Australian Military Organization and Formation process of Australian Imperial Force at Pre-World War I (1870-1914)

Abstract After gold mines were discovered in Australian lands in 1850, Australia, whose economy made much progress with the gold mine discoveries, rejected convict settlers who came from Great Britain in 1868. Thereupon, Great Britain withdrawn a major part of its troops from Australia colony in 1870. So, Australian states which became independent initiated to form its local and idiosyncratic military system. On the other hand, irrational perception of threat not only by Asian countries Japan and China but also by European Imperialist Powers Germany and France in Asia-Pacific are a resulted in need for military security by Great Britain. In this paper, formation processes of Australian military organization at pre-World War I (1870-1914) and Imperial Force are studied. In this context, a brief history of Australia and influence of Australian geopolitics on Australian military organization are evaluated. Construction, institutionalization, alteration and transformation processes of Australian Military under the influence of Great Britain during the time of both pre-federation and post-federation era are investigated. Also, impact of Australian politics elitism on Australian Military System from geostrategic perspective in the context of foreign policy is analyzed