All waters from Southeast Asia to Antarctica would be controlled by Austrsia, leaving the Ind people with only the more distant Pacific Ocean tomunicate with the outside world.


    As a result, both the travel time required for shipping routes would substantially increase, and the cost of imported goods would also rise considerably.


    Austrsia could easily achieve Arthur’s n to curb the enemy’s development.


    Although the Dutch understood that their power in the Dutch East Indies had faded, it did not prevent them from bargaining fiercely during the negotiations, attempting to retain the inds of Swesi and Java Sea.


    However, the ambitions of Austrsia could not be stopped by a small country like the Nethends; the Dutch Army couldn’t stop Austrsia on the battlefield and had even less hope during the talks.


    The negotiations stalled for three or four days, but Austrsia’s position was very firm; all requested territories must be obtained, and thepensation could be reduced from ￡100 million to ￡70 million.


    Seeing that there was no room for recovery on the territory issue, the two prominent Dutch representatives painfully agreed to Austrsia’s demands after exchanging nces.


    There was no choice; agreeing to the demands was already the best oue for the Nethends at this point.


    If they agreed to the demands, the Nethends could at least keep Sumatra Ind, Kalimantan Ind, and Java Ind, retaining more than half of the Dutch East Indies with the presence of Java Ind.


    But if they didn’t agree to Austrsia’s demands, not only would the other territories remain under Austrsia’s control, but over half of these three significant inds were currently upied by Austrsians as well.


    It was a choice between losing everything and losing half, and even the most foolish Dutchman would know how to decide.


    Of course, nominally, the Nethends retained control of the inds of Swesi, Kalimantan, and Java, but the Java Sea between these three inds was about to fall under Austrsian control.


    This meant that the Dutch rule on these three inds would depend on the goodwill of the Austrsians.


    If Austrsia agreed, the Dutch would be the masters of this set of colonies. If Austrsia disagreed, the Dutch East Indies colonies would fall without a fight, with just the separate blockade of the three inds.


    After reaching an agreement on the issue of territory, both parties spent another half a month wrangling over the price and specific peace treaty details.


    Finally, on February 25th, 1916, Austrsia and the Nethends officially signed a peace treaty to end the war.


    As the treaty was signed in Sydney, both the Nethends and Austrsia publicly dered it as the "Sydney Treaty."


    The Sydney Treaty stipted that the Dutch Government and Dutch East Indies colonies would cede all inds except Swesi, Kalimantan, and Java to Austrsia, and Austrsia would have the right to use all ports in the Dutch East Indies.


    The Dutch East India Colonial Government must not engage in any anti-Austrsian rule propaganda or any actions that jeopardize Austrsian rule in its jurisdiction.


    Austrsia has preferential purchasing rights to all Dutch East Indies resources, and the Dutch cannot hinder Austrsian exports of goods within the Dutch East Indies.


    As for funds, the Nethends would pay a total of ￡56.25 million inpensation to Austrsia, which would be paid off over fifteen years, with an annual payment of ￡3.75 million.


    If there is a dy, the daily interest rate would be 1% of the dyedpensation.


    This means that even if thepensation is dyed by just one year, the daily interest would be as high as ￡37,500, and even seemingly small amounts would umte into a substantial figure.


    An annual payment of ￡3.75 million inpensation may not seem like much, but it’s equivalent to a Super Dreadnought. Even if used only for naval expansion, it would be enough to transform the Austrsian navy into a top-three world-ss navy within these 15 years.


    Moreover, thepensation was also not excessive for the current Nethends. Just the over thirty million indigenous people on those three inds alone could generate several million pounds in revenue for the Dutch government each year, based on extremely conservative estimates.


    If these indigenous peoples were exploited to the fullest, they could be more valuable.


    Not to mention, the Dutch government’s annual revenue from the Dutch East Indies far exceeded thispensation. Even after paying thepensation, they still had arge amount of funds to build up their domestic infrastructure.


    Following the signing of the Sydney Treaty, all the uses were quickly implemented.


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    As a result of negotiations between the Dutch and Austrsian governments, the Austrsian Army would officially withdraw from Sumatra Ind, Kalimantan Ind, and Java Ind starting March 1st, handing over these three major inds to the rule of the Dutch East India Colonial Government.


    Upon disclosure of this contract, cheers erupted throughout the Austrsia Domestic.


    With Arthur’s strong cultivation, Austrsians held a great sense of national pride and identity. The territorial expansion of the country was good news for all Austrsians.


    Moreover, with over ￡50 million inpensation, Austrsians were proud to believe that Arthur would wisely use these funds to build an even stronger Austrsia and provide better security for all Austrsians’ lives.


    Starting from March 1916, several celebrations were held within the Austrsia Scope tomemorate the signing of the Sydney Treaty.


    Austrsia could be described as an ocean of cheers, but the situation in Europe, thousands of miles away, was far from this.


    The battles in the Verdun Region became tense again by the end of the month.


    The Germans intended to seize the French, reducing the number of British and French troopsunching campaigns in the Somme Region, by continuing withrge-scale attacks in Verdun.


    The British and French, however, also decided tounchrge-scale battles in Verdun to slow down the Germans, hold on to this important fortress, and strengthen the French’s resolve to fight against Germany.


    Although the starting points of the British, French, and Germans were different, their goal was the same: to gain an advantage in Verdun, and ideally, defeat or repel the enemy.


    Under such circumstances, Germanyunched violent attacks on the west bank of the Mars River, trying to capture key strongholds there and make a breakthrough in this battle.


    Of course, it was not just on the west bank that the attack took ce. The German Army alsounched attacks on the east bank, with Dumont Town and Fuggs Town being the main targets of the east bank attack.


    After entering March, the German Army quickly organized assault troops tounch attacks on the east and west banks.


    The French Army also resisted desperately, trying to hold off the German offensive.


    Because the French General Staff reinforced both the troops and firepower of the defensive areas, the defenses in various sectors of Verdun remained quite solid for a short time, and counterattacks by French soldiers could be seen in many areas, retaking numerous positions upied by the Germans.


    The French and German armies engaged in a long seesaw battle in the Verdun Region, and any position became a target for both sides to fight for with their lives.


    ording to the records of both armies, there were asions when positions were contested more than ten times a day, with the gs on the positions changed more than ten times and countless soldiers were sacrificed on them.


    There were even instances when soldiers from one side captured a position, just finished nting their gs and were about to deploy defenses, only to be repulsed and the position fall back into enemy hands.


    Such seesaw battles were staged at various fortifications and positions in the Verdun Region, and it took hundreds or thousands of soldiers to sacrifice to capture or hold a position.


    Fighting for some hignds and gun emcements, the French Army even suffered as many as 20,000 casualties in a single day.


    Butpared to the overall number of casualties in the war so far, 20,000 wasn’t much; however, if calcted on the basis of 20,000 casualties per day, the annual number of casualties would reach more than 7.5 million, which shows how exaggerated this figure was. Experience new tales on м??