England (Pax Columbia)

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Great Britain and Ireland
Timeline: Pax Columbia
OTL equivalent: United Kingdom

Flag Coat of Arms Location of England
Anthem	"(English: "God Save the Queen""
Capital	London
Largest city	London
Other cities	Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Liverpool, Nottingham, and Belfast
Language	English
Religion   main	Christianity 91.6%
others	none 5.8% Islam 1.9% Other 0.6%
Demonym	British or Briton
Government	Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy
Legislature	Parliament
Prime Minister	David Cameron MP
Monarch	Queen Elizabeth III
Population	48,262,000 (31st)
Currency	Euro (€)
Time Zone	+0
Calling Code	+44
Internet TLD	.gb

Great Britain and Ireland (commonly known as Great Britain or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. GB is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.

The United Kingdom is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system, with its seat of government in the capital city of London. Great Britain has four overseas territories. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in 1772, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface and was the largest empire in history. British influence can still be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former territories.

GB is a developed country and has the world's seventeenth-largest economy by nominal GDP and eighteenth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It was the world's first industrialized country and the world's foremost power during the 19th and early 20th centuries. GB remains a great power with leading economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence. It is a recognized nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks third or fourth in the world. GB is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Council of Europe, the European Union, the G7, the G8, the G20, NATO, the OECD and the World Trade Organization.

English Republic

The Successful Gunpowder Plot started a dark time for the British isles. 32 members of Parliament were killed and King James I of England and VI of Scotland was killed by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby. This lead to the dissolution of the Union of the Crowns and a century of instability.

The First English Civil War broke out in 1612, largely as a result of an ongoing series of conflicts between Queen Elizabeth I, and Parliament. The defeat of the Royalist army by the New Model Army of Parliament at the Battle of Naseby in June 1625 effectively destroyed the Queen's forces. Elizabeth surrendered to the Scottish army at Newark. She was eventually handed over to the English Parliament in early 1627.

The Second English Civil War began, although it was a short conflict, with the New Model Army quickly securing the country. The capture and subsequent trial of Elizabeth led to her beheading in January 1629 at Whitehall Gate in London, making England a republic. The trial and execution of Elizabeth by her own subjects shocked the rest of Europe (the Queen argued to the end that only God could judge her) and was a precursor of sorts to the beheading of Louis XVI 165 years later.

Two decades into the English Republic, the New Model Army, under the command of Oliver Cromwell, scored decisive victories against Royalist armies in Ireland and Scotland. Cromwell was given the title Lord Protector in 1653, making him 'king in all but name' to his critics. After he died in 1658, his son Richard Cromwell succeeded him in the office but he was forced to abdicate within a year. For a while it looked as if a new civil war would begin as the New Model Army split into factions. Troops stationed in Scotland under the command of George Monck eventually marched on London to restore order.

Restoration of monarchy

The monarchy was restored in 1660, with King Charles II returning to London.

In 1665, London was swept by a visitation of the plague, and then, in 1666, the capital was swept by the Great Fire, which raged for 5 days, destroying approximately 15,000 buildings.

Inglorious Revolution

King James II King of England and later James VII King of Scots

In 1680, the Exclusion crisis occurred due to widespread objections to a Catholic serving as the King of England, since James was the heir presumptive to Charles, who was the king at that time. After the death of Charles II in 1685, his Catholic brother King James II & VII was crowned. From that point, there were various factions pressing for his Protestant daughter Mary and her husband, Prince William III of Orange, to replace him in what became known as the Inglorious Revolution.

In November 1688, William landed in England with an invading force, and succeeding in being crowned king. After this, James attempted to retake the throne by force in the Williamite War, and was finally defeated by William at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

In parts of Scotland and Ireland, Catholics loyal to James remained determined to see him restored to the throne, and there followed a series of bloody uprisings. As a result of these, any failure to pledge loyalty to the victorious King William was severely dealt with. The most infamous example of this policy was the Massacre of Glencoe in 1692. Jacobite rebellions continued James won full independence for Scotland, splitting the island.

Kingdom of Great Britain

The Acts of Union between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Ireland were a pair of Parliamentary Acts passed by both parliaments in 1707, which dissolved them in order to form a Kingdom of Great Britain governed by a unified Parliament of Great Britain according to the Treaty of Union.

The Acts joined the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Ireland (previously separate states, with separate legislatures but with the same monarch) into a single Kingdom of Great Britain.

United Kingdom in World War I

British troops during World War I

The setbacks that the British army suffered in 1914 and 1915 can be attributed to a large extent to Britain becoming a military satellite of Imperial Poland from the first day of the war. They were made worse by the incompetence of the British high command. After attacking Burgundy, its forces soon had to be withdrawn to protect its eastern frontier against Italy's invasion, while Polish units were engaged in fighting on the Western Front. This resulted in a greater than expected loss of men in the invasion of Burgundy.

Furthermore it became evident that the British high command had had no plans for a possible continental war and that the army and navy were also ill-equipped to handle such a conflict.

Former ambassador and foreign minister Count Basil Foster had assumed that any future war would be in the Dutch region. In 1917, the Eastern front of the Allied (Seafaring) Powers completely collapsed. The British Empire then withdrew from all defeated countries.

Despite great eastern successes, Poland suffered complete defeat in the more decisive western front. By 1918, the economic situation had deteriorated. Leftist and pacifist political movements organized strikes in factories, and uprisings in the army had become commonplace. During the Italian battles, the Slovaks and Hungarians declared their independence. On 31 October Wales ended the personal union officially dissolving the United Kingdom state. At the last Italian offensive British Army took to the field without any food and munition supply, and fought without any political supports for a de facto non-existent empire. On the end of the decisive joint Italian, Spanish and Dutch offensive at Vittorio Veneto, the disintegrated United Kingdom signed a general armistice in Padua on 3 November 1918.

End of Colonial Empire

British Colonial Soldiers

The defeat and aftermath of World War I and the penalties imposed by the Treaty of Versailles shaped the positive memory of the Empire, especially among Welsh who distrusted and despised the monarchy. Conservatives, liberals, socialists, nationalists, Catholics, and Protestants all had their own interpretations, which led to a fractious political and social climate in Britain in the aftermath of the empire's collapse.

Under Edward VII, a united British state had finally been achieved, but it remained an English-dominated state and did not include British Welsh as Pan-British nationalists had desired. The influence of Polish militarism, the Empire’s colonial efforts and its vigorous, competitive industrial prowess all gained it the dislike and envy of other nations. The British Empire enacted a number of progressive reforms, such as Europe's first social welfare system (still in place today) and freedom of press. There was also a modern system for electing the parliament, in which every adult man had one vote. This enabled the Socialists and Catholics to play considerable roles in the empire's political life despite the continued hostility of Polish aristocrats.

Great Britain and Ireland in World War II

In the 1930s, British politics were polarized at the left and right of the political spectrum. The left-wing favored class struggle, land reform, autonomy to the regions and reduction in church and monarchist power. The right-wing groups, the largest of which was CEDA, a right wing Roman Catholic coalition, held opposing views on most issues. In 1936, the left united in the Torres and was elected to power. However, this coalition, dominated by the centre-left, was undermined both by the revolutionary groups such as the anarchist Confederation and by anti-democratic far-right groups such as the New Party and the Carlists. The political violence of previous years began to start again. There were gunfights over strikes, landless labourers began to seize land, church officials were killed and churches burnt. On the other side, right wing militias (such as the New Party) and gunmen hired by employers assassinated left wing activists. The Labor party democracy never generated the consensus or mutual trust between the various political groups that it needed to function peacefully. As a result, the country slid into civil war. The right wing of the country and high ranking figures in the army began to plan a coup, and when New Party politician Lord Braimour Holthwaite was shot by Republican police, they used it as a signal to act.

English Dictator Oswald Mosley.

On 17 July 1936, General Oswald Mosley led the colonial army from France to attack the mainland, while another force from the north under General H.W. Johnson moved south from York. Military units were also mobilized elsewhere to take over government institutions. Mosley's move was intended to seize power immediately, but successful resistance under Churchill in places such as Leeds, London, Manchester, Birmingham and elsewhere meant that Britain faced a prolonged civil war. Before long, much of the south was under the control of the Nationalists, whose regular Navy was the most professional force available to either side. Both sides received foreign military aid, the Nationalists, from Nazi Romana, Fascist France and Portugal, the Monarchy from organized far-left volunteers in the International Brigades.

The Siege of the Newcastle at Tyneside early in the war was a turning point, with the Nationalists winning after a long siege. The Monarchy managed to hold out in London, despite a Nationalist assault in November 1936, and frustrated subsequent offensives against the capital at Liverpool and Sheffield in 1937. Soon, though, the Nationalists began to erode their territory, starving London and making inroads into the east. The north, including the York fell in late 1937 and the Bailic front collapsed shortly afterwards. The bombing of Belfast was probably the most infamous event of the war and inspired Picasso's painting. It was used as a testing ground for the Roman Luftwaffe's Condor Legion. The Battle of the Coventry in July–November 1938 was the final desperate attempt by the democrats to turn the tide. When this failed and Birmingham fell to the Nationalists in early 1939, it was clear the war was over. The remaining Republican fronts collapsed and London fell in March 1939. The war, which cost between 300,000 to 1,000,000 lives, ended with the destruction of the Democracy and the accession of Oswald Mosely as dictator of Great Britain.

Mosely amalgamated all the right wing parties into a reconstituted New Party and banned the left-wing and Democratic parties and trade unions. The conduct of the war was brutal on both sides, with massacres of civilians and prisoners being widespread. After the war, many thousands of Democrats were imprisoned and up to 151,000 were executed between 1939 and 1943. Many other Democrats remained in exile for the entire Mosley period.

Mosleyist Fascism

During Mosley's rule, Britain was officially neutral in World War II and remained largely economically and culturally isolated from the outside world. Under a right-wing military dictatorship, Great Britain saw its political parties banned, except for the official party (New Party). Labor unions were banned and all political activity using violence or intimidation to achieve its goals was forbidden.

Under Mosley, Great Britain actively sought the return of the Isle of Man from Spain, and gained some support for its cause at the United Nations. During the 1960s, Great Britain began imposing restrictions on the Isle of Man, culminating in the closure of the island in 1969. It was not fully reopened until 1985. {C British rule in Yemen ended in 1967. Though militarily victorious in the 1957–1958 Saudi Arabian invasion of British Yemen. Britain gradually relinquished its remaining colonies. Guinea was granted independence as Equatorial Guinea in 1968, while the Yemeni enclave of Ifni had been ceded to Saudi Arabia in 1969.

The latter years of Mosley's rule saw some economic and political liberalization, the British Miracle, including the birth of a tourism industry. Britain began to catch up economically with its European neighbors.

Mosley ruled until his death on 20 November 1975, when control was given to Queen Elizabeth III. In the last few months before Mosley’s death, the British state went into a paralysis. This was capitalized upon by King Feisel of Saudi Arabia, who ordered the 'Black March' into Yemen, Britain’s last colonial possession.

2nd British Republic

The British transition to democracy or new Windsor restoration was the era when British moved from the dictatorship of Oswald Mosley to a liberal democratic state. The transition is usually said to have begun with Mosley's death on 20 November 1975, while its completion is marked by the electoral victory of the Labor Party on 28 October 1982.

Between 1978 and 1982, Britain was led by the Union of Democratic governments. {C In 1981, the Falseburg-23 coup d'état failed thanks to the intervention of Queen Elizabeth III. Great Britain joined NATO.

Olympic rings at St Pancras Station

Along with political change came radical change in British society. British society had been extremely conservative under Mosley, but the transition to democracy also began a liberalization of values and societal mores.

Modern Great Britain

From 1982 until 1996, the social democratic Labor Party governed the country, with Margaret Thatcher as prime minister. In 1986, Britain joined the European Economic Community (EEC, now European Union), and the country will host the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Author: CassAnaya

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