War had never been the goal. Once the fighting was over, it was naturally time to deal with the aftermath—or, to put it another way, line everyone up and hand out the fruit.
First came the issue of war criminals, which was the easiest to resolve. As long as someone filed a complaint, the International Court would accept the case. Whether states or individuals were involved, there was no statute of limitations; with evidence, sentencing would proceed.
This was perhaps the longest great trial in history. It began in the latter half of 1941 and continued all the way until 1956, with people still being sent to the guillotine one after another.
The trials of war criminals were probably the most harmonious matter of all. The governments of the various countries had no conflict of interest, so naturally there were no disputes—except for the defeated nations, of course.
On August 1, 1941, under the leadership of the Bulgarian government, the Holy Alliance convened an expanded meeting in Sofia.
Everyone reached a consensus on how to deal with the defeated nations. Broadly speaking, there were the following points:
1. Disarm all nations and prohibit the development of every field of military industry, with no exceptions even for countries that had merely played bit parts;
2. Severely punish war criminals;
3. Pay war reparations;
4. Confiscate all colonies of the defeated nations.
No one had any objections to the first two items. Everyone understood that striking at competitors and prohibiting these countries from developing their militaries undoubtedly served their common interests.
The amount of war reparations became the subject of dispute among the nations. Nearly every victorious country produced an enormous list of reparations it considered reasonable.
Judging by the current total economies of the major defeated nations, they would need