Turning Point - Sekigahara: Toyotomi's Global Expansion and its Consequences

Phase 31 - Versailles Peace Conference

The first and likely the last "World War" that everyone would want to forget about concluded unexpectedly, with the Entente, which was superior in overall national strength, ultimately losing to the Alliance. However, if we consider the late entry of the Yamato Republic from the beginning, it could be argued that the advantage was on the side of the Entente, so some say that the strategic winner was determined from the start.

In any case, the fall of Paris marked the end of the World War, and a peace conference was held at the Palace of Versailles, just outside Paris, under German occupation since August 1918. This was one of the many peace conferences held at the Palace of Versailles and marked the beginning of international conferences.

The victorious nations included Germany, Japan, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria, Korea, and Yamato, making it a total of eight nations. Korea, having been promised independence from its suzerain state, Germany, due to its war cooperation, was allowed to participate in the conference. As the Australian and Shinkai regions, which Japan had reclaimed, were considered part of Japan, Japan accepted the role of an observer rather than a full participant.

The side of the defeated nations had a larger number than the victorious nations.

Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Belgium, Serbia, Montenegro, Romania, Portugal, the Confederate States of America, the Dominion of Canada, the Dominion of South Africa, and in Asia, the Qing Dynasty, making it a total of thirteen nations. Countries like Russia and the Qing Dynasty, which had already surrendered or signed separate peace treaties, were also in attendance.

Additionally, countries that had played significant roles in the war in terms of war expenses and resources, such as the United States, Spain, and various neutral European countries like the Netherlands, were invited as observers.

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The point of contention in the negotiations naturally revolved around reparations. It was customary for the victors of a war to exact some form of reparations from the defeated side, and this war was of unprecedented scale, being referred to as a World War.

In terms of war expenses alone, using the Yamato currency, the "yen," the Entente had incurred 800 billion yen in expenses, while the Alliance had reached 1 trillion yen. The use of the Yamato yen as the benchmark was due to the economic might of the Yamato Republic, which had become the world's largest nation in terms of economic power at the time of the ceasefire, and it also had the largest amount of pure gold reserves. Despite contributing very little to the war effort, Yamato was considered a major belligerent nation due to its immense economic power, which had become the world's largest.

Furthermore, the United States, which was considered a de facto loser, was invited to the conference in an observer capacity as a neutral nation, and many other neutral nations were also included. This was done to ensure that the conference would not simply conclude as a peace treaty and to make various arrangements.

The reflection on the excessively massive and horrific war was what led the participating countries to that point.

In the usual practice, the defeated side would pay the war expenses of the opposing side as reparations and would also agree to territorial cessions and the transfer of interests in occupied areas. However, Britain insisted that it had merely proposed a ceasefire and had not been defeated. Nevertheless, such insistence was only that, and there was no denying that the united side, centered around the Entente, was indeed the loser.

However, even if they demanded 800 billion yen in reparations, it was clear that the Alliance lacked the ability to pay. They had already squandered all their domestic assets and accumulated nearly 20 billion yen in foreign debt. Such an amount of money would not come forth without bankrupting the nation multiple times; it was physically an impossible sum. But the situation on the Entente was almost identical; they had accumulated debts of 10 billion yen through foreign loans. These debts had been acquired not only by European and North and South American neutral countries but were predominantly purchased by the economically powerful Yamato Republic.