Chapter 291: Morocco, the Focus of the World

Chapter 291 The focus of the world—Morocco

Of course, although it seems that the per capita cultivated land area has only increased by 0.02 acres, the total cultivated land area has increased by a full 2.18 million acres.

After all, the population has increased by more than 900,000. If the per capita cultivated land area is to be maintained at the same level, a large amount of cultivated land must be cultivated.

Thanks to the increase in cultivated land area, Australasia's grain output also experienced a considerable increase in 1910, exceeding 9.6 million tons.

This puts Australasia's grain production just one step away from 10 million tons. When the population exceeds 10 million next year, grain production should also exceed 10 million.

But throughout 1910, Australasia's national grain consumption was less than 2.9 million tons. This also means that Australasia can export 6 million tons of grain every year, which is not a small income.

Of course, because of the further trade agreement signed with the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom has become the main target of Australasian grain exports.

Australasia exports at least 2 million tons of grain to the UK every year, which also proves the current close relationship between the UK and Australasia.

This is the current development situation of the government. As for the current development situation of the royal family consortium, Arthur can only say that it is a giant.

After the cabinet meeting, and after a report from Kent's steward, Arthur realized how huge the current royal consortium was for Australasia.

Of course, the royal family consortium last year was already large enough, and this year it has expanded a lot on the basis of last year.

At present, the royal consortium has founded hundreds of factories and enterprises, and controls thousands of factories and enterprises.

All enterprises and factories managed by the royal consortium have more than 500,000 employees, spread across every state, field and industry in Australasia.

In 1910, the royal family's net profit reached 54.31 million Australian dollars, after deducting nearly 10 million Australian dollars in taxes to the government.

The difference between the royal family's net income and the country's total fiscal revenue is only 10 million Australian dollars, which is enough to show how large the royal family's current scale is in Australasia.

It is no exaggeration to say that as long as Arthur wants, the net income of the royal family can exceed the country's total fiscal revenue at any time.

However, the royal consortium only controls some of the more important industries in Australasia, such as heavy industry, petroleum, chemical industry, military industry, etc. The royal consortium does not have much involvement in some civilian industries and fields. After all, it must be given to Australasia. People a little chance.

If there were a current ranking of the world's top 500 companies, Arthur believed that his royal consortium would definitely rank among the top ten in the world.

A company with a net profit of 54 million Australian dollars, or 27 million pounds, is a drop in the bucket in the current era. This income can even exceed that of some small and medium-sized European countries.

In mid-January 1911, the diplomatic team sent by Chile finally arrived in Australasia again to inspect the Hope-class battleship designed in Australasia.

This time, the Chilean diplomatic team has several more naval generals and high-level government officials. They are obviously very interested in the new battleships that Australasia said are particularly powerful.

To be honest, apart from the gap between the expectations of the Chileans, the Hope-class battleships are basically the same as or even exceed the requirements of the Chileans in terms of firepower, power and armor protection.

The Chileans' final stubbornness about tonnage was defeated by Defense Minister Raul's statement that tonnage was not as good as combat effectiveness.

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

No matter how large a warship is, if it lacks combat effectiveness, it will become a living target in naval battles and may sink the fastest.

After a week of negotiations and discussions between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Chilean mission, the final naval order was finally confirmed.

Chile invested a total of 5 million pounds, or 10 million Australian dollars, to purchase two Hope-class battleships, six Duke-class frigates, and two German submarines.

The order is expected to start in the middle of this year, with two submarines delivered no later than mid-1913, six frigates no later than mid-1914, and two Hope-class battleships no later than the end of 1915.

Generally speaking, the time for this warship order is still very generous, enough for the Royal Shipyard to complete the Russian warship order while also taking into account the production of the Chilean warship order.

Of course, this also has a disadvantage, that is, at least before 1914, the Royal Dockyard did not have much spare time to build Australasia's own warships.

But these are all minor problems. When all European countries were busy with the war during World War I, Australasia had plenty of time and funds to build its own strategy, and was not in a hurry at all.

The two Hope-class battleships were excitedly named Admiral La Torre and Admiral Corcoran by the Chileans. This may be the dream of a small country's navy to rise!

I have to sigh with emotion. Although several South American countries are not very large, they are very willing to invest in the military, especially the navy.

After the warship order was signed, Arthur got a short period of free time. But at this time, Arthur is waiting for news from Europe.

According to the Royal Security Intelligence Service, the Moroccan crisis should happen soon.

Of course, this is not Arthur's prediction.

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In fact, the situation in Morocco has not been very good in recent years. Due to the weather, Morocco suffered a rare drought, which led to a crisis in agriculture in many areas, poor harvests, and farmers were miserable.

Coupled with the short-sightedness of the Sudanese government and the corruption of some officials, the disaster was obvious, but there was no means of disaster relief. Instead, some taxes were increased, which led to great dissatisfaction among the lower-class civilians, and riots against taxation continued.

On the other hand, France has controlled Morocco's politics since the first Moroccan crisis.

A large number of French products have impacted Morocco's local economy, causing a large number of Moroccan handicraftsmen to go bankrupt one after another, causing most of the middle class to be dissatisfied with the government.

Offending the middle and lower-class civilians, and the upper and government are so corrupt, the chaos of the country can be imagined.

In January 1911, a large-scale uprising broke out in Morocco. People who were dissatisfied with the government and Sudan besieged some cities under the banner of overthrowing the government.

This wave of uprising swept across most of Morocco, making the French government behind Morocco somewhat uneasy.

Because in addition to opposing the Sudan, some of the rebels fought in the name of opposing the French invaders.

If these rebels overthrew the Sudanese government, wouldn’t their next target become the French colonists?

In February 1911, the severe situation in Morocco made the French unable to sit still. The French government, under the pretext of protecting expatriates and restoring order in Morocco, sent troops to occupy Fez and some nearby cities.

Facing the French front, the small Moroccan army had no resistance at all. The rebels, most of whom were composed of ordinary people, were not the opponents of the French army. When facing the French army, it can be said that they were defeated.

At the same time as the French took action, Spain also sent troops to the north of Morocco, which also made Morocco lose its actual independent status.

The French actions in Morocco caused dissatisfaction in some European countries. Among them, the most dissatisfied was the German Empire.

Because the French actions openly violated the Treaty of Algeciras signed five years ago because of the first Moroccan crisis.

Although long before the French took action, French Ambassador to Germany Cambon notified German Foreign Minister Kidron of France's decision to send troops to Morocco.

But the problem was that Kidron clearly expressed his opposition at the time, believing that the French sending troops would not only undermine the Algeciras Agreement, but also cause more intense resistance from the Moroccans and cause dissatisfaction among the German people.

When talking about the dissatisfaction of the German people, German Foreign Minister Kidron also strengthened his tone to express Germany's attitude.

The Germans' point of view is that they hope the French can postpone the time of military occupation and have a good discussion with the German government on this matter.

In fact, the explicit and implicit meaning is to let the French make some concessions in other places. After all, everything can be negotiated as long as the interests are enough.

But what the Germans didn't expect was that they thought the French would make concessions in other places, but they didn't expect the French to maintain their usual tough attitude, and even sent troops to interfere with the order in Morocco without notifying Germany.

This not only made the previously signed Algeciras Agreement directly invalid, but also slapped the Germans hard.

After all, Germany is the second largest power in the world. The French directly stabbed Germany in the back in Morocco. How could the Germans put their faces?

Coincidentally, William II's temper was not so good. Germany also had a lot of interests in Morocco. The French did not care about Germany's interests in Morocco at all. Not to mention William II, the indignant German people were enough to change the attitude of the German government.

But the question is, does France dare to make concessions now? The French government's tough attitude satisfied the French. After all, Germany was a country that unified by stepping on French talents decades ago.

If the French government quickly compromised with the Germans, I am afraid that the disappointed French people would not mind changing the cabinet directly.

You know, France is a country with an old revolutionary tradition. The French cabinet is not willing to test the bottom line of the people. They really dare to rebel!

The German side, because of the continuous pressure on the government by the German public opinion and monopoly organizations, asked the German government to take corresponding actions to safeguard the interests of the German people.

Under such high pressure, in order to force the French to make major concessions to Germany at least on the issue of compensation, Foreign Minister Kidron presented a golden trick to Kaiser Wilhelm II, that is, to send warships to the important ports of Agadir and Mogador in Morocco in order to protect the German expatriates and their commercial interests.

If such important collateral can be controlled, the Germans can watch the further development of the Moroccan incident with peace of mind, and even wait for the French to propose that they use part of their colonies in exchange for compensation for the Germans leaving these two ports.

Kidron's calculations are very loud. Now the chaotic Morocco has two chips. If the French want to unify their interests in Morocco, they must use colonies in other regions in exchange for these two ports.

But the question is, will the Germans' direct dispatch of troops really not directly escalate the severity of the incident?

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