# Hey, dudes! Let's get the British Empire back together! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 25, 2012, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-dudes-lets-get-the-british-empire-back-together/610616 "2012-01-25T17:44:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-dudes-lets-get-the-british-empire-back-together/610616/21 "2012-01-26T02:26:12Z")
It [almost happened](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Federation), but that crowning piece of stupidity, World War One, killed the idea. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-dudes-lets-get-the-british-empire-back-together/610616/22 "2012-01-26T02:57:57Z")
America, Australia, Canada and [del]Airstrip One[/del] the UK all one political entity? That sounds doubleplusgood! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-dudes-lets-get-the-british-empire-back-together/610616/23 "2012-01-26T05:21:05Z")
> [@xnylder](#): > > _Nous les Québécois_ refuse to bow to your Queen-Empress. Restore Louis Alphonse, Duke of Anjou, to his rightful throne! And let’s take back the Louisiana purchase while we’re at it! 🆒 _Merde Bourbon-Legitimiste! Vive les Bonapartes!_ ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-dudes-lets-get-the-british-empire-back-together/610616/24 "2012-01-26T05:22:11Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > It [almost happened](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Federation), but that crowning piece of stupidity, World War One, killed the idea. See, now if George III or Lord North had thought of that . . . or if somebody had thought of it back in 1707 (when the Act of Union changed Britain’s constitutional form) or in 1686 (when the Crown tried unsuccessfully to form a [Dominion of New England](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_of_New_England)), why then, as Jefferson wrote wistfully in the first draft of the DOI, of the British and the Americans, “We might have been a great and free people together.” ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-dudes-lets-get-the-british-empire-back-together/610616/25 "2012-01-26T17:33:12Z")
I would love a Viceroy of Ohio! ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-dudes-lets-get-the-british-empire-back-together/610616/26 "2012-01-27T00:13:53Z")
I will never submit to the indignity of…_cricket!!!_ I fight. Today is a good day for somebody else to die. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-dudes-lets-get-the-british-empire-back-together/610616/27 "2012-01-27T01:53:38Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Oh, and, to unite the Am- British Empire and hold it together, all Kingdoms’ armed forces will be merged into a new Imperial Army, Imperial Navy, Imperial Air Force, all integrated together. . . > [@Ludovic](#): > > And ditch the cheesy Sousa, let’s hire John Williams for our marches! Enjoy your new [national anthem](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOjZHCU1vfQ&feature=related)! ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-dudes-lets-get-the-british-empire-back-together/610616/28 "2012-01-27T02:28:08Z")
Sounds like _The Two Georges_. I like it! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-dudes-lets-get-the-british-empire-back-together/610616/29 "2012-01-27T02:34:05Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > Sounds like _The Two Georges_. > I like it! No, there’s a big difference: In the British Empire of _The Two Georges,_ there is no all-representative Imperial Parliament; the British/Westminster Parliament (for which only Brits can vote) remains supreme over all the Empire’s other territories – somehow the “compromises” George Washington worked out with George III meant the Yanks would accept a no-representation role in exchange for guarantees of local autonomy, or something – the details are never made clear. This means that in that Universe, a Parliament with **no representatives from slaveholding territories** abolishes slavery in 1832, as in our timeline. It would have taken longer, I think, if the decision had to be made by an Imperial Parliament with representatives from the Southeast-American colonies and the Caribbean sugar islands. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-dudes-lets-get-the-british-empire-back-together/610616/30 "2012-01-27T19:37:18Z")
> [@xnylder](#): > > _Nous les Québécois_ refuse to bow to your Queen-Empress. Restore Louis Alphonse, Duke of Anjou, to his rightful throne! And let’s take back the Louisiana purchase while we’re at it! 🆒 Anyway, Elizabeth II is still the rightful Queen of France, so there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-dudes-lets-get-the-british-empire-back-together/610616.md?page=1)