The Rise Of Australasia

As time entered October 1930, the situation in the world was no longer so peaceful.

The Pound crisis had not yet subsided, and there was new news from Germany.

Firstly, the European nations led by the United Kingdom expressed dissatisfaction with the anti-Jewish actions of Germany and Italy. The World Alliance even convened a meeting for this purpose, demanding that Germany, as a member country, stop the persecution of Jews.

However, to the surprise of many, the pressure from the World Alliance became a driving force for the Germans to firmly implement their own policies.

Before the British could react, on October 12, 1930, Germany unilaterally announced its withdrawal from the World Alliance and stated that it would not accept the requests of the World Alliance.

This move immediately made the situation in Central Europe, which had been calm, tense. Naturally, it came as a great shock to Britain and France.

Over the last ten or so years since the end of World War I, Germany had always been very amicable and was considered one of the more compliant defeated nations.

But to the bafflement of the British and French, after Hitler came to power, the German government seemed to have taken on an entirely different face.

Not only did it become more aggressive and decisive in some diplomatic choices, but it also lost its previous fear of Britain and France.

Rejecting the World Alliance's proposal and unilaterally leaving the World Alliance was actually somewhat provocative towards Britain and France.

The last country to be an enemy of the World Alliance was the United States, which had since been divided into about ten countries.

But the situation in Germany was a bit different. Germany, located in Central Europe, was the role the British had defined to balance French power in Western Europe.

This also made the British reluctant to directly confront Germany, even though the Germans had already shown no small ambition.

What stunned all countries was that Germany's unilateral departure from the World Alliance and its refusal to execute any proposals of the World Alliance had become an open provocation towards Britain and France, yet the British had no response to this.

In France, although the Frenchmen were very angry, they were powerless to face this situation.

To put it plainly, the Frenchmen were not going to incite a war just because Germany left the World Alliance, and they would not want the government to cause war for no reason.

Even if it hadn't been for the participation of Britain and Australasia in the previous war against the United States, the French would have been unlikely to join such a conflict.

Although France claims to be the second strongest country in the world currently, only the French themselves know how tremendously the great world war had harmed France.

France had lost an entire generation to death and injury, and to this day, had not yet recovered. Presently France still had a large number of widows, which was also causing a surge in infidelity and adultery, as well as the constant divorces contributing to the decline in the population.

With the British unwilling to take action, there was actually very little that the French could do.

Especially after Germany had shown more aggressive ambition, the neighboring small countries were no longer willing to offend Germany, as the consequences of having been occupied by Germany during the war were still vividly remembered.

In this situation, the French did not blindly take action against the Germans but instead started to view the Germans anew as their biggest competitors.

France decided to build a strong and lengthy defensive line along the France-Germany Border to avoid a surprise attack by such a frantic country as Germany.

In the first ten years or so after World War I ended, the French had always felt they were the supreme rulers of the European Continent and the only competitors to the British.

But now the French realize that France had already been drained of much of its living power in the previous war, and the status of being the second superpower in the world was undeserved.

Before World War I, France was not afraid of Germany, and even fantasized about washing away the shame of the Franco-Prussian War with another war.

But now, unless it came to a time when a decisive battle was necessary, the French did not want to provoke a war with Germany, as the one to suffer the most casualties and damage would still be themselves.

After several proposals by the French government, a defensive position similar to the historical one—namely, the famous Maginot Line project—finally emerged freshly minted.

This defense line, which had started construction in 1928 in history, did not actually begin construction in this world until the end of October 1930.

The French, in order to complete the Maginot Line, could be said to have spared no expense. This defense line, proposed and designed by the French Army Minister Maginot, had a total investment of over 5 billion Francs, close to 45 million Australian Dollars.

To achieve strategic defense, the French indeed put in a great deal of effort. The Maginot Line, called a defensive position, was actually a super fortress built by the French to guard against German attacks.

The line not only had all the trenches, cannons, and fortresses of a normal defense position but also contained kitchens, power generation plants, hospitals, and factories with roads constructed to allow for easy access. There were even plans for an internal tramway to facilitate communication and coordination among the French Army within the line.

When the French shifted their mindset from offensive to defensive, their ideas were quite mad.

If it had not been for the strong opposition of the Belgians against building the defense line on the Franco-Belgian border, the French Maginot Line might have extended from the Franco-Belgian border all the way to the Franco-Italian border.

Also, because the design of the Maginot Line was on such a massive scale, the construction of this defense line was expected to take over ten years, and it was likely to be officially completed around 1941.

Without a doubt, when the French released their plans for the Maginot Line, it immediately captured the attention of the whole world.

However, considering that the French's presumed enemy was the German Army, which only had a military strength of 150,000, European citizens found the French state of apprehension somewhat laughable.

When the plans for the Maginot Line made their way back to Germany, Hitler derisively commented to his subordinates, "The France of the past has been defeated, now it's time for Germany to become the master of Europe!"

The French displayed weakness that was utterly unbefitting of their status, which allowed Hitler to aim for even greater ambition.

Germany at that time was still incomplete, with a large number of its territories under the control of bordering countries. The previously ceded Alsace and Lorraine, including the Republic controlled by the French, were lands that Hitler desperately wanted to reincorporate into Germany.

There was also the Free City of Gdansk and the Polish Corridor to the east—all these had once been German land.

Of course, the first ambition that arose in Hitler, as well as in the hearts of all Germans, was undeniably the pain of the Rhine Demilitarized Zone.

The Rhine River is an important river within Germany. The establishment of the demilitarized zone directly resulted in a large expanse of land to the west of the Rhine becoming a non-military area, forbidding the German military from being stationed there.

Given that important German industrial bases were located around the Rhine, this was tantamount to handing over the lifeblood of German industry to other nations.

But, turning back to the demilitarization of the Rhine, it was certainly a risky move, one that Hitler had no plans to undertake at least for now.

By demilitarizing the Rhine, it meant Germany would directly confront France and could even repeat the fate Germany met during World War I.

Before he had taken control of the majority of military power and resolved issues among the various German federal states, Hitler had no intention of proceeding with such a move.

Although there was no action on the German side, the French preemptive retreat was the best encouragement for the Germans.

France was a victor of World War I, and post-defeat, Germany faced considerable restrictions and oppression.

Could the fact that the French were actively contemplating and constructing a defensive position against the Germans indicate that Frenchmen were starting to fear them deep in their bones?

With this idea in mind, hope was rekindled in the eyes of the Germans. Countless Germans longed to take their revenge on France personally and let the French taste the bitterness of defeat more frequently.

This led to a very strange phenomenon.

News of France building the Maginot Line reached Germany, and even without any action from Germany and Hitler, it still prompted many citizens to spontaneously begin worshiping and fanatically supporting Hitler.

The suppressed German populace urgently needed to vent their emotions, and Hitler, who led them to do just that, became their most revered figure.

At this time, Hitler was very busy. After beginning the crackdown on Jewish people within the country, the German government instantly acquired a substantial amount of assets and various resources.

The reason for the high cost of grain in Germany was largely due to domestic capitalists hoarding grain, only to sell it to the common people at even higher prices.

Although there were Germans among the capitalists, who was to blame when these Jewish people found themselves in the crosshairs? Anyway, in Germany, anti-Semitism had become the political correctness. Neither German civilians nor the upper echelons of the government were allowed to offer assistance to Jewish people.

As a substantial number of Jewish assets were seized, Hitler gained a certain amount of financial power.

Because of the previous contract imposing restrictions on the German Army, Hitler did not force an expansion of the military size but began to expand his private army, the infamous Schutzstaffel.

After taking control of German power, Hitler's Stormtrooper was renamed the Schutzstaffel, and its numbers continued to grow.

This resulted in a very strange phenomenon in Germany.

The combined armies of the German Empire and the various federal states amounted to only 150,000, but the size of Hitler's private army had already surpassed 500,000 and was still increasing.

Such a huge disparity in the military forces ensured that Hitler's power within the government would become ever greater.

When news of the formal confirmation and construction of the Maginot Line reached Australasia, Arthur understood that the world's situation would indeed continue to develop much like its historical counterpart.

The oppression of Germany by the British and French victors after the war had already sealed that the Germans would not be willing to accept their situation.

Because Britain was separated by a channel and hadn't severed any German lands, it would not be the first target of German vengeance.

Considering the current hatred of Germany towards France, it was already predetermined that a war between Germany and France would inevitably break out.

The French may have had good intentions in massively constructing the Maginot Line, but they were too reliant on the experiences of the Franco-Prussian War and World War I, and did not take into account the rapid changes in weapons and equipment and the development of military theory.