11th May 2004, 6:16 PM
And Britain declined in the 1940s. Every empire has a height and a decline and a low point...
That's a very relative point of view. Britain didn't "decline", it threw away its empire. At that time, all of Europe did...it was the cool thing for western powers to do. They scaled down their militaries, liberated (almost) all of their colonies, and became the political wusses that they are today. If they hadn't opted to, Britain would still be the major world power it used to be. France could've done more to win in Indochina and Algeria. All of Africa would still be under the European sway. They opted to step down.
France? Their navy had a few points where it competed with Britain's (such as, fortuitously for us, in 1783...), but it always faded back afterwards because Britain's was just better.
Isn't that essentially what I just said. Yet you feel compelled to answer it anyway with an ABF slant. :shake:
That's a very relative point of view. Britain didn't "decline", it threw away its empire. At that time, all of Europe did...it was the cool thing for western powers to do. They scaled down their militaries, liberated (almost) all of their colonies, and became the political wusses that they are today. If they hadn't opted to, Britain would still be the major world power it used to be. France could've done more to win in Indochina and Algeria. All of Africa would still be under the European sway. They opted to step down.
France? Their navy had a few points where it competed with Britain's (such as, fortuitously for us, in 1783...), but it always faded back afterwards because Britain's was just better.
Isn't that essentially what I just said. Yet you feel compelled to answer it anyway with an ABF slant. :shake:
H.R.M. DARVNIVS MAXIMVS EX TENEBRIS EXIT REX DEVSQVE GORONORVMQVE TENDORVM ROMANORVM ET GRÆCORVM OMNIS SEMPER EST