Strictly speaking, five years had passed since the end of the First World War.
Five years was enough for many countries to emerge from the shadow of war. The first-tier nations had already completed their first round of rearmament, such as Gefra.
The Federation and Gefra had both developed so rapidly. That did not mean the defeated country, the Peng Joe Group, had developed slowly.
Their development had actually been extremely rapid as well. During the First World War, the Gefrans had not managed to seize much from their country.
That was the deadliest flaw of a maritime hegemon when facing a land hegemon. They might be able to tear apart the coastline, but they could not set foot on that continent even once.
As long as they could not land, none of their early wartime advantages could be converted into the spoils of war.
They could not plunder resources, wealth, or population. They could not even carry away a single stone! By the latter stages, the war had actually reached a stalemate. The Gefrans were unwilling to let anyone who had challenged their authority continue to "live well," while the Peng Joe Group had also encountered many problems after losing control of the seas.
In the end, after lengthy negotiations, the Gefra Group secured the final victory in the First World War, but they received only a small amount of war reparations.
At the same time, as a core nation, the Gefrans obtained a piece of land—Amerilia.
Amerilia was something they had demanded themselves, and they had treated it as the sole nonnegotiable point in the negotiations.
Five years had passed, and even places like Amerilia had begun developing rapidly. There was even less reason to mention the Peng Joe Group, whose core regions had actually remained well protected.