How did Britain become one of the most powerful countries?
In the history of our world, The British Empire has a "does not set" brilliant. It is one of the most powerful nations which have never been conquered in history. Nowadays, Britain is one of the UN Security Council, a nation with nuclear weapons, a member of G8, a leading democratic country, and a media centre from music to acting that has lots of influence over the world, especially the English speaking world. Besides, its membership of the EU adds to its power. However, what make this island nation so powerful? Reasons are divided into 7 parts as follows.
1. Geography:
Britain is an island nation in Western Europe just off the coast of France, facing to the mouths of great rivers like the Elbe, the Weser River, the Rhine, and the Seine. By these rivers, Britain strengthens its contacts with Western European. Meanwhile, its special location intensifies its defensive capability, avoiding being involved in European wars, so it could concentrate on its economic development. Furthermore, its temperate maritime climate and long tortuous coastline forms many ice-free harbors, which helps to develop the maritime transportation. In addition, the North Sea is rich in oil and fishery resources, which also makes the economy better to develop.
2. Political:
Firstly, the 1640 bourgeois revolutions made Britain become a capitalist country, then in 1688, the Glorious Revolution and the bill of rights leaded to establish the ceremonial monarchy, strengthening the capitalist system. Britain’s democratic government created long-term internal stability, unlike most other western nations in the 19th century they suffered no rebellions or coups, no revolutions and no dictatorships. Secondly, British had a civil service that was light years ahead of any other nations. Contrary to the traditional system, Britain instead forms a system that the civil servant relied on passing exams and tests, so that the best people were available to make decisions not based on what the king wanted but based on what was best .In addition, in the history of Britain, the government enacted many policies to encourage overseas commerce .For example, England was in a position to enforce a strict commercial policy after the Restoration, beginning with the Navigation Acts of 1660 and 1663 that aimed to stop Holland's trade activities at sea and commanded the sea.
3. Economy:
Above all other economic factors, what builds the British Empire is the international trade.Britain was sticking with the mercantilist policy all the time. The transatlantic slave trade and colonial expansion accumulated lots of original capital for Britain. Apart from those, in the first Industrial Revolution, Britain was the head leader, which had made it be the "workshop o f the world” by 1830, and went from being a rural nation to being an Urban one in a few short years. The final point was in the 19th century, Britain was the world’s bank, governments from all over the world would do their business though London,
therefore Britain could control the world's trade.
4. Defense:
Britain has always been paying high attention to its national defense construction, so it has the best trained troops in the world. It has the best snipers, vast squads’ guerilla and task force, especially the navy which was called the No.1 in the world. Moreover, it is allied with Russia, Canada and the whole of Europe.
5. Military:
Britain has never been debated by other countries. The Battle of Trafalgar, one important war, which effectively destroyed the navies of France and Spain was one deciding event and gave Britain's navy mastery of the seas. Therefore, during the 19th century and up to WW1, 90% of the merchant ships in the world were British. In addition, Britain’s excellent location protects it from aggression.
6.Religion:
The Church of England is Christianity .In 1600s, Henry VIII started British religion reformation, resulting in its independence from the Church of Rome. From then on, Britain had more freedom to achieving national economic growth.
7.Diplomacy:
The diplomacy policy of keeping the European powers balance prevented other countries to dominate the whole Europe, thus Britain had chances to control the continental Europe.Napoleon once wanted to rule the Europe, but his ambitions obstructed by this policy.
To sum up the above factors, what should be the most crucial point of Britain’s development is its system, namely the capitalist system. As one of the comparatively earlier countries that have set up the capitalist system, Britain got the prior chance to develop, because the trade policies and the peaceful environment were the solid base of the development. Meanwhile, as this system encourages the ordinary people to create wealthy, so more and more capitalists were inspired to invest large industries, which hastened the development of industry, making Britain a large developed industrial nation. Moreover, it limits the sovereign's authority, removing the blockage of the capitalists and creating a better opportunities for the development of the capitalism.。
