The British Empire:
Hogwarts, and the British Empire are the first major power group. Holding sway over the British Isles as well as Brittany and Normandy, Hogwarts was once the largest of the Wizarding schools but has declined since the independence of India and the rest of their colonies. A series of almost autocratic ministers has lowered British faith in their government, and there are worries among the Wizarding courts of Continental Europe that this may lead to civil war. The British Broom Force is among the most modern in the world, and is considered to have the most skilled pilots of any nation in the world, flying training at Hogwarts, and the heavy focus on Quidditch is believed to play a big part in their superiority. The Library at Hogwarts is their greatest asset, comprising most of the school, the library is so extensive that many Headmasters have been lured into Hogwarts by the promise of unlimited access to the library. With a baby boom past and another one headed their way, Britain is in good straits under the shepherding of Shacklebolt. The economy is growing and a new generation of liberal citizens is appearing on the scenes. Generation V is out the door replaced by Generation Potter. Military reform is among the many changes espoused by the generation shaped by war, and even more by the DA. More squad based warfare is being put into practice and shields are falling out of style in favor of dodging. A successful conclusion to the Voldemort war has shown a new path for the British, as the powers of the next generation take control. The defeat of Voldemort is expected to be the end of militant pureblood extremists, the policies of Lucius Malfoy and the Chayne Cutters have been shown to be much more potent. The corrupt government of the British empire is currently due for a reform. Hermione Granger has been a leading voice in the struggle for civil rights for muggleborns. At the moment they have a majority in the Wizengamot, but that majority is expected to fall with time. Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy, two recent appointees to the Wizengamot, have both shown a talent for speaking and are assumed to have carried on their rivalry from their Hogwarts days.
History:
Wizarding history within Britain stretches back to the Celts, the druids were the first to use the pensieves as a storage place for knowledge. Focusing on Divination, Animagi and Ritual magic, the Celts were known for using magic to affect themselves rather than the world around them. The Roman Warmages had a hard time subjugating the wolves bears and boars that the druids were able to transform themselves into. However, eventually the druids were subjugated, among them were a certain clan in the hills of Wales, that clan would eventually evolve into the Potters. Others in the hinterlands of Roman Britain were the forebears of the Greengrasses, Braddocks, Weasleys and the Morgans. With the Romans came a new way of life, and new wizards, the ley lines of southern Britain were settled by retired warmages, including the Zabini, who brought a culture of external magic to Britain.
Some clans proved quicker converts than others. The eventual Potters in particular embraced the staves of the Roman Invaders, many among them split for Gaul, where they joined the legion, over the centuries many of the Potters took it as a family tradition to join the legion, following the collapse of the Roman Empire, many of the Potters were stranded in Brittany, they took it upon themselves to travel to the town of Poiters, where some of their family had established themselves.
With the Anglo Saxons came the first dark family, the Blaks as well as many other prominent wizarding families. During the dark ages, the Anglo Saxon mages established the Wizengamot as the wizarding courts as the Blaks made their base at Grimmauld. The Wizengamot was held in London near the Blaks, as the Wizengamot became more important a law enforcement base was built around it. This complex was eventually known as the Ministry of Magic.
Wars were generally fought with the Goblins colony in Dover, who were soon to spread to Wales. Wars were fought regularly and with the battle of Mt. Gringot, a the treaty restricting them to a certain area of London was signed. The wizards thought that limiting the Goblins to such small areas would limit their population growth, instead they simply burrowed underground, creating a vast underground city by the name of Gringotts, in honor of their defeat. The Goblins, who loved gold, started the first Wizarding bank on the surface of their city. The resulting commerce made the oddly situated alley the building was built on to become a great center of wizarding trade. It eventually extended and lengthed in order to become the foremost wizarding district in Britain.
In the 800's Ivar the Boneless invaded regular England, mirrored by mighty house Longbottom and several other major Viking wizarding families. On the other side of the island, four sorcerers made a pact to find the embers of the magical knowledge of the Romans. These four were from different sides of Europe, two from Scandinavia, one of Spanish descent, and one pure Anglo-Saxon, they were the founders. They spent the next two decades wandering Europe, searching for kernels of knowledge. They brought the information back to Scotland, to Caer Ravenclaw, here they established Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the first of its kind within the British isles.
With the Norman invasion came the great dark migration, the Lestrange, the Rowle, the Malfoy, the Crabbe, the Goyle and the Rosier. Perhaps the most famous migration came from the court wizards of the Duchy of Poitou, The Poiters, Anglicized to the Potters. Within Britain this family formed an integral part of the government, as a counterweight to the dark that had seized many of the Wizengamot seats. With the support of Longbottom and the old house Bones, the Potters formed the Scion Block, a progressive party in the Wizengamot. In response the Blacks's formed the Chayne Cutters, they sponsored the retractions of laws that protected muggles which they performed affronts to their freedom. These parties continued without interruption even by goblin rebellion.
This changed with the secrecy agreement. A minority group was sponsored within the Wizengamot, they wished to repeal all secrecy and bring back the tradition of court wizards. For years the sponsor of this party was the Weasley Family. Well known for being the most prominent wizarding family in the service of the nobles, the Weasleys lost their fortune and work with the secrecy agreement. Although they lost their fortune, they never did lose their affinity for the muggles, and were their greatest supporters in wizarding government.
Floo Powder was discovered in 1667, in the town of New Woolsbey Over Dusley, by a man name Reginald Bleakly. In 1680 Barnabus Hamlin, inventor of the shield charm, leads an exodus of muggleborns to Massachusetts, they settled in the infamous town of Salem, which will be touched upon later. In England, the Potters viewed this expedition with derision in their manors near the coast of the Irish seas, they were opponents of the voyage, losing much of their hired hands to the fife of Hamlin. The exodus from England is brought into legend as the Pied Piper.
In 1798 an assassin killed the beloved head of the Longbottom family, Hannibal, The next 200 years are known as the dark period. It is posited that they came about because of the increased industrialization among the muggles causing tension and fear among wizardkind. First came the dark lord Cysgod in 1829. A Welshman, he spread a cloak of terror across the north sea, propelled by the cloak of Saccharine. Cysgod, made a grave miscalculation in his efforts to ward Azkaban after his assault on the isles was driven back. A wrong rune caused the prison to require a man on the outside to open the gates, Cysgod was trapped within his castle and eventually died, a prisoner in his own home. Cysgod's followers eventually became known as the Dementors, entrapped in his fortress, Azkaban.
Later on in the century, Crux, a man with a brilliant head for rituals rose to power on the streets of Knockturn Alley. He used the powers of the hide and fang to bestow a impenetrable hide upon himself. After terrorizing Britain in the 1870's he was killed by the collective efforts of the Potter family; they used an extreme version of the bubblehead charm to block his access to oxygen. They lost prominence after that episode, only three family lines survived the tragedy and two would marry into other lines. Their political slack was taken up by a quickly rising family, the Macmillians.
In 1900, a monster was animated by Jim Richards, a muggleborn fascinated by the tales of Frankenstein. A thousand foot tall giant of smog, it menaced London until defeated by Cassius Black, who did not want his ancestral home destroyed. It shows the mindset of many within the Black Family, who don't want muggle encroachment but do care about their home, their nation and the wizards of Britain.
World War 1 saw a war between the different wizarding nations, finished much sooner than the muggles and without the American interference. Without a wizarding equivalent to a machine gun, the bogged down trench warfare ceased to be. This war did show a revolution in aerial combat, as the Royal Broom Corps. were deployed along the coast of Schleswig-Holstein and devastated Magical Germany. This war was notable for being the only war in the dark period without a Dark Lord behind the scenes.
World War 1 was much in contrast to World War 2, which was marked by the rise of the dread lord Grindelwald, who used Hitler as a front for horrible magical experiments. Grindelwald had used muggle science as the basis for his belief in wizarding kind as the master race- which was warranted to some degree, they did have the advantage of magic, which was something a human could never achieve. Grindelwald is remembered for not having discriminations towards any type of wizard, only towards muggles. His motto of Magic is Might still reverberates in the deep Magical Underground of Moscow, which was devastated over the course of war. Eventually the dark lord was defeated by Albus Dumbledore, but only after the body count rose into the millions, the statement, Russia is Empty comes from the mouth of a midlevel bureaucrat after the war, it proved to be a boon for the Soviet Union, who were able to easily educate the muggleborns who came to dominate wizarding culture in Russia.
In the 50's Albus Dumbledore rose to the forefront of the Scion Block, since then he has been elected to the position of Supreme Mugwump of the ICW as well as Grand Warlock. Out of all the Dark Lords that wrecked Great Britain the worst has been the Dark Lord Voldemort, who sought only to destroy all muggles. Britain was not damaged by Grindelwald and most of the other Dark Lords attempted only large scale attacks, Voldemorts use of terror and intimidation as a weapon was terrifyingly new among the wizards of Britain. A series of strikes at specific targets caused more damage than any great battle or siege. After his backfired attack on the Potters, Wizarding Britain settled in for peace, an unprecedented baby boom took place after the 15 years of war. The nation is at a level not seen since the time of Cysgod. When the Dark Lord came back, he managed to topple the government and start a extermination effort aimed at muggleborns. As all know, the last Potter, Harry Potter, rose to the forefront to defeat him once again, destroying the horcruxes that gave him immortality. Since then Mr. Potter has reached political office, if the career of Dumbledore is any indication as to where an immensely powerful wizard is he headed, Mr. Potter is in for a wild ride; there are already speculations that he will be the next head of the Scion Block, currently headed by the Minister, Kingsley Shacklebolt.