In 1850 Britain and Argentina signed the "Convention between Great Britain and the Argentine Confederation, for the Settlement of existing Differences and the Establishment of a lasting Friendship". The agreement denies Argentinian citizenship to British subjects, creating a continuous British diaspora, and confirms recognition of British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands and other Atlantic islands claimed by the British. British subjects in Argentina are expected to pay taxes and may receive an education in English. The British are one of the strongest investor communities in Argentina.
During the years from 1850 to 1852 the British government continued to promote heavy emigration not just from Ireland, but from all of the British Isles to South Africa, British North America, New Zealand, Australia, and Vancouver Island. Increasingly land grants were offered to migrating British subjects. During this time Welsh speaking people are being targeted for encouraging emigration.
In 1853 on the Third of October the Crimean War started. Once word of the start of the War reaches Pacific plans are drawn up to try gain control of Russian America when the British enter the war, negotiations with the French for this to happen quickly take place.
In 1854 on March 27 the British Empire declared war on Russia and joined the Crimean War. In August the British opted not to pursue an attack on Petropavlovsk favouring to continue to plan for an attack on Russian America. On November 17, the Suez Canal Company was formed with British participation.
In 1855 there was a power transfer between January 29 and February 5 with Lord Aberdeen resigning as Prime Minister in favour of Lord Palmerston. On June 6 the Pacific Campaign started in Alaska with the Royal Navy with support from colonists and the Hudson's Bay Company. By the end of December an independent Russian presence was effectively non-existent. Also in 1855 the stamp duty was removed from newspaper sales creating mass market media in the United Kingdom, this is combined with the creation of an official licensing body and press standards officers (censors).
In 1856, on the Thirty-first of March the Treaty of Paris was signed ending the Crimean War and transferring sovereignty of Russian America to the British. The transfer of Russian America occurs with the signing of an agreement separate from the main treaty, and technically Britain is paying for it, albeit a nominal sum. Russian trading rights(but not the right to construct forts or possess cannons) are preserved for a five year period, and in return for its help during the war The Hudson's Bay Company's monopoly is extended to Russian America (this does not affect Russian traders). This year also marks the start of the Anglo-Persian War and the Second Opium War.
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 starts on May 10. On December 31 Ottawa was chosen as the capital of Canada, also Kuala Lumpur was founded in Malaysia and the Mughal Empire was finally destroyed.
On June 20 of 1858 the Indian Mutiny ended. The Imperial Parliament ends Company Rule in India. There have now been 48 peerages created in British North America. The Queen issues instructions to the Governors of the Australasian colonies and Cape Colony to compose recommendations for peerages and honours.
In 1859 the Pig War over the San Juan Islands occurred on June 15, and on November 24 Darwin published The Origin of Species.
On March 17 of 1860 the First Taranaki War started in New Zealand. ON October 18 the first Convention of Peking ended the Second Opium War. On October 19 there was a Maori revolt in New Zealand.
February 8 of 1861 the Confederate States of America was formed. On February 18, Victor Emmanuel became the King of Italy. On March 19, the First Taranaki War ended. On November 8 the Trent affair happened. Also in 1861, the British Empire established a base in Lagos, Nigeria and the positions of Counsellors of State first came into existence within the United Kingdom. Due to the start of her withdrawal, the Counsellors began to exercise some of Her Imperial Majesty's duties on her behalf, and provide a check to the independence of Her Britannic Majesty's Governments.
On January 1, 1863 Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. On October 26 the Football Association was formed. In the Raj reforms start to occur with advisory councils being created for the Raj and Provinces, the councils are comprised of a combination of wealthy Indians and members of Indian nobility in addition to Europeans. Also princes and wealthy Indians are being permitted to advance through the civil service and military according to merit.
On January 21 of 1864 the Tauranga Campaign started, the campaign ended on June 21. The British Empire was also involved in the Bhutan War.
1865 was a year of peace with the end of the American Civil War and the Bhutan War. New regulations were issued in the Raj governing the behaviour of British officers and officials, demanding greater respect for local culture. This means taking shoes off before entering temples, not drinking in mosques, or partying in the Taj Mahal. Small steps designed to win goodwill.
On June 2 of 1866 there were Fenaian skirmishes in Canada. The Canadian Parliament met for its first time in Ottawa on June 2, and on July 27 the Atlantic Cable was completed.
The year 1867 brought large changes to British North America with the revocation of colonial status for the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick with the assent of the British North America Act which revoked most of the Royal Proclamation of 1763 and created the Dominion of Canada which is devolved government of the United Kingdom to govern British North America. The intention of this act is to solidify British power by creating a more centralized government for British North America and by strengthening the direct role of the Imperial Government in North America by allowing elections from the Dominion to the Imperial Parliament, by the establishment of permanent regiments of the British Army in North America, by the expansion of some of the United Kingdom's government institutions and agencies, and solidifying British control over the ports and communications. The Dominion is considered to be a unitary entity and has the ability to devolve matters within its competences to provinces. The main competences of the Dominion Government are: settlement, local government, Crown Land, infrastructure of a local character, agriculture, tariffs (with restriction that tariff levels for things imported from within the Empire would be no higher than half the tariff level from outside the Empire), taxation to raise revenue for Dominion purposes, fisheries and Stable Island, and "Indians." It does not have the legal power to enact laws and the term Parliament is not used to describe its assembly or Prime Minister as its head of government. It has a tricameral assembly consisting of the Queen, a House of Commons, and a House of Lords; it has the ability to pass Assembly Measures which have the force of law and issue Instructions which are directed at its Provinces. Executive authority is naturally vested in the Queen, and the title of the head of government is a Premier, the title of the 'head of government' of a Province is Chief Minister.
Also in 1867 on the First of April the Strait Settlements are separated from India and become a Crown Colony. On the 1st of July the Dominion of Canada comes into being. Other events of note are Second Reform Bill is passed by the Imperial Parliament, diamond fields are discovered in Southern Africa, and the Fenian rising occurs in Ireland. The leaders are promptly rounded up and sent to Tasmania, the Imperial Government establishes a Bureau to keep track of fringe groups within the Empire. The post of Private Secretary to the Sovereign is also constitutionally established, the creation of this post marks as check on the Government's power and along with HM's other secretaries allowed the sovereign greater influence over the Government. This combined with the constant visible and active presence of Counsellors of State in London worked to effectively quash republican sentiments in the British Empire.
On January 3 in the year 1868 the Meiji Restoration was declared in Japan. On September 7 the Titokowaru's War started.
The Titokowaru's War ended on March 24 of 1869. The Suez Canal was inaugurated on November 17. On December 1 the Dominion of Canada expanded with the transfer from the Imperial Government of all of the British territories in North America (historic transfer + the Arctic Islands + Alaska). Also in 1869 the transportation of prisoners as a general practice to Australia officially ended and Basutoland became a British protectorate.
On May 12 of 1870 the Province of Manitoba was created inside Canada with the Red River Rebellion ending on August 24. In France on September 4 Emperor Napoleon III was deposed.
On January 18 of 1871 the German Empire was declared. On March 29, the Royal Albert Hall was opened. On July 20 British Columbia joined the Dominion of Canada and the Colonial Office started putting more pressure on Prince Edward Island. On October 12 the Criminal Tribes Act was enacted in India.
On March 22 in 1873 the Rio Tinto company was formed, and on May 23 the North-West Mounted Police was formed. The efforts of the Colonial Office pay off on July 1 and Prince Edward Island joins Canada. Also in 1873 there was also a war in Ghana and the Gold Coast Colony was established, and the Metric System became legal in the British Empire.
By 1874 thanks to the work of Sir James and his successors the entirety of British Columbia had been signed away by native groups, whom are now legally considered full British subjects. In the British West Indies, colonies began to admit non-White British subjects into the civil service.
In 1875 Asia's first stock exchange was founded in Bombay. Calls are growing stronger in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom for a separation of the Imperial Parliament and the United Kingdom's Parliament
The prestige of the British Empire grew in 1876 as on the First of May Queen Victoria took the title Empress of India. On May 16, the Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli rejected the Berlin Memorandum.
The year 1877 was uneventful other than the title Empress of India formally proclaimed by Royal Titles Act 1876.
On February 8, the Russians threatened to occupy Istanbul, but were deterred by the nearby British fleet. On March 3, Bulgaria regained its independence from the Ottoman Empire. Cyprus falls into British administration on June 4 with the Cyprus Convention. On November 21 the Second Afghan War.
On January 11 of 1879 the Anglo-Zulu war began. On May 26 Russia and the United Kingdom signed the Treaty of Gandamak establishing an Afghan State. On June 1, Napoleon Eugene (Napoleon IV) died in Africa during the Anglo-Zulu War.
In 1880 William Gladstone became Prime Minister on April 18; Joseph Chamberlain became President of the Board of Trade. On June 29 France annexed Tahiti. In December the First Boer War begins and on December 30 Transvaal becomes a republic with Paul Kruger as president.
On January 24 of 1881 William Foster introduced the Coercion Bill to suspend habeas corpus in Ireland, the bill failed. Instead a weaker piece of legislation is passed, but it is not specific to Ireland. On March 23 the First Boer War ended and on May 13 the island of Rotuma ceded to the UK and became attached to Fiji. On August 3 the Pretoria Convention was signed. A measure is passed furthering the metric cause, mandating all road signs being put up display both metric units (Imperial units could be de-displayed in addition to them though).
March 2 of 1882 was a day of both shock and joy as an assassination attempt on Queen Victoria failed. On March 20 the British Empire demonstrated gunboat diplomacy against Liberia over a dispute with Sierra Leone. On July 11 the British occupied Alexandria and the Suez Canal, and on July 26 the Boers established Stellaland. On September 2 the Anglo-Egyptian war started and rapidly ended with Egypt becoming a protectorate.
Between March and May of 1885 the North-West Rebellion took place in Canada. Following the Rebellion the Dominion government forces native groups and Métis to drop all claims of land and recognize their status as British subjects. On March 31 the British Empire established a protectorate over Bechuanaland and in November took part in the Third Burmese War. November 7 marks the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway and its last spike. Settlement is now picking up in Western Canada and French speaking British subjects are being actively encouraged to move there and Dominion land grants were made as close as 10km from the railway. On December 28 the Congress Party was formed in India.
On January 1st of 1886, Burma was given to Queen Victoria, the Empress of India, as a birthday gift. It is then annexed to India. On September 21 after years of consideration a criminal code was adopted for the British Empire, India and parts of the Empire with large non-European populations are exempted. Also work is underway to try and amend the Act of Union in relation to Scotland to unify the judicial system in the United Kingdom.
On October 2 of 1887 the British Empire took over Balochistan. Also in 1887, Zululand became a British colony and the Act of Union was amended by the British Parliament. The measure also abolishes elected peers from Scotland sitting in the House of Lords and allowing all Scottish Peers to sit.
On July 1 of 1890 the Heligoland -Zanzibar Treaty was signed. The British Empire creates an official language academy for the English language; the academy is based in Oxford, this leads to increased promotion of Received Pronunciation.
On February 22 of 1896, after years of intense lobbying and negotiation, the First Reading of An Act to Reform the British Empire passed .On July 11 in Canada Wilfrid Laurier became Premier and is the first French speaker to hold this post. His term as premier marks a push towards industrialization and more general immigrant recruitment from Europe. He also works hard to strengthen Canada by reducing internal barriers to trade and commerce. He is careful to maintain strong ties to the United Kingdom. On August 27 the Anglo-Zanzibar War both starts and ends being the world's shortest war in history with it lasting forty-five minutes. A report studying decimalisation of the Pound Sterling is commissioned.
On January 26 of 1896 an Act to Reform the British Empire was given Royal Assent. This act does much to change the relations between the Dominion and the United Kingdom. It retains the monarchy and the principle of parliamentary sovereignty, and more importantly it creates a parliament for the British Empire separate from that for the United Kingdom. The Imperial Parliament is the ultimate legislative authority within the British Empire and will operate in much the same fashion as the British parliament did in that it may devolve certain areas to the Dominion and Realm (the United Kingdom) and is the ultimate legislative authority. Like the United Kingdom's parliament it consists of a House of Commons and a House of Lords.
The two parliaments for now share sitting chambers in the Palace of Westminster. Its areas of primary jurisdiction are defense, foreign affairs, Imperial security, regulation of the standards for the professions (so that a Doctor from London can practice in Melbourne), currency and financial matters, general system of education, higher education, standards, weights and measures, taxation, the seas and the air, Stable Island, border and customs controls, criminal law and the general system of justice, trade matters, the Monarchy, honour and nobility, industrial policy, identification, and citizenship. The greatest coup in the Act is for the monarchy as it will see itself returning to financial independence with a major change in the statuses of the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, the Crown Estates and the Royal Collection. This is also a separation of some aspects of the Crown Estates into Crown Land since the term is used in Canada.
In practical terms there are minimal immediate effects except in the United Kingdom as its government departments are being split, reorganized, or transferred. It is also important to note as dual-mandates are permitted so that in practice the Prime Minister will be the same for both the British Empire and the United Kingdom (as in the German Empire where the post of Chancellor was held by the same person both in Germany and in Prussia). The one change in relation to the Houses of Lords is that Peers may now run for the House of Commons, but while a member of the Commons they may not vote or speak in the Lords. Joseph Chamberlain becomes Deputy Prime Minister, and is credited with getting the Act passed; his lasting influence other then Empire reform will be getting internal Imperial Trade tariffs reduced and increased British Nationalism both in the Home Islands and the Dominion and colonies.
On February 18 the Benin expedition happened. Immigration restrictions are loosened in Canada and the Australian colonies to allow in all European immigrants including Jews in an attempt to significantly boost their populations, and negotiations are underway in Australia to try unifying the colonies there into a Dominion.
On January 29 of 1899 Anglo-Egyptian Sudan was formed, much to the dismay of the Egyptians it quickly became a British dominated entity, government wise. On October 11 the Second Boer War started. The Imperial Parliament passes an act to standardize road driving (left side driving) and bring automobile licensing and standards into the Imperial sphere as opposed to the Dominion or Realm sphere. It also gives guidance to city planning, placing an emphasis on public transit and dedicated tram right of ways. The report commissioned on decimalization reports back say it would cost more to make the conversion later rather than now and five year transition period starts.
On July 5 of the year 1900 the Dominions Act and Australia Constitutional Act are passed by the Imperial Parliament creating the Dominion of Australia and regulating the relations between the Dominions and Realm, and the Empire. The Dominion of Australia is designed in the fashion of the Dominion of Canada, only with language uniformity. On July 9 the Dominion Acts and Australia Constitutional Act were given Royal Assent. In Canada new regular military formations are raised to support the war.
On the First of January of 1901 Nigeria became a protectorate. January 22 is a sad day for the British Empire as Queen Victoria dies, King Edward VII rises to the throne. On February 5 the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty between the United Kingdom and United States was agreed to, special stipulations are included to set intra-Empire rates to intra-American rates.
On July 7 of 1903 the British took over the Fulani Empire. On September 26 two new Dominions were inaugurated: New Zealand and Newfoundland. The increase in the number of Dominions improved the position of the British Empire as whole by increasing the tax base and available manpower and resources of the military. There are considerations for formally annexing some of the smaller colonies such as Bermuda either into Dominions or the United Kingdom.
On November 4, Panama declared itself independent and on November 18 a treaty was signed between the United States and Panama giving the Americans control of the Canal Zone.
On April 8 of 1904 the Entente Cordiale was signed between the United Kingdom and France. The public credit for the agreement in the British Empire goes to the King.
On June 7 of 1905 the Norwegian Parliament dissolved its Union with Sweden, and on October 2 HMS Dreadnought was laid down. The ship was finished on February 10 of 1906 launching the start of the naval race; privately the British Empire abandoned the double naval standard. The promotion of the English language picks up in Southern Africa, both in the British colonies and protectorates. This comes mostly at the expense of local languages, not so much at the expense of Afrikaans, although most non-English speaking Europeans are making a point to learn English as a second language. Currency decimalization starts, and metric education becomes mandatory in schools.
On August 31 of the year 1907 the Triple Entente was formed. On November 27 the Hague Convention of 1907 was ratified. The Raj (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma) is reformed, with the establishment of an All-India Legislative Assembly which will have limited jurisdiction over the Raj and the Princely States in a few narrow areas. The Viceroy and British Crown retain control of key areas such as defense, currency, and taxation. The assembly is set up to maximize the role of the Indian elites (the Princes, financially well off, and highly educated), and is fairly Conservative and Pro-British.