Why would they want to invade Europe? They're good friends with the EU!When will they invade Japan and Europe with mechas?
Hail, Britannia
- Thread starter LeinadB93
- Start date
Nazi Space Spy
Banned
Would you mind if I drafted some BBC news reports similar to the ABS of American Commonwealth thread? I was thinking of covering the Venezuela crisis in this alternate universe.
LeinadB93
Monthly Donor
Why would they want to invade Europe? They're good friends with the EU!
European-British relations do blow a bit hot and cold. I haven't decided whether NATO exists ITTL, as Britain and the Commonwealth have banded together and France has led the European Union into a mutual defence agreement (basically an alternate version of the European Defence Community), which encompasses all EU member states. There are other organisations such as the Collective Security Treaty Organisation and the Greater East Asian Cooperative Sphere that are important military organisations. Really my thinking is that as a superpower, Britain has been able to keep a policy of Splendid Isolation most of the time...
Whilst Franco-British relations are very important in the multi-polar world of Hail, Britannia, they have been strained by diplomatic incidents such as the "Vive l'Acadiane Libre" comment by de Gaulle, then President of the European Commission during the 1960s that contributed to the start of the Louisiana Troubles.
Not at all!! As I've said from the start I'm more than happy for other people to contribute to the series. However I would like to see any material before you post it
Last edited:
You're in it now. The creators only recently decided to make a central thread for the project.
LeinadB93
Monthly Donor
I orignally started the series back in 2015 on the Alternate Wikipedia Infoboxes II Thread here. So all of the material up until 30 July 2017 can be found on any of the Alternate Wikipedia Infobox threads (II, III & IV), and TB psoted a link at the bottom of Page 1. dakkafex is right in that this will now be the central thread for the series
Louisiana had a much stronger Francophone presence throughout the 18th century, remaining in French hands after the Seven Years' War rather than being given to Spain. French Louisiana existed up until 1806, when it sided with Napoleon and opened another theatre in the Napoleonic Wars, alhough it fell to the British in 1807. French Louisiana is then partitioned three ways; north of the 38th parallel becomes modern-day Missouri, south of the Red River becomes modern Acadiana (majority Francophone), the bit inbetween becomes a Native American homeland (which is gradual reduced to roughly OTL Oklahoma).
In terms of demographics; modern Louisiana is roughly 25% Francophone, 20% Aboriginal languages, and 55% Anglophone. That amounts to about 3 million Francophones, mostly in Acadiana. The nation suffered a lot since the Republican Rebellion, when the Cajun Republic tried to break away (it still sort of exists in exile in French Guiana - another thorny issue in EU-British relations), and there's been a great deal of repression of Catholics and Francophones by the Anglophone Protestants since then. It eventually leads to the Louisiana Troubles (1960s-1990s; I've touched on it briefly as an analogue of the Troubles in Northern Ireland) where you have armed groups of Catholics, Protestants, Francophones, Anglophones and Native Peyotists all fighting each other for independence or continued Union.
The whole thing settles down a bit in the 1990s, but there is still some sectarian tension although most parties are either Unionists or silent on the issue of Partition. The Native People's Party supports indpendence for the States of Wichita and Seqouyah as a Native Republic, the Parti de la Nation Cajun advocates for the secession of Acadiana as either a Home Nation within the Union, an independent Commonwealth realm, or a restored Cajun Republic, then there's Traditional Voice - the Anglophone nationalists advocating for North and South Arkansaw (OTL Arkansas, southern Missouri and northern Louisiana) to unite and form a separate Home Nation. There was an independence vote in Acadiana in 2009 that was narrowly defeated, and the PdlNC have been mute on the issue since then.
Last edited:
Adding to this, it can be seen in previous infoboxes and this post that there are a great deal of regionalist parties in this Britain. The most interesting, for me, is the Voice of the Columbian Dutch (Stem van de Columbiaanse Nederlandse - SvdCN) as they represent more or less a wholly-integrated minority in OTL, that of the New Netherland Dutch, that is more distinct in ATL. You can find them in *North-New-York-State, which is its own province in ATL [created after the split of NYP into three in the late 19th century], that of Nassouwen.
The ones confirmed in the published infoboxes are Liga Floridiano, New Labrador, Gàidhlig Caidreachas, Parti Acadien, Bloc Québécois, Yedinaya Alyaska, Unidad Española and Al-Maghāribī.
Which I suppose tells a lot about how many regional parties there are, as all that are only in five of 30 dominions.
LeinadB93
Monthly Donor
The ones confirmed in the published infoboxes are Liga Floridiano, New Labrador, Gàidhlig Caidreachas, Parti Acadien, Bloc Québécois, Yedinaya Alyaska, Unidad Española and Al-Maghāribī.
Which I suppose tells a lot about how many regional parties there are, as all that are only in five of 30 dominions.
My list at the moment has 23 regionalist/nationalist parties on it.
And all are banded together under the banner of the Alliance of Regions, which was formed in 1999 through a merger of Francophone, Hispanophone and Celtic nationalist/regionalist movements. The AoR is effectively a broad tent grouping like the European Free Alliance. In the Imperial Parliament they are currently the sixth party, behind Heritage and ahead of the Progressive Conservatives.
Different parties have different political positions, ranging across the spectrum, but the key issues that unite them are nationalism, regionalism and sovereignty. Nationalist parties call for outright secession from the UK. Regionalist advocate for greater devolution within the UK (and the Home Nations) and recognition as a distinct nation/group. Sovereignty supporters are a mix of the two, whilst others call for the secession of territories and the creation of new Home Nations.
British Constituent Countries
LeinadB93
Monthly Donor
Here's something that I've not shared before. The full breakdown (with flags and a map) of the Constituent Countries of the United Kingdom and Empire of Great Britannia, also referred to as Home Nations or Dominions. There are 32 constituent countries spread across all six inhabited continents, with a combined population of over 400 million people.
The most recent Dominions to join the Union which weren't already British territories were Sierra Leone in 2002 and Accra in 2019. Sierra Leone voted to join the U.K.E. following the end of their Civil War, which ravaged the country in the 1990s. A referendum held throughout Britain in August 2001 resulted in an overwhelming majority in favour of Sierra Leone's accession to the Union. Although subject to several conditions, mainly restrictions on freedom of movement, Sierra Leone has rapidly developed since accession, and all the barriers to "full membership" were lifted in April 2017. Accra was an independent Commonwealth realm in West Africa, and experienced a severe economic crisis, connected to the Great Recession and the ongoing Commonwealth intervention in West Africa (specifically Nigeria), leading to the government to call a referendum on the future of Accra's independence in January 2018, which was won by the pro-dominion side.
"Union Admission" represents the date that the Home Nation either passed the original 1876 Acts of Union or the date their Accession Act came into force. The North American members existed prior to the Union as Dominions and Colonies, with Virginia having existed as a Kingdom snce 1753, and many Constituent Countries received Home Rule prior to their accession. For example Scotland held it's first election in 1949, and Ireland was self-governing from 1782 to 1876, and then had Home Rule restored in 1888. England, Wales and Scotland were all admitted as part of Great Britain in 1876, before receiving Home Rule in the 1950s and 60s.
Proposals for new Dominions are a regular occurence, either by separating a territory from a pre-existing nation (such as Alaska, Quebec or Arkansaw), annexing an overseas territory (as happened with the Andaman and Nicobar Islands), or the integration of another sovereign state (such as Sierra Leone and Accra). Various proposals have been presented for the creation of the "33rd dominion", but the major one at present are Labuan, an island territory in the South China Sea.
Last edited:
@LeinadB93 (and @Turquoise Blue, your input is welcome of course), a few comments WRT the U.K.E. breakdown and/or thread;
- I guess the infobox detailing Britain-in-America needs a retroactive fix, since the largest Carolinian city is now Charlotte and not Atlanta.
- CLARKSBURG is Virginia's biggest city?! On one hand, I love that my town of birth is not the same run-down ramshackle of OTL, but on the other hand I really hope this isn't an indication of the state being considered "intrinsically coupled" economically (and in some POVs culturally) with the Northeast such as with Columbia or Ohio Country. Too much of that OTL as it is.
- Side note, it seems Virginia as Frederick I's host played a major role in establishing a pluricontinental "Britannia"...sorta reminds me in broad shades of Look to the West, only less obfuscated in narrative (not to mention that OTL's location is a better one than OTL Fredericksburg for a national/colonial capital).
- I'm surprised that Cornwall got its own countryhood without further breaking up England! Also, is London still the "Imperial Capital", or is that somewhere else/not a thing?
Really liking this new thread!
- I guess the infobox detailing Britain-in-America needs a retroactive fix, since the largest Carolinian city is now Charlotte and not Atlanta
.- CLARKSBURG is Virginia's biggest city?! On one hand, I love that my town of birth is not the same run-down ramshackle of OTL, but on the other hand I really hope this isn't an indication of the state being considered "intrinsically coupled" economically (and in some POVs culturally) with the Northeast such as with Columbia or Ohio Country. Too much of that OTL as it is
.- Side note, it seems Virginia as Frederick I's host played a major role in establishing a pluricontinental "Britannia"...sorta reminds me in broad shades of Look to the West, only less obfuscated in narrative (not to mention that OTL's location is a better one than OTL Fredericksburg for a national/colonial capital).
- I'm surprised that Cornwall got its own countryhood without further breaking up England! Also, is London still the "Imperial Capital", or is that somewhere else/not a thing?
Really liking this new thread!
Last edited:
LeinadB93
Monthly Donor
Huh, 1999? That sounds rather later than I thought.
Well there were a lot of nationalists/regionalists already in the Imperial Parliament. I mean the Irish Home Rule movement had representation from the get go in 1876. They generally did fairly well until the 1973 election when MMP and larger constituencies threw a spanner in the works, devastating the regionalists in the Imperial Parliament virtually overnight. Although they built back some of their strength, mainly in Ireland, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Alaska and Acadiana, they could never be a significant force due to the MMP system. The Hispanophone nationalists had always been united in the Liga Hispanófono, and the Francophones got together in the 1930s as the Bloc National, whilst in 1961 the Celtic natons fromed the Celtic League. These organisations eventually got their act together in 1999 and formed the Alliance of Regions as a nationwide party to collect all those wasted regionalist votes.
@LeinadB93 (and @Turquoise Blue, your input is welcome of course), a few comments WRT the U.K.E. breakdown and/or thread;
- I guess the infobox detailing Britain-in-America needs a retroactive fix, since the largest Carolinian city is now Charlotte and not Atlanta
Fortunately not!! In the Britain-in-America infobox I was referring to urban areas not cities. As a side note - I think it is best to consider everything posted before the 30 July 2017 as canon unless contradicted by later works. Most posts will be getting an update at some point.
- CLARKSBURG is Virginia's biggest city?! On one hand, I love that my town of birth is not the same run-down ramshackle of OTL, but on the other hand I really hope this isn't an indication of the state being considered "intrinsically coupled" economically (and in some POVs culturally) with the Northeast such as with Columbia or Ohio Country. Too much of that OTL as it is
Oops, this is what happens when you don't check if there is already a Clarksburg in Virginia (or West Virginia or Kentucky)!! Clarksburg is TTL's Louisville, as there was no point naming it after a foreign King. <Spits in disgust>. I'd imagine your Clarksburg would probably be named Simpson instead...
Virginia generally sits separate from both the Northeast and the Deep South. The Ohio Country is it's own unique mess that we'll get into later. I'd imagine that with Virginia being home to royalty (although a lot of their time was spent over the Potomac in Fredericksburg) it breeds a Loyalist streak, and they still have one of the highest number of peers per capita in the whole U.K.E. Cultural it's probably a blend of the OTL Northeast, Upper class Britain and the South.
Look to the West was an influence in this series definitely. I hope Thande will keep an eye on me and let me know if I stray too close to his work
Oh definitely, my thoughts are that Frederick sets up a "Court-in-Exile" amongst the British American "aristocracy" such as it was. He settles in Fredericksburg (OTL Washington D.C.) purely out of convergence, and has Fredericksburg, Virginia renamed Georgetown - to spite his father. Many of his court would be raised to the Peerage of America after his accession, further tying the Colonies to Britain. The title "Emperor of All Britain" is an American creation used in Frederick's proclamation at the White Palace to signify his reign as King over not just Great Britain and Ireland (and later Virginia), but over all the Dominions of those Crowns. I also think that Frederick would better understand the plight of the colonists than his son, although ITTL George III is actually born in America
, and therefore allow for a better resolution of the Colonial Unrest.Well England is heavily devolved to the "regions" and Cornwall was one of them until Mebyon Kernow organised a referendum on separation in 1998 - the only one to be successful. Democratically they couldn't argue with the result. But regionalists aren't very strong in England, except Yorkshire First but they're more devolution MAX then secessionist.
Thanks
Last edited:
Everything north of Rockland and Westchester counties and east of Cayuga County, roughly. Basically think the full extent of the Hudson Valley.
Last edited:
LeinadB93
Monthly Donor
As TB said, roughly everything north of Westchester and east of Syracuse (there's a straight line border just east of Syracuse that runs all the way down to the Pennsylvania border). Everything west of Syracuse is part of the Province of Genesee.
It's about 75% Dutch-speaking, although virtually everyone speaks fluent English. The major anglophone areas are in the north around Taylorsburgh (OTL Plattsburgh) and south near the New York border. The capital is Beverwijck (OTL Albany, they renamed it when Nassouwen was created leading to Buffalo changing it's name to West Albany in protest).
Here's a map of how NYP was divided.
Genesee, Nassouwen and New York and Long Island.