AHC: No British Empire

Deleted member 97083

I was going to say that with an early enough POD you'd naturally prevent the British Empire. But actually, I'm pretty sure it was inevitable. I mean, look at how lucky Britain was. They spent more than anyone else had ever spent on a colony, to create the world's largest colony of 2.4 million people. They lost this colony--for which they received nothing in return, they wouldn't even pay tariffs--after a grueling 8 year war that extended to Europe. After losing it, the only remaining British colonies were either barely populated territories acquired no more than 20 years before that spoke French instead of English, or disparate Indian forts next to a former massive empire. But only after losing America did the British conquer the entire Indian continent in a couple decades, take down the most powerful emperor that had ever existed up to that point (Napoleon), and conquer and colonize another continent (Australia) like nothing happened... all at the same time. And that's before they fully industrialized and dominated the entire world's economy for a century.

POD in 3000 BC? Nope. Still gonna be a British empire. It'll happen somehow. Even if the Scottish have to do it.
 

Saphroneth

Banned
My first guess - no Glorious Revolution. Keep the Brits from importing the Dutch banking system for as long as possible (Dutch banking + Royal Navy + modern maritime insurance is the engine of the British economy.)
That or have the first colony on the Chesapeake destroyed by raids, because that was the gateway to America for a lot of the English colonists.
 
Saw this cool video on what'd happen if the British Empire never existed, but it kind of glosses over just what the POD is.
Personaly I am not impressed by the video. As usual it remains extremely superficial. The video is basicly: France wins. Which is certainly partialy true. But it completely glosses over the fact that other countries will fill in the gaps Britain left. If Britain (or England) does not colonise North America, I am certain the Netherlands, Sweden and possibly other countries, like Denmark will found colonies in that area. He mentions that France had a different way of colonising than England, but he ignores the fact that would mean that other countries would have an easier time resisting France than they had resisting England. Besides that he only focuses on North America. How about India? How about Australia?

Personaly I am not impressed by this guy and his videos.
 
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