Modelling > Scenarios
No Australian Federation
GTX_Admin:
For those unaware, the Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, and Western Australia formed one nation ( Fiji and New Zealand were originally part of this process, but they decided not to join the federation, though there is still provision under the Australian Constitution for New Zealand to become part of it…but that's another story). They kept the systems of government that they had developed as separate colonies, but they also agreed to have a federal government that was responsible for matters concerning the whole nation. When the Constitution of Australia came into force, on 1 January 1901, the colonies collectively became states of the Commonwealth of Australia.
Now, this wasn't necessarily a certain thing to occur and there was actually quite a bit of opposition to it from some quarters. sphere is the scenario: What if the Federation of Australia did not occur (for whatever reason)? We would then see separate "Australian" colonies/countries entering the 20th Century.
Take this from here, however you will... ;)
Volkodav:
Well lets see, WA goes bankrupt in the decades they where they were totally dependent on the rest of the country and gets bought out by the other colonies, thus when the mining boom occurs and they are finally able to pay the own way and choose not to the rest of the colonies pull out the deeds of sale and take ownership. Gina Reinhardt is deported to Christmas island for thievery and all her inherited assets are seized.
Rickshaw:
No, that couldn't happen to Queen Gina! She would be declared the Queen of Western Australia and gives everybody at least five minutes off their mandated hard working day to celebrate it! ;)
No Federation? Well, as one of the primary drivers for Federal was defence and in particular, fear of the rise of Japan, I can't see WWII working out well for us. The US in particular would be placing a lot of pressure on the separate colonies to co-operate a great deal more and co-ordinate their defensive plans during WWII. The UK I can foresee being well, not unhappy, with such an outcome. They have always preferred that the colonies were "divided" and "ruled". Makes it harder for them to stand up to the UK on Imperial issues.
WWI would have been also an interesting problem. How would the ANZAC corps (and hence tradition) have occurred? While built on Gallipoli, it was really the Western Front, under Monash that cemented it in our zeitgeist. No united Australia, no ANZAC Corps, except perhaps under a British commander (the colonies would no doubt continue their childish squabbles even in wartime).
Alternatively, the furnace of WWI might well be what forges a common will, in Australia. The increasing fear of Japanese dominance in east Asia, could well be what brings the colonies together.
IMHO, Federation was inevitable. The idea would not go away and it is too sensible to die. It was largely just a matter of when, where and whom. You can give reasons why it didn't happen in 1901 but it would have happened eventually, Greg.
M.A.D:
--- Quote ---'Gina Reinhardt is deported to Christmas island for thievery and all her inherited assets are seized.'
- Volkodav
--- End quote ---
Did any of the colonies seriously have ships of that capacity? 😯😞
--- Quote ---'Well, as one of the primary drivers for Federal was defence and in particular, fear of the rise of Japan'
- Rickshaw
--- End quote ---
Wow, I never really knew that Rickshaw. I've always appreciated Australia's paranoia and racist attitude....Could you direct me to more info on this please?
MAD
Old Wombat:
--- Quote from: M.A.D on August 08, 2020, 06:29:07 PM ---
--- Quote ---'Well, as one of the primary drivers for Federal was defence and in particular, fear of the rise of Japan'
- Rickshaw
--- End quote ---
Wow, I never really knew that Rickshaw. I've always appreciated Australia's paranoia and racist attitude....Could you direct me to more info on this please?
MAD
--- End quote ---
Not racism, in this respect, merely an understanding that Japan was beginning a process of increasing Imperial expansionism & not particularly wanting to be a part of that expansion.
Even prior to Federation Australia knew it had a lot of raw resources that an ever more industrial Japan would be seeking & would, eventually, be seen as a tempting target, given its tiny population.
At least united Australia could hope to provide a coordinated defence.
You could possibly call it "culturalism", as Japanese culture (to those who knew anything about it) was not overly palatable to those raised in a predominantly Anglo-European culture.
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