AHC: Make the British Empire rule most of the world by 1922

In 1922, the British Empire was at it's height. Britain ruled almost a quarter of the world and one-fifth of the world's population, a total of 33,700,000 square kilometers or 13,012,000 square miles of territory and 458 million people.

However, with any POD going back no further than 1840, make the British Empire by 1922 rule a majority of the earth's population by 1922. Bonus if it also rules the majority of the world's land mass.
 
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/geography/continents/Land.shtml

Antarctica being entirely claimed by the UK is 9% extra land mass which is probably easier than 9% population.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_claims_in_Antarctica#Official_claims

I don't think it should be that hard to do.

The island was first sighted by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen on 21 January 1821 and was named for Peter I of Russia. Not until 2 February 1929 did anyone set foot on the island, when Nils Larsen and Ola Olstad's Second Norvegia Expedition, financed by Lars Christensen, was successful. They claimed it for Norway, who annexed it in 1931 and made it a dependency in 1933. The next landing occurred in 1948 and the island has been subject to some scientific research and a limited amount of tourism. The island became subject to the Antarctic Treaty in 1961. Since 1987, there has been an automated meteorological station on the island. Three DX-peditions have visited the island and there are sporadic landings by tourists.

All Norway did was land on an island and that made them get a huge chunk of land. So just have the UK make a tiny concerted effort to immediately claim the entire thing and go around island hopping.
 
As I said, though, land is just a bonus. More than anything, I'm asking for a majority of the world's population, even a slight majority, to be under British rule.

Perhaps the best way to do it is somehow make the Opium Wars result in British annexation and colonization of China.
 
a possible intervention in the American Civil war could give them a big swath of territory as well. Backing the confederecy, splitting up America, and then taking California and most of the West.
 
I don't have the 1922 populations, but the 1900 is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_in_1900

China is basically essential but not sufficient to get to 50%. The United States is the obvious option to get over the line. I'd also point out it's ridiculous for the British to take over China in one war.

Perhaps we can have some sort of deal for American dominions to remain part of the Empire. You can then have that lead to early entry into East Asia due to more access to the Pacific, perhaps by grabbing the Philippines off Spain.

More aggressive penetration into China causes more wars with the Emperor, and the Emperor's power gets broken, eventually being left as some sort of figure head. Various warlords arise beneath him, and there is competition between British, French and German trading companies, who annex and puppetise various parts of the place. A harsh British vs Franco-German war in the late 19th Century ends in a British victory and the confiscation of colonies from the two mainland powers. A nationalist push for Chinese independence in the early 1900s ends in the dethronement of the Qing, and the British King claiming the Mandate of Heaven as Emperor of China.
 
Or you could get it another way- have a civil war in China get very very nasty and make the population drop drastically. Have a worse war in Europe too.


Britain getting China in one war- that is something I've wondered about for another pod.... get a western dynasty on the Chinese throne. Some foreign adventurers manage to take over somehow.
 
A British intervention in the civil war could help. Also a Britain that is more hostile towards the US. Causing more aggressive negotiations during times such as the alaska panhandle dispute.
 
Briton taking the American is a little unlikely, but it's doable.
Alaska and Greenland could be added without too much effort (and Antarctica).
Maybe Britain backs Orélie-Antoine de Tounens and can grab Araucania and Patagonia.
Maybe things go south with the Russians and Britain pushes up through Afghanistan and grabs the Central Asia (Khiva, Bukhara, Khokand), maybe with that added they straight up grab Tibet and eventually start carving up China with the rest of Europe.

That MIGHT get them pretty close to the 50% of the world.

The big issue here though is that every time Britain conquers something, that means that they aren't conquering something else.
 
Briton taking the American is a little unlikely, but it's doable... The big issue here though is that every time Britain conquers something, that means that they aren't conquering something else.

Which is why it might be better if there was a voluntary reunification of America- not necessarily as a true colony, but a relatively independent dominion. It's not particularly easy to accomplish, but it's possibly more so than an actual conquest. It'd be a lot easier to start in the 1820s, with a joint Anglo-American declaration on colonisation of the New World rather than Canning and Monroe acting separately, but it could be done starting from the 1840s.

The key would be to put the emphasis on collaboration rather than confrontation: for instance, settling the Canadian border dispute through negotiation. Having a reasonably strong enemy to confront the US would help, possibly via a Franco-American war in the 1850s which the US loses.
 
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