How Britain stole the World!

How the mighty have fallen! It is the beginning of the 17th century. The Agricultural Revolution in Europe is coming to an end. India and China having undergone a proto-industrialization dominate the world economics having more than 50% of the market share. While Europe has discovered the Americas, Asia still holds the key to economic success. India and China closely guard their plentiful lands and unbelievable resources. The majority of trade is still carried out by Arab traders operating on the Silk Road with Europe being a cold desolate part of the world cut out of the major trade routes. Cities like Lahore, Delhi, Bukhara, Samarkand, Peking and Istanbul control the world trade. The demand for Oriental products like Tea, Silk and Spices is at an all-time high. Moreover, trade and commerce on the high seas is dominated by Portuguese and Spanish traders who established trading posts and networks throughout Asia and Africa. Since the fall of Constantinople, Ottomans have had total control of the entry of goods from Asia coming via the land routes. The stage is set for the entry of a nation that is going to disrupt the global economy and change the course of history for centuries to come! Britain is a windswept and cold land in the Atlantic Ocean and is famous for its lack of resources. While it has always been a strong power in Europe, The growth of France, Prussia and the Russian Empire has reduced its role in the politics of the mainland. It is far from the juggernaut that will go on to dominate the world for centuries to come. But a new revolution is coming to change the face of Britain. INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION The Industrial Revolution was the global transition to new manufacturing processes that succeeded the Agricultural Revolution, starting from Great Britain, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1840. All this started with the invention of the steam engine in the mid-1700s. While Britain lacked the sheer amount of skilled labour India and China had, they learnt to harness the power of coal and fire to change the industrial processes forever. This transition included going from hand production methods to machines; new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes; the increasing use of water power and steam power; the development of machine tools; and the rise of the mechanized factory system. Output greatly increased, and a result was an unprecedented rise in population and the rate of population growth. With the rise of machinery, British domination in the field of commerce began to increase. Resource extraction, coal, textiles, iron, shipbuilding, weapons manufacturing, and the rise of British domination could be seen in every field. This further gave rise to an increase in military ambitions for the tiny nation. Wars with fellow European nations gave Britain even more chances to flex its military muscle and grow stronger. The rise of Capitalism led to the formation of the first corporations meant to trade abroad and create profit for their investors. From the Hudson Bay Company to the British East India Company, many such corporations sprung up, trading with foreign lands, extracting resources and even in some cases fighting wars with their private armies. It is in this scenario we get our first map. 1815

At the beginning of 1815, Britain had already experienced what was the First Industrial Revolution. They had mechanized weaving and spinning and the satanic mills of Manchester flooded the world markets with cheap ready-made cloth. Steamboats and Steamships helped them establish settlements in all corners of the world. Yet Britain had lost control of their most important colony of America when they lost the American War of Independence. At this point, most of their settlements were negotiated with rulers of the land and they had fought very few wars with the natives. Most of their attention was on Europe as they sought to maintain a position of power on the old continent in the face of French, Prussian and Russian Aggression.

1880

On the back of their astounding victory over united Indian Princely states during the First Battle of Independence in 1857, Britain announced the dissolution of the East India Company and brought India under the British Crown, thus cementing Britain as the leading world power. Britain controlled land all over the world, from the icy tundra of Canada to the Tropical Jungles of Guyana, from the southern tip of Africa to the mighty Ganges plains, and from scorching deserts of Australia to desolate mountains of New Zealand. Indeed the Sun never set on the British Empire. We are at the beginning of the great divergence as British people became 5 times richer than Indians and Chinese of that time. Moreover, Britain's share of the World Economy ballooned to over 10% up from 2% in the 1700s.

1914

On the eve of World War 1, Britain had become the biggest empire the world had ever seen, dwarfing the huge colonial empires of France and Spain, being considerably larger than the greatest extent of the Russian Empire and being even bigger than the height of the Mongol Empire. Yet, Britain was facing severe challenges to its authority around the world. Once a British Colony, the US was beginning to look like a huge imperial superpower itself. Russia had killed off its monarchy and had become a communist nation under the name USSR, spreading the waves of communism all around the world. Yet the biggest threat to Britain was the now united Germany. German industrial prowess and its well-trained army made it the biggest competitor to Britain in mainland Europe. Due to missing out on colonialism early, Germany was looking to expand its empire all around the world at the expense of the British. While Britain was at the epitome of its power, the steady growth of nationalist movements championed by the United States was beginning to challenge the "moral authority" of Britain to govern these nations. The stage was set for the biggest war that humanity had ever seen till that point.

1938

While Britain was among the victors in World War 1, the war left its dominant position in the world shaken and its industries were on the verge of crumbling. To prevent this Britain started taxing its colonies even more leading to widespread anguish and anger against their rule. Due to the crash of wall street which lead to The Great Depression, the world economy was in its worst possible stage. Britain simply couldn't afford another war. Another war would lead to a complete collapse of its empire. Yet over in Germany, A young Austrian with twisted ideals and warmongering nature had taken over. While Britain and France slowly decayed, Adolf Hitler led Germany to an unprecedented economic boom, leading it to again become the leading industrial, military and economic power in Europe. Signing a treaty with Japan, Italy and Russia and conquering Czechoslovakia, Austria and Poland, Germany pulled Britain into a cataclysmic war that would again change the world for decades to follow. POST-WAR BRITAIN

Post-war, Britain was a broken empire. They had been routed in the war and had barely survived. US and USSR emerged as the 2 global superpowers after the war. Not only was Britain economically destroyed and dependent on loans from the US to rebuild, but their diplomatic authority was also at an all-time low. If Britain had any ideas of taxing the colonies to fund its rebuilding efforts, they were in for a rude awakening. Most of the colonies were in a state of open rebellion that Britain had no resources or strength to quell. Moreover, the new global superpowers US and USSR nudged the European nations to decolonize. Soon Britain found itself losing its crown jewel of India when India and Pakistan gained independence in 1947. Countries like Libya, Sudan, Malaysia and Jamaica followed. In 1942, Winston Churchill was famously quoted saying: “We mean to hold our own. I have not become the king’s first minister to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire.” Yet Churchill lost his first post-war elections as the British people looked for a new beginning. The most humiliating reminder of Britain's newfound role in world politics came when it had to withdraw from Egypt under stern reproach from the US and USSR. At its most extensive, the British Empire comprised 57 colonies, dominions, territories or protectorates from Australia, Canada and India to Fiji, Western Samoa and Tonga. From London, the British ruled about 20 per cent of the world’s population and governed nearly 25 per cent of the world’s land mass, according to calculations by British researcher Stephen Luscombe. The spread of British influence, including the English language, gave birth to the United States, the world’s only superpower; the world’s largest democracy in India; and, perhaps inadvertently, disseminated British concepts of freedom, democracy and common law around the globe. Today that empire has been reduced to 14 scattered islands such as the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean and Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific. The Commonwealth of Nations created to give the semblance of British control over its former territories has been reduced to an outdated and pathetic sports competition offset by BRICS, ASEAN, EU or NATO. Some would say the empire officially came to an end in February of that year when—utterly drained by the two world wars—the British cabled Washington that they no longer had the money or troops to defend Greece or Turkey as the Soviet Union threatened to extend its influence in the early Cold War. “The British are finished,” Dean Acheson, soon to be Harry Truman’s secretary of state, was said to have remarked when he read the cable. The United States quickly displaced the United Kingdom as the main stabilizing power in the West. When Hongkong was reverted to China in 1997, The British Empire officially came to an end. Even the desperate attempt to hold onto the Falkland Islands (an imperial consolation prize) wouldn't detract even the most loyal of the crown from saying so. The mighty British who had once defeated China in the opium wars and forced the largest world power under their Wellington boots, now have a fraction of China's population, land, GDP or power. Today's Britain is widely considered a lackey or a lapdog of its more illustrious son. It was said, famously, that “the sun never set on the British Empire.” Since the end of World War II, however, that sun has been steadily dipping toward the horizon. Today, sundown is truly at hand. The waves of dissolution are lapping up against the shores of the British Isles themselves as the Scottish parliament controlled by the nationalist SNP aims to make Scotland an independent nation. Britain, which left the EU to foster its more "global" ambitions might end up losing a major chunk of its land. Indeed in London, a city ruled by a Pakistani-origin mayor, the British Prime Minister of Indian origin scrambles to preserve the Union under immense pressure from the Scottish nationalist Leader of Pakistani origin, the tables have truly turned.