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The British colonisation of Venus is the most expensive and ambitious colonisation attempt in British history.
Britain was in dire straits in the 1980's. Although wealth was growing due to an expanding financial sector, the Empire was crumbling and without it Britain meant little on the international scene. There was no driving force of an ideology or terrible enemy to resist as has compelled Britons to be more than they are on multiple occasions. But the American seizure of the Moon and the 'Scramble for Venus that followed led to a race to space for Britain and other European countries as they competed to take Venus.
Age of Austerity
The British government unleashed a tirade of propaganda, encouraging Britons to save and scrimp in a fashion similar to in WWII. Public spending went down considerably as every spare penny in the public purse was poured into the growing British Space Agency. This coincided with Thatcherist economics and investment by businesses into the BSA was actively encouraged. In 1989, three British spacecraft traveled to Venus and landed near the base built by the Americans. They were welcomed with open arms by the American astronauts due to their isolation from the Earth. Back on Earth, however, the USA was worried about British and European involvement on Venus and attempted to coerce the British government to cease the off world ambitions.
From 1989 to 1992, British Venus consisted of a small village, inhabited by up to 23 British 'aethernauts', called Britannia's Hope though it was known more colloquially as Thatcher's Revenge because the British space program was believed to have been a way of spiting the Americans over the invasion of Granada in the 1980's. During these years, the aethernauts collected samples of animal and plant life, surveyed and mapped ground, built shelters and aided the Americans in the construction of the shuttle strip. In 1990, the first British baby was born on Venus, the product of the union between US Army Corporal Sandy Brooks and British chief botanical science officer Kelly Jones. The baby was named Inanna Brooks-Jones, the name referring to the Sumerian version of the goddess Venus.
After 1993, the Americans began actively helping the British to settle Venus, loaning some of their older, smaller shuttles. Due to the property crunch and economic break down in the UK, many families took up the offer to go to Venus with a loan to set up their life there. In a few years, the British colony had ballooned as colonists had flooded into the area. Britannia's Hope became Britannia City, the capital of British Venus. America and Britain aided one another's expansion and Britain began to pick itself up. A deal was offered to former colonies with unwanted white British minorities like Zimbabwe. The UK will take your white minority and settle them on Venus, where they can't get in the way of politics or national development. An unforeseen side effect was that when minorities were transported, impoverished Africans stowed away on board and were delivered to the UK and transported thanks to criminals selling these unfortunates fake British passports at inflated prices. This meant that large populations in the new British colonies found themselves out of pocket.
In the latter years of the Noughties, Scottish nationalists began campaigning for independence. They were a sizable minority. Though Scotland would not become independent because the minority was too small, the minority would still cause a lot of trouble if not dealt with. So the British government allowed any person of a Scottish nationalist persuasion to travel to one of the more sparsely populated colonies and found the Federal Republic of New Scotland. This ensured Scotland stayed British, a small minority was kept happy and the Scottish nationalists were sufficiently dependent on British investment.