Why was the British Empire considered a superpower...?

January 8th, 2009
  • in WWII, when Germany was clearly more powerful.


  • Germany was more powerful-on land and in the air, but not at sea. The Royal Navy was huge, professional and easily the match of the piddling German fleet.

    The Empire was VAST and the colonies dutifully sent their sons to die and their resources to save GB from the Nazis. Canada, South Africa, India (vefore the seperation of Pakistan) Australia, New Zealand-the list goes on and on. Britain had been trying to keep the peace in Europe and hadn't been building up its armed forces or fighting wars by proxy (like in Spain). Germany had few natural resources other than coal, a smaller army than both France and Russia and very few overseas colonies. I'd suggest that calling Germany a superpower is a bit of a misnomer, not the other way around.

    BTW If Germany was so powerful, why didn't they finish off Britain in 1940?


  • Because if you looked at a map of the world Britain was, as you put it, an EMPIRE! they not only had their little island, but ireland, and parts of africa, and parts of the middle east, and india and australia. Germany had... well nothing. maybe a small territory in Africa. Germany wasn't more powerful, they just had more time to prepare and more people than England.


  • Due to the vast Empire that it possessed, it's strong navy and it's cultural influence.


  • I would say yes along with Japan and the USSR. The United States became a superpower after WW2.


  • Even as late as WW2, the British Empire was what we consider a superpower (I don't believe the term had been coined at that time) because they still held dominion or Imperial status over approximately 1/4 of the land area of the world. Britain also had a huge navy at the outbreak of WW2. Because of the outcome of WW1, Britain and the US were allowed to build larger navies than any other power (though everyone found ways around the limits coming out of the Versailles Treaty). Britain had a well trained army though it was smaller and less well equipped than Germany's at the invasion of Poland and because of its status as an island nation, Britain never relied on its army to begin with since its ability to project naval power had been a fairly effective deterring force anyway.







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