Ch.253Roman Treaty Organization (2)

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“But if we grant independence to Africa as it is now, it will only create new chaos. African colonies should also be granted independence based on their pre-colonial ethnic nations. If not, Africa will be caught in endless civil wars. This issue must be resolved by the countries that have colonies in Africa.”

Gastev stated that he would also prevent African problems in advance.

That was my instruction that I had given beforehand. If we just let them become independent along arbitrary borders drawn by the great powers, conflicts would arise just like in the original world.

“Any objections? Then it shall be done.”

Churchill seized this opportunity to start spinning his washing machine.

Since he’s destined to have mint chocolate stuffed up his nostrils, he might as well run the washing machine properly.

“Britain no longer has the strength to maintain colonies and must let them go immediately. But simply abandoning them is quite difficult.”

“Hmm. Does this mean Spain intends to ignore the justice of colonial liberation?”

“That’s not it. If we abandon them overnight, it would be confusing both for the colonized people without any proper government and for our own citizens. We need to establish colonial governments for the handover and convince our people that colonies are no longer profitable.”

Of course, I’ve been thinking about that too.

Obviously, if we just say “You’re independent!” without any preparation, they’ll gain independence with nothing in place and chaos will ensue.

“I’m not suggesting we abandon them immediately. We’ll consider each country’s special circumstances.”

“What do you mean by special circumstances?”

“Given each country’s situation, the colonial empires will be responsible for establishing governments of colonized peoples capable of functioning in the international community over a maximum period of 10 years. The infrastructure built during the colonial period will be left behind to help them become self-sufficient before granting independence.”

“Well, that seems reasonable.”

About 10 years should be adequate for a hit-and-run strategy.

I know that suddenly abandoning colonies would be chaotic, except for those that have prepared for independence abroad or underground by forming governments-in-exile.

So I had tipped off Gastev about this in advance.

“Furthermore, His Majesty our Tsar has said this: Even if races and ethnicities differ, if they are loyal to Russia and consider themselves Russian, then they are Russian. If the people of Spanish colonies consider themselves Spanish, it’s possible to formally make them part of the homeland. Of course, this only applies if the colonized people desire it. If colonial oppression continues, the Treaty Organization will have to take measures.”

Gastev quoted what I had said.

It means that if a colony is too closely integrated to be comfortably granted independence, treat it as part of the homeland.

Of course, this only applies if the colonized people want it, but judging by French Algeria’s situation, most will probably choose independence.

Well, in the distant future, there might be cases where people don’t want to become independent from French colonies, but things are different now.

“Ahem, I understand.”

“Portugal’s economy currently depends on its colonies. If we grant them independence, we will suffer great losses.”

Portugal. That person was definitely António de Oliveira Salazar. A dictator, no less.

To maintain his dictatorship smoothly, Salazar didn’t particularly pursue industrialization and suppressed education to prevent intellectuals who might oppose his dictatorship from increasing.

Didn’t he implement a policy of keeping the people ignorant, the so-called 3F policy to divert people’s attention from politics by promoting football, Catholicism, and traditional Portuguese folk music?

He ignored secondary and higher education and gave up on industrialization and modernization. Focusing on rural economy, living in modest contentment, you might say.

Thus, Salazar successfully maintained a stable dictatorship.

Of course, regardless of the dictatorship, Portugal’s economic development became difficult. In the end, he focused on colonial management while seeking domestic stability rather than industrial development.

But if decolonization must happen now, Portugal has no answer.

The saying “Who threatened you with a knife to become a dictator?” fits perfectly here.

They even fought colonial wars, didn’t they? But here, even that would be difficult.

But with the Treaty Organization in place, what’s there to worry about?

“When Europe’s economic zone becomes unified, Portugal will be able to manage without colonies.”

It won’t matter when Europe becomes unified.

Salazar’s dictatorship will also be restrained, but what can he do? If he’s upset, he’d have to go to war.

Even Britain, a colonial empire spanning five oceans, is now saying it will relinquish its colonies, so what can Portugal say?

“Then Portugal will also grant independence to its colonies.”

In the end, Salazar agreed to grant independence to the colonies with a dejected expression.

“Belgium will also relinquish its colonies.”

Belgium, holder of the “wrist collector” title, also relinquished its colonies.

Now, it’s France’s turn.

During their exile, Algeria became the center of Free France, and despite friction with locals, it was essentially treated as homeland territory.

With their homeland territory reduced, they’ll naturally focus more on colonies.

If they somehow insist on maintaining colonies with self-defense forces, they’ll need to be beaten into submission.

Now all eyes turned to Pétain, “the hero who sacrificed Paris to end communism.”

“What will France do?”

“We will also grant independence to our colonies. However, regarding Indochina, Japan has arbitrarily occupied it, so it’s difficult to recognize its independence immediately.”

Pétain sighed deeply and finally declared he would relinquish the colonies.

Well, with only self-defense forces after the war, what army would they have to send to the colonies?

Rather than desperately clinging to them in an unseemly manner, it’s better to let them go honorably when possible.

Be grateful to me. Thanks to me, you’re getting image rehabilitation in this history too.

“The Netherlands is in a similar situation. Japan has occupied our East Indies.”

“Don’t worry. Japan has dared to send troops to colonies that the Treaty Organization will grant independence. The Treaty Organization will warn Japan about this, and if they don’t withdraw, we will take special measures.”

Discussions about the independence of existing colonies proceeded in earnest.

As expected, there was no major opposition.

Rather than opposition, they tried to maintain their colonies legitimately by attaching slight excuses, but it was made clear that it would be meaningless once Europe became unified.

It was decided that, considering each country’s circumstances, they would form governments and armies of colonized peoples over a maximum period of 10 years, hand over control, and grant independence.

In reality, though it’s called the Treaty Organization, I had already given all the orders to Gastev through the State Duma as the behind-the-scenes power.

And I…

“I’ve heard that Prince Yusupov is Europe’s richest man, but this truly is as magnificent as a palace.”

“Well, this is mine, ‘gifted’ by Prince Yusupov. Anyway, I didn’t arrange this meeting just for relaxation.”

I invited Churchill, Hitler, Kemal, Boris III, and Haile Selassie—essentially the leaders of the victorious nations—to my new villa in Sevastopol, formerly Prince Yusupov’s palace.

This was to definitively confirm the territories of the victorious nations within the Treaty Organization.

Surely, why would a beauty like me be with these old men unless I had something to gain? They’re not even young men.

“Shouldn’t this be resolved in the Treaty Organization?”

“The agenda of the Treaty Organization this time is to deal with the independence of existing colonies. The issue of ceded territories should be resolved by the leaders of the victorious nations that participated in the war. Moreover, since there are non-European countries involved, it’s not a subject for the Treaty Organization. In fact, the Treaty Organization barely mentioned the lands gained by the victorious nations in this war, didn’t it?”

The Treaty Organization is busy with its own matters.

They have to deal with colonial independence issues and discuss how to defeat the Japanese.

In such a situation, if the land-grabbing that has already been completed and confirmed by the leaders were to be brought up in the Treaty Organization, what would happen?

What would it accomplish other than teabagging in front of the leaders of France, whose homeland has been torn apart, and divided Italy?

“That’s right. Germany has become the German Empire again, and the Italian and French communes have been divided and gained land through separate agreements. And Yugoslavia—no, Serbia—has disappeared as a government and become no man’s land, so they couldn’t even send representatives to the surrender agreement.”

This is unavoidable.

France aside, the Red Front countries are all in special situations now.

Communist Germany has been replaced by the Kaiser’s Germany, and Yugoslavia became Serbia before its government disappeared completely, ceasing to function as a country.

“So, you’ve called the leaders of the victorious nations today for territorial matters.”

I need to make this clear to prevent any issues later.

“Yes. Since the surrender agreement ended ambiguously with the end of communism, the victorious nations need to recognize each other’s territories. First, does Britain claim Brittany and Normandy?”

“Yes. Brittany and Normandy are the domains of His Majesty, the King of our British Empire.”

Churchill proudly declared Brittany and Normandy as British territories.

Good. It’s good that he’s not being greedy for more territory.

It seems the British are also comfortable with tearing apart France.

“This has already been recognized in the Treaty of Compiègne. Then, how far will the Danubian Federation claim territory?”

“Venice has already been discussed, and we wish to have recognition for Bosnia and other former territories of the Dual Monarchy, as well as Western Serbia.”

Right. The territories of the Dual Monarchy. That’s understandable.

Next would be Bulgaria. I wonder if Bulgaria wants to go as far as Greece.

Since Turkey secured the Suez instead of Greece, that might be possible.

“Our Bulgaria will integrate Eastern Serbia.”

Boris III announced the annexation of Eastern Serbia. Now Serbia has officially disappeared from history as a nation.

Well, it’s their karma, but it’s also a bit sad to see them vanish.

“Then, what will Bulgaria do about the Greek issue?”

Greece was supposed to be taken by Bulgaria and Turkey.

“Initially, I thought of punishing Greece, but Bulgaria also suffered greatly in the war. The Red Front’s attack was beyond imagination. We suffered considerable damage in the Sudetenland, Yugoslavia, and Albania. We must be content with Eastern Serbia.”

Boris III expressed his regret.

If he’s giving up Greece, which he could have had all to himself with Turkey out of the picture, the damage must indeed have been significant.

The Treaty Organization doesn’t exist to help with wars of aggression. It couldn’t help attack Greece, which had hoped to join the Treaty Organization.

Well, he seems satisfied with having consumed Serbia.

“Our Turkey will annex Syria and the Levant region of the former Ottoman Empire, and will share the stakes in Suez with Britain and Russia.”

“Even if the economic zones are integrated, the profits from Suez will eventually go to European countries, but is that acceptable?”

“Yes.”

That makes sense. While economic zones may be integrated, from Turkey’s perspective, they want to achieve the feat of having “occupied Suez.”

In reality, Turkey has given us Constantinople and Pontus, and it’s somewhat ambiguous whether they can still be considered European.

Anyway, since it was part of Rome’s territory, they are qualified to participate in the Roman Treaty Organization, the name of the new European union.

Next is Ethiopia, a country outside the Roman Treaty Organization. Emperor Haile Selassie.

He was carefully listening to our conversation while sipping British tea.

I passed the baton to him.

“The Emperor of Ethiopia intends to annex Eritrea, I presume.”

“Yes. Eritrea was originally our land, so we will annex it, and Somaliland will be granted independence. This is thanks to the Tsar’s consideration.”

Well, this makes the map cleaner than in the original history.

Since the colonial empires in Africa are also returning to pre-colonial ethnic and religious divisions, we can at least prevent wars and conflicts from breaking out in Africa as they did in the original history.

Eventually, the mixing of African ethnicities by colonial empires and the childishly drawn borders will disappear.

The great powers will probably spend quite a lot of time resolving African issues.

“Good. Very good. The map looks really clean now. This means—”

“Your Majesty! Your Majesty!”

“What’s the matter that you’re running like that?”

Maria came running with someone, and her face looked quite urgent.

“Well, I…”

“It’s okay. You can speak here.”

We’re all one force now anyway.

There’s no need to hide anything from Churchill, Kemal, and Hitler, who will be snorting mint chocolate.

If something big has happened in the current situation, there’s only one possibility.

“The United States has sent the Secretary of State to request participation in the war against Japan and the transfer of various weapon technologies.”

Right. It seems the United States has finally decided to take the easier path.

“The conditions?”

“‘Massive’ support for the reconstruction of Europe, which has suffered greatly from the war.”

Yes, yes. I thought it would come to this.

All the United States has right now is money.

They seem to have developed enough weapons to fight Japan, but the advantage the United States has is ultimately technology.

“Well, that makes the conversation easier. Doesn’t it, Prime Minister Churchill? The nouveau riche country has finally opened its wallet.”

“Indeed, it seems so.”

Churchill also nodded soullessly, as if impressed.

Surprisingly, despite being at war, the United States has recovered its mainland to pre-civil war conditions since establishing itself as the United States.

The current United States probably wouldn’t find it too difficult to “pay to win” by borrowing European armies.

Of course, in this world, Russia would also help with post-war reconstruction, but anyway, this means the United States finds it difficult to drag out the war with Japan, and they probably can’t think about reclaiming Alaska.

“Let’s prepare the Treaty Organization’s army and navy. Their army forces are in China anyway, so if we annihilate them, Japan’s fighting power will drop dramatically.”

“The navy can end them in the Pacific with the Roman Treaty Fleet joining forces with the US fleet.”

“This will be the first deployment of the Roman Treaty Fleet, so Mr.—no, Prime Minister Churchill, please prepare the Royal Navy. The result will determine whether mint chocolate gets stuffed up your nose or not.”

“…Understood. I will do my best.”

Churchill answered while flaring his nostrils.

He must be imagining mint chocolate going up his nose.

This will make the Treaty Organization even busier, won’t it?

That Togo Shigenori? Anyway, that man will become quite pitiful. Instead of mediation, he’ll receive a proposal for a declaration of war, how sad.

Of course, we’ll need to set the stage first.