The Rise Of Australasia

Arthur did not take Nicholas II's request to heart.

Although the Alaska Territory was indeed sold by Russia to the United States, the United States had long since perished, and Alaska had long belonged to Australasia, so there was naturally no relation to Russia anymore.

Arthur believed that Nicholas II also understood this reason, and rather than desiring to reclaim the Alaska Territory, Arthur was more convinced that Nicholas II had other needs.

After all, the Alaska Territory had little use for the currently weakened Russia beyond prestige. Forcibly taking back Alaska would severely damage relations with Australasia, which would be completely counterproductive.

Sure enough, although he mentioned the Alaska Territory, Nicholas II did not ask to buy it back but directly stated his goal, "Arthur, I can represent the Russian nation in completely relinquishing any claims to the Alaska Territory, but I also hope you can support Russia more in the civil war.

The Russian people can no longer bear war, and Russia needs a long period of stability to heal from the wounds of war."

Nicholas II also understood the current power gap between Russia and Australasia, which is where the cleverness of Nicholas II lay.

First, he expressed Russia's historical longing for the Alaska Territory, and then he stated he could represent Russia in giving up the Alaska Territory, shifting all the focus to Europe.

This was actually what Arthur wanted to see. In Europe, the United Kingdom was too powerful, powerful enough to crush the rest of the European countries.

This was extremely imbalanced for the world situation, and the development of Australasia could potentially be greatly affected.

Only if several European powers united could there possibly be the strength to stand against Britain.

And the Russians' verbal promise to focus all their attention on Europe was also an indirect declaration that they would resist the pressure from the British on Arthur's behalf.

In such a situation, supporting Russia became a matter of course. A strong Russia could play its role, ensuring the British focused their attention on Eastern Europe and Central Asia where they had conflicts with the Russians.

After thinking it over, Arthur decided to assist Russia as much as possible, helping Russia move beyond the shadow of the civil war and wholeheartedly form a new French-Russian Alliance with the French.

It just so happened that during the recent army reform, a large number of weapons and equipment were phased out, including a large amount of small-caliber firearms in addition to the Lee-Enfield rifles, which were perfect to hand over to the Russians.

Arthur sold these weapons and equipment to Russia at a low price, and they would be delivered to the Russian government along with the three transport planes Russia ordered.

Aside from these low-priced weapons and equipment, Nicholas II also made an agreement with Arthur regarding a grain import and export plan.

Russia's system differed from Soviet Russia's and was greatly affected by the economic crisis.

Moreover, most of Russia was made up of peasants, which led to a continuous decrease in grain production, and every day a large number of common people starved to death because they had nothing to eat.

Fortunately, after participating in the war against the United States, the compensation from the United States would be paid again, and Russia could purchase certain supplies with these funds, including the grain soon to be imported from Australasia.

Arthur was quite pleased to see Russia's grain purchase. The Ministry of Agriculture had plans to significantly increase grain production in the coming few years, and wasn't this a ready-made grain market for the Russians?

After ending the meeting with Nicholas II, two major pieces of news instantly caused intense discussion among European citizens.

These pieces of news came from France, and the content was that two republics were established one after another on the southern coast of the United States.

Previously, the Lone Star Republic was established in Texas, but the remaining areas agreed to be divided into two countries.

In the end, the French established the South Coast Federal Republic in the states of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana, with the capital located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The other country was the Florida Confederate Republic, composed of Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky, with the capital located in the state capital of Tallahassee, Florida.

In terms of population, the South Coast Federal Republic had about 8 million people and an area of about 560,000 square kilometers.

The Florida Confederate Republic had an area of about 640,000 square kilometers, with a total population of about 11.5 million people.

From the populations, it is evident that the area occupied by Britain had the most people, followed by France, and Australasia had the least.

But this was inevitable. After all, the population on the west coast of the United States was indeed sparse, with most people concentrated on the east coast.

But the west coast was only separated from Australasia by the Pacific Ocean, whereas the east coast was separated by the whole of the United States.

For this reason, the actual area controlled by Australasia was larger than the actual area controlled by Britain and France.

However, this conformed to Arthur's expectations. As the rich areas of the east coast were divided between Britain and France, natural conflicts would inevitably flare up more fiercely between them.

With Russia's help, France was bound to endeavor to restrict the United Kingdom, which equally assisted Australasia.

Although the lands of the United States had been partitioned, it actually made perfect sense for France to take the most swift action.

The reason was that France aimed to establish a Republic, which aligned with the original political structure of the United States. Simply put, France only needed to provide modest support for the factions close to itself and then announce the establishment of the country.

But the situation was different for Britain and Australasia. After all, they were turning regions originally under a Republic into Monarchies, which was impossible without certain preliminary arrangements.

Although the Kingdom of California and another Kingdom were already in preparation, they would not be announced until the end of the year at the earliest.
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In the meantime, these areas would remain under military control, imposing strict regulations on certain American people.

Of course, within Australasia's control, there was an exception, which was the Dakota Confederate Republic soon to be established by Barton.

Federation and Confederation, although only inverted in sequence, held vastly different significance.

Like the former system of the United States, it was truly a Federation. A federation is multiple administrative regions uniting to form a country, where these regions hold a certain degree of sovereignty, but beyond that, there is not much difference from a unified country.

A confederation, however, is different. Prioritizing states over the union indicates that the states hold more administrative sovereignty.

To put it simply, the national government holds more power in a federal system, while states have more power under a confederal system.

The reason Barton chose to establish a Confederate Republic was essentially due to Arthur's certain level of precaution towards Barton.

Although the population of these regions barely exceeds 3 million, who could guarantee that the Dakota Republic would not grow stronger in the future?

Only by forcing a few flaws onto this uncertain factor could Arthur be at ease about allowing Barton to rule the Dakota Republic.

It's worth noting that the two republics established by the French were not unified federations; one was a Federal Republic, the other a Confederate Republic.

There was a reason for this. The majority of the South Coast Federal Republic was under French control, so naturally, the French wanted to establish a more powerful Federal Republic to serve as an advantageous ally in North America.

On the other hand, the French did not occupy the areas within the Florida Confederated Republic, which led to considerable disparity in strength between these states.

The population of these states was generally around 2 million, and each state's national guard numbered in the tens of thousands.

Merging these states into one country by force, unless the French were willing to deploy troops again to suppress these states, made the formation of a confederation the logical choice.

After all, the population, area, and power of the states were comparable, so each naturally sought greater rights.

This was also a problematic issue for the British. The Eastern states had substantial populations, and merging them into one Kingdom posed significant challenges.

Within the region controlled by Australasia, although California State's population overwhelmingly led, precisely for this reason, California State and the sparsely populated Nevada State would form the Kingdom of California, with California being the dominant force.

The remaining areas all had populations in the hundreds of thousands, with Washington State taking the lead naturally due to its population of over 1.5 million.

Shortly after the establishment of the two South Coast republics, in just over a week, Barton proclaimed the establishment of the Dakota Confederate Republic in South Dakota.

Worth mentioning is that the Dakota Confederate Republic consisted of five states, with both North and South Dakota having populations just over 600,000, theoretically inferior to the populations of over a million in Nebraska and Colorado.

Logically, the capital of the Republic ought to have been built in the more prosperous Nebraska, not the South Dakota where Barton resided.

However, due to his military presence in North and South Dakota, Barton pragmatically chose to establish the capital in the South Dakota, in a small city on the eastern coast of the Missouri River.

The successive establishment of several republics also signified that the United States had truly become history. This country, independent since the 18th century, vanished into the annals of history after a mere 100 or so years.

Though the United States once shined brightly, boasting the world's leading industry and economy, it could not hide the poor state of its military might.

As the saying goes, a man is not guilty for carrying jade, but he invites trouble by possessing it. For a country, while possessing sufficient industrial and economic strength, it must also develop its military might to ensure the security of its territory.

Under the urging of several small and medium-sized countries in the World Alliance, the World Alliance quickly announced the establishment of a joint-managed republic in the Great Lakes area, led by Illinois, also known as the Great Lakes Republic.

This country's affairs were managed by the World Alliance, with the majority of taxes being handed over as compensation to the World Alliance, and then divided among all the belligerent countries.