The Rise Of Australasia - Chapter 344

Chapter 344: Chapter 298: The Crazy Shipbuilding Plan (Seeking monthly tickets!)

On September 11, 1911, by Arthur’s appointment, the first Governor of the Royal Territory, Hendrik Campbell, officially took office on Flores Island.

The Royal Territory can be divided into three parts, respectively made up of the Dragon Eye Island, Sumbawa Island, Sumba Island, Flores Island, Alo Archipelago which form the Nusa Dungara Islands, as well as the southwestern islands of the eastern part of East Timor Island and the Leti Islands, and finally the Southeastern Islands composed of the Tanning Bar Islands, Cay Islands and Aru Archipelago in the east.

The Cocos Islands and Christmas Island in the southern part of Java Island are also under Australasia’s control.

This has led to the official formation of Australasia’s northern island defense chain, effectively keeping enemies out of these islands and preventing the native lands from being covered by war.

The small town of Flores City on Flores Island has been officially renamed Flores, serving as the capital and administrative center of the Royal Territory.

Arthur plans to build a port city here, which will also become one of Australasia’s naval bases.

Almost all large islands in the Royal Territory are home to tens of thousands of indigenous peoples. Managing them is quite troublesome due to their scattered distribution.

Arthur gave Hendrik his first directive, which was to centralize the indigenous inhabitants of the Royal Territory as much as possible in each island’s urban cities to facilitate subsequent relocation.

Yes, aside from a portion of the indigenous labour, Arthur does not plan to let the remaining indigenous people continue to stay on these islands.

Only Australasians will be allowed to live on these archipelagos and islands in the future. Apart from using the indigenous people as labour and cannon fodder, the rest will eventually be expelled.

The indigenous population is currently useful to Australasia, but as the population of Australasia grows and some jobs are inevitably replaced by machines.

The usefulness of this free labour will not be very significant. Apart from using them as cannon fodder, the only option left would be to expel them to the Dutch territories.

After about a week, the assaults of the First Division and Division two have been making good progress.

After leaving Flores Island, the First Division proceeded to Sumba Island, Sumbawa Island and Dragon Eye Island, easily capturing these three large islands.

In addition to these three large islands, there are countless small sub-islands around them.

Attacking these islands is very troublesome and requires even more time than the three large islands.

The task of the First Division and Division Two was only to occupy and control these larger islands, and the plan of the Ministry of Defence for the smaller surrounding islands was to hand them over to the First and Second Native Divisions.

The Native Division has been in training for quite some time since its establishment, and now it is time for them to witness bloodshed.

After all, the soldiers of the Native Division are largely composed of indigenous peoples. As long as there are no major losses among the senior officers, there won’t be any grievances if many indigenous people die.

On September 15, 1911, after completing their tasks, the First Division and Division Two switched defenses with the First and Second Native Divisions respectively.

The First Division and Division Two returned to Australasian mainland, while the two Native Divisions will be responsible for garrisoning the Royal Territory.

The two Native Divisions will be divided by Flores Island. Including Flores Island, the western part will be stationed by the First Native Division, while the numerous archipelagos in the east will be scattered and garrisoned by the Second Native Division.

With the expansion of territory, the shortage of the Australasia Army has emerged again.

Although there is currently one Guard Division, four Regular Divisions and two Native Divisions in Australasia, they are still too sparse when spread over millions of square kilometers of land in Australasia.

The core areas of Australasia, Australia and New Zealand together have nearly 8 million square kilometers of land, but theoretically, the troop force responsible for garrisoning is only composed of four regular divisions.

This means that if Australasia were to go to war with others, at most it would be able to mobilize the two most elite regular divisions, the First and Division Two.

Two divisions together can only consist of a force of 32,000 troops. It’s enough for small skirmishes, but if it’s a large-scale war, this force might just be barely capable of defending the territory.

As the good news from the Ministry of Civil Affairs came in early September, with the total population of Australasia officially exceeding 10 million, Arthur also decided to launch another military expansion in Australasia, and at least increase the army’s personnel to consist of two guard divisions, six regular divisions, four native divisions, and two colonial garrisons totaling slightly over 220,000 troops.

This also implies that the total number of soldiers in the Australasian Army will officially exceed 200,000, amounting to double the number before the expansion.

Since nearly 80,000 troops from the four Native Divisions are made up of the indigenous people, the real burden on the 10 million population of Australasia is to support an army of just 120,000. Thus, the burden is not that great.

Of course, the scale of the expansion was not directly decided by Arthur. The expansion magnitude was decided upon after days of contemplation and discussion by Arthur, Kent, and the incumbent Minister of Defence, Raul.

The pivotal reason is that the Military University is able to train several hundred army talents for Australasia every year, and the army also has a good pipeline of talents. Therefore, directly increasing by nearly 100,000 troops is not that strenuous.

Considering that World War I is approaching, expanding the country’s army in advance would be beneficial. Of course, Arthur wouldn’t deny that he is slightly envious of the alliance that the Balkans are currently planning. These small countries have armies of more than 100,000 to 200,000, even though their populations are less than half of Australasia’s.