Chapter 241 Five Years of Shipbuilding, Targeting the Great Powers

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

First of all, according to the London Treaty, Australasia needs to withdraw its troops from Portuguese India and East Asian colonies and ensure the safety of all Portuguese citizens in these two regions.

Yes, the personal safety of citizens.

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

In addition, the more than 1,000 Portuguese soldiers captured by Australasia have all been moved to Portuguese India, waiting for the Portuguese to receive them.

Arthur did not ask for ransom from these people. After all, Australasia has made enough money in this war, and the excuse of the war was to seek justice for the fishermen. It is not good to be too greedy.

In fact, Australasia’s harvest this time is indeed not small. Not to mention Portuguese Timor, which has rich mineral resources, the factories and various facilities in the other two colonies have almost been moved away.

After all, Portugal has been operating in these areas for dozens or even hundreds of years, and these properties are enough for Australasia to reap a lot.

As for the population problem of Portuguese Timor, there is also a relatively reasonable solution, which is to give them severance pay and allow them to move to Portugal's other two colonies in Asia.

The remaining people who are unwilling to leave will have to accept the rule of Australasia and even join the Australasia nationality.

They will go through a probation period of at least three months to ensure that there are no problems before they can obtain Australasia nationality.

When more immigrants migrate from Australasia to the mainland, the rule of Timor will be more stable.

On October 21, 1907, the Australasia government officially announced that the Timor region will become the second colony of Australasia, and the Timorese colonial government will be established to manage this area.

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

The governor of Australian Timor is Roman Peto, a member of the Royal House of Representatives and a member of the upper house of New Zealand before.

After successfully entering the Royal House of Representatives, Roman Peto also very tactfully expressed his absolute loyalty to Arthur, and never meddlesome, 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 New Zealand feel Arthur's attention.

You know, even if the governor of Australian Timor has just been established, its administrative level is equivalent to that of the governors of various states, and its status is even slightly higher than that of the governors.

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

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

After the army withdrew from the two occupied areas, it returned to its original station and entered daily training.

The First Division also retained only one regiment as the garrison force of Australian Timor. The other soldiers also returned to the station in Australasia.

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

Although the strength of the army is very good, it is also comparable to the regular German army. But the total number of soldiers in the Australasian Army is only more than 60,000, that is, one guard division and three regular divisions.

This number of people is too few to guard the total area of ​​Australasian, which is as high as millions of square kilometers.

The second is the Australasian Navy, which is also the place where the biggest shortcomings are exposed.

The naval strength of Australasian has not changed much compared with the previous colonial period, and only a few medium-sized frigates and cruisers have been added.

A navy of this size can only defend against pirates and weaker countries around it, and is not a match for European countries at all.

Even the Netherlands, Portugal and other countries whose paper strength is similar to that of Australasian are still large compared to Australasian, and Australasian is not its opponent at all.

In particular, this war was almost limited by the naval disadvantage. If the three European countries were not invited to negotiate in time, I am afraid that the war would have lasted longer.

After discussions between Arthur and government officials, the Australasian Navy's expansion plan within five years was officially determined.

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

The good news is that the two Russian warships have entered the final stage of construction, and the battleship Peter Pavlovsk is even about to be completed.

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

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

According to Arthur's decision, the Australasia Navy will order three Monarch-class battleships, which will be named the first ship Australasia, Australia and New Zealand.

According to the report of the Royal Dockyard, the first ship Australasia can start construction as early as January next year, and Australia and New Zealand will start construction 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 completion time of the Australasia was about March 1909, and the completion time of the New Zealand battleship, which started construction the latest, would not exceed October 1909 at the latest.

Counting the navigation test time of about one year, if everything goes well, the Australasia Navy will welcome its first dreadnought in early 1910, and will harvest three dreadnoughts in 1910.

By then, the Australasia 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 has a new level of strategic ships, or it is more appropriate to call it a battlecruiser.

In fact, the current British Empire already has a battlecruiser.

This is a warship that has been weakened in some aspects compared to battleships or dreadnoughts.

Take the British Empire's already launched battlecruisers Indomitable, Invincible and Steadfast for example. The thickness of their hull and turret armor is only 6 to 7 inches, or about 150 to 180 mm.

But at this time, the armor of the battleship has reached 11 to 12 inches, or 280 to 300 mm.

The difference in armor thickness is literally twice as much, not to mention the actual protection capability, which may be even worse.

This is the shortcoming of the British battlecruisers, but it is precisely because of this shortcoming that the battlecruisers have gained a huge advantage that the battlecruisers cannot match, that is, the powerful speed of the battlecruisers.

When the dreadnought can only reach a conventional speed of 19 knots and a maximum speed of 21 knots, the speed of the Invincible-class battlecruisers is as high as a terrifying 26 knots, which is far ahead of the dreadnoughts.

The speed of the dreadnought is far ahead of the old battleships before, which is enough to prove how exaggerated the speed of the battlecruisers is.

More importantly, the British Invincible-class battlecruisers have a gun caliber of 12 inches, or 305 mm.

This gun caliber is comparable to that of battleships of the same period, which means that battlecruisers have the same powerful firepower as battleships while having a speed far exceeding that of battleships.

In addition to the fact that the armor protection capability has been greatly weakened, the other performance of battlecruisers can be said to be first-class and top-notch among current battleships.

Although the weak armor has greatly weakened the protection capability of battlecruisers, the extremely fast speed gives battlecruisers strategic significance that other warships cannot have.

Strategic cruisers can use high speed to go around and encircle the enemy's fleet, and can also cruise and pursue. At this speed, the enemy cannot escape even if they want to.

More importantly, the replacement speed of dreadnoughts is very fast, while the update speed of battlecruisers is not that fast.

As long as the firepower is maintained at the same level as that of the battleship, coupled with an extremely fast speed, the strategic significance of the battlecruiser will not disappear.

After the birth of the Monarch-class battleship, Arthur ordered the experts of the shipyard to start exploring this type of warship.

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

The strategic cruiser of Australasia is called the Unity-class fast cruiser, which is about 173 meters long, 24 meters wide and 7.9 meters high.

The estimated standard displacement of the Unity-class fast cruiser has reached 17,000 tons, and the estimated full-load displacement can barely reach 19,000 tons.

The power plant of this fast cruiser is not much different from that of the Monarch-class battleship, but because of the significant reduction in armor, the estimated speed of the fast cruiser can reach more than 24 knots.

As for the maximum speed, it will need to wait until the warship is built for actual testing, but it is expected to exceed 25 knots.

The fast cruiser is equipped with four twin 45-caliber 283mm main guns, 12 single 45-caliber four-inch secondary guns and seven machine guns.

There are also four 458mm underwater torpedo tubes, which can defend and attack submarines.

Except for the obvious lack of armor protection, this unified fast cruiser really has no shortcomings, which is why Arthur is determined to build it.

In addition to the monarch-class battleships, the construction of unified fast cruisers is also the focus of Arthur's plan.

However, there are only two fast cruisers planned to be built, which will be started after the construction of Australasia and Australia is completed. Their completion time is expected to wait until the second half of 1910. If you want to equip the navy, you have to wait until around 1911.

But no one can deny that after being equipped with three monarch-class battleships and two unified-class fast cruisers, the scale of Australasia's navy will definitely reach the level of great powers, although it is only a low-level great power.

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