Why did Britain become so powerful?

Discussion in 'Warfare / Military' started by william walker, Aug 20, 2013.

  1. william walker

    william walker New Member

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    Britain is often called the world's smallest superpower, so how did such a small country go from a second tier European power to Pax Britannica and back again in 300 years?
     
  2. Lil Mike

    Lil Mike Well-Known Member

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    Wow, that's a pretty broad question. I doubt there is one single answer, probably more like dozens that all happened to fall in to place at about the same time.

    To name a few, I would guess that they actually put the money behind having a world class Navy, they were really first with the industrial revolution, and they just happened to have evolved a commercial and civil law (including the joint stock company) which is probably one of the best of the law traditions that promote civil peace and handle commercial transactions fairly.

    It's probably not a coincidence that the most successful nations on the planet have borrowed heavily from English common law in their legal traditions.
     
  3. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    To me the British Empire largely seems to be an accidental empire.

    The origins (Scotland, Ireland) mostly are simply from the desire to secure their own borders. Then later when Spain, France, Portugal and the Dutch were expanding their empires, England mostly preyed upon their traders, but finally started to colonize North America as a way to gain natural resources, as well as resettle excess and troublesome population.

    Most of her later colonial gains were largely due to other wars. The 7 Years War was a European war that spread out throughout the world, and when it settled the British Empire grew exponentially. They gained almost all of French North America, and that started them upon their path.

    However, they handled their colonies very differently then most. In North America and Australia, they largely settled their own population in largely uninhabited lands, once again using them for excess population and those undesired, and got resources. In the others like India and China, they wanted trade, largely leaving the indigenous people alone and ruling through puppets.

    As far as the latter, by the middle of the 20th Century, it was becoming obvious that colonies were no longer an effective way to gain resources. Larger and larger ships and more powerful weapons doomed not just the colonies of England, but of France, Spain, Belgium, and all the other Colonial European powers.

    England however was smart enough to realize this quickly enough to avoid the ugly wars that France did.
     
  4. ThirdTerm

    ThirdTerm Well-Known Member

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    The British Empire carefully avoided imposing direct rule, which required a costly military component, and instead it favoured indirect rule, by which the colonial administrators meddled in local politics in close collaboration with the local ruling classes. The British awarded the local elites with administrative positions to become part of the imperial bureaucracy and the British gained access to the colonies' resources and markets in return, which was a win-win situation. Britain's soft and liberal approach to imperialism made it acceptable to the colonised for centuries and a nation cannot invade or colonise other countries successfully without being greeted as liberators. The local elites welcomed Britain's civilising influence and they sent their sons and daughters to Britain to get a good education, which helped long-term economic development of those colonies.
     
  5. KGB agent

    KGB agent Well-Known Member

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    Comfortable geographic location on an island, saving from massive invasions and predetermining huge navy and small army.

    Also the first country with industrial revolution happened, which resulted into ability to rule with iron first over poor and underdeveloped African and South Asian countries and tribes.
     
  6. william walker

    william walker New Member

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    I think something missed and not talked about at all when people look at why Britain became so powerful is the Church of England and England's break from the Catholic Church under Henry the VIII, this allowed the British state to do what was best for it and not have things imposed by a foreign power based in Rome. Henry the VIII also started the Royal Navy, so he was vital in Britain becoming the power it became. I also think we can't underrate the importance of John Churchill, first of all siding with the Protestant William or the Catholic James, then defeating the French in Bavaria. Which moved Britain up to a great power in Europe.
     
  7. reallybigjohnson

    reallybigjohnson Banned

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    The first time anyone encounters them they mistake them for a bunch of nancies and dandies who drink tea and eat crumpets (still have no idea what the hell those are) and are surprised when they can actually fight. :salute:
     
  8. william walker

    william walker New Member

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    I agree with this in some ways, in the 1600's people really didn't think much of England or Britain in France, Spain or Holland, but that all changed in the 1700's. However by WW1 the British were becoming stupid thinking themselves to be what the hype talked of them being and paid the price in WW1 with basically no inovations or individuals to change the course of the war. We had this in all out other great victories in Europe over the years. I think it's because of political reforms that took place in the 20 years before WW1, giving the state much of power and private sector being weakened within the defence procurement.
     
  9. Taxcutter

    Taxcutter New Member

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    Have you ever read “The Influence of Sea Power on History” by Alfred Thayer Mahan?

    Written at the height of Britain’s empire, it explains why they were the pre-eminent power of the day.
     
  10. Lien

    Lien Banned

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    Maybe by stealing values of other countries . We usually call it as Imperialism , so very large-scale robbery .

    .
     
  11. Hoosier8

    Hoosier8 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Very simple answer. Trade made them rich enough to afford to be a world power.
     
  12. Taxcutter

    Taxcutter New Member

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    Read Mahan.

    Mahan states that sea dominance allowed Britain to dominate maritime trade and support an large empire.

    Floks, people have thought about this for centuries. Mahan got it right. His book is still taught in policy classes.

    Britain borrow the principle of satrapy from the Romans (who stole it from the Greeks, who aped the Persians). It's a system that works well. the raj in India worked well for nearly two centuries. Your average Indian never saw a Limey his entire life unless he was in the Indian Army.
     
  13. william walker

    william walker New Member

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    Stealing values, no. We got our values and morals from the Church of England. My question isn't about the empire being good or bad, but how Britain was able to create it while the French, Spanish, Portugese and Dutch feel behind and why did Britain itself fall behind in the end.
     
  14. william walker

    william walker New Member

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    Yes, he is correct. But why was Britain able to dominate maritime trade? Why was Britain able to get better ship builders, sailors and doctroine than the French, Dutch, Spanish and Portugese, so allowing Britain to control world trade and defend it's interests?
     
  15. william walker

    william walker New Member

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    The British got the trade from the Dutch in the glorious revolution, which also lead to the English bill of rights and kept Catholic church's power down in Britain.
     
  16. Taxcutter

    Taxcutter New Member

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    Read the book, dude. Mahan was a professional naval officer and he goes into detail about why the British were better.

    Moreso than anybody else the British geography immediately pitted their seamen against the power of bluewater oceanic environments. they could weather the storms better. The Dutch were second but their experience prior to Columbus was North Sea and the Baltic. The British plied the North Sea, and Bay of Biscay and learned rough-weather operations there. the spanisha nd Portugeuse weren't sailors themselves. they mostly used Italians For instance, Columbus was an Italian.

    The British built up a system of defensible bases. Gibraltar, Bermuda, Malta, Freetown, Cape Town. From those bases (of no economic value in and of themselves) they could maintain large fleets on distant stations for protracted periods of time. They called it "stranding the long watches." They simply wore everyone else (including the salty Dutch) down.

    From those bases they could interdict other people's trade. The British perfected guerre de course and even built up a legal system to reward its sailors for waging guerre de course - Admiralty courts.
     
  17. Pro-Consul

    Pro-Consul Banned

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    Well if you want to take the British empire from the early 19th century.

    Britain was able to gain dominance because it's competitors were in a state of instability and turmoil.

    Spain and France who were Britain's traditional enemies were in a state of disarray. Spain had lost in it's most valuable colonies to Bolivar. France the Bourbon monarchy reinstalled and was grateful for the rest of Europe for doing so.

    But moving onto the mid 19th century. Spain and Portugal had been blighted by insurrection in the form of the Carlist and Liberal wars respectively.

    France got rid of the Bourbon's and replaced it with Napoleon III. Who was somewhat incompetent.

    And of course there's the springtime of nations chapter of European history which only slightly grazed the UK.

    But one of big things that fuelled the empire was India which had become profitable by the 1st opium war of 1839-42.
    Prior to that the EITC enterprise in India was running at a loss.
     

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