The Rise Of Australasia

Chapter 333: Chapter 290: The Focus of the World - Morocco

Of course, although the per capita cultivated land area seems to have only increased by 0.0 acres, the total cultivated land has expanded by approximately .8 million acres.

After all, the population has grown by more than 900,000, and to maintain the same level of per capita cultivated land, a large amount of land must be reclaimed for cultivation.

Thanks to the increase in cultivated land area, Australasia's food production in 9 also saw a significant increase, already breaking through 9.6 million tons.

This brings Australasia's food production to just a step away from million tons, and by next year, wh the population exceeds million, food production should also break the million mark.

However, throughout 9, Australasia's total food consumption was less than .9 million tons, which means that Australasia can export 6 million tons of food annually, which is not a small income.

Of course, due to the signing of a further trade agreemt with the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom has become the main target of Australasia's food exports.

Australasia exports at least million tons of food to the United Kingdom every year, confirming the close relationship betwe the United Kingdom and Australasia.

This is the currt developmt of the governmt, as for the developmt of the royal financial group, Arthur can only describe it as ormous.

After the cabinet meeting, through a report from Butler Kt, Arthur understood how huge the currt royal financial group is for Australasia.

Of course, last year's royal financial group was already huge ough, and this year it expanded ev more on top of that.

At prest, the royal financial group has established hundreds of factories and terprises, and holds stakes in thousands of them.

The total number of employees in all the terprises and factories managed by the royal financial group has exceeded 500,000, covering every state, field, and industry in Australasia.

In 9, the royal financial group's net profit reached 54.3 million Australian dollars, ev after deducting nearly million Australian dollars in taxes for the governmt.

The royal financial group's net income is only million Australian dollars less than the country's total fiscal revue, showing the vast scale of the royal financial group in Australasia.

Ev without exaggeration, as long as Arthur wants, the royal financial group's net income can surpass the country's total fiscal revue at any time.

However, the royal financial group only controls some of Australasia's more important industries, such as heavy industry, petroleum, chemical industry, military industry, and so on., Some civil industries and fields are not too involved with the royal financial group, after all, the people of Australasia should have some opportunities.

If there is currtly a ranking of the world's top 500 terprises, Arthur believes that his royal financial group would definitely rank among the top t.

A net profit of up to 54 million Australian dollars, which is equivalt to 7 million pounds, is rare in this era, and this income ev surpasses some small and medium-sized European countries.

In mid-January 9, the Chilean diplomatic delegation finally arrived in Australasia again to inspect the Hope-class battleship designed by Australasia.

This time the Chilean diplomatic delegation included several naval officers and high-ranking governmt officials, who were obviously very interested in the new, highly powerful battleship that Australasia claimed.

Frankly, with the exception of the Chileans' expectations for the Hope-class battleship being somewhat unmet, other aspects such as firepower, power, and armor protection are basically similar or ev superior to the Chileans' requiremts.

Chile's final stubbornness about tonnage was defeated by Minister of Defce Raul's statemt that tonnage was not as important as combat power.

However, this is indeed a truth, instead of blindly pursuing the tonnage and size of warships, it is better to focus on the speed, firepower, and protection capabilities of warships.

Ev a large warship with weak combat power could become a live target in naval battles, and it might be the fastest one to sink.

After a week of discussions betwe the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Chilean delegation, the final naval order was finally confirmed.

The Chilean side has funded a total of 5 million pounds, which is million Australian dollars, to purchase two Hope-class battleships, six Duke-class escort ships, and two German submarines.

This order is expected to start in the middle of this year. The two submarines will be delivered no later than mid93, the six escort ships will be delivered no later than mid94, and the two Hope-class battleships will be delivered no later than the d of 95.

Overall, the schedule for this naval order is quite gerous, allowing the Royal Shipyard to manage the production of Chilean naval orders while completing the Russian naval orders.

Of course, there is also a disadvantage, that is, at least until 94, the Royal Shipyard will have no time to build Australasia's own warships.

However, this is a minor issue. Wh World War I comes and the European countries are busy with the war, Australasia will have plty of time and resources to build its own fleet, which is not urgt at the momt.

The two Hope-class battleships were excitedly named by the Chileans as Admiral Latore Naval Vessel and Admiral Keckl Naval Vessel. Perhaps this is the dream of the rise of the navy of a small nation!

It cannot be died that although the countries of South America are not very large, their investmt in the military, especially the navy, is quite gerous.

After the naval order was signed, Arthur received a brief gap in his schedule. However, at this momt, Arthur was waiting for news from Europe.

According to the information from the Royal Security Intelligce Bureau, the Moroccan crisis seems to be immint.

Of course, this is not Arthur's prediction.

In fact, Morocco's situation has not be very good in rect years. Due to the weather, Morocco has expericed a rare drought, leading to an agricultural crisis in many areas, crop failures, and unbearable suffering for farmers.

Moreover, the shortsightedness of the Sultan's governmt and the corruption of some officials have exacerbated the situation. As the disaster was already evidt, no relief measures were tak, but instead, some taxes were increased, causing great dissatisfaction among the lower-class citizs and successive revolts against taxation.

On the other hand, France has controlled Moroccan politics since the First Moroccan Crisis.

A large number of Frch products have impacted Morocco's native economy, causing many craftsm in Morocco to go bankrupt one after another, leading to dissatisfaction among the majority of the middle class towards the governmt.

Offding both the middle and lower-class citizs, it is easy to imagine how chaotic the country is with such a decayed upper echelon and governmt.

In January 9, a large-scale uprising broke out in Morocco. Dissatisfied with the governmt and the Sultan, the people called for the overthrow of the governmt and besieged some cities.

The wave of uprisings swept through most of Morocco and made the Frch governmt behind Morocco uneasy.

Because apart from opposing the Sultan, some of the rebels' claims were also against Frch invaders.

If these rebels overthrow the Sultan's governmt, wouldn't their next target be the Frch colonists?

In February 9, the severe internal situation in Morocco made the Frch impatit. The Frch governmt occupied Fes City and some nearby cities under the pre of protecting expatriates and restoring Moroccan order.

Faced with the Frch army, the small Moroccan forces had no resistance at all. The majority of the rebels, composed of ordinary people, were no match for the Frch Army. In the face of the Frch Army, they could be said to be in disarray.

At the same time as France's actions, Spain also st troops to station in the north of Morocco, which has also made Morocco's de facto indepdce status lost.

France's actions in Morocco have caused dissatisfaction among some European countries. The most dissatisfied among them is the German Empire.

Because France's actions brazly violated the Algeciras Treaty signed five years ago due to the First Moroccan Crisis.

Ev though the Frch ambassador Kang Bond had informed the German Foreign Minister Kidron of France's decision to dispatch troops to Morocco before France's actions, the problem was that Kidron had clearly opposed it at that time.

He believed that the deploymt of Frch troops would not only destroy the Algeciras Agreemt but also cause ev more fierce resistance from Moroccans and dissatisfaction from German people.

Wh talking about the dissatisfaction of the German people, German Foreign Minister Kidron also strgthed his tone, expressing Germany's attitude.

The Germans' view is to hope that France could postpone the military occupation and negotiate well with the German governmt on this matter.

In fact, the op and hidd meaning is to let France make some concessions in other areas. After all, everything can be negotiated as long as the befits are sufficit.

But what the Germans did not expect was that they thought France would make concessions elsewhere, but instead, France maintained a consistt hard-line attitude, ev dispatching troops to interfere in Morocco's order directly without notifying Germany.

This not only directly invalidated the previously signed Algeciras Treaty but also slapped Germany in the face.

After all, Germany is also the second major power in the world. France's backstabbing in Morocco has left Germany with no face. Where would Germany's face go?

By coincidce, William II's temper is not so good. Germany has many interests in Morocco too. France's complete disregard for Germany's interests in Morocco is ough to change the attitude of the outraged German governmt.

But the question is, can France dare to back down now? The Frch governmt's hard-line stance has pleased the Frch people since Germany is a country that had stepped on France just a few decades ago to achieve unification.

If the Frch governmt quickly compromises with the Germans, the disillusioned Frch people might not mind changing the cabinet directly.

It should be noted that France has a long tradition of revolution. France's cabinet does not want to test the bottom line of the people. They are brave ough to rebel!

Under such high pressure, the German side is urging the German governmt to take appropriate actions to protect the interests of the German people due to the continuous pressure from the German media and monopoly organizations.

Under such pressure, to force at least a major concession from France on compsation, Foreign Minister Kidron prested a brilliant plan to Emperor William II of Germany, which was to sd warships to the important ports of Agadir and Mogador in Morocco under the so-called pre of protecting German expatriates and their commercial interests.

If such vital collateral can be secured, the Germans can calmly watch the further developmt of the Moroccan incidt, and ev wait for the possible compsation that France might propose to exchange some colonies to get the Germans out of these two ports.

Kidron's plan is very loud, and by occupying these two chips in the chaotic Morocco now, France needs to use other regional colonies to exchange for these two ports if it wants to unify its interests in Morocco.

But the question is, will the Germans' act of directly dispatching troops really not escalate the severity of the situation?