United Kingdom

"Le soleil ne se couche jamais sur la Couronne Normande" (The Sun Never Sets on the Crown of Normandy) - a common expression referring to the world-spanning breadth of the United Kingdom's territories and political influence

The United Kingdom of Great Britain, France and Ireland (Royaume-Uni de la Grande-Bretagne, la France et l'Irlande) is a Western European state comprising the territories of France, the Island of Great Britain, adjacent Ireland and surrounding smaller islands. The United Kingdom [Royaume-Uni], or U.K. [R.U.], is a union of constituent states: Great Britain [England, Wales & Scotland], France [France, Brittany, Burgundy], Ireland & a number of separately-administered minor islands. In addition to these home territories, the U.K. maintains control over many overseas territories, particularly in Asia, Africa and the Pacific. Furthermore, the U.K. - through its monarch - is the leading country of the Commonwealth of Nations [Communauté des Nations]: an international organization comprising the United Kingdom and a number of largely-autonomous states created from its former colonies.

Overview


Capital: Rouen, Normandie, France, United Kingdom

Anthem: Dieu Protége le Roi (God Save the King)

Official Languages:


 * English & French [most citizens are bilingual]

Religion: Catholic [Official State Religion]

National Motto: Dieu et mon Droit (God & my Right)

Demonym: Norman / U.K.er (for all citizens of the U.K. regardless of ethnic background)

Largest City: Rouen

Government: Unitary Parliamentary Constitutional Monarchy

Legislature: Parliament


 * House of Lords


 * House of Commons

Population: ~131 million (Europe only)

GDP: ~13 trillion Pounds

HDI [Human Development Index]: 9.1

Currency: Pound Sterling [UKP] / Livre Sterling [RUL] (£)

The Norman Empire & the Marshall Plan
The end of the Russian Revolutionary Wars created quite a state of flux among the balance of power in the Commonwealth States. North America was forced to re-secede Alaska - briefly gained from the Russian Empire following the Great War - back to the USSR (its legal successor state), while the Confederation of the Rhine & the United Kingdom were left massively in debt. The U.K.'s Prime Minister, Maréchal [Field Marshal] Philippe Pétain, instituted a plan to make the vast Norman Empire [l'Empire Normand] more profitable by seceding greater autonomy to the territories, modernizing them and industrializing them. His hope was to eventually create a number of new Commonwealth nations. However, as the tensions of the Great Standoff with the Soviet Union increased, a moratorium was placed on this last provision. What evolved instead was the so-called Marshall Plan, named for the post-War president of North America, Goerge C. Marshall. Through a massive interest-free loan to the U.K., the F.N.A. financed the build-up of its brother nation's colonies. In return, many of the United Kingdom's Caribbean possessions were turned over to North America, giving the Federation additional naval bases from which to operate against the Bolivarian Republic in the event of future wars.

The result was an acceleration of the shifting balance of power among the Commonwealth states. Though the U.K. remained the political leader of the Commonwealth - indeed, the center of the Western World - it was rapidly outpaced in economic and military terms by the Federation of North America, which has double its GDP and population. In the modern era, the North American Dollar, not the Pound Sterling, is the de facto currency of international trade (except within the Soviet Bloc). The F.N.A., despite being subordinated to the United Kingdom in matters of foreign policy, is the only country capable of matching the USSR in terms of conventional & nuclear military might. The North American Navy has surpassed the Royal Navy in size and global power projection. Even so, the combined thermonuclear arsenal of the Commonwealth states is only about 2/3rds that of the Soviet Union (although neither South Africa nor the Bolivarian Republic have atomic weapons of their own).

Many analysts, especially within the U.K., view this re-balancing as a sign of times to come, and feel that Norman political hegemony over its brother Commonwealth realms is coming to an end. This has led scholars, economists & political theorists to predict that the 21st Century will be the "American Century".