I'm writing a TL about the British Empire evolving into an intercontinental "EU" of sorts after World War 2. To that end I have the Caribbean colonies achieving independence as a single dominion (the West Indian Federation), the Pacific colonies achieving independence as a single dominion (the South Seas Federation) and now I'm wondering how realistic a union of Britain's territories in the Mediterranean would be.
So Malta, Gibraltar, and Cyprus placed into the same state. Possibly the Dodecanese too, because the Brits occupied it until 1947 because it was previously an Italian possession. I'm thinking if the Greek Civil War ends in a Communist victory the Brits won't be keen on relinquishing it.
Pop stats for ~1950:
Gibraltar: 23 000
Malta: 312 000
Cyprus: 500 000
Dodecanese: 130 000
So the Gibraltarians are more than a bit outnumbered, but given their OTL lack of nationalist aspirations I don't think that'd make the union unworkable. But what about the Maltese and Greeks? Could they get along given ethno-religious differences?
Rhodes, Malta and Cyprus were former holdings of the Knights of Saint Johns. Could a Neo-Crusader national identity help glue them together? How would the
Victorian Order of Saint John and the
original Catholic Order of Saint John interact in such a scenario?
And how would all this fare with the Muslim Cypriots?
How would a Communist victory in Greece effect the course of the cold war? Would it result in a Yugoslav sphere of influence that would grow from there?
And lastly, does anyone have a better name than "Mediterranean Federation?"