(July 12, 2013 at 3:35 pm)Chuck Wrote: It isn't, and really wasn't that powerful at all. Not compared to Rome, or the other really great empires.
The minimum threshold of great empire is that it has cleared the world of peer competitors that could threaten its own core security.
Britain was never able to achieve that.
For a while Europe enjoyed a big technological advantage over the rest of the world and it was easy for any European power to stomp on the natives. No big deal for the British can be able to go stomping on India if little netherland can go stomping on Indonesia, or Belgium can go stomping on Congo, or if Spain can go stomping on all of South and Centeral America. But at the core of British empire, Britain was never enduringly secure from other European powers. Even when it was at the height of its power, it was arguable not capable of really facing down and defeating its primary peer competitors.
In the rank of really great world power centers, Britain was second rate.
Rome had plenty of competitors, Rome was sacked by rival civilizations and Rome didn't have as much territory as Britain, neither did the Egyptians so which empires are you talking about which had no rivals and always faced down peer competitors.
Are you ready for the fire? We are firemen. WE ARE FIREMEN! The heat doesn’t bother us. We live in the heat. We train in the heat. It tells us that we’re ready, we’re at home, we’re where we’re supposed to be. Flames don’t intimidate us. What do we do? We control the flame. We control them. We move the flames where we want to. And then we extinguish them.
Impersonation is treason.
