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The history of the Australian Army dates back to colonial forces, prior to the Federation of Australia in 1901. Some of colonial forces, which served the states of Australia at the time, were gradual united into federal units between 1899 to 1903; thus forming the beginning of the Australian Army. The colonial armies were officially united as the ''Commonwealth Forces'' in the Defence Act of 1903. Since then the Australian Army has changed to suit to needs of Australia; with particular changes occurring during, and following, the World Wars, Korean War, Vietnam War and Gulf War. ==The Two Armies: Militia and Permanent forces 1870–1947== ''For more about Australian military history before the withdrawal of British forces, see: Colonial forces of Australia.'' For more than 80 years after the first British settlement, the only professional soldiers in Australia were members of British Army garrisons. The first conflicts in which large numbers of Australian-born soldiers fought overseas were the Maori Wars, between 1863–72, although almost all of these—about 2,500 men—served in New Zealand colonial units, or the British Army. By the time that the garrisons were withdrawn in 1870, the six separate self-governing colonies in Australia already had their own separate, part-time reserve units, known as militia or "volunteers". The colonial governments began to raise professional artillery units, to staff coastal batteries. From 1877 onwards, the British sent officers to advise the colonies on defence matters, and in the early 1880s, the first inter-colonial defence conferences were held. During 1885, the government of New South Wales sent an infantry battalion, with artillery and support units to the short-lived British campaign in Sudan. During the economic depression of the early 1890s, large-scale strikes in various colonies were met with governments mobilising and/or threatening to use militia against strikers. This was very unpopular and led to successful and historically-significant campaigns against the formation of standing, regular forces. The "two armies" system was established whereby the only infantry units would be militia, although permanent artillery and other support units remained. As Federation of the colonies approached, on 24 August 1899 the colonial artillery units were merged into the first Australia federal army unit. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of the Australian Army」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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