EuropeBoard

The Ministry of Home Office is the ministry that deals with matters that are dealt with within the Commonwealth of Nations, while its counterpart, the Foreign Office, deals with foreign affairs. Often this ministry is about the expansion that the Commonwealth is doing, or in this case, has done.

And this is a small story that the ministry made.

The first peak in expansion occurred in 1810, after the Napoleonic Wars.

In 1810, the Luso-British Union was involved in the Napoleonic Wars but it was this time when Portugal was suffering the invasion by Napoleon. The Prince-Regent and the Queen had left Lisbon to Rio in 1807 and the Government fled to New York. This helped asure the territories that they would not forgotten. The government did left to Lisbon by 1817, but left local government ideas, which would lead to a federlise empire.

Brazil almost became independent in 1820, but with some strengthening of power by João VI, Brazil remained with the Union as a Kingdom. From then on, the Luso-British Union went on reforms to keep what had left together.

Thanks to King John V's plans to have spent the gold from Brazil on financing Portuguese industry and building a new fleet, Portugal, before the Union managed to conquer what had been lost to the Dutch by the time of the merger between Portugal and Great Britain in 1750. This also led to a conflict with the Ottoman Empire, which ended up losing its entire Indian Ocean fleet.

As early as the 1860s, the then Russian Empire had made a great conquest, being at the time the largest country in the world, with its borders stretching from Poland to Alaska. But it was still experiencing financial difficulties, so in 1865, Russian diplomats came to the Union government to sell them Alaska. Talks lasted until July 1872, since in 1871, there was the infamous Alaska Incident, when an Imperial Russia Warship fire by mistake on a registred British vessel passing by Alaska. Talks then resumed, when the price of 7.5 million Pounds was reached, but then the Union decided to sell Alaska to Spain in 1888, which it became independent in the 1890's. It was this time the colonization of Eastern Australia and the territory of New Zealand.

In 1870 to 1871, the Kingdom of Brazil and the Kingdom of Portugal entered a state of war against Paraguay. This was because the latter wanted access to the Atlantic Ocean. In fact, it was the fifth time since independence that it had tried, but this time, Portuga, Brazill and then Argentina decided to put an end to Paraguay for good, and this happened in 1871, when Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, the Duke of Caxias, conquered Paraguay's capital and Solano Lopez committed suicide. In 1881, after a decade, Paraguay regained it's independece as a kingdom.

And at the end of the 19th century, more precisely in 1880 and 1890, the Luso-British Union, Spain, the Netherlands and French Empire were the only ones to venture into Africa, keeping a part of North Africa, while the Union kept the territories of Angola and Mozambique, creating new lands for settlers. It was also at this time that the war returned with the Ottoman Empire, in which the Union ended up uncontested in the Gulf of Persia, taking territories in the Arabian Peninsula, such as Kuwait and Egypt from the sick-man of Europe.

By this time, the Ottoman Empire had conquered Persia and parts of the Arabian Peninsula. The war began in 1940 and ended in 1942, with the victory of the Allies and the definitive fall of the Ottoman Empire and a Turkish/Ottoman state and Persian Independence was assure. With this victory, the Union gained Dubai as the new territory and the final territory in the Arabian Peninsula.

By 1948, mere months before the ascencion of Her Imperial Majesty Empress Elizabeth II, the Imperial Federation was created in Lisbon. The kingdoms of Portugal, Great Britain, Columbia, Canada, Brazil and Louisiana signed the treaty creating this new nation.

Another function of this ministry is to help the Ministry of Infrastructure when new railway lines, new roads or new ports need to be built. It also helps citizens in certain needs, such as help after a disaster, whether natural or man-made. It is also responsible for conducting a census every 10 years, with the next census in 2025.

The Ministry is also responsible for the celebrations, like the Jubilees, been the last one in September 1st, 2022, know as the Second Diamond Jubilee, celebrating 74 years of the reign of the Empress Elizabeth II, but saddly, she died 7 days later, on September 8th, 2022. Therefore, this ministry is as important as Foreign Affairs.

So, here it is the map, with all it's federal divisions.

Larger Version here

The year is 1185.

It has been 6 years after the Pope Alexander III had officially recognize the small Kingdom of Portugal as a sovereign kingdom. Though Portugal had been independent ever since 1143, the pope only recognizes it now. It is the year that Afonso I, the first ever king of Portugal, dies, on December 6th. He had been conquering what today is Portugal from Guimaraes until he almost reaches the Algarves. His son, Sancho I, did not had a good job. Though he managed to reach Silves in 1189, by 1191. the Almohad manage to kick the Portuguese back, almost to Santarem and reconquering Lisbon. At this point, Coimbra was the capital of the Kingdom, not Lisbon. It wasn’t until Sancho II that another attempt was made to go to reconquer the Algarves. He did manage, but then the Pope issue the Grandi non immerito bull. This means that Sancho II was no longer the king, and in another words, he was excommunicated. It was his brother that took the throne, becoming Afonso III, and he was the king that saw the last conquest of the Reconquista for Portugal: the fall of Faro in 1249. With that, Portugal had finished the Reconquista ahead of its Iberian Neighbours. Castile did not recognize that conquest until the Treaty of Alcañices, in 1297, in which Castile acknowledge that the Algarves were part of Portugal, all thanks to King Dinis.

The kingdom stays with its borders until 1415, when King John I went a conquered the cities of Ceuta and Tangier, marking the beginning of the Portuguese Colonial Empire (1415 – 1815) and the presence of Portuguese in North Africa. This makes the beginning of the Era of Discoveries for the Europeans, as they start to find new lands that they did not know of. An example of that is when in 1427 the Azores were “rediscover”, since there were records from before. In 1430, Portugal went to war with Morocco for more land in Africa, conquering a part of it in the coast, and 3 years later, in 1433, Madeira was discover.

[WIP]