The United Commonwealth of Britain and Her Colonies

The Commonwealth Grows

The largest, and youngest, of the Star Empires of man, the United Commonwealth is the bastion of strength against the voids of space.

Structure

Federal Government:

The Crown, Commonwealth Parliament and the Law Lords. The Commonwealth Civil Service including the Home Office, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Governmental Excellence and Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.

The Commonwealth:

Supersectors (10 or so sectors), Sectors (2 or 3 related Solar Systems), Subsectors (Solar System), Colonies (Planet).

Public Agenda

To control the galaxy with fairty and protected personal rights. To protect the human race from aggressive alien attacks but also so seek out new life.

History

Whilst Humanity spread from Earth, now to be found almost over the entire Orion Arm, for over a hundred years, the United Kingdom did not expand from its assets in the solar system. By allowing the rest of the major countries to colonise the stars the UK was allowed to amass its military forces in peace. Without warning, in 2331, the United Kingdom launched a cataclysmic war in the solar system to sever the heads of the other empires. So successful was this campaign, they captured Earth completely in 6 months and the entire Solar System within the next 10 months. This staggering success was due to the attack breaking the Treaty of Maastricht (2256), that stated Earth's territory (and the solar system as a whole) was to remain divided as was, leading it to be lightly defended because of the expectation of the honouring of treaty. As such, the war was named the First War of Maastricht. In doing this, Britain stranded many countries in the cosmos, so that their only survivors were found in their colonies such as the Pan-American Conglomerate, or the European Republican Coalition but because of the Oceania Confederacy and the Canadian provinces, Britain had access to space. In response to this aggression, the United States of America Aegis and the Pan-American Conglomerate, declared war on the United Kingdom, starting the Second War of Maastricht, the catalsymic 40 year long conflict that spread across the entire length of the human expanse. Finally after years, the United Kingdom had finished the annexation of the former United States of America Aegis. leading to the signing of the Articles of Commonwealth between Britain and the Catechols as well as the South African Nations, Oceania Confederacy, Canada, Hong Kong-in-exile, Ireland, India and United States in 2376.

Demography and Population

3.5 Trillion Humans, 12 Trillion Catechols, 1 Trillion Drayeans, 100 Billion Furies and 10 Billion Jotens.

Territories

The size of the Commonwealth is about 2400 light years in radius, centred around Earth in all three axis but only within the Orion Arm of the galaxy, the less dense stellar regions between the arms being a bit challenging. One talks about Coreward, Rimward, Armward, and Tipward when talking about Galactic geography. There 6 major supersectors, each about 9.651×10^9 lightyears in volume, and they are the largest Administrative unit. They represent the nation signatories to Articles of Commonwealth. These do not have MPs, but do have Lords (generally the Prime Ministers/President), associated with them.
These Supersectors are:

Canadian Provinces,

India and Hong Kong-in-exile,

Oceania,

South Africa,

United Kingdom, and Ireland,

United States.

The densest of these is the United States, with currently the 48 contiguious states represented as sectors.

Military

The Commonwealth has 12 standing Combined Arms Armies that are found all over the Commonwealth. These Armies have a minimum 20 million strong planetside forces each. The total professional army size is about 240 million soldiers, with a reserve of another 120 million. 5 Million of the planetside forces are airforce personnel. Space Naval Forces is made up from 3000 'surface action' ships of the line from 20 or so various classes, from the big battleships, through the diplomatic cruisers and the destroyers, plus innumerate escorts and tenders. The largest ships, the Royalty class, have 900 strong complements and smallest, the Radar Picket and Beacon ships have a complement of 5. The current 'surface action' is just north of 1.5 million sailors. The Navy fleet carriers Enterprize class and the Battle class have Air Wings about 90 to 100 strong, with the vast majority being two seaters, leading to air crew sizes of between 180-250, but with another 400 in support. There are ten Enterprizes, four in service, six on slipway, fitting out and testing, nine Battles, 20 Presidents with total crew sizes about 650 non-aircrew and another 650 aircrew and support. This means that the fleet carriers take upto 60,000 sailors and aircrew. The Escort Carriers, desgined to protect troop transports in active warzones, number around 175 active hulls, with air wings of about 35-50. Total Carrier based forces is 250,000. Anchorage staff equates to about 1 million Sailors in Ordinary. The Commonwealth has a lot of room for expansion, the current Armed forces just over than 1% of 1% of the 3.5 trillion humans.

Technological Level

The Commonwealth has FTL, uses laser weaponary as standard, with biological sciences extending life until nearly 200 years old. Quantum field manipulations allow for FTL communications controlled by the Deep Space Network.

Religion

As part of the sudden expansion into the Galaxy that the creation of the FTL drive caused, religiosity dramatically decreased in humanity. Although there are people who still believe in the old religions, the state is Agnostic to the point of Atheism.

Agriculture & Industry

Subsectors maintain their own agricultural and industrial bases, to ensure their ability to support their own activities. However, there are colony planets that are turned over to the federal government for the purpose of building military and economic assets, along with making sure a food surplus is in existence, in case of natural disasters or wars that befell subsectors.

Trade & Transport

Trade within the Commonwealth occurs under the auspices of HM Revenue and Customs, with FTL trade lanes (areas of space mapped out with high precision as to be clear) criss-crossing the Commonwealth. These lanes are maintained by the federal government, and intersector trade is regulated and taxed by the government as well. These lanes are transited by the super-massive haulers, that take 6 months or more to make the trip to across the Commonwealth. These super-massive haulers can carry cargo directly or other smaller ships. Because of their size they cannot make berth around planets, the gravity wells being too strong, and so there are High Anchorages found in interstellar space within sectors, found at the lowest average gravities. These are often the sites of Shipyards. One such location is the Haarland and Wolff Shipyard.
Intrasector trade is free of federal taxation, and is regulated by the local HM Revenue and Customs departments, carried within subsectors by high sublight speed clippers (0.6C+) which allows them to maintain artificial gravity, due to constant acceleration trajectories, making the life in space easier. Items traded include minerals, livestock and food.

Infrastructure

The Super-High Anchorages, FTL trade lanes, the Deep Space Network

By Our Grace.

Founding Date

4/7/2376

Type

Geopolitical, Empire

Capital

Earth

Alternative Names

The Commonwealth

Training Level

Professional

Veterancy Level

Experienced

Demonym

X-British

Leader

Elizabeth XX

Head of State

Elizabeth XX

Government System

Monarchy, Constitutional

Power Structure

Federation

Economic System

Mixed economy

Currency

Pound Sterling (UK, CAN), Dollars (US, ASD, NZ,)

Major Exports

As with imports the human empires other than the Commonwealth do not generally buy exports. But, the Commonwealth does sell services to these empires.

Major Imports

The Commonwealth does not generally require material goods as import. However, it does import intelligence and inventions.

Legislative Body

The Commonwealth Bicameral Houses of Parliament:

The House of Commons:

Made up from MPs elected, in pairs, from each inhabited solar system that have over 1 billion in population. This equates to 1000 MPs.

The House of Lords:

A much smaller house, with the Lords being made up from the senior official from each Supersector, plus two elected senators from each incorporated sector, meaning there are the 6 supreme lords plus 120 sentors.

Judicial Body

Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, and local Supreme Courts

Executive Body

The Federal Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Subsidiary Organizations

Location

Earth

Official Languages