HOME | DD

Description
"Charles ZI* Britannia, by the Grace of God Emperor of the Britains and all the Americas, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, and all her Dominions beyond the Seas, Defender of the Faith, Archtreasurer and Prince-Elector of the Holy Roman Empire, Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg..."

An alternate history map, based on QuantumBranching 's scenario Code Geass-ish , further fiddling with the idea of toning down the general Code Geass geopolitical scenario and trying to make it more plausible. Alternate UCS version here .

I've ignored the early idiocy of the official Code Geass TL, instead placing the POD in the 1770s with the implementation of reforms that keep the American colonials, if not happy, then at least a handsbreadth away from Boston Tea Parties. This alone fails to butterfly away the French Revolution or Napoleon Bonaparte, who was alive at the time of the POD and follows a fairly predictable trajectory based on his upbringing (as OTL escaping the Navy against his personal wishes).

However, the lessons not learned in an American War of Independence prove fatal for Britain, driven from the Continent and finally defeated conclusively at sea. Napoleon pulls a Glorious Revolution and installs Lucien on the British throne, just missing his chance to imprison George III who flees first to Ireland and then to the American colonies. Lucien I is deeply unpopular with the British people but George III is never able to return to Europe. His son takes the throne as Charles III in expectation of the collapse of French rule and a Restoration that never comes, and the name proves popular with subsequent monarchs. Much of the Empire outside the Americas is lost - India falls under French hegemony, and the Australian colonies go their own way, choosing neither the unacceptably Gallic king in London or the pretender struggling to rally his supporters in New York. This decision ultimately proved short-sighted - the British Empire-in-exile proved more resilient than expected, with Charles III taking the expansive title of 'Emperor of the Britains and all the Americas'.

Today the Empire of Britannia, as it still insists on being called (the rest of the world calls it the American Empire or just America) is the premier industrial, military and naval power in the world, with unparalleled ability to project force and absolute security on its home continent, with its long-term rival, the Empire of Mexico, forced into subservience and a number of stable buffer puppet states established in Louisiana, Florida and California. The Britannian core territories are governed by an Upper House (populated with unelected aristocrats, a holdover from the British House of Lords) and a Lower House, called the Senate, in addition to elected legislatures for each individual state. The Emperor of Britannia is not absolutely equivalent to the King of Great Britain - he operates much more as a Napoleonist strongman or caudillo, exercising significant influence over Britannian policy. Rather than a strictly hereditary position, the incumbent Emperor is expected to nominate a successor. Usually the successor will be from the current Emperor's family, but not always - and when the Emperor dies without naming a successor the Houses are constitutionally supposed to vote a replacement - but in practice this instead results in a messy power grab and a new Royal Family being installed.

Britannia's official religion is Christianity - the Church of England, as it still insists on calling itself, against the wishes of its English counterpart - but under Charles ZI/VIII, the incumbent Emperor, the Empire's Government has strongly advocated something like a cross between Objectivism and Social Darwinism, calling into question the always questionable constitutional status of the Church. The national anthem remains 'God Save the King', albeit somewhat differently instrumented .

The Chinese Federation and later the United States of China is a rising power, exercising soft power similar to the OTL Japanese Empire that allows it to claim to be the enemy of colonialism and champion of independence - despite the name it's still a hereditary monarchy, although in reality power is exercised by a civil service oligarchy with a small group of courtly High Eunuchs (the title no longer requiring any particular surgical procedure these days) effectively constituting the executive.

I've 'explained' the absence of Russia in the Code Geass scenario by assuming that Napoleon successfully established a Grand Duchy in Moscow but was as unable to get the Tsar in Omsk as he was the increasingly implausibly styled Charles III in America. The Siberian regime remained weak enough that the Brits were able to grab the Maritimes in the early 1800s, rendering the rest of the Tsarish rump a rather sad Arctic protectorate. Britannia-over-the-seas showed little interest in expanding its remaining African possessions, instead focusing on hegemony in the Americas and Pacific, culminating in colonialism in Indochina and the invasion of Japan. The borders in Africa are heavily inspired by B_Munro's rendering, albeit I've done some tweaking to reflect my notion that Britannia is essentially shut out from the Indian ocean (the Somalis are fond of shouting 'God save the King', mostly to piss off the French and their Ethiopian puppets, but actual Britannian presence is almost nil).

* i.e. VIII

Description
"Charles ZI* Britannia, by the Grace of God Emperor of the Britains and all the Americas, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, and all her Dominions beyond the Seas, Defender of the Faith, Archtreasurer and Prince-Elector of the Holy Roman Empire, Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg..."

An alternate history map, based on QuantumBranching 's scenario Code Geass-ish , further fiddling with the idea of toning down the general Code Geass geopolitical scenario and trying to make it more plausible. Alternate UCS version here .

I've ignored the early idiocy of the official Code Geass TL, instead placing the POD in the 1770s with the implementation of reforms that keep the American colonials, if not happy, then at least a handsbreadth away from Boston Tea Parties. This alone fails to butterfly away the French Revolution or Napoleon Bonaparte, who was alive at the time of the POD and follows a fairly predictable trajectory based on his upbringing (as OTL escaping the Navy against his personal wishes).

However, the lessons not learned in an American War of Independence prove fatal for Britain, driven from the Continent and finally defeated conclusively at sea. Napoleon pulls a Glorious Revolution and installs Lucien on the British throne, just missing his chance to imprison George III who flees first to Ireland and then to the American colonies. Lucien I is deeply unpopular with the British people but George III is never able to return to Europe. His son takes the throne as Charles III in expectation of the collapse of French rule and a Restoration that never comes, and the name proves popular with subsequent monarchs. Much of the Empire outside the Americas is lost - India falls under French hegemony, and the Australian colonies go their own way, choosing neither the unacceptably Gallic king in London or the pretender struggling to rally his supporters in New York. This decision ultimately proved short-sighted - the British Empire-in-exile proved more resilient than expected, with Charles III taking the expansive title of 'Emperor of the Britains and all the Americas'.

Today the Empire of Britannia, as it still insists on being called (the rest of the world calls it the American Empire or just America) is the premier industrial, military and naval power in the world, with unparalleled ability to project force and absolute security on its home continent, with its long-term rival, the Empire of Mexico, forced into subservience and a number of stable buffer puppet states established in Louisiana, Florida and California. The Britannian core territories are governed by an Upper House (populated with unelected aristocrats, a holdover from the British House of Lords) and a Lower House, called the Senate, in addition to elected legislatures for each individual state. The Emperor of Britannia is not absolutely equivalent to the King of Great Britain - he operates much more as a Napoleonist strongman or caudillo, exercising significant influence over Britannian policy. Rather than a strictly hereditary position, the incumbent Emperor is expected to nominate a successor. Usually the successor will be from the current Emperor's family, but not always - and when the Emperor dies without naming a successor the Houses are constitutionally supposed to vote a replacement - but in practice this instead results in a messy power grab and a new Royal Family being installed.

Britannia's official religion is Christianity - the Church of England, as it still insists on calling itself, against the wishes of its English counterpart - but under Charles ZI/VIII, the incumbent Emperor, the Empire's Government has strongly advocated something like a cross between Objectivism and Social Darwinism, calling into question the always questionable constitutional status of the Church. The national anthem remains 'God Save the King', albeit somewhat differently instrumented .

The Chinese Federation and later the United States of China is a rising power, exercising soft power similar to the OTL Japanese Empire that allows it to claim to be the enemy of colonialism and champion of independence - despite the name it's still a hereditary monarchy, although in reality power is exercised by a civil service oligarchy with a small group of courtly High Eunuchs (the title no longer requiring any particular surgical procedure these days) effectively constituting the executive.

I've 'explained' the absence of Russia in the Code Geass scenario by assuming that Napoleon successfully established a Grand Duchy in Moscow but was as unable to get the Tsar in Omsk as he was the increasingly implausibly styled Charles III in America. The Siberian regime remained weak enough that the Brits were able to grab the Maritimes in the early 1800s, rendering the rest of the Tsarish rump a rather sad Arctic protectorate. Britannia-over-the-seas showed little interest in expanding its remaining African possessions, instead focusing on hegemony in the Americas and Pacific, culminating in colonialism in Indochina and the invasion of Japan. The borders in Africa are heavily inspired by B_Munro's rendering, albeit I've done some tweaking to reflect my notion that Britannia is essentially shut out from the Indian ocean (the Somalis are fond of shouting 'God save the King', mostly to piss off the French and their Ethiopian puppets, but actual Britannian presence is almost nil).

* i.e. VIII