Hi all, since the recent passing of Queen Elizabeth II, I’ve been learning more about the monarchy and the commonwealth. I saw a video by J.J. McCulllough in which he said that he knew people in Canada who thought that because the British monarch was the monarch of Canada, the UK, and other commonwealth nations, that meant they could live, study, work abroad, etc in those nations. This isn’t the case, but was there ever a point after WW1, maybe even after WW2 where the UK ever came close to creating an EU Schengen type of deal with its colonies/other commonwealth nations, or even an outright unified federalized government like the United States or Germany? If either of these were the case what could have happened to make it happen, and would it encompass all, most, or only a few nations?
AH Plausibility Check: Federalized Commonwealth
- Thread starter The_Russian
- Start date
There were efforts to federalise the British Empire after WWI. The Canadians and the Australians felt that London was being distracted by events in Europe and wanted to focus it's attention outwards to what London thought of as the periphery of the Empire. The result was a succession of Imperial Conferences with the centrists versus the peripherists with the centrists winning, reminding the peripherists that the British Empire was ruled from London. The periphists were concerned with matters which concerned the Empire, such as the threat of Japan and to a lesser extent America, while the centrists were concerned with what threatened London.
The last possibility for a loosely confederated Commonwealth was during the Imperial Conference of 1926 when Smuts's proposal was brought up by the Aussies and Canadians, but the British Delegation was neutral to the idea, and the Irish & ironically the South Africans scuttled the idea. But the topic would have been more successful if more concrete steps had been taken pre-WW1, like during the 1902 Colonial Conference when Joseph Chamberlain wanted to lay the groundworks for the Dominions to get closer with Britain, but was rejected by the Canadians, Newfoundland and the Colony of Natal.
The heyday of the Imperial Federation movement was roughly late 1890s to early 1900s. But it's all but impossible to make happen due to a combination of Dominion mistrust and British arrogance. You have to start with a PoD sometime around 1860-70. Then resolve the Irish question, get the British to put more value on the empire than Europe, somehow commit cultural genocide in India to create a highly anglicised middle class who will want to stay in the empire, while at the same time avoiding pan Indian nationalism coming about. And those are the easy bits lol.
The most that a Imperial Federation would contain would be Britain, the white dominions and South Africa.
Biggest issue is the British kept screwing it up. They pushed for too much too soon and refused to accept what the Dominions were willing to go with. Point in case was Chamberlain's pushing for an Imperial customs union, which the Dominions weren't willing to go with, then turning down their proposal for a more limited Imperial Preference scheme instead. Sensible idea would be take the Imp Pref and build it up to a customs union later.
It's a nice dream, but probably not realistic.
I think the main problem (of many) is india.
Its too big, too heavily populated to ever be an equal partner in any kind of fair system, and the smaller countries wouldn't want to be under its control.
Maybe if it wasn't included something could have been worked out at least with UK/Australia/New Zealand/Canada/some of the carribean islands.
We do have close relations already though, not sure how much benefit there would be to giving up any autonomy.
I think the main problem (of many) is india.
Its too big, too heavily populated to ever be an equal partner in any kind of fair system, and the smaller countries wouldn't want to be under its control.
Maybe if it wasn't included something could have been worked out at least with UK/Australia/New Zealand/Canada/some of the carribean islands.
We do have close relations already though, not sure how much benefit there would be to giving up any autonomy.