The Rise Of Australasia-Chapter 1308 - 953 Sovereignty of Antarctica_2
Chapter 1308: Chapter 953: Sovereignty of Antarctica_2
Chapter 1308 -953: Sovereignty of Antarctica_2
The Allied Forces stationed in North Africa severely impacted the conscription progress in the French Colonies. At present, at least 500,000 colonial soldiers are blocked in West and Central Africa, and the various facilities in the French colonies in North Africa have been severely damaged by the German and Italian armies.
The army attacking Spain numbers about 1.2 million. Of these, France has committed 350,000 troops, the United Kingdom has contributed 550,000, and Australasia has provided 300,000.
Although the number is not as large as imagined, the 1.2 million troops assembled by the Britain-France-Australia alliance suffice to confront the Spanish military.
After all, this country had undergone a civil war before World War II, and its overall population is not large; for Spain, an army of over a million is also a burden.
Moreover, once the North African battlefield stabilizes, most of the troops located there will also counterattack Spain.
The troops deployed by the Britain-France-Australia alliance in North Africa are second only to the French battlefield, numbering around 1.2 million. The British are the main force in this army, comprising about 60%, or roughly 700,000 people.
The numbers for France and Australasian soldiers are significantly lower, with about 200,000 French soldiers and approximately 300,000 from Australasia.
The third battlefield is the Balkan front. However, compared to the French and North African battlefields, the Britain-France-Australia alliance has little desire to deploy troops to the Balkans.
After all, given the location of the Balkans, this area can affect the southern regions of Germany and is one of the areas where the German army focuses its defenses.
Moreover, Germany’s few allies, Bulgaria and Romania, are here, with Romania possessing the scarce petroleum resources that Germany desperately needs.
Under such circumstances, attacking the Balkans proves much more difficult than assaulting Italy and Spain, which might seem somewhat wasteful.
More importantly, Russia Country’s Ukrainian region borders the Balkan Region. If the Britain-France-Australia alliance were to dispatch troops to the Balkans, wouldn’t that mean they are actively alleviating pressure for the Russians?
Firstly, Britain-France-Australia do not wish to see Russia reduce its casualties; secondly, the difficulty of attacking the Balkan Peninsula is indeed great, better left to the Russians to slowly deal with.
Since the distribution of benefits is already underway, even if the Russians unexpectedly conquer the Balkan Peninsula, under the joint pressure of the Britain-France-Australia alliance, the Russians will not be able to swallow too many of the resources and land.
It is for this reason that in the new annual war plan drafted by Britain-France-Australia, only 300,000 to 400,000 troops are allocated for the Balkan battlefield, of which more than 250,000 are from Australasia.
Of course, apart from the 5.5 million troops committed to the battlefield, the Britain-France-Australia alliance also needs to prepare at least 2 million as reserve forces.
According to an agreement reached with Britain and France, the United Kingdom and France will prepare about 1.5 million reserve troops, while Australasia only needs to prepare the remaining 500,000.
Although it appears that Australasia needs to deploy 2 million troops for combat, it only needs to ensure that half are Australasian soldiers to meet the requirements of Britain and France.
After all, the current situation of the military in Britain and France is not much better than in Australasia. Especially the French military, which can now be seen with a large number of black colonial populations, wearing standard French military uniforms walking the streets of France, a sight bizarre enough to make many French express a preference for their absence.
Given the somewhat preposterous proportions of the military in the three countries of Britain, France, and Australia, it appears that the next year’s offensive will mobilize 5.5 million main troops and 2 million reserve troops, totaling 7.5 million, but in reality, having 3 million regular troops from Britain, France, and Australasia would already be quite an achievement.
Out of these, at least 4.5 million are colonial troops from the three countries, whose combat effectiveness and discipline are completely different levels compared to the native regular troops, making the fighting capability of these 7.5 million troops also questionable.
The reason Australasia agreed to deploy 2 million troops, of course, involved Britain and France making certain concessions in terms of benefits.
Firstly, there was the issue of trade in weapons and equipment. Australasia signed a trade order with Britain and France worth a total of 1.5 billion Australian Dollars, which included weapons and equipment, ammunition, grain, and medical supplies, as well as various daily necessities, mineral resources, and consumables.
Due to war-caused price inflation, this order netted Australasia a profit of at least 500 million Australian Dollars, a quite favorable gain.
Furthermore, at the initiative of Australasia, the three countries of Britain, France, and Australasia reached an agreement on the sovereignty of Antarctica.
As the only superpower in the Southern Hemisphere, spanning the Indian and Pacific Oceans, Australasia naturally holds sovereignty over much of Antarctica.
The determination of sovereignty over Antarctica was based on the distribution of territories in the Southern Hemisphere. This also meant that the territory of Antarctica corresponding to the range from Kiergaran Archipelago to Pitcairn Islands now belonged to Australasia.
The reason why Britain and France agreed to this agreement was simple: the current technological means could not effectively enter Antarctica for resource exploitation.
It’s no exaggeration to say that constructing permanent residences in Antarctica posed serious difficulties, rendering the so-called sovereignty over Antarctica practically insignificant for the next several decades.
Even according to predictions by domestic experts in Britain and France, it was not likely that humanity could exploit the resources of Antarctica within the next 200 years.
It was precisely because of this conclusion that Britain and France agreed to let Australasia occupy most of the sovereignty of Antarctica.
After all, there was still the land corresponding to South America and Africa left in Antarctica, which was sufficient for Britain and France to divide among themselves.
Looking at the current world situation, after this war ends, only Britain, France, Australasia, and Russia would remain as the world’s superpowers.
Of course, the French held the lowest status among them, but compared to other countries, they still had certain advantages.
After all, Island Nation and Austria no longer existed, and Germany was destined to be a defeated country, unable to maintain a position among the powers after the war.
It could be anticipated that after the war, countries like Brazil and South Slavia might also get to experience the feeling of being among the powerful nations.
However, even if these countries could successfully break into the top ten in the world, their influence would be completely incomparable to that of the four countries of Britain, France, Australasia, and Russia.
More importantly, after World War II ended, the global situation would essentially stabilize. Any country desiring to rise to power would have to challenge this new world order.
And this new world order was maintained by the three powerful nations of Britain, France, and Australasia. The difficulty of challenging this world order was extremely high, even arguably a deadlock.
After all, powerful attack methods like nuclear weapons had been developed, making it much more difficult to challenge the status of world hegemon through military means than it was during World War I and II.
After Britain, France, and Australasia reached a compromise, the progress of the London Conference naturally accelerated significantly.
On December 11, 1937, in the presence of representatives from various countries, a brand-new “Weapons Trade Treaty” was freshly produced.
This weapons trade treaty stipulated that countries with extra military industrial production capacity should support their allies with weapons and equipment, and that the selling price must not exceed 90% of the market price.
The countries signed this treaty incredibly quickly, as consumption of weapons and ammunition had been extremely intense up to that point.
Especially for those countries that were originally not very large, their military industrial scale could not be rapidly increased in a short period of time.
This also meant that there were still significant shortages of weapons and ammunition in many small and medium-sized countries, which was the real reason behind the signing of this weapons and equipment trade treaty.
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However, while agreeing to export weapons and equipment, Australasia would not be foolish enough to sell its most advanced planes, tanks, missiles, and atomic bombs.
These advanced weapons were not only Australasia’s trump cards in controlling the global situation, they were also valuable assets left by Arthur for William and young Alexander.
With leading airplanes, tanks, missiles, and atomic bombs, Australasia could ensure that its national strength remained among or even at the top of the world for at least three generations of monarchy.
This meant that William and young Alexander could rest easy as monarchs who inherited a legacy. They didn’t need to be exceptionally outstanding to maintain the splendid era created by Arthur.
Considering that Arthur’s century in Australasia was no less significant than Queen Victoria’s, perhaps future generations might refer to the period from when Arthur was crowned Duke of Australia to his abdication as the Glorious Age of Arthur.
