Okay, so I'm working on a timeline where the Diggers seize power in Britain in the late 1790s.

Here's how it goes:
  • The Royalists win the English Civil War
  • The Stuart regime, predictably, is extremely repressive, inefficient, and rather unpopular, fostering similar sentiments to what was seen in France in OTL
  • At about the time, a lot of common people dissatisfied with the current government turn to radicalism, and the ranks of the diggers ironically grow, despite the movement being illegal.
  • Due to the Stuarts' apathy towards their colonies, the colonists actually don't really care that much and do not rebel.
  • In the 1770s, the King forces an act similar to OTL's Act of Union, which majorly pisses off the Scots.
  • In the late 1780s, all of this tension boils to the surface, and a massive revolution (sort of like the French Revolution) breaks out, followed by mass executions of the nobility, multiple bloody civil wars, and several failed governments.
  • In the late 1790s, the Diggers manage to take power (ironic wording considering how anarchistic they are, I know) and eventually manage to stabilize things.
  • In the American Colonies, several republics are declared as the shock from the British Revolution wears off. The House of Stuart-in-exile settles in Virginia.
  • In Europe, an event similar to the Red Scare, only 110+ years early sweeps across the land. It is especially prominent in France, which, like Britain, was on the Brink of collapse. France readies itself for yet another War with Britain...
  • In Britain, the Diggers are feeling increasingly threatened by French aggression. In addition, factions begin to emerge that desire to spread the revolution to the rest of Europe, perhaps the world. They find themselves needing to prepare for war and to centralize power a bit (though they're still really libertarian)...
  • I'm not gonna tell you guys what happens after that...
Okay, so, if you haven't figured it out, this TL is basically sort of a British version of the Napoleonic Wars only with weird proto-communism! This is just the first draft of the TL, and the reason I'm posting it here is so people can give me critiques on what I screwed up and maybe suggestions for some cool ideas if they are so inclined.

Please, tell me exactly what you think.
 
...I doubt that the Diggers will become a popular enough movement to hang on until the 1770s, and under a Stewart king the Scots might be more amenable to the Acts of Union.

More realistic, IMO, would be a situation where the Diggers follow the path of the Puritans and found an American colony, though at this point where is a question. Later, they manage to influence the USA during its formation.
 

Justinianus

Banned
Well, economically you'll be seeing a weaker Britain with the agrarian focus of the Diggers hampering the Industrial revolution a bit.
 

Justinianus

Banned
How do you think the ideology would evolve once the Diggers finally (sort of) accepted industrialization?

They don't.

I only see two possibilities:

1) They don't last long enough to do so as they are overthrown by the wealthy who support industrialization or are invaded by a continental coalition due to a weakened/nonexistant navy.

2) They become the late 18th and early 19th century equivalent of the Khmer Rouge, and end with the the invasion of a continental coalition.
 
They don't.

I only see two possibilities:

1) They don't last long enough to do so as they are overthrown by the wealthy who support industrialization or are invaded by a continental coalition due to a weakened/nonexistant navy.

2) They become the late 18th and early 19th century equivalent of the Khmer Rouge, and end with the the invasion of a continental coalition.

I disagree. Ideologies tend to evolve if successful, and in this timeline the Diggers are at least moderately sucessful TTL. I would personally, although I admit I may be a bit biased, predict an ideology similar to Syndicalism might evolve as industrial workers seek to adapt some of the aspects of Winstanleyism to their more industrial, urbanized areas and cultures.
 
I disagree. Ideologies tend to evolve if successful, and in this timeline the Diggers are at least moderately sucessful TTL. I would personally, although I admit I may be a bit biased, predict an ideology similar to Syndicalism might evolve as industrial workers seek to adapt some of the aspects of Winstanleyism to their more industrial, urbanized areas and cultures.

The bigger problem is going to be organizing any kind of uniformity/national resource transfer system/centeral defense effort and legal code thats required to make an industrial independent society work. The miners, for example, are likely going to demand better terms for their coal and the urban population will scream bloody murder if bread prices go/stay high. IOTL French Revolution, the government basically sided with the urban consumer/artisinal class over everybody elsee (having riden into power on the back of bread riot mobsa) and conscripted and confiscated the output of the countryside at the point of a gun. Diggerism, however, was born and breed as an agrarian ideology, and its leaders won't be able to throw their main base of support under the bus like that
 

Justinianus

Banned
I disagree. Ideologies tend to evolve if successful, and in this timeline the Diggers are at least moderately sucessful TTL. I would personally, although I admit I may be a bit biased, predict an ideology similar to Syndicalism might evolve as industrial workers seek to adapt some of the aspects of Winstanleyism to their more industrial, urbanized areas and cultures.

I disagree. Diggerism either continues with their original beliefs and likely forcefully depopulate the cities (like what the Khmer Rouge did; though they may not kill the sick and elderly), which would weaken Britain militarily opening themselves up to invasion ala 1066, or they largely abandon their agrarian ideals and must therefore purge their original supporters and once you start to purging its really hard to stop because you see enemies literally everywhere, much like in the French and Russian revolutions.

This tends to happen when you try to overthrow the social order of a nation.
 
Top