The Rise Of Australasia

The passage of time is swift, especially for a busy person. Between running back and forth to Arthur's Royal Council and periodically meeting with various colonial governors, June quickly passed.

As Australasia was about to welcome a new election for the Cabinet Government, Arthur received good news: Queen Mary was pregnant for the third time.

The first two pregnancies brought Arthur two sons, Prince William and Prince Peter, and Princess Anna Miller. This time, Arthur would accept the child regardless of gender, as having many children was a blessing, and the prosperity of the royal family included a continuous lineage.

Australasia had no restrictions on childbirth, and the government even encouraged the people to actively give birth. It was common for a family to have three or four children.

As a result, Australasia's birth rate exceeded 500,000 new residents per year, demonstrating a strong desire for childbirth.

To promote more births, Arthur issued a series of government policies encouraging childbirth.

For families with more than two children, each additional child would receive an 8 Australasian Dollar subsidy per year, and all children in the family would qualify for tuition fee reductions.

The Australasian Government also awarded "Honourable Mother" certificates to families with more than five children. Although the certificate didn't provide any tangible benefits, it was still appealing to Australasians as it was issued by the national government and included Arthur's commendations for such heroic mothers.

According to the government statistics, over 8000 women had received the title of "Honourable Mother," which guaranteed Australasia's high birth rate.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

It's simple to increase the birth rate: if people live well and happily, they will have enough mood and time to give birth.

If people cannot afford food, clothing, or financial pressure from debts, then even if children are born, they will bear more suffering.

Understanding this, Arthur issued orders to the government to reduce the burden on families with many infants and young children, including education and medical care.

Australasia even offered the highest reward for childbirth: if a pregnant woman gave birth to more than ten children (including twins), her children would receive free education from primary school to high school, with all tuition and fees waived.

Don't underestimate these educational expenses; if a family had ten children who graduated from high school, the cost per child would be at least 200 Australian dollars.

The cost of education for ten children would be at least 2000 Australian dollars, even with the government's reduced fees.

If these tuition fees were waived entirely, it would undoubtedly alleviate a significant burden on large families.

Although currently less than 1000 families in Australasia were eligible for this benefit, people maintained a welcoming attitude towards childbirth, and an increase in population was inevitable.

Arthur's efforts to improve the birth rate went far beyond these policies. In the streets of Australasia, it was easy to find propaganda promoting childbirth.

Even many movies promoted the concept of having more children to receive more blessings, affecting the Australasian people in various ways.

It's worth mentioning that although the Australasian government didn't prohibit abortion, Australasian Protestantism condemned it, considering abortion disrespectful of new life.

Australasian Protestantism was the largest religion in Australasia and had a significant influence on the people.

Because of this doctrine, abortion rates in Australasia were limited to a small range, and many hospitals didn't offer abortion services.

To Australasia, the growth of the native population was more exciting than the growth of immigrants.

To maintain the population of the main ethnic group—British descendants—Australasia tried to attract immigrants from Britain, but it still couldn't match the speed of Russian immigrants.

Increasing the birth rate of the main ethnic group to increase their population was another viable solution.

Even looking ahead, it's not impossible that those currently being born could become adults around 1937, to partake in the tail end of World War II.

The more people in Australasia, the greater potential and combat power they could display during World War II.

It would be difficult to become a superpower before reaching a population of 50 million.

Even a perfect industrial system and chain would require enough population to support it.

It's not an exaggeration to say that an industrial powerhouse must also have a matching market. Without a market, a single economic crisis could quickly shift a nation from prosperity to decline, and eventually lead to its extinction.

After Queen Mary became pregnant again, there was no doubt that Arthur was in a very good mood.

Even amidst his busy schedule, Arthur occasionally checked on the learning progress of Prince William and Prince Peter, and brought new gifts for Anna along the way.

As Arthur's eldest son, Prince William was now ten years old. Arthur had high hopes for Prince William, and he indeed did not disappoint Arthur's expectations.

Arthur, in his later life, also experienced the hardships of exam-driven education, where he was not only forced to learn miscellaneous knowledge that was of no use in daily life, but also had one's fate determined by the score of such knowledge.

It was indeed very difficult, but compared to the elite aristocratic education that Prince William was receiving, Arthur felt that later education was somewhat relaxed.

However, this was just an individual case, as the overall environment in Australasia was not that strict.

Princes William and Peter's strict education was simply because they were princes of Australasia, and future important members and rulers of the country.

So far, Arthur has not confirmed a real Crown Prince, as the education of both princes has not yet been completed, so it is not possible to test how much of the knowledge they have learned has been grasped in practice.

But this is only temporary. After they come of age, they will face a huge test to assess their abilities and decide whether they will become ordinary nobles or rulers of the country.

For this reason, the two princes and one princess have not been granted any titles so far, and their true titles will be given after they come of age, but they will at least be dukes of the country.

After all, the noble titles of Australasia are all nominal, and nobles have no control over the territory, so Arthur has no burden in granting them.

This is also the advantage of the princes and princesses in their blood relationship—they are destined to be born dukes, and the lowest title they can receive is a duke.

If in the future Australasia reaches the level of an empire, the highest title of the country might even be a prince.

But for now, it was just a kingdom. The title of duke was destined to be the highest noble title that could be granted by the kingdom at present, and the difficulty for ordinary people to obtain the title of duke was almost insurmountable. Even Arthur has not considered granting a duke title to someone of common birth during his lifetime.

This is actually because Europeans value bloodlines. In a country like Australasia, where there is a clear system of granting noble titles for military merit, the chances of ordinary people becoming nobles are still high.

However, for ordinary European countries, bloodlines are still very important. Although ordinary people also have the chance to become nobles, it is virtually impossible to enter the middle and upper levels of the nobility in a short time.

It is only in Australasia, which originally lacks an aristocratic class and whose nobility is basically composed of commoners, that there is no discrimination based on bloodlines.

To ensure birth rates, it is essential to ensure the income of the people.

Birth rates are quite easy to control; it all depends on whether the nation's leaders are willing or inclined to control them.

Although this is a relatively dark time, the birth rates of various countries during this period are still very high, generally maintaining between 3% and 4%. The growth of the world's population is still very rapid.

However, when looking at some areas in Europe, especially Western and Northern Europe, the decline in birth rates can actually be seen.

Why would birth rates decline? It's not necessarily because people's desire to have children has decreased.

But there's no way around it—with the development of capitalism, the exploitation of workers and commoners by capitalists has become increasingly severe.

Moreover, during this period, the protection of human rights is still quite fragile. Many pregnant women have to continue working despite their large bellies, or else face the risk of losing their livelihood.

Don't expect too much from these capitalists. For them, whether a pregnant woman has a miscarriage is not important, but if there are not enough workers, the factory's profits will decrease.

Losing a job is fatal for a family. The savings of civilians in this era are not much, as the factories of the major powers were exploiting labor camps just a few decades ago. It was good enough to scrape by, let alone allowing workers to accumulate enough income.

Of course, there is a very important point—some factories are causing great harm to people.

Especially in the early stages of industrial development, there were no health standards. The working environment of those factories could have caused immeasurable damage to the workers.

Some harmful substances have caused a portion of the population to lose their ability to reproduce, which also affects the birth rate.

This is a frightening manifestation of capitalism, where capitalists' endless exploitation of commoners is carried out, while capitalists control the government, leaving the people with nowhere to turn for justice.

When a nation's civilian class sees a sharp decline in birth rates due to various forms of exploitation, it's not the people's fault—it's the fault of the capitalists and the governments that support them behind the scenes, like the gradually developing European countries.