For Australasian people, 1913 was definitely a year of surprise.

In addition to Arthur's announcement of naval expansion, Australasia also took over the Pacific colonies of many great powers during the year.

Yes, in the last month of 1913, Australasia again began operations to receive the Anglo-French Pacific colonies.

The reception of the Solomon Islands has been going well so far, which led Arthur to decide to speed up the pace of receiving colonies, aiming to fully accept the colonies of the Great Powers in the Pacific before the outbreak of World War I.

For this handover of the colony, Arthur specially prepared an entire division to go to the islands in the Pacific Ocean, and sent the navy to patrol these waters.

On December 11, 1913, Australasia announced that British Fiji, which had been taken over from the British, would be renamed the Colony of Australian Fiji, with George Valerianos as Governor.

With a land area of more than 18,300 square kilometres, Australian Fiji is a region of hundreds of islands and archipelagos.

Like the Solomon Islands, although the population is as high as 150,000, the core of European immigrants is only about 20,000, and the rest are indigenous people.

The most important thing about the new colonies that Australasia has received is stability.

Therefore, Arthur does not intend to make a move on the indigenous populations of these colonies for the time being until order in these colonies is truly stable.

Australia's Fiji is treated in a similar way to the Solomon Islands, with a garrison of 1,000 troops and state-level administrative divisions.

Although these colonies in the Pacific are not as large as a single state in Australasia together, most of them have a population of just over 100,000.

However, these colonies were scattered among each other and were not suitable for unified management. Breaking it up into colonies, large and small, would not only ease the pressure on the colony to be managed, but also increase the government's control over individual colonies.

Australia-Fiji is just the beginning. A few days later, the French also went into action.

The area transferred by the French was located in French New Caledonia, which was surrounded by the current territory of Australasia.

French New Caledonia has a land area of 18,575 square kilometres, which is about the same size as Fiji.

But the population of this area is much smaller, and the total population of French New Caledonia would not exceed 100,000 if all the indigenous population is included.

Along with French New Caledonia, the New Hebrides in northern New Caledonia were transferred to Australasia.

The New Hebrides have an area of about 12,200 square kilometers and a population of only about 70,000.

This area is special because of the wide distribution of missionaries from England and France, so a few years ago, Britain and France signed a treaty declaring joint control of this area.

Taking advantage of this transfer of the colony, Britain and France also directly transferred this colony to Australasia, which also saved a lot of trouble.

You know, these colonies in the Pacific are far from the British and French mainlands, and most of them are not self-sufficient in food and resources.

This also meant that in many cases, the British and French needed to send supplies and food to the garrisons and residents of the island, which often represented a large amount of consumption.

The loss of these colonies was not distressing for Britain and France, after all, Britain and France had colonies in Southeast Asia, and the British also owned an extensive colony called India, so they naturally did not look down on these small islands in the Pacific Ocean with a population of only more than 100,000.

Therefore, the transfer of these colonies seemed to be a loss of land by Britain and France, but in fact it was an opportunity for Britain and France to reduce the burden on the government.

Because of the relative proximity between the New Hebrides and French New Caledonia, the Australasian government decided to merge the two colonies to form Australian New Caledonia.

After the merger, the population of the new Australian New Caledonia will also reach more than 100,000, the same level as the Solomon Islands and Fiji.

In fact, it can be seen from the map that the Crown Territory, Australian Timor, Australian New Guinea, Australian Solomon Islands, Australian New Caledonia, Australian Fiji, and New Zealand, directly formed an island defense chain that began in the north of Australasia and surrounded the southeast.

Once these areas are fully integrated, Australasia can rely on these islands and colonies to keep any enemy from the Pacific out of the island defense chain.

Australasia, on the other hand, has no island defense chain to the west and south, and one is the icy South Pole, which is basically impossible for an enemy to attack. The other is the vast Indian Ocean, which is currently controlled by Australasia's allies, Britain and France, and is unlikely to pose any threat for the time being.

This also means that the security of Australasia is very secure at the moment. As long as these colonies are well managed, even if there are strong foreign enemies, they can completely protect themselves from the enemy.

Perhaps Britain and France had already negotiated their intention to sell all the colonies in the Pacific at once.

Towards 1914, Australasia once again successfully received colonies such as French Polynesia, the British Phoenix Islands, the British Tokelau Islands, the British Gilbert and Ellis Islands Protectorate, the British Tonga Protectorate, the British Cook Islands, the British Kermadec Islands, and the British Pitcairn Islands, and successfully expanded its sphere of influence to most of the Pacific Ocean.

After taking over these colonies, it is no exaggeration to say that Australasia has occupied most of the Pacific Ocean and is a veritable Pacific hegemon.

Of course, this also gives rise to a very serious problem. Without Britain and France in the Pacific, Australasia will collide with the United States.

This also means that the United States will be Australasia's worst enemy, now and in the future.

If the United States wants to realize its Pacific strategy and expand in the Pacific, it must face Australasia, which occupies most of the Pacific Ocean.

If Australasia wants to maintain its hegemony in the Pacific, it has to directly oppose the United States and become an enemy with the United States.

In this way, Arthur understood why Britain and France were so eager to get rid of the colonies.

Rather than keeping a few useless islands, it is better to transfer them all to Australasia, so that Australasia can directly become a bridgehead against the United States.

In this way, even if the alliance of the Entente breaks down in the future, Australasia will have to face the United States alone.

As long as Australasia wants to maintain its hegemony in the Pacific region, it is a matter of course that Australia and the United States will become enemies.

This is the British and French conspiracy, but now, Arthur has to walk in hard.

Australasia had succeeded in receiving the extensive British and French colonies in the Pacific, and it was impossible for Arthur to spit out these areas.

Fortunately, the current alliance of the four major powers of the Entente is still solid, and the military strength of the United States is not too strong for the time being, and Australasia is fully capable of coping.

In order to better rule the newly received vast archipelago, combined with the advice of the cabinet, Arthur divided all the newly received colonies except Fiji, the Solomon Islands, and New Caledonia into two parts.

It is bounded by German New Guinea and German Samoyed, and to the north is the Australian Western Pacific Territory, with Tarawa in the Gilbert and Ellis Islands region as its capital.

To the south of the demarcation line, the Australian South Pacific Territory was formed, with the capital of Papeete in Polynesia.

Since then, the current political structure of Australasia has been determined.

Eight states, five colonies, and four territories made up the complete and unified Kingdom of Australasia.

The governors of colonies and territories were appointed directly by Arthur, which was also good news for Arthur.

Colonial and territorial governors, who were directly appointed by Arthur, were clearly more reliable in their loyalty than governors who were elected by the state chamber.

Of course, while the supreme leaders are also directly appointed by Arthur, there are many differences between colonies and territories.

The colonies belonged to the state, but the monarch had the right to appoint officials, to have jurisdiction and the right to mobilize troops.

However, the realm legally belongs directly to the monarch and can be completely free from the control of the government, and is only accountable to Arthur.

Of course, as the seat of the capital of the kingdom, the status of the capital territory is rather special. The ACT is a division between the territory and the states, and the principal officials are appointed directly by Arthur, but are also subject to the control of the Cabinet Government.

In addition to the administrative division of these colonies, Arthur determined the defense deployment in Australasia after talking with Secretary of Defense Raul in terms of defense and military affairs.

Australasia's domestic defence deployment can be roughly divided into four regions. The Australian region, which is dominated by the core of Australasia, established the Australian Theater of Operations, with its headquarters in Sydney.

New Zealand is a New Zealand theater of operations with its head office in Wellington. The Royal Territory, Australian Timor, Australian New Guinea established the Southeast Asian Theater of Operations, with the general station in Port Moresby.

Later, the Pacific Theater of Operations, which consisted of major Pacific colonies and archipelagos, was based in Suva, Fiji.

The main purpose of the war zones in Australia and New Zealand is to garrison the territory and maintain law and order in the country.

The role of the Southeast Asian Theater and the Pacific Theater is to guard against the island countries in the north of Australasia and the United States on the other side of the Pacific.

When Australasia's sea power gradually develops, the navy will also be dismantled into these four military regions and the corresponding sub-fleets will be formed.

Of course, in a theater like New Zealand, there will be a correspondingly smaller garrison and fleet stationing.

After all, as long as the outer islands can be defended, New Zealand has basically no risk.

After all, the Australian theater of operations is located on the east coast of the Indian Ocean, and in addition, it is the core area of the country, and the presence of the army and navy is indispensable.

What's more, Australia's vast land area means that there will definitely be no shortage of garrisons in this area.

The Southeast Asia and Pacific theaters are important links in the military deployment of Greater Lasia. If nothing else, the two theaters will focus on the deployment of air and navy, as well as the establishment of a coastal defense system.

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(End of chapter)