Towards the end of "In at the Death" the English cities of London, Brighton, and Norwich are destroyed by superbombs, and whatever remains of the British government then sues for peace with Germany.
However, what would have happened to Britain's overseas colonies, and where would the governments running these newly independent states turn for manufactured products, including military hardware?
Presumably the governments in these newly independent states would be faced with both internal and external threats; such as India possibly fighting a civil war with Muslim insurgents who wish to split the country into two, Australia which is concerned about the Japanese Empire to its north, and whatever remains of the British colonial governments in East Africa trying to deal with revolts and tribal conflicts amongst the local population.
I was thinking that since Confederate military hardware seemed to largely be a copy of British designs, that the US would collect all of the CS munitions and equipment it captures at the end of the war, and would sell it off to the newly independent former British colonies who are desperately in search of military supplies.
Once the supplies of surplus Confederate equipment begins to run out, the US could simply
restart defunct munitions factories in the defeated Confederacy, and then sell the military products from these factories to former British colonies as a means of at least partially subsidizing the cost of the military occupation of the defeated Confederacy.
Initially, the production cost for manufacturing military hardware could partially be offset by using disarmed Confederate soldiers as forced labor in the factories, there by increasing the US government's profit margin. Additionally, there should be plenty of ruined military equipment from both sides scattered all over the defeated Confederacy, and this wrecked material could be collected by forced laborers and fed into smelters in order to produce new CS military hardware to be sold to former British colonies.
I think that such circumstances would help to also set up the US Dollar as the new benchmark currency used in international trade, replacing the British Pound, and would by the early-1950s make the US the economic hub of the West.
I don't think that most former British colonies would officially become US territories, but maybe they would become economically and culturally bound to the US following the loss of Great Britain as a world power?
Alternatively, if CS civilians are used in the US run munition factories instead of disarmed Confederate soldiers, then perhaps the wages earned by the civilian workers might provide one of the few economic bright spots in the occupied Confederacy, as most of the CS languishes in near famine conditions during the first few years after the war.
However, what would have happened to Britain's overseas colonies, and where would the governments running these newly independent states turn for manufactured products, including military hardware?
Presumably the governments in these newly independent states would be faced with both internal and external threats; such as India possibly fighting a civil war with Muslim insurgents who wish to split the country into two, Australia which is concerned about the Japanese Empire to its north, and whatever remains of the British colonial governments in East Africa trying to deal with revolts and tribal conflicts amongst the local population.
I was thinking that since Confederate military hardware seemed to largely be a copy of British designs, that the US would collect all of the CS munitions and equipment it captures at the end of the war, and would sell it off to the newly independent former British colonies who are desperately in search of military supplies.
Once the supplies of surplus Confederate equipment begins to run out, the US could simply
restart defunct munitions factories in the defeated Confederacy, and then sell the military products from these factories to former British colonies as a means of at least partially subsidizing the cost of the military occupation of the defeated Confederacy.
Initially, the production cost for manufacturing military hardware could partially be offset by using disarmed Confederate soldiers as forced labor in the factories, there by increasing the US government's profit margin. Additionally, there should be plenty of ruined military equipment from both sides scattered all over the defeated Confederacy, and this wrecked material could be collected by forced laborers and fed into smelters in order to produce new CS military hardware to be sold to former British colonies.
I think that such circumstances would help to also set up the US Dollar as the new benchmark currency used in international trade, replacing the British Pound, and would by the early-1950s make the US the economic hub of the West.
I don't think that most former British colonies would officially become US territories, but maybe they would become economically and culturally bound to the US following the loss of Great Britain as a world power?
Alternatively, if CS civilians are used in the US run munition factories instead of disarmed Confederate soldiers, then perhaps the wages earned by the civilian workers might provide one of the few economic bright spots in the occupied Confederacy, as most of the CS languishes in near famine conditions during the first few years after the war.