AHC: Make Britain more like Russia

By 1800, Britain should have the following,

Absolute Monarchy
Serfdom
Huge peasant class
Distrust of the west. There must be a feeling of a unique British identity separate from Europe
Extremely conservative by contemporary standards

Backward economy
Super important Church of England
 
By 1800, Britain should have the following,

Absolute Monarchy
Serfdom
Huge peasant class
Distrust of the west. There must be a feeling of a unique British identity separate from Europe
Extremely conservative by contemporary standards

Backward economy
Super important Church of England

Errrm. This is so ASB that I don't know where to start. You need to make major alterations to demography and geology to make it work.
 
Errrm. This is so ASB that I don't know where to start. You need to make major alterations to demography and geology to make it work.

Why's this ASB??

With a POD before Cromwell this is perfectly possible, and after Cromwell wouldn't be anywhere near ASB, though more difficult for sure.



FYI for the OP: Britain has a really distinct identity from Europe. Most Brits (or at least the ones where I live) don't see themselves as European at all. Heck, half of them don't see themselves as Brits, still clinging to English and Welsh and Scot etc.
 
The vast majority of Europeans does not identify primarily as Europeans anyway, even outside Britain.
This is part of why the EU is not really performing as it would have been supposed to.
 
Why's this ASB??

With a POD before Cromwell this is perfectly possible, and after Cromwell wouldn't be anywhere near ASB, though more difficult for sure.

FYI for the OP: Britain has a really distinct identity from Europe. Most Brits (or at least the ones where I live) don't see themselves as European at all. Heck, half of them don't see themselves as Brits, still clinging to English and Welsh and Scot etc.

Backward economy/serfdom/huge peasants populatiom require pre "sheep eat men" PoDs IMO, though I thought more "stereotypic bear walks on the street caricature of Russia" backwards.
Pre-Napoleonic wars Russia was on equal degree of backwards to Prussia regarding serfdom etc, starting to lag behind only past 1815.
 
You could work with something like a no Norman England POD, but then again you may not have a Britian and well the vaguely democratic tradition of the Witan would have to be suppressed by a ruler somewhere down the line. Serfdom,a large peasant class, or conservatism would be more challenging, with the geography of the isles. Distrust of the west, you'd have to a state willing to view the affairs of continental Europe as not being worth it.
 
By 1800, Britain should have the following,

Absolute Monarchy
Serfdom
Huge peasant class
Distrust of the west. There must be a feeling of a unique British identity separate from Europe
Extremely conservative by contemporary standards

Backward economy
Super important Church of England

I'm thinking of British were to stop the Saxons/Vikings/Normans and remain under British Romans. That would define them as different from Europe absent of ERE.
 
England is an island.

Russia is a gigantic territory open to all invasions.

England could have turned or remained more authoritarian, like France but not like Russia.

If you want England backwards, you need to have it divided with several kingdoms waging war on one another.
 
England is an island.

Russia is a gigantic territory open to all invasions.

England could have turned or remained more authoritarian, like France but not like Russia.

If you want England backwards, you need to have it divided with several kingdoms waging war on one another.

You don't need multiple states for a region to be wartorn. Just destroy the ability to rule effectively in Britain for a long time akin to the time of troubles.
 
I'm not sure about the economic criteria and such, but if you have Charles's side win the English Civil War, you can have a much more authoritarian/Anglican England (and possibly Scotland as well, given his attempts to bring the two national churches closer together).
 
In terms of serfdom. For Britian to want to keep it, it would need to have a considerably smaller colonial pretense. As long as it had overseas territory it benefited by a freedman class who can freely move across the seas.
 
Actually there's no better way to advance technologically than this.

Meh, It is and it isn't. Competition does wonders, but if their constantly in a state of war they will be dealing with fallout and destruction than focusing on a new windmill. At the very least depending on how the diffrent kingdoms view each other, as say military instead of financial rivals then they will focus more on military matters/tech. which can lead to some backwards legal systems.
 
How far back for equality?

How far back do you have to go to get a time when the area around present day London was less "liberal" than the area around present day Moscow? How did England compare to Moscovy in say 1500?
 
Actually there's no better way to advance technologically than this.

Because obviously burning all the fields, destroying the infrastructure, and ruining the capability of the economy to grow is the recipe for technological growth and advancement. I would say that the pure "conflict drives technological progress" school of thought is overly simplistic, true sometimes it can, but generally endemic warfare that leaves a region economically devastated is going to retard technological growth in the long term. While yes a war will drive innovation in the field of war, you won't see much meaningful growth outside of that because you need a certain degree of stability and peace in order for an economy to function. England lacks natural barriers between states, so any situation of petty states is going to long term be unstable and shifting, this retard the economic development of the island.
 
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