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Anjwalker

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Mar 4, 2012
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Green and Gold - Australia's Rise To Glory

mapaussiehistorical.png


Welcome to Green and Gold, my latest AAR for Victoria II, with patch 1.3.

Green and Gold tells the story of the Republic of Australia, from its conception and through the many years of triumphs and tribulations that will define it for all time.

This AAR uses a very different style to Kingdom of Croatia, telling the tale in history book style instead of through the journals of the head of state. However, as a result it won't be as detailed as a Kingdom of Croatia is, as I'll be glossing over the little details for the sake of the story.

However, I hope people have as much fun reading this as it was playing it, as it has been very fun.

Modifications:
I have modded Vicky2 for this AAR with the following changes:
• Made Australia independent.
• Gave the Australian culture new names.
• Converted all British culture pops in Australia to Australian culture.
• Made Australia a democracy.
• Created an Australian War of Independence at game start.
• Given Australia one brigade of troops and three clipper transports at game start.
 
Chapter One
The War for Independence (1836-1840)

The year of 1836 began with a great upheaval in the British Empire. Australia, not Britain’s most economically valuable colony but certainly one of its most strategically important and also its third largest by land area, had declared independence.

The move followed the government in Westminster continued policy of raising taxes, and its continued refusal to grant the vote to most of the Australian continents inhabitants. In response the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Richard Bourke, led a campaign to free the embattled colony from what he, and many other Australians viewed as the tyranny of the British.

richardbourke.jpg

Sir Richard Bourke, the man who would lead Australia to independence.

On January 1st, he proved successful - gaining the support of the Governor of Western Australia and the public, he declared the country independent. While the Governor of Van Diemen’s Land refused to support him, but that was a minor hurdle as more than three quarters of the population of in Van Diemen’s Land was behind Bourke’s cause.

Britain responded by issuing a declaration war on the newly founded Republic of Australia, and ordering some half of its Indian garrison to sail for Australia. The British high-society laughed at the idea that the rebellious Australia could dare hold up before Britain’s mighty armies but they were to be proved wrong, as it would turn out.

warofindependence.png


Newly sworn in, President Richard Bourke set about preparing for Australia’s defence. However, even before that the first act he took as President of Australia was to fire the current Governor of Van Diemen’s Land, and replaced him with the first Premier of Tasmania, Adam Jones - also the 1st Bishop of Tasmania.

In the following week while taking stock of the realm, Bourke was to discover things in a horrible state. Australia had only 3,000 soldiers and three ships to its name, and a national population of only ninety nine thousand and six hundred adult males - of which only 24,000 were Australians. In addition they were at war with the United Kingdom, which was presumably already shipping troops in from India, and to top it off, Australia had no non-colonial territories.

The first session of the Australian parliament - held in the newly christened Presidential Palace (originally the Governor of New South Wales’s residence) - took place the next day.

Just six representatives were appointed at the time - One each from Tasmania, the newly created territories of Western Australia, Victoria and Northern Territory, and two from New South Wales. In their first seating, the parliament assessed the nation’s technological capacity, and found it well advanced; having acquired all technological knowledge that Great Britain possessed, they were well positioned for their new existence. They added to this good start by assigning government funds to research muzzle-loaded rifles.

The budget was the second thing to receive a review by the new parliament, and it was found to be well on its way to bringing Australia riches. And so parliament turned to more domestic matters, letting the President deal with the war - satisfied that he had everything he needed to wage war.

budgetsmaller.png


By April the Australian War of Independence was well underway, with Australian troops disembarking onto the shores of New Zealand with no opposition.

In June of 1836, gold was discovered in Kalgoorlie, an event that would eventually lead to the great Australian gold rush. The following month, the gold rush continued to run its course with the discovery of the precious metal in Broome. This came as great news for the Australian population, which traditionally had sparse employment prospects, since Australia possessed no major factories.

November 1836 was the month when the British invasion force finally managed to reach Australia, months late despite the fact that a large piece of New Zealand was already under Australian control by this time. What followed was a race to see who could capture more of the others territory, in order to be the one who came out on top in the war. No actual battles took place for the first year and a half of the war.

The Vice-President of Australia, Lord Edward Harris, left the country for a visit with the United States of America around this time, hoping to curry favour and gain an alliance with the USA - a nation who was the third most powerful nation on the planet at the time. He is believed to have been successful in increasing the close relations between America and Australia, although no account of the events of his trip is known to have survived to this day.

The first battle between British and Australian forces took place on June 16th, 1837 in the New Zealand province of Tauranga. 3,000 defending Australians were pitted again 8,000 British attackers. The Australians were inevitably slaughtered, and fled to Wellington - what followed has become known as the Wellington Massacre, as more than 1500 men were killed, having been given no chance to surrender.

Strangely, just after this event - in a move historians do not understand to this day - the United Kingdom requested a peaceful end to the war, despite having already taken out the entire Australian military. But Australia certainly would never say no, and so the Treaty of Sydney was signed in effect the same day. Australia left the room as an independent nation, with the British having signed over all claims to the Australian continent in return for peace.

whitepeacewithuk.png


Australia made great leaps and bounds in the following months, with the welcoming of Australia’s first non-colonial, civilized state into the fold; New South Wales. This was followed by the passing of the Bill to Establish Subsidiaries for the Unemployed 1837, which the Australian parliament passed swiftly and which created one of the world’s first unemployment benefits programs.

Muzzle-loaded rifles entered production in Australia near the end of October 1838, and the research money that the government regularly put aside for such projects was diverted to fund an improvement to steam engine technology.

muzzleloadedrifles.png


Victoria and Tasmania were converted into the newest state(s) of Australia in December, giving them each 2 seats each in parliament instead of the original one and rapidly pushing the parliament’s size up. It was on this event that plans for a new specifically built Parliament House were proposed; legislation was soon passed to provide the funding to construct such a structure. Also passed was legislation to build fortifications in Hobart, and a major trading port in Port Lincoln, South Australia.

January 1840 was the month that brought with it Australia’s first democratic elections. The Protectionist Party asked President Bourke to run for the position again, while the Free Trade Party nominated one of the two Tasmanian Senators, prominent business man Samuel Collins. The Nationalist Party refrained from running a candidate, and instead cast its preference behind the Protectionist Party candidate Sir Richard Bourke.

A heated race for the Presidential position followed, with both candidates taking every opportunity to try and get an advantage over the other. But Bourke had the winning position from the beginning, being the man who freed the nation and then convinced the mighty British Empire to concede defeat. Bourke urged wariness but not total exclusion for foreign companies, and called on the patriotic spirit of Australia’s - something that gained him the support of both local capitalists and the patriotic lower class. .

By July, he had won the race. 41.17% of the vote went to him directly as the Protectionist Party candidate, and another 27.46% was his on behalf of the voters of the Nationalist Party. The Free Trade Party had a good showing of 31.36%, but it wasn’t enough and Bourke rode to victory.

A trail of liberal ideals broke out in the world at this time, not least Australia. The first occasional for this ideal to surface was when school youth began demanding further voting franchise expansion. It spelled ill for any nation less liberal than Australia, but as the grand Republic of Australia was built on such freedoms, it wasn’t going to ever be more than a nuisance to the government.​
 
@Sprites
I was suprised actually; I was expecting a Texas type situation, but happily I got away scott free.

@Persigny
It is very bad, I might change it. As I've already played ahead several decades, it will have to remain for now, but I will do something like write a plot point in that allows me to change the flag at some point.

I’m not even sure why Paradox decided on that flag, as it only came second in the competition that it was entered in (One that some magazine ran to see what its readers thought would be the best flag for Australia if it became a republic)
 
Ooh, very very nice! AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA, WE LOVE YOU AMEN!

Also, this is very well written, I approve massively.

I would have thought whatever flag the Australian Republic would decide on would have a more prominent display of the Southern Cross constellation.
 
@Saithis
Thanks. Glad you enjoy it.

On the oher subject; many ideas people have come up with do. But some just don't, and Paradox decided on one of those for its republic game.

There is actually a Wikipedia page on the matter:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_flag_debate

And a list of all the winners of flag idea comps that have been run by various organization: http://www.flagsaustralia.com.au/newflag.html

Sorry for getting off topic, just thought people might be interested. I'll probally switch the mod to have the Eureka flag from 1890 and onwards (which is the point I've played up to)
 
Great to see another AAR from you, a very interesting choice of nation too. Quite puzzling Britain's offering you a white peace when on the verge of victory but it was certainly handy. I'll be following.
 
I expect the next update on this to be a little delayed. I'm half finished, but I've just got CKII so I've been spending the last couple of days playing it - Hence, no update. Sorry, but I will get it out soon.
 
Very familiar with the flag debate as I've been looking it up for my own Australian HOI AAR. Eureka flag is one of the better choices although it's not what I'm going with if my Australia ends up independent. It's an interesting subject and one without any particularly easy answer. Glad to hear you got CK2, it's a great game and I hope you're enjoying it.

Look forward to the next update when it comes!
 
@Saithis
Might I ask what you are going to use for your Australia? I did debate using the Eureka flag, but then just settled for Paradox's default and in the future I might come up with a new flag. I must admit I like the Australian Federation Flag, but perhaps edited to omit the Union Jack. It would also make, historically, the most sense to have been chosen as it was around in the 1830s.

I'm loving CKII, but I fail at playing it so far. XD It’s extremely complex, and I’m always loosing track of my dynasty until it’s too late - at which stage I’m game overed because I ran out of heirs.
 
Chapter Two
Prospering in Peace (1840-1845)

Australia entered the 4th decade of the 19th century with high hopes. Over the war with Britain, newly re-elected President Robert Bourke set to work building up the country.

During February, President Bourke entertained the Vice-President of the United States. They spoke of a possible alliance between Australia and America, but nothing came of it for the time being, though relations between the two nations reached an all-time high.

Agitation among various social groups had begun spreading at this time, propaganda from various liberal groups spreading across the nation. Following this, a campaign by aboriginal inhabitants of Australia began demanding that local signs be made our in their own languages - the government refused.

In January 1842, Australia’s researchers made a major discovery for their nation - High & Low Pressure Steam Engines, which quickly improved the speed at which resources could be transported across the nation and into its dangerous interior.

highandlowsteam.png


An extensive cottage industry encouragement program by the government, and a ready supply of wool being imported from the British Empire during the extent of 1842 resulted in a booming economy for the fledging nation during these times. In addition, further infrastructure funding was allocated to continue work in Port Lincoln - not only were new docks completed, but a local fort was commissioned. The city swiftly became a throbbing heart of commerce during the 4th decade of the 18th century. The judicial system of Australia also reached the government’s attention during this era, and a wave of reform abolished, among other things, debtor’s prisons.

By May of 1843, the government had begun studying America for an example of what a newly released colonial nation needs to do to not only survive but prosper. The conclusion that President Bourke and his cabinet came to was that they needed to be rabidly imperialistic. And so, the first projects to expand the military took place. Among the projects was the commissioning of a brand new ship of the highest quality - a commerce raider.
In addition new fortifications were commissioned in Tasmania, which was being primed to be an island base for the government to fall back on should anyone take the mainland. Similar fortifications were to take place in Sydney, creating seawalls, fortifying the ports and government buildings and constructing cannons to protect against foreign gunboats.

idealisms.png


The National Academy of Philosophy opened in February 1844, with extra emphasis on the idealism wing. And the Federal Australian Parliament opened a month later in March - Along with each of the state parliament buildings in each state capital city - Hobart, Victoria and Adelaide all received state parliament building, with the newly Federal Parliament being built in Sydney to house both the state and federal governments. This massive project cost the government over a million dollars, but it constructed some of Australia’s greatest buildings.

parliamenthousemelbourn.jpg

The newly finished Parliament House, Sydney.*

Following the completion of fortifications in Tasmania, a new series of naval bases in Hobart were commissioned. The same month a brave exploratory expedition returned to report that the center of Australia had finally been documented. Sadly, all they had found was a vast desert.

Finally, in July 1844 the 2nd Australian elections began. President Bourke was again put up as the Protectionism Party candidate, while Isaac Harris, Mayor of Melbourne, stood as the Free Trade Party candidate.

The elections formally finished on the 1st of January 1845. The Protectionist Party again won, with 57.01% of the vote, boosted by a further 10.44% from their coalition partners the Nationalist Party. The Free Trade Party got 32.55% of the vote. And so President Bourke was in for his third term.

*Actually, it’s the original design for Parliament House, Melbourne. But IRL it was never completed, and lacks the dome. However in the timeline of this AAR, it was completed but in Sydney instead.
 
Sadly, I've just lost my savegames for this and my other AAR while reinstalling V2 (because of some rather convulted troubles I ended up having with my computer when it refused to cut and paste the files to my documents because another screenshots folder was already there and so it decided it would be better to attempt to merge the folders ... but when I cancelled that, because I didn't want them merged, the savegames folder vanished from both ends), so I won't be able to continue with this AAR. But fear not, I'll be starting this AAR all over again in this same thread ... I just don't know when I'll get the first update for the new one up.

Tragically, this also means I won't be converting Kingdom of Croatia to HOI3, as I lost its most of the savegames for it (The last one I have recovered is only for 1877) ... Luckily, I do still have the screenshots, so I can finish that AAR at least.
 
Sadly, I had played through to 1880. But I did make several mistakes, so I can probally do better this time anyway. Plus, I can now work on improving the mod before I start again.