| British Commonwealth | |
|---|---|
| File:Unionjack.png ' | |
|
Historical establishment |
1922 |
|
Fate |
Dissolved; absorbed into Atlantic Federation after referendum in 1937 |
|
Government |
Constitutional Monarchy |
|
Last Head of state |
King |
|
Capital |
Ottawa |
|
Official language(s) |
English |
|
National anthem |
none recorded |
The British Commonwealth was a successor state, consisting of the remaining parts of the British Empire that had not been lost by 1922. A fleeting and ephemeral political entitiy, it finally was subsumed into the Atlantic Federation, following another costly war in Africa and the collapse of authority in the former United States.
After the fall of Verdun to the Germans, the British found isolated from their other chief allies, Russia and Italy, and were soundly defeated at the Somme in 1916, withdrawing from France by August after the Isle of Wight Treaty. Consequently, the terms stipulated in the many unilateral treaties signed between the all-new German Reich and its defeated foes imposed extremely punitive measures: aside from crippling reparations, Entente possessions in Africa and Asia (particularly India) were to be ceded to Germany, Austria and Turkey, while Ireland was to be separated from Britain. In the ensuing uncertainty, however, India managed to declare independence after a series of riots resulting from disease and food shortages forced the overextended British out.
Naturally, this would have ominous effects for the world. By 1921, Britain had declared bankruptcy, and soaring rates of crime and poverty would haunt the British Isles with insurgency and unrest for many years to come, eventually driving the Royal Family away to Canada, which had remained unscathed throughout the war.
Collapse of the British Empire[]
The collapse of the British Empire in India and its domestic economy hurt British confidence in their government, causing political instabilty of massive proportions, which the Imperial government could not simply resolve. So it was on 1921 that once Parliament had resigned, a new provisional goverment was created to replace the Lower House, consisting of several members of the British royal family in cooperation with top military officials. This provisional government declared the formation of the British Commonwealth, consisting of the remnants of the British Empire and its Dominions. Fearing the backlash, the British royal family was escorted across the sea to Ottawa, eventually to become the heads of state of the new Commonwealth, now centred around Ottawa.
Under American auspices, new elections and new reforms were subsequently carried out. The moribund Westminster system which denied suffrage to the poor and was too anglocentric was thrown out; a new system called the Commonwealth system was put into place. The empire was reformed so as to include all major cities, irrespective of race or location, into a series of cantonments which would supply representatives to the House of Commons. For the first time, representation in Parliament no longer remained the preserve of white peoples, as coloureds and blacks, which now made up a substantial part of the empire, could now hold office.
Fall of the Monarchy[]
Despite desperate measures by the Crown, the collapse of the Commonwealth could not simply be avoided. A series of wars and uprisings in Africa, the Pacific and the Middle East would eventually grind down what little legitimacy the governments of the United States of America and the British Commonwealth had, with their heads of state taking blows to their reputation from which they could not recover from.
By the mid-1930s, a corporate scandal revolving around foreign policy in Africa and the seeming inability of the Allies to compete economically with Salviatist Germany or the nascent Jihadian Caliphate, an Islamic supernation in the Middle East, would eventually seal the fate of both nations. A devastating war fought with Japan in the Pacific would spark off a Second American Civil War, with states in the southern United States breaking away, and the British Royal family being exiled to Mexico for suspected support of Salviatism, the much-abhorred ruling philosophy of the German Reich, which had now begun to eclipse the CFNE. With the Monarch gone, the Commonwealth too soon followed suit, and was reformed into the Oceanic Federation. This state would live on briefly until a civil war in the United States of America would extinguish it once and for all.