1890: Alternative Divergence [AH][OOC-DEAD]

[The Hindustani State]

Any room for a Hindu uprising in India?

[Sao Nova Europa]

Any room for a Hindu uprising in India?

It is up to the OP, but I have to admit that my personal preference is no. In my history I have written that the Mughals were able to put down a number of such uprisings at the 1700s and early 1800s, so now the realm is more or less stabilized for the most part. OOC, I would prefer not to have to face civil war at the start of the RP.

If you really want to play as a Hindu Indian state, I am willing to give up the four or five southernmost Indian provinces (the southern tip), but a) as a state that broke off from the Mughals during the 1807-17 period of unrest in my alternative history, so it isn't active revolt but rather established state, b) I am compensated by annexing Nepal.

I am perfectly willing to work with you if you decide on accepting my proposition and glad to have you in the region, but an active uprising would be a big no for me.

[Tracian Empire]

Any room for a Hindu uprising in India?

Yeah, we generally hesitate when it comes to accepting uprisings, because they're pretty difficult to moderate. Often the one controlling the uprising and the one controlling the state will have different points of view about how widespread the uprising will be, and there are a lot of other factors involved. Plus, if an uprising were to be defeated, that would leave a player without a proper nation. And of course, Sao Nova Europa doesn't want it, so we must take that into account.

But I'm more than alright with his proposal - you could play as a Hindu Indian state in the south, and perhaps try to support and develop a Hindu uprising in the north over the course of the IC.

[Of Leben]

Tagging for later use.

[The Traansval]

Full Nation Name: United Republic of Great Britain and Ireland; also known as the United Republic or the British Republic.
Anthem: The Green Flag

Majority/Official Culture: The three major constituents of the Union; England, Scotland, and Ireland; represent the three major cultures of the British isles. Additionally, England is home to the very distinctive and independent Welsh and the more often forgotten Cornish. The union’s overseas territories and colonies are also home to many native cultures and some colonial cultures such as the distinctive South African, Australian, and New Zealand cultures, to name a few.
Territorial Core: British Territory is shown as Tan.
Territorial Claim: The sights of the British have turned firmly to Africa over the past decade, and as a scramble begins the Union will be the first to carve its fair share out of the dark continent.
Capital City: Greater London, Republic of England.
Population: 45,875,900 citizens in the British Isles; 28.5 million in British Java and Indies; 25.2 million in British India and Ceylon; 7.5 million in the Nigerian Protectorate, 3.7 million in the Australian colonies, 3.1 million in Cape Colony, 2.2 in British Suriname, 1.1 million in British West Africa, and 0.6 million in British East Africa.

Government Type: Democratic Federal Republic
Government Ideology/Policies: The United Republic is dedicated to the cause echoed by the soldiers of the Glorious Revolution; Liberty, Equality, Humanity. Enshrined in British law are fundamental rights and liberties, protections and guarantees, that all citizens are equal before the law, and that none may be legally discriminated against. Citizens enjoy the freedom to worship, the freedom to speak criticism and truth, and the freedom to assemble as a united force. The Republic has a system of social programs ranging from workingmen's compensation, workplace regulations, and union protections to the poor laws.

In terms of more in-depth ideology and policies, that depends on the party currently in power. The United Republic has four national parties; the Conservative Party or Tories are a center-right populist party mostly advocating for de-regulation, greater promotion of Anglicanism, and hawkish militarization; the Liberal Party form an odd coalition at the center of British political life, with everyone from Center-right Peelites to Center-left “Whigs”, mostly advocating for civil liberties and free-market policy; the Republican Party forms the center-left and is often called the “Radical” party, it has a basis in advocating market reforms, social reforms and programs, and an almost militant advocacy of enfranchisement and equality; the Social Democratic Labour Party, or just Labour Party, flanks the Republicans on the left to far-left after its break with said party as its mostly a coalition of Unionists, Socialists, Marxists, and other left Radicals. In addition to the main four there are regional and independent parties, mostly formed to gain seats in the individual Republics such as the Irish Patriot Party, which is in an alliance with the Republicans, the United Scots party, which is a coalition with the Liberals, or Cymru Fydd, a Welsh party, along with branches of the main four in the Republics such as the Irish, Scottish, and English Liberal parties, as examples.
National Goals: To maintain peace and promote trade.
National Issues: Growing Marxism and the African scramble.
Government Focus: Britain is mostly focused on the promotion of commerce and the expansion of the Commonwealth.

Head of State : Tribunal of the Republic, a council consisting of the First Secretaries of England, Scotland, and Ireland which gives its assent to parliament's laws and advises the Council of State. Currently occupied by Joseph Chamberlain (Liberal First Secretary of England), Keir Hardie (Republican First Secretary of Scotland), and Tom Clarke (Patriot Party First Secretary of Ireland).
Head of Government: Council of State, a council made up of Secretaries of State whose purpose is to oversee government departments. It is led by the First Secretary of State, which is currently Henry Campbell-Bannerman.
Government Description: The United Republic is an odd government born out of British tradition under the monarchy and the need to maintain unity between three essentially separate nations. In short; England, Scotland, and Ireland each are recognized as Republics, with their own government, legislature, and constitutions, and by their assent, in the London Charter, they have banded together to form a Federal state. This “banding together” includes the recognition of the supremacy of Parliament in return for the protection of their sovereignty and their rights. Overseeing this Federal state is the aforementioned Parliament, which is a unicameral body seating MPs in the House of Commons. In theory, the role of an executive, previously fulfilled by the monarchy, is taken by the Tribunal of the Republic, which is the formal term for the three First Secretaries of the three Republics. However, in practice, executive function is exercised by the Council of State, an executive cabinet of MPs elected by Parliament and led by the First Secretary.

Parliament, as recognized in the London Charter, is the supreme legislative body. It can pass laws that are binding on the constituent Republics and territories of the Commonwealth (Britain's overseas territories). While theoretically unlimited in its power, political necessities dictate that Parliament continues a policy known as devolution or the granting of powers and responsibilities to the Republics or local governments. Each Republic has its own parliament which can pass laws that are binding within that Republic, but laws passed by the British parliament can overrule these lower laws. This essentially leads to the effect that the Republics can pass laws on anything the national parliament hasn’t already legislated on, making them often the forefront of legislative innovation. Many laws passed through the national Parliament have just been adaptations of laws passed by one or more of the Republics. There are two key limits on Parliament in terms of legislation; it cannot change the constitution of a Republic, and it cannot change the London Charter, Instruments of Government, or Bill of Rights without the approval of all three Republican legislatures or by popular referenda in all three Republics.

The Tribunal of the Republic is the official Head of State of the Republic, although the First Secretary of England is, by tradition, considered the “First among equals” of the Tribunal and usually is the one who represents the Republic for formal events. The Tribunal's role is primarily ceremonial and was created to fill the place the Monarchy once had. It’s only real power is the ability to veto legislation passed by Parliament, although this is a very rare occurrence as it requires ⅔ to approve a bill but 3/3 to veto a bill. Besides this, the individual First Secretaries on the tribunal hold considerable prestige and power within their own Republics and they are often consulted by the First Secretary.

The Council of State is a body of members of parliament elected by parliament who serve as government ministers. Technically the only member of it that's elected is the First Secretary of State, often just shortened to First Secretary, who appoints the other members, although these appointments must be approved by parliament. The First Secretary sets general policy and is the primary representative of the Council both in parliament and diplomatically. The other members of the council are known as the Secretaries of State, with each Secretary being appointed to lead a government department, the current list being; Secretary of State for the Home, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Secretary of State for the Admiralty, Secretary of State for War, Secretary of State for Justice, Secretary of State for the Treasury, Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs, Secretary of State for the Colonies, Secretary of State for Commerce and Business, Secretary of State for the Post and Railways, Secretary of State for Land and Farms, Secretary of State for Education, and Secretary of State for Labour. There are additional non-Council leadership positions, mostly in the form of Presidents of boards established to oversee or give advice on specific areas, or offices under departments or independent of offices, such as the Secret Service Bureau under the Home office or the independent Workingmen's Compensation Board.

Each Republic has its own court system, plus an extra “British” court system that has jurisdiction across the entire United Republic. While the names differ, each system has lower trial courts and then a system of courts of Appeal and usually a High or Supreme Court. The highest court in the land is the High Court of Justice in London which is the highest court of appeals in the United Republic, able to hear appeals from British and Republic courts, and which can declare actions by the Republics or by Parliament unlawful (Judicial Review). There also exists a web of specialty courts, often called administrative courts, such as bankruptcy, maritime, immigration, patent, and other courts.

Local government is a bit more complicated, although drastically simplified during the 19th century by Parliament. Each Republic has, as its basic local government, a series of metropolitan and rural boroughs or counties, the names differ between Republics, which are overseen by locally elected councils. These councils have some devolved powers based on what Republic you're in and are generally in charge of administering programs and laws. Below the boroughs and counties are districts, smaller subunits that have varying levels of self-government. Above the boroughs and counties are the regions, which unite multiple municipalities together usually under another council. Again, depending on the Republic these local formations have varying degrees of devolved powers, but generally, they’re used for the enforcement of laws (metropolitan boroughs are responsible for forming and upkeep their own police, while rural ones have some oversight of their local British Constabulary branch) and for the management of programs such as workingmen's compensation as an example.

As mentioned before the British Commonwealth is the common name for the holdings, territories, and colonies of the United Republic, and generally is used to refer to land held outside the British isles. Except for South Africa and Canada, both of which were designated as Republics and granted limited home rule, the territories of the Commonwealth are under the direct administration of the British Parliament and it's appointed Governors-General, although reforms made since the Glorious Revolution have seen many elements of local rule or administration implemented. Most Commonwealth territories are run by a system of indirect rule, often with the utilization of natives in the administration, with locals in positions ranging from tax collectors to judges and police, and the continued existence of local rulers under British "Protectorate" status. These Protectorates can encompass entire colonies, such as The Gambia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, and others, or they can be apart of larger colonies such as British India, British Java, and British Congo which have both directly administered territories and protectorates. Thus, colonies aren't distinct states in and of themselves, and colonial borders are used to show the area under the control of a specific Governor-General, who might have oversight of several territories and protectorates. The full list of these positions includes; the Governor-General of India, the Governor-General of Java, the Governor-General of New South Wales, the Governor-General of West Australia, Governor-General of Nova Scotia, Governor-General of New Zealand, Governor-General of Congo-Livingstoneburg, Governor-General of the Gold Coast, Governor-General of the Ivory Coast, Governor-General of Sierra Leone and Guinea, Governor-General of the Gambia, Governor-General of East Africa, Governor-General of Somaliland, and Governor-General of Suriname. There are also the Governors-General of South Africa and Canada, although these two hold no real power after both were granted home-rule and act primarily as figureheads. The Governors-General are appointed directly by Parliament, often on the advice of the Council of State, and are responsible for the day to day administration and enforcing the government's will and laws in the colonies. The Governors-General also rule alongside elected councils or assemblies of locals which the Governors-General can consult and which can have certain devolved powers as dictated by parliament or the Governors-General, as well as locally elected mayors and local municipal leaders.

Majority/State Religion: The three biggest religions are Anglicanism (Church of England), Presbyterianism, and Roman Catholicism. There also are substantial minority religions, mostly Protestant branches such as Baptists, Quakers, and others, along with a decent Jewish minority. Parts of the Empire also contain majority Muslim areas, notably Java, and Hindu areas, notably British India.
Religious Description: Religion in the British Isles has been one of the underlying factors in much of its conflicts. The Glorious Revolution saw three nations; Catholic Ireland, Presybeterian Scotland, and Anglican England join together in a common Union, and this would not have been possible without a commitment to Secularism in government and the freedom of worship. While some Conservatives might talk about Papist plots in their parlors, the United Republic has maintained this commitment to religious freedom, and it has allowed for the growth of religion in the nation. Ireland is a majority Catholic land, with sizeable Protestant (both Anglican and Presbyterian) minorities, mostly around the north. Scotland is mostly dominated by the Scots Kirk, or Scottish Church, which is a Presbyterian Church, although it's contested by the Episcopal Church which believes the Kirk has gone too far from the Anglican church, and the Reformed Presbyterian Church which believes the Kirk has gone too far towards the Anglican Church (Very oversimplified, the main conflict is over church structure, namely that the Episcopals want Bishops; while the Reformed church just generally believes the main Kirk has strayed from the path so to speak). England is relatively united by the Church of England, its main church, with sizable minorities of “Non-Conformists”, other protestant denominations such as Baptists. England's religious freedom has also seen many other religions come to it, namely Jews, although they form the largest of the smallest groups.

Economic Ideologies: Social Capitalism, Export-Orientated market, Trade Unionism, and Free Trade.
Major Production: The British Isles are relatively resource-rich, with a strong mining sector that produces coal, iron, tin, and other metals in ample enough quantities to satisfy domestic demand. Britains true major industry is manufacturing; as one of the first industrialized nations, Britain has become a large economic power through its efficient and relatively cheap production of manufactured goods ranging from guns to machines to textiles to ships.
Economic Description: British economic policy has, since the Revolution, historically been guided by the principles of a "Moral Economy", one based on fairness, and also on Adam Smiths' seminal work pioneering Liberal Capitalism. This has led to Britain having a special mixed-economic system labeled as a "Social Market", also known as the Anglo-Model; it combined private ownership and (mostly) free market trade with a comprehensive welfare state, high levels of Union membership and involvement, and strong anti-trust, labour protection, land reform, consumer protection, and competition laws to promote an idea of a fair market where everyone has equal access and where workers and consumers are protected. British Corporations are much more varied than contemporary European or American ones, with many industries being more or else evenly split between a dozen or more companies, some of which incorporate Cooperative or worker representation models of organization, which were pioneered during the early Republic by Robert Owen and later on by unions and the TUC. Major important mostly consist of raw materials and foodstuffs such as timber from Canada, grain from America, tea and spices from China, Korea, and British Asian colonies, and sugar from Suriname, the last a rather diminished trade.

Development: Urban Industrialized Power
Development Description: The United Republic was one of the first truly industrialized nations, with many innovations such as the coal-powered steam engine, textile looms, railroads and trains, and new methods of steel production being developed in the home isles. The rise of America during the mid-19th century saw Britain's former colony rise to new heights, matching and in some places eclipsing the old motherland, including in the innovation of new techniques and technologies such as steamships and the first real factories. The most direct influence of America on British economics was America grain, which under Liberal Free Trade policy was imported, eventually undercutting the domestic British agricultural market which had mostly consisted of small landholders not able to match the output of the Great Plains. Between the late 1860s and continuing on into 1890, domestic agriculture in Britain has entered a depression, causing many farmers and agricultural workers to move to the larger cities, driving Urbanization. The influx of new citizens drove existing efforts to modernize Britains cities and infrastructure with new roads, public sanitation projects, street lights (Both gas and later electric), and improved public planning including the construction of government housing during the 1880s. Other infrastructure included the widespread construction of railroads and seaports across the home isles and in the colonies to better facilitate the transportation of goods for trade.

Army Description: The British Republican Army serves as ground forces for the British military. It falls under the administration of the War Office and its Secretary and it falls under the command of the Army Council and General Staff; the Army Council makes executive decisions while the General Staff are responsible for war planning. The General Staff along with supporting bureaucratic offices such as the Commissariat form Army Headquarters. The Grand Marshal of the Republic, often shortened to just Grand Marshal, serves as the commander-in-chief of the British army and chairs the Army Council; his second in command is the Chief of the General Staff. Under the command of Headquarters are the branches, each of which contains within them the working arms of the army. The two wings of army combat are the Infantry branch and Cavalry branch, each overseeing their respective troop formations. In addition to the combat, branches are the combat support corps, namely the Artillery Regiment (While called a regiment it is a corps and consists of multiple regiment and brigade-sized units) and the Corps of Engineers. Outside of army combat is army support services which are a variety of non-combat services such as the medical service and logistics service as examples. In total, the British Army has around 445,000 men in active service between the Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery, and support/bureaucratic services, and approximately 590,000 men in reserve formations.

The Childers reforms reorganized British Infantry into regiments, each with two regular service battalions and two militia battalions on paper. Regiments are un-numbered and are usually named after the district they're raised from. Each regiment shares a common command and depot which conducts supply, recruitment, and training for the unit as a whole. Deployment usually is done with individual battalions, as home regiments will have one battalion sent for colonial service while the other stays home. This independence of operation of battalions leads them to be a bit more beefed up and have their own traditions, helped by the fact that many battalions were former regiments consolidated under the Childers Reforms. Battalions can vary in size but generally commission around two thousand men, although battalion-size can vary a lot, and battalions can often be understrength due to a variety of reasons. If needed, multiple regiments can be grouped together to form Brigades or Divisions, although this hasn't been done since the Revolutionary Wars. Battalions themselves can be subdivided into Companies, eight to a battalion, although these aren't independent units and are integral to the battalion and used as field organization.

British Infantry formations are divided between Line Infantry, Light infantry, and Colonial militia. The first is a designation given to Infantry from the home isles which during peacetime is the Regular army. Line regiments also have two battalions of British militia, a part-time reserve formation of volunteers. Soldiers who volunteered for regular service also serve an additional three years in the Reserve Army, which is used to replace losses, bring regiments up to full strength, or form full battalions or regiments to enter service. As a final layer to this system, there exists the Volunteer Rifle Corps, which began as civic bodies formed by private citizens and given official recognition in 1868; they now serve as a volunteer reserve formation similar to the militia but more organized and active. The regular army has approximately 300,000 infantrymen in active service with 69 Line regiments plus light infantry, 187,000 men in the Reserves, 134,000 men enlisted with the Volunteers of 200 battalions, and 270,000 registered with the Militia. Light infantry, or "Rifle Regiments", were historically skirmishers regiments although with the advent of modern technology they've instead become more like regular infantry. Light infantry is apart of the regular army and reserves; there are seven light infantry regiments, three of which are from the Home Isles while the other four were raised from colonial holdings. The colonial militia is a bit rougher and less cohesive of a force, and refers to forces under the command of British Governates and Colonies, and doesn't include the self-defense forces of self-governing colonies such as Canada, South Africa, and Australia. The colonial militia is composed of residents of the colonies, including both natives and colonists, commanded by mostly British officers. The militia is mostly used as auxiliary forces to assist larger regular army forces or used to maintain order and put down revolt, and are usually raised as ad hoc units rather than as standing forces.

British Cavalry also uses regiments as their primary unit, although cavalry regiments are smaller and usually the size of infantry battalions, thus if used in mass cavalry will be grouped into divisions. The cavalry had five designations for regiments, although in the modern day the distinctions between them have become more ceremonial than actual. These five designations can be broke up into Heavy, Medium, and Light cavalry; seven regiments of Dragoon Guards form the heavy compliment of the British army and their role is to act as heavy breakthrough forces; Medium cavalry is provided by three Dragoon and six Lancer regiments and their role is to be a flexible formation used for attack and harassment; Light cavalry is provided by thirteen regiments of Hussars whose role is scouting and harassment. The designated roles of each type of formation are undercut by the standardization between 1860 and 1880 of the cavalry; all types use the same horses, carry the same sabers, and the same Martini-Henry and soon Lee carbines. This standardization means that each can effectively be used to any role and modern technology means that cavalry tacticians have placed more of a focus on the utilization of horses for movement and dismounting for fighting. This tactic is rather detested by some regiments who hold fast to their traditions, but is embraced by the fifth regiment designation; Light Horse mounted infantry, most commonly raised from colonial forces, of which seven regiments are in service. Altogether this provides for about 72,000 men in Army Cavalry.

Republican Artillery is officially a combat support branch, same as the Engineers, but its heavy involvement in battles and tactics means it might as well be a combat arm. The basic unit of the Artillery is batteries which have between four and six guns and their crew. The majority of these Batteries, about 112 in total, serve with the Field Artillery branch which operates artillery meant for use in the field such as the 75mm field guns Model 1885, Model 1887, and Model 1890, the Howitzers such as the 120mm Model 1888, and Mortars of varying sizes. An additional 91 batteries serve under the Garrison Artillery branch which operates artillery in fixed garrison locations, mostly forts and coastal forts, which mostly consists of large caliber naval cannons and howitzers. Eleven of Garrison Artillery's batteries are Siege Artillery batteries, carrying large-caliber howitzers meant for siege use. Batteries can be grouped together as battalions and further as brigades to be attached to other units for artillery support, either as grouped units or individual batteries. Republican Artillery also has in inventory a couple hundred Gatling guns issued to Field Artillery and some new Maxims; these are mostly issued for colonial use. About 47,000 men serve in both Field and Garrison artillery along with Artillery supply and support units.

The Martini-Henry, examples pictured here, is the most widely used rifle and carbine in British service, having been adopted in 1871 as the Republic's first breechloader firing the black powder 11mm Martini-Henry cartridge. It is being replaced by the new Magazine Lee-Metford rifle, pictured here, adopted in 1888 featuring a new 7.7mm Enfield cartridge loaded in a five-round detachable magazine, with the idea that soldiers would carry multiple loaded magazines. Similarly, the army currently has a large stockpile of Enfield Revolvers, shown here, which were standard issue for those who received sidearms until the adoption of the new Webley Revolver, shown here, which is displacing the old Enfields in service; additionally, private purchase of sidearms are allowed by the army as long as they chamber approved ammunition. In that vein, its widely known, although not officially allowed, that soldiers and officers tend to purchase or "procure" non-standard armaments, ranging from shotguns to Winchesters; the army doesn't feel it needed to put through the effort to go after them. The most common items "procured" by soldiers are melee instruments, as the only issued items for use in melee combat are the Bayonet and the entrenching tool in a pinch. Many soldiers obtain clubs, knives, and other instruments to augment their arsenal.

The official uniform of the British army, both Infantry and Cavalry, is the Home Service Pattern, pictured here. It's a uniform of a dark green tunic and pants with leather boots, pith or cordwood helmet, and webbing carrying cartridge pouches and knapsack. Variants of the Home Service exist for Cavalry and other branches with minor changes or additions; the helmet can also be substituted for a peaked cap for dress. A second common uniform is the Support Pattern, shown here, which is standard issue for use by Army combat support and support services and is also very popular for use by the Volunteer Rifle Corps; a notable variant of this uniform is the Headquarters Pattern, pictured here, a blue uniform derived from the Support Pattern worn by officers and staff of Army Headquarters and as dress uniform by Generals. While the Home Service Pattern is the official uniform of the army, it is not the most widely used; that distinction goes to the Foreign Service Pattern or Khaki Drill uniform, illustrated here, which substitutes the items of the Home Service pattern with Khaki dyed cloth and the addition of cloth Puttees to replace the use of leather boots. The Khaki Drill uniform is widely used by both Regular army and Colonial militia units throughout the Commonwealth, except for Canada which uses the Home Service pattern. Besides the pith helmet, cocked hats and campaign hats, such as the one illustrated here, are also commonly used with the Khaki uniform.

Army Weakness: The largest weakness of the British Army is its size and its organization. Beginning with the standing force, the British only have 300,000 men at arms ready to fight, over half of which are deployed overseas in the Empire, meaning that Britain would only have around 150,000 men ready if a war in Europe broke out, roughly 10 divisions by continental standards. These divisions would also be made up of half-strength regiments, as the other half would be off in colonial service and would take weeks or months to recall them home. The backup for this system as the reserve formations, which are a complicated mess due to the overlap of three separate armed forces; the Reserve Army, the Militia, and the Volunteers. While the Reserve army, being directly controlled by the Army Headquarters and made up of veterans, is a sufficient force, its the smallest of the three, with the Militia being a part-time force of civilians with minimal training controlled by politicians in the War Office and the Volunteers being not much better and often armed by private individuals. If called up all these formations would service an armed force in the home isles around 700,000 men strong when added to standing forces; not tiny by any measure but not exactly grand by comparison to the millions-strong reserves of France, Germany, or the Eastern nations.

Arms are another weakness as the majority of the armed forces field the Martini-Henry, a single-shot black powder rifle. It is being displaced by the new Lee-Metford rifle but that has only been issued to a few battalions in the Regulars so far and hasn't been touched at all by reserve formations. The Lee also isn't great, as its Metford rifling was designed for black powder cartridges but the new 7.7mm Enfield uses smokeless cordite, causing the barrels to wear easily and leading to some accuracy and mechanical issues. So many issues in fact that the army is already undergoing trials to develop and adopt a new updated version of the rifle sometime in the next couple of years. Although the volunteers have beaten the Army Headquarters to the punch and often purchase arms themselves, causing a bit of a nightmare for supply as they have to deal with different cartridges used by the volunteers.

In short, the army is heavily designed for colonial combat, with a small army split into small units stationed all over the Commonwealth, with a core kept at home which can be used with an interweaving web of reserve units in the case of war to defend Britain. The major threat to this system would be a major threat to Britain or its allies which would require a large number of troops to be fielded, which Britain at this point cannot do without the institution of major changes or the introduction of conscription, an act that hasn't happened since the Revolutionary Wars. To avoid this large scale type of crisis, the British rely heavily on their navy in order to ensure that large numbers of troops won't need to be fielded on Britannias grassy shores.

Navy Description: The Republican Naval Service is the maritime wing of the British military, providing for both defense and offense on the high seas and waterways. The Service is most associated with its largest branch, the Republican Navy, but it contains other branches including the Corps of Marine Light Infantry, Republican Naval Artillery, and support services like the Nurses Corps. All of this falls under the administration of the Admiralty Department through its Secretary and the Admiralty Board, the latter a council modeled on its Army counterpart containing the major administrative heads from Naval Headquarters, the main bureaucratic, planning, and command center for the navy. The biggest names in Headquarters and the Board are the Four Admirals; the Grand Admiral, the professional head of the Service, the First Admiral, Chief of Headquarters and the Naval Planning Staff (in charge of war planning and deployments), the Second Admiral, responsible for recruitment and training (also oversees land units), and the Third Admiral, in charge of construction and procurement of supplies.

The RN has seven major regional commands; the Home Station (Also known as Commander-In-Chief, Portsmouth), West African Station, South African Station, American Station, Indian Station, East African Station, and Javan Station. These stations act as administrative commands overseeing fleets, squadrons, and flotillas deployed within the region. Fleets act as the mainline battle unit of the navy; Home Station has the Channel and North Seas fleets, Indian Station has the Indian Fleet, and West African Station has the South Atlantic Fleet. Some squadrons, such as the American Squadron, East African Squadron, Red Sea Squadron, China Squadron, and Javan Squadron act as standalone small units while others too numerous to name operate either as part of fleets or in conjunction with fleets to support larger ships; same with Flotillas, the only independent one being the Cape Town Flotilla. There is also a special fleet under the direct command of Navy Headquarters; the Reserve Fleet, a formation of ships past their prime held in reserve either until needed to serve as coastal protection or until they are sold for scrap, a designation known as "laid up in ordinary".

Ships utilized in line battles against other fleets are titled Battleships, a rather modern designation derived from the ships-of-the-line of battle from the age of sail. The last of the wooden sailing ships were long ago commissioned, making the RN battleships being a force of ironclad steam-powered ships, a design that began in the 1860s, a decade in which the oldest still serving ships were commissioned in. While originally still broadsides, in the mid-to-late 1860's the RN adopted central battery designs for their ships, giving birth to many classes of ships, the only survivors being the Hercules (2), Audacious (4), and Alexandra classes (3), all of which have gone through a few refits and upgrades over the years but are all still central battery ships; they are used almost exclusively in the colonial and reserve fleets. A change came with the 1873 commissioning of the Devastation Class (5), still in service, the first turret ship without sail masts, which sparked an overall shift away from the central battery to turret designs. Devastation would be followed by the Neptune (3), Colossus (2), Admiral (6), Gladstone (3), and Nile (3) classes, all variants of the mastless turret designs. This period of design and commissioned of mastless turret Ironclads took place between the 1870s right up to the end of the 1880s, a period that saw a lot of innovation and building up of technology in new ships and the retrofitting of upgrades to older ships. It also saw the construction of small coastal ironclads meant for home defense, about six still in service, and "Breastwork Monitors", a variant of the American monitor type ship using breastwork to make them more seaworthy, with about twelve commissioned for use in the home or colonial coastal waters. The most recent advancement has come off the tail end of the Nile class, with the ordering and then commissioned of two out of five of the new Republic Class in 1890; this new class features a higher freeboard, new 350mm main cannons utilizing new Cordite smokeless ammunition, new triple-expansion steam engines making it faster than any previous class, and with a larger displacement around 14,000 tons. The Republic is the first ship to be officially designated a "Battleship", with the navy retroactively labeling previous classes as "Ironclad Battleships", signifying its role as the new modern vanguard of the RN's battleship force. (9 Central battery ironclads, 22 turret ironclads, 2 pre-dreadnought battleships. 6 coastal ironclads and 11 monitors.)

Code: Select all

Channel Fleet - Five turret ironclads, one pre-dreadnought

North Seas Fleet - Eight turret ironclads, one pre-dreadnought

Indian Fleet - Four turret ironclads, four monitors

South Atlantic Fleet - Two central battery ironclads

Red Sea Squadron - One central battery ironclad, One turret Ironclad

Javan Squadron - Three central battery ironclads, Two turret ironclads, Three monitors

American Squadron - One turret ironclad, One monitor

China Squadron - One turret ironclad, One monitor

Reserve Fleet - Four central battery ironclads, six coastal ironclads, two monitors

Cruisers are ships designed to cruise independently, often for scouting, use on independent missions, or to assist battleships in naval battles. The Navy has three categories of Cruisers based on tonnage and armament, although not armor layout so the categories do not distinguish between Protected cruisers, which feature armor decks to protect internal vitals, and Armored cruisers, which feature an armor belt around the hull; although all Armored cruisers in the navy are First Class. There are twenty-three First Class Cruisers in service, of which twelve are Armored, along with thirty-eight Second Class and thirty-eight Third Class cruisers in service.

Small ships refers to three main categories of ships; Gunboats, Sloops, and Torpedo Gunboats. All three are utilized for similar purposes, namely either as supporting small ships for largest battleships or cruisers; or for use in colonial service where small and lightly armed ships are useful. The latter is particularly true for British Sloops, of which there are forty-two in service, the majority of which were built during the 1870s and, again, are mostly used in colonial service, particularly in West Africa and the East Indies. Gunboats and Torpedo Gunboats are also used in colonial service but were mainly created to support battleships and cruisers, particularly the newer Torpedo gunboats. There are twelve gunboats and seventeen Torpedo gunboats in service. All of these ships carry varying amounts of small arms, usually with small naval guns, and in the case of the Torpedo Gunboats… Torpedoes, which can be effective against larger ships.

Like the army, the navy is an all-volunteer force with about 47,000 men in the Republican Navy and an additional 15,000 men in the CMLI and Naval Artillery. Focusing on the CMLI for a moment, they serve in a dual-purpose role as both guardsmen protecting naval installations and maintaining order on ships, and as offensive light infantry in boarding actions, a rare sight in the modern-day, and acting as the landing force for naval invasions. The RN has pioneered the use of Naval Brigades, ad hoc mixed units created by taking sailors not essential and arming them for use as infantry, and having them be spearheaded by the ship's compliments of Marines. The CMLI does not have fixed units like the Army but instead are assigned to compliments organic to the ship or land installation, which range from company to battalion sizes depending on the size of the ship. When needed, these compliments can be amalgamated to form battalions or even whole regiments and brigades. The CMLI utilize the navy patterns of the army Martini-Henry and Lee-Metford rifles, but they use their own distinctive blue uniform, seen here.

Navy Weakness: The RN is an increasingly aging force, with many of its battleships and cruisers having been commissioned one or two decades ago, even older for some of the reserve ships. This has led the navy to spend resources and time on refitting and rearming programs to attempt to keep older ships capable. The compounding issue is the far-flung corners of the Commonwealth that require protection, stretching the navy across the seven seas. While Britain has the words largest Battleship fleet by a number of ships, its tonnage is on par with other Europeans in Europe itself due to ships, of all classes not just battleships, being spread out among different stations, fleets, and squadrons.

Further Military Description: The origin of the British Military lies with those forces raised by the Kings of England, which more many centuries relied on a system of Feudal command and the raising of militias or ships when need be, without any major standing force besides the monarchs own Household units. The first professional army in Britain was raised by Parliamentarian forces during the English Civil War, first serving under Lord Fairfax and then John Ireton. This "New Model Army" was one of the first to be commanded by professional soldiers rather than politicians, and featured one of the first uses of conscription. When Charles defeated the Parliamentarians he took note of their army and charged Fairfax, who had defected during the war along with George Monk, to raise a Royal Army to force a professional core of the King's troops. Fairfax would implement many of the reforms of the New Model Army and also of the Parliamentarian Navy which had seen great advances under its commander Robert Blake, whose successes failed to turn the tide but did succeed in drawing Fairfaxes attention. When Fairfax passed he left behind a professional Royal Army of standing troops and loyal Aristocratic officers, and a navy much improved in drill and equipment than that which came before him. These two formations would be used by the Stuart monarchs both in foreign lands to fight wars with Spain or France, and at home where they would be able to put down revolt after revolt thanks to the professional Royal Army. The Scots and Irish also kept up their own formations although these in effect were subservient to English command and were officially incorporated after the Act of Union.

The 18th century saw further professionalization and organization with the formation of the War Department under the Kings cabinet, which set precedent with the creation of institutions such as the Commissariat and the Board of Ordnance. It would also see the Glorious Revolution and the raising of the Revolutionary Army of England. The organization was based on an underground system perfected by the massacre of 1745; regiments of militia were organized and trained, contact was kept by secret committees who transfer correspondence, and command was overseen by councils of politicians known as Green Ribbon clubs. The Revolutionary Army was led by the Army Council, whose members were elected by the Green Ribbons and were mostly the major military commanders. The Royal Army has most of the officer corps so the Army Council was forced to promote men quickly, with former Royalist officers being embraced if they pledge loyalty. Command, tactics, and organization were refined with the assistance of American and France advisors, leading to the abolition of the election of officers and a new Army Council appointed by Parliament, along with the professionalization of the militias. The period would also see the rise of Samuel Auchmuty; born in the American Colonies to British-born parents, Auchmuty would see his Anglican father's church be censured by the Catholic Royally appointed governor of New York, driving him to serve in the American army. He would later immigrate back to his father's land and would join the Revolutionary Army, his experience allowing him to rise quickly through the ranks, eventually reaching Lieutenant-General by 1795. Auchmuty served as the primary field commander for the English forces, together with Wolfe Tone in Ireland and Thomas Muir in Scotland leading revolutionary forces.

After the overthrow of the monarchy, it would be Auchmuty who would oversee the mopping up of Royalist remnants, the enforcement of the abolition of the aristocracy, and the demobilization of much of the army. He would be praised by parliament after the war, granting him the title of Grand Marshal of the Republic following the passage of army reforms under the Godwin Government. This period would see Britain's involvement in the Revolutionary Wars and so great reform would be needed. The previously mentioned army reforms came in the form of the Armed Forces Act of 1801, which formed the British Republican Army and Republican Navy, both of which would be overseen by civilian offices, the War Office and Admiralty Office respectively. The main boon of the act, however, would be the granting of advanced powers to the Grand Marshal, making him head of the army and chairman of the Army Council, allowing Auchmuty to reform an army of militias into a force of foot along the lines of what he served in during the American war. He turned the Army into a volunteer force of professional soldiers utilizing modern weapons and tactics, along with abolishing revolutionary practices such as the election of officers, instead instituting a meritocratic system to form a new officers corps, a task he had in mind when he convinced Parliament to provide funding for an Academy to educate and train officers at Sandhurst. His meritocratic system also extended to the non-commissioned officers, as he promoted veterans and made it a policy to integrate former Royalist soldiers with former Revolutionary militiamen and new recruits to allow for the experienced to serve with the inexperienced. His reforms would pay off as the British armies saw success in the fields of Europe and Georgia, although the Dumaynayds would inflict considerable casualties killing many officers and NCOs. Auchmuty would pass in 1822, leaving behind him a new professional but meritocratic army.

The Navy would be an interesting story. The Royal navy was split between both sides during the Revolution, and so came out the other end rather mauled. During the revolutionary wars, it relied on privateers and foreign assistance. The core of the new Republican navy would be made up of Royal Navy ships, deserted or captured, or merchant ships outfitted with guns. An Admiralty Board would be established along the lines of the Army Council but it would act less as a command and more as a sanctioning body to approve actions of independent ships and their commanders. One of these commanders would be Horatio Nelson; born the son of a Reverend his father's Anglican stance alienated him from the Stuart church and would leave the family Nelson, which came from minor aristocracy and wealth, destitute and without influence. The son Horatio would turn to service to make a living, enlisting as a Seaman in 1771 and would serve throughout the late Monarchy. He would manage to make midshipman and eventually be accepted to the naval academy, becoming an officer by the time of the American war, serving under others on various ships mostly in the West Indies. It was during this time that Nelson was radicalized some, being exposed to American Patriot literature and feeling discontent over constantly being passed over in promotion while aristocrats received high positions. When the Glorious Revolution began Nelson led a mutiny and took over a 64-gun third rate named the HMS Agamemnon, which would serve as his flagship for the rest of the revolution. Nelson would make fame for his exploits on the seas against Royal ships, attracting other enlisted Republican ships to follow him and earning him promotions. Soon his command was recognized by an act of Parliament, granting him the title of Admiral and Commander-In-Chief Portsmouth, effective commander of the British navy in the home isles. After the revolution, Nelson would work to professional the navy, ordering the construction of new ships, instituting meritocratic reforms like those does by Auchmuty, and establishing new gunnery training and a dedicated Corps of Gunnery to maintain it. Nelson would command the navy through the Revolutionary Wars, including commanding the fleet at the Battle of the Gulf where the Dumaynayd fleet was destroyed. He would continue to serve after being proclaimed Grand Admiral of the Fleet, and on after the Revolutionary wars into the 1840s where he'd continue as the "Old Man of the Fleet", until dying in office in 1845. Nelson set the foundation for the Republican Navy and created it into a full and powerful force; one of professionalism, duty, and merit.

Following the revolutionary wars, Britain would enter a period of long peace with fellow European nations, with a drawdown in forces and a refocusing of efforts towards colonial objectives. This period would see many innovations, such as the introduction of steam engines and iron platting for warships and the adoption of rifles for standard issue. The transition from the infantry of Auchmuty's army to the new infantry of the 1850s and 1860s, which featured new weapons, tactics, and often more troops than previously required, caused chaffing as the established structure came into conflict with new needs. This would be addressed by the Cardwell Reforms under the Disraeli government; undertaken by War Secretary Cardwell they sought to modernize the Army through reform of enlistment by shortening the service period from twenty to seven years, created the Reserve Army where enlisted men would serve an additional three years reserve service, reorganized the militias and placed them under the War Office rather than local municipalities, abolished flogging and bounties, established new military justice systems and expelled known troublemakers, and did some other minor reforms such as reforming some ranks and abolishing others like Ensign. Cardwell would be followed by War Secretary Childers ten years later, 1881, during the Broadhurst Government. The British army had watched the Second American Civil war with as much interest as the first and studied the Americans' way of war. The Childers Reforms reorganized the Regiments into two battalions of regular infantry and two battalions of Militia; reserves could be used to supplement either. It also introduced Localization, whereby the nation was divided into Regimental Areas, each providing a regiment, with a shared regimental depot that recruited local residents within the Area for service, rather than general recruitment. Childers also expanded many existing institutions in the War Office and at Sandhurst, allowing for new innovations like the American Gatling Gun to be experimented with and used.

While the British Army of that period reorganized and refined itself, the British Navy expanded. Under Grand Admiral Joseph Woodhull the navy embraced new Ironclads, launching the first dedicated armor platted warship, the frigate RNS Warrior. Navy ships would see service from China, where they fought the brief Opium Wars, to Africa supporting troops on the rivers and coasts. Experimentation would give way to new innovations; the original ironclads were mostly still designed as sail ships with armor plating and steam engines, but ships over time would develop new battery formations such as the central battery, barbettes, and eventually the one that would stick; turrets. Starting with the RNS Neptune, the navy would retire central battery ships and go all-in on Turret Ironclads, eventually to be known as Battleships. The navy would also experiment with coastal defense ships in the form of coastal battleships and Breastwork monitors. Many of these ships, all those designed after the Neptune, continue to see service, although the older ones are mothballed in reserves to make way for the new generation of battleships signified by the modern Republic Class.

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#AltDiv (Do not delete this, it is used to keep track of the apps)

[The Traansval]

History of Britain: Royalist Period

Union of the Kingdoms and the early rule of King Charles I
For brevity's sake we’ll begin our history with the formation of modern Britain, a feat whose seeds were first sowed with the War of the Roses, a bloody dynastic dispute eventually leading to the House of Tudor, most famous for its illustrious queen Elizabeth I, who led England through a golden age both in the arts and in the field of battle as England established itself as a major naval power through the defeat of a Spanish Armada. She would, however, die childless, and her crown passed to a relative of hers; James VI, the King of Scotland, who was proclaimed James I of England, the first monarch to rule the Three Kingdoms, which included the Kingdom of Ireland a holding that was in a personal union with England after centuries of English conquest and colonization on the island. While James’s rule wouldn’t see a truly united British isle, as England, Scotland, and Ireland were all still independent nations with their own parliaments, just under a personal union with a shared Monarch, his rule paved the way for the future Union of these three shared nations. It also saw the success of the American colonies, chief among them being recently founded Suriname, Virginia, and Massachusetts colonies, and the success of Elizabeth’s East India Company as it established trading posts and conducted trade with the Indians and Indonesians of Java.

It would now be extremely useful to mention a very key and somewhat unique element of England and to a lesser or greater extent Ireland and Scotland; Parliament. A King may be all-powerful but they do not fight or collect taxes themselves, no they must rely on others to do so for them, and it has come to pass that those others have not done so. In specific, a King relies greatly on his nobility, those who hold feudal titles, to maintain order and provide for the Kingdom’s defense; but he also relies greatly on his Gentry, the landed and wealthy, for they are fundamental to the bureaucracy, and the collection of revenue. This is common among many European and non-European nations of the age, and to address this it was common for Kings to consult with councils of nobles or gentry, in order to get their assent in order to put into place policy or edicts. In England, these councils came to constitute a political body all their own, known as Parliament. This body was divided into two houses; the House of Lords, which assembled the nobility, and the House of the Commons, which assembled the Gentry. Over time, the Commons became a powerful institution, as without it and by extension without the support of the Gentry, the Monarch could not raise revenue. The power of this institution, largely composed of non-nobles, began to give credence to a belief in popular sovereignty, that the monarch ruled because the people, or in this case the gentry, were pleased with him and gave their assent to his rule.

This doctrine came into conflict with some monarchs, who believed that their rule was Divine, that it was mandated by God, and that the monarch themselves embodied the state, with all power coming from them and being granted on those lower than the monarch. No monarch in British history detested the rule of parliament more than Charles I of England, who succeeded his father James in March of 1625. Charles soon came into great conflict with parliament, not only about questions of power but also importantly about questions of religion. Britain had been Catholic for much of the medieval period, but Henry VIII, the father of Elizabeth, saw England break from the papacy with the declaration of the Church of England, otherwise known as the Anglican Church or Anglicanism. It was a uniquely English branch of Protestantism, which under Charles was dominated by Arminianism or as it was also known, the High Church. Charles and the Arminians were often accused of having papal sympathies and were denounced by some for their use of rites and organization which some considered too Catholic. The main opponent of the Arminians were the Puritans, who favored a more “purified” version of worship along with local control of church teachings rather than a centrally controlled church. In Scotland, the Anglicans were opposed by the Kirk, the Scottish Church, which was mostly controlled by Calvinist Presbyterians, a type of Protestantism that favored control of the church by assemblies of Presbyters or church elders.

Religion sparked the first major conflict of Charle’s reign, as his attempts to force the use of a common prayer bible based on the English one in Scotland caused the Kirk to form an assembly, denouncing Charles’s religion reforms in Scotland, leading to an armed insurrection known as the Bishops War. Charles raised an army but avoided any open battle with the Scots, as he feared losing his expensive troops. Remember how the Kings of England could only raise revenue through the cooperation of the Gentry and by acts of parliament? Well, Charles had spent eleven years of his reign without having ever called a parliament to session, a period known as his personal rule. During this time, Charles was forced to raise revenue through convoluted methods such as appropriating funds from the ship tax, a tax meant to fund the navy or downright theft such as when he seized the bullion in the Mint. These methods made him extremely unpopular with the gentry, but it also made Charles extremely cash strapped, and so when he spent a good chunk of money on an army he didn’t dare lose it. Temporary peace came with the treaty of Berwick, which in effect acted as a ceasefire for Charles to build up his forces. Charles would try a few more methods to raise funds, such as seizing the East India Company’s stores of spices, but eventually, he’d be forced to convene the Irish and English parliaments; the Irish raised funds and an army of 9,000 men, the English denounced the King and had their parliament dissolved only a month after it was called, earning it the name of the Short Parliament.

The Scots =capitalized on this internal instability and restarted the war in 1640, leading an invasion of north England. With no other option, Charles signed the Treaty of Ripon; under its terms, the Scots would halt their advance, continue to occupy the areas they had taken, and Charles would pay them a monthly fee in order to keep them from advancing. To avoid military defeat, Charles had added more onto his debt and had completely humiliated himself by accepting defeat by the hands of the Scots. In order to finance this peace, Charles called parliament once more, forming what would come to be known as the Long Parliament.

This parliament was a convention of 493 members, of which 350 were in opposition to the King. Its first acts were impeachments of the King’s councilors, chief among them Lord Stafford, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, and right-hand man of the King. Parliament also took radical action to protect itself, including passing an act mandating that it must meet at least once every three years, which Charles reluctantly agreed to due to its combination with a subsidy bill. The case against Stafford fell apart in the courts, so the leader of the radicals, John Pym, went to Parliament seeking a bill of attainder; a death warrant, authorized by parliament's vote. While Pym was initially in the minority, an attempted royalist army coup turned opinion against Stafford; he was beheaded by Parliaments orders on May 12th. After this, parliament passed a slew of bills, including the abolition of major courts which Charles had used to enforce his revenue acts, along with the abolition of said acts to gain revenue, and an act which forbade the King from dissolving parliament. Charles granted these acts in order to concede and gain favor, and also to allow for the passage of taxation bills. He even made visits to Scotland and endorse the Kirk, although an attempted royalist coup there undermined his support.

A new rebellion soon popped up in 1641, this time in Ireland. Said island was a complicated area both politically, ethnically, and religiously; the Kingdom of Ireland was technically a separate political entity but centuries of English, previous Norman, invasions, and colonization had made Ireland a holding of England. Its population was mostly Catholic with a Protestant minority, but while religion played a large role, so did class and ethnicity; the lower classes were mostly composed of the Irish Gaelics, while the gentry and nobility were divided between the Old English, those who had come over during the Norman invasions and older England, and the New English, who had settled after the establishment of the Church of England. The chief difference between these two groups was religion; the Old English were Catholic, which they shared with the Gaelics, while the New English formed the protestant minority. These religious and ethnic differences caused tensions, and it didn’t help that the Catholics were often discriminated against and had their lands taken over by Protestant plantations, particularly in the north around Ulster or Dublin. The Irish Rebellion was primarily one in opposition to this colonization and religious tension, and it saw the Gaelics be supported by the Old English, while said Old English still professed loyalty to the King. A government known as the Irish Confederacy, formed shortly after the initial uprising, and primarily dominated by Old English gentry and nobility, raised regiments of Irish soldiers and fought the New English.

In England, Pym pushed through the Grand Remonstrance, a bill listing grievances and complaints against the King and the House of Lords, a very controversial bill that nonetheless passed. Shortly after, news of the Irish rebellion and rumors of Charles’s involvement began to spread, inciting embers to burn. When Charles asked for funds to raise an army to put down the Irish, parliament suspected Charles meant to raise an army to instead march on parliament, and so Pym pushed the Militia Act to place the military under parliament. Soon, the antipathy between parliament and Charles boiled over by rumors that parliament meant to arrest Charle’s wife, and so he took drastic action.

The boots of soldiers dressed in red, armed with pikes and matchlock pistols, trampled over the carpet of the Commons. They forced open the doors and secured the chamber as the King marched in and sat in the speaker’s chair. He held in his hand a warrant for the arrest of five men, five agitators and radicals, five members of parliament. The men had fled, forewarned by trusted sources, and so Charles looked around a house containing none of the men he had come for. He asked the speaker where they were, but the speaker told his monarch that he could not answer except as the Commons instructed him; that he was a servant of parliament first, not the King. Charles left the house, and soon after fled London fearing for his safety. With the king in flight, Parliament raised an army; civil war had come to England.

War of the Three Kingdoms and English Civil War
Charles attempted to seize the militia arsenal at Hull but was rebuffed by its parliamentary governor. The lines had been drawn; on one side, the Royalists or Cavaliers, on the other the Parliamentarians or Roundheads. In the north, the Scottish who had once fought the king in the Bishops war now constituted the Covenanters, now allied with the Parliamentarians, while Royalist Scots under James Graham attempted to retake Scotland for the King. Ireland was a mess as New English Royalists and New English Parliamentarians fought each other and the semi-Royalist Irish Confederation. Charles formed his court in Nottingham on the 22nd of August 1642, soon after moving to Oxford where he’d also form a rival parliament. Both sides formed their armies, and soon enough marched out to fight.

With both sides relatively evenly matched in arms and numbers, the fighting came down to tactics. For the parliamentarians, their forces came under the command of Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex; Charles brought in Prince Rupert of the Rhine to give counsel and command his elite cavalry, which is exactly what he did at the Battle of Powick Bridge, routing a force of parliamentarian cavalry. On the 12th of October, his army marched out on the road to London, baiting Devereux’s army to come out and meet them. He would do just that, and at Edgehill, the two fought a bloody but indecisive battle, and later they’d fight again at Turnham Green, where Charles was forced to retreat to Oxford. The two sides hunkered down for the winter, and the dawning of 1643’s spring saw the Royalists gain many victories, but the parliamentarians were beginning to gain steam, undercut somewhat by demonstrations in August by Londoners demanding peace.

Devereux gained much-needed victories at the Battle of Newbury and the siege of Gloucester. Other victories such as at Winceby and King’s Lynn put immense pressure on the Royalists, leading to Charles agreeing to a ceasefire with the Irish Confederates in order to bring Royalist troops there over to England. These reinforcements, along with Prince Rupert’s cavalry utilizing effective scouting, delivering Charles a decisive victory at the Battle of Marston Moor; his outnumbered troops managed a successful fight against a joint parliamentarian and covenanter force, where the quick use of Rupert’s cavalry decimated a charge by the Ironside Cavalry under command of Oliver Cromwell, taking his life, and destroying infantry under command of the covenanter the Earl of Leven. The victory dealt a large blow to the parliamentarian forces and crippled the covenanters, allowing for Charle’s forced to link up with the forces of James Graham, eventually leading to the pacification of Scotland in 1645. Earlier in 1644, Parliament reformed its forces, creating the New Model Army of professional officers and soldiers to fight Charles. Command of this army was given to Thomas Fairfax, who saw it through the fighting at the Battle of Lostwithiel and Second Battle of Newbury, both Royalist victories. Fairfax was beginning to see the writing on the walls and was increasingly coming to blows with the more radical members of the army such as Henry Ireton, who vied with him for power. Fairfax officially defected along with a contingent of moderate officers and soldiers, leaving the New Model Army as a mass of radical soldiers and a handful of radical officers, now under the command of Ireton. It fought two more battles at Naseby and Langport, both of which were Royalist victories. Fighting continued into the next year until Ireton was captured in battle in May of 1646, and Charles entered London at the head of an army commanded by Fairfax in June of the same year.

What followed was known as Charles’s Purge, as he put to death fifty major members of the parliamentarian rebellion and stripped titles, land, and peerage from hundreds more. Charle’s legalized all of this along with new taxes through a new parliament, known as the Rump Parliament or the Royalist Parliament as it was stacked with royal supporters. Charles had defeated the parliamentarians and put to death or exiled his major opponents, but more importantly, he had, through force of arms and more blood than had ever been spilled, enforced the doctrine of divine right, and taken the growing power of parliament and put it to the torch.

However, his fighting was not over yet, as Ireland was still in a tricky situation. The Irish Confederation there professed to be loyal to Charles but had been in opposition to the New English and Royalist forces there; and while Charles was sympathetic to the Irish Catholics he loathed the amount of autonomy the Confederation sought. Charles sat at home, gaining funds and men, until finally breaking his ceasefire and launching the Irish Campaign in the spring of 1649. His forces landed and soon put to siege the city of Dublin, a bloody fight that saw over 3,500 killed. This ruthlessness was seen throughout the campaign at places such as Rathmines and Drogheda, coming to an end only having the complete destruction of the Confederacy and subjugation of Ireland under New English lords in 1651.

Postbellum Britain and the reign of Charles II
The final years of Charles’s reign, known as the Postbellum Period, was an era primarily of reconstruction and the strengthening of the monarch's position. This period also saw a few last uprisings against Charles, including the Second Scottish Civil War where the covenanters give their last fight and Pride's Coup where Thomas Pride, a former colonel in the New Model Army, lead a band of former soldiers to seize Parliament and attempt to re-install parliamentary rule, only to see the force be put to death by Royalist militias. With the end of the Irish campaigns and the brutal put down of the last uprisings, Charles finally cemented his rule, and in 1654 he looked out from the windows of the palace on his empire, only for his heart to finally give out after years of campaigning. Charles I was dead and his son now inherited a destroyed Kingdom.

Coronated Charles II, the new King saw the unrestricted implementation of “Thorough”, a policy drafted by his father’s advisors, chiefly Stafford, to centralize royal power for the establishment of Absolute Monarchy. The first acts his Royal government and parliament passed were the Clarendon Codes, a series of laws named after one of the king’s chief advisors, which in effect banned nonconformists and non-Anglican, along with standardizing the Church of England as the dominant religion throughout the three Kingdoms, although mostly England and Scotland. These saw Puritans and other non-Anglicans flee England for the colonies, joining those Roundheads who had gone into exile there as well, in an event known as the Great Ejection. Charles also implemented the Fairfax Reforms, a series of reforms championed by Thomas Fairfax to create a professional core similar to the New Model Army although restricted in order to keep it under monarchist control, along with the adoption of parliamentarian naval doctrine and tactics, allowing the Royal navy to be reformed into a more effective fighting force.

The new King ruled with absolute power, with a parliament of yes men rubber-stamping anything he asked for. Charles saw a great expansion in colonial efforts including plantations in Ireland and the American colonies which, while full of Puritans and now former roundheads, and by and large stayed loyal, earning the most loyal, Virginia, the title of the Old Dominion. However, it was not to be all sunshine and rainbows, as in 1665 Charles needed to oversee his nation as it went through the Great Plague of London, the last major outbreak of the disease, and in 1666 London was hit again, this time with the Great Fire decimating much of the urban city.

1668 saw the acquisition of Bombay by the British East India Company. It’s worth mentioning them briefly; the Honorable East India Company has acted as a nation unto itself with the sole purpose of trade and colonization in the East ever since its establishment. Utilizing colonial ports established in West Africa and the growing Cape Colony, first established by the HEIC and then nationalized by James I, the company came into the Indian ocean and soon set up in Java, where it made deals and fought conflicts to gain ports and allies in order to control the islands valuable spices. These spices were then sold in India, ruled by the Mughals. Bombay was the first port acquired by the British, and to support it's growth Charles II granted the HEIC sweeping powers such as to raise troops and taxes, make peace and war, and others in order to allow it to operate.

While parliament was filled with Royalist supporters, it was also filled with protestants, who began to chafe under the Catholic friendly Charles II. Of note was the Declaration of Indulgence in 1670 which lifted penal laws placed on Catholics, and also Charles’s alignment with Catholic Iberia. Charles recanted this Declaration soon after, bowing to parliament which passed the Test Act, which placed restrictions on Catholics being able to be civil servants and other penalties. Parliament had been willing to fund the King’s projects and allow for his acts, but finally, it had broken from him on religion; Charles favored the High Church like his father which drew accusations of Papal influence, while the protestant royalists in parliament were not happy with such accused influence.

Rumors of a papal plot to overthrow Charles ran rampant through London, and soon enough ire fell on one of Charles’s ministers; Lord Danby, who had been a part of Charles’s effort to negotiate non-aggression with Catholic France. To avoid having his minister be tried and possibly executed, Charles dissolved parliament in August of 1679. This didn't work, however, and he’d be forced to recall it and have Danby face trial, leading to his exile to the colonies. These troubles were overshadowed by the biggest showdown between Charles and parliament over Charles’s brother, James. Charles was childless, and so if he died the crown would pass to James, who was a Catholic. James had earned popularity after taking part in the effort to fight the Great Fire, and even more so when an attempted assassination was foiled in 1682. However, he was still a Catholic, which was not popular with the largely protestant and anti-papist gentry and nobles. A divide formed over the introduction of the Exclusion Act, which aimed to exclude James from succession; its supporters were called Whigs in reference to a group of radical Scottish parliamentarians, and its opponents were called Tories referencing a group of Irish Catholics. Whigs formed an opposition to the King, while the Tories supported him and his attempts at Absolute Monarchy. The exclusion bill never saw a vote as Charles dissolved parliament and began a few years long personal rule after he attempted to form another parliament only to see the Whigs fill it, necessitating him to dissolve it again. A string of acquittals towards those accused of involvement in papal plots showed the growing support for Charles and growing opposition to the exclusion bill, allowing Charles to push support for Tories in the civil service and judiciary. Support grew again after the Rye House Plot of 1683, a failed protestant assassination, was uncovered, leading to the prosecution and execution or exile of many leading Whigs. With support at an all-time high, Charles solidified control by replacing judges and sheriffs at will and packing juries to achieve convictions favorable to him. He also disenfranchised many Whigs to achieve electoral victories for the Tories in municipal elections.

Monmouth's Rebellion and the reign of James II
Charles suffered a sudden apoplectic fit on the morning of February 2nd, 1685; he died shortly after. With the country firmly in the hands of Tory politicians, James ascended to the throne of the three kingdoms as James II of England and James VII of Scotland. James called a parliament, known as the Loyal Parliament, which was largely packed with Tories thanks to the before-mentioned disenfranchisement campaign. James mostly kept Charles’s old ministers and officers, relying on them and continuing their policy of Throughout. All was not roses, however, as soon after his coronation, James faced his first test, as his nephew, the Duke of Monmouth raised an army hellbent on dethroning the Catholic King.

Monmouth was joined by the Earl of Argyll who raised a rebellion in Scotland; the rebellion was primarily based on religious and political differences, as Monmouth declared himself the rightful King and was supported by many Whigs who opposed the Stuart's policy of absolute monarchy and James’s catholicism. James raised an army thanks to the generous funding provided by the Loyal Parliament and crushed the Scottish uprising, capturing Argyll, in June of 1685. Monmouth saw a similar fate at the Battle of Sedgemoor where his forces were routed and himself captured, leading to the Bloody Assizes; a series of trials where Monmouth and Argyll were put to death and over three hundred other rebellion leaders and Whigs were sent into indentured servitude in the Suriname colonies of America.

After the rebellion, James sought security by incorporating the troops he raised for the Monmouth Rebellion into the standing Royal Army. This, along with James’s use of Catholic officers in the army, caused outrage among Whigs, while the conduct of the often rowdy soldiers in towns alienated many. When parliament objected to James’s use of Catholic officers in defiance of the Test Act, James dissolved Parliament. James then began to surround his court with men dubbed “papists” by the public, even receiving the first envoy of the Papacy itself since the reign of Mary I. While this alienated many Anglicans, even tory ones, James’s powerful standing army and the utter control of the courts by James’s appointments meant there was little power to stop him as he entered his personal rule. In May of 1686, James utilized a court packed with his supporters to rule that he had the power to nullify acts of parliament, and so overturned many of the penal laws against Catholics. Between 1687 and 1688 the King went on a speaking tour of the nation, driving support for his reforms throughout the nation, including new reforms granting tolerance to Scottish Presbyterians, who had become a minority in a new Anglican dominated Scottish Kirk.

Alongside his speaking tour, James instituted a new round of purges and disenfranchisement which saw the Dissenters; Whigs, and Tories alike who supported the Test Act and opposed James’s religious tolerance; removed from offices and purged from Parliament, along with the appointment of new Lord-Lieutenants in the counties and other municipal positions. After this, James issued writs of elections calling for a new parliament, which was seated in May of 1688 and was packed with Tories, most of whom were Baptists, Presbyterians, and Quakers. In that same year, eleven Anglican lords formed a parliament of their own, which voted to declare the King’s Parliament null, nominating Lord Danby to lead their forces. Militias on both sides were raised, and within a month England was plunged into another civil war.

Many Tories of Anglican belief, or generally just opposed to James’s policies, joined the new Parliamentarians. Also joining the rebellion were the Agitators; and it is now that we shall take a detour to explain them. When the New Model Army was formed, its members became a group of conscripted, mostly puritan, men from all across England, now brought together. The rank and file became a hotbed for radical ideas, and the representatives of these men were called the Agitators. After the defection of Fairfax, Ireton rose to power and he empowered the Agitators, turning the Army into a radical force of Republicans. When they were defeated, these men didn’t disappear; while their officers fled to America, they were pardoned and returned to their homes, where they kept their arms and their radical ideas. Throughout the reign of Charles II and James II, these Agitators worked in the shadows, the most radical of the radicals, more radical than even the Whigs. Influenced by groups such as the Levelers who sought full political enfranchisement of the citizenry, the Agitators formed Green Ribbon clubs where they discussed and planned. With the rising of a new Parliamentarian force, the Agitators raised their own militias and went out to fight for parliament, even if parliament didn’t want them.

James met the rebels in June of 1688, resulting in a victory for his larger and more professional army. However, James did not capitalize on his victory, as despite his numbers much of the professional officer corps and troops had defected and he wished to sit and build up his forces before moving. This allowed parliament's forces to regroup in the north, although this was a short respite as disagreements led to all-out war between parliament and the Agitators in 1689, soon to be joined by the landing of Irish forces loyal to James in 1690. With his main opposition fighting amongst themselves, James fought multiple battles across a campaign cutting a bloody path north until he retook Nottingham in March of 1690. Now linked up with his Irish forces, James launched a final bloody fight stomping out the rebellion, with the last pockets falling in 1692.

Second reconstruction and the Jacobite Golden Age
The King was merciful to those lords who decided to pledge allegiance to him once more but gave only hellfire to the Agitators captured, ordering hundreds to death or exile. A second civil war, a second bloody purge, and a second Stuart King upholding his absolute god-given right to rule. Nine years later, just short of a decade, he was dead. A brain hemorrhage killed the Catholic King; he left behind a Britain utterly transformed from the one his ancestor, James I, knew. Succession passed officially to the thirteen-year-old James III, although his sister Mary ruled as regent until her death in 1704. Mary was a protestant, and so became favorable to the Anglican Tories. Her pressuring resulted in James officially converting to Anglicanism, and so his full rule in 1706 was marked with cheers from a now united Tory party.

James III began his reign mostly relying on his ministers. While there was some push for it, he refused to undo the reforms of his father, although he did not push any new ones, instead toeing the line between Anglicanism and tolerant reform, as he was a closet Catholic. James’s reign was focused greatly on trade and the colonies, as the North American colonies, most established under his father and grandfather's rule, flourished, with booming populations and rich trades. The triangular trade emerged where slaves from British colonies on the west African coast were transported to British Suriname to work the extremely valuable sugar plantations. This sugar then was sent either back to Britain or to North America where it was used in alcohol production. America also sent back to Europe many raw goods such as tobacco, indigo, wood, and grain, while Britain sent to America manufactured goods like linens and guns. The whole trade became even more profitable with the Mughal Rebellions of the 1710s, where instability in that Indian Empire allowed for the HEIC to expand its holdings around Bombay and acquire the port of Puducherry. Their holdings in Java had also expanded, to the point where most of the island was either under direct company control or company allies. This meant that the British became the largest European power in the Indian Ocean trade and the ever-important spice trade which exploded in profitability over the emerging 18th century.

This period, known as the Jacobite Golden Age, became an era of extreme growth in the British economy, the further centralization of control and unity among the three kingdoms, and general peace in the Empire. It was also an era of progress, both in technology as the Royal navy adopted new techniques and weapons to stay ahead in the age of sail, and in policy as the Bank of England was formed by royal charter in 1708. The bank is of particular note not only for the fact that it was a private institution backed by the crown which allowed for the financing of the expansion of the Empire but also the fact that it was a Whig institution. In fact, British politics had evolved to the point that being a Whig wasn’t a sign of radicalism and opposition to the king, but a new type of ideology; Liberalism and Capitalism. Ideals of the burgeoning enlightenment such as toleration but more importantly free trade became the defining ideology of these “New Whigs”, while the Tories became a party of those dedicated to protectionism; their disagreements became primarily economic, as both sides had their radicals weeded out by the Second Civil War. James tended to play the two sides off each other, although leaned Whig due to their tolerant stance and his own support for the expansion of trade.

That’s not to say there was no opposition, after all in 1712 a plot to assassinate the King was uncovered and its ringleader executed, but these types of things were common, and there was no sizable uprising or political opposition to the monarch on the basis of his right to rule. The plot, however, is notable for the fact that the ringleader went to the beheading block wearing a green ribbon. Despite their defeat in the civil war, the Agitators were still alive, just underground, and the growing enlightenment profoundly altered them. They perceived their defeat as having been due to the betrayal of the largely noble rebel parliament, just as the original New Model Army had been betrayed by the noble Fairfax. This, along with a growing movement in support of popular sovereignty and works from enlightenment writers such as John Loche, an Englishmen, turned the agitators towards what they called the “Grand Old Cause”; Universal Suffrage, Republicanism, an end to the nobility, and redistribution of noble lands to peasant farmers. The actions of James and his parliament helped him, as the agitators were soon joined by many of the Old Whigs who abhorred the New Whigs for their cooperation with the King.

Some of the first “Police” organizations were formed personally by James to combat the Republicans, who formed a complex net of “Regiment” areas, Green Ribbon clubs, and Correspondence Committees to organize, communicate, plan, and share resources. These royal police were mostly informal organizations, usually hired by courts, who’d root out these organizations and often investigated political figures to ensure they didn’t have Republican leanings.

1715 saw the passage of the Acts of Union, which combined England, Scotland, and Ireland into one nation; the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It also abolished the Scottish and Irish parliaments and created one Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland, although other institutions and common law continued to stay separate. While there was no major armed uprising, there was discontent in the two, although the act mainly affected the Scottish gentry and New English in Ireland, both of whom now had seats in the Parliament of Great Britain.

While there was peace at home, James was often involved in the wars of Europe, supporting various sides ranging from Catholics to Protestants, mostly just attempting to keep the balance. The largest of these wars was the War of Jenkins Ear beginning in 1739 over the Iberian mutilation of a British smuggler. The war saw the British and the Iberians trade blows across the ocean, mostly in the form of privateers hired to raid the other's shipping routes. A few major naval battles had England come out on top, and on land, the Georgia militia made huge gains taking the Iberian colony of Florida. This fighting distracted the Royal government and military, a distraction that allowed for a rebellion to strike in the Spring of 1745; it was the work of the Agitators, who sought to overthrow the monarch and establish a Republic. They marched across the fields singing songs of Cromwell and Ireton, only to be crushed by a force of militia led by Charles Edward, the King’s son. While the fight crushed the only major rebellion against James’s rule, Charles’s actions did him a considerable disservice and turned the Rebels of ‘45 into martyrs.

Later wars, including the Seven Years War which saw Britain gain full control of Canada and what was upper Louisiana, now the western territories, were costly. While the Empire was rich off its trade, taxation felt like a burden to many making this revenue. Nowhere was this hated more than in British North America, where the colonists hated the fact that Catholic Ireland had representation in parliament but they didn’t. These tensions erupted into outright protests during the 1760s after British authorities cracked down on smuggling and tax evasion. In 1766, King James passed away, leaving his crown to his some Charles, now Charles III; the Butcher of 45.

Caroline Era
His rule, known as the Caroline Era, would be remembered for the escalation of the American conflict; in 1770 a group of British soldiers labeled Red Coats by the Americans, fired on a protest. This, along with the proclamation that they’d be tried in England, not America, stoked outrage. In 1773, rebels in Boston seized ships of the HEIC and dumped their stores of tea into the harbor; in response, Charles pushed through punitive acts known as the Intolerable Acts in America. The Americans formed a continental congress, and soon fighting broke out, causing the Americans to declare independence in 1776. The war became of considerable concern for Charles, as he feared a successful American rebellion might spread to the profitable Suriname colonies, and possibly even back home.

After years of conflict, major successes by the Americans combined with the entrance of France and Iberia into the war forced Britain to seek peace in the Treaty of Versailles in 1783, recognizing the American Republic and ceding it the western territories, although Canada had stayed loyal thanks to the presence of the Royal Navy. The same year, Britain signed the Treaty of Holland, recognizing the southern Commonwealth. The defeat at the hands of not only Britain's long time enemies of France and Iberia but also the upstart American rebels humiliated the Stuart monarchy and began to incite the people who had lived so long under its absolute control. The monarchs absolute control had been a fact for decades now, and one that was very unpopular, even to the royalist tories in parliament; but the Second Civil War had seen to it that rebellion was seen as impossible and so it was deemed by many prefer to simply deal with it and work within the system. It helped that the large growth in the economy over the 18th century meant that many cared little for what the King did as long as they stayed well fed and the gentry stayed well paid. Now, not only had the Americans proved rebellion possible, but the loss of the colonies and the war with France had caused a major depression in the economy, which was slowly recovering.

The United Kingdom was further destabilized by the death of Charles III in 1788, struck down by a stroke. The king has died heirless, and so the crown passed to an extremely controversial inheritor; Henry Stuart, otherwise known as the Cardinal-Duke of York. Henry, now Henry IX of England, was a devout Catholic and had been made a Cardinal in 1747 by the Pope. His ascension to the throne sparked massive riots; some, like the Gordon Riots, were fueled by discontent over the loss of the American War and poor living conditions due to the depression, while others were fueled by anti-papist sentiment within the Anglican population. The new King was extremely unpopular, and to make matters worse he barely even wanted to be a King, having dedicated his life to his faith. He was almost wholly absent from the running of the country, leaving it entirely in the hands of his brother's ministers, who themselves were unpopular due to being blamed for losing the American revolution.

Glorious Revolution
This unusual intersection of several unfortunate events led to many Radicals and Republicans winning municipal and even parliamentary elections during the 1790 elections. While they boycotted parliament, refusing to take their seats, those in the municipalities soon took over and begin to undermine royal control, taking control of the local militias and administration. While it was not rebellion yet, these actions weakened the power of the monarchy, although the absent king Henry acted only in limited ways against this.

Despite their wave of radicalism, the revolution didn't begin in England, but instead in Ireland; a nation in its own right just as Scotland, but which had less independence than some colonies and which was ruled by a clique of Anglo-Protestants. During the American War, the Irish had formed the Irish Volunteers, and this armed force successfully pressured Henry to form an Irish Parliament. However, when the British Parliament refused to pass a 1793 law lifting many restrictions on Irish Catholics, the parliament became controlled by the largely Catholic and Whig dominated Irish Patriot Party. While initially conciliatory like the British Whigs, the Patriots had an internal shift towards American-style Patriotism, and in 1794 launched an armed insurrection; the Irish Rebellion, led mostly by the Patriots and the Liberal-Protestant United Irish Society. The Irish Rebellion sparked the Society of the United Scotsmen, a liberal and presbyterian organization of Scots, to also rise up in rebellion. Finally, a few months after the Scots, the English rose up.

The press labeled the English rebels as Jacobins, after the French political club. They called themselves the Republicans of the Grand Republican Party; they were the outcome of a century of activism and organizing by the agitators and green ribbon clubs combined with a newly radicalized populace inspired by enlightenment ideals and the American revolution. Led by men such as Charles James Fox, William Godwin, and John Wilkes, the Republicans sought one clear goal; the overthrow of the British Monarchy. They would also not repeat the mistakes of the Second Civil War and united with the Irish Patriots and United Scotsmen and declared the New Whigs enemies. A new Republican parliament, composed only of a House of Commons, was formed in London shortly after it was secured by radical militias, its members being those who previously boycotted after the elections. Those areas who had seen republicans and radicals elected now pledged loyalty to this new parliament, and to the Republic of England which was proclaimed in June of 1794.

While they lacked a professional officer corps, which Henry and his Royal army had in abundance, they had large numbers in the form of militias raised from the Regiment system, soon joined by mass defections of units from said Royal Army. With their numbers, they soon found battle with the smaller but more professional Royalist Army, seeing a mixed result of defeats and victories. Within time, the battle lines were set with much of southern England, including London, under Republican control while Royalists held the north. In Scotland, the United Scots retreated into Highlands where they’d fight a protracted resistance, and in Ireland, the Patriots and United Irishmen traded blows with Royalist forces in Dublin and Ulster. Winds of change came with the help of American patriots who’d come to Britain on their own, despite the disapproval of the American Republic which worried about the British Republican’s radicalism. Men like Thomas Paine joined the ranks of the new Republican Parliament, Thomas Jefferson counseled leadership in his role as Ambassador, and many more radical American commanders helped implement reforms in the Republican forces, creating the New Army which formed a core of professional conscripts.

New forces had successes on the battlefield. By 1795 Cornwall and Wales were taken from Henry’s control, and in 1796 the United Scots took Edinburgh. Later that year, the Battle of Nottingham saw Royalist army destroyed and the King himself captured, making the end of the official war and ushering in a sweeping campaign to mop up remaining Royalist pockets, as many nobles fought to the bitter end in an attempt to save their own titles and wealth. The King was imprisoned in the Tower of London before being put before a tribunal for trial, where he was, surprisingly, defended by Thomas Paine. Paine, who hated the monarchy, stood before the tribunal for the sole purpose of sparing the King’s life, and his arguments swayed opinion leading to a sentence of exile from Britain for the royal family.

[The Traansval]

History of Britain: Republican Period

Formation of the United Republic
With the defeat of the Royalists and exile of the Stuarts, came the urgent political negotiations of unification. What had been the United Kingdom was now three different political entities; the Republics of Scotland, Ireland, and England. While all three had pressure to reunify, the new independence of Scotland and Ireland led to complications and the need for compromise. Leadership from all three signs agreed to the London Charter in March of 1797, which officially proclaimed the United Republic of Great Britain and Ireland. The charter created a delicate balance where England, Scotland, and Ireland each were recognized as sovereign Republics with their own Presidents, Parliaments, and Constitutions, which were united by and answerable to a Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland, composed of popularly elected MPs from all three nations. In drafting the charter, the negotiators relied heavily on the American model of regional representation, creating electoral districts based on population that MPs would represent. Elections were held shortly after, with the British parliament finally being seated in February of 1798.

Its first acts were the two fundamental laws of the United Republic; the Instruments of Government and the Bill of Rights. The instruments provided the foundation for the authority of parliament along with the creation of the Council of State, which occupied the role the monarch once did; while the Bill of Rights established many fundamental and inalienable rights held by the Republics and by the people, notable inclusions being freedom of religion, speech, assembly, certain protections for those accused of crimes, and generally many rights primarily based on the American bill. A notable addition was Article VIII, mandating that every free Adult Male citizen was to be enfranchised, allowing the urban and poor to vote for the first time.

While the King’s life had been spared, the Republicans were not merciful. All noble titles were abolished and those who did not renounce them or who would not pledge loyalty to the Republic were exiled or barred from office. Noble lands were confiscated and handed over to local municipalities; a policy influenced by the growing faction of Diggers; who redistributed it to local farmers. Many royal corporations were broken up or nationalized, including the West African and East Indies Companies, placing their territories, assets, and soldiers under the direct control of parliament. Parliament also passed many laws to replace those created under the monarchy, along with the lifting of many royal laws like the Test Act.

The 1798 elections had seen the Grand Republic Party, or just Republican party, sweep the elections, as had been predicted due to the immense popularity of the revolution and the enfranchisement of the urban and the poor. However, they were not uncontested, as those nobles and gentry who renounced their titles and pledged allegiance to the Republic continued to operate, leading to a sizable minority of seats going to Whigs and Tories. The political distinctions between the two had largely eroded away, and so in a bid to provide meaningful opposition to the Republicans they two merged to form the Conservative Party.

The Republicans were not totally united either, and primarily had three major factions; the Radical Whigs were a holdover of the Old Whigs along with defectors from the new Whigs, they supported the revolution and liberalism but opposed more radical propositions such as land redistribution; the Democrats were a group primarily led by Charles James Fox in parliament which formed the bulk of the Republicans, and were mostly modeled on Enlightenment Republicanism, heavily influenced by the writings of Thomas Paine; and finally the Radicals which believe that the revolution had not gone far enough and embraced many extreme views such as those of the Diggers, Jacobins, or early Socialists. Together, these three formed a big tent party, and to unite them all they elected John Wilkes as First Secretary of State, the chairman of the Council of State, and the first leader of Britain not to be a monarch.

Early Republican Era
Wilkes had made his reputation as an advocate of popular sovereignty and universal suffrage, but was also a committed moderate and tended to associate with the Radical Whigs, although he tended to split the middle between them and the Democrats. His first notable action was to address Parliament after his first year in office had ended, and called for them to vote to approve him for another year; this wasn’t required, the Instruments had stated that the First Secretary and other Secretaries of State would be appointed by parliament until removed or resigned, but Wilkes set precedent to have parliament re-approve members of the Council every year. Wilkes himself was in power for eight years.

The administration of Wilkes saw a period of reconstruction and creation in the new Republics and the Union at large. In Ireland, the Irish Patriots found themselves contested by the new Irish Parliamentary Party, led by Edmund Burke who formed an alliance with the Conservatives; Burke created a movement known as the Burkists which adopted a liberal trade policy and combined it with conservative values, which won him the support of Irish Protestants and split the British Conservatives into Burkists and Pittites, followers of Robert Pitt, a former Tory who took the Conservatives by storm with his policy of support for Catholics and Non-Anglicans and for Protectionism. The split in the Conservatives led to them often having trouble in elections as they fought amongst themselves.

The downfall of Wilkes came from the left of his party, as the Radicals assailed the Radical Whigs. In March of 1806, mass protests broke out in Nottingham, driven mostly by farmers angered by free trade policies that brought American grain into the country. Local militias mishandled the whole thing leading to the Nottingham Massacre of twenty-three people as the militia dispersed them by force. The Radicals laid it at the feet of Wilkes, who was soon voted out after the Democrats joined the Radicals. In response, the Radical Whigs walked out and officially split from the Republican Party, now forming the Liberal Party.

The new Radical Parliament, as it was called even though it was still mostly controlled by Democrats, elected a new First Secretary in the form of William Godwin, a noted radical and writer who mostly enacted a policy of acting out the will of parliament, not his own, although he wasn’t shy to act on what he believes in. This included the involvement of Britain in France’s revolutionary wars, supporting their fellow sister Republic. British troops were sent to fight against Monarchist forces on the plains of Europe and the islands of America and the Indian Ocean, although most of the fighting by the British during this period was done by the navy. The most notable of these fights was the Georgia War against the Dumaynayd Commonwealth, previously the Georgia Free State. Navy ships crushed the Dumaynayd fleet but land actions saw heavy casualties resulting in a stalemate and negotiated peace.

However, these wars became unpopular, and the Liberals were able to oust the Republicans in the 1818 elections, bringing in the administration of new First Secretary Benjamin Vaughan, whose experience with the Americans and defense of slavery led to the Liberals being thought of as the “American Party”, as they resembled very closely the politics of Hamilton. This helped Vaughan normalize relations with the Americans, who had been wary of British radicalism. Burkists and moderate Democrats flocked to the Liberal party, causing the Conservative party to become dominated by the Pittites and the Republican Party to see the radicals and democrats merge to the point of barely being different factions. The three-party system has been cemented and dominated the next century.

Despite Vaughan’s vocal defense of the institution, slavery had become unpopular in Britain, particularly after the passage of the 1802 Bill of Rights back during the Wilkes Government. The Republicans and the anti-slavery Whigs managed to pass the 1819 Abolition Act, which outlawed the trade and ownership of slaves in Britain itself, although not in the colonies. Slaves currently in Britain were freed and their owners compensated, at the expense of the British taxpayer, which was rather controversial. Notable reforms of the era were the full professionalization of the Army and Navy along with restrictions placed on the militias to avoid another massacre.

Vaughan’s ten-year administration set the standard for administration, as he worked tirelessly to turn the Council into a proper cabinet and administration. It's also worth stepping away from these political fights to view the empire, or commonwealth as it was now referred to, as a whole. With the nationalization of the HEIC, Java was expanded along with colonies in Australia and New Zealand, which became prime territory for the export of prisoners to settle these lands. Additionally, British troops fought a long and bloody war with the powerful Mughals, often called the Indian War which brought about a large expansion to the Bombay territory and the occupation and annexation of Bengal, along with clauses. British Cape Colony has also expanded from the coast inland, as the government provided free passage for free blacks to the colony, who moved inland to claim land for themselves and avoid discrimination from the native British settlers, soon forming a third-social class onto themselves.

Mid-Republican Era and Industrial Revolution
1830 brought the Republicans great gains in the elections, leading to a gridlock in parliament as neither party could form a government. To break the lock, the Liberals formed a coalition with the Conservatives, electing First Secretary William Wyndham, a Pittite. The period was notable for the appointment of Robert Peel as Secretary of State for the Home, which was concerned with interior security and the militias. Peel pioneered policing reforms, ultimately leading to the establishment of the Metropolitan Police of London in 1831; the first professional government police force. Peel took great care to make the police a civilian organization, even arming them with clubs rather than pistols, and not hiring detectives or spies. Within the next decade, his “Bobbies” were copied across the nation in different cities, eventually leading to the establishment of the British Constabulary, a national police force whose duty was to provide policing in rural and municipal areas, which also had individual branches run by the Republics, and departments for colonial cities. The Constabulary was controversial for some, with many placated by the Police Act of 1828 mandating that policing in metropolitan municipalities could only be done by municipal authorities. Peels popularity due to his police reform and also his adoption of liberal trade policies and Pittite support for Catholics saw him lead a new conservative faction, the Peelites, to victory in the 1840 election, where the conservatives won a plurality; however, the Liberals broke the coalition, and so Peel became First Secretary of a minority Government.

Peel led Britain through the beginning of a period of industrialization known as the Industrial Revolution, which wouldn't truly take off until the 1840s and the invention of steam power. However, already now, the population was becoming more urbanized, and more and more workers were in factories and mills rather than workshops or farms. His administration didn't last long, however, as the 1842 Reform Act was passed, which introduced secret ballots, reformed constituencies, and generally introduced reforms to the electoral system, including reducing the period between elections from ten years to five. In 1845, the Republicans, bolstered by urban and worker voters, managed to gain a plurality and formed a coalition government with the Liberals, with William Lovett as First Secretary. Lovett was a rising member of the Radicals who gained popularity from his membership with the London Workingmen's Association, one of the first organizations dedicated to worker rights.

His administration championed the passage of multiple notable reforms, including heavy restrictions on child labor, vast reforms and revisions to the poor laws, and the passage of the 1846 Abolition Act, which extended the previous Abolition act to Britain’s colonies, ending slavery in the Commonwealth. His administration also altered colonial policy away from conquest and towards trade, leading to a boom in the Indian Ocean trade, and reforms to colonial practices, with an emphasis on morality and spreading of Christianity, which was mostly pushed by Lovett. After his administration was over many of these were kept or altered, often as justifications for further colonization and assimilation of natives.

Outside of Britain, the era had the notable Canadian Liberty movement between 1838 and 1847. Primarily led by Canadian liberals and Quebecois supporters, Canadians campaigned for increased liberties and home rule, eventually leading to the Confederation Act of 1847 under the Lovett government, confederating the Canadian colonies together to form one Canadian Federation. Canada was not considered equal to the home isles but was given autonomy in certain matters of government, although the Federation was still considered a colony of Britain. This led to the domination of the Canadian liberals in that colony. Similar reorganizations happened in South Africa where a government was established although still under the Commonwealth and Australia was organized into several colonies. While not a colony, Ireland might as well have been to the Conservatives, who had their power on that island destroyed over the mishandling of the Irish Potato Famine by local protestant conservatives, with disaster only being avoided by the intervention of the Liberal national government and American grain imports. In terms of foreign affairs, the British had mostly been at peace since the end of the revolutionary wars in Europe, with only minor fighting at sea or against colonial natives. Good relations were maintained with France, who was viewed as Britain's sister republic by all but the most die-hard Conservative. The moderation, in comparison to others, of the United Republic allowed it to avoid outright hostility from the reactionaries such as Iberia, and managed to keep Britain on good terms with the conservative United States of America, although the Georgia War kept relations sour with the Dumaynayds.

The final act signed into law by Lovett was the 1848 Salary Act, which provided members of parliament with a salary, allowing poor men to run for office. Lovett stepped down due to poor health, and the Republicans elected Feargus O'Connor to replace him. The first Irishman and Catholic to serve as First Secretary, his election was decried by Liberal and Conservative alike, with some whispering of papist influence. O’Connor was a radical like Lovett and brought the full weight of the Irish Patriots in to support the Republicans. O’Connor’s administration was destined to be short and mostly dominated by the question of land. Rising dissatisfaction within the urban working class led O’Connor and a group of mostly digger inspired radicals to propose land reform; namely, a plan to break up the holdings of large landowners and distribute them to the rural and urban poor. His Land Act passed by a slim majority in 1849, however, it proved to be unpopular; the landowners didn’t like how their holdings were being taken, and rarely any of the urban poor wanted to move out and leave all behind to work a farm. It proved popular with the rural citizenry, but that’s about it. In 1850, just ahead of the elections, O’Connor became enraged over a conservative bill to halt the program and assaulted three MPs, leading to his resignation and a caretaker government taking over. The bill later passed with Liberal support after the Peelites promised not to reverse any of the lands granted before the halting of the program. 1850 saw new elections and the Liberals won a plurality, forming a coalition with the Conservatives, and electing Charles Grey as First Secretary. Unfortunately, Grey died a month after being elected, becoming the shortest PM in history. Parliament rushed into session and elected William Lamb as Grey’s replacement.

Lamb formed the moderate glue holding the Liberals and Conservatives together, with his administration being characterized by compromise and digging his heels in. This was interesting as his administration oversaw the most complete revolution of British society since the overthrow of the monarchy; the Industrial Revolution. The invention of steam power led to factories and trains, and almost overnight London’s skies were filled with the thick black smoke of progress. With such a change, its almost comical that he’s most known for sexual scandals, including accusations of adultery and searing descriptions of his exploits.

The era also saw the rise of trade unionism, as industrial workers began to form associations and groups to negotiate for better conditions and pay. Poor working conditions became a major theme in the radical press, which looked like an impeachment of the Liberal and Conservative-dominated parliament and the First Secretary. The Republic also saw the immigration of radical thinkers from Europe such as Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels to the nation, the latter of which published a report on the working conditions of workers in England. Engel’s work helped motivate the growing labor movement, and the Unionists as they were called began to find a home within the radical left of the Republican party.

After a particularly sordid controversy came to light about Lamb’s affair with another MPs wife, the PM resigned in 1853, halfway through his term. He was succeeded by John Russel, a fellow Liberal. His term, however, was short, as the 1855 elections elected the Conservatives into a plurality, with Benjamin Disraeli, a leading figure in the Conservative party, becoming First Secretary in a coalition with the Liberals. Disraeli was famous for the foundation of modern "Toryism", which primarily relies on militancy and imperialism, associating the Conservatives most with the colonial Commonwealth.

Disraeli oversaw the expansion of the Navy, embracing new steam technology and later launching the first iron-hulled warship, the Warrior, during his second session. The militancy of Disraeli saw his two-session administration most be characterized by foreign affairs, as he oversaw many colonial conflicts mostly in Africa, where the Cape colony was expanded, and in Java, where the British army and navy steadily acquired islands. His domestic policy, however, did him a considerable disservice, as his policy of deregulation and the cutting of social services conflicted with the rising reformist attitudes of the era. This ultimately came to a head with a miners strike in May of 1865, right before the elections. Disraeli personally ordered in British troops after local police failed to break it, and the resulting battle which killed twenty-two would be remembered as May Day. The First Secretary lost considerable prestige with the public, as his beefed-up military was no longer used against natives, but now against British citizens. The final nail in the coffin for the Disraeli administration was the Mason-Slidell Affair, as diplomats from the Confederate States of America, a rebel state fighting a Civil War with the United States, were accepted by the Disraeli administration, leading to protests in the streets as the United States were still quite popular.

Age of Reform
The 1865 elections saw the Republicans dominate, gaining an outright majority and electing Charles Dilke as First Secretary. Dilke was a part of the growing Unionist movement; he was supported by the Trade Union Congress, a Federation of the leading trade unions in Britain which was founded in 1861, and ran on a platform of improving worker's rights and conditions. Dilke and his Unionists were becoming an increasingly dominant wing of the party, allying themselves with the reform-minded and sympathetic Democrats. Outflanking Dilke and his Unionists was the growing Social Democrats, a group primarily influenced by a growing Socialist ideology that had caught flame with the publication of Karl Marx’s Capital, a work that expanded one Engel’s book. This move left by the Republicans and Dilke’s administration ushered in a period known as the Age of Reform.

The cornerstone of Dilke’s administration was the passage and implementation of the Schools Act of 1866, which created programs dedicated to the establishment of government-run schools across the country to provide free education to Britain’s poor, ranging from primary schools to technical colleges. Dilke also used his position as First Secretary to insert himself in Labor issues, often offering to mediate them himself although these offers were rarely accepted by all; instead, he’d give speeches supporting one side, more often than not the Union, attempting to sway public opinion. This endeared him to the Unionists but angered the Liberals and in 1868 they’d break the coalition, forcing Dilke to lead a minority government for the rest of Parliament’s session. He’d introduce many forward-thinking reform bills, mostly related to work conditions, but these were all shot down by the Liberals and Conservatives.

1870 saw the Republicans maintain their plurality in the face of creeping gains from the opposition, but a coalition between the Liberals and Conservatives meant the Republicans became the opposition. Dilke himself was the subject of a massive divorce scandal called the Crawford Affair, leading to a bit of a mess in the party. While previously the Liberals had played second fiddle to the Conservatives, this new coalition following the 1870 election saw the Liberals be the dominant member, electing as First Secretary a prominent reformist named William Gladstone. Gladstone attempted to improve the popular view of the Liberals through the passage of popular reforms, including a ban on the use of children in mines and a program to provide compensation to injured workers unable to work. Both of these were opposed by the Conservatives, leading to a break in the coalition. Gladstone quickly was forced to form a coalition with the Republicans to avoid a minority government, allowing him to pass both reforms in 1873. Elections in 1875 had the Liberals keep their position and Gladstone, but the Republicans made gains, shrinking the Conservatives.

1877 saw South Africa declared as the Union of South Africa, granting it home-rule in a similar manner to Canada, after the costly Anglo-Zulu war that ended a year earlier. This war had been pushed by the "Liberal Imperialists", a dominant clique in the Liberal party that embraced Disraelian imperialism while opposing his policies of protectionism and cutting social services. While the Zulu war wasn't unpopular, the Liberal Imperialists were increasingly at odds with their coalition members, the Republicans. The 1878 Union Act, a bill introduced by the Republicans to extend protections to Unions and their members, caused the final break in the coalition after the Liberals shot it down. Gladstone resigned rather than form a new coalition, however, his party did anyway, allying with the Conservatives and electing Edward Stanley.

Stanley was a classic Disrealian, with firebrand speeches about how the military was falling behind, leading to the Cardwell Reforms done by Liberal Edward Cardwell, Stanley’s Secretary of State for War. Cardwell’s reforms saw the centralization of the military bureaucracy under his War Office, abolished flogging, reduced periods of service for volunteers to seven years and created reserve formations for the army and navy which recruits would spend an additional five years in after finishing regular service, created the Generals Staff under the War Office for planning and to advise the Secretary and Grand Field Marshal, removed troops from Canada and South Africa in peacetime, abolished bounty money for recruit instead setting pay as a salary plus pension, outlawed the sale of officer commissars, placed militias under the control of the War Office instead of local counties and introduced reforms to professionalize them, and created the localization program by which England, Scotland, and Ireland were divided into Regiment Districts based on population which would each provide a regiment of two-line battalions, one of which would provide foreign service and one would stay home for training during peacetime, and two militia battalions.

This military build-up and reform suited the Commonwealth well, as British troops were sent all over the British domains. Most serious fighting was seen in Java and Africa, as the British expanded their holdings around the Gambia and came into conflict with native Africans. In Java, the British faced a massive revolt organized by local Muslim leaders, leading to a six-year-long bloody war that spanned both Stanley and his successor's terms in office. A final notable conflict was the Arab War in 1879, where British troops invaded Arab held east Africa capturing the coast between Mozambique and Arab Somalia and a stretch of land on the Red Sea known as Somaliland. The most notable piece of legislation was the 1879 Naval Defense Act, which created the "Two-Power Standard", whereby the British Navy would maintain an equal number of battleships to the combined amount of the next two largest navies.

Stanley’s reforms and wars brought great change to the Republican military, but it would also cost the government a lot leading to an expansion in taxes, particularly to pay for the Navy. An increase in taxation was the major complaint by many Conservatives, causing an internal battle in the party. Just ahead of the 1880 elections, the Second American Civil War broke out, and Stanley stood with many of the Conservatives in offering political and economic support to the Confederates, although not military support. However, Stanley remembered the outcome that Confederate support brought to Disraeli, so he communicated in secret through his Foreign Secretary, Robert Cecil. To his great dismay, a series of letters between Cecil and Confederate diplomats detailing British plans to provide economic aid were published by the media, leading to the worst rioting in London since the 1865 Miners Strike. Stanley hanged Cecil out to dry, forcing him to resign, although this did not save Stanley and the Conservatives, as soon after the Liberals broke with them and the 1880 elections saw them lose all support in the urban counties.

The Republicans gained a plurality and formed a coalition with the Liberals, electing Henry Broadhurst as First Secretary. Broadhurst was the General Secretary of the Trade Union Congress, a position he stepped down from in order to take office as First Secretary and was one of the more vocal Unionists. The most pressing issue for Broadhurst was the Civil War in America, which he addressed by cutting off diplomatic communications, leading to the passage of an Embargo in late December of 1880. Broadhurst promoted a policy of armed neutrality, although favoring the North in economic terms; this policy continued after the American conflict ended in 1881, commonly known as "Splendid Isolation." His term between 1880 and 1884 saw many small scale reforms passed, such as the revival of many social programs which had seen reductions under Stanley, the mandate for "Fair Wage" clauses in government contracts, the passage of a new Union Act in 1883, and a Judiciary act in 1882. That last act was one of the more impactful of Broadhurst's reforms, as it reorganized the courts from a complex web into neat institutions, with a court system for each Republic and one for the United Republic at large and colonies; it also established the High Court of Justice, Britains highest court, and established salaries for Justices so that working-class men could serve.

Broadhurst was forced out in late September of 1884 after a break with the Liberals; the reason was the controversial "People's Budget", a proposal to raise revenue by increasing taxes on the wealthier citizens and on land estates. The Liberals refused to support the budget bill, joining with the Conservatives to push through a vote of no confidence, although the two could not come to a coalition agreement and the government was overseen by a caretaker government until the elections a few months later.

Modern Republican Period

Those elections saw the Liberals take a battering, as their opposition to the People's Budget right before the election hurt them in their historic base, the urbanites, earning the Republicans a majority. The 1885 elections also saw many Liberals defect, forming the Progressive party which entered a coalition with the Republicans. Two years later, in 1887, the Progressives were formally be absorbed into the Republican party, forming the Progressive-Republican party.

With their majority, the Republicans elected Thomas Burt as First Secretary; Burt was a Unionist but his politics were rather moderate and appealed to the Democrats and new Progressives, allowing the party to be united. Burt’s Parliament passed a host of labor reforms, chief among them the establishment of special arbitration courts for settling labor disputes, the first mandatory minimum wage, regulations on working hours, and working conditions. One of the more public of these was the Food and Drink Inspection Act of 1886 which instituted regulations and inspection standards for food produced in Britain. The most famous of Burts's accomplishments was the passage of a new People's Budget, paired with a new Housing bill aimed to provide new government-built or subsidized housing to the urban poor, a program handled by local authorities established by another Burt bill, the 1886 Constituencies Act, which reformed local governments and established London County and its Council.

Burt retired from politics in 1890, citing health issues as he had been diagnosed with lung cancer. The party had maintained their hold in parliament, and so the party choose William Abraham, a notable trade unionist, as First Secretary, however, his election did not carry the same unity as Burt’s did, as Abraham won in a narrow internal vote against Keir Hardie. Hardie was also a trade unionist and had been one of the main union campaigners on behalf of the Republicans. He was considered the parliamentary leader for the Social Democrats, who had come to dominate the left of the party. The Progressive liberals had come to form the main bulk of the party, absorbing the Democrats who had long been defunct as a distinct political group. Unionist used to be a term to describe a wing of the party, but by now Unions were supported at large, and the split had now come between what type of Unionism; Progressive Unionism which was championed by Abraham whereby workers gained rights through political action and arbitration, or the Socialist and Marxist ideas of direct action championed by John Burns, who was a Socialist and MP, and James Connolly, a Marxist. While Hardie wasn’t a Socialist, he had been supported by the Social Democrats, and his loss to Abraham was seen as a loss for the “cause”.

Many leading figures began to agitate for a “working-class party”, one formed by and for workers. Between 1885 and 1888 there was a back and forth as the mainline Republicans played tug of war with many Social Democratic agitators. This lead up to the Manchester Convention where the Social Democratic Labour Party or SDLP was formed, leading to many more left-unionists defecting from the Republican party. These defections formed the Socialist wing under Burns while the Irishman James Connolly formed the Marxist wing, although his leadership was often challenged by the “National Socialist” caucus under Henry Hyndman, although Hyndman was in the clear minority. Connolly was elected party leader during the Convention and steered the party towards a policy of Industrial Unionism and organizing. Keir Hardie notably opposed the Labour party and rallied the progressive unionists to the Republican party.

This mess of parties; the Conservatives, the Liberals, the Progressive-Republicans, and now the Social Democratic Labourites (or just Labourites), made the 1890 election particularly messy. Connolly actually was mostly absent from political campaigning as he wanted to promote George Lansbury as Labour's candidate for PM, which might be why Labour underperformed, earning the same amount of seats as the Conservatives. The Republicans have managed to secure a majority by a coalition with the Liberals, but this coalition is a shaky one as too much reform could break it, driving the Liberals once more to the Conservatives. To avoid this, the Republicans have agreed to a moderate First Secretary, Henry Campbell-Bannerman; his support for Free Trade has made the Liberals happy while his support for improved social programs has gained him the support of his party. Bannerman doesn’t know it, but he’s poised to oversee Britain through not only one of the largest expansions of the Commonwealth, but also through the beginning of the modern era, as Britain approaches the 20th century.

[Tracian Empire]

Full Nation Name: The Triple Monarchy

Tentatively accepted, of course, subject to changes in order to make it sync with the history of its neighbours.

Can't wait to see the Bohemian economy brought down by that standing army

[Tracian Empire]

The map and the list will be updated later today, and for lurkers - the tentative and flexible one limit for apps is still being applied, if any areas become free they will be announced here in the thread.

[Oscalantine]

Full Nation Name : The Empire of Scandinavia {Skandinaviens imperium}

ACCEPTED.

[The Hindustani State]

Any room for a Hindu uprising in India?

It is up to the OP, but I have to admit that my personal preference is no. In my history I have written that the Mughals were able to put down a number of such uprisings at the 1700s and early 1800s, so now the realm is more or less stabilized for the most part. OOC, I would prefer not to have to face civil war at the start of the RP.

If you really want to play as a Hindu Indian state, I am willing to give up the four or five southernmost Indian provinces (the southern tip), but a) as a state that broke off from the Mughals during the 1807-17 period of unrest in my alternative history, so it isn't active revolt but rather established state, b) I am compensated by annexing Nepal.

I am perfectly willing to work with you if you decide on accepting my proposition and glad to have you in the region, but an active uprising would be a big no for me.

Instead of the Southern tip, it would make more sense for the Western Ghats and Deccan area, since it’s easier for a rebel force to have done guerrilla warfare in the region

The Marathas used the same tactics when rebelling against the Mughals IRL, which is how they defeated them even with inferior numbers

The Western part of the Indian state of Maharashtra is the territory I’m talking about

[Sao Nova Europa]

I would prefer if you claimed the south instead since I wouldn't want Mughal territory to be put in such a position. You can have the southern territories.

Also, it would have to be an established state instead of an active revolt.

[Oscalantine]

Instead of the Southern tip, it would make more sense for the Western Ghats and Deccan area, since it’s easier for a rebel force to have done guerrilla warfare in the region

The Marathas used the same tactics when rebelling against the Mughals IRL, which is how they defeated them even with inferior numbers

hmmm.... this is... concerning, so I'll leave my two cents here as Co-OP:

First of all, as a rule of thumb we don't accept rebellion apps. There are VERY small exception that I have placed beforehand, but that is to discourage such behavior and only allow the creative RPing duo to perchance do a joint-nation RP with us, and not one RPer trying to start a rebellion in a complete stranger.

So I won't list the requirements here... doubt this situation fits anyhow.

I understand that this is ongoing discussion, but I would like to point out that Sao Nova Europa has no obligation to give any territories. If there are disagreements, I would like to state for the record that the OPs would have to side with Europa's reserved lands.

I would prefer if you claimed the south instead since I wouldn't want Mughal territory to be put in such a position. You can have the southern territories.

Also, it would have to be an established state instead of an active revolt.

Hopefully my above position has clarified this, dude. Unless you agree with it, no rebel application will be accepted. And even then there will be a lot of disadvantages to you if you do accept. You are under no obligation to entertain anyone trying to start a rebellion if you do not wish.

This RP in no iteration has ever accepted a rebel applicant. While we do have a provision for the possibility, no one has passed that hurdle.

[Alt Div Admin]

Map and list have been updated

~Thrace

[Tracian Empire]

I would prefer if you claimed the south instead since I wouldn't want Mughal territory to be put in such a position. You can have the southern territories.

Also, it would have to be an established state instead of an active revolt.

Him going for a state that was established in the past because of a revolt in Southern India would indeed be the best compromise at this point in time.

[The Hindustani State]

Instead of the Southern tip, it would make more sense for the Western Ghats and Deccan area, since it’s easier for a rebel force to have done guerrilla warfare in the region

The Marathas used the same tactics when rebelling against the Mughals IRL, which is how they defeated them even with inferior numbers

hmmm.... this is... concerning, so I'll leave my two cents here as Co-OP:

First of all, as a rule of thumb we don't accept rebellion apps. There are VERY small exception that I have placed beforehand, but that is to discourage such behavior and only allow the creative RPing duo to perchance do a joint-nation RP with us, and not one RPer trying to start a rebellion in a complete stranger.

So I won't list the requirements here... doubt this situation fits anyhow.

I understand that this is ongoing discussion, but I would like to point out that Sao Nova Europa has no obligation to give any territories. If there are disagreements, I would like to state for the record that the OPs would have to side with Europa's reserved lands.

I would prefer if you claimed the south instead since I wouldn't want Mughal territory to be put in such a position. You can have the southern territories.

Also, it would have to be an established state instead of an active revolt.

Hopefully my above position has clarified this, dude. Unless you agree with it, no rebel application will be accepted. And even then there will be a lot of disadvantages to you if you do accept. You are under no obligation to entertain anyone trying to start a rebellion if you do not wish.

This RP in no iteration has ever accepted a rebel applicant. While we do have a provision for the possibility, no one has passed that hurdle.

It’s not a rebel application though

[Tracian Empire]

hmmm.... this is... concerning, so I'll leave my two cents here as Co-OP:

First of all, as a rule of thumb we don't accept rebellion apps. There are VERY small exception that I have placed beforehand, but that is to discourage such behavior and only allow the creative RPing duo to perchance do a joint-nation RP with us, and not one RPer trying to start a rebellion in a complete stranger.

So I won't list the requirements here... doubt this situation fits anyhow.

I understand that this is ongoing discussion, but I would like to point out that Sao Nova Europa has no obligation to give any territories. If there are disagreements, I would like to state for the record that the OPs would have to side with Europa's reserved lands.



Hopefully my above position has clarified this, dude. Unless you agree with it, no rebel application will be accepted. And even then there will be a lot of disadvantages to you if you do accept. You are under no obligation to entertain anyone trying to start a rebellion if you do not wish.

This RP in no iteration has ever accepted a rebel applicant. While we do have a provision for the possibility, no one has passed that hurdle.

It’s not a rebel application though

Yes, Oscal was just catching up, he probably missed that you were ready to apply for an established state.

But, like he said - Sao Nova Europa not only reserved the territories before you, but he was also accepted, so we can not in good faith remove anything from him. So his compromise of you getting the southern provinces is the only potential solution I'm afraid.

[Sao Nova Europa]

As I've said, I am perfectly willing to work with you and have you in the region. My only request is that your territories are on the south. I believe it is a fair compromise.

[Kazarogkai]

Here I announce my official resignation from this RP

Goodbye.

[Kazarogkai]

Still working on it will continue to do so tomorrow.

[Arvenia]

This looks very interesting. However, I don't know if I am going to be Brazil, Nepal, Arabia, Ethiopia, Madagascar or some Boer republic (all based on this map).

[Tracian Empire]

This looks very interesting. However, I don't know if I am going to be Brazil, Nepal, Arabia, Ethiopia, Madagascar or some Boer republic (all based on this map).

All those areas are indeed free for the time being!

Nepal might be occupied if The Hindustani State accepts the compromise proposed by Sao Nova Europa though, and GCCS has expressed interest in a Boer state before.

Arabia is certainly free and will become an even better spot since I'm abandoning Roman control of the Hejaz, it only happened because someone else's app required it in their history. Arabia would play a pretty big role in the future situation in the Middle East, between Persia, Rome, and potential other European powers.

Madagascar could also be very interesting - we had a player interested in a native thassalocracy there, and it might be a little more difficult to explain, but not impossible. The Scramble of Africa will also be an event ICly, but we'll try to even the odds as much as possible to give the native states as fair of a chance as possible.

What is left of Brazil would also be an interesting spot, since the Inca, Germans, and West Romans might each have interests in that area, so you'd have a lot of freedom in regards to possible allies.

[Arvenia]

This looks very interesting. However, I don't know if I am going to be Brazil, Nepal, Arabia, Ethiopia, Madagascar or some Boer republic (all based on this map).

All those areas are indeed free for the time being!

Nepal might be occupied if The Hindustani State accepts the compromise proposed by Sao Nova Europa though, and GCCS has expressed interest in a Boer state before.

Arabia is certainly free and will become an even better spot since I'm abandoning Roman control of the Hejaz, it only happened because someone else's app required it in their history. Arabia would play a pretty big role in the future situation in the Middle East, between Persia, Rome, and potential other European powers.

Madagascar could also be very interesting - we had a player interested in a native thassalocracy there, and it might be a little more difficult to explain, but not impossible. The Scramble of Africa will also be an event ICly, but we'll try to even the odds as much as possible to give the native states as fair of a chance as possible.

What is left of Brazil would also be an interesting spot, since the Inca, Germans, and West Romans might each have interests in that area, so you'd have a lot of freedom in regards to possible allies.

Regarding that, I would drop Nepal and any Boer republic. I would either be Brazil (it's uncertain if it is going to be French, Spanish, Portuguese, English, Dutch or German), Madagascar (who is in control of some Indian islands and some parts of the African mainland) or Arabia (who is either Sunni or Ibadi). Which one is better?

[Tracian Empire]

All those areas are indeed free for the time being!

Nepal might be occupied if The Hindustani State accepts the compromise proposed by Sao Nova Europa though, and GCCS has expressed interest in a Boer state before.

Arabia is certainly free and will become an even better spot since I'm abandoning Roman control of the Hejaz, it only happened because someone else's app required it in their history. Arabia would play a pretty big role in the future situation in the Middle East, between Persia, Rome, and potential other European powers.

Madagascar could also be very interesting - we had a player interested in a native thassalocracy there, and it might be a little more difficult to explain, but not impossible. The Scramble of Africa will also be an event ICly, but we'll try to even the odds as much as possible to give the native states as fair of a chance as possible.

What is left of Brazil would also be an interesting spot, since the Inca, Germans, and West Romans might each have interests in that area, so you'd have a lot of freedom in regards to possible allies.

Regarding that, I would drop Nepal and any Boer republic. I would either be Brazil (it's uncertain if it is going to be French, Spanish, Portuguese, English, Dutch or German), Madagascar (who is in control of some Indian islands and some parts of the African mainland) or Arabia (who is either Sunni or Ibadi). Which one is better?

Well, your own preferences are of course what would matter the most. Madagascar would probably the most difficult to play, due to fierce European competition in the area, but not impossible, since you could hypothetically receive support from Asian nations. Brazil could be anything you want it to be, but playing it would require juggling with the allegiances of the nearby states. Arabia would probably be the easiest to play - it would have its challenges, but you would probably be allied to Persia.

As for what we need the most, well, I'm obviously biased towards Arabia since I'd be your neighbour, but Brazil would give another neighbour to a lot of people too. Madagascar would lack direct neighbours, but it could easily interact with the Asian colonial powers.

[Remnants of Exilvania]

All those areas are indeed free for the time being!

Nepal might be occupied if The Hindustani State accepts the compromise proposed by Sao Nova Europa though, and GCCS has expressed interest in a Boer state before.

Arabia is certainly free and will become an even better spot since I'm abandoning Roman control of the Hejaz, it only happened because someone else's app required it in their history. Arabia would play a pretty big role in the future situation in the Middle East, between Persia, Rome, and potential other European powers.

Madagascar could also be very interesting - we had a player interested in a native thassalocracy there, and it might be a little more difficult to explain, but not impossible. The Scramble of Africa will also be an event ICly, but we'll try to even the odds as much as possible to give the native states as fair of a chance as possible.

What is left of Brazil would also be an interesting spot, since the Inca, Germans, and West Romans might each have interests in that area, so you'd have a lot of freedom in regards to possible allies.

Regarding that, I would drop Nepal and any Boer republic. I would either be Brazil (it's uncertain if it is going to be French, Spanish, Portuguese, English, Dutch or German), Madagascar (who is in control of some Indian islands and some parts of the African mainland) or Arabia (who is either Sunni or Ibadi). Which one is better?

I think Madagascar or Arabia would give you the most options.

Brazil is missing pretty much all of its best parts and would be at the mercy of the powers around it.