The war is over, but there is more to be done after the war is over.

The first was that under the London Treaty, Australasia was required to withdraw its troops from Portuguese India and the East Asian colonies, and to ensure the safety of all Portuguese citizens in those two regions.

Well, yes, the personal safety of citizens.

As for the property of these Portuguese, most of the previous factories, equipment and other property have long been moved by Australasia, and the countries are well aware of this.

In addition, the more than 1,000 Portuguese soldiers captured in Australasia also moved to Portuguese India, waiting for the Portuguese to receive them.

These people Arthur did not ask for ransom, after all, Australasia had made enough money in this war, and the excuse of the war was to seek justice for the fishermen, and it was not good to be too greedy.

In fact, the harvest of Australasia this time was indeed not small, not to mention the Portuguese Timor, which is rich in mineral resources, and the factories and various facilities of the other two colonies were almost empty.

After all, Portugal has operated in these areas for tens or even hundreds of years, and these possessions are enough for Australasia to reap a lot of benefits.

As for the demographic problem of Portuguese Timor, there was a relatively reasonable solution, which was to give them severance pay and allow them to relocate to the other two Portuguese colonies in Asia.

The rest of those who are unwilling to leave will have to accept Australasian rule and even join Australasian citizenship.

They will go through a probationary period of at least three months to ensure that there are no problems before they can be granted Australasian citizenship.

When more immigrants from Australasia moved from the mainland, Timorese rule would be more secure.

On October 21, 1907, the Australasian government officially announced that the Timor region would become the second colony of Australasia, and a Timorese colonial government would be formed to administer the area.

Timor, or Portuguese Timor, was officially renamed Australian Timor.

The Governor of Australian Timor was Roman Pito, a member of the Royal House and formerly the House of Lords of New Zealand.

After successfully entering the Royal House, Roman Pito also expressed his absolute loyalty to Arthur with great interest, and never did anything and was very low-key.

It is absolutely enough to let such a talent manage the small Australian Timor, and it can also make the talents of the New Zealand department feel Arthur's attention.

You must know that even the newly established governor of Australian Timor has the same administrative rank as the governor of each state, and his status is even slightly higher than that of the governor.

After all, governors are elected by the people of the states, and governors of colonies and capital territories are appointed by Arthur himself.

This degree of intimacy also predestined the governors of the colonies and capital territories to have a higher status than the governors, which is why the governors are members of the Royal House and the governors are not.

After withdrawing from the two areas occupied, the troops returned to their original positions and began their daily training.

The 1st Division also retained only one regiment as the garrison of Australian Timor. Other soldiers also returned to their Australasian station.

Although the war was won, it also exposed many shortcomings in the current military aspects of Australasia.

Although the strength of the army is very good, it also has a fight with the regular German army. However, the total number of soldiers in the Australasian Army is only about 60,000, that is, one Guards Division and three regular divisions.

This is still too few to guard Australasia, which covers a total area of millions of square kilometers.

The second is the Australasian navy, which is also the place where the biggest shortcomings are exposed so far.

Australasia's naval strength remained unchanged from the previous colonial period, with the addition of only a few medium frigates and cruisers.

A navy of this size can only defend against pirates and the weaker countries in the vicinity, and is no match for European countries at all.

Even countries such as the Netherlands and Portugal, which are currently about the same strength as Australasia on paper, still have a large navy compared to Australasia, and Australasia is not its opponent at all.

In particular, this war was almost limited by naval inferiority, and if it had not been for the timely invitation of the three European countries to peace talks, I am afraid that the war would have lasted much longer.

After deliberations between Arthur and government officials, the Australasian Navy expansion plan was formalized over a five-year period.

The first is the expansion of the most important type of warship, battleships.

The good news is that two Russian warships are already in the final stages of construction, and the battleship Petropavlovsk is even nearing completion.

Next, the two Russian battleships will enter the nautical test stage, which also means that the shipyard has more energy to build Australasia's own warships.

Because of this, the construction of battleships in the five-year construction plan is the largest, and the scale is very large.

According to Arthur's decision, the Australasian Navy was to order three Monarch-class battleships, which were named the lead ships, Australasia, Australia and New Zealand.

According to the Royal Dockyards, construction of the first ship, Australasia, could begin as early as January next year, while construction of Australia and New Zealand will begin in March and July, respectively.

Because of the simultaneous construction of three battleships, the construction period will also be extended to a certain extent.

According to conservative estimates, the Australasia was built in March 1909, and the battleship New Zealand, which started construction at the latest, was not built later than October 1909.

Add in another year or so of nautical testing, and if all goes well, the Australasian Navy will have its first dreadnought in early 1910, and three dreadnoughts in 1910.

At that time, the Australasian Navy, with three dreadnoughts, will definitely be able to squeeze into the top ten in the world.

In addition to the Monarch-class battleships, Australasia also had a new class of strategic ships, or more appropriately battle cruisers.

In fact, the current British Empire already had battle cruisers.

This is a warship that has been weakened in some way compared to a battleship or a dreadnought.

For example, the battlecruisers Indomitable, Invincible and Steadfast, which had been launched in the British Empire, had only 6 to 7 inches of hull and turret armor thick, or about 150 to 180 millimeters.

But by this time, the armor of the battleship had already reached 11-12 inches, that is, 280-300 mm.

The difference in the thickness of such armor is literally twice as much, not to mention the actual protection capability, and the difference may be even more.

This was the disadvantage of the British battlecruisers, but it was precisely because of this shortcoming that the battlecruisers gained a huge advantage that battleships could not match, that is, the powerful speed of the battlecruisers.

While dreadnoughts can only reach a normal speed of 19 knots and a maximum speed of 21 knots, the Invincible-class battlecruisers can reach a terrifying speed of 26 knots, which is a big step ahead of dreadnoughts.

The speed of the dreadnought, which is much ahead of the old battleships before it, is enough to prove how exaggerated the speed of the battlecruiser is.

More importantly, the British Invincible-class battlecruisers had guns with a caliber of 12 inches, that is, 305 mm guns.

The caliber of this gun was comparable to that of the battleships of the same period, which also meant that the battlecruisers had the same firepower as the battleships while having far faster speeds than the battleships.

In addition to the greatly weakened armor protection capabilities, the other characteristics of the battlecruiser can be said to be the first-class and top of the current battleships.

Although the weak armor greatly weakened the battlecruiser's protective capabilities, the extremely fast speed made the battlecruiser have a strategic significance that other warships could not have.

Strategic cruisers can use high movement speed to maneuver and outflank the enemy's fleet, and can also carry out cruising and pursuit, and the enemy cannot escape if he wants to.

What's more, dreadnoughts are being updated quickly, and by battlecruisers not so fast.

As long as the firepower of the battleship is maintained, coupled with the extremely fast speed, the strategic significance of the battlecruiser cannot be lost.

Previously, after the creation of the Monarch-class battleship, Arthur instructed the shipyard's specialists to start exploring such warships.

A long time has passed, and the experts have achieved some results.

The strategic cruiser in Australasia, called the Unification class fast cruiser, is about 173 meters long, 24 meters wide and 7.9 meters high.

The expected standard displacement of the Unity-class fast cruisers reached 17,000 tons, and the expected full load displacement was barely 19,000 tons.

The power plant of this fast cruiser was not much different from that of the Monarch-class battleships, but due to the drastic reduction in armor, the fast cruiser was able to reach an expected speed of more than twenty-four knots.

As for the maximum speed, it will be necessary to wait for the actual test after the warship is built, but it is expected that it should be able to break through twenty-five knots.

The fast cruiser was armed with four twin 45xd 283mm guns, and 12 single-mounted 45x4-inch secondary guns and seven machine guns.

At the same time, there are four 458-mm underwater torpedo tubes, capable of defending against and attacking submarines.

Aside from the obvious lack of armor protection, this Unity-class fast cruiser really had no shortcomings, which is why Arthur was determined to build it.

In addition to the Monarch-class battleships, the construction of the Unity-class fast cruisers was also a focus of Arthur's plans.

However, only two fast cruisers were planned, and construction would begin after the completion of the Australasia and Australia, and their construction was expected to take place until the second half of 1910, and even around 1911 to equip the navy.

But no one can deny that after equipping three Monarch-class battleships and two Unity-class fast cruisers, Australasia's navy will definitely reach the level of a great power, albeit only a low-class power.

The second more, ask for support!

(End of chapter)