Bigger British Empire

18th Century
1774: Great Compromise enacted to avoid possible armed conflict between Britain and her colonies. Britain grants self-rule and representation in parliament to the North American colonies. The colonies are organized into the Commonwealth of British North America.

After taking all what is now USA an Canada, USA was still under Britain.

1780: The British adopt a breach loading rifle invented by an American. This will give them an edge over other nations.

1782: Watt invents steam engine. Factories created.

1783: Russia's annexation of Crimea causes a declaration of war from France. The war proves costly for the French and in the end does not stop Russia from expanding.

British battle Russians in Crimea and win the war.

1789: Great Peasant Revolt begins in France.

1790: Fighting escalates between loyalists and rebels in France.

Britain attacks European nations in order to seize the Americas, and successfully did.

1791: Quebec is separated from the CBNA while still remaining part of the British Empire. They are allowed to speak French and be Roman Catholics without being persecuted. In return they renounce all claims to the Great Lakes region.

1792: Britain begins mobilizing troops in preparation to invade France.

Cotton gin invented by Eli Whitney.

1793: Britain declares war on France after the execution of Louis XVI. British troops land in France and quickly overwhelm the revolutionary army. In a matter of months France is under British control. In other parts of the world British troops capture French territory.

British settlement of Australia begins. CBNA convinces Parliament to begin settling debtors there instead of in the CBNA.

Ireland starts to become part of the empire.

1794: After a year of British occupation, revolutionary leader Napoleon leads a revolution n London to force them to give France independence. He then becomes French president.

1795:Mass production of steam engines begins in the British Empire for use in manufacturing.

1798: British navy wins control of the Mediterranean Sea. Egypt is invaded. Plans begin to construct a canal on the Suez Peninsula to better connect Britain with Asia.

Ireland is granted dominion status like the CBNA, sending their representatives to the Imperial Parliament.

1800: Thomas Jefferson becomes Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of British North America.

Cotton becomes one of the most important exports of the CBNA.

The Low Countries (and their colonies) come to British hands.

1802: A ceasefire is recognized between Britain and the Coalition. British control is recognized in the Low Countries, south Italy, Malta, Spanish North America, the Dutch colonial empire, and Egypt, however the coalition refuses to recognize George III as King of France.

First steam ship developed. The Royal Navy likes the idea of what it can do and invest large sums of money in creating new steam warships for the next war.

1803: War begins again between Britain and the remaining free European nations. Rebellions begin in South America; British support is given to the rebels.

1804: The Haitian Incident leads to Parliament to declare the gradual ending of slavery in the Empire. All of Haiti’s slaves are set free and the slave trade is ended.

1805: British invade the Mediterranean Islands.

1806: Establishment of the United Empire of Britain (a.k.a. the British Empire) with George III being crowned George I, Emperor and Protector of the World. A new Imperial Parliament is created with voting representatives from across the empire can discuss and vote on the laws of the empire. Founding members include Britain, Ireland, the CBNA, Quebec, France, Greater Netherlands, Mexico, and Egypt.

Nations outside the empire become “Allied States.” Mostly in Europe and South America, these nations are allowed a measure of autonomy and support from the Empire as long as they respect the authority of the Emperor and the Imperial Parliament.

1808: Prussia and Austria surrender to the British Empire and agree to become allied states. Russia is the last member of the free Europeans still independent.

The Suez Canal finally opens.

1811: Naploeon attacks Europe to get control of it.

1812: General Napoleon commences his invasion of Russia. It is a success but causes a huge loss of life among French forces. In the end, Britain liberates Europe and prison Napoleon.

1813: British forces under General Jackson Lee invade the Ottoman Empire after they demanded Egypt be returned to them.

1815: The last organized forces of the Ottoman Empire are defeated, but it cost the life of General Jackson. The last nation that could challenge the Empire has been defeated.

The European territories of the Ottoman Empire are given independence as British allied states. Britain takes direct control of Thrace, Constantinople and Cyprus.

Veterans from the wars in Europe and the Middle East are given generous land grants across the new British colonial territories to help hold them down. There is a rather large number that settle in the Texas province of Mexico.

1816: Slavery ends in the Empire. Many free slaves are given resources to settle new colonies in Africa to increase Imperial control of the continent. The Empire also declares slavery illegal for all of the allied states as well.

1820: Emperor George II is crowned.

1821: Free black settlements in West Africa being expanding into the interior.

1822: First ironclad steamship sails.

1823: British expand into Burma from India.

1827-30: Britain secures control of North Africa from Morocco to Libya.

1828: War hero Napoleon Bonaparte becomes the first non-British prime minister of the Imperial Parliament. He would be remembered for both his legal and educational reforms throughout the empire.

1832: American Indians forcibly resettled in Permanent Indian Territory of the CBNA.

1833: Mexico attempts to restrict open settlement of territories to white settlers from the CBNA, but backs down after a ruling from the Imperial Parliament.

1835: Boers go on Great Trek to escape being ruled by the Imperial government.

1836: The Mexican territory of Texas requests to be a separate province of the Empire. Even with protests from Mexico, the Imperial Parliament approves.

1837: Mexico declares independence from the Empire. Imperial troops invade and overthrow the rebel government. Mexico is partitioned, giving Texas everything north of the Rio Grande and creating the United Provinces of Central America in the south. Mexico temporarily loses membership in the Imperial Parliament, but both Texas and the UPCA send members immediately.

Empress Victoria I becomes queen.

Electric telegraph invented.

1838: British invade Afghanistan and absorb it into the empire. Resistences in the new territory would last for several decades.

First railways built, screw propeller invented.

1839-42: China sells Mongolia, their hold on Central Asia, and Sakhalin to Russia, opens for Western influence, sells Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, South China, and some south-oart Chinese places to Britain, it became wealthy. China also sold all of their ports to Britain.

1840: Australia (which includes New Zealand) is granted membership in the Imperial Parliament.

1841: British claim Congo River territory in Africa.

1842: British colonize Polynesia, with most colonies being absorbed into Australia.

1845: Possible famine in Ireland avoided.

Britain invades Scandinavia.

British Armada Navy beat the Russians in the one day Baltic War and forces Russia to give Finalnd and North West Russia.

1848: The German War begins when Prussia and several other German states rebel against Imperial authority requiring the use of the Imperial Army to defeat the rebel states. Prussia is divided into several smaller states, though some territory is ceded to Poland.

1849: Gold Rush in the California province of Texas leads to a major immigration to the area from different parts of the Empire.

1850: Revolt in China over the governments allied status to the Empire leads to British intervention, splitting China into separate territories of the Empire. The first machine gun, the Gatling gun, is used in combat here.

1852: Free Boer Republic is established outside the authority of the Empire.

1853: Africaa annexed into empire.

1854-1856: Russia becomes the next nation to rebel against its allied status. In the end Russia is defeated after a massive invasion is launched from several different directions. The Baltic States, Belarus, and Ukraine all gain independence as allied states. The Empire annexes Russian Central Asian, Alaska (given to the CBNA), the Russian Pacific coast, and the Caucus peninsula. Russia returns to its allied status.

1857: Indian leaders threaten a massive revolt if they are not allowed to participate in the Imperial Parliament. Tired from the rebellions over the last decade, the British agree and India sends its representatives to Britain.

1859: Darwin’s Origin of the Species is published.

John Brown, of the CBNA, begins his term as a representative in the Imperial Parliament.

1860: The Italian allied status requests to form a united nation but the British deny this proposal. In response Garibaldi leads a revolt in Naples and strikes north, but a British expeditionary force stops them. Garibaldi is executed.

1861: Commonwealth of British North America renames itself the Union of North America.

1862: The British annex all of Southeast Asia.

1865: Abraham Lincoln becomes the first American Prime Minister of the United Empire of Britain. Parliamentarians overlook his lowly birth in a brief flowering of egalitarianism that quickly dissipates. Snobbishness returns with a vengenance.

1866: Founding of the secessionist political party Sons of Liberty in the UNA. Calling for independence from the Empire by peaceful means, though it would last to present day it would only remain a minor power in the Continental Parliament.

Louis Pasteur discovers a vaccine for malaria. This will allow farther expansion into the African interior for the empire.

1867: Diamonds discovered in South Africa.

The Torrent sinks with all hands and 130 troopers when it strikes a reef off southern Alaska. Divers will redicover the remains of the vessel in 2007.

1868: The Middle East, West Central Asia, Balkan Europe and Greece, Southwest Europe and Russia, Northwest Central Asia,

1870: The western German states request admittance into the Empire as one state, not as an allied state. The Empire accepts the proposal and welcomes its newest member Hanover.

1874: Ethanol-run technology is invented.

1876: The Permanent Indian Territory request to be split from the UNA as the Great Spirit Alliance. The Imperial Parliament agrees and they send representatives to them.

1877: Boers defeated in Boer war..

1879: Zulus defeated in South Africa.

1880: Boer Liberation Army carries out a failed revolt. They will remain a constant threat in the area for some time.

1881: Sudan annexed by Empire and given to Egypt. This provokes Sufist Mahdi rebels in central Sudan and Darfur to rise up against British authority. British troops restore order, carrying out brutal administrative massacres shocking even to imperialist press. The Imperial Parliament grants Jerusalem, Mecca and Medina independence as allied states to assuage Muslim opinion elsewhere.

The World Zionist Organization is founded to create a homeland for Jews somewhere in the Empire.

1883: Southwest Africa is claimed by the empire and merged with South Africa.

The Cape Town-Cairo railway is completed using massive direct and indirect colonial government subsidies. As with the Suez Canal, unpaid native labor is conscripted to complerte the project.

1889: In an effort to hurt the cause of BLA in South Africa, the Union of South Africa is formed as a full member of the Empire and is allowed to extend their border farther north.

1890: Otto Von Bismarck becomes a figurehead for uniting the remaining German states with Hanover, which becomes quite popular. After some negotiations with German leaders and the Imperial Parliament, it is agreed and Hanover unites all of Germany.

In another part of the world, the Imperial Parliament sets aside the Territory of East Africa to Jewish settlement as long as they respect the rights of the natives. The WZO begins financing settlement of the area.

1891: The Grand Railway is completed. It stretches across Eurasia connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

1893: Sons of Liberty sponsors sister organizations in Texas and Quebec.

1894: East Africa becomes a full member of the Empire, thanks to increased Jewish settlement and investment. It stretches from Ethiopia all the way to Zanzibar and than into the interior.

Madagascar annexed by the Empire.

Iceland captured from Denmark.

1895: Formosa/Taiwan absorbed into Japan. Last remaining Portuguese settlers are compelled to evacuate at bayonet point to Macau. The first Japanese governor is assassinated by a Boxer, beleived to have been hired by a departing Portuguese magnate.

1897: Imperial military officer Alfred Dreyfus of East Africa while vacationing in the UNA comes upon a plot by a radical group of the Sons of Liberty to assassinated the Imperial Family. The Sons of Liberty deny any involvement with the rogues, but they lose credibility in the eyes of the Empire. Dreyfus is knighted for his services.

1898: First heavier-than-air flight takes places in Kent.

William Jennings Bryan becomes Prime Minister of the UNA.

1899: Another rebellion in China, this time by a group known as the Boxers, is put down. China is further split into separate states. Manchuria soon becomes the wealthiest and applies for membership in the Empire, but Parliament decides to wait on granting membership until things calm down in the region.

1900: Airships become more popular for travel across long distances.

1901: West Africa is granted full membership and allowed to expand into Nigeria.

Emperor Edward I begins his reign. He built the Panama Canal and other railroads to the Northern African ports given away by the countries because of civil wars in their countries.

1905:Britain becomes the world's most powerful industrial and commercial nation in the world.

The British seize the Pacific Islands and Eastern part of Siberia. 1910: Asian countries allowed to practice their culture in the British empire, but still a modern nation.

China becomes a democracy led by Sun-Yat Sen.

1914: 1914: World War One breaks out in Europe as a result of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. As German troops pour into France, the British determine that their interests would best be served by remaining neutral. As a result, they do not suffer a million dead, do not bankrupt themselves and their empire, do not suffer an immense loss of confidence and will, and do not lose the trust of the people and leaders of the Dominions.

1915: The nations of Europe have suffered heavy casualties. The British mediate a peace between the warring nations of Europe. Without British support, France and Russia have both lost territory to Germany. As part of the peace treaty, Germany is allowed to keep the captured territory, but the price for British mediation is that the Germans dismantle their High Seas Fleet and evacuate British Belguim.

1916-1920: Although revolutionary violence takes place throughout Russia, there is no organized movement to overthrow the Czar (the Germans did not send Lenin into Russia).

Agitation for independence in India is muted (Gandhi supported the British until he realized that the Indian war effort during World War One was unappreciated).

1920-1925: Disputes with Japan over the Sakhalin Ethanol System in British Sakhalin bought them into a fight. As a result, Britain takes control on Hiroshima and Nagasaki from Japan.

1925-1930: Winston Churchill is elected Prime Minister. He pushed through the Statute of Westminster, which gives new political form to the British Empire. The Dominions are given complete control of their internal affairs, while foreign relations and imperial defense are to be coordinated by an Imperial Council, based in London, in which all the Dominions (Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa) take part along with Great Britain.

The unity of the empire is to be symbolized by the monarchy.

1930-1935: Political movements are launched in Ireland for separation from Great Britain and establishment as a separate Dominion. Within Ireland, there is a low-level conflict between those who wish to remain within the Empire and those who wish to be completely independent.

The Indian National Congress elects to seek Dominion status for India. Mohandas Ganhdi spends his time writing works of ethical philosophy and does not concern himself much with politics.

Gandhi sets up the Raj Taj Mahal Parliament in the Taj Mahal in Agra, India (Raj parliament for short). It was known the Parliament of Politics and Philosophy, which parliament members discuss these things.

1935-1940: The balance of power in Europe has taken a solid form. The Germans remain the chief land power, while the British are unchallenged at sea. The United States, while a major economic and industrial player, remains a generally isolationist nation.

In the Pacific, however, the Japanese are gradually expanding their power in Asia at the expense of China, which causes the British much concern.

1940-1945: Japan, in an effort to secure oil supplies to maintain its war effort, attacks the British possessions in the East Indies. This so alarms the British and Chinese that they form a coalition against the Japanese, resulting in the Pacific War. It lasts for several years. In a series of sea battles, the British-American forces destroy Japanese naval power. After a year-long blockade of the Japanese home islands, resulting in great hardship, the Japanese sue for peace.

1945-1950: Because of its contributions during the course of the Pacific War, India is granted Dominion status. Its political elite have been campaigning for this step for some time. The Parliament of the Raj is designed to give effective representation to the various ethnic and religious groups of India, although this presents many problems.

Economically, Great Britain itself has become the center of financial services and government operations for the entire Empire, while their cheap labor pools cause manufacturing to shift increasingly to India and South Africa. Free traders lose ground in Imperial politics, resulting in free movement of goods between the Dominions, while trade barriers are erected against non-Imperial goods.