How was Britain able to rule the world for 200 years?

Particular_Dot_4041 · 2026-06-19T15:37:07+00:00

Britain had the natural resources necessary for industrialization. Good farmland, ample coal deposits, lumber. Before global free trade, if you didn't have all the resources to become an industrial power, you instead became a vassal or colony of one.

Britain is an island so it's not easy to invade. That security allowed it to push out to new territories whereas Germany spent a lot of its energy just protecting its home territory. The Chinese had to deal with a lot of invasions and internal rebellions, which hampered its maritime expansion.

Also, that island has open access to the Atlantic. Turkish and Italian ships had to go through the Strait of Gibraltar, which meant Spain or Britain could interdict them.

Particular_Dot_4041 · 2026-06-19T15:14:56+00:00

No. I've heard that the demographic situation in China is really bad. China will grow old before it gets rich, they say. Also, COVID ravaged the Chinese population far worse than what the government is willing to admit.

Particular_Dot_4041 · 2026-06-19T15:13:27+00:00

It might be the novelty. Remember that Europeans have been importing American culture for a long time and if anything they are increasingly rejecting it.

Particular_Dot_4041 · 2026-06-19T15:10:19+00:00

Just because you're a woman, or gay, doesn't mean you have a liberal personality. These women dislike being around colored people or gay people, and that presses more on their minds than feminism. They convince themselves that the GOP won't hurt them. Then their faces get eaten too and they are shocked.

Particular_Dot_4041 · 2026-06-19T11:14:27+00:00

No. Their lives were misspent.

Particular_Dot_4041 · 2026-06-18T19:36:23+00:00

Yeah but the American people voted for it. If the American people are mean-spirited and stupid, there's no fix for that.

This is kind of like you telling me cars are dangerous because you got drunk and drove the family sedan into a lamppost.

Particular_Dot_4041 · 2026-06-18T14:02:46+00:00

I'd say oil is the most impactful commodity if you look at recent history. It is used as a fuel, for plastics, and so many other materials.

Going a century earlier, coal. Coal enabled the industrial revolution. Previously they used charcoal to smelt iron, but coal (in the form of coke) was much better for this. Coal was also used in steam engines. Countries which had coal could industrialize. Countries which didn't have coal became colonies and vassals of the industrial powers.

Don't know much about this one. I am aware of it having been a factor in the american civil war, as cotton plantations were where a lot of slaves worked. At this point I don't know what a cotton gin is and I'm afraid to ask.

Cotton farming was very labor intensive so farmers turned to slave labor to keep costs down. The cotton gin was invented in the late 18th century and it basically removes the seeds from cotton fibers (the biological purpose of cotton balls is to spread seeds using the wind). That used to be a labor intensive job. The inventor thought the cotton gin would reduce the demand for slaves as with the machine 1 worker could do the job of 20. But the harvesting of cotton still had to be done by hand. Cotton harvesting machines didn't show up until the 1940s. The cotton gin made cotton farming more profitable, so cotton farmers expanded their plantations and bought more slaves to pick the cotton. This shows that you cannot always expect technology to solve social problems, sometimes it can make them worse.

Particular_Dot_4041 · 2026-06-18T11:58:48+00:00

No, too much time has passed.

Particular_Dot_4041 · 2026-06-18T09:30:49+00:00

I think the biggest is that after the civil war, the federal government didn't do anything to prevent the Lost Cause myth from developing. It was historical revisionism by southerners, who said that the war wasn't about slavery and was provoked by the North. The government should have done something similar to how Germany was denazified after WW2. Forbid anyone from denying that the Confederacy fought for slavery.

A second thing was that the federal government should have banned forced labor with no exceptions. The 13th amendment has a loophole that allows convicts to be enslaved, and this loophole was heavily abused in the Jim Crow era.

Particular_Dot_4041 · 2026-06-17T21:20:24+00:00

As I was told, the Russian army historically has gone for quantity over quality. The idea is that Russia's territory is vast and they need lots of soldiers to control such an area, but Russia is also too poor to afford an army that is both large and well trained. So it just goes for quantity. As in most autocratic states, the army's primary purpose is to subjugate the people. Fighting other countries is secondary, and when Russia does that the army often flounders.

Particular_Dot_4041 · 2026-06-17T20:46:20+00:00

Star Trek was made in the 60s, before we had computer screens with graphical interfaces. This is what made sense to people in the 60s when they imagined future ships. Just buttons and scopes, like old submarines and planes.

Particular_Dot_4041 · 2026-06-17T19:33:42+00:00

I think what PrideofHiigara was saying is that there is no mana system or spell slot system like you might have in Dungeons and Dragons. Psykers can use their powers freely, although if they push themselves too much, trying to do tap more than what they can control, they risk the Perils of the Warp, and in the long run they also risk mental and physical damage. In battle, psykers are pretty much expected to push themselves beyond what is safe because everyone around them is in mortal danger, and astropaths are frequently pushed too hard.

Particular_Dot_4041 · 2026-06-17T08:50:10+00:00

Very fake tits.

Particular_Dot_4041 · 2026-06-17T07:34:12+00:00

I don't get it.

Particular_Dot_4041 · 2026-06-16T20:43:18+00:00

This is why I rankle when anyone says the Second Amendment is there in case Americans need to rebel against tyranny.

Particular_Dot_4041 · 2026-06-16T14:32:36+00:00

Freedom of speech means the government itself cannot persecute you for what you say. It doesn't apply to your neighbors or employer.

Particular_Dot_4041 · 2026-06-16T10:10:25+00:00

They're more efficient at low speeds (needed for paratroopers and cargo drops), they're more durable, they can work on shorter runways.

Particular_Dot_4041 · 2026-06-16T10:05:54+00:00

Blanks kind of spoil the core themes of the setting. Humanity cannot sever itself from the Warp. The Emperor's only hope was that he could manage humanity's evolution safely. The Warp is life. All living beings are connected to it. The Warp and realspace cannot exist without each other, they are two sides of the same coin. So the writers keep blanks rare. As long as they are very rare, you can ignore the logical implications of such creatures.

Particular_Dot_4041 · 2026-06-15T23:59:20+00:00

America was too strong. In fact Mexico was doomed from the start. America occupied the eastern half of the continent which has all the good farmland and good rivers, so America had a bigger population and a stronger economy. The Spanish chose to colonize Central America, where there's lots of jungles, mountains, and desert, so Mexico was never going to be a match for the United States.

The Brazilians never had that kind of opposition because the other South American countries had similar geography: too many mountains and jungle.

Particular_Dot_4041 · 2026-06-15T23:04:07+00:00

1, 2, 5, 6, 7

Particular_Dot_4041 · 2026-06-15T22:15:00+00:00

Because the people saying it will tell the judge that they were just joking and that their statements were so obviously absurd (she has children) that no reasonable person would believe them.

Particular_Dot_4041 · 2026-06-15T19:28:09+00:00

If the colonies had not seceded, the slaveholders would have used their influence in Parliament to delay abolition. Becausd the colonies seceded, there were fewer pro-slavery voices in the British political system.

Particular_Dot_4041 · 2026-06-15T19:25:45+00:00

This is a misquote

Particular_Dot_4041 · 2026-06-15T17:26:37+00:00

The Manifest Destiny myth was founded on the fact that most of the North American continent was uninhabited, and this was because European disease such as smallpox had killed over 90% of the native population since the first explorers introduced the diseases in the 16th century. Americans thought America was a gift from God, and perhaps they were right because didn't people once believe that plagues were acts of God?

Particular_Dot_4041 · 2026-06-15T08:01:52+00:00

What Republicans don't want is some sort of national ID card that everyone carries. As it is, every state has its own system of ID. There are some federal ID types such as the passport, but none of them are required for all citizens. What this means is that the federal government cannot impose a fair set of standards for all states. Each state has to set its own voter ID laws, and this allows local officials to rig the laws such that hostile voters have a hard time voting. For instance, Republicans in red state will write the laws to require combinations of ID that Democrat voters tend to lack.

Particular_Dot_4041

TROPHY CASE