If there is one country that has been the most anxious in the world lately, it is probably the French, who have always regarded the British as their opponents.

Take a closer look at the deeds of Britain in the past two years, taking control of Central America, gaining Persia, and taking full control of the Middle East.

Coupled with the help of Australasia, Britain has an absolute voice in Europe and the world alliance, and the French, as the strongest country in the European continent, have far less say in Europe than Britain.

The Treaty of Naval Limitation made it impossible for the French to catch up with Britain in terms of navy, and the diplomatic isolation and helplessness also made the French feel in crisis.

With all these considerations, the French felt the need to find an ally for themselves, a reliable ally at the level of a great power, to relieve their pressure.

If you look closely at all the countries of Europe, the only ones who can be called great powers are Russia and Italy.

Neither of these countries could be relied upon, and a fully integrated Russia might have the strength to help France, but now it was a non-complete Russia damaged by the civil war, and the Russians had no intention of getting involved in anything outside of Russia, so Nicholas II's attention was all about recovering and developing.

Italy, of course, needless to say. After Mussolini established a dictatorial government, Italy's presence in international affairs had been greatly reduced.

And Italy really did not do well in the First World War, and such an ally would even become a burden to the French, and they were the first to be excluded by the French.

In addition, there were not many countries in Europe that could help France, and after careful consideration and choice, the French still set their sights on the Austrian Empire, which had been greatly weakened.

Speaking of the Austrian Empire, it should be the luckiest country among the Allies in World War I. Although part of the territory including Galicia, Bosnia, Hungary and northern Italy was lost, Austria and Bohemia, the core of the state, remained.

However, due to the loss of the Kingdom of Hungary, the current Austro-Hungarian Empire has been renamed the Austrian Empire, reverting to its original imperial name.

However, even with Austria and Bohemia, the current Austrian Empire still has the strength of a great power, but it is a relatively low power.

It is precisely because of the loss of most of the country, coupled with the heavy casualties in the First World War, that the restrictions imposed by the Allies on the Austrian Empire are not so high, and the current recovery of industrial strength is still relatively good.

The French could not form an alliance with Germany, so they naturally set their sights on the Austrian Empire.

Although the Austrian Empire may not seem like the best option, you should not choose countries like Poland and Turkey.

Poland was not necessarily stronger in general than the Austrian Empire, but the ambitions of the Poles had already offended Russia.

The French did not bother to offend Russia for the sake of Poland, because in the eyes of the French, Tsarist Russia was still their more important ally in Europe after regaining its strength.

Perhaps stimulated by the British's control of Persia, the French quickly contacted the Austrian Empire, and signed an alliance between the two countries under the agitated gaze of the Austrian Empire officials and Karl I.

The reason for the excitement is that at the moment the position of Karl I is already very dangerous.

Although he retained his throne because of the joint declaration of the European royal families and the operation of Karl I, after all, it was still a defeated country, and the Austrian Empire was still burdened with a large amount of reparations.

Although the industry and economy recovered somewhat, the finances of the Imperial Government and the economic situation of the Austrians were not optimistic, because of the large amount of money that had to be spent on reparations every year.

Although Karl I was already trying his best to maintain his prestige, from time to time he donated some royal funds to the relief of the Austrians.

But there will still be many voices calling for the abolition of the royal family, after all, the main culprit that made the Austrian Empire a defeated country was actually Emperor Franz, who signed the declaration of war at that time.

The old emperor's prestige in Austria-Hungary during his lifetime was indeed very high, but this did not prevent him from bringing disaster to Austria-Hungary after making Austria-Hungary a defeated country in World War I.

But if Austria-Hungary was not a defeated country, Karl I would not have been deposed within a few years of his accession to the throne.

The reason for signing the alliance with the Austrian Empire was not only because of the remaining strength of the Austrian Empire, but also because the Austrian Empire was relatively close to Russia and could achieve the Paris-Vienna-St. Petersburg system.

An important reason for the silence of the Russians in international diplomacy was the poor industry and economy of Russia, as well as the threat of Soviet Russia, which posed a threat to Tsarist Russia.

As long as the French and Austrian empires were able to provide Russia with substantial support, the reunification and return of Russia to the top was inevitable.

At that time, the combination of France, Austria and Russia will be completely comparable to Britain and Australia, and in terms of army strength, they will comprehensively suppress Britain and Australia, which is also the hope that the French see to defeat the British.

Although it was necessary to constantly support the Austrian Empire and Russia for this purpose, and even spent a lot of money and materials for this.

But there is nothing to make allies without paying, and the British have donated a large amount of supplies and equipment to their ally Australasia, which has been exchanged for the support of a powerful Australasia.

The French also decided to follow the British example and raise their allies into two powerful nations.

The assistance of the French was an emergency for the current Austrian Empire, and it was also a relief in the snow.

In particular, some food and medical supplies provided by the French can well calm the prices of the Austrian Empire, so that the Austrians can have enough to eat, which is the most important thing at present.

After all, only when the people have eaten enough will they not make trouble. If the people do not make trouble, the rule of the government will be stable, and the position of Karl I will be stable.

Even the French, in order to express their sincerity, exempted most of the Austrian Empire's reparations to France, which greatly reduced the pressure on the Austro-Hungarian Empire's reparations.

After all, the main reparations of the defeated countries were the four Allied powers of Britain, France, Russia, and Australia. In particular, the United States has received a greater proportion of the reparations since the flu incident, which means that the French actually have a larger proportion of the reparations.

The French gave up the Austrian Empire's reparations, which also made Austria-Hungary breathe a sigh of relief, at least not so nervous about the reparations.

It was also under this so-called mutually beneficial interest that France and the Austrian Empire became closer and closer, and there were repeated rumors of the signing of an alliance between France and the Austrian Empire.

The British were not surprised by this, after all, the French were not stakes and would certainly have their own actions.

To be honest, in the previous wars in Central America and now in Persia, the French did not stumble to the British, and it is actually normal to look for allies in Europe.

For Britain, even if France and the Austrian Empire did form an alliance, the threat to Britain was not so great.

After all, the Austrian Empire was still a defeated country, and it still suffered a considerable degree of restrictions.

What's more, the Balkan states that had fought against the Austrian Empire had expanded their strength compared to before World War I.

In particular, Serbia, which had a hatred for the Austrian Empire, remained a major threat to Austria.

Austria is bordered by Germany to the north, Hungary to the east, Italy to the south, and Serbia and other Balkan countries to the southeast.

The westernmost part of the country was also bordered by the neutral country of Switzerland, which made the Austrian Empire sandwiched on several sides, and the room for development was greatly reduced.

Wanted to make the Austrian Empire a threat unless it could regain control of Hungary and then the Balkans.

But neither Hungary nor the Balkan states could have been so easily controlled by the Austrian Empire.

It is not even an exaggeration to say that judging from the limited strength of the Austrian Empire at present, it is really not necessarily possible to defeat the Balkan states.

As for Hungary, at that time, Hungary's independence was in an uproar, and it was naturally impossible for the Hungarians to take the initiative to join Austria.

As it stands, the alliance between the French and the Austrian Empire was a good thing for the British.

Because after the French gave up the reparations, the Austrians also had more money to pay reparations to the British and Australasia.

Combined with France's aid to the Austrian Empire, isn't this the equivalent of France compensating Britain and Australasia in disguise?

It's good to get an ally, but it's not necessarily a good thing when you have to pay a lot of money to do it and finance your enemies.

Perhaps the French did feel pressure on the British, but in short, the alliance between France and the Austrian Empire was signed quickly, and the Franco-Austrian alliance that had been speculated by the media became a reality.

Arthur was surprised by the alliance between France and Austria, because it represented a completely different world situation from history and was already moving in a different direction.

But that's not necessarily a bad thing for Australasia. The Austro-Hungarian Empire became the Austrian Empire plus Hungary, and it still had a certain weight and strength.

This also means that even if Germany becomes the future Third Reich, it will not be so easy to annex Austria.

It may even directly trigger a world war, and the future World War II will also become confusing, and no one knows what the situation will be.

Even whether the mustache will succeed in taking the throne of Arthur is not clear, and whether the situation in World War II will be as it has been in history is a mystery.

But no matter how the world situation develops, Australasia still doesn't have to worry too much about its geographical advantage.

Coupled with Australasia's lead in tanks and aircraft, as well as the development of rockets, missiles, and nuclear weapons, which Arthur attaches great importance to, no matter how much World War II develops, it will not be out of Arthur's control.

Compared with the alliance between France and the Austrian Empire, Arthur paid more attention to one of the major development policies of Australasia at present, that is, the old-fashioned policy of colonial indigenization.

As the first region to truly localize its colonies, the development of the Timor State in the past four years has been a matter of course.

Five years ago, Timor had a population of 110,000, but now it has a population of more than 250,000, and its infrastructure and urban scale are no longer inferior to Tasmania's.

After the successful localization of Timor, the government set its sights directly on most of the colonies, including the large colony of New Guinea.

If Timor is a pilot area for colonial localization, then the first batch of areas to officially enter colonial localization are New Guinea, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Fiji and other regions.

Of course, neither Arthur nor the government thought of indigenizing all of these colonies at once.

After all, indigenization is not a name, as long as all aspects of the colony are built as if they were native.

This requires not only a population that matches the local population, but also a considerable degree of industrial and agricultural construction, a lot of materials and energy, and so on.

In the past four years, the government has paid the most attention to and vigorously carried out local construction, and it is naturally the colony of New Guinea.

In terms of land scale, the land scale of the colonies of New Guinea was not inferior to that of any other state, and even being a state was a bit extravagant.

However, because the current population of New Guinea has just exceeded 800,000, it cannot support too many administrative divisions.

There are currently three major cities in the colony of New Guinea, which were in fact the capitals of each of them at the time of the three-part rule.

As the first region controlled by Australasia, Port Moresby, the capital of the former colony of New Guinea, is currently the largest city in the colony of New Guinea and the only city with a population of more than 250,000.

In addition, there are two cities with a population of more than 100,000, Herbert Shee and Modovi.

Then there are many small coastal cities with populations ranging from a few thousand to tens of thousands, such as Ballymo, Kailima, Okaba, Vahn, Jayapura, Lae and so on.

The so-called colonial localization is actually to build these colonial cities into native cities, and then affect smaller villages and towns.

Arthur still attaches great importance to New Guinea's localization policy, and in order to review the progress of New Guinea, he decided to personally visit New Guinea and review the localization progress of many cities.

The first stop was definitely Port Mozby, the capital of New Guinea.

On August 11, 1925, Arthur, escorted by a fleet and a group of bodyguards, arrived in Port Moresby with a number of government officials, and was warmly welcomed by the Governor of New Guinea and local officials, as well as a large number of New Guinean immigrants.

Port Moresby Arthur has not been to Port Moresby, but compared to the last time he came to Port Moresby, the current Port Moresby gives Arthur a larger and more advanced feeling.

This is actually normal, after all, the population of Port Moresby has increased several times, and it is impossible for the port not to expand.

At present, the island of New Guinea has achieved almost zero indigenous people, and if you don't think that this is a colonial city, in fact, there is not much difference between the current Port Moresby and the port of Australasia itself.

All the inhabitants of this port city are Australasian and all the architectural styles, as well as the various systems and so on, are all Australasian in all.

Accompanied by the Governor of New Guinea, John Price, Arthur inspected Port Moresby's hospitals, schools, streets, and infrastructure, and was satisfied with the localization of Port Moresby.

In the next few days, Arthur inspected Kailima, Palemo, Lae, Okaba, Vahn and other areas, and even went to Herberts Shee on the island of New Britain and Carveen on the island of New Ireland.

It also represents the fact that, following the last time Timor became a direct state, the time is not far off when the colonies of New Guinea will become dependent states.

These permanent residents of New Guinea must have preferred to become native cities, i.e., the population of the states, rather than immigrants from the colonies.

Because the welfare policy of the native city is certainly better than that of the colony, the infrastructure that can be enjoyed, including all kinds of transportation convenience, is not appreciated by the colonial city.

Acknowledging Governor John's actions in New Guinea, Arthur set out on his journey back to Sydney.

Now that New Guinea has done a good job of localization, the process of changing the name of the New Guinea colony to a New Guinea state can be accelerated.

After all, if war breaks out, there will certainly not be much time to continue the localization of the colonies.

This also means that if the work of colony localization cannot be completed before the war, if the colony is not localized after the war, it will inevitably be hindered by countries including the United States.

Moreover, after the localization of the colonies, the economic development of these cities will also accelerate. If the Great Depression breaks out again, it will also help Australasia better survive the economic crisis and reduce the damage caused by the economic crisis.

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(End of chapter)