The French Empire had unlike their ally of the United Empire had not focused on developing their colonial empire to the point that the natives were equal instead continuing their long tradition of exploiting their colonies to fuel their homeland. While not as cruel as the Congo Free State the French imposed their culture across their entire empire as they pulled the products of their exploitation back to Paris. But things were beginning to change as the people of Africa began to demand their freedom and independence following the Congolese Spring in Algeria the French eliminated the leadership of those who supported independence, but they could not do that across all of their vast empire. In Indochina this was most prominent when the Viet Minh stormed Hanoi in late 1954 following the crackdown of the French on a major protest against French dominance. The Viet Minh managed to secure the city and proclaimed the Federation of Indochina a fully independent state free of French influence. The French refused to take this lying down with their counter-attack breaking the Viet Minh within hours and reducing the city to blood-soaked rubble. This was not taken well by the people of both Indochina and the world with massive protests in London outside the French embassy demanding that France withdraw. The French refused and pointed out the hypocrisy of the British criticizing them. Though the British had effectively transitioned into a federation rather then an empire, so the French criticisms fell on deaf ears especially when they launched an uncaring series of bombing raids to destroy the Viet Minh. The raids left swathes of civilians dead without impacting the Viet Minh which was the final straw for the unpopular government. Under unanimous agreement King Jean IV, Emperor Napoléon VI, and President René Coty all dismissed Prime Minister Joseph Laniel and called elections. Which resulted in a government supporting a peace in Indochina as the support for the French Empire began to drop.
The peace deal in Indochina gave impendence to Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam though all were forced to enter free trade garments with France and to pay a quarter of their annual budget to France but with that done Indochina was free. Then the requests from the other colonies came in all demanding a similar deal to that in Indochina and that just would not allow France to maintain their status as one of the world powers, so they began to fight back. Every major leader was dragged into the wilds and shot as the French purged every threat to their colonial hold. Their continued purges led to more protests against their dominion weaking their status compared to the British and Portuguese who were both integrating their local population peacefully or the Italians who had ensured ethnic dominance. The world began to look down on France as a regime lashing out as the winds of change blew over Africa following the Congolese Spring. France was very much a cautionary tale as the rest of the worlds colonial powers began to decolonize or integrate their holdings much like the United Empire had.
-Extract from a lecture on the end of Colonialism
The Second Golden Age of Piracy is generally regarded to have begun following the Battle of Liberty with the decisive Goa'uld defeat crippling the ability of the Goa'uld to police their trade lines and the Lucian Alliance struck. Having formed during the War of Ra's Succession the victory of Anubis had pushed them into the void between stars but with the loss of the Goa'uld ability to hunt them down allowed them to trike once more. Trade lines across the Goa'uld Empire were crippled as warships struck just in the middle of the void leaving nothing but corpses as evidence. This was also joined by a new class of British warships designed to hunt trade that being the Queen Anne class of commerce raiders. The new warships carved their way through the Goa'uld trade with their crews swiftly becoming some of the most moral, loyal, and upstanding members of the Imperial Navy as they began to see the horrors that the Goa'uld inflicted on their citizens. For example, the crew of the HIMIS Glory discovered a slave ship where every slave had been tortured before being sent off to the mines of the Goa'uld Empire. As the thousands of slaves that the Goa'uld Empire under Anubis used became apparent the case for the Goa'uld became even stronger allowing the United Empire to convince their allies to join in Operation Grenade.
To explain how horrific the slavery that Anubis instituted was the closest example you can find is the Congo Free State a black spot of slaughter, sadism, and torture but even worse. Where in the Congo Free State soldiers ate worker's children if their fathers did not bring in enough rubber Anubis made the workers kill and eat their own children. The slave ships were dens of rape, torture, and murder with it being quite common to find the elderly eaten alive out of starvation while the Jaffa feasted on meals that would make Emperor-King Edward VIII vomit from richness. The slave ships were the one of if not the worst action undertaken by Anubis during his rule over the Goa'uld Empire. The amount of political capital that the United Empire seized from this was more than enough to get Operation Grenade approved and for humanity to unilaterally illegalize slavery.
-Extract from Peter Mollwing's book the sun rises: The Second Golden Age of Piracy.
As the Battle of Liberty drew to an end so did an era as John Ronald Reuel Tolkien announced his retirement from Imperial Stargate Command at the age of sixty-two having served in the war against the Goa'uld for nearly thirty years. His retirement was met with great sorrow with Bra'tac and Sigurður Steelfangs outright crying during his knighting ceremony. His successor John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill certainly had big shoes to fill from the new Duke of Bloemfontein, but he would do will in his role. The first action of the new commander of IIET-1 was to prepare the team for the opening stage of Operation Grenade for the end of the Goa'uld War was coming.
-Extract from Christopher Bowes's book The Bloody Wolves of the Stars: A history of Imperial Stargate Command.