Rise of Australia

Chapter 948: Land Integration and Localization
The perspective comes to Germany.

The war in Australasia and the island nations is over, and the most nervous country is definitely Germany.

Although Australasia is thousands of miles away, the weapons they use on the island battlefield are too terrifying, and they are definitely a means to influence the war in Europe.

After learning of the existence of such weapons in Australasia, the German government had two plans.

The first plan was to develop powerful weapons similar to those of Australasia and then use them on the European battlefield to end the war directly.

The second plan was to speed up the attack on the rest of Europe and end the war in Europe as much as possible before Australasia could send more troops and use that weapon against Germany.

The two plans were carried out simultaneously. No matter which one succeeded, or whether both plans succeeded, Germany would be invincible.

As for the outcome of both plans failing, that is something the current German government would never even think of.

After all, having integrated the industries of Czechoslovakia and Austria, as well as the military technology of Austria and Poland, Germany's current military scientific and technological talents are definitely among the best in the world.

If Germany is currently unable to develop weapons like Australasia, it can only be said that Australasia's military technology and talent pool are far ahead of Germany.

In this case, the failure of the war due to technological advances can be accepted.

However, the Germans did not believe that Australasia, which was once just a colony, could achieve a major leap in military technology in less than forty years.

Even the German Empire during World War I did not do such a thing, so how could Australasia do it?

Arthur was not at all worried about the possibility that other countries might develop nuclear weapons.

First, in order to develop nuclear weapons, Australasia once monopolized nearly half of the nuclear physics talents. Although other countries responded, they increased the training of talents in this area.

However, Australasia's talent pool in the field of nuclear physics still accounts for about one-third of the world's talent pool, which is the real reason why Australasia's nuclear weapons can be put into use now.

As long as a country has more than one-third of the world's talent in a field, its achievements in this field will definitely be world-leading.

Because it is basically difficult for two countries in the world to each control one-third of the talents in an industry. After all, other countries are not fools, and the importance of talents is understood by countries in any era.

Arthur was happy to see Germany possibly intensify its attacks on other countries.

Especially the war against Russia, the two countries have now entered a white-hot stage. The two ongoing battles, whether it is the Battle of Moscow or the Battle of Sudalingrad, are both super-large-scale battles with a total number of more than one million people.

The Battle of Moscow, in particular, brought together large troops and elite forces from both Germany and Russia. The number of participants exceeded four million, with cumulative casualties exceeding one million. On average, at least 2 to 3 people died on the battlefield every day.

It is worth mentioning that, unlike the Battle of Moscow in history, the Battle of Moscow in this world took place in the summer in the northern hemisphere, and the area around Moscow was not that cold.

This resulted in the German army's logistics being barely able to keep up, and was comparable to that of the Russian army.

What Arthur hopes to see most at the moment is the massive consumption of Russian manpower.

Compared to colonial empires like Britain and France, countries like Russia are more terrifying.

Because Russia has almost no major weaknesses, they have rich mineral resources, a large population, and their land is all connected.

But Britain and France are different. No matter how powerful they are, their homelands always have a limit.

More importantly, the colonies of Britain and France were far away from their homeland, and it was very difficult to localize the colonies.

This means that Britain and France have natural weaknesses, and their threat to Australasia is not as great as that of Russia.

While looking forward to Germany's response, Arthur turned his attention to South America, which still remained neutral.

There are many countries in South America, including regional powers such as Brazil, Argentina and Chile.

Although they cannot be compared with the great powers, the three South American countries can still compete for the second-best position in the world, that is, the top 16 in the world.

Brazil, in particular, seemed to be a potential future power after the demise of Austria and Poland and the fragmentation of the island nation.

South America has a land area of ​​1780 million square kilometers, so its resources are naturally extremely rich.

Venezuela's oil reserves and Brazil's iron ore reserves are among the highest in the world; natural gas is mainly distributed in Venezuela and Argentina; coal is mainly distributed in Colombia and Brazil; bauxite is mainly distributed in Suriname; and copper metal reserves are over 1 million tons, ranking first among all continents.

Chile ranks second in the world in copper reserves, and Peru ranks fourth; its reserves of bismuth, antimony, silver, saltpeter, beryllium and sulfur are among the highest in the continents; tin, manganese, mercury, platinum, lithium, uranium, vanadium, zirconium, thorium, diamonds and other minerals are also abundant.

Coupled with Argentina's black soil, South America seemed to Arthur to be the perfect place to import mineral resources.

After all, South America has historically been the backyard of the United States. Now that the United States is gone, it is only natural for South America to become the backyard of Australasia.

Of course, Arthur's ambitions were not that big, and it was impossible for him to forcibly control the rise of South American countries.

But it is naturally inevitable to establish cooperation with South American countries and import large amounts of mineral resources and oil from South America.

When talking about South America, we have to mention this only pure land in history during World War II.

Except for Brazil, which had some collusion with Germany during the war, other countries remained neutral during World War II.

Because all the major powers focused their attention on the European battlefield, South America had a very good opportunity for development during World War II.

But for Arthur and Australasia, it is not so easy for South America to remain unaffected.

Only by plunging South America into the vortex of war can Australasia seek more interests in South America.

In fact, although South America appears to be relatively peaceful, the amount of gunpowder in it is actually not much less than that in the Balkans.

Although the South American countries have not been independent for long, there have been countless wars between them over land and resources.

Even more famous is the small naval arms race between South America, where the conflict and competition between Brazil, Argentina and Chile has lasted for decades, no less than the current war in Europe.

Considering the good relations between Argentina and Chile and the British, coupled with the current cooperation between Brazil and Germany, it is not impossible to have a two-on-one just battle between South America.

On October 1937, 10, the Australasian government and the British government held a new round of talks. One of the topics of the talks was how to deal with Brazil, which was supporting Germany in the war.

Although the Brazilian government did not explicitly support Germany, their import and export trade with Germany not only did not stop because of the war, but became increasingly close.

Brazil has now become Germany's largest import and export partner outside of Europe, and is also Germany's most important material importer.

Among the merchant ships transporting supplies to Germany attacked by the United Kingdom, nearly half of them were from Brazil, which is enough to show the current relationship between Brazil and Germany.

For a country that still maintains relations with Germany, it is a potential enemy in the eyes of Britain and Australasia.

The reason why Germany's supplies can still hold up is probably due to Brazil's contribution.

How to deal with this traitor Brazil? The best way is to keep Brazil busy so that he has no time to deal with trade with Germany.

This means we have to rely on the two remaining powerful countries in South America, Argentina and Chile.

Especially Argentina, which is a neighboring country of Brazil, and the competition between them is even more intense. I believe that the Argentines would be interested in a war with Brazil with the support of Britain and Australia.

Although the scale of this war may not be large, and the troops deployed by both sides are at most at the level of several hundred thousand, for the countries in South America, this is already a large-scale war.

The Australasian government also discussed with the British the division of spheres of influence in South America.

In the division of spheres of influence, neither Britain nor Australasia took the interests of the French into account.

But this is normal. After all, the French suffered huge losses in this war and their performance in the war was quite poor. It is very normal to be despised.

Regarding the division of power in South America, the British were unwilling to give up Chile. As mentioned before, the British needed Chile's mineral resources very much, and Argentina was not that important in comparison.

As a matter of course, Australasia was given a sphere of influence over Argentina. Although this did not allow Australasia to directly control Argentina, some economic actions against Argentina would also be tacitly approved by Britain.

Arthur was generally satisfied with this division of spheres of influence. In the long run, Argentina's development potential would surpass Chile's.

Although both countries are relatively long and narrow lands, Argentina's land width is much greater than Chile's.

Looking at the map, Chile looks like a long and thin toothpick. Such a land shape is extremely vulnerable to threats and its own development potential will be severely restricted.

Argentina is different. It not only has one of the four major black soils, but also has more land area and greater potential for development.

As long as the Argentine market can be penetrated, the future industrial development of Australasia will be greatly boosted.

After completing the division of spheres of influence, Australasia also began its own action, which was a plan to promote the war in South America.

If you want to promote the war in South America, Argentina is absolutely indispensable, and its importance is even higher than Chile.

After all, Chile and Brazil are not adjacent to each other, which also means that it is basically impossible for a war to break out between the two countries.

Argentina's agriculture and animal husbandry are also quite developed, and grain and meat exports are the mainstay of Argentina's economy.

Since the outbreak of World War II, Argentina has earned a lot of income through cooperation with Britain and France, and successfully reversed the crisis of unsalable agricultural products since the Great Depression.

This situation is seen in many countries in South America. Although they do not actively join the war, they all maintain good relations with European countries and are the main agricultural and meat product partners of European countries.

However, unlike Brazil, whether it is Chile, Argentina, or other countries in South America, most of them chose the Allied Powers group headed by Britain, France and Australia.

This is actually normal. Although Germany's strength in the war was still very strong, its navy was very weak.

Correspondingly, it is difficult for Germany's influence to cross the Atlantic Ocean and reach South America.

The British had an extremely powerful navy, so it is no surprise that their influence spread throughout South America.

We have to mention here the two countries that once colonized South America, Portugal and Spain.

It is worth mentioning that these South American countries seem to have chosen a completely different path from their former overlords.

Brazil, which was once colonized by Portugal, chose a path completely opposite to that of Portugal, which was to cooperate with the Germans.

Argentina, once a Spanish colony, chose a completely opposite path from Spain and cooperated with Britain and Australasia.

The war plan in South America was being prepared, and Arthur was not idle at the same time.

The disposal of the islands and archipelagos ceded by the island nations has become the current government's top concern.

In theory, it would seem unnecessary to set up separate administrative districts for these newly annexed lands.

However, if all these lands were incorporated into the rule of the Pacific Territory, the scope of the Pacific Territory would become larger and more difficult to manage.

After a vote by the government, it was finally decided to incorporate these occupied islands into the North Pacific Territory and bring them under the jurisdiction of the Pacific Fleet.

Currently, the population on these islands is not large, so it is not too difficult to manage them.

Moreover, most of the people on these islands are islanders. After Australasia officially takes over these islands, the first thing to do is to expel these islanders and introduce Australasia immigrants.

The second thing is about the handling of the Straits Settlements.

North Kalimantan was incorporated into the United Kalimantan Sultanate, and the remaining Straits Settlements, which is the northern shore of the Strait of Malacca, will exist as a separate administrative region.

Speaking of which, Australasia currently has complete control over both sides of the Strait of Malacca, which is equivalent to complete control over the Strait of Malacca, which is very important for the country's future strategic layout.

In Arthur's plan, the newly occupied Straits Settlements were also to be localized and would become a new state in Australasia.

Only when all colonies are localized can the collapse of the colonial empire in the future avoid affecting Australasia.

(End of this chapter)