The Empire Parnell Built
- Thread starter Rattigan
- Start date
So, what became of the Japanese Emperor ITTL considering that the Shogun seems to be the President figure of Japan?
Yeah, that's a good question. For obvious reasons, it's hard to get definitive statements on the political leanings of the surviving members of the Aisin Goro clan OTL so I've kind of picked the notional heads of the family OTL and made up their politics to fit the storyline. Here's the succession over the course of the TL:
- Guangxu Emperor [OTL]: February 1875-November 1948
- Xuantong Emperor [OTL Puyi]: November 1948-October 1967
- Pingjing Emperor [OTL Jin Youzhi]: October 1967-April 2015
- Zhenshi Emperor [OTL Jin Yuzhang]: April 2015-present
The Emperor remains but his role is entirely symbolic, even though he retains a lot of soft power. In many senses his role is a bit akin to that of the OTL Pope. Some of the rest of the imperial family are involved in politics, as will appear later in the TL.
However, the fact that the Shogun was the de facto ruler of Japan for centuries, during which time the Emperor was considered to be above such mundane things as actually having to govern.
They’re imperial regnal names I just made up.
I did think about that but in the end equivalents like ‘President’ and ‘prime minister’ didn’t seem to fit and I thought it was a suitably culturally specific name
Are the British troops in Tibet, Indian soldiers? Is there a British Indian Army, Navy and Airforce?
Btw did anyone create high-speed rail in this timeline?
The Empire has, as expected, a complicated military structure with some being the purview of the Empire as a whole but others in individual hands. It roughly breaks down as follows:
- Royal Navy
- Naval service which includes a Fleet Air Arm that effectively functions as the OTL RAF.
- Empire-wide.
- Imperial Army
- Land service which is dominated by Indian soldiers and officers and includes the Flying Corps which is basically for transportation and logistics but does include some air-strike/interceptor capability.
- Empire-wide.
- Royal Marines
- Amphibious light infantry, technically separate from the Navy but not all that much, for obvious reasons.
- Empire-wide.
- Household Cavalry
- Mechanised infantry/cavalry regiment which serves as the monarch's bodyguard. Has several largely ceremonial roles but also does actually provide security for British royals, heads of government and so forth and could, in theory, serve in combat operations. A kind of weird hybrid between the OTL UK Household Cavalry and the US Secret Service.
- Empire-wide.
- Special Forces
- Special operations force.
- Empire-wide.
- Queen's African Rifles
- Land, air and sea service made up of recruits from former British protectorates in Africa.
- It's budget is set by Empire-wide agreement and senior officers are from the Empire (usually South African or Zambezian) but the rank and file are all foreign African volunteers.
- Military Intelligence
- Intelligence service - technically civilian but usually considered close to the military for obvious reasons. Its operations are left opaque but think of the OTL FBI, CIA and NSA grouped under one roof.
- Technically funded out of the British budget but, by convention, the other Imperial states contribute to it in proportion to ability.
- Ministry of Space
- Aeronautics and space research and defence. Like MI, technically a civilian agency with military overlaps but in practice they're pretty enmeshed. Among other things, is responsible for the management of the Extra-Territorial Fleet of spaceplanes and spaceships, many of which are armed and designed for combat roles.
- Like MI, technically funded out of the British budget but now has significant contributions from other Imperial states.
- Territorial Armies
- The local militias of each Imperial Realm, containing land, air and sea power as deemed necessary by the local parliaments. Leaving this to the local governments means funding, in practice, varies a lot with some being little more than a gendarmarie. But most would look something like the OTL Irish Defence Force, i.e. probably capable of territorial defence and not exactly useless but don't expect them to last long unsupported in an actual war. They also go under a variety of different names, for example the Defence Force in South Africa, the Yeomanry in Britain and the Militia in Australia.
- Scotch Division
- 20 mechanised infantry regiments recruited from the Scottish population and diaspora. Kept separate from the British Yeomanry because of political pressure by Scottish MPs back in the day but largely amalgamated nowadays.
- British-only.
- Crown Defence Forces
- The equivalent of the Territorial Armies but funded by the Crown Dependencies. Given that the Dependencies, as y'know dependencies, expect the Empire to provide for their protection, these tend to be relatively small organisations, with the largest coming out as around one infantry division with an attached air and maritime wing each.
Hope that's annoyingly complicated enough for you.
What are the militaries of Russia and China like, on that note, in terms of doctrine and organization and how do they differ from their OTL counterparts?
I'm not really a military theory guy so this is very high level but:
- Russia has a large conscript army that it uses basically to pick potatoes, do garrison duty and instil the patriotic love of Mother Russia in its young men, while it spends a lot of money on exotic hardware, cyber capabilities and spycraft, which is what actually does the work defensively (and offensively). The military is going through a bit of a crisis of confidence in the 1990s as democratic reforms mean that the military's hand-in-glove relationship with the National Party is going to become a bit more distant.
- China operates an all-volunteer force (like the British Empire) for the most part but with conscription in the tributary states of Korea, Formosa, Ryuku, Mongolia, Tibet, Dzungaria and Altishar, mostly to keep an eye on what their young people are up to. They place a lot less emphasis than the British do on naval operations, although they do maintain a formidable naval capacity. They're behind the British in technological terms when it comes to things like cyber and drone warfare but not by a huge amount.
I'm not sure I fully understand the questions: pretty much all major militaries (especially those in the list I posted) will be fully modern 21st century armies with mechanised infantry, drone capabilities etc.
Have you gone into how Britain is spending it's Ministry of Space budget? Would love to see a Lunar Crown Colony 👀
Yes, there is a Lunar Crown Colony, which is used for mining exploration and scientific research. The Ministry of Space claims sovereignty over the areas of its mining and research sites on the Moon and has formally stated that other countries should request permission before landing manned or unmanned probes, all the while not technically asserting sovereignty over the whole satellite.
There is also a smaller base on Mars, but that's more or less entirely military with a few scientific personnel. It's there to enforce the 'Mars Protectorate', which theoretically covers the whole planet but no other powers have challenged that yet. Notionally this protectorate is maintained as it represents the frontier of human colonisation of the Solar System.
Of the other spacefaring countries, Argentina and the United States have manned programmes which largely piggy-back on the British one and provide auxiliary equipment and personnel for the British base. Russia has a space station but mostly relies on unmanned probes. It has landed stuff on the Moon and Mars but only after a (reasonably) transparent consultation with the Ministry of Space. China is the country with the space programme that most closely challenges the Ministry of Space, with a space station and a fleet of spaceplanes. It has landed men on the Moon but has not attempted to create a permanent base there, while it has only sent unmanned probes to orbit Mars.
Mmmm.. a white leader of the ANC and black leader of the Conservatives? What a strange world, really)
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