The Imperial Federation

The Black Wreath

The **Imperial Federation**, more often known as **Britannia** or **the Federation**, is a nation centralized in Western Europe. Her borders to the West are shared by **Francoist Spain** and the **Principality of Andorra,** and to the South & East by **RK Niederlande** and **Vichy France**. Due to her empire, Britannia borders over 50 other countries the world over when her **colonial territories** in Africa, Asia, and the Americas are accounted for.

The Imperial Federation is an **authoritarian** **superstate** recognized by most as the technological and economic capital of the world. Her colonial holdings surmount to 20%~ of the world’s total landmass, with a total population of 400~ million people. Though part of the Federation, most territories, aside from **Crown Dependencies** and **Control Claims**, operate under their own national authorities (in **Newspeak**: PROTGOVs).

The Imperial Federation administrates her colonial territories through the **Federation Secretariat**. A delegation from each protectorate is elected to the Federation Assembly to debate on interfederational laws and to represent foreign and regional ambitions. Relations — diplomatic or otherwise — between the Federation and it’s few independent allies are maintained via the **Five-Way Axis**, otherwise known as the **Quinquevirate**, and the wider **International Covenant on Peace, Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity**.

## History

### Pre-World War II

WIP

After the Second Glorious Revolution (1937), the Federation entered a period known as ‘The Troubles’, which lasted from 1937 to 1961. The Troubles stemmed from the basis that Britannia had become a dictatorship — that is, it lacked genuine democracy — and caused almost 3 decades of serious opposition to **Oswald Mosley’s** **BUF**

## Politics

### Overview

The Imperial Federation is an authoritarian superstate that operates under the totalitarian ideology of English Socialism, led by Prime Minister Mustafa Mond. As of 1980, the Imperial Federation is considered the most powerful nation on Earth, outranking the now-anarchic and incapacitated 3rd Reich and with complete influence over vast swathes of South Asia and South & East Africa.

### The Ministries

*“The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture, and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation. These contradictions are not accidental, nor are they a result of simple hypocrisy: they are deliberate exercises in doublethink.”*

— Matthias J. B. E. Ford, Part II Chapter IX, *The Idea and Practice of Oligarchal Collectivism*

The Imperial Federation operates on the basis of 4 Ministries, each with their own responsibilities to the state, and within which the entire political, economic, social, judicial, and military structure of the Federation exists.

#### MINITRUE — The Ministry of Truth

The Ministry of Truth (Newspeak: Minitrue) is the organ responsible for creating and distributing propaganda and entertainment — such as traditional literature and film — to the proletariat. As with the other Ministries, the name ‘Ministry of Truth’ is a misnomer, as in actuality it serves the opposite: it is responsible for the falsification of History so as to fit the state-approved narrative. Like other Ministries the name is also apt, as it oversees the "truth" in Britannia and thus is a deliberate exercise in doublethink.

As well as administering "truth", Minitrue is responsible for the popularization of a new language amongst the proletariat called ‘Newspeak’, derived from Standard English (Newspeak: Oldspeak). The political purpose of Newspeak, a controlled language of simplified grammar and restricted vocab, is to eliminate the expression of the shades of meaning inherent in the ambiguity and convoluted nuance of Oldspeak and to limit the individual’s ability to think critically or to articulate subversive ideas. For instance, "truth" is understood to mean statements such as **2 + 2 = 5** when the situation warrants and when the state demands.

##### Description

The Ministry of Truth is a vast pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete located in District 2 of London, rising 203 metres (666 ft) into the air and containing over 500 rooms above ground. On the outside wall are the **Party’s** three key slogans: "WAR IS PEACE," "FREEDOM IS SLAVERY," and "IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH." Beneath the bustling offices and endless corridors of the Ministry lies a vast underground labyrinth of incinerators and industrial printers, where undesirable documents are destroyed after being disposed of via ‘memory holes’ and new propaganda is printed out en-masse.

##### Role in Information, Propaganda, and Other Media

The Ministry of Truth concerns itself with media: entertainment, affairs, propaganda, fine art, and educational literature. It’s ultimate purpose however is to doctor the past to alter fact to fit state-approved doctrine, often for propaganda effect. If for instance the Ministry of Plenty makes a prediction that turns out to be untrue, such as an economic boom, the employees of the Ministry of Truth correct the record to make it accurate. This is the "how" of the Ministry of Truth's existence.

The deeper purpose for the Ministry’s existence, the "why”, is to maintain the illusion that the state is absolute. It cannot ever seem to change it’s mind (if the state engages in trade with Arabia or Kameyama, both of which have been declared enemies) or make a mistake (vaporizing an innocent official or making a misinformed logistical prediction), for that would suggest a weakness, and to maintain power the state must appear forever right and strong.

##### Departments of the Ministry

* Records Department (Newspeak: **Recdep**)
* Fiction Department (Newspeak: **Ficdep**)
* Tele-programmes Department (Newspeak: **Teledep**)
* Pornography Section – for Prole consumption only (Newspeak: **Pornosec**)