Chapter 144: Chapter 142: Island Australia Agreement and Reactions from Various Parties_2

Now, with the arrival of the Island Nation’s diplomatic delegation, Arthur saw a way for Australia to allow shipyard technical experts to skillfully master the technology of building battleships without spending funds.

Through this method of selling battleships to other countries, not only can many benefits be earned, but experts can build battleships and familiarize themselves with the techniques learned from German experts.

Naturally, Australia would profit from this, and the Island Nation would not lose out, at least not until the dreadnought era began.

Such an arms deal that suits both parties cannot be lamented simply due to the fact that the armaments might eventually be obsolete.

On November 19,1902, after lengthy discussions and visits, the Island Nation s visiting group finally confirmed their final arms deal order.

This purchase plan included one battleship, four armored cruisers, one coastal defense ship (gifted), 20,000 Gew98 rifles, 100 German Maxim heavy machine guns, thirty 105mm Krupp howitzers, and tens of millions of rifle and heavy machine gun bullets, plus 10,000 shells, among other various light and heavy weapons and warships.

These weapons could directly equip a top-twenty-ranked navy and an elite, powerfully armed 20,000-strong army.

Moreover, the Island Nation’s military was initially very powerful, with a navy equipped with five battleships purchased from the United Kingdom, plus one captured in a previous naval battle, totaling six in the top ten globally.

As for the army, relying on a sufficient population and militarism, the Island Nation could casually arm a huge army of millions and even a tidal force of over 3 million under the premise of shaking the country’s foundation.

In addition to this arms deal agreement, the Island Nation also signed a resource import and export agreement with Australia.

The resource imports were not limited to simple coal and iron mines but also included oil, nickel, aluminum, and a series of metal minerals and resources.

This resource import and export agreement stipulated that Australia should provide at least 100,000 tons of mineral resources to the Island Nation each year, with mineral resources’ selling price not exceeding twice the market price.

To compensate Australia for the mineral output, the transport of these mineral resources would be the responsibility of the Island Nation, and Australia only needed to transport them to the port.

For Australia and the Island Nation, this agreement is a win-win situation. Australia can exchange its abundant and readily available mineral resources for foreign exchange, which can purchase more advanced industrial equipment from Europe, speeding up Australia’s industrial and technological progress.

At the same time, the Island Nation could change its domestic mineral resource scarcity to some extent, allowing some industries to progress and break through those that are stagnant due to mineral resource constraints.

The arms trade agreement and the mineral resource import and export agreement together constituted the overall agreement signed by the Island Nation’s diplomatic mission and Australia, known as the Island Australia Preliminary Agreement on strengthening economic and military cooperation, or the Island Australia Agreement.

This agreement did not have any military attributes, and the armaments involved, were actions taken by Arthur to open up Australia’s arms exports.

The impact of this agreement on the international community was considerable. Although Australia had taken over part of Britain’s arms trade market, due to close public relations between Australia and the British Empire, and Arthur’s good reputation in the British Empire, the British Empire did not take any action or statement.

As for the United States, they were pleased to see the cooperation between Australia and the Island Nation.

The United States and the Russian Empire were also considered neighbors, with their nearest territories being less than four kilometers apart.

Of course, this proximity between the two countries was largely a result of the Russian Empire’s actions. The current US territory, Alaska State, was once a Russian colonial possession.

Due to the Russian Empire’s poor financial management, the territory was sold to the United States, becoming a new state in the American union.

It was this state that was less than four kilometers away from the easternmost island of the Russian Far East, making the Tsardom of Russia and the United States neighboring countries.

With the rise of American industry and economy, the United States was no longer satisfied with maintaining its influence within the boundaries of North America.

However, most of the world had already been divided up among European powers, and no matter how hard the United States tried, they could only seize some resources from weakened countries like Spain.

In order to strengthen its influence, America needed to expand its prestige to other regions and countries.

The east was naturally impossible, as across the Atlantic Ocean was the most prosperous region in Europe. With America’s current military power, they were simply not strong enough to confront European powers.

As such, the United States had to look to Asia across the Pacific Ocean, and waging war on Spain to seize the Philippines was a microcosm of American plans.

But in Asia, the United States also faced several powerful enemies. In the northern part of Asia, the Russian Empire, which spanned the eastern part of Europe and the farthest east of Asia, was one of the old European powers and one of the countries with great influence in Asia and the Far East.

In East Asia, the big countries had essentially been divided up by the major powers, offering the United States only a small share and not realizing its own interests.

Further south were Southeast Asia and Oceania. In both the past and the present, the United States would not touch most of the regions in these two areas.

Whether it was the British Empire’s colonies, the many power-backed Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia, or Australia, which had good relations with both the British and German Empires, these were the forces that the United States could not yet provoke.

Even though the industry and economy of the United States had become highly developed, its military technology was still relatively backward and it was not yet able to confront European powers.

Since the United States could not directly intervene in the situation in Asia, it was necessary to support and assist a country to become a stirring force.

On this point, the British Empire and the United States held almost the same objective: to support and assist a country with some military power in opposing the nations with hegemony in Asia when they could not directly intervene.

This would not only weaken the hegemony of Asian superpowers and allow the British Empire and the United States to expand their power in Asia more effectively, but it would also not drag their own countries into the vortex of war.

Given the current situation, the Russian Empire was obviously much stronger than the island nation. This was also why the British Empire, long known as the European stirrer, did not oppose this cooperation.

Apart from the British Empire, the German Empire, which had a good cooperative relationship with Australia, did not oppose this either.

Although the cooperation between Australia and the island nation had strengthened the island nation’s military power, making the Russian Empire’s advantage in the Far East weaker and even lagging behind in terms of army size, wasn’t this an opportunity for the German Empire?

The German Empire had always wanted to detach the Russian Empire from the Franco-Russian Alliance, and the current conflict between the island nation and the Russian Empire in the Far East was a good opportunity.

France did not support the Russian Empire’s focus on the Far East, which also gave the German Empire a chance to win over the Russian Empire.

As long as they could remove the Russian bulldozer from the Franco-Russian Alliance or make the Russian Empire stay neutral in the conflict between Germany and France, then the German Empire and Austro-Hungarian Empire would only have to face one enemy: France.

This would be the best news for the German Empire, which had bloodily crushed France just decades ago and was not afraid of waging war against them.

If it were a one-on-one fight between Germany and France, the Germans were confident in replicating history and letting the French taste the loss of territory and heavy compensation.

Therefore, the German Empire was willing to see the expansion of the island nation’s power. After all, the stronger the island nation became, the more the Russian Empire would need the support of other countries, wouldn’t it?