HomeUnited KingdomAs an American, I am still just blown away every time the sheer size of how huge the influence and power of a small island in Europe once stretched over the globe.
As an American, I am still just blown away every time the sheer size of how huge the influence and power of a small island in Europe once stretched over the globe.
October 9, 2024
To my Cousins across the Pond! May God be with you and stay safe! Stay positive! One love 🫡✌🏼👊🏼🇬🇧🏴🏴🏴🇮🇪🇯🇪🇺🇸
by Okay_Time_For_Plan_B
8 comments
Edit: *^ By, By , the sheer size of how huge England / UK / GB once and still does span across the globe. It’s just insane to me how massive and powerful such a small island nation could impact the world and history as much as it has.
And to anyone who says otherwise would just be completely ignorant to history in itself.
Gonna nitpick, can’t help it:
England is part of the island of Great Britain, not the whole island.
Great Britain is also not a small island. It’s the 9th largest in the world. Literally in the Top Ten list of biggest islands. England/The UK is a small country, sure. It’s smaller in size than the average country, and is obviously dwarfed by bigger countries like the USA, Canada, China, Russia etc. But the island of Great Britain is not a small island. It’s a fucking massive one.
The role the navy played in the rapid expansion of the British empire IS absolutely breathtaking.
We can talk all day about the ethics of colonisation and empire building, but logistically speaking, it was an exceptional accolishment.
Yeah it’s really impressive. Not to mention England (Later the UK) was not even considered the most powerful country in EUROPE in the 1600s. And before that Europe was seen as poorer than most of Asia.
The mythology that we conquered the world to create the empire is mostly nonsense by the way. It was more of a vast international trading network, with the occasional bit of conquering thrown in for lolz.
To show just how much of an impact the UK has had, half of all countries in the world have their constitution based off British common law. 2/3 of countries in the world have their legal systems based off the British legal system. And according to a study by the Japanese department of trade done at the few years ago, 54% of all of humanity’s important inventions/discoveries (steam engine not Rubik’s cube) were made by British people.
As for how they did it, they never actually aimed to make an empire. Where are some people like Napoleon or Alexander the Great, launched conquests with aims of making the largest empire the British never did that. Instead they just went for what was the most profitable, so initially they had small trading posts around the world, but things would get attacked sometimes so they would take a bit of the land nearby to act as a buffer, and then in some places owning more of the land will get you more money and so they would launch an invasion of that, worst ignoring places that will cost more to run. This meant their economy became incredibly high even by the early 1700s and they could fund allies to fight for them on the European continent, allowing them free reign to go and take everyone else’s rich colonies that are now no longer properly defended due to the war in Europe.
Also for the most part they were actually pretty trustworthy, nobody trusts a businessman that goes back on their word constantly and so if your aim is to make as much money as possible following through your deal gives you by far better returns in a decade or two then breaking deals constantly.
They knew when to cut losses for unprofitable places such as leaving the US during the rebellion, in the last few years of the war there were more British soldiers stationed in the Caribbean islands than on the mainland, because the Caribbean islands made more money.
A foundation in place from the Magna Carter and common law. Ground zero for the Industrial revolution and the first nation to industrialise, the centre of scientific thinking and the spread of ideas and language through the empire.
I think glorifying the territorial extent of an empire is pretty old-fashioned. It’s the 19th century version of a d*ck measuring contest.
That being said, to some degree it certainly was an impressive feat, but also a lot of it was down to luck and chance, like many things in politics.
I’m pretty indifferent to it, although it’s great that there are many countries that speak the English language and share elements of our culture and systems because of colonial history. Makes it easier to interact with people from other parts of the world when we have that common ground. It opens up opportunities.
It’s also nice to have access to products and cultural aspects that originated from other parts of the world – for example, sugar and rum from the Caribbean has definitely influenced our dessert culture. Or curries, which originated in India/South Asia.
8 comments
Edit: *^ By,
By , the sheer size of how huge England / UK / GB once and still does span across the globe.
It’s just insane to me how massive and powerful such a small island nation could impact the world and history as much as it has.
And to anyone who says otherwise would just be completely ignorant to history in itself.
Gonna nitpick, can’t help it:
England is part of the island of Great Britain, not the whole island.
Great Britain is also not a small island. It’s the 9th largest in the world. Literally in the Top Ten list of biggest islands. England/The UK is a small country, sure. It’s smaller in size than the average country, and is obviously dwarfed by bigger countries like the USA, Canada, China, Russia etc. But the island of Great Britain is not a small island. It’s a fucking massive one.
The role the navy played in the rapid expansion of the British empire IS absolutely breathtaking.
We can talk all day about the ethics of colonisation and empire building, but logistically speaking, it was an exceptional accolishment.
Yeah it’s really impressive. Not to mention England (Later the UK) was not even considered the most powerful country in EUROPE in the 1600s. And before that Europe was seen as poorer than most of Asia.
The mythology that we conquered the world to create the empire is mostly nonsense by the way. It was more of a vast international trading network, with the occasional bit of conquering thrown in for lolz.
To show just how much of an impact the UK has had, half of all countries in the world have their constitution based off British common law. 2/3 of countries in the world have their legal systems based off the British legal system. And according to a study by the Japanese department of trade done at the few years ago, 54% of all of humanity’s important inventions/discoveries (steam engine not Rubik’s cube) were made by British people.
As for how they did it, they never actually aimed to make an empire. Where are some people like Napoleon or Alexander the Great, launched conquests with aims of making the largest empire the British never did that. Instead they just went for what was the most profitable, so initially they had small trading posts around the world, but things would get attacked sometimes so they would take a bit of the land nearby to act as a buffer, and then in some places owning more of the land will get you more money and so they would launch an invasion of that, worst ignoring places that will cost more to run. This meant their economy became incredibly high even by the early 1700s and they could fund allies to fight for them on the European continent, allowing them free reign to go and take everyone else’s rich colonies that are now no longer properly defended due to the war in Europe.
Also for the most part they were actually pretty trustworthy, nobody trusts a businessman that goes back on their word constantly and so if your aim is to make as much money as possible following through your deal gives you by far better returns in a decade or two then breaking deals constantly.
They knew when to cut losses for unprofitable places such as leaving the US during the rebellion, in the last few years of the war there were more British soldiers stationed in the Caribbean islands than on the mainland, because the Caribbean islands made more money.
A foundation in place from the Magna Carter and common law. Ground zero for the Industrial revolution and the first nation to industrialise, the centre of scientific thinking and the spread of ideas and language through the empire.
I think glorifying the territorial extent of an empire is pretty old-fashioned. It’s the 19th century version of a d*ck measuring contest.
That being said, to some degree it certainly was an impressive feat, but also a lot of it was down to luck and chance, like many things in politics.
I’m pretty indifferent to it, although it’s great that there are many countries that speak the English language and share elements of our culture and systems because of colonial history. Makes it easier to interact with people from other parts of the world when we have that common ground. It opens up opportunities.
It’s also nice to have access to products and cultural aspects that originated from other parts of the world – for example, sugar and rum from the Caribbean has definitely influenced our dessert culture. Or curries, which originated in India/South Asia.