The Great Powers - Agents of Imperialism

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland:

Despite the loss of Queen Victoria, Great Britain remains the foremost power on Earth, with London being the centre of a vast Empire on which the sun never sets, its tremendous wealth and glorious cultural, scientific and political achievements all defended by a thin red line of heroes, though not all of them are named Tommy Atkins and their uniforms are now khaki rather than red, while Britannia rule the waves and so on. A constitutional monarchy, with a long-standing tradition of parliamentary rule, Britain was were the industrial revolution got started, and it still remains one of the world's leading economic powerhouses.

With Edward VII having ascended the throne upon the **** of his mother in 1879, the domestic front has otherwise been dominated by the titanic struggle between the Conservative Benjamin Disraeli and the Liberal William Gladstone, a duel for the premiership which lasted since 1868 and saw both men become Prime Minister twice before Disraeli died in 1881, shortly after being defeated by his nemesis in the General Election of 1880. Despite the fact that he was five years old at the time of the Battle of Waterloo, the septuagenarian Gladstone remains Prime Minister as of 1885, though he has become quite unpopular ever since the **** of General Gordon in the Sudan in early January, and it is likely that he will soon have to step down. Regardless of who the Prime Minister has been, the government has always supported stellar expeditions, resulting in diplomatic relations and trade agreements having been established with various states on Mars as well as Venus.

The United Kingdom of the Netherlands:

A constitutional monarchy with census suffrage, the Netherlands is a country increasingly dominated by jingoism. This is in part a result of successful military campaigns, both against the Sultanate of Ache in the East Indies and against Belgium in Europe, and in part thanks to a concentrated effort from the state to promote the concept of Dutch unity, to the point where a Dutch version of the kulturkampf is now taking place in the southern parts of the country, with Catholicism being suppressed and the education provided by the state-run schools aims to instil in its students a sense of loyalty towards the Netherlands, rather than to the notion of an independent Belgian nation. As a result of the conquest of Belgium leading to worsened relations with both Great Britain and France, the Netherlands has turned to Germany for mutual support.

While the Netherlands is no longer the sole power capable of producing relatively large quantities of airborne vessels, it is unique in that has used this new military technology in large-scale warfare against a developed foe.

The French Republic:

Since 1789, France has twice been an empire, twice a kingdom and thrice a republic, with the Third Republic having lasted ever since the ignominious fall of the Second Empire in 1870.

It is perhaps not too surprising that France remains a deeply divided country, in which republicans on the left continue to duke it out with monarchists on the right, while the country finds itself in the unenviable position of having a tense relationship to Britain, its traditional archenemy ever since the Middle Ages, and Germany, which is on its way to become the greatest industrial and scientific powerhouse on the continent.

Despite the political instability, as well as the defeats in the Franco-Prussian War and the confused Mexican civil war, France has continued to grow, both as an industrial and a colonial power. It should also be noted that Algeria is not considered a colony, but an integral part of France.

The German Empire:

United in 1871, the German Empire consists of 26 constituent states, with the Kingdom of Prussia arguably being more powerful than the other 25 states combined. It is also Wilhelm I, the 88-year old King of Prussia, who is the German Emperor, and the Prussian statesman Otto von Bismarck, the driving **** behind the German unification, has been Chancellor ever since 1871. Despite the popular stereotype portraying Germans as a people who are organized to the point of soul-crushingly boring madness, the German constitution is vague to the point where it seems as though Bismarck had it custom-made to fit his own needs, with the power of both the Reichstag and the Emperor purposely being left without a clear definition.

While the old statement that "Prussia is not a country with an army, but an army with a country" has often been viewed as a witticism, it is in fact a dispassionate recognition of the irrefutable fact that the Prussian army, which blends itself with the Imperial German Army in a somewhat strange and confused relationship, has created and maintained a strong political role for itself, while its strong sense of professionalism and emphasis on new tactics and training has inspired military reforms in other countries. This influence is paradoxical, as the Prussian officer corps remains a deeply conservative organization, unwilling to allow the "wrong sort of people" to join its ranks and opposing the expansion of conscription, arguing that that would leave too many poor people in possession of military knowledge.

Backed by its growing influence and power, Germany has gotten involved in the colonial race, establishing colonies in Africa and the Pacific.

The United States of America:

Currently right in the middle of the Gilded Age, the US is the premier independent power in the Americas, with its industrial power and its population expanding at a rapid pace and its geographic boundaries having grown to such a point that it now stretches uninterrupted from coast to coast, with the Indian Wars slowly dying down and the West no longer being quite as Wild as it once was. The Reconstruction after the Civil War is over, and the former secessionist states have been integrated back into the Union. Still, the US remains preoccupied with domestic and North American matters, though the idea that it as a nation has the moral duty to advance the cause of freedom in the world and to further the spread of democracy is gaining more and more support. At the same time, corruption is widespread, while African-Americans in the South have seen their civil rights taken away as a system of segregation and discrimination is being constructed.