After the Second World War, the concept of nationalism around the world developed rapidly, not only many countries and nations have freed themselves from the colonial rule of Western European and American countries, but even some countries have generated the idea and call for independent statehood.
Because the concept of nationalism has also produced many contradictions, differences, and even fights and wars, such as the Kosovo War, the Chechen War and so on.
Therefore, the national government now attaches great importance to the people on the national territory and land, and will not easily cede the country and its citizens when it is not a last resort.
However, it was in this context that Singapore, with a land area of only more than 700 square kilometers, assigned an island of more than 130 square kilometers, together with the main Chinese residents on the island, to Australia.
This heroic move of the "loser" made others stunned and shocked, and the island that was "defeated" to Australia by Singapore is Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean.
Christmas Island, discovered by Western colonists on Christmas Eve
On Christmas Eve in December 1643, an English ship sailed across the vast sea, and the captain and crew of this ship were rejoicing in the coming Christmas.
The captain had ordered that tomorrow's Christmas the crew could enjoy more and better food, which was quite encouraging news for the crew who were floating idle at sea, and many crew members cheered for the great Captain William Meinas on this ship.
When the night was not yet dark and invisible, the sailors in charge of the lookout suddenly sounded the alarm bell, and the route was unfamiliar to the crew.
The sudden appearance of reefs, pirates, or anything else here is likely to kill a boatload, so everyone rushes to the deck after hearing the alarm bells, ready to meet the unknown challenge.
At this time, the lookout sailors who sounded the alarm began to shout: "Land, land discovered", and Captain William Meinas grabbed the side of the ship, looked in the direction of the lookout sailors, and carefully observed with a telescope.
Captain William Meinas found that this should be a small island, because from a distance, it could be seen that the island coastline did not spread out to the sides, but contracted backwards like an arc.
After some investigation, Captain William Meinas discovered that this was a small deserted island uninhabited, and Captain William Meinas, who was experienced in sailing, did two things.
The first thing is to name the island Christmas Island, when it was discovered; The second thing, he announced to all the sailors, that it was a very good thing to discover a new island on Christmas Eve, and a gift from God to the ship and all the people on board, and that this voyage would surely be smooth sailing and return home safely.
The sailors danced with joy when they heard this, and they admired Captain William Minas even more.
Since such an uninhabited island was of little value, and the location of the island was far from the regular shipping route, a simple search did not reveal a suitable landing site around the island, plus Captain William Minas had other tasks.
Therefore, in the end, the cautious Captain William Meinas only recorded the location of the island, did not arrange personnel to land on the island, did not set up a sovereignty stone monument or anything, and led his ship to leave here in a hurry.
Although Captain William Meinas did not arrange personnel to land on the island, he had marked the specific location of the island he named Christmas Island on the navigation chart, and this discovery and marking in the British navigation administration could exchange certain glory and benefits for Captain William Minas, and also provide a key node for the subsequent expansion of Britain's maritime sphere of influence.
Around 1888, British power continued to expand in the Indian Ocean, especially in all directions of Southeast Asia, British ships carried out detailed exploration, and Christmas Island, as an island marked on the chart, was also included by the British.
After 1900, in order to facilitate the management of colonial lands in Southeast Asia, the British incorporated Christmas Island into Singapore.
After careful exploration, the British discovered that Christmas Island is rich in phosphate resources, a valuable natural organic fertilizer, which is of great benefit to agricultural cultivation.
Nauru, an island country in the Pacific Ocean, made a fortune selling guano phosphate mines after World War II, and its per capita GDP once surpassed that of the United States, so after discovering that there were mines on the island, the British began to arrange for people to land on Christmas Island to develop phosphate mines.
Due to the remoteness of Christmas Island, when the island first started, there was no infrastructure and living conditions were extremely difficult, so when the British recruited people to develop on the island, no one was willing to come.
Only hard-working, hard-working Chinese are willing to go to the ocean to work on this uninhabited desert island in order to live, so the mining miners here on Christmas Island are mostly Chinese.
Countries such as Australia covet Christmas Island
Christmas Island is not far from Java Island, only about 360 kilometers, if on land, this distance is more than 2 hours by car, even in the ocean, the average speed of merchant ships half a day is enough to sail from Java Island to Christmas Island.
Christmas Island is the peak of an undersea mountain uplift, with towering cliffs around the island, few spots for boats to anchor, and no large freshwater rivers on the island.
Therefore, in the early days of the discovery of the island, there were no conditions for large-scale migration, even if phosphate ore was found on Christmas Island, because this mineral is not an irreplaceable panacea, nor is it a necessary material for society or war, and the surrounding countries and other international forces are not very interested here.
After the outbreak of World War II, the forces of Japanese imperialism soon swept across Southeast Asia, and the British and Americans were defeated one by one under the sharp edge of the Japanese army, ceding all the lands and islands in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean to the Japanese, and Christmas Island, which is an agricultural resource and mineral, is no exception.
After 1942, when the Japanese occupied Southeast Asia, they also took firm control of Christmas Island, and in the following three years, the Japanese stole many resources from Christmas Island.
Christmas Island is densely covered with tropical rainforest, and the waves around the island are large, there are many heavy rains and windy weather every year, and the location of the island is also a place where typhoons often pass.
Therefore, although this is the key point from the Indian Ocean to Australia, under the technical conditions at that time, Christmas Island was not suitable for military use, and the Japanese army did not deploy a large number of troops here after occupying Christmas Island.
After the Japanese army occupied Southeast Asia, it began to attack India step by step to the west, and began to scout and test Australia to the east.
The highly alert Australian forces joined forces with the United States to engage in a large-scale naval battle with the Japanese navy off the coast of New Guinea, which resulted in a victory or defeat between the two sides, but neither achieved a decisive major victory.
After the Japanese army occupied Papua New Guinea and other areas, the Japanese army began to set its sights on the Australian mainland.
At that time, the main opponent of the Japanese navy was the Pacific Fleet, and Japan did not have the strength to launch a large-scale attack on the Australian mainland until the American fleet was completely eliminated and sea control was controlled.
However, small-scale Japanese testing was inevitable, and the Japanese army sent bomber groups to raze the Australian city of Darwin, and after that, launched more than a hundred large and small attacks.
These attacks overwhelmed Australia, which led to the idea of staying out of the enemy's doors.
Finding a foothold to the west and expanding the depth of the country's defenses was one reason why Australia later wanted to get Christmas Island; In addition, there is another reason, Australia's agriculture and animal husbandry are relatively developed, the demand for phosphate ore is large, little by little to buy ore, will definitely encounter sellers to increase prices, it is better to spend money at one time to buy, more cost-saving and more refreshing.
Especially after World War II, Australia lost areas such as Papua New Guinea, and the depth of national strategy was not as good as before World War II.
Therefore, for the sake of national security and development, Australia urgently needs to extend its territory outward, so Christmas Island, far from Singapore, has fallen into the sight of Australians.
Singapore, which had never been independent, lost its precious enclave
After the victory in World War II, British colonies around the world set off a wave of national liberation movements.
At that time, almost all the colonists had clearly realized that the days of colonial rule were not long, and seeing that the once boss empire was about to fall apart, the British gentlemen working in the overseas colonies had the intention of making the last handful.
Since the colonial masters at the top have already given up their skins and begun to make a big profit, the British colonial government officials in Southeast Asia will not be shy and reserved, and everyone has begun to compete for corruption and corruption, and Singapore's government corruption has reached a blatant rampant.
At this time, Australia, which was independent earlier than Singapore, began to unite with the British aristocratic lords at the top of the Singapore government to attack the few overseas territories in Singapore.
In 1955, the Australian government submitted a request to the Singapore government for the transfer of the Cocos Islands, and after some lubrication by Australia, Singaporean government officials who did not care about the overseas territories transferred the Cocos Islands to Australia with a wave of their pens.
Soon after getting the Cocos Islands, Australia, which was eating oil, began to attack Christmas Island insatiably.
However, Christmas Island, unlike the Cocos Islands, is a resource-rich island that cannot be justified by the fact that it was given to Australia for no reason.
Moreover, after years of opening up to Christmas Island, there are already some islanders living permanently, and these people are still mainly Chinese, in this case, Australia is not good to ask for Christmas Island under the pretext of nationalism, and things are stuck.
However, Britain and Australia are of the same language and race, while Singapore, Malaysia and other regions are dominated by Chinese, Malays, etc., and are separated from the hearts of British gentlemen by 108,000 miles.
Therefore, after Australia's initial operation was fruitless, it was dedicated to running the actual controller of the Singapore government, and the British, especially in Southeast Asia, when the call for independence became more and more loud, the British always wanted to get a lot of money to go home to retire when they left, which gave Australia a better opportunity.
After full consultation between the Australians and the British, they gave the Singapore government a plan, that is, Australia would give a multi-million dollar to the Singapore government to buy Christmas Island and all the people on it at once.
Pushed by the British, the corrupt Singaporean government agreed to the Australian plan after only ten minutes of meeting discussions, and handed over Christmas Island to Australia, which was better sold than the Cocos Islands.
In the Singapore government, there are still opponents of the deal, but their objections are suppressed by the British, especially the British shamelessly use the matter of Singapore independence as a threat, for the sake of Singapore's own development, these opponents can only nod against their will and agree to trade Christmas Island to Australia.
Finally, on October 1, 1958, the Singapore government and the Australian government reached a deal.
Under the supervision of the British, it was confirmed that Australia had purchased Christmas Island and the people living on it through the "Christmas Island Ordinance", and the transaction cost millions of pounds disappeared after three turns and two turns, but Christmas Island has since been held by Australia.
Today, most of the residents of Christmas Island are ethnic Chinese, but these people have no right to self-government, and the island's administrators are officials sent from Australia.
Moreover, in recent years, Christmas Island has been used by the Australian government as a resettlement center, a new crown epidemic quarantine area and other specific purposes, and the health of the islanders on the island is not taken into account at all.
For Singapore, a city for one country, an island enclave the size of one-fifth of the country, the importance of this precious wealth passed on to future generations cannot be measured by money.
At that time, people of insight in Singapore did not know the importance of Christmas Island to Singapore, but in the eyes of the aristocratic gentlemen of the British Empire, its suzerainty, it was just a small island that could exchange benefits for private individuals.
Therefore, the proud British gentlemen ignored the earnest cries of the Singaporean people, forcibly promoted this territorial deal between Australia and Singapore, and then earned enough benefits from the Singaporeans to satisfactorily "grant" Singaporeans independence.
The British gentlemen forcibly let the Singaporeans sell their land to Australia, and then take most of the income, this kind of colonial rule method of forcibly buying and selling, and squeezing oil in stones, is exactly the consistent method of the British for hundreds of years, colonizing countries around the world and looting wealth everywhere.
It is as if a robber broke into the home of a poor man, and there was really nothing to rob, so he auctioned off the poor man's house on the spot, and then snatched the money from the sale of the house.