british empire

Initially the Qing Dynasty only accepted silver in trade. To bypass this the British East India Company smuggled Opium into China. In 1839 China burned the company's Opium store house. The Company retailed with the world' first Iron steam-warship Nemesis. It captured Nanjing in 1842 and...

The Imperial Federation The world's firstmost power and the leading nation in both social and technological progress as well as in economic prosperity This nation is, of course, made of made other great nations In a reality so defined by it's culture, a combination of their variety of...

What British colonies were actually profitable in the postwar world? Obviously profits are not all direct — plenty of benefit to the metropole can be had via trade, resource extraction…etc. even if the state itself is making little revenue. But had the UK tried to decolonize “strategically” to...

"After I am dead, the boy will ruin himself in twelve months." -George V of the United Kingdom Excerpt from Edward (2019), Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was born on June 23rd 1894. He was the son of the Duke of York, and grandson of the Prince of...

In OTL, Bouvet Island was annexed by the Norwegians at the end of 1927 in the wake of the Norvegia expedition, which was the first to make an extended stay on the island. But until then, it was the British who had possessed that island, ever since George Norris (the captain of a whaling...

Victory in Aden TL 11 February 1959 – Federation of the territories of the Aden Protectorate named the “Federation of the Emirates of the South.” 4 April 1962 – Addition of 9 more protectorates and renaming to the “Federation of South Arabia” 18 January 1963 – Addition of Aden Colony into the...

Before World War 1, Germany had amassed the third largest colonial empire in the world, second only to Britain and France. However, these were mostly lost by 1915, although Paul von Lettow-Vorbek managed to cause significant trouble for the British and French in German East Africa. So my...

I came across a book titled "Ever the Diplomat: Confessions of a Foreign Office Mandarin" written by Sherard Cowper-Coles and printed in 2012. He had been the British ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Israel and Afghanistan in the 2000s, and most relevant to this discussion, the head of the Hong Kong...

I'm inclined to say that there would be better social and economic development if they remained loyal to the crown, as slave owners are likely to have their influence curtailed much sooner and much more dramatically, however I am not knowledgeable enough about this topic to isolate the flaws of...

The Great Famine was one of the (if not the) worst catastrophes to ever hit Ireland. The enormity of the death toll and the emigration that followed meant that, even today, the Irish population today (counting both the Republic and NI) is still smaller than what it was before the famine. So...

In this timeline, The War of 1812 resulted in the British keeping The US again, since they can stop all American expansion if they fully annexed the United States of America, they also made the US part of the colony of Upper Canada & and other Colonies, and the south the Confederacy since this...

When Ireland was admitted as a full member of the United Kingdom in 1800-1801, prime minister William Pitt the Younger wanted this to be combined with a law ensuring Catholic emancipation. The objective of this was to assuage any concerns that London would automatically side against Irish...

I'm not well versed on this subject, so sorry for any mistakes. The Corn Laws were regulations enacted by the British government after the end of the Napoleonic Wars to protect local grain producers from foreign competition, which had the effect of keeping food prices in Britain high while they...

What would the likely repercussions be if Oswald Mosley became a mainstream political candidate outside of the realm of fascist supporters , dragging in voters from Labour and other radical parties? Personally I think his revolutionary ideas would be popular with more syndicalist-leaning...

How would the Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty of 1890 be different if Bismarck was still Chancellor of Germany? I read that he hated the out come of the agreements and apparently he said, "We traded trousers for a button". How would the map of Africa change if it would change at all?

Kinda made a similar post earlier, but I learned a bit and want to revisit In the 1550s, with the ultimate goal of sailing around Siberia to get to China, the Company of Merchant Adventurers to New Lands reached the harbor of Nikolo-Korelsky Monastery on the Northern Dvina river, near...

The British Empire was at one time the largest, or second largest, state that ever existed. It was however a complete mess of a institution held together at times by hopes, dreams, and ducktape. By the late 1900 it was becoming obvious that the empire would not last forever. One example of such...

Despite ending with a peace treaty that permanently crippled Burma's economy (and thus its ability to defend itself), the First Anglo-Burmese War was an extremely expensive undertaking for the British as well, driving the EIC to the brink of bankruptcy. So, was there any way British finances...

I've always curious and somewhat fascinated of the british empire's actions/activities during the age of imperialism/colonialism, especially during the its rebellions and wars on it's belt. from the american revolutionary war and its small "skirmish" in 1812 (considering napoleon and his...

In 1945 as the war in Europe came to a close the allies scrambled to acquire German technology and scientists. In particular the V2 Rocket was highly sought after with the various allied nations almost racing against each other to recover as many rockets and technical staff as possible before...