Pax Britannica​

This map was intended to show a Britain that serves as an analogue for Rome. While I planned to have analogues for the various events of Roman history (the Sack by the Celts, etc.) as well as having parts of the Empire stand in for Roman provinces, I found the spread-out nature of the British Empire in comparison to the Roman Empire made that difficult. I have attempted to retain elements of the analogue that I feel fit, but many Roman events have simply been ignored, while a number of regions have no direct analogue or multiple (ex: India takes the place of both Greece and Palestine) Hopefully you enjoy this map and writeup, and don't take it too seriously. Though this map is set in the twilight of the Western Empire, I've thought through its collapse that will be caused by the use of biological weapons in the Brazil-Llaneria War that will end up spreading throughout South America and cause a refugee crisis of global proportions that will end up forcing the breakup of the West.The origins of the British Empire are shrouded in legend and much of what survives from it is of dubious veracity. Historians generally agree that Britain had its beginning in the Kingdom of England. England's founders were a mix of inhabitants of the isles descended from Rome, the pre-Roman Celts, and the Angles, a people invited from continental Europe to Britain. The modern English Kingdom (a unification of several prior states) is generally said to have been founded by Alfred, King of Wessex and his children. England was later conquered by the Normans, another people from the continent. The Norman-led English Kingdom conquered its neighbors, Scotland and Ireland. Despite many changes over the past millennium and a half, all British royal houses to date can claim descent from Alfred of Wessex.The British Empire as a world power began in the 17th century, after the European discovery of the Americas. Progress towards empire was at first slow, with Britain only gaining small toeholds in India and North America. Throughout the next century, British colonies (English before 1707) expanded, despite the efforts of France, Britain's historic rival. The empire suffered a setback in the late 1770s, when, supported by the French, a number of Britain's North American colonies along the eastern seaboard broke away and declared themselves the independent United States of America. Shortly afterwards, France, put in debt by their military and monetary support of the American rebels, experienced a revolt of its own in which the king was deposed, a republic was installed, nobles were executed en masse, and a popular military leader, Napoleon, was enthroned as Emperor of the French in the course of a decade. The series of wars in the aftermath of the French Revolution, referred to altogether as the Napoleonic Wars, devastated the economies of continental Europe, and depleted agricultural lands in a swath from France to Russia, as farms were untended or pillaged by the massive armies of the Emperor and his enemies. The Emperor's end came in 1820, when France fought two final, cataclysmic battles at Gousainville and Villiers-le-Bel. Napoleon was exiled to a remote island in the Indian Ocean and the statesmen of every European nation convened outside their vanquished enemies capital to decide the fate of the continent. Though Britain lost many thousands of soldiers and dozens of ships in the war to bring Napoleon to his knees, Britain alone had not had a single battle fought on its land, and therefore found itself at the top of the heap that was post-war Europe.A number of states were reconstituted by the Paris Convention. The old royal house of France was restored to the throne, though their lands were vastly truncated by cessions to Britain (the old territories of Normandy, Aquitaine, and even Brittany). These losses left France nearly a vassal of England. Denmark, where the royal house was massacred by rebels in 1818 saw a German Duke installed under the trusteeship of Britain. The outcome of this expansion in conjunction with the weakening of the continental powers was a level of influence on the continent unseen since the Medieval Age, some 500 years prior.Britain expanded its colonial possessions in the decades following the victory over France by purchasing disparate provinces from the states made destitute by Napoleon and his formidable forces. The Spanish Kingdom, in particular, was wracked by full-scale revolt in its American colonies and simmering conflict between rival claimant houses at home. Britain was able to follow up the expansion of its Western Hemisphere colonial Empire with the reconquest of the United States. Regional tensions were exploited by the invading British armies to prevent the full weight of the American forces from fighting against it at any time. Britain's final victory came in 1846, when the famed general, the Duke Raglan sacked the city of Richmond, and carried the so-called President McKay home to Britain in chains. Though neo-United Statesian rebels bothered Britain for decades more, opposition to colonial rule gradually faded away after an 1855 bill giving Parliamentary Representation to certain colonial possessions.The 1800s were a time of British dominance in Europe, much to the dismay of the more established continental powers. Prussia, formerly a British ally, turned against Britannia, and aligned itself with Russia, itself coming into contact with British colonies in Asia and skirmishing over the central part of that continent. Against the backdrop of British expansion inside and outside of Europe, the Empire fought the German Wars, a series of conflicts between Britain and the Prussians and their allies, which sometimes included Russia. The Germans proved to be a more cunning enemy than London initially believed. The Baron Hitler defied the odds by landing an army in England and marching on London. Hitler smashed the British army, prompting Portugal and several other British allies to drop out of the war in fear of London being sacked and Britain falling apart. However, the Baron Hitler was recalled to the Fatherland to defend against an army marching northwards from Italy, saving London and the British Empire. The era of the German Wars came to a close in 1953, when British forces concluded a brutal war of attrition by fighting their way to the gates of Berlin. Fearing a bloody fight house to house to take the German capital, Britain decided to utilize an alternative that would save the lives of millions of lives of men in the Imperial Army. General Alexander, from his headquarters in Brueck famously stated "Berlin must be glassed!" On May 12, 1953, the world was introduced to atomic weaponry, as the skies of Berlin were darkened with IAF bombers. This was replaced by ten dozen gigantic, billowing clouds resembling mushrooms as the Prussian capital was reduced to hundreds of miles of wasteland. German resistance ended shortly after the Glassing of Berlin.Some within the Imperial High Command advocated pressing on to Russia, and therefore eliminate the last major rival to Britain on the planet. Cooler heads, however prevailed, and aside from several skirmishes in Poland, the world's two strongest powers remained at peace. Though jingoistic voices continued to brayed for war in Parliament and the newspapers, they found themselves on an equal footing with St. Petersburg in 1965, when the Russians announced they had tested an atomic bomb in the Central Asian steppes.By the 1870s, Britain was finding that its system of disparate administrations over half the world was simply untenable. Colonial provinces were displeased at having little representation in London while administrators in London were discovering the varied systems throughout the Empire made communication difficult. A number of bills enjoying a wide range of support were introduced throughout the 1870s and 1880s, but all floundered for reasons having little to do with the actual content of the legislation. Queen Victoria adopted the style Empress of Britain (alongside many other things) in 1891, and many thought the move towards centralization might be over. This proved to be incorrect, as in 1893, Parliament passed the a Reform Act, overhauling the organization of the Empire. Puppet kingdoms and protectorates remained as they were (though a number of them were annexed in the next century) but under the aegis of a single desk of the Foreign Ministry. Territories under the control of Britain were to be divided into two types of provinces: Parliamentary, which sent MPs to the new Imperial Parliament in London, and Imperial, which were governed by officials appointed by Parliament. The Provincial System, while not perfect, was satisfactory to the needs of London, and managed to survive until the end of the Empire. Initially, provinces began under London's supervision and were intended to be upped to Parliamentary provinces when they had become suitably white and English. This process did occur a number of times during the two centuries after the implementation of the system, but as the provinces became more established, the change in status rarely happened, as local elites found they liked their current situation better.The post-German Wars Britain found itself not on top of the world, but in a state of competition with the Russian Empire. The years 1960 through roughly 2050 were a time of fear of nuclear war between the two major players of the world. Russia and the British faced off on borders thousands of miles long, and innumerable lives were lost in border clashes, assassinations, and by rebels with the support of the enemy superpower. It is wonderous that a full-scale war never actually was fought, and, by the middle of the 21st century, the fear of atomic war had subsided. Russia was, in a sense, contained, as it no longer possessed the will or capacity to support major rebel groups and was unable to compete with British influence in the few independent states of the world.As the British Empire settled into an era of near-dominance over the world, a new class came into existence. Racial science, favored throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries fell out of favor, which precipitated a gradual wave of marriages between Britons and the literate classes of London's many dominions. The new, mixed-race gentry retained aspects of both their British and native heritages, and often sprinkled their English with words of local origin. This process was not identical across the entire empire, however. While prevalent in India, Indochina, and many of the Pacific Islands, many of the western provinces remained more conservative and refused marriage with non-whites. A wedge slowly was driven between west and east, as the latter part of the empire was increasingly non-white and spoke less and less proper English each generation, while many even adopted Hindi, by then well on its way to becoming the lingua franca of the Asian portion of the British Empire.Around the year 2050, a young itinerant preacher began making the rounds in Hindu portions of the empire. This man, Sanjay Sharma, the Guru Sanjay, known to many of his followers as Jaanane ke Raja (King of the Knowing), was a passionate speaker and was popular amongst everyone he spoke to. The message of peaceful opposition to the Christian monarchy in London, austerity, and a renewed faith in the old gods proved to be very powerful. The Guru Sanjay also advocated for co-existence with other sects, and even went as far as to claim Christ, the Buddha, and Muhammed as prophets, and reincarnations of a single lifeforce. By 2058, passive resistance had reached new levels under the urging of Guru Sanjay. Though technically, he had done nothing wrong, Sanjay was found guilty by a jury made up of Anglo-Indians of "creating a public nuisance and encouraging sedition" and sentenced to death. Sanjay was executed alongside a dozen of the most prominant of his retinue in New Delhi on June 15th, 2058 by blowing from a gun. Immediately before his execution, the Guru spoke to a number of his gathered followers and said: "Though my body may break beneath the fire of the Angrezi, it shall be like an Afghan wind upon them even in death. Fear not, brothers, for one day we may meet again." The execution went much as planned, and by nightfall, Sanjayists were burying what remained of his body. The next day, however, the gun that killed the Guru Sanjay was found with cracks in its barrel. A master engineer of the New Delhi garrison inspected the weapon and found that the crack was the result of overuse and exposure to the cold. The report was hardly relevant to the officers that received it, but through one of their servants, news reached the mourning Sanjayists of what had occurred. Rallied by Narendara, one of the Guru's most trusted friends, the followers of the now-dead Yogi took the cracked gun as a sign from their former teacher. The teachings of the Guru became known as Aarogism, for its central tenet of restoration of an ascetic life. The Aarogist faith slowly began to spread throughout India and the Indian diaspora. The teachings of their founder were slowly warped, and many came to believe that he was in fact another reincarnation of the spirit that had also manifested itself as Christ and the Buddha. The symbol of the broken gun was adopted as the emblem of Aarogists. While at first, Aarogismism was thought a sect of Hinduism, it slowly evolved into a religion of its own, with unique teachings and even condemnation by Hindu clergy.Later critics presented numeous theories regarding the cracking of the Delhi Gun. Such people laid out pointed out that the British wouldn't have used a gun in top condition, and that likely, the weapon was already aging and the killing of the Guru was simply its last straw. Records on campaigns in the cold climates of Afghanistan and Tibet dating from the years preceding 2058 were used as evidence, to prove that the gun likely was used there and suffered its damage there.The new religion slowly spread throughout the British Empire. In the decades immediately after 2058, the members of the Guru Sanjay dispersed throughout the Indian provinces and areas of the empire inhabited by Indian laborers. Hindu authorities in many areas attempted to suppress these early Aarogist preachers, and a number were executed and martyred throughout the Empire. In this time, in order to allow for ease in the expansion of Aarogist belief, a the collected lectures and teachings of the Guru Sanjay were assembled into a book that was widely illegally printed and carried around the empire.By roughly the year 2100, the men of the Guru's retinue were dead and no longer relevant in the Aarogist organization. A formal hierarchic emerged after the death of the first generation. Bishops watched over priests, who tended to the spiritual needs of the growing Aarogist flock. Aarogism diverged from Hinduism in that it permitted men of any parentage to become priests. After 2100, conversion efforts were expanded to people of any ethnicity and religion, not just Indian Hindus. Several prominent Anglican churchmen jumped ship to Aarogism after being visited by the Bishop of Islamabad, an event that prompted many of their congregations to follow suit. An Aarogist community soon grew to relevance in London, and the Bishopric of London became one of the most prestigious posts within the Aarogist world.Aarogism (alongside Catholicism, Hinduism, Islam, and any non-Protestant brand of worship) was technically illegal under British law (except in certain cases, which, in practice, included many millions). In practice, though Anglican missionaries had done a fine job spreading their religion around the globe, laws against non-Protestants boiled down to restriction from the franchise, higher taxes, and registration (though the census made this rather redundant). In the mid-23rd century, George, Prince of Wales and son of Emperor Alexander II travelled extensively through British Asia, and had some schooling in the University of Saigon. Prince George studied under notable Aarogist professors (something that caused quite a stir in the Imperial Court). Upon the death of his father by choking on a bone in 2267, George ascended to the throne. In 2274, after proving himself a popular Emperor, the now George XIII ordered the legalization of Aarogism, which was passed by Parliament. Rumors of a palace coup that would place the Emperor's brother in power were quashed by the exile of the mentioned brother, William, to a naval post in the far south that would effectively remove him from any circle with any influence. Following this act, many closet Aarogists in Parliament and finance revealed themselves. George XIII remained popular throughout his reign and Aarogism became established as a legitimate religion of the empire.Aarogism made the leap to becoming the official religion of the empire in 2353, at the behest of William V, the first Aarogist to sit as Emperor. The move was met with anger, and areas of the empire with Anglican majorities erupted into outright revolt. The revolts were squashed by an army swollen with volunteers from the primarily Aarogist cities eager to expand their faith.Despite the modern conveniences of telephones and radio, the world-spanning British Empire became increasingly difficult to control from the a single place, London. Cultural divergences became ever clearer, as the western portion of Britain affiliated itself with London, the Imperial Seat of Power, while the eastern provinces identified themselves with Victoriana (a large city named for the 19th century Empress on the Malacca and Karimata Straits) Moves towards granting a number of the eastern provinces autonomy were discussed throughout the 23rd and 24th centuries, but no major changes were put in place until 2344, when Parliament granted significant powers to a new "Eastern Administration". A quasi-Parliament was convened there as an advisory body for a Governor appointed by London. The division of authority worked well, but the power of the appointed Governor was resented by nobles in all corners of the Empire. Upon the death of George XV in 2385, the partition of the British Empire was made permenant by the placement of two of the Emperor's sons on the Imperial Throne in London and a new one in Victoriana.The fates of the two British Empires have diverged heavily since the division of the empire in two. The Western Empire is outwardly much as it once was. An Emperor still sits in London and Parliament still convenes. But look closely, and you can see the cracks. The once nearly-mechanical bureaucracy has become increasingly bloated and corrupt in recent years. Fewer of the projects that need doing seem to be started, with fewer finished. Imperial authority is on the decline, too. Civil order has begun to break down in many of the cities and outlying provinces. In Africa, vast swathes of the interior and the people within them simply do not feel the need to acknowledge any officials higher than the village headman. Tax collectors and recruiting sergeants are simply turned away by the makeshift militias that hold power there. The same is, of course, true, on a smaller scale across the entire Western Empire. The military is increasingly ineffective, even against rock-weilding, barricade-building subjects angry at government inefficiency. The treasury is at its lowest levels ever, owing to skimming and even stupidity by the officials tasked with collecting taxes and tribute. Few know this, as most of the ruling class has been lulled into complacency by the centuries of British dominance and it is unthinkable to most that the treasury could ever run empty. Parliament, too, is but a shell of its former self. The quasi-democratic system of the 19th century is gone, and MPs are little but figureheads for the various factions that run the Empire. Despite all this, few even acknowledge the possibility that Britain could ever fall, and fewer could even imagine how close at hand that fate is.The Eastern Empire, however, appears to be at the apex of its power. The Imperial Court in Victoriana has been established for nearly three quarters of a century, and Francis II sits on the Jade Throne. Francis is a devout follower of the Bishop of Victoriana, who both advises the Eastern Emperor and commands his followers to support the Emperor (never mind that the Guru Sanjay counseled against monarchy) in hopes of bringing about an enlightened world order. This vastly different religious system is only part of the cultural differences that make a rift between east and west. The intelligentsia of the East is primarily mixed-race, and most have adopted Hindi as the language of governance alongside Aarogism. The East has also discarded the old system of Imperial and Parliamentary provinces, and instead has divided itself into a patchwork of prefectures, all of which are relatively equal. The power of the legislature has also been curbed, and though there is a Parliament in Victoriana, the Imperial Court is hardly constrained by its recommendations. Unlike the west, the east appears to have some steam left in it and has the potential to keep chugging along for centuries.Modern Aarogism teaches that all souls are equal, and that after death, they are reincarnated. The goal of life is to reach enlightenment, and a true, pious, lifestyle. The Guru himself has been transformed from a teacher into something of a deity. Sanjay Sharma, Christ, Muhammad, the Buddha, and a host of others are held to be various incarnations of a single, enlightened spirit: The Ever-Knowing Man. Aarogist doctrine also states that the Ever-Knowing Man is likely to return at points in the future and reveal more to the world. In some of the great cities of the British Empires, predicting the dates of this spirit's return has become a complicated science, and massive computers that fill entire buildings are used to make projections. Like many religions, Aarogism is not immune to remaining unified. While the priesthood across the world more or less are in agreement over the validity of their posts, there is a rift between those that consider the Bishop of Victoriana to have a more important role than the Bishop of London. There are certainly doctrinal differences between the two Aarogist branches. Unsurprisingly, the boundaries between the branches align roughly to the borders of the two British Empires.The Western Emperors were never able to capitalize on the Aarogist priestly system the way the Eastern ones were. While priests in the east (the majority of them at least) generally acknowledge the authority of the Emperor in Victoriana and uphold his authority, the clergymen of the west are more divided and openly question whether the British Empire is a just regime.Other religions do still remain within the Empires. Anglicanism, depsite no longer being the official church, still has prestige, and a number of followers scattered across the world. Hindus, Muslims, and Catholics have avoided conversion to Aarogism, and retain their faiths, though the Pope fled to South America during a bout of anti-Catholic sentiment in the Empire in which mobs fought sectarian brawls in the streets of Rome.The Britains have allowed several other states to remain independent (though what independence actually means varies case to case). Client states, like Ethiopia and Afghanistan are permitted to exist because the territory they take up are (or at least were at some point) difficult to swallow and annex. The client states are more or less under nearly-entire control by representatives of the Emperor in London or Victoriana, respectively, but most retain their own languages and sometimes religions. The British have permitted some states with historic ties to remain out from under the Imperial thumbs. Portugal, Greece, and Japan have considerable control over their own internal affairs. They deal with envoys from the Imperial Courts not exactly as equals, but the relationship cannot accurately be described as one-sided.Russia, like Britain, continued its expansion throughout the 19th and 20th century. The two empires, despite brushfire conflicts throughout steppes of Central Asia and in the river-valleys of China, avoided full-scale atomic war and the destruction of all life on Earth that would surely follow. By the end of the twentieth century, Russia and Britain were the only powers of any standing to have remained independent, and the balance of power that exists until now, the middle of the 25th century, began. Britain and Russia have been in a state of possible war since the end of the German Wars, though fears of mass use of atomics has dropped off since the mid-21st century. The possibility of escalation has not stopped of periodic skirmishes that claim the lives of thousands.Ruling such a large empire was difficult, so 22nd century emperors reformed the state into a system of vassal kingdoms (some are duchies, but all are referred to as kingdoms when referring to them as a collective) in non-Russian areas, while much of Russia remained as the personal domain of the Tsar (who still ruled the rest of the empire, though through puppet kings). In practice, the kingdoms of Russia have not been very autonomous and more or less follow the Tsar's every demand, lest they be deposed and replaced with another crony from St. Petersburg. Several kings have not been willing to give up their demesne, despite the writing on the wall. In the event of such foolishness, the Tsar's representatives are eager to remind the kings that the the Rocket Corps is directly subservient to St. Petersburg, and the rocketeers cloistered beneath the Urals have no qualms with turning, say, Samarkand or Romanograd (formerly Baghdad) to glass.The Russia of the present day is an autocratic state. Its people are devout, and the wishes of the Russian Orthodox Church are taken as commands. The Church orders unconditional subservience to the Emperor, and there is considerable fear in both Britains of the alien nature of the Russian people. Both Russia and the Britains distrust each other, and war remains a distinct possibility. While Russia could conceivable defeat either the Eastern or Western Empire alone, Victoriana and London have signed a mutual-defense pact that all but ensures eventual victory for the Britons.South America remains as the only part of the world that can truly be said to be free of the superpower British and Russian Empires. Outside powers vied for influence there in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, but since the Anglo-Russian system has come into existence, foreign interference in South America has slowly subsided, leaving the fourth-largest continent to its own devices. The Technocratic ideology, which advocates for a government run by scientific method by experts in applicable fields as well as the abolition of "outdated" institutions and the imposition of state atheism, came into existence in the late 23rd century. The 2300s saw Technocracy gaining traction across Latin America, a move that ended with the formation of the first Technocratic states (Technates, as they are called) in the last quarter of that century. Technates have come dominate the non-British Americas, prompting fear in the Catholic countries of a "religious war" by their atheist neighbors. Most recently, Guyana, up until 2418 a province of West Britain, broke away from its old Imperial master and quickly conquered the small states of the Guiana region, while the Mexican Technate, formerly a city-state in the Valley of Mexico, has gone on the offensive, spreading its brand of computer-worship (practitioners believe the world is simply a simulation within a computer) across an area dozens of times larger than their homeland.Technologically, the British world empires have been in a state of stagnation for centuries. The average man lives in a state little better than that of the early 20th century. Despite these realities, technology that could allow a large increase in the quality of life exists, but in most places the government has a monopoly on inventions as well as communication. All radio and television transmissions are under the control of the governments (except in states with anarchic traditions, like Swizterland), which has slowed the spread of knowledge of the decline of the Empire. Pollution runs rampant, and those impurities take a toll on the lives of many. Life is typically nasty, brutish, and short for anyone that has the misfortune of being born a commoner.Though at its height the British space empire spanned multiple worlds and moons (all in the same system as Earth, of course), Britain's colonies beyond the skies are now but a fraction of what they once were. Through lack of will and lack of vision, missions into the heavens have been vastly curtailed since their height at the end of the 21st century. The once great domed cities of the Moon have fallen into disrepair. The western empire finds it increasingly expensive to blast technicians into orbit, and therefore declines to repair all but the most serious problems. The makeshift repairs by what remains of the Imperial Administration on Luna are barely satisfactory and the gigantic air pumps that keep the thousands of residents of the Moon alive just barely limp along. Civil order is on the down and out there owing to the smaller Imperial garrison and economic troubles brought upon by increased transportation. Two major cities, New Bristol and Haigstown have already broken from the Empire and declared themselves independent city-states. The Imperial response to the rebels has been lackluster, though more launches have been rtecorded in the campaign against the Lunar insurgents than resupply launches in the same period of time. Some in loyalist settlements have begun to wonder if feigning disobedience will bring them the machine parts and foodstuffs they so desperately need.Even the enlightened eastern empire has neglected space. A large number of ministers in Victoriana decry the acquisition of extraterrestrial territories as frivolous and a money drain that distracts from the real needs of the empire.Russia and the South American states also have presences outside the Earth. Russia has the launch facilities to compete with the British, and continues to send missions and establish colonies at a rate far above that of the British. The Russian lunar settlements are not in much better shape than those of their fellow Earthlings, the Britons, but are resupplied at a much quicker rate. The South Americans were too slow to grab any major claims on the Moon, but have claimed asteroids and retain bases there to compete with the British and Russians.The story seen on the Moon is similar elsewhere in space, though on a different scale. The Moon was man's first major endevour into the heavens and remains as the last bastion of humanity among the stars.