The United Kingdom of Portugal, Castille and Burgundy

The United Kingdom of Portugal, Castille and Burgundy (german: Vereinigte Königreich Portugal, Kastilien und Burgund - portuguese: Reino Unido de Portugal, Castela e Borgonha) is a union state originally comprised of the crowns of Burgundy, Portugal, Castille and Aragon (this last one isn't on the name due to its status as a major crown being assigned a lot later than the others), but has since expanded to include much more territory and constituent crowns.

As of the wake of the server, it is located in mainland western europe and controls the irl territories of France, the lowland countries and the iberian peninsula, as well as owning a considerable amount of colonial territory in Africa and Indochina.

The country is usually referred to as "The UK", "Burgundian Order" or simply just "Burgundy" by outsiders, but it is generally referred to as "The Empire" in internal affairs due to a lack of a sufficiently specific shorthand for the full name of the union.

## History

#### Early History

After the Fall of Rome, the Kingdom of the Burgundians became independent for the first time in history, after a fierce war to keep their independence as the Romans were being pushed out from western continental Europe by the Franks. Once they consolidated their independence from both Romans and Franks, with Tischenburg as their capital, Burgundy remained a rather small landlocked kingdom within the western European plains. The first expansion of Burgundy came in 823 when they managed to defeat and conquer Provence and Lorraine, securing the region of champagne under control of Burgundy. And some decades later, in 970, Burgundy got access to coast for the first time after a unification with Picardy via royal marriage.

#### Initial Expansion into Iberia and Declaration of the United Kingdom

As Islamic influence started to wane (around the 1200s), Burgundy began to get more and more involved in the Iberian Peninsula, which eventually led to a Burgundy-backed uprising in the former lands of Lusitania (War of Portuguese independence, 1313-1369). This led to the declaration of the Crown of Portugal, which some time later united with Burgundy as the United Kingdom of Portugal and Burgundy and the Kingdom of the Burgundians changing its name to the High Kingdom of Burgundy. The union eventually came out victorious and drove the islamics back to Baetica. A few months after this victory, the Kingdom of Hispania was declared and accepted into the union, and in 1403, the Grand Duchy of Aragon declared independence from the Franks (War of Aragonese independence, 1403-1414) and requested to join the union.

#### Intervention in the New World

When the new world was discovered, the United Kingdom was quick to get involved and set some bases in Bahia and Pernambuco. Burgundy already had some experience with colonies, as they had previously colonized a considerable chunk of northern Africa as well as some ports in the southern Congo region which would later become the Viceroyalty of Angola. As more and more towns were set up and more and more people set sail to the new world, the Crown Colony of Brazil was formally established (1503), which later became a modestly sized chunk of land in eastern south America with a coastline stretching from Belen to Porto Alegre. However, despite it having a majority Portuguese colonial population, Brazil was managed directly by Burgundy.

#### First Holy Roman Civil War

Burgundian involvement during the first civil war in the HRE was minimal. Despite this, Burgundy still saw itself getting attacked in some minor battles with some of the radicalists along the border between champanien and lothringien. This showed to Burgundy that the Holy Roman Empire did have some intent of incorporating it into itself as a province, which made the Burgundian government paranoid about the HRE's potential westwards expansion. Due to this, Burgundy adopted a policy of neutrality regarding affairs in eastern Europe, the spirit of which it still somewhat keeps to this day.

#### First Franco-Burgundian War

In 1524, Burgundy received a message from the Frankish provinces of Brittany requesting support for an independence war in exchange for joining the union. Burgundy was at first reluctant to go to war with the Franks (they were a pretty powerful kingdom at this time) but eventually accepted and in 1583, with additional support from the Xaviet Empire (who didn’t like France), they declared war on France with the ultimate goal of liberating Brittany. This war lasted for 3 years and resulted in the humiliating defeat of the Franks. The peace deal included the liberation and incorporation of the Duchy of Brittany into the union and the annexation of a corridor between Lyon and Marseille directly to Burgundy, giving them direct access to the Mediterranean, which allowed for easier management of Sardinia and the North African colonies.

#### The Quiet Bicentennary and the Independence of Brazil (1600-1850)

The following two centuries were a relatively peaceful time for Burgundy, with the only notable events being a few minor clashes with England over some islands in the English Channel and the establishment of the Royal Commissary of Brittany after their last duke died without having children and the Bretons failed to find a suitable successor within a year.

However, unrest came back to Burgundy in 1822, when the Brazilian Empire started pushing for its independence from Burgundy. Eventually, an agreement was reached between Brazil and Burgundy to avoid a war in which Brazil agreed to be nominally independent but still be somewhat under the control of the Empire and have a mutual defense pact, essentially turning it into a protectorate of the Empire. From this, the imperial council for overseas territories was born, in which all of the constituent crowns could have a say on the management of the empire's colonial holdings.

#### The Fall of the HRE

As instability was rising within the HRE, the High King of Burgundy started contacting the local resistance in the Netherlands area of the empire, of which the southern part agreed to be directly integrated into Burgundy after a hypothetical fall of the HRE and the northern agreed to becoming a royal commissary. When the HRE fell in 1894, Burgundy ended up annexing the aforementioned territories alongside Romandy and Alsace-Lorraine, which was later transferred to the newly formed Empire of the Germans after a referendum was held and supervised by both sides which resulted in a 60% vote in favour of joining Germany.

#### Second Franco-Burgundian War and the Sigma Pact

Shortly after the fall of the HRE, Burgundy decided to close the long-standing hole in its territory once and for all and declared war on France. Due to the superior size of the Burgundian Imperial Army and support from both the German Empire and (once again) the Xaviet Empire, a Burgundian victory was achieved by Christmas 1896 after 4 months of fighting. Shortly after which, it established the Sigma Pact with Dixie, Hungary and Pietuva; marking the first time since the first Holy Roman civil war in which Burgundy broke its neutrality regarding Eastern Europe.

After some lengthy talks with Germany and the Xaviets and a large number of delays, Burgundy finally agreed to joining the European Accords in 1899. However, the Sigma Pact was still pretty existent and still is, but it is eyed with suspicion by the leaders of the now called Imperialist League.