The New Commonwealth!

Just finished S.M. Stirling's latest, The Sky People, and it gave me an idea.

...giving Grimm ideas, never a good thing...​

In the book the UK is not a member of the EU. Instead British Commonwealth core members such as the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are a semi-united block and serve as a junior partner to the US but clearly playing a far more prominent role than in OTL.

How might the key Commonwealth states plus the UK form a truly united block including a semi-unified military, coordination of economic and scientific resources, not to mention a common market for military equipment and a united diplomatic front?

If this were achieved, perhaps under Eisenhower, what would the results be in terms of military power and economic development? What changes might take place in a world with a second major Western power?
 
How might the key Commonwealth states plus the UK form a truly united block including a semi-unified military, coordination of economic and scientific resources, not to mention a common market for military equipment and a united diplomatic front?
That used to be called the Imperial Preference or Tariff, & it allowed products from Commonwealth countries to be exported/imported at lower duties. (It's one reason Big 3 carmakers, & major U.S. bicycle makers before that, set up branch plants here {Canada}.) Before that, I think it was called "taxatiion without representation".:D
 
Well, that was pretty much the case during the 1950s/60s with UK and Stralia/NZ, at least on the military/scientific front, because of shared interests in SE Asia: commonwealth forces fought together in Malaya, Borneo etc. and nuclear/radar sites were based in Stralia.
 
If you had a determined British government in the 40s/50s and started at some form of joint military and free trade I don't suppose such a Commonwealth Federation is all that absurd. It would certainly be pro-American, but I suspect that a greater world role is more likely to lead to a lessening of ties with Washington rather than a deepening...
 
How about this as a possibility....
As France was about to fall in 1940, Churchill actually offered France union with the UK, which was turned down.

Now instead if this, the British inform the rest of the Commonwealth they are determined to fight on whatever, even if invaded. Churchill then offers the same deal to the major Commonwealth countries - a true joint government, alowing them to figt on even if the British Isles were invaded. At this point, Oz and NZ were strong supporters of Britain, and would I think have gone for it. Canada would take more convincing, but perhaps caught up in the spirit of the moment would agree. South Africa is a lot more iffy, but if it proved successful they might be converted later on. But I could see a union of Canada, GB, Oz and NZ (plus the small countries) working.
That block wouldnt be as powerful as the USA, but it would be the second most powerful economic block in the world.
 
If the US doesn't bring the Brits back into the nuclear fold in 1958 that could have been the scenario today. Britain needed help the be a world power and that help had to come from the Commonwealth.
 
That used to be called the Imperial Preference or Tariff, & it allowed products from Commonwealth countries to be exported/imported at lower duties. (It's one reason Big 3 carmakers, & major U.S. bicycle makers before that, set up branch plants here {Canada}.) Before that, I think it was called "taxatiion without representation".:D

I think this is key. By the 1930s, Britain was a smaller market for Canada than America; and after the Second World War... well, Britain was bankrupt.

Why do New Zealand, Australia, etc. watn to tie themselves to britain?
 
How about this as a possibility....
As France was about to fall in 1940, Churchill actually offered France union with the UK, which was turned down.

Now instead if this, the British inform the rest of the Commonwealth they are determined to fight on whatever, even if invaded. Churchill then offers the same deal to the major Commonwealth countries - a true joint government, alowing them to figt on even if the British Isles were invaded. At this point, Oz and NZ were strong supporters of Britain, and would I think have gone for it. Canada would take more convincing, but perhaps caught up in the spirit of the moment would agree. South Africa is a lot more iffy, but if it proved successful they might be converted later on. But I could see a union of Canada, GB, Oz and NZ (plus the small countries) working.
That block wouldnt be as powerful as the USA, but it would be the second most powerful economic block in the world.

Menzies was in London as a member of the War Cabinet. He even had ideas of becoming PM! That's how close the Commonwealth was in 1940. Menzies absence meant he was toppled as Party leader on his return to Australia (only returned to shore up his political support). That is the political and social reality of the populations of the commonwealth. They wanted their own countries to prosper and Briatain although important was secondary.

Imagine if the scenario happened and the Australian military was under direct Imperial rule. Churchill would prevent the return of the diggers from the Middle East to defend Australia. End of any notion of a single polity right then.
 
Menzies was in London as a member of the War Cabinet. He even had ideas of becoming PM! That's how close the Commonwealth was in 1940. Menzies absence meant he was toppled as Party leader on his return to Australia (only returned to shore up his political support). That is the political and social reality of the populations of the commonwealth. They wanted their own countries to prosper and Briatain although important was secondary.

Imagine if the scenario happened and the Australian military was under direct Imperial rule. Churchill would prevent the return of the diggers from the Middle East to defend Australia. End of any notion of a single polity right then.

South African PM Jan Smuts was also in the War Cabinet, and there was also apparently support for him to become the British PM if something happened to Churchill.
 
If the US doesn't bring the Brits back into the nuclear fold in 1958 that could have been the scenario today. Britain needed help the be a world power and that help had to come from the Commonwealth.
Didn't Britain develop it's own bomb in 1952?
 
South African PM Jan Smuts was also in the War Cabinet, and there was also apparently support for him to become the British PM if something happened to Churchill.

An Afrikaner as Prime Minister of the UK. Boy, wouldn't that have changed relations between Britain and SA! :eek:
 
Top