(Well looks like these 'summary' posts will end up being more like mini updates it seems. Carried away while writing and so much to say. So, here's part 1. Welcome Back.)
The British Civil War (1922-7)
The Second British Civil War had begun in 1922 as a result of a military coup dubbed Operation Camelot in response to the electoral victory of the Collectivist-Solidarist parties. The war had dragged on for three years reaching an effective stalemate by 1925. Large areas of the country were badly damaged with near 300,000 dead and twice that homeless. London was divided, Sheffield a ruin, Birmingham a front line city and Scotland and Ireland beset by violence. From Oxford the Nationalist-Monarchist faction led by Anthony Cameron held sway; whilst in the north and industrial midlands the Workers’ Union of Britain headed by the democratically elected Prime Minister Alexander Carr attempted to bring Collectivism to the British Isles. Following the twin offensive operations of 1925 and heading into winter of that year the deadlock would gradually be broken.
It would be outside support that would result in one of the evenly matched sides taking the initiative. In October 1925 the first wave of Imperial reinforcements (drawn primarily from Canada and Columbia with New Englander support) landed in Plymouth. These forces, combined with Loyalist forces in the region would launch a large scale offensive in the New Year which would seize Bristol and link up with the main Nationalist armies in the south and west. Over time more and more Imperial, New England and Porto-Brasilian troops and more importantly supplies would flood into Britain boosting the Nationalist forces. The Royal Air Force had gained an edge in 1925 over its Collectivist counterpart but when Imperial Air units from around the now federated Empire began arriving the balance in air power shifted irrevocably away from the W.U.B. As a consequence of Imperial aid the influence of Anthony Cameron and the Nationalists decreased. The Empire, though opposed to Collectivism, did not embrace the far-right Nationalists. Over time then the more reactionary conservative elements led by General Luke Johnston (who had been the overall Allied Commander in Spain during The Great War) and former Home Secretary Conservative MP Ian Samuels became the main players with the Nationalists sidelined (though still Cameron maintained a base of support).
Whereas foreign and Imperial support for the Loyalists grew throughout 1926 the aid going to the W.U.B evaporated. The Collectivists had long been receiving weapons, supplies and ‘volunteer’s from the Palma Pact (France, Spain and Italy) who were their ideological allies. The outbreak of the Rhineland War (1926-28) saw all French efforts devoted to the fighting on their eastern border and as the supremacy of the Royal Navy around the British Isles grew the supply of aid to the Collectivists decreased and then disappeared. After this the result was a foregone conclusion, although not a bloodless one. The fighting would drag on until the 23rd of October 1927 when Liverpool and the last vestiges of the W.U.B were wiped out. Carr himself went down in the fighting (becoming a martyr to the Collectivist cause) whilst other leaders were arrested and most subsequently hanged. Other Collectivist/Solidarist followers fled overseas, most to France, Spain or América. The final butcher's bill for all civilian and military casualties was half a million dead with nearly two million homeless.
After the Fall of Liverpool a new government was declared in Oxford (London facing years of reconstruction) with Samuels as British First Minister. Though due to severity of the situation the country was effectively a politically supported military dictatorship under Johnston for the time being. The country however was devastated and began rebuilding itself. The Porto-Brasilian Empire which had been a firm supporter of the Loyalist cause had occupied many of Britain’s African colonies in the wake of the Civil War as well as some of Britain's other possessions. Gibraltar, Malta and British territories in the Atlantic were returned but all of Britain’s African territories south of the Egypt remained with Portugal save those the Danish had taken over administration of in 1924. Britain had no need and no money to maintain them. The independent Commonwealth of India had been declared in 1924 breaking all ties to the Empire whilst the former Dominion of Indiana had re-branded after a brief civil war as the First People’s Collective and allied itself to América.
Britain was, in the aftermath of the Second Charlotte Convention (1925), one of six federal Commonwealths in the new political superstate of the Imperial Federation. The other five being Ireland (also purged of Collectivist and rebel groups), Canada, Newfoundland, Columbia and Australia. Work on the new Imperial Parliament building in London (on the ruins of what was Greenwich) would begin immediately and would be completed in 1930 and would play host to the first Imperial Parliament session in London (previously held in Columbia) in March of that year. This year would also see the reinstatement of full civilian government in Britain and Empire wide elections (radical left wing parties were banned by law in all six Commonwealths). Ian Samuels would become Imperial First Minister replacing the Canadian Matthew Caldwell. The Nationalists were still the second largest party in Britain. Elsewhere the Conservatives, Liberals and various local parties had most support. Economic interdependence and a myriad of external threats would keep the Federation together as Britain slowly rebuilt. The Imperial Federation would find itself focusing on three key issues in 1930: the rebuilding of Britain, the expansion of Mysore and Japan in Asia following their victory in 1926 and the ambitions of the Collectivist State of América in North America following the Tejan War. When the world went back to war in 1931 the I.F would seek to maintain peace and the status quo - although the Federation would eventually be dragged into the fighting it would so with the rebuilding efforts far from complete.