The Rise Of Australasia

Chapter 1191: Chapter 891: French Treachery

Chapter 1191: Chapter 891: French Treachery

After the failure of the war on the Belgian border, Britain and France had already fallen into a disadvantage in the entire war.

For this reason, the Germans were able to free up their hands to carry out larger and more strategic operations.

When they could act without restraint, the Germans finally revealed their grand ambitions.

In mid-July 1936, a German Army Group set off towards Denmark, launching an attack without declaration of war.

The Danish government was forced to declare war on Germany, joining the alliance of Britain, France, Australia, and Austria.

This was not the end, as the Germans clearly had ambitions not only towards Denmark but even had certain designs on Sweden and Norway.

Although the Nordic Trio was relatively undeveloped compared to Central Western Europe, their vast territory endowed them with ample mineral resources and other supplies, which Germany was in urgent need of.

If it had been possible at the beginning, Germany might have purchased certain supplies from the Nordic Trio through peaceful channels. But after the outbreak of war, the British strengthened customs on the Baltic Sea, making it much harder for Germany to obtain enough supplies.

Moreover, it was now summer, and the Baltic Sea was still a warm ocean. But come winter, a significant part of the Baltic Sea would be covered by ice, severely affecting the progress of the fleet.

To ensure a sufficient supply source at any time, Germany decided to directly bring the Nordic Trio under its dominion.

Since they were already in a full-scale war with the Britain-France-Australia alliance, Germany no longer needed to worry about the negative impact of attacking the Nordic Trio.

Latvia and Estonia, two Mediterranean countries, were naturally also on Germany’s list of targets.

In just half a month, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Latvia, and Estonia had declared war on Germany, which began its remarkable feat of almost single-handedly challenging the whole of Europe.

Despite appearing somewhat mad, it was undeniable that the German military’s combat strength was extremely formidable at this time.

Particularly as European nations were not as fervent about the war, the mad German army, like game cheats activated, emerged victorious in every battle, unstoppable in its momentum.

By July 27, 1936, Germany had already successfully occupied the Netherlands and Denmark, and Latvia was in grave danger.

On July 28, a conference of Allied Nations led by Britain and France was convened in London, with Australasia and many European belligerent countries participating in the meeting.

At the conference, the French representative proposed staying united, to confront Germany together, and solemnly stated, “If France falls in this war, there will not be a single country that can stop Germany, which will have occupied most of Europe.”

The point was valid. Even the mighty British Empire would definitely not be able to stop the German Empire alone if it occupied France.

The purpose of the French representative was also singular—asking more countries to join the war to stop the crazily expanding Germany.

Clearly, Britain and France placed their greatest hopes on Australasia.

Compared to other nations, Australasia was clearly the strongest power among non-European countries and the most likely to change the situation of the European war.

But Australasia would not let its soldiers die in vain, which drew attention to the issue of interest distribution after the war.

Clearly, if Australasia was to send more soldiers to help France, France would have to cede some interests.

There was not much result from that day’s negotiations, but after they ended, the French representative approached the Australasian representative to discuss the issue of interest exchange.

The French representative indicated that if Australasia was willing to send more troops to aid France, the French government was ready to cede Reunion Island in the Western Indian Ocean as compensation and allow Australasia to establish a naval base on the Comoros Archipelago.

From the map, it was evident that both islands were located in the Western Indian Ocean, distributed around Madagascar Island in an east-west pattern.

If naval bases could be established on these two islands, it would indeed greatly enhance Australasia’s control of the Indian Ocean.

But obviously, this was not sufficiently enticing for Australasia, as it seemed like a rib—of no real use, yet a pity to discard.

The Australasian foreign representative, Yorn, smiled and said, “Australasia has no intention to compete with the British Empire in the Indian Ocean, and has no claims on the islands of the Western Indian Ocean.”

However, Yorn said with a smile, if France was willing to transfer the jurisdiction of the Texas Republic to Australasia, it could make more efforts to help its ally.

Compared to the two smaller islands mentioned by the French, the Texas Republic had a much larger scale of land.

More importantly, Texas not only had large reserves of petroleum and other supplies but also a large population, yielding substantial benefits for the French each year.

The market value alone far exceeded the value of the two islands the French mentioned. Not to mention, a lot of supplies from Texas flowed to France, and the benefit of these supplies was incalculable.

After an all-night negotiation between the two, the plan for Australasian troops was altered to providing more weapons and equipment support and sending military advisory groups to help the French train their army more quickly.