The Rise of Australia

Although the French are not aware of the conspiracy between Germany and Italy, this does not mean that the French have taken no action regarding the German-Italian agreement.

In fact, the French have long been aware of the crisis in the rise of authoritarian governments like Italy and Germany, and have tried to work with the British to strengthen restrictions on the Germans to ensure that the German military power will not expand as quickly as Italy.

But the bad news is that France is currently second in the world, and France is also the British Empire's largest and direct competitor.

Compared with Germany, which is in chaos at home and has not yet recovered its strength, the British are obviously more worried about the strength of the French.

Because of this, the second restriction on Germany's military strength planned by the French not only failed to be achieved, but also allowed the British to loosen their restrictions on Germany.

At this point, the French also knew that the British were unreliable, so they shifted the target of alliance to Austria.

At least the Austrian Empire was very willing to restrict the Germans. After all, Austria is a neighbor of Germany, has no conflict of interest with France, and is a relatively good ally.

After the German-Italian agreement was exposed, France urgently contacted the diplomatic department of the Austrian Empire to discuss whether to formulate a potential defense alliance plan regarding the relationship between Germany and Italy.

The French proposal was strongly affirmed by Austria. On Christmas Day, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs made an urgent trip to the Austrian Empire to discuss the embryonic defense alliance plan.

This defense alliance plan is purely for the alliance between Germany and Italy. According to the French proposal, the first item of the defensive alliance plan is that when any country of France and the Austrian Empire is attacked by another country, it is equivalent to attacking the entire alliance.

Within a week, the other defense alliance country should provide diplomatic support and conduct domestic military mobilization.

Within a period of two weeks, the Defense League should mobilize a portion of its troops to the country being attacked to perform the duties of the entire Defense League.

Although the terms of the defense alliance do not specify which country the attack is directed against, the answer is already obvious.

Except for the two crazy countries of Germany and Italy, no one would attack powerful countries like France and the Austrian Empire without warning.

In addition to this defense alliance, France has also signed a series of economic cooperation with Austria. The purpose is to help Austria recover its economy, return to its peak state, and better deal with the two enemies of Germany and Italy.

This complete defensive alliance treaty is actually of great benefit to Austria.

Because of this, Austria signed the treaty faster than France, as if France was afraid of going back on its word.

In fact, France really will not go back on its words. After all, there are not many great powers that France can win over at this time. Apart from Austria, the only stronger allies that France can win over are Spain and Poland.

But the problem is that neither Spain nor Poland can be considered a great power. Moreover, these two countries also have their own domestic problems and can provide very little help to France.

The United Kingdom may be a more suitable ally. Perhaps only when Germany regains its peak strength in the early days of World War I, the British will understand that the most powerful opponent in Europe is still Germany.

With the announcement of a defensive alliance between France and Austria, the situation in Europe has become decidedly murkier.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that the German-Italian Agreement and the Franco-Austrian defensive alliance are targeting and wary of each other. Some media have even begun to boldly predict that a war between Germany, Italy and France is likely to break out in the short term.

Regardless of whether such a prediction is bold or not, it does attract some European people.

It's not that the European people are curious about war, it's actually because they are already afraid of previous wars like World War I.

The people are afraid that another huge war like World War I will break out in Europe, with several major powers participating at every turn, and casualties easily exceeding tens of millions.

Although the British did not say anything about this, Australasia still contacted Britain and France and stated that it would put aside the peace talks on the Chaco War and end this war that had been going on for a long time.

The Australasian proposal was agreed to by Britain and France, and peace talks were expected to be held in early 1932 in the city of Oran, near the Chaco region of Argentina.

Holding peace talks in a non-war third country also symbolizes the non-biased nature of peace talks held by Britain, France and Australia.

January 3, 1932, City of Orange, Argentina.

After more than a week of careful preparations, diplomatic representatives from Britain, France, Australia, as well as Bolivia and Paraguay arrived in Oran, Argentina.

In addition, diplomatic representatives from Chile and Argentina also participated in the peace talks. Their role is to supervise the peace in the Chaco region after the peace talks are reached, and to maintain order in South America on behalf of Britain, France, and Australia.

Why not Brazil? Because compared to Chile and Argentina, Brazil is the three South American powers least close to Britain and France.

Naturally, the British would not be willing to join Brazil in such peace talks, lest the Brazilians benefit from the Chaco War.

On January 3, peace talks between Bolivia and Paraguay on the Chaco War officially began.

Because the number of casualties on both sides has been very high since the war, the peace talks between the two countries are no longer as perfunctory as before, and they have conducted serious negotiations.

But it is obvious that without the intervention of the great powers, it is impossible to end this war just by relying on the two countries' own diplomatic negotiations.

Paraguay chose to have a big appetite because it had the advantage in the war. Paraguay demanded the annexation of the entire Chaco region, pushing the front into the Isozogo Swamp.

Bolivia will naturally not be careless under such conditions. Not to mention how heavy the loss of the entire Chaco region would be to Bolivia, the casualties suffered by Bolivia in this war alone made Bolivia unwilling to bear such a huge loss of land.

After all, the peace talks only solved the problem of Paraguay, but did not solve the emotions of the people in Bolivia.

Once the people know that this war not only killed and injured a large number of civilians, but also lost a lot of land, they are afraid that angry Bolivians will break out in demonstrations or even armed conflicts to resist the government's ignorant rule.

However, Bolivia is indeed at a disadvantage on the front line, which is also the biggest trouble in Bolivia's peace talks.

Once the peace talks do not produce a result, the Paraguayan army on the front line will still push the battlefield to the vicinity of the Deisosog Swamp, which will be basically the same as the conditions required by the Paraguayan diplomatic representatives.

As for whether the peace talks could be relied on to allow the army to recover and then launch a full-scale counterattack, the Bolivian government also rejected the plan.

After all, while Bolivia is recovering, the Paraguayan army is also recovering.

Paraguay also has the support of the two major powers of Britain and Australasia, and the speed and scale of obtaining supplies are not comparable to Bolivia's current efforts.

Naturally, Britain, France and Australia are not willing to see the peace talks between the two countries reach a stalemate. Under the influence of the three major powers, Paraguay and Bolivia both modified their conditions, and the peace talks finally made some progress.

The first is Paraguay. As the dominant party in the war, Paraguay still claims the most land in the Chaque region, approximately 180,000 square kilometers.

With these lands as expansion, Paraguay's land area will be greatly expanded. When facing Bolivia again, there will not be a big gap at least in terms of strategic depth and land area.

What's more, much of the oil in the Northern Chaco region is right where Paraguay claims it.

This also means that Paraguay can earn a lot of wealth from the land it has acquired, which can be used to bring the entire country's economy and other construction to a higher level.

Given the ebb and flow of one another, it is really difficult to say who will be stronger or weaker between Paraguay and Bolivia in the future.

Even if another Chaco War breaks out, Paraguay will not be afraid of Bolivia even without the assistance of the great powers.

The conditions offered by Paraguay are actually very reasonable. Even if Paraguay carves up 180,000 square kilometers of land in the Northern Chaco region, there will still be about 80,000 square kilometers of land left for Bolivia in the Chaco region.

At least Bolivia also gained land, and it seems that this war was not such a failure.

But Bolivia also put forward another condition, which is to obtain navigation rights through the Paraguay River into the Atlantic Ocean.

Bolivia has completely become a landlocked country in its previous history and wars.

As we all know, the most important method of economic exchange is still shipping. Without access to the sea, Bolivia's development has clearly lagged behind other powerful countries in South America, and the gap is still widening.

After losing to Paraguay this time, Bolivia is no longer a powerful country in South America. If there is no way to find an outlet to accelerate the development of the domestic economy, I am afraid that in the next ten years, Bolivia will be able to compete with the weakest country in South America.

Compared with directly obtaining an outlet to the sea, Bolivia's diplomatic representatives also obviously know their situation.

All he asked for was navigation rights for Bolivian ships to pass through the Paraguay River and into the Atlantic Ocean.

The Paraguay River is a large river in South America. It flows through Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and finally Argentina. After passing through Rosario, it flows into the Atlantic Ocean.

Although it still takes a long river to reach the Atlantic Ocean from Bolivia, it is better than not having any outlet at all.

After careful consideration, the Paraguayan diplomatic representative finally agreed to the proposal of the Bolivian diplomatic representative, stating that Bolivian ships can be allowed to pass through the Paraguay River in Paraguay.

But the premise is that these passing ships must be non-military ships and cannot carry too many weapons and equipment.

This was also strongly requested by Paraguay to be written into the contract as a constraint on Bolivia.

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