Balkan history had been changed beyond recognition by Ferdinand's unexpected intervention, yet the course of world history was still running along its original tracks!
To persuade the Germans to abandon their support for the Boers and remain neutral in the Boer War, on May 28, 1898, the United Kingdom and Germany signed a proposal concerning the partition of Portugal's African colonies. This was more than five months earlier than in history.
The treaty stipulated that should Portugal fall into a fiscal crisis, the United Kingdom and Germany would jointly provide loans, with Portugal's African colonies serving as collateral.
Southern Mozambique and central Angola would belong to the United Kingdom; northern Mozambique, southern Angola, and East Timor in the Pacific Ocean would belong to Germany.
Well then, with the Portuguese government now in a fiscal crisis, the loan-shark empire had begun extending loans—and had even already disbursed part of them.
Yet the self-assured Wilhelm II believed that as long as the United Kingdom and Germany joined hands, the French would surely yield!
Clearly, the Germans had miscalculated. The British were merely using an empty hand to snare a white wolf. Once the agreement had been signed, they promptly took this proposal to the Portuguese government. Through a mixture of threats and inducements, the British successfully made the Portuguese government switch sides.
On June 7, 1898, the United Kingdom and Portugal signed the Windsor Treaty. Its contents were largely the same as in history, except that it came sixteen months earlier than in the parallel timeline.
The treaty stipulated: 1. The United Kingdom bore the obligation of protecting all Portuguese colonies; 2. The Portuguese government would abandon its neutral stance in the Boer War, permit the British to use Portuguese Mozambique's ports, and cut off the supply routes running from Portuguese colonies