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by kh14n07 on May 25th, 2005

kh14n07

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If America once was part of the British Empire, how did they become more powerful than the British Empire?

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  • by Drinking Dano on December 4th, 2005

    Drinking Dano

    This is pretty subjective, so to avoid ignorant bad ratings, I’ll stick to answering this with what is irrefutable!

    The BIGGEST reasons for this happening has NOTHING to moxy or gusto no matter how much Americans want to believe it, it has EVERYTHING to do with being isolated from the happenings in Europe.

    While the Empire was starting to feel the pinch of maintaining the Empire before WWI, WWI was the REAL beginning of the end. While England and most of the Empire were bearing the brunt of the war, the Americans were only involved in WWI for a VERY short time in any kind of a REAL capacity.

    The Empire carried on, pretty much business as usual, except that more and more Dominions and Colonies were starting to talk about independence, or at the very least, most autonomous rule.

    As WWII approached, the cost of the Empire was starting to get more and more expensive, but still worth it for not only the monetary value, but also the prestige! (Don’t forget, the British Empire of the 19th Century was the largest the world had EVER seen!)

    By the end of WWII, the British were in SEVERE trouble economically, and the cost of the Empire simply became too prohibitive given the costs they incurred during the war, the cost of rebuilding and Lord knows, the personal cost of the average citizen of the Empire.

    The United States on the other hand, (again waiting to get in to the war until their hand was forced!) incurred a large debt in human costs, but a COMPARITIVE small cost in the Economy. The U.S. didn’t have to worry about their capital (Or any other city for that matter) being bombed night in and night out. (Though, to be fair, they did introduce black out conditions in many places) The WORST they had to contend with (In local terms) were U-Boats off the coast. (In fact, over 20 ships were sunk in the St. Lawrence River, but most of them were Canadian!)

    As such, when the war was over, the U.S. found its infrastructure largely intact and was not forced to place anywhere NEAR as much funds in to rebuilding its cities and other infrastructure concerns. This allowed to Americans a HUGE advantage in the following decades to rise and become the dominant force on the planet.

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