What if the British Empire Reunited Today?

The British Empire was the largest empire to have ever existed in all of human history.

At the territorial height of the empire in 1921 after victory in the 1st world war,

The empire spanned  35,500,000km², (14,000,000.000mi²)

with a population of 413m people,

23% of the world population at the time.

The empire was large then,

that it would have taken up 94% of the entire surface area of the moon.

So every time you look up at night to see the half of the moon towards you,

that is a nightly reminder that the British empire used to be nearly twice as large as that.

It was the empire on which the sun never set,

because somewhere on the empire was always shining.

But indeed it had to set some point.

The last British  colony in Africa gained independence in 1980,

and the major city of Hong Kong,

a British colony since 1898,

was given back to China in 1997.

Symbolically marking the end of the empire.

But what if this entire empire was suddenly recreated today?

What exactly would it look like?

Well for starters,

queen Elizabeth II is already in real life,

queen of these 16 different countries right now.

And she has been at some point,

queen of these other 17 countries as well.

In total,

if the British reunited today,

it would encompass 64 different countries.

And Queen Elizabeth II has already been the queen of more than half of those countries at some point during her lifetime.

The Empire would be 146 times bigger than the current United Kingdom.

and contain 40 times greater population.

The ¼ population of the planet's land area would belong to the British Empire.

and with an enormous population of 2.634 billion people that would mean around 37% of everybody on earth would be a citizen of the empire.

a far greater percentage of the world population than in 1921 with the same territory.

With all of this land and people, the British Empire would have a GDP of US$13.078 Trillion which would put it far behind the US and place the Empire with the

second-largest economy globally.

However, the empire would have an incredibly poor population on average

with the average citizen earning just US$ 4,966 per year

slightly more impoverished than modern-day Namibia.

To compensate for this, the British Empire would have the largest military in the world.

comprised of 4,917,000 active duty soldiers.

The Empire's military budget would be a very large; US$ 268.175 billion

the second highest budget in the world, but less than half still of the US Military budget.

Overall, the British Empire would likely be the second strongest country in the world today behind

only the US.

but how would it compare to other empires that we've covered in the series?

Here's a chart to show you. The British Empire would have a higher population

then both the Roman and Mongol Empires.

But have a smaller economy and poor population than both

and the Mongol military would be significantly larger.

The biggest city in the British Empire would be Karachi in Pakistan

and with the exception of Lagos in Nigeria, the top five biggest cities would all be located on the Indian Subcontinent

In fact, nine out of the top 10 biggest cities would all be located in either Asia of Africa

The only one that wouldn't is London, which would be the 7th largest city in the Empire.

Despite this, London would likely become the capital of the empire since

it was the historical capital of the British Empire

In addition, English would have to be the official language of

The Empire, despite the fact that it only be the native language of only five

percent of the population.

It would, however, be understood as a secondary language by 17% of the population

as English as an official language already in 49 out of the 64

countries that are making up the Empire.

Hindi would be the single largest language, spoken

by 20% of the population.

While Bengali and Urdu would constitute significant languages as well.

The Empire would be incredibly ethnically and religiously diverse.

With only 5% of the population being classified as white,

While69% would be Asian or Pacific Islander.

With the population of India alone, accounting for almost half of

the entire Empire.

African and Afro-Carribean ethnicities would account for 19% of the total.

While Arabs and other Middle Eastern ethnic groups would contribute the remaining 7%

The UK itself would only contribute 2.4% of the entire Empire's population.

And finally, the religious diversity of the Empire would be just as great if not even greater.

With Hinduism representing the largest single faith that 40% of the total population.

Islam at 33% divided between 32% Sunni and 1% Shia.

Christianity at 19%, split between 12.6 % Protestants 6% Catholics and 0.4% Orthodox

Meanwhile, Buddhism would represent 3%

Sikhs at 0.8%

Jews at 0.2%

other religions at 2.2%

and atheists or non-believers would account for the final 2% of the population.

Interestingly, if you also added the original 13% American colonies from the US back

into the Empire, that would single-handedly raised the GDP of the Empire up by over US$ 6 Trillion.

Equal to 47% of the entire Empire's GDP before adding the colonies.

If this happened, the 13 colonies would undoubtedly become the most valuable possession of the British Empire.

The only question is would the US allow this to happen?
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Please leave your thoughts and comments about what this Empire would look like and how it would act in the real world

and don't forget to give it a like if you enjoyed it as well

we'll see you around next time.
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