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| Anthem | "God Save The Queen" | |||||||||
| Capital (and largest city) |
London | |||||||||
| Other cities | Birmingham, Cambridge, Oxford, Manchester, Edinburgh, Dublin, Cork, Mumbai, Delhi | |||||||||
| Language official |
English | |||||||||
| others | Indian, Hebrew | |||||||||
| Demonym | British, Indians | |||||||||
| Government | Constitutional monarchy | |||||||||
| Legislature | National Parliament | |||||||||
| Queen | Elizabeth II | |||||||||
| Area | 35,000,000 km² | |||||||||
| Population | 1,200,356,720 (1980 census) | |||||||||
| Annexation | to British-French Union | |||||||||
| date | 01/01/1986 | |||||||||
British Empire, formally known as British Imperial Federation, was a country located in British-Ireland Isles and Eastern Asia, which was covered by 35,000,000 km square (13,700,000 sq mi), it was the largest country in the world, covered 24% of the world's area. It was nicknamed "the empire which the sun never sets".
It was a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy. It was debated that it is a federal one or an unitary one since 1912, the British made region became autonomous. The resolution of the 1938 constitution which officially stated that the British Empire was a federal constitutional monarchy.
The British Imperial Federation was formed in 1900, at the late Victorian era, as a way to followed this strategy "Unity in Diversity" of the Prime Minister David Lloyd George. The British Empire enjoyed an economic booming on their South Asia's territories before the World War 1 (A Victory in the East). After that, although on the winning side, the British economy was stagnated, and the Finance Minister decided to intervene and gave a economic package in order to save the economy. It was effective and made Britain regained its' international prestige, which it hold until 1985, when Britain and France united to be British-French Union.
It was a member of London Bloc (later united with PATMA/Moscow Pact), United League of Nations, World Trade Organization, World Health Organization, European Union, Eurasian Economic Community (from 1980), G8 and the Commonwealth.
History[]
The Imperial Federation was formed in 1900, when a Prime Minister decree officially decided to reorganize the United Kingdom and Ireland, a large colonial empire at that time, to be the British Imperial Federation, which was accepted by the Queen at that time. It was profited many citizens at that time because this would increase trade between countries, especially between Russia, United States and BIF.
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By this time, economic booming occurred on their colonies, such as in the British Raj (dark blue in the map), the economy grew about 8% annually per year. While the economy of Britain was booming, the regional stabilty would allowed Britain to officially declared an Empire right now. British international prestige was increased, and the government gained popularity amongst the aristocrats and the people. London became a financial and industrial center, which led to the popularity of the King and Prime Minister. This would threaten the German Empire, who felt that if Russia and Britain allied together, this would started the demise of Germany.
With pressure of colonial problems, the German and Austro-Hungarians formed the Berlin Pact with Ottoman Empire. Other countries (Britain, Russia, France) formed the Entente. And finally, in 1916, began the Great War. The Great War, although in a stalemate at first, but thanks to the attack of the East by Russians and Normandie-Niemen division, the British had the opportunity to attack into the German industries, and finally, after Normandy division and Kornilov division took Berlin, the Germans surrendered. Now it was time for negotiations. The British and the Russians wanted Kaiser back, but limited the military and monarchs' power. The French wanted to form a republic. However, Kaiser would remain, and military would be reduced their power (this would remained effective until Velvet Revolution). The Regency Council was formed in 1933 by 5 ministers in Schicklgruber's Cabinet (DNVP-ZP-BVP coalition), 3 representatives of the Social Democratic Party, 2 from Socialist Party (6 of them are loyal to the British). They would remained important advisory body to the German State.
Arthur Henderson, PM of British Imperial Federation
After that, Britain's economy began to booming. Each colonies produced more than 5% of Gross National Product each year, and at main islands, the Isles and Ireland, it's economy also grown fast. At the same time, protests began to evolve as people demanded for cheaper price. The price would be reduced as the production became ever increase, and a victory of a Labour-Liberal coalition, led by Arthur Henderson as Prime Minister. As such, new reforms were implemented as Britain became a welfare state. Most of the reforms are socialist-leaning, which Russia and Italy also implemented, therefore making the formation of Socialist International, an organization which composed social democratic and democratic socialist parties in the world. The Conservative, which led by Winston Churchill, took a more aggressive stance in foreign affairs against the Russians, although took a more cooperative stance with the United States. The economic booming in the main island was also began at the same time, which gave an opportunity to let Henderson reelected again.
Henderson introduced more reform package in order to reduce the influence of ever-increasing Communists, with London Commune as the headquarters. Minimum wages were introduced, about 5 pounds (6 dollars at that time) per day, enough for a worker to live for three months. He also reduced the working time from 48 hours per week (6 days) to 40 hours per week (5 days), and at the same time, to introduce modernization of the economy (for example, replace some works that were too difficult for human by machine). On colonial affairs, he began to liberalize and to allow local elections in colonies, such as in South Africa (OTL Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Eswatini), the more nationalist, localist African National Congress (liberal) got nearly two thirds of the votes. It also began to remove any symbols of apartheid regime (1920-1930).
Henderson would resign in 1930, gave power to the former Prime Minister David Lloyd George. George was a liberal during his first period as prime minister and still to this day, a moderate, flexible Liberal and had a large influence on the modern British politics. He constructed a more direct reform of administration, to supported his welfare program during 3 years after the Great War, and the a new type of healthcare system called the NHS. He also got support from the Irish, in which helped him to concentrate more on the new reconciliation and union. At the same time, a second modernization of the military, led by Secretary of Naval and Air Affairs Winston Churchill, concentrated on the aerial forces after seeing the German's domination of air victory during the first half of the war. Secret development such as the Supermarine Spitfire were sponsored, and anti-aircraft forces were increased by twice during 10 years. At the same time, it helped Britain to regain it's 2nd position on international dominance after a temporary takeover by Russia during Mikoyan's Prime Ministership. The Government was centralized and was controlled by more new moderate technocrats. George would resigned in 1935 and a continuous stable government, starting by Neville Chamberlain, then Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden succeed the Liberal Government.
Challenger, one of the first MBTs in the world, a symbol of the Empire.
At the same time, the tensions between the Imperial Federation and Russia began, due to the conflict on oil prices, political and economic interests, especially on foreign influences. The Western and the Central Europe were regions that the former and the latter compete in order to gain influence and make alliance with. The British got France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Italy on their sides whereas Russia got the Czechoslovak-Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, Albania as her allies. Germany prompted to be neutral and wanted to become negotiator for both sides after it regained international prestige. The United States at this time was also neutral after the Congress voted on supplying either the British and the Russians, most abstained from the votes. The political upheaval was on the highest since 1914-1918. The Cold War had begun.
At first, the British got the advantage of winning of Cold War militarily and economically by having a strong air forces and large gold reserves in large cities such as London, Birmingham and Delhi. It also have the dominance of oil market by having Yemen and Oman as their autonomous colonies, and having Saudi Arabia as their ally (due to the hostility with Turkey, Russian's ally on foreign policy and military). The British Army was one of the most professional and modernized forces in the world, and if going to war with the Russians, the British would have an nearly absolute advantage due to having forces adapted to guerilla forces, some even trained by Russian General Staff. It also have the largest amount of nuclear warheads in the world, this included with a modernized RAF and Royal Navy, the British were considered invincible. This began the development of the hydrogen bombs. The British, with the support of the Canada, began to develop the hydrogen bombs at a faster rate than the Russians. It also began to develop one of the first Inter-continental ballistic missiles in the world, making the chilled relations with the Russian government even more tense. Finally, the first country to got the first thermonuclear weapons was the British, about 6 December, 1959. The Russians and the Americans would be the second and the third, got the thermonuclear weapons in 1962 and 1963, respectively. However, the Labour opposition condemned that the development was costly and it should be stopped as a result of the uncertainly long-term effect.
Vickers Valiant, a strategic bomber, countered to Russian Tupolev series.
Middle and late 1960's would marked a turning effect on the aviation industry and international politics, as the British began to introduce new strategic bombers, including Vickers Valiant, one of the first jet strategic bombers in the world, and Gloster Javelin, an airplane which was considered to be more superior than American P-51 Mustang, French Dassault Mirage III or Russian MiG-23. This would even enraged the Russians, who wanted to prove that the British were inferior, but at the same time, wanted to begin the detente with the British. At the same time, the economic growth of Britain, especially at the British Isles, with an economic growth of 6.5% annually. Living standard was increased drastically, with approval of the Conservative government goes high, and Unionism in Ireland goes increasingly popular. The Labour opposition lost about 23 votes to the Conservative government in the 1970 election. Diplomacy with the Moscow Pact were improved at the same time.