United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain (UK), commonly known as the United Kingdom (U.K.), Britain or Great Britain is a constitutional monarchy and confederation composed of 24 colonized worlds, 36 star systems, 1 cluster, and dozens of independent but affiliated colony worlds. The United Kingdom is the Milky Way's seventh largest nation in total area. With a population of over 4 billion people, the U.K. is the eighth-most populous country in Human space. The capital of the UK is London on the planet Britannia, and the largest world by population is also Britannia. Each colonized world on average is comprised of 10-20 counties. The colony of Shetland Prime is the furthest British world from Britannia and is located on the border of Nordic space in the Odin Ridge. At the same time the colony of Nelson serves as a highly militarized world second furthest from Britannia located in the buffer zones between British and German space. Beyond official British space in the Victoria cluster there are dozens of affiliated territories and colony worlds dotted around the Channel Rift, stretching across vast distances and only being connected by the might of the Royal Navy which maintains a high presence in these territories officially acting as a police force against pirates.

The United Kingdom is a confederation that consists of four sovereign nations: England, the New Irish State, the Republic of Scotland, and the Welsh Federation. Their capitals are London, Belfast, Edinburgh, and Cardiff with each of these capitals being located on the worlds of Britannia, Antrim, Alba and Snowdonia respectively. Each nation within the United Kingdom maintains its own national government, military and laws but also contributes to a shared confederate government which handles all matters relating to foreign policy and defense. The Manish colonies of Surrex, Welton and Harshire located in the Channel Rift are not officially British territories, instead being Crown dependencies with the British Government responsible for defense and interstellar representation. The medieval conquest and subsequent annexation of Wales by the Kingdom of England, followed by the union between England and Scotland in 1707 to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the union in 1801 of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. There are twenty seven British Interstellar Territories, the remnants of the British 'Age of Expansion' which, at its height in the 2140s, encompassed almost a quarter of what is now known as Human space and was the largest nation in space history. British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies even to this day and hundreds of independent colonial nations can trace their heritage back to British settlers.

The United Kingdom is a developed country and has the Milky Way's fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It has a high-income economy and has a "very high" Human Development Index, ranking 16th in Human space. It was the first industrialised country and the Humanity's foremost power during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The United Kingdom remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political interstellar influence. It is a recognised nuclear weapons state and is sixth in military expenditure in the Milky Way. It has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946. It is both a founding member and leading member of the United Nations and the European Security Council. The United Kingdom is also a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Council of Europe, the G7, the G20, the Federation of Allied Nations, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Interpol and the Interstellar Trade Organization (ITO).