Britain

United Kingdom, or the United Kingdom of Great Britain, is a traditionalist conservative country in the British Isles. An Empire, but only maintaing a handful of worldwide islands and colonies, most importantly the British Raj, ruling over India.

## **Britain Emerging as an Empire**

After the American Revolution, the young British Empire began looking outward. As the years went on, Britain began settling places like New Zealand and Austrialia, being settled in 1788 in New South Wales. But at the same time, Europeans began to look more towards Africa, and the resources it had. Britain like most other Empires at the time only had cities from Africa, not actual colonies. After the late 1800s and the conference of Berlin was called, it granted Britain land in Africa like Egypt in 1882 which also included Sudan. Gradually, Britain also absorbed the numerous city states, small kingdoms and countries in India. In 1894, as the Ottoman Empire was dying, Britain and France had some plans to attack, and possibly gain new colonies in West Asia (mostly for France, as Britain already had territories on the Arabian peninsula), but eventually it was too late. The Ottoman Empire had already been partitioned. Despite some places of British and French Anatolian colonies, they were eventually scrapped. In 1905, for fear of an Arabian attack on British Arabia, the British sent an ultimatium to the Kingdom of Arabia, which forced them to give up parts of newly conquered 'No man's land" (South West Arabia). Despite an uproar by the Arabian government, the Kingdom caved.

## **Height of the British Empire**

By 1914, the British Empire had vastly expanded, stretching from the entire Indian subcontinent, to Austrialia, Guyana, Kenya, Malta and many more cities, islands and colonies. When Britain got involved in the Great War, they hoped for a quick and easy war, to gain German colonies and hopefully make sure Germany would never rival Britain again. Despite the fact that the war raged on for 3 years, British territory, unlike the French wasn't ravaged by war. They slowly, with Japanese help slowly took German colonies, until 1917 when Germany finally surrendered. Through the Treaty of Versailles, they gained Tanzania, German West Papua and split German colonies between the French. By 1918, the British Empire had reached its height.

## **The Cairo War**

In 1919, a startling revolution began in Egypt, demanding for the departure of the British Empire entirely. However, Britain obviously was not willing to give up one of its most valuable colonies, and instead Egypt went from a protectorate to an autonomous puppet, but the British still had control over the Suez. What Britain didn't know, was that Egyptian nationalism was still going on. Spurred on for 1 decade thanks to the Arabian Kingdom, most Egyptians still wanted Britain gone. As a result, in May of 1919, Egyptians revolted in Cairo, igniting the Cairo War. Despite British efforts, the Egyptians were able to continually take more and more land, but they eventually stalled and ended in a stalemate, with the nationalists having quite a large amount of land, but being still entirely encircled by British Egypt. Then, as if out of nowhere, the Arabians attacked and siezed British Arabia. Although British forces marched into the Levant, hopefully to diverge troops, it was no hope. All of Arabia directed their troops towards British Arabia, and despite efforts from the Raj British Arabia fell. Although the British captured Jerusalem and even Haifa, Arabia was quick to take their land back, pushing the British back to the Sinai Peninsula, where the stalemate was broken by the Egyptians. Eventually, the Egyptian and Arabian forces met with one and another, and eventually British forces began to leave Alexandria as it fell to Malta. As Egypt was falling, Italy after Arabian pressure joined in the war. Despite the Royal Navy, Cyprus fell by a joint Italian-Arabian invasion, allowing the Italians to look towards Malta. With the help of Arabia once again, the island fell in September, a huge blow to the British war effort. Around this same time, inspired by the Egyptian revolt, countless subject peoples across the Empire rose up. Separatist groups in the Raj, for example refused to join the army despite mandatory conscription, and as a result thousands were jailed. People in Belize, Jamaica, Nigeria and South Africa protested, refused to work, went on hunger strikes etc. to stop and halt the British war effort. After Malta fell, Spain decided to join in too, hoping to take back Gibraltar. But it was a grueling process, combined with the Royal Navy's harrassment of Spanish ports and its own navy, thousands died. As the Spanish were trying to capture Gibraltar, Ethiopia joined, lured by Italy. by promising them British Somaliland and a coast, which allowed for an invasion into Sudan by Egypt. In late October, Gibraltar, the last vestige for any sort of British interference in the Meditarranean, fell. All during this time, Britain put pressure on France to join, and pleaded with them to join, but France, scarred by the Great War didn't want any more fighting, and enforced its neutrality. In November, Irish rebels decided to fully revolt against the British. In December, both Japan and Siam joined against Britain. An invasion into Burma and Malaysia began, whereas Hong Kong and numerous British Island slowly fell to Japanese hands. By January the British were almost fully pushed out of Ireland, with Dublin being the last remaining city by February. As the months went on, Venezuela, Persia, Afghanistan, and Argentina joined in the war as British enemies, whereas rebels in Jamaica and Belize fully pushed the British out, as riots in the rest of the British Empire were in full swing. By September the same year, the British surrendered, launching a huge uproar in the British Isles, seeing the government as traitors. By the end, the British Empire was stripped apart, and the Treaty of Valletta was signed. The British no longer had any sort of influence in South America or the Caribbean, except through Bermuda, and the Pacific was lost, except for half of British Malaysia that bordered Indonesia, along with the dominions of Australia and New Zealand. The entire Meditarranean was lost. Ghana, Ceylon etc. were all split between the winners of the war.

## **After effects of the Cairo War and British decline**

After the British lost the Cairo War, the British Empire would never be the same. As the years went by, Britain would spiral into further economic depression. As time went on, the support for the old government would eventually sour, as new ideologies would emerge, especially with the help of people like Oswald Mosley. The british also needed to pay huge debts to the winners of the war, something they couldn't afford to do. Britain now didn't have control over the seas. Places like Gibraltar, Malta etc. were valuable and the British profited off of them. Now that they were lost, the British had a very slow income. Also because of the fact that the riots in the Empire were continuing. Eventually they would be put down, albeit violently as thousands would die, from Nigeria to India. The British had to choice but to levy taxes over its populace which drew more anti-democratic sentiment and rise of nationalism. British trading in the world was still very important but it was a fraction of what it once was.

## **London Crash of 1927 and its aftermath**

The British in 1924 decided against higher taxes of its populace and pleaded with the victors of the Cairo War to ease its debt, and eventually the winners gave in and lifted some of the reparations levied against the British. For a few years, it seemed that the British might recover. But in 1927, a rumor quickly spread about how the British government knew about how there was going to be a stock market crash and would freeze the banks of London. In hours, people went into London banks withdrawing their money, and soon it went out of hand. Hundreds began pulling out of the economy and began pulling out investments, but to the rest of the public and the government it was not known why this was happening until later that day, when the government came and denied the rumors. But at that point, the damage was done. By the end of the week, the British economy crashed, and in a few days it rippled across the British Isles, then across the world, severely impacting the United States as well. Similarly, this crash impacted the United States and the United Kingdom the same way, allowing new radical ideologies to grow a drastic amount. Many think that in the United States and in the UK, if the crash did not occur, nationalism and communism would have stayed relatively small.

## **South African War of 1931**

As Britain was trying to pull its nation out of poverty, because of over a decade of brutal oppression at the hands of the whites, South Africans in a coup rose up in 1931 in a bloody coup. They successfully overthrew the British Dominion government and replaced it was a Market Socialist south African government. Because of this, the British immediately began fighting hoping for a quick and easy war. But this war would not be easy. The South Africans were prepared and never underestimated the British and had a will to fight immensely bigger than the British. The South Africans entered South Rhodesia and the African populace welcomed them with open arms as liberators. As the war raged on, Portugal siezed the opportunity and, without a formal declaration of war entered North Rhodesia and Nyassaland, hoping to annex the territories that corresponded to the Pink Map of the late 1800s. Similarly, Japan entered the war hoping to take Malaysia. The British, still in poverty was in no power to stop anyone, and when the Japanese successfully landed in several British Malaysian ports the British surrendered. Japan took Malaysia, Portugal took the territories according to the Pink Map, and South Africa annexed the rest of Southern African British colonies. Britain was forced to give up its dominion status and recognize South Africa's full independence.