The Rise Of Australasia

Further, all independent religious schools and theological seminaries in Turkey would be closed down. The historical Islamic clergy system and the Sharia law, considered a sacred code, were abolished, greatly reducing the influence of religion in Turkey.

Many European nations were surprised by Turkey’s bold reforms since it was the first nation to comprehensively study the West, even adopting everyday attire and governmental systems from Australasia and Europe.

To ensure Turkey’s republican system, Kemal modeled the new government on the political systems of Australasia and various republics around the world, centering it around the President and allowing the Grand National Assembly to control legislative power.

As the world looked on with astonishment, Turkey officially started its secularization and modernization reforms, with the success or failure of these reforms determining whether Australasia’s investment would pay off.

While Turkey was creating significant news, other regions in Europe were not so quiet.

Firstly, on the Greek front, Greece did not perform well in the war with Turkey, leading to the deposition of Constantine I, who had pushed for the war, and his cabinet.

His successor was Arthur’s brother-in-law, King George II, but at that time, Greece had gone through the turnover of three kings in four years. The domestic political situation was unstable, and the rise of revolutionaries prompted George II to lose his throne.

Upon receiving a telegram from his sister Charlotte stating that her husband, George II, had been deposed, Arthur could only respond with a wry smile.

The current situation of the Greek royal family and the radical policies of previous Greek monarchs were inseparably connected.

This was also a typical example Arthur had once cautioned Dmitry about: it’s better for a monarch of a small country not to be too conspicuous, lest they risk losing their throne with one misstep.

Besides Greece, the overall situation in Europe was not too peaceful either.

Firstly, there was the issue of German reparations. Four years had passed since the last reduction of the reparations term, signifying that Germany had reached the time for full repayment this year.

Of course, this was unacceptable to the Germans since the relief from the reparations during the previous three years had given the German government a breather, and now they were faced with high annual reparations again, signaling the end of their good days.

In order to gain more benefits for themselves, Germany tried to delay the payment of reparations in hopes of obtaining a longer term of relief.

However, such a move quickly angered the French. The French, already dissatisfied with the three-year reduction of Germany’s share of reparations, were naturally unlikely to agree to a reduction for an extended period.

Moreover, France’s current economic situation wasn’t too positive either. They were naturally waiting for the reparations from Germany to restore their domestic economy and were not inclined to agree to another reduction of Germany’s reparations.

Even Tsarist Russia, under Nicholas II, was awaiting German reparations to ease its domestically severe debt disputes.

In such circumstances, the French maintained a very firm stance on Germany’s debt repayment. They even harshly stated that if the Germans were unwilling to repay their debts, France would use its own means to urge Germany to do so.

The good news was that this threat did indeed reach the German government; the bad news was that the German government was in such disarray that no one was capable of dealing with the threatening telegram.

In this context, we cannot help but mention the complex political system currently in Germany. Due to British and French influence, Germany is riddled with influences from the military government and monarchism, as well as federal states and political parties, resulting in extremely chaotic political institutions.

Neither Emperor William II of Germany nor Hindenburg from the military government could grasp enough influential power, which left the unity of Germany in name only, rather than in practice.

Especially since the Kingdom of Bavaria, a more powerful federal state in South Germany, has already gained a high degree of autonomy, with a military force almost as sizable as the government’s, they even disregard the imperial government.

Given such circumstances, it’s only natural for the Germans to want to delay their reparations.

After all, collecting taxes from each federal state is a troublesome matter; Bavaria, for example, hasn’t paid taxes to the imperial government for over two years.

The financial independence of these powerful federal states also indirectly exacerbated Germany’s economic crisis.

Currently, the German government indeed does not have the money to pay back reparations, and after much thought, the government decided to temporarily default, seeing that it genuinely had no money to pay back and the French couldn’t do much about it.

The time entered 1924, and many nations that had signed the contract also received requests from Germany to postpone the reparations due in 1924 until 1926 to alleviate Germany’s severe fiscal crisis.

If this had happened before the mitigation of reparations, the countries involved might have convened a negotiation conference. After all, Germany’s financial status post-defeat was indeed dire, and making some concessions was inevitable.

But what time is it now?

Only four years had passed since the reduction of German reparations and the decrease in the proportion of payments for the first three years. Now, at the time when the reduced reparations were to be paid for the first time, the Germans were applying for a delay—wasn’t this treating all the nations like fools?

Even if Germany’s financial situation had been problematic before, it had been eased for four years; there should have been some improvements, right?

If they now cannot pay even a reduced reparations sum, it might be necessary to reconsider the German attitude toward war reparations.

As one of the main recipients of German reparations, Australasia naturally also received the German request to postpone repayment.

When Roger asked for his opinion, Arthur gave an ambiguous answer, “If Britain and France both agree to extend the repayment period again, we have no problem with that. Most of our debts have already been mortgaged to Britain and France, we can just follow their lead in reparations matters.”

The share of reparations for Australasia was already one of the lowest among the Allies, and after the last reduction, there wasn’t much left.

In the development over these years, Arthur had transferred some of these loans to Britain and France, leaving Australasia with a German reparations share of about £100 million, already far less than the shares held by Britain and France.

Whether the repayment time is postponed or they default on the debt, the losses for Australasia would be far smaller than those for Britain and France.

This is the real reason Arthur asked the government to follow the actions of Britain and France, after all, there were leaders in front, and there would be someone more anxious than Australasia.

Compared with Australasia’s wait-and-see attitude, the French position was very resolute.

Because they had already warned Germany before, the French government publicly stated that they would not accept any method or any reason for delaying reparations, demanding that the German government promptly repay this year’s reparations within the stipulated time and fulfill the duties under the contract signed at the time.

The French demands received considerable support from a number of small and medium-sized countries, as these nations did not possess the same confidence in facing the once powerful Germany.

Britain and France could afford to demand payments with stern faces, but these nations needed to maintain good relations with German diplomats during interactions.

After all, the limiting treaty couldn’t restrict Germany forever, and the scale of Germany still fell within the range of Powerful Nations, not something a mere small or medium-sized country could afford to offend.

Besides, even with just an Army of 150,000, Germany’s military strength still far exceeded some of the small and medium-sized countries, which was also why these countries were not willing to offend Germany directly.

France’s ability to outright oppose the German request was like a ray of dawn in the dark night for these smaller nations, appearing so righteous and eye-catching.