Marginally better. Smuts won the 1948 election and was pushing for a franchise expansion bill at the time of his death. He was replaced by J.F. Hofmeyer who carried on his legacy. More updates on this to come soon
The Empire Parnell Built
- Thread starter Rattigan
- Start date
boredhistorylover1211
Banned
Britain’s GDP per capita is twice that of the rest of the developed world? That seems… implausible.
Britain (A) is richer than OTL, and (B) its population isn't that large.
Luxembourg's GDP per capita is huge IOTL.
What I've been trying to do with this TL is, for the Anglophone nations, allow the economic and political conditions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries to persist to the present day (with some changes ofc) and see what that looks like.
So, with regard to the British economy, that would basically look a bit like taking the OTL German economy and bolting on OTL New York, the OTL Irish foreign tax laws and OTL Norwegian energy exports. That's how I came up with that GDP figure. It's not precise, of course, but I think it works given all that.
boredhistorylover1211
Banned
I don’t think TTL Britain is concentrating quite the per capita level of high-value-added financial services in the country, to the exclusion of everywhere else. The Luxembourg model is not, I suspect, what the author has in mind. I also don’t believe it relevant, as none of the other regions with similar high-value-added enterprises have a GDP per capita that high. There are a lot more “hangers on” in NYC, London, or San Francisco.
Assuming a Pound with a value similar to OTL, TTL Britain is well ahead of where Greater London, Singapore, or the New York Metropolitan area are IOTL.
I find that, again, quite implausible to achieve at scale in a country with 83 million people.
boredhistorylover1211
Banned
Ahh. So with the understanding that this is a thought experiment with authorial fiat pushing it in this direction to maintain global geopolitical “stasis”… this makes more sense.
Still implausible as hell. But in context, I understand what you’re doing.
It also explains why you’ve so vastly increased America’s population and economic throw weight; we’re still the “Sleeping Giant” ITTL, to a much greater extent than China.
Don't forget, Britain wasn't utterly screwed over by very very bad things that wrecked Europe.
I wouldn't really call it stasis but sure. I mean, this is an alt-history - it's all a thought experiment at some point.
What are the ideological stances of the three major parties in India like and what do they advocate?
So, in general terms:
• Swaraj are your straightforward left wing socialist party, a bit like the OTL INC at this time. Although there are prominent Muslims amongst their membership and supporters, they do have a strain of Hindu nationalism within them but right now it’s just a strain.
•The League is a moderately nationalist and Conservative party, with populist tendencies thrown in. It is generally more economically interventionist than the Liberals and more skeptical of the British Empire.
• The Liberals are liberal-conservatives and generally more pro-free market and pro-Imperial than their rivals in the League. The fact that they have to work with Swaraj to enter government, though, means they’re more of a self-consciously centrist party than a centre-right one. They are also more enthusiastic about membership of the Empire than the League, although in practice there is basically no one in the League who is a republican.
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boredhistorylover1211
Banned
It’s a lot more static than the corresponding period of history IOTL.
As for the “thought experiment” notion, yes, of course. But they break into two kinds, IMO: the “directed” sort like this where randomness and plausibility are broken to explore what a given end-state might look like and how one gets there, and those that explore what a world looks like after a given change.
Is Brazil TTL kind of keynesian social democrat? I would assume given the develolopment the Amazon is being protected better than OTL...
Russia TTL seems to quite more "Eurasianist" in its identity than OTL; like yeah its doing that OTL already but TTL it seems to have started earlier.
.
Also, interstingly, while India economy is similar to China overall; China also seems to be similar to OTL (but not ruled by communist party.)
I must say this world seems pretty "multipolar" even with a really strong UK there is a powerful Russia, United States, Brazil, and China.
Not unlike your previous timeline (and I enjoy both) some win, some lose, Europe didnt do much better TTL, perhaps even worse (because at least in that TL one could say Europe was returning to the direction of democracy by modern day) but Latin America is even better in terms of economic clout compared to last timeline which it already did quite well
Russia TTL seems to quite more "Eurasianist" in its identity than OTL; like yeah its doing that OTL already but TTL it seems to have started earlier.
.
Also, interstingly, while India economy is similar to China overall; China also seems to be similar to OTL (but not ruled by communist party.)
I must say this world seems pretty "multipolar" even with a really strong UK there is a powerful Russia, United States, Brazil, and China.
Not unlike your previous timeline (and I enjoy both) some win, some lose, Europe didnt do much better TTL, perhaps even worse (because at least in that TL one could say Europe was returning to the direction of democracy by modern day) but Latin America is even better in terms of economic clout compared to last timeline which it already did quite well
Territorially, it consists of OTL Jakarta, West Java and Banten (more or less). After the national revolutions in Europe during the Nine Years War, the Dutch royal family fled to their colony in the Dutch East Indies and they put together a coalition of what's left of their military plus local economic interests to carve out a quasi-democratic oligarchy which persists to this day. (The rest of OTL Indonesia is now independent in a bunch of different states.) Officially it's still called the 'Kingdom of the Netherlands' and the state's official policy is that they intend to reclaim their throne in Europe but in practice it's almost universally referred to as 'Pasundan' so as not to confuse it with the Republic of the Netherlands in Europe.
I wouldn't really call Brazil a social democracy just yet. It's really more of a former competitive oligarchy limping its way into democracy: things are looking decent at this point but all sides are still nervously looking at the other and not fully trusting them.
You're definitely right on Russia: I don't think we can underestimate the extent to which the Bolshevik Revolution OTL (i.e. adopting a European Enlightenment philosophy as its governing ideology) was a real 'Westernising' moment for Russia. Arguably the culmination of all the 'modernising' initiatives in Russia since Peter the Great - albeit in a bit of a weird way. In its absence, I think it's kind of fun to imagine a revolutionary Russia going down a slightly bizarre slavophille route.
On China, I think I might fiddle with their economic stats a bit. I had in mind more it being like the OTL Soviet Union - enormous economy with plenty of raw materials and heavy industry but very picky with its trading partners - than the OTL PRC.
That is genuinely not an analogy I had in mind when I came up with it but, yes, it does rather work. I was also thinking of similar Asian Tigers like South Korea and Singapore (the former probably works more as an analogy because Pasundan really is a massive megacity with a hinterland to it)...