Thaecia

The name Greater Agnolia, or in simpler words, Agnolia is derived from the Latin word of Agnus Dei_[12] a word used in liturgical prayer during Communion in Christianity, and effectively means Land of the Lamb of God when translated therefore from Latin, and has been popularly described as being first named as such by Captain James Cook, however, it would only receive fame after Matthew Flinders popularised its usage after his circumnavigation of Agnolia, however, his original account used Terra Agnolis instead.

Following its rise to fame, it would soon afterwards replace the prior name of New Holland, given to it by Dutch explorers following a direct recommendation by Governor of New South Wales Lachlan Macquarie in December 1817, with the British Admiralty and British Parliament adopting the term respectively in 1824 and 1828.

However, it would only adopt its current name, that of Greater Agnolia following the Union of Agnolia and New Zealand, intended to signify that New Zealand was now part of a greater whole with Agnolia, and although it was initially controversial across New Zealand_{[citation needed]}, it was eventually accepted and has now become widely used within Greater Agnolia.

Indigenous Agnolians comprise four broad groups:

* Aboriginal Agnolians, who are the various Indigenous peoples of the Agnolian Mainland and many of its islands, including in Tasmania
* Torres Strait Islanders, who are a distinct Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands
* Māori, who are a distinct Polynesian people of New Zealand and many of its respective islands
* Papuans, who are a distinct Melanesian people of New Guinea and many of its respective islands.

Human habitation of the Australian continent is estimated to have begun 50,000 to 65,000 years ago_[13] with the migration of people by land bridges and short sea crossings from what is now Southeast Asia. It is uncertain how many waves of immigration may have contributed to these ancestors of modern Aboriginal Agnolians_[14]. The Madjedbebe rock shelter in Arnhem Land is possibly the oldest site showing the presence of humans in Agnolia. The oldest human remains found are the Lake Mungo remains, which have been dated to approximately 42,000 years ago_[15]. Aboriginal Agnolian culture is one of the oldest continuous cultures on Earth, with wide ranges of societies spread across at least 250 different language groups_[16]. Estimates of the Aboriginal population before British settlement have been placed from between 300,000 to as high as 3 million. Aboriginal Australians cultures were and still remain deeply connected with the land and the environment, with The Dreaming maintained through oral traditions, songs, dance patterns and paintings.

The Torres Strait Islander people first settled their islands at least 2,500 years ago, with them being distinct from Aboriginal peoples culturally and linguistically, they were seafarers and obtained their livelihood from seasonal horticulture and the resources of their reefs and seas, compared with the Aboriginals that were mainly hunter-gatherer and agricultural based. By the mid 18th century, cross-cultural contact and commercial trade had been established between both the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with the Makassar people_[17].

Meanwhile, over in New Zealand, the first peoples to reach New Zealand were Polynesians in oceangoing canoes, arriving in several waves between 1280 and 1350, which were seemingly deliberately planned out over the course of several decades, although the amount and extent are still being discussed. According to most Māori oral traditions, New Zealand was first discovered by Kupe, a legendary explorer while in search of a giant octopus. These traditions also usually agree that subsequently, a great fleet set sail from Hawaiki in 1350 that made landfall on New Zealand to permanently settle on.

Lastly, on New Guinea, they were first settled approximately 60,000 years ago during the Last Glacial Period from Southeast Asia, when most bodies of water were in general much lower and distances between islands were also shorter compared with the modern day_[18][/color]. From these early inhabitants, not only did they successfully adopt to the unique ecology of New Guinea, but developed one of the earliest forms of agriculture in human history, with proof for controlled irrigation coming as early as 10,000 BC. Afterwards, further waves of migration would occur from the Austronesian people into New Guinea, who were also the ancestors of most ethnic groups across insular Southeast Asia. Additionally, New Guinea had direct contact with other kingdoms across the territory of what would eventually become Indonesia, with them firstly directly mentioned in the Nagarakretagama, a major historical chronicle around this time, with it having at times both been under control of the Majapahit as a tributary state and also under the direct control of the numerous sultans from Tidore, themselves based in the Maluku Islands_[19].

In 1606, under the command of Willem Janszoon, the Dutch made the first documented European landing on Agnolian soil and made contact with the Aboriginal Agnolians, and later that year, another European sailing was made north of Agnolia through the Torres Strait by hugging around the coastline of New Guinea. However, it was only under Abel Tasman that Agnolia was properly documented, with expeditions sailing across most of its coastline, with Tasmania, then known as Van Diemen’s Land, eventually becoming Tasmania_[19] also being discovered by Abel Tasman’s crew. Subsequently, the newly discovered continent was named as New Holland due to the discovers being Dutch._[20].

In 1770, Captain James Cook sailed across the east coast, before subsequently claiming it for Great Britain, and after Britain announced its intentions to create a penal colony in New South Wales_[21], on 26th January, 1788, the First Fleet, under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip made landfall on Sydney Cove and formally established New South Wales as Britain’s first colony on Agnolia.

Most early settlers were convicts and transported to Agnolia to serve as unpaid labourers or personal servants to “free settlers” (willing immigrants), and once emancipated, most would integrate into colonial society and settle permanently in Agnolia. The infamous Rum Rebellion of 1808, carried out by the New South Wales Corps led to a state of martial law until British authority was reasserted on New South Wales_[22].

During this period of time, the indigenous population of Agnolia would also witnessed a massive spiral downward into decline due to infectious diseases and frontier conflicts between indigenous and settler people, which many historical scholars have since argued also included acts of genocide against the pre-existing indigenous populations_[23].

With settlements established on both Tasmania by 1803, and following the successful traversing of the Blue Mountains, which expanded huge portions of Agnolia to European colonialism, Great Britain would formally expand its territorial claims to include all of Agnolia in 1827, with settlements established on both Albany and Perth in 1827 and 1829 respectively under the newly formed Swan River Colony, which eventually evolved into becoming Greater Agnolia’s largest State by landmass, Westnolia. Beyond this, further Colonies were established independently of New South Wales, them being Tasmania in 1825, South Agnolia (Eventually became Centralia) in 1836, Victoria in 1851 and Queensland in 1859_[24]. Alongside this, growing opposition to the prison transportation system in Agnolia gradually resulted in its abolition by the 1850s.

Meanwhile, for New Guinea, it would first have contact with European explorers when Portuguese explorer Jorge de Menezes who would first discover New Guinea and named it as “Ilhas dos Papuas” after sailing its western coastline, where afterwards, Spanish explorer Ìñigo Ortiz de Retez sailed across its northern coastline before naming it as “Nueva Guinea” himself_[25]. Subsequently, after further Spanish explorations of New Guinea, New Guinea was claimed for the Spanish Empire, although actual control was never exercised by Spain itself_[26].

Over in New Zealand however, with the introduction of potatoes and muskets through trade with European merchants to New Zealand, a major spike in military hostilities amongst the numerous tribes of New Zealand would occur under what would eventually become known as the Musket Wars, killing approximately 30,000-40,000 Māori in intertribal warfare_[27], with it combined with a significant 60% population drop after contact with European merchants by the 19th century, mainly due to introduced diseases_[28]. With the appointment of James Busby as British Resident to New Zealand in 1832 by the British Government to protect settlers and merchants “of good standing”, prevent “outrages” against the Māori and to apprehend escaped convicts, that therefore formally began British interest in regards to New Zealand_[29]. In 1835, in response to an impending French expedition of New Zealand, the newly formed United Tribes of New Zealand sent their Declaration of Independence to King William IV asking for British protection, which was subsequently acknowledged and thereafter granted_[30].

However, due to growing unrest, especially over both the New Zealand Company’s land buying survey and the legal ambiguity of the Declaration of Independence, a new treaty would be negotiated between Great Britain and the Māori, resulting in the Treaty of Waitangi (Māori: Te Tiriti o Waitangi) being signed on 6th February, 1840, allowing Britain to thereafter exert sovereignty over New Zealand, even though full ratification had yet to be reached amongst the Māori.

Initially, New Zealand was administered directly by the Colony of New South Wales, but shortly afterwards, it would eventually become a distinct Crown colony, that of the Colony of New Zealand, while due to disputes of territorial control and sovereignty, Māori and British forces would exchange fire in 1843 with the Wairau Affray, sparking off violent hostilities known as the New Zealand Wars_[31], which would eventually result in the violent suppression and displacement of the Māori by New Zealand, with it specifically targeting the Kīngitanga Movement for its open resistance against British colonial occupation.

Between the 1860s-1890s, responsible government were individually granted to each Colony, granting them self-control and therefore responsibility on most domestic issues while still remaining within the British Empire_[32], and with the Colonial Office still most notably retaining control over foreign policy, with such colonial Parliaments progressively expanding voting rights to adult men from the 1850s onwards, with adult women only beginning to be granted such voting rights from the 1890s onwards. Additionally, starting from the 1850s onwards, a series of gold rushes resulted in massive waves of migrants coming in from China, North America and Continental Europe into Agnolia, alongside massive spikes in bushranging and civil unrest, most notably, with the Eureka Rebellion against gold license fees and punitive taxation_[33].

And in the meantime, for New Guinea, the Dutch East Indies, on behalf of the Netherlands would establish control over Western New Guinea, however with such control extended indirectly through a vassal state from Tidore through an extensive and integrated pact, while in the meantime, the United Kingdom would directly secure control over southern New Guinea after gaining control of it from Queensland, while lastly, the then German Empire established control over northern New Guinea under the self-proclaimed protectorate of German New Guinea by 1884 as well_[34].

On 1st January, 1901, after approximately a decade of intricate planning, numerous constitutional conventions and referendums, it would finally culminate with the establishment of The Commonwealth of Agnolia, and from 1901 onwards, Agnolia became a self-governing Dominion within the British Empire as a direct result of its successfully completed Federation. However, New Zealand would only become a Dominion in 1907, where at the request of New Zealand’s Parliament, King Edward VII proclaimed New Zealand as having become a Dominion within the British Empire_[35].

To resolve the then ongoing political dispute between Sydney and Melbourne on which metropolitan area would become Greater Agnolia’s official capital city, the Agnolian Capital Territory (Eventually became Canberra (state)) was formed in 1911 to host Canberra, but while Canberra was under construction, Melbourne would serve as the temporary capital from 1901 to 1927, when Canberra finally finished construction_[36].

In 1911, a huge amount of territory was transferred from South Agnolia to the Commonwealth, soon becoming known as the Northern Territory, while by 1914, as the First World War erupted following the Sarajevo Assassination, both Agnolia and New Zealand joined the Entente and fought fiercely on numerous fronts under the Agnolian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC)_[30]. The First World War greatly shaped both nations’s national identity and trajectory, especially with a national awakening in both nations following their defeat at Gallipoli, and with the beginning of the Gallipoli Campaign still commemorated as Anzac Day, with it becoming one of the most important dates in Greater Agnolia and as a public holiday itself.

All the while, with Agnolia having been granted control over what would become the Territory of Papua by Great Britain in 1902, Agnolian forces would easily be able to seize German New Guinea upon the beginning of hostilities, before being transformed into the Territory of New Guinea in 1920 after the end of the First World War as a League of Nations mandate under Agnolian administration_[37].

Following the end of the First World War, both Agnolia and New Zealand would experience a subsequent post-war economic and societal boom and deepening relations between both nations before subsequently crashing down into the Great Depression, which would eventually result in the establishment of a comprehensive welfare state and economic protectionism_[38], and furthermore, at the Imperial Conference of 1926, the Balfour Declaration was declared which made all existing Dominions officially gain equality and autonomous status with each other and the United Kingdom under the British Empire, followed by the Statute of Westminster in 1931, which formally blocked the British Parliament from being able to unilaterally conduct legislation for any Dominion without prior consent, however, Agnolia and New Zealand would only adopt the Statute of Westminster in 1942 and 1947 respectively_[39]. Alongside this, following the formation of the League of Nations, both Agnolia and New Zealand would join in and participate in the activities of the League of Nations_{[Note 2]}.

After Nazi Germany launched its invasion of Poland on September 1st, 1939, and with the subsequent eruption of the Second World War from 1939 to 1945, both Agnolia and New Zealand joined the Allies and fought across the Pacific, European, Mediterranean and Middle East theatres respectively_[40]. The disastrous performance by Britain during the Battle of Singapore in 1942, followed shortly afterwards by massive bombing campaigns on Agnolian soil, most notably with Darwin’s bombing and with fierce fighting across the Kokoda Track against Imperial Japan led to a massive panic of a Japanese invasion of Agnolia, and subsequently not only a dramatic shift from trusting the United Kingdom to trusting the United States as the two nation’s primary protective ally, but also forged even closer connections out of wartime necessity and ignited debates on a potential Union between both nations, especially with the United Kingdom having dropped all potential opposition to such a Union by that point_[41].

With the end of the Second World War in a victory for the Allies, both Agnolia and New Zealand would begin seriously debating the idea of a Union of both nations now that relations were so warmly intertwined together, and following several years of of intricate planning, further constitutional conventions and referendums, with the consent of the British Parliament, Agnolia and New Zealand would finally merge together on October 25th, 1951 to officially form the Commonwealth of Greater Agnolia. In addition, significant increases to living standards, leisure time, economic vitality and suburban development would occur_[42], all the while Greater Agnolia heavily pushed for mass immigration from Europe and calling such migrants as “New Agnolians”, with the justification being the slogan of “populate or perish”_[43], and subsequently, to try to incentivise mass immigration from Asia, from the late 1950s and early 1960s onwards, the White Agnolia policy was gradually phased out, alongside with Greater Agnolia joining the United Nations after its formation in the direct aftermath of the Second World War, initially joining separately, as Agnolia and New Zealand respectively, but upon the conclusion of Union, both nations would then merge their United Nations seat into a singular seat there, which would serve as its final configuration until its own untimely end during the Great Unipolar Collapse_{[Note 3]}, all the while, in 1949, with the merger of the Territory of Papua and the Territory of New Guinea, the Territory of Papua and New Guinea was established, although with it still remaining under Agnolian administration_[44].

Being a member of the Western Bloc during the First Cold War, Greater Agnolia participated in conflicts such as the Korean War, the Malayan Emergency and the Vietnam War during the 1950s to 1970s_[45]. Additionally, fears of creeping Communism into Agnolian society resulted in several unsuccessful attempts at banning the Communist Party of Agnolia and subsequently a political split within the Labor Party on how to approach Communism_[46]. And additionally, following growing civic and political pressure spearheaded by Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Māori communities towards full representation and societal equality, and with the Federal Parliament being empowered to legislate on behalf of indigenous people and formally include them in Greater Agnolia’s population census following a Referendum held in 1967, civil liberties, political freedoms, land interests, cultural recognition and breach resolution (of the Treaty of Waitangi) were slowly but surely granted and addressed by Greater Agnolia, especially with many grievances in regards to prior violations of the Treaty of Waitangi eventually receiving negotiated settlements and compensation, especially following the landmark ruling by the High Court of Agnolia that Agnolia was not “terra nullius” (land belonging to no one) at the time of European colonisation, unlike what was previously accepted_[47].

And with the abolition of the final vestiges of the White Agnolia policy by 1973, the demographics and cultures of Greater Agnolia, previously dominated by European and Anglo-American demographics and culture would be drastically altered with an explosive boom of non-European immigration, with the vast majority of such immigrants originating from Asia_[48], all the while Greater Agnolia would begin to adopt a more assertive and independent foreign policy in regards to the Asia-Pacific, especially with a post-war surge in national pride with Greater Agnolia resulting in a major push for greater sovereignty, and additionally, Greater Agnolia, being deeply interested in maintaining sovereignty over Papua New Guinea would openly begin campaigning for an indefinite extension of its United Nations Trust Territory, under the justification of strategic necessity of Agnolian control to prevent New Guinea from collapsing into infighting upon independence and more importantly, to prevent the further spread of Communism, which would only be reluctantly accepted by Greater Agnolia’s own allies, especially the United States and subsequently the United Nations after it successfully managed to negotiate the Free Association Compact to allow for greater internal self-management capabilities as the Papua New Guinea Autonomous Region, while still maintaining free association with Greater Agnolia_[49].

Subsequently, with such a surge in patriotic sentiment, especially soaring out of partisan divide in the aftermath of the dismissal of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam by the then Governor-General during the Dismissal in direct response to growing political paralysis between Prime Minister Whitlam of the Labor Party against an Opposition controlled Senate, eventually culminated with the Agnolia Acts, which were passed by both the Federal Parliament and the British Parliament in 1986 to great public fanfare, which severed the final remaining constitutional ties that had bound Greater Agnolia with the United Kingdom, while still retaining Queen Elizabeth II’s position as Queen of Greater Agnolia for another 14 years until the abolition of the Crown in Greater Agnolia_[50].

However, such sentiments also helped result in the rapid rise of republican sentiments across Greater Agnolia, which would especially explode out by the 1990s with growing uproar to shed all remaining colonial ties with the Crown, and following the recommendations of the Constitutional Convention being firmly in support of creating a Republic and also reaching consensus that the President should become the head of state while the Prime Minister should become the head of government instead, however, it would formally request a non-binding plebiscite over the election method of such a proposed President due to their inability to reach consensus on this matter_[51], and after Prime Minister John Howard acquiesced to this request, in the subsequent Presidential Plebiscite, a significant majority would end up voting in favour of a President that would be directly elected by the Agnolian people in future Presidential Elections over a proposal for the Federal Parliament to elect such a President amongst themselves_[52].

And finally, after another Constitutional Convention was assembled subsequently for finalisation of this massive Constitutional amendment towards a Republic, on 6th November, 1999, the Republicanism Referendum of 1999 saw approximately 64% of voters would vote in favour of becoming a Republic_[53], and following the reluctant acceptance of the referendum outcome by the Queen, a transitional process towards the full abolition of the Crown would occur within Greater Agnolia across the next few months, and with it even stretching straight into the 21st century. Soon enough however, the Constitutional Convention, following a thorough assessment of the then existing Constitution, it would reach a consensus that constitutional amendments alone were no longer sufficient and that Greater Agnolia by this point now required a complete constitutional renewal instead_[54], and therefore, after further work on creating an entirely new Constitution occurred through extensive consultation and numerous non-binding plebiscites, while already on a transition phase towards Greater Agnolia becoming a republic, the Constitutional Referendum, being successfully held on March 11th, 2000 would witness a resounding 59% vote in favour of replacing the prior Constitution of Greater Agnolia with an entirely new Constitution_[55]. Following this, the newly created Constitution would be formally ratified by the Constitutional Convention shortly before the Proclamation of Independence was made, which finally brought an end to the Crown and therefore also ending constitutional monarchy in Greater Agnolia.

With Greater Agnolia having now formally become independent of the Crown, much political debate erupted over whether immediate Parliamentary Elections were supposed to be held according to the Constitution or whether instead such Parliamentary Elections were still to be held in 2001, as had been originally planned before the success of both the Republicanism Referendum and Constitutional Referendum became unexpected spanners in the works, and especially since after the Proclamation of Independence, Presidential Elections had already been scheduled to occur on September 1st, 2000_[56], resulting in initial political gridlock over this matter.

However, following negotiated private political discussions between the then Howard Government and the then Opposition over this matter_[57], consensus was eventually reached between both sides that immediate Parliamentary Elections alongside an approaching Presidential Election were to be the way forward and that the Federal Parliament should therefore be dissolved, and after the Supreme Court formally approved the introduced motion of dissolution by the then Prime Minister, who was also Acting President at the time, on September 1st, 2000, newly designated elections for both the Federal Parliament and the President were simultaneously held across Greater Agnolia, becoming the first elections held since Greater Agnolia’s formal rupture from the Crown and its Proclamation of Independence as a federal semi-presidential republic_[58].

Shortly afterwards, after the September 11th attacks in the United States, Greater Agnolia would join the International Security Assistance Force and become one of the largest participants in the War in Afghanistan and fighting in Afghanistan until the collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the Taliban and also itself being controversially involved in the War in Iraq from 2003-2009_[59].

Meanwhile, while for the first several years after the signing of the Free Association Compact was marked by smooth governance and close cooperation, as the late 1980s to mid 1990s rolled around, political disagreements would emerge between the Commonwealth of Greater Agnolia and the Papua New Guinea Autonomous Region over the extent of self-governance powers, especially since while the Free Association Compact guaranteed that Papua New Guinea would enjoy self-governance powers and that such self-governance powers would be extensive and that a certain limit did exist, due to it not properly delineating where such self-governance powers ended, Canberra and Port Moresby both entered political friction on where such a limit was actually laid at_[60] which resulted in growing political dysfunction across Papua New Guinea, most exemplified by the Asian Financial Crisis, where while Greater Agnolia itself successfully weathered it with relative ease, Papua New Guinea however was wrecked economically due to political disagreements on whether Canberra or Port Moresby should be responsible for resolving the then ongoing crisis, which was further hampered by a poorly planned response from Port Moresby_[61], where Canberra was only allowed to directly intervene far too late to save Papua New Guinea's economy, resulting in a drastic economic decline across Papua New Guinea.

It would however only truly reach a fever pitch after tensions across Bougainville, which had long been simmering over declining employment opportunities and which had also been hit extremely hard by the Asian Financial Crisis exploded into open resistance after its final operational mine, which had been kept financially afloat purely due to financial subsidies from Canberra was forced to close down due to the then ongoing crisis spiralling across Asia and Oceania, the Bougainville Revolutionary Army would rise up in open revolt on 1st December, 1998 and force local security personnel to flee under gunfire, and due to disagreements flaring up again between Canberra and Port Moresby once again on whether this was a federal-level national security issue or a regional level-internal policing issue_[62], a maritime blockade was imposed while high stakes negotiations opened up, which lasted for over a year alongside several ultimately failed ceasefires.

Ultimately however, the diplomatic negotiations collapsed and immediately after this diplomatic failure, the already mobilised Agnolian Self-Defence Force took direct command and would successfully launch a counter-invasion by the turn of 2000, and while it successfully reclaimed control over Bougainville and suppressed the Bougainville Revolutionary Army afterwards_[63], it exposed the sheer unworkability of the then Free Association Compact, and also severely damaged the internal reputation of Papua New Guinea’s own Government at the time and ignited public uproar for its complete failure to prevent and resolve such a revolt by itself as had been originally promised_[64].

Subsequently, with growing political support towards revising the Free Association Compact and even towards its outright removal, and with declining public confidence, both Greater Agnolia, the official sovereign over Papua New Guinea under free association would open up new negotiations on the status of the Free Association Compact, and after intense negotiations, with public sentiment by this point, most crucially within Papua New Guinea itself growing against the current arrangement out of public outrage over incompetent governance and current socioeconomic woes, especially in contrast with Greater Agnolia would eventually force Papua New Guinea to agree to a major revision of the Free Association Compact_[65], which added in a specified upper limit for self-governance powers, being capped at being around the same level as States within Greater Agnolia, introducing restrictions on any future pathways towards independence while still officially allowing for such a process to occur and finally introducing a legal pathway towards its formal integration into Greater Agnolia, and although all of this was directly undermining the official status of Papua New Guinea as a United Nations Trust Territory, with the full diplomatic backing of the Western world, the United Nations would still approve of this major revision regardless_[66].

Furthermore, under President Scott Morrison and with the support of Prime Minister Alex Hawke following years of languishing proposals for such Constitutional Reform, especially with growing public support for an empowered President, even at the expense of a weakened Prime Minister with further solidification of Greater Agnolia as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Constitutional Reform Package was officially introduced on May 2nd, 2016, and with full support from his then Government Coalition, it would go through the Constitutional Reform Referendum on September 30th, 2016, and with it being passed with a resounding 55.1% voting in favour_[67], within just a few months, the vast majority of State Assemblies officially ratified the Constitutional Reform Package into effect, with it successfully passing through the minimum requirement as specified under the Constitution, and with its subsequent approval by the Supreme Court, on February 9th, 2017, the First Amendment would officially be ratified into effect, and its effect would be transformative, as it would effectively upturn the balance of power entirely from being the Prime Minister that was effectively the most powerful person in Greater Agnolia to becoming the President that was now the most powerful_[68].

Subsequently, for numerous years afterwards, relative peace would return to Greater Agnolia, and with it also increasingly turning its geopolitical attention and commercial trading to East Asia alongside further corporate deregulation during this period of time, however, this would come crashing down across the 2020s, now widely regarded as the epicentre of the Great Unipolar Collapse, and the first major shockwave would be from the COVID-19 pandemic, originating from a coronavirus outbreak in December 2019 in Wuhan, and after the first infection case emerged around late February 2020, COVID-19 would rapidly spread across Greater Agnolia, being able to also cross into New Zealand and Papua New Guinea by mid March 2020 through sea transportation, and subsequently, with spiralling infection cases, on 21st March, 2020, both a thorough travel ban on foreign nationals was implemented alongside social distancing measures following the declaration of a State of Emergency by then President Scott Morrison_[69]and with Greater Agnolia being one of the most proactive pursuers of a Zero-Covid policy, with it being implemented all the way until November 2021, when after several waves of spiking infection rates, COVID-19 was finally declared as having been contained and therefore saw the lifting of the previously declared State of Emergency, as one of the final nations at that point to proclaim an end to such a State of Emergency_[70].

However, while the COVID-19 pandemic was ongoing, a series of major events would erupt that would ignite the Great Unipolar Collapse and subsequently affect Greater Agnolia in turn, with the first major event being the igniting of the Second Russian Revolution against then President Vladimir Putin over Russia’s poor handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, spiralling economic decline and endemic corruption that successfully overthrew the prior Russian Federation and established Arctic Lands, with it subsequently resulting in the growth of Communist sentiments across Europe as politically engineered by Moscow_[71] through exploitation of economic stagflation and growing socioeconomic divide across Europe, which resulted in either successful Communist revolutions across Europe or resulted in a reactionary consolidation of power under bureaucratic elitism or even outright military dictatorships whenever such populist upheavals were successfully thwarted across those European nations_[72], which also helped contribute to the demise of the European Union from geopolitical fracturing and political infighting and thus the subsequent rise of the Union for Mutual Economic Assistance as its Communist alternative across the course of the 2020s.

However, Greater Agnolia’s geopolitical situation only truly became untenable and finally forced a drastic change towards Greater Agnolia's geopolitical strategy after it's primary strategic ally, the United States under the newly formed American National Restoration League, with the covert political backing of both Corporate America and the Deep State launched an ultimately successful coup d’état against President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party under accusations of “inept misconduct” and violently suppressing the Democratic Party before subsequently turning on the Republican Party under charge of “un-American extremism”_[73], thus effectively ending the American liberal democracy that had existed prior to the Restorism Coup_{[Note 4]}, and especially with it's subsequent retreat from international geopolitics to consolidate control over the United States alongside resulting conquests across North America.

And with all such destabilising developments effectively resulting in Greater Agnolia becoming increasingly abandoned, under President Christopher Luxon]Christopher Luxon, Greater Agnolia would witness a massive geopolitical shift towards greater geopolitical interventionism alongside the development of indigenous soft power and hard power capacity and capabilities now that Greater Agnolia was becoming increasingly isolated, and it would manifest with a massive surge upwards towards national militarisation_[74], especially with the Agnolian Self-Defence Force receiving massive and consistent growth in the allocated military budget, and with it most controversially manifesting with Greater Agnolia's unilateral withdrawal from the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2028 and the subsequent initiation of the Agnolian nuclear program_[75], which would end up successfully conducting research and development on indigenous nuclear warheads and finally resulted in Greater Agnolia's first indigenous nuclear test in 2034, thus turning Greater Agnolia into the newest nuclear-capable nations on Earth.

However, the situation also presented a unique opportunity for Greater Agnolia to finally bring about an end to the increasingly despised Free Association Compact, especially now that by this point, the United Nations had now become effectively nonfunctional despite it still existing de jure due to the ongoing Great Unipolar Collapse, therefore meaning that there was no longer any effective mechanism to force compliance with the Free Association Compact anyways, however, Canberra’s push to bring an end to the Free Association Compact and integrate Papua New Guinea into Greater Agnolia resulted in another flaring up of political tensions between Canberra and Port Moresby over the legality of such a course of action alongside the fundamental disagreement on whether Papua New Guinea should pursue independence from Greater Agnolia or instead integrate into Greater Agnolia_[76].

However, after the Commonwealth Government controversially brought up the political dispute of the legality of its proposed course of action directly to the Supreme Court, it would rule, based on both the Free Association Compact as well as the Constitution that Greater Agnolia could legally move towards integrating Papua New Guinea, so long as a Referendum was successfully held on the topic beforehand with a majority in favour of such a proposed integration, and although the Papua New Guinea Autonomous Government would lodge a formal complaint subsequently about it violating the spirit of the Free Association Compact, it could not take any actual action against this Supreme Court ruling, effectively handing Canberra an uncontested political victory_[77].

Therefore, after several rounds of negotiations and after both Canberra and Port Moresby finally agreed to hold a Referendum as had originally been envisioned in the Free Association Compact on the future status of Papua New Guinea_[78], on December 11th, 2026, the Future Status Referendum was held across Papua New Guinea, and due to intense political campaigning towards both independence and integration respectively, especially with there being no option to maintain the pre-existing status quo, the Future Status Referendum would therefore be a closely fought battle, however, ultimately, with a margin of 53.1% voting in favour of integration over independence_[79], Papua New Guinea was now therefore on a track towards integration into Greater Agnolia, and despite political claims made of electoral fraud during and after the Future Status Referendum, the Supreme Court would officially approve the Future Status Referendum’s legitimacy after finding no conclusive evidence towards any electoral fraud, and thus also accepting its legality, and therefore, Greater Agnolia would begin to heavily push towards the full integration of Papua New Guinea under the newfound electoral mandate for integration_[80].

Subsequently, Papua New Guinea was broken up into Papua, New Guinea and Bougainville respectively and were subsequently established as becoming amongst the newest States of Greater Agnolia after further State Establishment Referendums were successfully held with official approval from The Supreme Court_[81], all while two major Constitutional Reform Referendums were also held around this time period and were later successfully implemented into The Constitution following State ratification, with the First Amendment passing relatively smoothly and resulting in the formal establishment of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament as a Constitutionally mandated consultation body for the indigenous populations, whom Greater Agnolia officially calls as the First Peoples_[82], while the Second Amendment, though seemingly innocuous in nature would become a massive political minefield and would narrowly be voted through its own Constitutional Reform Referendum with 51.2% voting in support on partisan lines and barely managed to receive sufficient State ratification, mainly due to the political firestorm that erupted over the enormous implications of non-human beings officially becoming able to legally acquire nationality and citizenship and therefore enjoy Constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights if such a proposed amendment was to be implemented into effect, even though officially it was to provide previously missing specifications, and with mass demonstrations erupting both in favour and against the Second Amendment when it was proposed and after its formal implementation_[83].

And for several years afterwards, with the return of relatively stable quiet to Greater Agnolia, it would continue to consolidate formal control over Papua, New Guinea and Bougainville, now as States alongside greater economic and technological interventionism under subsequent Presidencies to keep pace with other great powers worldwide, especially with diplomatic tensions emerging between the Capitalist Bloc and the Communist Bloc, which eventually ignited the Second Cold War outright.

Most consequentially however, with deeper diplomatic ties forged with the island nations, especially through the Pacific Island Forum of which it was not only already a member state of, but had already achieved dominance over_[84], and through extensive economic development, standardisation work and multilateral security cooperation alongside Greater Agnolia already having provided an implicit protective shield over those Pacific nations, those nations would soon enough have an even further entrenched asymmetric interdependence on Greater Agnolia, especially since its massive geopolitical presence and military capacity and capabilities effectively protected them from being militarily occupied by foreign nations_[85], therefore, Greater Agnolia would increase the size and scale its asymmetric leverage over those island nations while still maintaining warm relations, and subsequently, Greater Agnolia would effectively formalise that de facto status with the establishment of the Pacific Community as being the official replacement of the Pacific Islands Forum_[86].

However, such newfound peaceful stability was not to last, as due to rising geopolitical tensions between the People’s Heavenly Republic of China (Second Sina) and the United Imperial States of America (Neo Imperial America), despite them having previously been aligned against the Soviet Union (Arctic Lands), eventually tensions would escalate into the Sino-American War from 2048-2049_[87], and although after only 11 months, the People's Heavenly Republic would unconditionally surrender after military defeats across both the Pacific Ocean and across Southeast Asia to the United Imperial States and its tributary states, combined with a surprise invasion of core Chinese territory by the Soviet Union to prevent nuclear conflict from erupting and to prevent a total American victory from occurring_[88], however, before China’s defeat in the Sino-American War however, China would initially attempt to launch an invasion of Indonesia, and although they were bloodily repelled after only 2 months of fighting by American and Indonesian troops, this would finally ignite the already long raging West Papuan insurgency into full intensity as under the leadership of the Free Papua Movement, large scale uprisings occurred all across West Papua, which successfully caught overextended and weakened Indonesian forces by total surprise and forcing them to retreat out of West Papua after only around a single week of fighting_[89].

However, with this new ignition of civil conflict further destabilising an already deeply turmoiled Asia-Pacific region, and with Greater Agnolia already having had considerable interest in expanding it's security cordon protecting core Agnolian territory to extend further westward, Greater Agnolia would therefore use the West Papua insurgency, alongside the wider Sino-American War as political justification to launch a direct intervention into West Papua_[90] against the Free Papua Movement.

Although initially they were able make staggering progress against the Free Papua Movement, soon enough however, they became bogged down in guerrilla warfare, and combined with the controversial nature of the military intervention itself, the situation was therefore already beginning to deteriorate_[91], however, the situation would drastically change when the already present divide between moderate elements and radical elements exploded outwards into factional divide over control of the Free Papua Movement alongside political disagreements on their stance towards the negotiation offer by Greater Agnolia, and therefore, with this violent split wedging the Free Papua Movement apart_[92], Greater Agnolia would successfully convince moderate elements of the Free Papua Movement to open up negotiations with Greater Agnolia, with a guarantee of both autonomy and self-governance for West Papua being provided, albeit with it required to become a Territory under Agnolian sovereignty, and after the moderate elements agreed to the offered terms under the Port Moresby Accords, afterwards those negotiating moderate elements of the Free Papua Movement alongside Greater Agnolia also negotiated a surrendering of arms and allowed such former insurgents to peacefully integrate back into civil society under amnesty_[93].

However, for those radical elements of the Free Papua Movement that had outright rejected negotiations, this would therefore re-ignite the still ongoing West Papuan insurgency, now however targeted against the Agnolian Self-Defence Force, all the while, both the Republic of Indonesia and the United Imperial States of America would issue formal diplomatic condemnations to Canberra in response to the Port Moresby Accords, however, with the then ongoing Sino-American War being of critical importance and with there being great interest not to end up waging war against Greater Agnolia considering its massive surge upwards_[94], no retaliatory action ended up being taken and with such a de facto admission of Agnolian sovereignty over West Papua, it was subsequently able to integrate West Papua into Greater Agnolia as the newly established Territory of West Papua following a successfully held Integration Referendum occurred across West Papua and resulted in a majority consensus in approval of integrating into Greater Agnolia_[95].