The War of Restoration was fought in 2187 between the nations of the British Isles and the Northern Federation, a global hegemony that ruled all of humanity after the third world war (also known as the Unification War). In many ways it was a pyrrhic victory because although the Home Nations secured their independence it came at a horrendous cost, most of England was significantly contaminated with radioactive debris and remained uninhabitable for over a century. The other Home Nations also suffered and without Federal support most of the bulwarks against climate change (the sea had risen by over 20 feet since 2015) fell into disrepair, causing floods that didn't stop until well after the Great Founding in 2200 where a global church of mankind was founded for the purpose of preventing war and securing the future of Earth through geoengineering and religious indoctrination.

The immediate aftershocks of the war were even more famine than what the Islands had suffered under Federal rule and a terrible population drop (the entire population of the British Isles was reduced to eleven million). In order to prevent a descent into anarchy the King and his generals imposed a neo-feudal social structure which rewarded those who had played a role in the war and forced most people into agricultural work or the army. All the scientists and engineers were conscripted into the armed forces and forced to produce technology for a full scale war against the Federation and the already very diminished middle class virtually ceased to exist.

It wasn't in vain though, when the Crusades that came a decade later began the liberal society the King had promised in his great speeches during the war actually appeared. The first Constitution was written and democratic elections were held. Strong limits were imposed on the Monarchy which the King accepted and a powerful bill of rights for all citizens was unanimously voted in. The Crusades united large swathes of the English-speaking world and allowed the Commonwealth to provide it's citizens with food, within 20 years the quality of life far surpassed that which the world government had provided.

Ironically the damage done in the war prompted the major emigration into space which secured the Commonwealth's place as a superpower among the nations that emerged from the collapse of world government.