We read all the lead to present a different history.
As we all know, national territorial integrity not only represents the dignity and sovereign integrity of a country, but also the basic condition for the survival and development of its citizens. Article 2 of the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 12 December 1974, affirms the "full and permanent sovereignty" of States over their natural resources. It can be seen from this that territorial sovereignty and territorial integrity are symbols of the independence and self-reliance of a country, and a violation of a country's territorial sovereignty and territorial integrity is a serious violation of world law. "Territorial sovereignty inviolability", as an important principle unanimously affirmed by all countries in the world, is not only a geographical concept, but also an issue related to national dignity and sovereign integrity.
▲The venue of the United Nations General Assembly
Throughout human history, from ancient times until the end of World War II, the "law of the jungle" of the weak eating the strong is followed, and the events of big countries eating small countries and strong countries destroying weak countries are constantly staged. Many countries have lost a large amount of land as a result of wars of aggression, and some have even lost their land forever. After the end of World War II, peace development became the mainstream of the times, and the issue of territorial integrity attracted the attention of all countries in the world and reached a series of international provisions, which is why the territory of most countries has remained basically unchanged since the end of World War II. Of course, during this period, there were still some countries that lost territory for special reasons, such as the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. However, many people have not noticed that after World War II, a developed country lost nearly 500,000 square kilometers of land.
▲Old photos of the Australian army in World War II
This sad developed country is Australia, a highly developed capitalist country with a land area of about 7.692 million square kilometers, which is the only country in the world that covers the entire continent, so it is also called "Australia". In fact, in the early days of Australia's founding, the territory area claimed to the outside world was more than 8 million square kilometers, but now Australia's official land area is only 7.619 million square kilometers, compared with the previous more than 8 million square kilometers, a total of 460,000 square kilometers, close to the two United Kingdoms (an area of about 242,500 square kilometers). So, what exactly is causing Australia to lose so much land?
▲ The new Parliament House in Canberra, the capital of Australia
The reason for this is that part of Australia's territory is actually separated from the country and established by itself, and this country is Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea is an island nation in the South Pacific and the second largest country in Oceania, with a territory of more than 600 large and small islands. The ties between Australia and Papua New Guinea date back to 1906, when the British transferred jurisdiction over British Papua territories to Australia. In 1908, Papua was formally incorporated into Australia as part of the latter's territory. After the end of World War I, Australia took over the territory of German New Guinea from the League of Nations in 1920, and since then Australia has ruled the Papua New Guinea region for 70 years.
Map of Papua New Guinea
During World War II, Japan's occupation of Papua New Guinea was actually an invasion of Australia in disguise, so Australia hated Japan to the point of gritting its teeth, directly dispatched a large number of troops, and did not hesitate to pour out its national strength to reclaim Papua New Guinea. In the war against Australia, the Japanese army suffered heavy casualties, which is also the reason why Japan is still afraid of Australia, which also reflects the importance that Australia attaches to the Papua New Guinea region. In 1975, PNG declared its independence and officially became a member of the Commonwealth, giving Australia some 462,800 square kilometres of land. Some readers may ask, if Australia attaches so much importance to it, why would papua new guinea be allowed to establish an independent state?
▲Old photos of the Japanese army in World War II
In fact, from the current point of view, Australia's agreement to Papua New Guinea's independence is the right choice, and it can even be said to be "big money". First of all, the reason why PNG is independent is because the local people have their own traditional culture and do not identify with the white culture of Australia, and the politicians in PNG are ambitious and want to be their own rulers. It should be known that it is difficult for the country with long-term civil strife to develop normally, Papua New Guinea has been making independence, which seriously affected the social order and order stability of Australia at that time, and the Australian government could not bear it, and did not want to spend too much force to suppress it, which agreed to its independence, successfully solved the problem of civil unrest, and restored social security to calm.
▲ Fashionable people dressed on the streets of Australia
Secondly, Australia is sparsely populated, and about 460,000 square kilometers of land are not painful for Australia. Coupled with papua new guinea's poor resources, backward economic development, the Australian government has to spend a lot of money to subsidize every year, which is also a big burden for Australia, and this is one of the reasons why it abandoned Papua New Guinea, otherwise with Australia's military strength, it is easy to take back Papua New Guinea by force. More importantly, after abandoning Papua New Guinea, Australia's economy has developed rapidly, people's incomes have risen sharply, and it has long become a highly developed country, with a per capita GDP of $57,300 (2018 data), which plays a pivotal role on the world stage.
▲ Papua New Guineans in traditional costumes
In this way, Australia officially revised its map in 1975, changing the territory area to 7.692 million square kilometers, becoming the developed country that lost the most territory after the end of World War II. In contrast, today's Papua New Guinea, more than forty years after the establishment of an independent state, after losing the support of Australia, not only did not develop to get rich, but became poorer and poorer, domestic turmoil, economic development stagnation, to this day is still a poor and backward agricultural country, is one of the world's least developed countries. Looking back at the history of PNG's pursuit of independence, people still have mixed reviews, some people affirm its spirit of national freedom, and some people think that the country is really "lifting a stone and dropping it on its own feet".
Resources:
Chronicles of Nations: Australia Chronicles of Nations: Papua New Guinea