TIMELINE OF THE BRITANNIC FEDERAL EMPIRE
(Events common to this timeline and ours in italics)
1688 – The Glorious Revolution. William of Orange becomes King William III of England.
1689 – William III and Queen Mary unexpectedly produce a male heir.
1690 – English Act of Settlement amended to exclude Anne, the daughter of James II. Descendants of William and Mary confirmed as English monarchs as well as Princes of Orange (with all that implied regarding the Dutch stadholdership).
1702–1713 – First War of the Spanish Succession. Hanover joins on Anglo-Dutch side due to collateral dynastic connection. Existing tacit agreement that India is an English sphere of influence and the East Indies a Dutch one is formalized, and the Dutch are confirmed in perpetual possession of the Cape Colony, subject to certain English naval concessions.
1702 – Death of William III of England. His thirteen-year-old son Maurice crowned king, at first with a regency council. As Prince of Orange, he also becomes Stadholder of Holland and other Dutch provinces.
1707 – Act of Union, creating kingdom of Great Britain. King Maurice I comes of age.
1713 – First War of the Spanish Succession ends. Spanish Bourbons excluded from French succession.
1740–1748 – War of the Austrian Succession. Austrian Netherlands partitioned between France and the United Netherlands.
1756–1763 – Seven Years’ War; at its end, Britain has Canada, Florida and a dominant position in India. France keeps Louisiana.
1775 – First American Rebellion begins.
1778 – Rapprochement reached between North American rebels and British Crown, with strong support of King William V and George Washington, the erstwhile rebel military commander
Extremists among the rebels, concentrated in New England and led by General Benedict Arnold, refuse to accept the agreement. Over the next two years, British and American Loyalist forces led by Washington suppress them.
1780 – Fighting in North America ends. Arnold and other rebel leaders hanged. Irreconcilable ex-rebel emigrants depart for French Louisiana and Spanish Texas, in both of which they eventually become the dominant element.
1781 – Settlement of North American issues finalized. Colonies reorganized into smaller number of dominions, within Viceroyalty of North America (although Canada remains classified as a province); Imperial Grand Council instituted.
1789 – French Estates General; the Comte de Mirabeau masterminds a British-style settlement.
1811 – British finalize treaty with loose confederation of Algonquin tribes under Tecumseh; Dominion of Indiana formed.
1830 – Indian uprising in northern Louisiana; St. Louis destroyed.
1851 – The Bourbon king of Spain dies without issue. In the absence of any apparent heir, the French (who have never given up their dream of uniting the two monarchies) put forward the current heir to the French throne as the nearest relation.
1852 – Second American Rebellion begins; Robert E. Lee rises rapidly in the rebel command after a series of victories.
1853–1856 – Second War of the Spanish Succession. Prussia, Russia and Britain intervene to prevent Franco-Spanish union. Austria and Hanover (whose Anglo-Dutch dynastic link has lapsed) side with France.
1854 – Viewing the American uprising as a distraction from events in Europe, Britain agrees to further reforms, including the finalization of the Imperial Grand Council’s development into a super-legislature, in which the dominions are directly represented; the Viceroyalty of North America continues to exist within the Imperial structure, dealing with specific interdominion North American matters. These reforms put an end to the rebellion except for the still-intransigent Dominion of New England, where an independent commonwealth is declared with tacit Britain consent, putting an effective end to the fighting.
1855 – French governor of Louisiana realizes that France is losing the war. With the support of the descendants of the American rebels who moved there, he declares an independent kingdom, securing his position by an alliance of convenience with the British, who take the northern parts (and the Indian problem).
1856 – Peace of Vienna; Spanish throne goes to a very distant Bourbon relation; France forced to recognize independence of Kingdom of Louisiana; British officially recognize independence of Commonwealth of New England.
1857–1858 – Great Mutiny leads to winding up of British East India Company and foundation of Viceroyalty of India; King William VII adds “Emperor of India” and “Emperor of North America” to his titles, although the term “empire” has already been used for almost a century.
1861–1862 – Scattered revolts in North America, put down by the Viceroyalty’s forces, led by Lee; these prove to have been instigated by the Commonwealth of New England, and covertly aided by Louisiana and American émigrés in Texas.
1863 – British North America, provoked, reconquers Commonwealth of New England.
1865 – British North America conquers Louisiana.
1867 – Ex-commonwealth and Louisianan adventurers and mercenaries who have drifted into Texas combine with the ex-rebel element already established there to aid, and then take control of, a revolutionary movement against the Spanish monarchy; Viceroyalty of New Spain is declared the United States of Mexico.
1868 – Dominion of Canada created within Viceroyalty of North America; Hudson Bay Company compensated for loss of some holdings with large land grants in Great Plains.
1870 – After a revolt in Red River area, Hudson Bay Company nationalized and Dominion of Manitoba created.
1876 – Gold discovered in Russian America; Russian colonization increases.
1881 – British and Spanish empires combine to overthrow the United States of Mexico; Britain takes Texas, which eventually attains dominion status over the following decade; the Sioux transfer allegiance from the Spanish to the British Crown.
1882 – Russian annexation of Manchuria; Manchu China descends into warlordism.
1883 – Term “Imperial Federation” first used.
1893–1896 – Succession struggle in Russia. The brother of the (deceased) loser flees to Russian America and declares it an independent grand duchy.
1885 – Ireland granted dominion status, with its own parliament.
1898 – Spanish government reformed; attempts to integrate Spanish America with Spain along the lines of British Imperial Federation begin.
1901 – British provinces in Australia united as a dominion.
1907 – New Zealand granted dominion status.
1907–1912 – First Near Eastern War between Russia and Triple Alliance of Austria, France and Prussia, stemming from Russian intervention in Turkey. In the end, a peace of exhaustion brokered by Britain dismembers Turkey into spheres of influence.
1945 – Viceroyalty of India (heretofore an anomaly in the theory of Imperial Federation) granted representation in the Imperial Grand Council even though it is not composed of self-governing dominions.
1958–1970 – Second Near Eastern War, originally between Triple Alliance and Russia. Initially limited to the Near East as before, the fighting eventually spreads to Europe. British Empire remains neutral.
1959 – One warlord finally unites China.
1968 – British Empire joins the war on the side of the Triple Alliance and begins to secretly develop nuclear weapons.
1970 – War ends when British Empire threatens to use nuclear weapons. Russia collapses in revolution. Prussia annexes Poland. Otherwise, the allies leave the struggling new Republic of Russia alone. British fleet shields the Grand Duchy of Alaska. Islamic Caliphate arises out of the ruins of the Turkish Empire, but at first is regarded as ignorable by Western powers as it is willing to do business with respect to petroleum.
1972 – Dictatorship seizes power in Russia, puts down a rebellion in Manchuria (China is still too weak to prevent this).
1977 – Quintuple Alliance formed (Spain and British Empire joining the old Triple Alliance) against Russia.
1992 – British attempt to normalize relations with Russia; one result is that Russia steals secret of nuclear weapons.
2002–2005 – Russian War, fought with conventional weapons under a nuclear standoff.
2005 – War ends as coup topples Russian regime when dictator orders all-out nuclear strike. Chinese take advantage of the situation to seize Russian-held Korea and Manchuria. Russian monarchy reconstituted under grand-ducal house of Alaska.
2008 – Principle of Imperial Federation extended to Britain itself; England and Scotland become dominions, on same footing as others. This removes the last vestige of the dichotomy between metropolis and colonies. The name Britannic Federal Empire becomes official.
2021–2028 – Muslim jihad against Western influence in Near East. Islamic Caliphate expands and is taken over by extreme fundamentalists.
2043 – Greater China declared.
2120 – Colonizing expedition of North American separatists departs for fifty-five-year voyage to Tau Ceti.
2170 – Bernheim Drive invented.
2175 – North American separatists arrive at Tau Ceti to find Imperial outpost already established there by an expedition which traveled from Earth under Bernheim Drive in nine and a half days. They are nonetheless allowed to found their colony on the planet New America.
2281 – The present.