Hail, Britannia

[LeinadB93]

Sorry for the absence! This time it's exam season at work, so not an awful lot of free time. Only seven weeks till Summer though

I'll try and be a bit more frequent with posts in the interim. Next up the Bahamas, a bit about global systems of government, the monarchs of Western Europe, and the British Queen-Empress herself.

Amazing, is the fmr. Prime Minister of Hawaii 'Pakelekia Saiki' made up by any chance?

That's probably OTL's Pat Saiki.

Wolfram is correct, I've used a bit of creative license to change the names of OTL politicians to be more Native Hawaiian in origin. All the Prime Ministers of Hawai'i are OTL individuals.

I wonder how what an election in Westralia would look.

One word - messy.

@LeinadB93 it is possible you could do a wikibox on Vietnam?

All in good time. There's stuff in the works for parts of Southeast and East Asia.

@LeinadB93 What are the parliamentary parties represented in the Ohio Country Parliament?

The legislature of the Ohio Country is a tricameral body known officially as the Congress of the States of the Ohio Country, or commonly the Confederation Congress, and consists of the House of States, the House of Councillors and the House of Delegates. The Ohio Country is very much an area that is a work in progress, and hopefully over the summer I'll have the time to sit and map out the region properly.

Effectively the Ohio legislature is a merger of the OTL Westminster and Washington systems: the House of States is the chamber of final review, consisting of the Heads of Government of the states, plus 2 members appointed from each state and 7 appointed by the First Minister; the House of Councillors is effectively an elected Senate, with 7 members from each state elected under various systems (usually serve life terms); the House of Delegates in made up of 363 members elected under the Additional Member system.

The parties in the Ohio Country are similar to OTL EU parties, in that they are alliances of state-level parties that band together based on ideology:

Alliance of Liberals and Democrats of Ohio - Centre; socially liberal with classical liberal strands. Definitely Third Way.
Association of Ohioan Moderates and Reformists - Centre-right; moderate conservatives with a liberal strand. One of the more successful branches of the Imperial Progressive Conservatives.
Ecological—Radical Movement - Radical ecological centrists with a strong Libertarian slant.
Ohioan National Democrats - Right-wing British nationalists with a strong strand of Christian democracy.
Ohioan People's Party - Centre-right; classic British unionist conservatives. Very much a broad tent, incorporating liberal conservatives and more hard-right types.
Republican Front of the Ohio Country - Left-wing republicans. Particularly strong in Detroit State and West Connecticut.
Union of Ohioan Socialists and Progressives - Centre-left to left-wing; social democrats and democratic socialists dominate politically, with a strong left-wing of the party espousing more hard-core socialist policies.
Voix des États - Broad left; federal alliance of state-level nationalist/regionalist/autonomist parties.​

Here's a blank election map for the dominion:

So what about Marvel movies? Is there a Battle of London instead of a Battle of New York? A Captain Britannia instead of a Captain America? It occurs to me that one could easily have Tony Stark still live in Malibu if Maria Stark is Californian and he thus has dual citizenship. There's a part of me that really wants to see an English Agent Coulson- I feel like the stereotype of understatement and the stiff upper lip would go perfectly with a seen-it-all-already S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who's not impressed with these prima donna superheroes.

Want. NOW!

The Marvel-verse UK already has a Captain Britain and other superheroes such as Union Jack. I suspect a lot of super heroes/villains either do not exist or like in DC are different age versions e.g. The Flash is either Barry Allen, Wally West or Jay Garrick depending on the era. So Steve Rogers could be a version of Captain Britain and the Avengers being the New Knights of the Round Table.

I suspect some settings such as Wakanda don't exist due to the environments which created them (anti-colonial etc) never existing or are radically changed due to the culture, laws and standards of the being different between OTL USA and UKE e.g. Dr Dooms Latvia being in Central to South America instead of Europe due that being much more cultural different to the UKE than a Central/Eastern Europe kingdom (remember the personal union the Kingdom of Britain had with the Electorate of Hannover until Victoria).

The Tony Stark thing is a neat idea. I think the Chitauri invasion would still take place over New York, as Stark would likely have still based himself there and built the tower. Plus there would be a shock and awe element in decimating the largest city of the largest superpower. Coulson as a stereotypical old-school English agent would be brilliant

I think a lot of OTL heroes would be merged, so Captain Britain/Captain America would be Captain Britannia; either incorporating elements of both backstories or as two individuals who take up the others mantle. Wakanda I could see still existing, as a former British protectorate in Central Africa (OTL Congo). Anti-colonialism still exists ITTL, but not to the extend of OTL as the Scramble for Africa never took off. Latveria might be recast as a Germanic Alpine nation rather than a Hispanic one...

 

[LeinadB93]

@LeinadB93 I completely missed your entry on NB Pearl Harbour, excellent to see it in full use ITTL as well!

It does raise the question of just how many Royal Navy fleets there are, and what bases support them (I think we've seen about one or two thus far)? Hmm, if that hasn't been fleshed out yet I may have a list for your review in the near future

I'd be interested to see what you come up with

I could see the UKE Armed forces made up of the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Army, RAF and a Coast Guard more like OTL US Coast Guard. Does each constituent country have a home guard like OTL US national guard?

I've explored the British Armed Forces a bit, but never fully fleshed them out.

They are made up of five branches: the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, British Army, Royal Air Force, and the Royal Coast Guard. The Navy is a full blown blue-water force, whilst the Coast Guard is a cross between a brown-water and green-water force.

Yep each constituent country has a home guard, part of the Royal Militia, that is equivalent to the OTL US National Guard. Most Brits do their national service as part of these units, and many remain members and continue to train even after their mandatory service.

Doesn't the US Navy have a huge base in Virginia IOTL? Maybe the Royal Navy can use the same place.

Norfolk, yeah.

Funny I was wondering about this as well when I read it. I think @LeinadB93 has said it's similar in size to OTL US, although I'd imagine that given the spread out nature of the constituent countries unlike OTL continental US that the RN would be bigger.

My thinking for the main fleets was
North Sea / Channel / East Atlantic Fleet based somewhere in England/Scotland (Portsmouth maybe?)
Mediterranean fleet to guard the Med and Suez Canal based from Malta
Atlantic Fleet based on Eastern seaboard of North America - where's a good anchorage?
South Atlantic Fleet based from Tierra del Fuego maybe. Or Sierra Leone?
Arabian Sea Fleet to guard the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, based at Socotra
Caribbean Fleet for the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, based at Puerto Rico
North Pacific Fleet we know has a major base at Pearl Harbor, maybe also at Esquimalt, Oregon to cover the West coast more easily.
South Pacific Fleet based somewhere in Australia?
Indian Ocean fleet at Diego Garcia maybe?
I could also see fleets at either Hong Kong or Singapore. or both?

Yep they sure do. However, I would caution making it THE North American base for the Atlantic fleet; having all those eggs in one basket IOTL has led to issues with overlapped/duplicated tasking, space usage, military-civilian community friction, and potential vulnerability of putting so many assets together to attack or observe. I would therefore space assets out to at least three-four bases from Canada to Florida (not including Caribbean and Gulf bases).

So maybe a base at Halifax, one at either Groton or New London, and the biggest at Norfolk?

I'd say one somewhere in New England (preferably Halifax but one of the many coastal spots along Long Island Sound could work too), one at Norfolk, and one at OTL Jacksonville FL (the St. John's River is wide/deep and slow moving enough to make a good anchorage for large naval vessels, it's been a contender for hosting aircraft carriers IOTL).

I haven't actually got a full list of British Navy fleets, so here's my rough outline:

1. Home Isles Fleet (Portsmouth, England; Faslane, Scotland; Haulbowline, Ireland)
2. Mediterranean Fleet (based out of Malta and Gibraltar)
3. North Atlantic Fleet (Halifax, New England; Norfolk, Virginia; Wilmington, Carolina)
4. Caribbean Fleet (San Mateo, Florida; Kingston, Jamaica; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Chaguaramas, West Indies)
5. South Atlantic Fleet (Georgetown, Sierra Leone; Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego)
6. North Pacific Fleet (Esquimalt, Oregon; Pearl Harbour, Hawai'i)
7. South Pacific Fleet (Sydney, Australia; Auckland, New Zealand)
8. Indian Ocean Fleet (Port Louis, Mauritius; Port Blair, Andaman-Nicobar; Perth, Westralia)
9. East Asian Fleet (based out of Hong Kong and Singapore)
10. Arabian Sea Fleet (based out of Socotra)​

And an idea of how that would look, geographically:

 

[LeinadB93]

Questions;
On the world map it shows Bahamas and Turks and Caicos islands as British, where do the fall administratively? Are they part of Florida?

They're part of Carolina.

TB is right that the Bahamas (including the Turks & Caicos Islands) are a state of the Dominion of Carolina.

What other countries are commonwealth realms ITTL? Patagonia already been mentioned, any others like Belize (looks to be part of Mexico) or Papua New Guinea?

Papua New Guinea is the only OTL Commonwealth realm to exist ITTL in a more or less unaltered form (minus Bougainville). The Commonwealth realms are:

United Empire
Capeland
Kenya
Zambia
Zimbabwe Rhodesia
Patagonia
Papua New Guinea
Accra​

 

[StormStar]

What are the Commonwealth States i.e. part of the Commonwealth, don’t have Elizabeth II as their Nations Head of State but do accept her as the Head of the Commonwealth ? India is obvious but what are the other ones.

 

[Brky2020]

I like the idea of Steve Rogers as Captain Brittania and Brian Braddock as Captain England, personally...

 

[Steve Brinson]

This may be a stupid question, but wouldn’t any ship from the 4F home bases have to pass through a narrow bottleneck (I can’t recall if it was the Nicaragua or Panama Canal ITTL, but either way that limits capacity) to get to the Pacific parts of the fleet range? If so, wouldn’t it be easier to put that area in the 6F zone?

 

[StormStar]

I like the idea of Steve Rogers as Captain Brittania and Brian Braddock as Captain England, personally...

More likely it’s Lord Falsworth as Union Jack who is the WW1 Super soldier with Brian Braddock as Captain Britannia who is the interwar and WW2 hero and Steve Rogers as Captain Britannic, with being the late WW2 and Cold War Hero. Thereby creating a lineage of British Super Soldiers.

 

[Lewie]

mandatory service

That's interesting, any reason this lived on.

 

[angakkuq]

The Tony Stark thing is a neat idea. I think the Chitauri invasion would still take place over New York, as Stark would likely have still based himself there and built the tower. Plus there would be a shock and awe element in decimating the largest city of the largest superpower.

At least in the Iron Man movies, until his mansion was destroyed, Stark was based in Malibu. It was only in Avengers 1 that he showed up in NYC. Maybe cast him as a Californian (Californio?) industrialist/inventor with heavy ties to the Empire? Howard could have been a Californian who got around his nation's initial WW2 neutrality by helping the Empire as well. Have the in-universe Avengers be an international team with heavy Imperial ties. There'd almost have to be a team member from Texas...

I think a lot of OTL heroes would be merged, so Captain Britain/Captain America would be Captain Britannia; either incorporating elements of both backstories or as two individuals who take up the others mantle. Wakanda I could see still existing, as a former British protectorate in Central Africa (OTL Congo). Anti-colonialism still exists ITTL, but not to the extend of OTL as the Scramble for Africa never took off. Latveria might be recast as a Germanic Alpine nation rather than a Hispanic one...

Captain Britannia, certainly. If we want to tie him (albeit indirectly) to mainline Marvel, he'd be connected to the multiversal Captain Britain Corps. I seem to remember that the Corps includes a Captain Airstrip One...
I think in at least one of the Handbooks of the Marvel Universe, Wakanda was depicted as being somewhere within OTL Ethiopia. I think Latveria is supposed to be in the Balkans somewhere.

 

[Stuyvesant]

I think we could use a new superhero that's like Mirror Solomon Grundy, stiff-upper-lipped Englishman who's literally birthed from the Cliffs of Dover.

 

[Amateur Psephologist]

This is active again? Can we see something about Cornwall?

 

[LeinadB93]

What are the Commonwealth States i.e. part of the Commonwealth, don’t have Elizabeth II as their Nations Head of State but do accept her as the Head of the Commonwealth ? India is obvious but what are the other ones.

There are 46 full members of the Commonwealth:

India
United Empire
Philippines
Zanzibar
Adamawa
Capeland
California
Burma
Kitara
Yorubaland
Texas
Biafra
Nordic Federation
Malaya
Mozambique
Ashantiland
Katanga
Madagascar
Hanover
Sri Lanka
Somalia
The Levant
Ouattara
Wassoulou
Kenya
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Cuba
Benin
Equatoria
Guinea
Patagonia
Angola
Papua New Guinea
Sulu
Abyan
Aceh
Wadai
West Papua
Accra
Sarawak
Hawai'i
Cyprus
Brunei
The Maldives
Tonga​

And 11 associate members:

Japan
New Granada
Nepal
United Gulf Emirates
Portugal
Santo Domingo
Dahomey
Kuwait
Oman
East Sunda / Sonda-Leste
Bhutan​

More to follow on the Commonwealth tonight

This may be a stupid question, but wouldn’t any ship from the 4F home bases have to pass through a narrow bottleneck (I can’t recall if it was the Nicaragua or Panama Canal ITTL, but either way that limits capacity) to get to the Pacific parts of the fleet range? If so, wouldn’t it be easier to put that area in the 6F zone?

Good point Duly amended.

ITTL there are two canals, one in Nicaragua and Panama. The former was built by a Franco-Mexican conglomerate, whilst the latter was built by the British due to better relations with New Granada.

That's interesting, any reason this lived on.

The 1957 National Service referendum was a success and saw the continuation of a form of conscription/national service. I haven't fully fleshed out the inner workings, but the general premise is that at some point after their 18th birthday every British citizen is required to undertake two years of "National Service". Some opt for this to be in the main branches or the Navy, Army, Air Force or Coast Guard reserve (a bit like the OTL Territorial Army), while others join their home nations' national militia (I've mentioned Sierra Leone's and Louisiana's before). The Royal Militias are basically TTL's version of the US National Guard, and are under the command of the home nation governments unless "imperialised" by the Imperial government (which happened in Canada and Oregon during the Alaskan Uprising, or Carolina during the 1960s, and Louisiana during the Troubles).

For those who have any reason preventing them from military service, either objection or medically unfit, take part in either the "Civil Defence" or "Civilian Service" aspects. In the former you are trained to assist the emergency services as well as natural disaster relief, whilst in the latter you are involved in health care, welfare, environmental protection, agriculture or development assistance abroad. National Service is arranged around university/college education or employment/apprenticeships. Even if not in a field or combat capacity I feel that makes the average citizen perceive having "skin in the game" in terms of national policy.

It operates along similar lines to the Swiss model. Patagonia also has a similar situation.

This is active again? Can we see something about Cornwall?

All in good time I still need to convert your maps to SVG format!

I like the idea of Steve Rogers as Captain Brittania and Brian Braddock as Captain England, personally...

More likely it’s Lord Falsworth as Union Jack who is the WW1 Super soldier with Brian Braddock as Captain Britannia who is the interwar and WW2 hero and Steve Rogers as Captain Britannic, with being the late WW2 and Cold War Hero. Thereby creating a lineage of British Super Soldiers.

Captain Britannia, certainly. If we want to tie him (albeit indirectly) to mainline Marvel, he'd be connected to the multiversal Captain Britain Corps. I seem to remember that the Corps includes a Captain Airstrip One...
I think in at least one of the Handbooks of the Marvel Universe, Wakanda was depicted as being somewhere within OTL Ethiopia. I think Latveria is supposed to be in the Balkans somewhere.

A lineage of British Super Soldiers is a neat idea Wakanda (at least as it's depicted in Black Panther) is more topical in nature, so I think the Congo basin would be the best place. Latveria somewhere in the Alps/Balkans would be most appropriate.

I think we could use a new superhero that's like Mirror Solomon Grundy, stiff-upper-lipped Englishman who's literally birthed from the Cliffs of Dover.

Haha

At least in the Iron Man movies, until his mansion was destroyed, Stark was based in Malibu. It was only in Avengers 1 that he showed up in NYC. Maybe cast him as a Californian (Californio?) industrialist/inventor with heavy ties to the Empire? Howard could have been a Californian who got around his nation's initial WW2 neutrality by helping the Empire as well. Have the in-universe Avengers be an international team with heavy Imperial ties. There'd almost have to be a team member from Texas...

Howard Stark, a British American businessman, maries Maria Stark from California. Their son Tony has dual nationality, living mainly in his Malibu beach house until it is destroyed during the events of Iron Man 3. Stark and Pepper Potts relocate to the under construction Stark Tower in New York, which must have already been partially built, for the events of Avengers Assemble.

The Avengers as an international team would work well, as would a more international SHIELD organisation, removing them from the OTL America centric issues.

 

[LeinadB93]

A little something I've been working on for a while, exploring the much expanded and generally more influential Commonwealth. I hope you enjoy it

The Commonwealth of Nations, formerly the British Commonwealth, and also known as simply the Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of 45 member states and 11 associate states that are mostly former territories, dependencies and protectorates of the British Empire. The Commonwealth operates by intergovernmental consensus of the member states, organised through the Commonwealth Secretariat and non-governmental organisations, organised through the Commonwealth Foundation. Several member states have furthered their economic integration by joining the Commonwealth Economic Community, a free trade bloc, and the Common Travel Area, an open borders area.

The Commonwealth dates back to the first half of the 20th century with the decolonisation of the British Empire through increased self-governance of its territories. It was originally adopted as The British Commonwealth of Nations at the 1926 Imperial Conference, and formalised by the United Empire through the Statute of Westminster in 1931. The current Commonwealth of Nations was formally constituted by the London Declaration in 1949, which modernised the community, and established the member states as "free and equal". The symbol of this free association is Queen-Empress Elizabeth II who is the Head of the Commonwealth, and while there are 14 republics and 23 monarchies who have a different monarch, the Queen-Empress is head of state and reigning monarch of 8 members of the Commonwealth, known as the Commonwealth realms. The Queen-Empress has since ceased to be the head of state and/or have any formal position in many nations of the Commonwealth, including India, Burma, Sri Lanka, and Katanga.

The Commonwealth covers more than 56 million square kilometres (21 million sq mi), equivalent to 45% of the world's land area and spans all six inhabited continents. With an estimated population of 3.289 billion people, nearly half of the world population, the Commonwealth in 2014 produced a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of GB£54.31 trillion, representing 55% of the gross world product. Member states are united by language, history, culture and their shared values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. These values are enshrined in the Commonwealth Charter and promoted by the quadrennial Commonwealth Games.

In recent decades the Commonwealth has taken on a more prominent role in global geopolitics, deploying peacekeeping forces to various regional hot-spots and conflict zones such as the Middle East, Somalia, West Africa. The ongoing War in West Africa has affected several Commonwealth countries in the region, and has drawn in troop contributions from across the Commonwealth.

The Commonwealth Economic Community (CEC) is a trade bloc and free trade area organised amongst members of the Commonwealth of Nations. It was created in 1960 by the Treaty of Mumbai, with the aims of bringing about the economic alignment between its member states through the reduction of trade barriers, including import quotas and tariffs, to increase trade of goods and services. The CEC has expanded to include 22 full members and 25 associate members, including nearly every member and associate member of the Commonwealth. With a combined population of 2.5 billion, and a total GDP PPP of GB£48.371 trillion, the CEC is the largest free trade area and economic bloc in the world.

The Commonwealth Space Agency (CSA) is an intergovernmental organisation of the 46 member states of the Commonwealth of Nations dedicated to the exploration of space. Established in 1989 and headquartered in Fredericksburg, Maryland, CSA has a worldwide staff of about 20,000 and an annual budget of about GB£32.8 billion (2016), although this includes the budgets for organisations such as the British Imperial Space Administration and the Indian Space Research Organisation, which remain under the control of their respective governments whilst pooling resources under the CSA.

CSA's space flight programme includes human spaceflight (mainly through operating the Space Shuttles); supporting the International Space Station programme, the settlement of the Lunar cities and the development of the Hermes Mars landing missions; the launch and operation of unmanned advanced robotic exploratory missions to other planets; Earth observation, science and telecommunication; designing launch vehicles; and maintaining two major spaceports, the Cape Canaveral Space Centre in Florida, and the Sint Andries Space Centre in Guyana. The agency's facilities are distributed among numerous centres, including major facilities at: Cape Canaveral, Florida; Houston, Texas; Pasadena, California; Durban, Capeland; and Bangalore, India.

SECRETARIES-GENERAL OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS (1950 –)

11. 1950–1958 Dennis Chávez (California)
12. 1958–1962 Roy R. Rubottom Jr. (Texas)
13. 1962–1970 Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (Adamawa)
14. 1970–1978 Kenneth Kaunda (Katanga)
15. 1978–1982 Sir Andrew Young (United Empire)
16. 1982–1986 Spyros Kyprianou (Cyprus)
17. 1986–1994 Walter Mondale, 1st Earl Mondale of Ceylon (United Empire)
18. 1994–1998 Fidel Castro, 1st Duke of Castro (Cuba)
19. 1998–2006 Armando Guebuza (Zanzibar)
10. 2006–2014 Kamalesh Sharma (India)
11. 2014–2020 Edna Molewa (Capeland)​

 

[LeinadB93]

 

[Analytical Engine]

*squee*

 

[FleetMac]

Wow, I wish I had some serious commentary to add to this awesome work, but I can only sum it up with the following!

 

[Wayside]

18. 1994–1998 Fidel Castro, 1st Duke of Castro (Cuba)

*is knocked off his feet by the raw force of irony*

 

[Analytical Engine]

*is knocked off his feet by the raw force of irony*

Ok, we need infoboxes about Cuba now.

Also, what position does the Queen hold in those other states, if any?

 

[Excelsior]

Any chance we could get list of monarchs/monarchies around the world?

 

[TPL99]

California and Cyprus ITTL.