The Rise of Australasia

Arthur acted quickly. On July 10, 1915, the Aeronautical Research Room separated its aircraft and aviation business, transferring all industries related to aircraft development and manufacturing to a new factory, the Royal Aircraft Manufacturing Plant.

Constatine Ziorski also successfully became an expert in space travel and rocketry at the Aeronautical Research Institute, responsible for theoretical research in space travel and rocketry.

Arthur even encouraged Ziorski to recruit well-known aviation experts from Russia and other regions to come to Australasia, offering them higher positions and rewards.

The development of space travel and rocketry in Australasia will start at the forefront of the Aerospace Laboratory.

However, whether it is space travel or rocketry, they are not scientific research projects with short-term results.

Including nuclear weapons that Arthur had thought of early on, the research time for these things is measured in decades, and it would be enough for Arthur if there were any clues before World War II.

At present, the most important task for Australasia is to win this war and earn more interests in this war, preferably establishing Australasia as the fourth power after Britain, France, and the United States, following World War I.

As for surpassing Britain, France, and America, it is not very likely until most of Britain and France's colonies are lost and the United States officially joins the war and is defeated by the Allied Nations.

Putting aside Britain and France, the old colonial powers for the time being, the United States has a vast territory and a larger population, far surpassing Australasia in industry and economy, and is not something Australasia can easily surpass for the time being.

The only way to quickly surpass the United States during World War I is for the American people to support Germany and join the Allied Nations.

Under the joint efforts of the five great powers of Britain-France-Russia-Australia, even if the United States joins the Allied Nations in the future, it will by no means be a match for the Allied Nations.

This is for sure, the only thing to blame is that the American people's military power is not strong enough, and their role in Germany is mostly in transportation resources.

But Germany's geographical location was severely restricted, and the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea leading to the Allied Nations had already been jointly blocked by the fleets of the Allied Nations.

Refocusing on the war in Europe, on the Balkan front, after the fall of Constantinople, the Ottoman Empire's defeat has become inevitable.

Notably, a large area of hills and plains to the west of Constantinople is an essential grain-producing area for the Ottoman Empire.

But this region was the fastest to fall in the war, which also led to insufficient food production in the Ottoman Empire, especially in the accelerated exhaustion of the war.

Moreover, the landing of the Allied Forces on all sides of the Ottoman Empire's border has led to a severe crisis within the Ottoman Empire.

The military is short of weapons and ammunition, the people lack food and clothing, and everyone lacks medical supplies, causing the internal collapse of the Ottoman Empire, waiting for the moment when the Allied Nations' heavy punches collapse its facade.

Commander Martin, with Arthur's prior orders, was not too keen on attacking the Little Asia Peninsula.

After leaving a portion of the Balkan army to fight on the Little Asia Peninsula, Commander Martin led the Australasia Expeditionary Force of less than 100,000 men southward along the Suez Canal, planning to land near the Persian Gulf and open a new battlefield.

In the future, it is well known that the most abundant oil reserves in the world are in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf coast is the richest in oil reserves.

Not to exaggerate, future Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Sutton Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, and other countries along the Persian Gulf account for more than half of the world's oil reserves, with an annual output value of up to one-third of the world's total oil production.

Britain only occupies Truce Nations (UAE) and Bahrain Protectorate, Kuwait, and Qatar in this region. Sutton, Iraq, and other areas are still under the rule of local indigenous people or the Ottoman Empire.

More importantly, there are not many British troops in this region, and the British offensive is mainly concentrated in the Egypt area.

That means that Australasia has every opportunity to choose suitable land from this region for occupation, as long as it gets permission from Britain, France, and Russia, and sovereignty over the land can be obtained after the war.

In fact, the only difficulty is getting British approval. It's too far from the Russians here, and given the good relationship between Russia and Australasia, the Russians are not likely to interfere.

As for the French, they focused on defeating the Germans during the war, and weakening the Germans after the war. They have little interest in a seemingly irrelevant Middle Eastern colony. 𐍂ἈNȮᛒЁş

As for the last powerful nation of the Allies, Italy, their opinion is not important. Britain, France, and Russia believe so as well.

It's not surprising that the Four Great Powers of the Allies underestimated Italy. The Austro-Hungarian Empire deployed only 100,000 troops on the border with Italy. The 500,000 Italian units have not crossed the border so far, proving incapable of the Italian army.

Looking at the entire structure of the Allied Nations, the current number of naval forces is sufficient, and what is lacking are countries that can compete with Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire on land.

Clearly, Italy is not one of them. Even Britain and France initially thought of having Italy send troops to support the German-French border but dismissed the idea immediately after Italy's repeated defeats.

The Italian army was only adding to the chaos; this was the consensus reached by the British and French commanders after exchanging glances.

Although this couldn't represent the combat power of some elite Italian forces, the overall combat power of the Italian army was indeed very poor, and among all the European great powers, it should be the worst.

Although Britain might be able to prevent Australasia from acquiring new colonies in the Middle East, the resistance should not be too strong.

Indeed, oil had been discovered in the Middle East, with oil fields being found in the Iranian region of Muscat Suleiman, while no valuable large-scale oil fields had been discovered in the land controlled by the Ottoman Empire and the United Kingdom.

The discovery of large-scale oil fields would still have to wait until the 1930s, at the earliest, almost 20 years from now.

In addition, this land was quite far from the Suez Canal and had a certain distance from India, which would not threaten Britain's crucial Mediterranean, Suez Canal, Indian Ocean, and Indian routes.

For the British, India and the Suez Canal were most important, and the importance of other regions was not that high.

As long as there were some concessions in other areas of interest, such as the post-war distribution of German warships, the British would not likely hinder Australasia's expansion in the Middle East.

Arthur's tentative plan for expansion along the Persian Gulf coast was to start in Iraq and the Saudi Arabian coast of the Persian Gulf while trying to secure Qatar.

This region had a large amount of oil reserves and was close to the Persian Gulf, making it easier for oil transportation by sea.

Whether it was the coastal areas of Iraq or the Persian Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia, both had vast oil reserves and were currently under the control of local indigenous people or the Ottoman Empire, making them easy targets.

Qatar, the only unique case, was claimed by Britain, but it was only after World War I and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire that it fell into the hands of the British.

The size of Qatar was relatively small, and it should be possible to exchange it from the British's hands by giving up some interests.

As for Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates already controlled by the British Empire, Arthur had no plans to disrupt relations with Britain for the time being. The British Empire was not yet an entity that Australasia could afford to offend.

It was under Arthur's orders that Brigadier General Martin led the Australasia Expeditionary Force, landing along the Persian Gulf coast with clear objectives, moving northward from Saudi Arabia all the way to the Iraqi region.

Currently, the Ottoman Empire was engulfed in wars everywhere, and Iraqi territory was one of the few grain-producing areas for the Ottoman Empire, making it extremely important to them.

Once the Mesopotamian plains in Iraq were lost, the Ottoman Empire would face a more severe food crisis. If they didn't surrender, famine would be enough to cause internal strife within the Ottoman Empire.

Although launching the campaign would put the indigenous people of the Middle East at risk of war and even cause large-scale casualties due to the spread of the war,

For Brigadier General Martin, the interests of the nation were paramount. Let alone sacrificing some Middle Eastern indigenous people; in the right moment, Martin was even willing to sacrifice himself. .c

On July 15, 1915, the Australasian Expeditionary Force officially landed near Qatar.

It's worth mentioning that the Qatari and Saudi regions were connected at this time, with Qatar being a peninsula rather than an island.

As for why there was a river separating Qatar and Saudi Arabia in later generations, that would have to be asked of the Saudi government at that time.

At this time, the Rashid Emirate controlled Qatar and parts of Saudi Arabia, an emirate established by the Rashid family, relying on the rule of the Ottoman Empire on the Arabian Peninsula.

Simply put, the Rashid Emirate was a puppet of the Ottoman Empire.

The fighting abilities of the Ottoman Empire's forces were abysmal, let alone those of a native country like the Rashid Emirate.

Tens of thousands of native soldiers confronted the Australasian Expeditionary Force, and the battle quickly turned into a one-sided affair.

Never had they seen the bold and impactful combat style of the Australasian army, with bullets and shells expended as though they were free. Not only did this cause heavy casualties among the Rashid native soldiers, but it also dealt a significant blow to their spirits.

Their armies were like paper, unable to withstand the charge of the Australasian forces.

On July 17th, the Australasian army had entered Saudi Arabia from the Qatari region and marched along the Persian Gulf coast toward the Mesopotamian plains.

There was one piece of good news for the Rashid Emirate: most of the Persian Gulf coast was under the control of the Ottoman Empire, so their forces no longer had to face an enemy like the Australasian Expeditionary Force. Experience exclusive tales on m v|l e'-.net

However, it wasn't so great for the Ottoman Empire, as the Australasian army was like a god of death, sweeping towards them.

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