Rise of Australia

Chapter 983: The Empire's Prosperity (Finale)

The Warsaw City Government announced to the whole of Poland that Poland had regained its independence and established the Kingdom of Greater Poland.

This is definitely a day worth celebrating for all Polish people.

Since Poland was quickly defeated by Germany, the Poles have been thinking about restoring their country all the time. However, Germany's military strength was too strong before and during the war, and even the Austrian Empire, a powerful country, had no chance to resist.

Now with the support of Britain and Australasia, Poland can quickly gain independence from German control, which is something all Poles are happy to see.

As for whether Poland's political system is a republic or a monarchy, it is actually not that important to most Poles.

What's more, the name of the new Poland, the Kingdom of Greater Poland, can actually highlight the Poles' pursuit of the Greater Poland plan.

Compared to the previous republican government that proposed the Greater Poland plan but was quickly defeated by the Germans, the Poles are not so unacceptable to the new Kingdom of Greater Poland.

As the Poles expected, the Kingdom of Greater Poland was successfully established.

The first king of the Kingdom of Greater Poland will be elected by the government of the Kingdom of Greater Poland, but the actual voting results will still be controlled by Britain, France and Australia.

Arthur actually remained indifferent to the candidate for the Kingdom of Poland.

After all, the Australasian royal family was still small, and there was no suitable adult male to serve as the king of Poland.

Moreover, the Kingdom of Poland was destined to confront Russia. Becoming the King of Poland was not a safe job and might even lead to assassination by the Russian government.

Australasia can also exert influence on Central Europe through its deployment in the Nordic and Baltic countries.

Anyway, no matter who becomes the king of Poland, he cannot ignore Australasia's voice in the Polish region.

What's more, if the future Kingdom of Poland wants to confront Russia in Central and Eastern Europe, it is very important to obtain the support of Britain and Australasia.

The British royal family naturally would not give up this good opportunity. In the absence of objection from Australasia, George VI successfully made a member of the British royal family's collateral branch the new King of Poland.

Of course, although Arthur did not exclude anyone from becoming the King of Poland, it did not mean that the British could obtain the position of King of Poland without any cost.

In the future plans of the UK and Australasia, Poland will become a more powerful Central European country than Germany in the near future.

As the front line of the two countries' plan to resist Russia, Poland has received continuous support, which further reflects Poland's importance in the whole of Europe.

In order to obtain the position of King of Poland, the British had no choice but to reluctantly sell Jamaica to Australasia.

Jamaica is located in the Caribbean Sea, across the sea from Cuba and Haiti.

With Jamaica and the previously acquired Puerto Rico, Australasia now has two excellent naval bases near the Caribbean Sea, which is very important for global strategic deployment.

According to Arthur's future plans, missiles will be deployed on these overseas islands and archipelagos.

However, the missile’s strike range is too short now, and the missile’s true strategic role has not yet been fully reflected.

Only when medium- and long-range missiles and intercontinental missiles with longer strike ranges are developed, these overseas territories will play their due role.

Australasia, which has multiple military bases overseas, can achieve a truly global nuclear strike, which is also a gift Arthur prepared for future monarchs.

Only by maintaining deterrence to the world can Australasia secure its position as the next world hegemon.

As for Britain, Arthur no longer takes it seriously.

If we only consider the local industry and economy, Australasia has surpassed Britain in the war.

Although the British still have an advantage in overall scale relying on their colonies, are their colonies really stable?

It goes without saying that Russia, which has not gained much benefit, will definitely aim to disintegrate the colonies of colonial countries.

After all, only when all these colonies become independent countries can the gap between Russia and these colonial countries gradually narrow.

Russia was also able to gradually gain an advantage with its vast territory and sufficient population. This was actually the reason why the United States and Russia joined forces to destroy the colonial system in history.

After all, if Britain and France continued to occupy such large colonies, it would be difficult to push them down from their position as world hegemons.

This is like fighting a boss who can continuously recover health. The most appropriate choice is of course to destroy his means of recovering health first.

India, Britain's most important colony, is only separated from Australasia by the Indian Ocean. Australasia can completely incite India's independence to undermine Britain's colonial system.

But Arthur has no intention of doing so for the time being. After all, the British still need to be stable in order to ensure the stability of the whole of Europe.

If the British decline too quickly, France and Russia, as the two strongest countries in Europe besides Britain, will definitely have ideas about Britain's colonies and European hegemony.

Especially Russia. If Australasia were to fight against Russia alone, the casualties would not meet Arthur's expectations.

With Russia still the biggest threat to Australasia, Britain, which relies on its colonies to maintain its status as a superpower, is no longer a concern.

The World Peace Conference was held in Hawaii, Australasia.

This conference was not only a meeting of the entire United Nations on world peace, but also a trial of Germany.

In addition to judging the price Germany has to pay, it will also determine what responsibilities the German war participants, that is, the top leaders of the government and military, have to bear.

While the attention of all countries in the world was focused on this world conference in Hawaii, another conference was quietly being held in the distant mainland of Australasia.

The United Nations voted unanimously to put Germany on trial.

In addition to the division and occupation of German land previously agreed upon by Britain, France and Australia, Germany also needs to pay an additional compensation of approximately 185 billion Australian dollars as the price of launching this war.

This is no small sum.

Based on the annual income of Australasia, which currently has the most developed local economy, A$185 billion is the annual income of Australasia for more than 20 years.

For Germany, which was severely affected by the war and whose future industries would be relocated and absorbed by various countries, this debt could not be repaid within decades even if it sold everything it had.

As for why the Australian dollar was used to calculate Germany's reparations, it was because among the current world currencies, the Australian dollar was the strongest and most stable of all currencies because the Australasia mainland was not affected.

In fact, the only competitor was the British pound. But Britain was indeed affected by the war because the pound was depreciating, and other countries were unwilling to see their reparations reduced due to the depreciation of the pound.

Germany needs to pay back the A$185 billion in reparations within 75 years, an average of A$2.46 million per year.

实际的赔款远远不止这么简单。前5年德国每年需要支付的赔款份额为1.25亿澳元，第6到第15年每年支付2.75亿澳元。

This was done in consideration of Germany's need to restore its post-war economy and to reduce as much pressure on Germany as possible in the early stages.

Of course, the reason why Britain, France and Australia agreed to minimize the proportion of Germany's reparations in the first 15 years was actually because the three countries wanted to achieve military control over Germany and could get the reparations in advance by seizing the fruits of Germany's industry.

So far, most countries in the world have joined the United Nations. This new world organization has replaced the World League after World War I and has become a truly global united organization.

Britain, France and Australasia are also known as the three permanent members of the United Nations Organization.

Although they are all permanent members of the UN, the overall strength of the United Kingdom and Australasia is obviously greater than that of France, and there is still a big gap between the two.

This also leads to Australasia having the most say in the entire United Nations Organization, followed by the United Kingdom and France having the least.

After all, the headquarters of the United Nations Organization is in Australasia, and the advantage of the host country is still very obvious.

Especially after Australia deployed missiles in Hawaii and invited representatives from various countries to watch the joint military exercises of the three armed forces of Australia, the army and the air force, it has completely secured its position as the world's number one military power. Even if the British are dissatisfied, there is nothing they can do. Missiles are easy to say. The British have also conducted research in their own country, and it is expected that the initial version of the missile will begin testing in a few years.

But the most troublesome thing is another powerful weapon in Australasia that has not been shown. Because the weapon has only been used in the island country, the British have not yet mastered the specific parameters and design of the weapon.

This also meant that the British had no idea how to imitate such weapons. Before they had weapons powerful enough to destroy a city, no one recognized Britain's claim to being the world's most powerful navy.

After the war, Arthur no longer planned to hide some powerful weapons.

Take missiles for example. The missiles that Australasia is researching are already fourth generation, so there is certainly no problem in appropriately displaying some second generation missiles.

This is what is called eliminating the first generation, releasing the second generation, serving the third generation, developing the fourth generation, and preparing to develop the fifth generation.

Even if the UK and other countries are inspired by the second-generation missiles that Australasia has unveiled, they will definitely not be able to catch up with the fourth-generation missiles that Australasia is developing and the fifth-generation missiles that it is preparing to develop.

Maintaining the leading edge of military technology was the only requirement Arthur set for William, and this was also the requirement of the Australasian royal family for all future imperial emperors.

Technology is the magic weapon for military victory, and this truth will never be wrong. In the future, there will be medium- and long-range missiles and intercontinental missiles, including the use of nuclear power plants, etc. These are all things that William needs to trip up for the Australasians in the future.

What Arthur could do was to leave enough property to William and Australasia, so that William could invest more in science and technology, so that Australasia could always maintain its leading position in science and technology.

The United Nations Organization has confirmed its status as the world's number one power, and the meeting in Sydney is also determining Arthur's next important part.

Not many countries attended the Sydney meeting, but most of them were a very important part of Arthur's strategic deployment.

Leading the way are Finland, the West Coast United Kingdom and the Kingdom of California, followed by the Philippines, Kalimantan, Sweden and Norway, including the three Baltic countries.

At the end, there are several forces of the island countries. As for whether to integrate the island countries, that is something William needs to consider in the future.

The reason why so many countries were convened to hold a meeting in Australia was to stabilize Australasia's world hegemony and to make defensive deployments against Britain and Russia, the two current second and third most powerful countries in the world.

In fact, at the end of the day, the threat that Britain and Russia currently pose to Australasia is really limited. Unless these two countries unite, there is no fatal threat to Australasia.

But then again, is Australasia afraid of these two countries uniting?

Not that scary.

If Britain and Russia unite, the countries in Europe will be the most afraid. This is equivalent to actively driving European countries into the arms of Australasia, and Arthur should thank the British for that.

As for the possibility of an Anglo-Russian alliance, that depends on whether the African and Indian colonies are that important to the British.

After all, Arthur just doesn't plan to destroy the colonial system for the time being, but that doesn't mean Arthur has no way to destroy the colonial system.

If the British were smart, they could still be the second most powerful country in the world.

If we are not smart, we will only become an ordinary powerful country in Europe.

The treaties signed with these countries were confidential and were intended to counter the expansion of Russia and Britain.

If either country were attacked by Britain or Russia, Australasia would help that country win the war.

This is a conventional defensive alliance, which is equivalent to declaring war on the entire alliance when attacked.

This defensive alliance, combined with the construction of military bases around the world, is sufficient to ensure that Britain and Russia do not pose a major threat to Australasia.

After doing all this, Arthur finally relaxed completely.

Judging from the current situation, Australasia's world hegemony will become more and more stable. It will take at least ten years for the Russians to recover from the war, and Australasia's technology will not stop during this period.

Arthur has conveyed various ideas about important technologies such as nuclear-powered submarines, medium-range and intercontinental missiles, nuclear power plants, etc. to the Royal Academy of Sciences, and has also invested a lot of money to help the Royal Academy of Sciences with research and development.

This will ensure that Australasia will have a steady stream of advanced technology to lead the world in the coming decades, and the country's strength will continue at least until the 21st century.

As for what happens in the future, it is beyond Arthur's control and prediction. However, as his carefully cultivated heir, Arthur believes that William can lead the country to become stronger.

Arthur created the world's most powerful country in less than 40 years. I believe William can make this country even stronger and let it stand at the top of the world for a long time or even forever.

And for Arthur, for an old man like him, the few remaining days will, of course, be about enjoying life, and more importantly, enjoying the happiness of having both a son and a daughter.

Decades later.

"Are you all here?"

William, who was already very old, looked at his grandson with an inquiring gaze, full of the authority of a superior.

"Everyone is here, grandfather." As the crown prince of the empire, little Arthur nodded in response.

Prince Arthur is the only one of two people named Arthur in the entire Australasian royal family, which has been renamed the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Saint-Arthur.

His name came from Arthur, the founder of the empire. Arthur was very happy to see his great-grandson, so he broke his tradition of not liking to have the same name as him and let his great-grandson call him by his name.

And young Arthur is likely to become the second emperor of the empire named Arthur, that is, Emperor Arthur II.

"Let them all come and see their father for the last time." William was silent for a long time, quietly wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes, and said after a while.

Crown Prince Arthur also nodded with a heavy heart.

It was an extremely somber day for the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-St. Assef, and the somber mood spread across Australasia and even the world.

Because the founder of the empire, the great Emperor Arthur, died at the age of 101 after a brief reunion with all his family.

For the next three days, flags across Australasia were flown at half-mast to pay tribute to the great monarch of the empire, the most respected human being in the hearts of all Australasia.

To express respect for the monarch, almost all countries in the world lowered their flags to half-mast, including the United Nations, which has a very important position in the world.

Historians at home and abroad have high praise and evaluation for this famous monarch in the 20th century.

Counting only those very influential media, Arthur still won many world records and was praised as the greatest monarch of the 20th century, the most influential national ruler of the 20th century, the richest individual of the 20th century, and so on.

Even most Australasians directly regard Arthur as the greatest monarch and ruler in human history, and use the example of Arthur creating the world's most powerful country to prove this fact.

Even Arthur's farewell funeral was the longest in the world.

Almost all the rulers of countries in the world participated, including dozens of kings.

Even the kings of some countries were not qualified to get close to Arthur's coffin. This funeral was also called the funeral of the century and was hailed as the highest-level funeral in human history.

Because in addition to the rulers and monarchs of many countries, there were millions of people who came to see him off at Fort Saint-Athur that day, and this was because the streets simply could not accommodate more people.

Within a few days of Arthur's funeral, Australasia welcomed tens of millions of tourists, most of whom came to attend Arthur's funeral or even to see it from a distance.

The scene of millions of tourists bidding farewell to Arthur was also made into an oil painting, which was purchased and collected by the Australasia royal family for over 100 million Australian dollars.

Life may be short or long, Arthur's 40-year reign and 101-year life have come to an end.

But the story is not over yet, the legend of Australasia continues, and people's longing for Arthur will never end.

(End of the book)

(End of this chapter)