With the help of the United Kingdom and Australasia, William II managed to retain his throne as the King of Prussia, and was even eligible to run for the position of Emperor of Germany.
However, in order to retain his throne, William II had to make many sacrifices.
Firstly, the power of the German states greatly increased. Upon France's strong request, the newly ford German Empire would operate under a federal system where each of the states had significant power, including complete economic and military rights.
Apart from administrative and diplomatic decisions being determined by the imperial governnt, these smaller states were essentially independent nations with their own governnts, parliants, and militaries.
In the more powerful South German region was the Kingdom of Bavaria, led by Ludwig III, who also had the right to run for the position of Emperor of Germany.
Significantly, the Emperor of Germany's powers were weakened. They were not only subject to oversight from the rulers of all the other states, who could impeach them, but also had restrictions imposed by the governnt, greatly diminishing their power.
More importantly, the German monarchy was no longer hereditary and adopted an electoral system. The rulers of every state, along with the nominees for Emperor of Germany, were eligible to run for the position, with the one receiving the most votes becoming the Emperor.
This effectively separated the states and the German Emperor permanently. After all, since all dukes and kings of the states could beco the Emperor, who would willingly submit to the Emperor's rule?
Combined with checks and balances from the military governnt, it was foreseeable that the future political scene in Germany would not be stable and might even be more chaotic than Russia.
By rely granting great financial and military power to the states, it was destined that Germany would not beco very powerful in a short period.
It is essential to know that the number of Germany's military was strictly limited to 150,000, within which the number of each state's military was also included.
It could be said that the Imperial German governnt had to compete with all state governnts over the allocation of those 150,000 troops, which was a significant point of contention.
After all, during warti, Germany's total military added up to several million people, with the contributing armies from the states reaching well over a million.
To reduce those numbers to 150,000, both the German governnt and the armies of the states would have to significantly decrease. As to the specific proportion of reductions, it might depend on the prestige of the new Emperor of Germany.
With each country independently taking action, the end of 1918 quickly approached, and 1919 was finally upon them.
What most countries probably cared about was their financial situations in 1918.
The economy, which was just seeing a glimr of hope after the war ended mid-year, was quickly extinguished by the arrival of influenza.
It's no exaggeration to say that in 1918, the economy of most countries regressed, in so places to a greater extent than during the war period.
Although the impact of the influenza on Australasia was not as severe, it still had an impact on the economy. If not for the preventative asures taken in advance and the production of large quantities of masks and disinfectant, Australasia's economy might also have been forced to step back with Europe.
It's worth ntioning that, despite the impact of the influenza, the number of immigrants to Australasia still exceeded a million. In fact, when the influenza subsided slightly, the number of immigrants surged.
This could be seen as a benefit that the influenza brought to Australasia. After the Aricans beca important targets globally, it seed that the United States had lost its position as the most popular choice for immigration, resulting in a considerable decrease in the number of immigrants.
Benefiting the most from this was naturally Australasia which stood as the only country that could compete with the United States for immigrants.
In 1918, Australasia received a total of 1.3 million immigrants. This number ca about even after Australasia was closed for half a year due to the outbreak of the disease.
In addition, the country's birth rate reached 442,000, bringing Australasia's total population above 2 million for the first ti, to 2,020,300 people.
When the population officially exceeded 2 million, it took Australasia to a new level. Once this wave of influenza truly ended and Australasia's population began to grow massively, it would be Australasia's ti to reap the rewards of developnt.
In terms of industry, by the beginning of 1919, Australasia's steel production reached 3 million and 4.55 million tons respectively, bringing total steel production above 7.5 million tons, making it by no ans an exaggeration to call it an industrial powerhouse.
After the war ended, the previously vast military industry was dismantled, with a large number of military industry employees transitioning into civil industry jobs, easing the crisis caused by the earlier massive expansion of the military industry.
However, a new issue erged. After absorbing the skilled workers, the Leonora Industrial Base was already saturated.
If Australasia's industry wanted to see further developnt, in addition to expanding the current Leonora Industrial Base, the only other option might be to construct a new industrial base.
It is undeniable that the existing Leonora Industrial Base had beco the core of Australasia's industry, employing up to 550,000 workers, 1,200 large factories, 5,000 small and dium-sized factories, and several hundred large warehouses.
However, the current scale and number of industrial bases may still not be enough for the massive influx of immigrants expected in Australasia.
In order to et the work needs of the new immigrants, it was necessary to create more jobs.
After research, Arthur decided to kick off the fourth phase construction plan of Leonora Industrial Base, turning it into a super industrial area that could accommodate millions of workers. This would be the industrial core of Australasia in the future.
Apart from this, new types of industrial bases would also be established in places like New Zealand, New South Wales and Victoria State.
Although the scale was less compared to Leonora Industrial Base, these were also super industrial areas designed to accommodate at least tens or hundreds of thousands of workers in order to further et the industrial developnt needs of Australasia.
Apart from industrial developnt, Arthur's next plan was to restore the per capita cultivated land area to more than two acres.
At present, the total cultivated land area of Australasia reached 38.77 million acres, with a per capita cultivated land area of about 1.92 acres.
This was rely the tip of the iceberg for the vast land of Australasia. Once the developnt of the Mure River Basin Delta began, Australasia would not only have one more urban cluster, but also a superior area for agricultural and industrial developnt.
In order to achieve a per capita cultivated land area of more than two acres, the total cultivated land area would have to be expanded to more than 40 million acres.
This ant that the next task of the Agriculture Ministry of the Australasian Governnt was to open up more land, rewarding new immigrants on the one hand and selling it at low prices to Australasian farrs on the other hand to expand the scale of Australasian agriculture.
In the previous war, the food exports of Australasia earned the governnt high profits.
There was no overstatent in saying how important it was for a country to have enough food supplies. It was a significant reason why Russia had to face internal rebellion, due to food shortages during and after the war.
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Germany's defeat was also largely due to the lack of food supplies among the Allies.
Especially, after the surrender of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Germany lost this important food export country, and the dostic food crisis worsened.
In 1918, Australasia's annual grain production was approximately 18 million tons, and the dostic population's grain consumption was only about 5 million tons.
Out of the remaining 13 million tons of grain, over 8 million tons were exported to Europe and other regions. The remaining 5 million tons were used as part of the strategic food reserves to replace the stale grain in storage.
These replaced old grains were exported to the major colonies of the powers.
In terms of food production, Australasia's grain output was sufficient, enough to support the dostic population for around three years.
Combined with Australasia's advanced animal husbandry techniques, this was why Australasia could guarantee dostic food supplies during the war and influenza periods.
The reason Arthur promised to provide supplies free of charge during the influenza period was due to Australasia's enormous grain and at production each year.
Although the cost of providing these supplies during the influenza period exceeded tens of millions of Australian dollars, and including the cost of treatnt for everyone, the expenses of the Royal Family and the Governnt were at least as high as around 20 million Australian dollars.
While this expense appeared sizeable, Arthur was able to earn it from trade with other countries.
Besides, the reparations controlled by Australasia from the defeated nations were far more significant each year. There was naturally nothing to worry about concerning governnt finances.
Moreover, such a minor expense could increase the dostic public's goodwill towards Arthur, even without the defeated countries' reparations, Arthur was absolutely willing to subsidize it from the royal family's own funds.
Free treatnt was also a tactic Australasia utilized to attract immigrants during the influenza period.
Immigrants infected with influenza in their ho countries not only faced the current state of soaring prices but also had to bear the costs of treating influenza.
But if they just paid for a boat ticket to Australasia, all supplies during their quarantine period were free, and as long as they were willing to acquire Australasian citizenship, they were eligible for free influenza treatnt.
Of course, the condition was not to change citizenship again within five years, which was not a cost for Europeans who wanted to immigrate abroad in the first place.
Just needing to immigrate to receive free influenza treatnt was highly attractive for the majority of European citizens.
Especially in dense Russian regions, while so of the previous Russian immigrants were forcefully transported to Australasia by the governnt, a considerable number of Russians were now willing to actively immigrate to Australasia. After all, there marked a fundantal difference between living as a beast of burden in Russia and as a human in Australasia.
While Australasia had unavoidable shortcomings, the attitude of the Australasian royal family and the governnt towards the people was well-known.
Living in a country like Australasia was a luxury for the people of this era, and even a fantasy for the people of many countries in later generations.
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