The Rise of Australasia

After being humiliated one after another by the representatives of Britain, France, and Australia, the Islanders had completely lost their say in the conference.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the Islanders at the conference were reduced to a laughing stock. Apart from hiding in the shadows and breathing by themselves, they could not do anything, nor did they dare to.

At this point, the Islander representative’s inner turmoil was intense. On the one hand, they resented and hated the indifference of the Americans, on the other hand, they feared the reaction from their domestic audience. After all, the Island Nation held high expectations for the development of its navy; the famous Plan 88 had already proven the government’s absolute priority for its navy.

If their ultimate outcome was a relatively lower limit on naval size, it would be a heavy blow to the Island Government, and the fate of the Islander representative responsible for this result was uncertain.

The Islander representative’s face had turned ashen. Had he known this would be the outcome, he would not have treated this conference as his proving ground, let alone believe it would make him the new foreign minister of the Island Nation.

Now it seemed doubtful whether he could even continue his political career.

Islander representative Inoue Sanken even began to resent the domestic extremist forces. If their government had not been overly aggressive, alienating almost all the powerful nations, the Island Nation’s situation would not be as dire.

Now both their army and navy would face considerable restrictions, which would be unbearable for the Island Nation and have a huge impact on their future development and plans.

After the Islanders’ silence, the progress of the conference became much smoother.

Most of the other countries cared about saving face, and apart from their own vital interests, they basically would not openly refute the British.

After all, the name of the British Empire Royal Navy was too resounding, and even France, currently the world’s second most powerful country in terms of overall strength, would not risk angering the British.

The amicable atmosphere among most European and American nations made the Islanders look more like a clown in comparison.

After all, the Island Nation was the only Asian power to participate in the conference and had poor relations with other countries.

On such a basis, even those European countries with some antagonism generally turned their guns around, deliberately or inadvertently targeting the Island Nation.

Who could be blamed when the relationships between European countries were so complicated? There were countless cases where enemies one second would become allies the next, a complexity the Islanders could not even comprehend.

After much discussion among numerous countries, it was unanimously agreed that land area, industrial scale, and economic level would be the deciding factors for determining each country’s final size and proportion of their navy.

The Islanders’ proposal to consider current military strength was unanimously rejected because doing so would spark a new round of naval armament competition. After all, no country wants its naval size to lag behind others, thus expanding military capacity becomes inevitable.

This was a conference on limiting military power; naturally, such a proposal advocating expansion would not be adopted.

Land area, economy, and industry factors were all bad news for the Island Nation, as these were inherently their weak points.

When the final vote came, the Islander representative’s face was ashen, but he had no choice but to raise his hand.

After all, the representatives of Britain, France, and Australia had all turned their attention towards him, and if he did not raise his hand, their scrutiny would surely follow.

No one knew how the Islander representative communicated with his government, but the reference conditions for determining each country’s naval size and ratio were a heavy blow to their nation.

It’s important to note that the internal situation of the Island Government was far from calm. Unlike other powerful nations, the Island Nation’s military power was actually excessive - an undeveloped industrial and economic country supporting a military force the size of a superpower, which was bound to cause many problems.

For example, the conflicts between the Island Nation’s army and navy, where even marriage and socializing between the two sides were forbidden, and even the screw specifications in the weapons supply had to be completely different.

The contradictions between the Island Nation’s army and navy could even be traced back to the Shogunate Period, namely the conflicts between the Choshu and Satsuma Clans.

During the Restoration Movement, the Choshu Clan established an army school, and the talent trained there mainly served in the army, whereas the Satsuma Clan focused on naval construction, and the navy was mainly composed of Satsuma Clan warriors.

The conflicts between the two Clans were successfully transferred to the Island Nation’s army and navy and persisted to this day, even escalating.

As a country with limited land area and scarce mineral resources, the Island Nation’s investment in the military was limited.

However, both the Island Nation’s army and navy were superpower-sized and required high budgets and substantial investment.

The annual struggle for budget allocation only deepened the contradictions between the Island Nation’s army and navy, even evolving into open difficulties.

It seemed inconceivable to outsiders that a country’s military forces would openly undermine each other, but even so, the whole nation did not seem surprised or shocked by it.

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