

Why let a recoverable loan become a bad debt?

Despite the debtors having not a small number of collateral items, if a change of events occurred, these collateral items may not necessarily be liquidated.

Take Poland as an example: if the Polish Government fell, whom would England and France ask for money?

In comparison, Austria had an advantage. Being close by, they could annex a piece of land to compensate for their losses if necessary.

The French could also consider the Rhineland region, after all, repaying debt was a reasonable excuse.

However, the British were worse off. Even if others dared to cut land, did they dare to accept it?

Various tax revenues, mineral rights, road rights pledged could only be realized on the precondition that the debtor nation’s government remained stable.

This meant that post-war, they would have to continue lending money to Prussia and Poland. Otherwise, these two beggarly governments would either declare bankruptcy and default or collapse due to a financial crisis.

Of course, high risk and high profit were proportional. In this war, the British made a killing.

Not only did they achieve the position of world hegemon, but they also gained a few more vassals, ensured the security of India, and completed their strategic layout across the Eurasian continent.