Largest Plausible Colonial Empire

Beatriz

IOTL the British Empire was the largest modern empire in terms of both population (~25% of the world's population in 1920) and area (~26% of the world's area in 1920). However, the Empire occupied other territories such as Syria (WW1 and 2), Indonesia (the Napoleonic wars and post-WW2), Libya (post-WW2), and 90% of Iran (WW1 and WW2). This shows that empires could be even larger. However, the main obstacle to one empire grabbing all the colonial possessions is that other nations want colonies too, if only for prestige reasons, and that expansion takes time and money. Is it possible for one colonial power to get such a head start that the rest of the powers (if there are more than, say 2 others) are left with scraps?

The Iberian states - arguably colonizing Angola and Mozambique and the Canaries at the end of the Middle Ages can be said to have a head start IOTL, but eventually fell behind for a complex number of reasons, including the strict casta system which prevented the American colonies from becoming dominion-like entities.
 
Last edited:

Emperor-of-New-Zealand

I've often thought that it's possible that a single power could take the majority of Africa for themselves. If it's Britain, then they'd control Canada, their Caribbean territories, India, Malaysia, and most of Africa.
 
Gabingston

Gabingston

A united Iberia colonizing all of OTL's Latin America, the Maghreb, all of Africa south of the Kongo, much of India and the East Indies and maybe Australia and/or New Zealand to boot.
 
Mr_Fanboy

Mr_Fanboy

The largest possible empire would encompass the entire planet, and that’s not even taking into account the possibility of off-world colonies should it survive into the era of space exploration.
 

Tessitore

The British Empire could probably be a lot bigger than it was in OTL. Treaties happen a little differently, other colonial powers having bad luck and either losing some of their colonial possessions to Britain after losing a war with them, or selling them to fund a war with someone else. It could add up to a lot of countries. Not sure which ones though.

Also, there's the possibility of the American War of Independence either never happening or going the other way. Throw in Britain being the one to buy Alaska off the Russians and they'd have the entirety of North America.
 

Beatriz

Tessitore said:
The British Empire could probably be a lot bigger than it was in OTL. Treaties happen a little differently, other colonial powers having bad luck and either losing some of their colonial possessions to Britain after losing a war with them, or selling them to fund a war with someone else. It could add up to a lot of countries. Not sure which ones though.

Also, there's the possibility of the American War of Independence either never happening or going the other way. Throw in Britain being the one to buy Alaska off the Russians and they'd have the entirety of North America.
Click to expand...
Not to derail the discussion into Britwanks specifically but something like this as the plausible upper limit?
1639794213784.png

(Ignore the other Empires)
 

Beatriz

Also could a colonial empire include cases like Hashemite Iraq during the colonial era - formally independent but occupied and subordinate to its power?
 

spectrum

Have the proposed Anglo-French union of 1940 somehow happen. Post WW2 have it serve as a proto EU/WTO trading and economic empire that would cover 46,000,000 square km (11,500,000 km French plus 35,500,000 km British).
 
kasumigenx

kasumigenx

spectrum said:
Have the proposed Anglo-French union of 1940 somehow happen. Post WW2 have it serve as a proto EU/WTO trading and economic empire that would cover 46,000,000 square km (11,500,000 km French plus 35,500,000 km British).
Click to expand...
Perhaps we can have Queen Elizabeth marry the Jacobite claimant or the Duke of Cadiz, the Legitimist claimant to France and Lancastrian claimant here as well, both do have claims to the English crown but that requires repealing the succession acts.
 

Emperor-of-New-Zealand

kasumigenx said:
Perhaps we can have Queen Elizabeth marry the Jacobite claimant or the Duke of Cadiz, the Legitimist claimant to France and Lancastrian claimant here as well, both do have claims to the English crown but that requires repealing the succession acts.
Click to expand...
I don't see how that would help the two countries unite, considering that at the time France doesn't have a monarchy and personal unions were not a thing.
 
Gogomonow

Gogomonow

Maybe plans for a Franco-British union during ww2 materialize and it continues after ww2, having a very big colonial empire, though only for a few years because of decolonialization.
 

spectrum

Gogomonow said:
Maybe plans for a Franco-British union during ww2 materialize and it continues after ww2, having a very big colonial empire, though only for a few years because of decolonialistation
Click to expand...
Decolonisation happening within the OTL timeline really depends on the events leading up to it. Had the British empire adopted the imperial confederation idea before ww1, or even more adventarious (for the purpose of building a maxi sized empire) earlier you‘d probably have a much longer lasting colonial period….after all the Roman Empire did pretty well by assimilating local elites into their political system and later on leveraging his into overall absorption. An imperial confederation and parliament (coupled with military predominance) offers a similar situation to the citizen/senate scenario Rome presented to their neighbours.
 

EternalDawn

Beatriz said:
Not to derail the discussion into Britwanks specifically but something like this as the plausible upper limit?
View attachment 704050
(Ignore the other Empires)
Click to expand...
If they can control all that, there's nothing stopping them to try a full sweep.
Technically, world domination and a single empire is possible, not even ASB, there was just nobody "lucky enough" to accomplish it OTL... Yet.

Luck has always been, and will always be, the most important factor in everything that had or will happen.
 

GuildedAgeNostalgia

Spain and Portugal unify, never inherit Hapsburgs land in N. Italy or Benelux, and instead spend their gold wealth on their navy and maintaining complete control over Africa, South America, and the Caribbean, while slowly advancing into Southern North America and parts of Asia.

Spain then offers economic incentives for Catholic European immigration to their colonies (German, Irish, Italian, etc.) to help fortify their frontiers and give them the population advantage to resist larger European countries.
 

Phalamus

The issue with Iberian Unions is that, in most scenarios, they would actually be two separate colonial empires. You could potentially avoid this by uniting the peninsula before the beggining of the Age of Discovery, but that way you probably remove most of the incentives that caused Portugal to be so dedicated to overseas expansion. This would eliminate the Iberian headstart.
 

spectrum

For another scenario have France win the war of Spanish succession, resulting in a Franco/Spanish union….with the Dutch colonial empire direcfly absorbed by France in the peace settlement. Increased commercial opportunities sees France maintain its traditional demographic preeminence in Europe, and as time goes on an Economic dominance begins to arise. As an added bonus the Act of Union fails to materialise in Britain greatly distracting the United Kingdom.

In the next big round of Western European warfare (this timelines equivalent of the 7 years war), France is again victorious kicking the EIC out of India (and going forward seeing France replicate the UK’s success in absorbing India, as well as securing North America west of the Appalachians and for good money securing the Portuguese empire to boot.

Finally during the 19th century have French global trade dominance turn into a near monopol, securing costal Africa (and eventually the interior as well).

This new Bourbon empire would cover all of the Americas (minus the east coast of OTL’s USA), all of Africa (minus whatever the Ottomans manage to keep), the Indian subcontinent, Island Asia and perhaps Australia for good measure.As an added bonus have the French absorb IndoChina (like OTL), and create a creeping sphere of influence and later dominance in southern China.

If you really wanted to go nuts, have this new super France replicate Napoleon‘s conquests, securing Central and Eastern Europe as well.
 

Anarch King of Dipsodes

Spain absorbs Portugal, and the two empires are consolidated. The Armada or something crushes England. Basque and Galician fishermen colonize Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, and some of them discover the profits of the fur trade. Iberian fur traders colonize the St. Lawrence, Hudson, and Delaware. Others enter the Chesapeake, start growing tobacco. As OTL, Iberians have exclusive dominion over Central and South America

Other Iberians establish a string of bases around Africa, on the coast of India, and in the East Indies. (much as OTL). The Dutch are active in this area, but as Catholic subjects of the Iberian crown.

Iberia becomes the one and only oceanic sea power, suppressing any colonial projects by France or any other European country.

Much later... Iberian traders and colonists conquer India, and settle Australia and New Zealand. Iberia expands across sub-Saharan Africa from its coastal posts when the means are there (e.g. quinine); Iberia conquers the Maghreb to suppress the Barbary pirates. Iberia thus takes over Africa, except for Abyssinia, Sudan, Egypt, and Libya.

The Spanish colonial empire includes at its peak the entire New World except Alaska, 4/5 of Africa, the Indian subcontinent, the East Indies, and Oceania.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Top