On March 10 of 1909 the Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909 is signed, the British are quick to pounce, and consolidate their sphere of influence on the Malay peninsula to incorporate all of the Malay States into the Federated Malay States, they also started deracializing the administration, opening it up to all British subjects and Protected Persons, and more actively promoting the English language. On April 19 the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (BP) was formed.
On July 14 in accordance with the treaty signed.
On March 10 Kedah, Kelanta, Perlis, and Terengganu became British protectorates as the Anglo-Siamese Treaty entered force.
On May 6 George V came to the throne. On September 20 the South Africa Act was passed, making English the sole official language in South Africa.
On December 2 the Dominion of South Africa came into being by means of Royal Proclamation.
On January 8 of 1910, Bhutan became a British protectorate and was kept separate from India.
On May 8 King George V ascended to the throne.
As of May 31 the Dominion of South Africa has 2500000 whites, 2800000 Africans, and 800000 coloureds. A majority of the whites are English speaking British subjects.
On February 11 of 1911 the Viscount Harcourt ordered the end of practice of indenture in Malaya. In December the Delhi Durbar happens to mark the coronation of King George V and to mark the transfer of the Indian capital to Delhi.
On May 13 of 1912 the Royal Flying Corps was established.
On August 3 of 1914 the German Empire declared war on France, the next day it invaded Belgium which resulted in a British declaration of war.
On August 15 the Panama Canal was inaugurated and on November 5 the British annexed Cyprus. During the war the British government was more careful when it came to opening a second front against the Ottomans and ops against it except for supporting the other entente members against them, it was also careful not to create any formations composed only of soldiers from the Dominions. The war truly industrialises the Dominions, and the Dominions becoming increasingly economically important for the United Kingdom, with the Imperial government preferring the buying of supplies from the Dominions as opposed to the United States, part of this policy combined with the need for men to complete military service leads to women truly entering the world of paid employment and allows for immigration from the United States and from the British West Indies to Canada for war production. Many of these migrants, particularly those already British subjects, stayed in Canada after the war. While some factories are constructed in Jamaica they are not particularly numerous. In South Africa black labour is used for some factory work.
On May 16 of 1916 the Sykes-Picot Agreement to divide the Ottoman Empire was signed, the British investigated buying Danish West Indies.
On January 25 of 1917 the Danish West Indies were annexed to the British Virgin Islands for a cost of Eight Million Pounds Sterling. On April 6 the United States declared war on Germany. On July 17 the House of Windsor came into existence.
On November 11 of 1918 the war ended with Germany signing an armistice agreement. The end of the war marks a significant surge of immigration from Europe to the United States, Canada, Australia, and Argentina. As part of the final settlement the British Empire directly annexes South-West Africa, German New Guinea, and various other Pacific Islands, Cameroon is considered solely a French Mandate and the Gambia is transferred to France in return for Saint Pierre and Miquelon, French India and the French stake in the New Hebrides. The peace settlement rejects self-determination but allows for the creation of a League of Nations. New countries in Europe are created by the treaty from lands of defeated power ( new countries: e.g Poland, Czechoslovakia, ect.)The Dominions of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand hold doors open for immigrants while British immigrants are preferred the Dominions are fully open to general European immigrants as part of a realisation that the Empire needs a white population boost to replace wartime losses. This leads to a better integration program and immigrant support. Immigration from the UK to the Dominions and colonies is heavily encouraged, in particular to South Africa and to Quebec within Canada. During this year the British royal family begins to sponsor archaeological digs, technological innovation, and is investing/reinvesting more of its income.
In 1920 the Police Services Act was passed, mandating similar uniforms for police forces and creating a more uniformed police service within the Realm and Dominions. Special branches are established outside of the Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard), and are considered to be attached to local police forces.
On February 22 of 1922 preliminary independence was granted to Egypt. The British keep control of communication, the Suez Canal, and defence. It also reserves the right to explore humankind's common history, and to remove objects from Egypt as long as those objects do not become owned by anyone other than the King or by a public entity (e.g. museum).
After much debate, the failures of the Great War are placed on the Prime Minister and Parliament and political interference in the military. As part of the solution, on June 17 the House of Commons assents to reform "recognize the King's right, obligation, and duty to be responsible for permanently maintaining, equipping, regulating, and disciplining a unified armed force for the purposes of defending and safeguarding the British Empire and its interests from internal and external threats." This places a legal restriction on Parliament which no longer has to yearly assent to a standing army and limits its influence over the military to funding, which for now shapes the size and capabilities of the military. This marks the creation of one Ministry of Defence which absorbs the various existing military departments. The King assumes the title Lord High Admiral; also the Gurkha forces are transferred from the Indian Army to the British Army in India.
On October 18 the British Broadcasting Corporation was formed. On November 4, a referendum in Southern Rhodesia to join the Dominion of South Africa passed by a majority of 2%. On December 2, Southern Rhodesia was annexed to South Africa by means of Royal Proclamation. In the other British holdings in Southern Africa preparations are being made to integrate them into South Africa. Also immigration is being encouraged to the British West Indies, and tariff barriers are eliminated within the British Empire for the Dominions, Realm, and India. Individual colonies may maintain barriers, but for internal Imperial trade they are significantly reduced. External tariffs on the other hand are raised significantly across the board, particularly for manufactured goods.
On May 3 of 1926 the British General Strike began and martial law was quickly declared on May 9. While the strike ends on May 13 martial law is not lifted until December 2. On March 4 of 1927 a diamond rush began in South Africa and on June 30 the Geneva Naval Conference was held although it was ultimately a failure. On December 18 a Union Reform Act was passed by the Imperial Parliament tweaking the role of unions to bring them more into cooperation with the Government and Industry as opposed to lobbying for labour and communism.
In January of 1928 the world changed. In Giza, Egypt something was found no one was sure what it was though. Professor Sir David Phillips was on an expedition funded by the Crown and the British Museum and discovered a large cover stone and a ring-shaped device underneath it. Nearby a pedestal-shaped object with strange symbols on it was formed. At first look the materials that made the ring and pedestal were unlike any known materials. The professor gave his daughter Victoria a necklace, which she would continue to wear believing it to be a good luck charm. The professor realised that his finds were valuable and sent a message back to London to find a space to store and study the artefacts. King George V was most surprised with the finds and pre-empted the British museum by arranging for a space in the form of a secured warehouse outside of the core of London to store and study the objects. Quickly, Sir David packed up the artefacts and returned to London. Upon return to London. Sir David, Victoria, and a research team continued to look over the strange objects and the other items they recovered from Giza.
On July 2, Representations of the People Act 1928 became law, allowing women to vote and hold office, and changing the process for determining constituency boundaries with the number of Members of Parliament being distributed without regard to geography so that it is reflexive of the number of British subjects allowed to vote (uniform constituency size and removing reserved numbers of MPs for certain areas).
In 1929 the Great Depression hit. The response in the British Empire is twofold: immigration from the United Kingdom outward to the Dominions and colonies and an Empire wide support system for British subjects, in this case Empire wide means the United Kingdom and the Dominions, not the colonies. It also saw a reintroduction of National service and mass labour projects; this time while persons in National Service are trained to fight they spend most of their service time doing civilian work requiring manual labour (think Civilian Conservation Corps in US), the National Service program also accepts volunteers. People are exempted from National Service if they are gainfully employed. Part of Keynes economic program is replacing road signs and making conversions to the metric system, the Imperial government decree is a phase out of Imperial units over the next three years. Another aspect is the large-scale building of infrastructure; this occurs primarily in the Dominions, British West Indies, and Southern Africa colonies. The infrastructure is geared towards education and increasing transportation, industrial, and resource utilisation capabilities. It is important to note that despite the depression, non-British immigration to the British Empire is still being permitted and for the Dominions of Australia and South Africa it is in fact encouraged.
In the Raj slightly more influence is given to Indians as an effort to save the Empire money, the Empire is permitting slightly more manufacturing and industrialization to occur in India.
On a start night Victoria was looking up into the sky, and she saw something. Not something that shouldn't belong there, but a pattern in the stars. A pattern she had seen before on that strange circular thing that was brought back from Egypt. She ran quickly to get her father (Sir David), who was indeed surprised at Victoria's discovery. Sir David realised that the symbols on the strange gate could all be constellations. Victoria then went to the strange pedestal and pushed down and the symbol lit up. If they were all constellations then the realisation was made that the constellations could actually be used as coordinates. They also noticed there was one prominent symbol amongst the objects recovered from Egypt, and they thought it could be the symbol that represented Earth. This was not tested right away due to the instructions of King George; he wanted to be kept up to date with any developments. He dispatched Prince Albert (later George VI) and a few military officers who were personally loyal to the King were assigned to the project, which is now called the Britannia Initiative, as support. Once they arrived, Sir David went to the pedestal and started to try dialling combinations. Later on in the year on December 28 they have success.
"As Victoria 'dials' the next set of glyphs, the Stargate dials, as Victoria dials the last glyph (point of origin) the Stargate activates, Stargate produces a violent burst of energy, then settles down, into what appears to be liquid in appearance. For several moments, no one says anything, they all just stare at the Stargate, then Victoria picks up a measuring stick and approaches the active Stargate.
Victoria 'pokes' the liquid with the stick, withdraws the stick, then examines the stick and says, "Father, this is not water, there is none on the stick. It may be a field of energy of some kind."
Sir David who is now standing beside his daughter, looks at the stick and says, "You are right Victoria, this must be some sort of 'doorway', when you step through you go to another planet, that is if my theory is correct, though I have no idea how this technology works."
After a few minutes of poking the 'liquid' with the stick, the Stargate shuts down, after being left unused for several minutes, once the Stargate has shut down, Victoria again 'dials' the set of glyphs and once more the Stargate activates. This time however the gate is left alone and after several minutes of inactivity, it shuts itself down again."
On January 10 of 1930 a more formal briefing occurred at Windsor Castle for the King by Sir David.
"First, all this 'Stargate' has a group of glyphs spaced around the inner ring and nine chevrons spaced equally around the outer edge. These two features are used as a coordinate system for the gate to target and form a connection with another gate; each chevron is locked to a specific glyph, thereby allowing the gate to connect to another. These two features seem to be used as a coordinate system for the gate to target and form a connection with another gate; each chevron is locked to a specific glyph, thereby allowing the gate to connect to another. The first six glyphs would represent points in space, forming three-dimensional coordinates in space. The seventh would represent' the point of origin, a glyph which is unique to each of these pedestal-shaped devices. If this device works it will open up a whole new level of technological advancement for Britain and the Empire, perhaps even a new industrial revolution."
King George V made it rather clear to Sir David and the other researchers that they were not to discuss the discovery with anyone and they would be bound by the Official Secrets Act. He also formally appointed his son Prince Albert to oversee the project and arranged for it to be transferred to St. Donat's Castle in Wales. William Randolph Hearst's newspaper empire did not do well during the downturn and he was willing to sell, albeit with great reluctance. The King convinced Baldwin to expropriate a good deal of the land surrounding the castle for use as a military base and testing area.
On January 14 1930, Frank Whittle was recruited to the Britannia Initiative in a research capacity. This is part of the cover story for the project. He will be provided with the funds necessary to conduct his turbojet experiments. The hope is that this could revolutionise aviation, and could be used to explain the presence of scientists and military personnel. Technically Frank Whittle will still be serving in the military, and this is a formal assignment for him, but with additional funding his research will go full steam ahead.
By June the research team was settled into St. Donat's Castle and preparations were well underway to launch an expedition through the Stargate. The castle received some renovations which created a large basement and some tunnels were made out from under it and in the surrounding area military construction has started to build an airport, rerouting a rail line, and constructing some more modern buildings for support staff and military units. This is in addition to the establishment of a general perimeter fence.
On July 1, the expiation was ready to go. It comprised most of the research staff, but much to her disappointment it did not include Victoria. It was headed by Prince Albert, with the research side being led de facto by Sir David. The military forces on the expedition were B Company of 2nd battalion of the Grenadier Guards.
As a result of testing they knew the gate would only stay activated so long, so the plan was to send the expedition quickly in one go, with the Guards taking most of the supplies and once through to stay near the gate they hoped would be on the other side. After one hour the team at St. Donat's was to attempt to make radio contact with the expedition through the gate.
Victoria dialled the address, and away they went, into the unknown.