Before the start of World War II, Britain was the world's undisputed hegemon, and it had been maintained for hundreds of years.
Britain's, the United States, took over the British scepter and rose with the trend.
After World War II, Britain experienced the collapse of the colonial system, lost almost all overseas colonies, no longer had the glory of the "empire that never set", and the hegemonic throne collapsed.
Now, he has become a heel of the United States, following the United States all day long, like a down-and-out aristocrat.
Comics anglo-American relations
The British's posture, coupled with its super long standby queen, that some people use the late Qing Dynasty as a metaphor for it, full of ridicule.
Of course, jokes are jokes, but in the eyes of many people, the United Kingdom is indeed in decline, especially with the continuous rise of China, the Chinese people are even more disdainful of the United Kingdom in their mentality.
Queen of england
In fact, although Britain has lost its hegemonic status and no longer has the glory of that year, its strength should not be underestimated, after all, it is a big country that can have dialogue with the United States and the Soviet Union on an equal footing for a long time after World War II, and it is also one of the five permanent members of the United Nations.
Although Britain no longer has colonies and is not a colonial empire, the British Empire is not a big yin (Ti) country as people joke about, it is still a maritime power, with great potential and great strength.
First, the era of ocean hegemony
The British are truly "ancestral and broad".
The first country to industrialize, and the first world-class hegemon in the true sense, at its peak of its rule, its territory even encompassed a quarter of the world's land, covering seven continents and four oceans, making it the largest country in human history.
The reason why Britain has the title of "the sun never sets" is because of the vast territory of the country, so that its territory will always have a place that can be illuminated by the sun.
Britain is an island-type country, and the development and rise of the United Kingdom are inseparable from the factors of the sea.
The British Empire in its glory days
The factors of the sea invisibly influenced the direction of development and contributed to a large extent to the British people's awareness of the sea.
As an island nation, Britain's land resources are limited, and the British people are also aware of the importance of trade in the process of seeking development, compared with limited land, trade can bring endless wealth.
It was this unique geographical environment and early recognition of the importance of trade that led Britain to instinctively unite the sea, merchant ships and trade to form a developmental mindset.
The sea and industry are the most important reasons why Britain has been able to achieve brilliant results.
From the time of Tudor rule, the British began to expand overseas, and successive dynastic rulers of Britain have invariably shown great enthusiasm for the sea.
They not only vigorously develop overseas trade and compete for sea power, but also support and encourage maritime adventure and overseas expansion in the name of the state.
Before Britain, the Netherlands enjoyed the reputation of "coachman of the sea", and the Netherlands in the 17th century was a maritime hegemony based on trade.
As the most prosperous country in the Western world at that time, the Netherlands relied on a monopoly position in international trade and shipping, and this development idea was also learned by Britain.
However, the success of the Dutch hindered the British, who had established a colonial empire that had begun to take shape, but due to the Dutch monopoly on shipping, most of the commercial interests were squeezed out by the Dutch.
In order to gain room for survival and development, Britain promulgated the Navigation Ordinance in the middle of the seventeenth century, which began to challenge the root of Dutch maritime hegemony, that is, the maritime industry.
The conflict of interests has led to war between the two countries, and war is almost a necessary way for a country to rise. After four Anglo-Dutch wars, the Dutch were completely defeated, losing almost all of their colonies in North America and losing heavily to the shipping industry.
The Netherlands fell, Britain ate enough, the war ended the era of Dutch maritime hegemony, and Britain gradually established its supremacy at sea and eventually became a world-class hegemon.
Anglo-Dutch War in oil painting
It is worth mentioning that in the process of Britain's large-scale foreign expansion, pirates naturally acted as a pioneer in Britain's exploration of overseas colonies and the development of ocean trade because of their own adventurous and pioneering characteristics, as well as their secret connection with the government.
Unlike the Chinese dynasties who fought against piracy, Britain, as a maritime country, relies on the sea for survival and development, and the emergence of pirates is inevitable, but the British official attitude of acquiescence and even support is adopted.
The nineteenth century was the century of the British, and during this period Britain not only had maritime hegemony, but also industrial hegemony, and industry also played a crucial role in the rise of Britain.
The first industrial revolution broke out in Britain, which brought technological innovation and industrial revolution to Britain, while industrialization helped to strengthen the country's maritime power.
In the 1830s and 1840s, Britain took the lead in completing the industrial revolution, basically realized industrial mechanization, and established a factory system for machine production.
Industrial development also provided technical strength for the British naval strength, and the strong navy also ensured that Britain had the strength to maintain and safeguard its maritime interests.
In 1815, the new focus of the Royal Navy shifted from "undefeated fleets" to "fleets that the enemy would not risk attacking", pursuing large warships with fast speed and fierce firepower, reaching the extreme of the navy in the age of sail.
By the late 1860s, Britain, with its strong industrial prowess, had achieved steam power and the armoring of its main warships.
British warships of the mid-to-late 19th century
For the UK, development is heavily influenced by geography.
In 1761, Britain's maritime superiority was largely established, and it had the upper hand in the colonial competition with France.
In 1763, Britain and France signed the Treaty of Paris, in which France ceded all of Canada and french territories west of the thirteen colonies to Britain.
Map of the British Empire in 1763
Eventually, with years of continuous development, Britain controlled almost all important shipping lanes of the sea and could easily cut off Europe's trade routes from the sea.
Even if France gained a certain advantage on the European continent, it had to look at britain's face.
In fact, by the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Britain had become a world maritime power.
By the nineteenth century, with no more global wars for hegemony, this period became a period of "peace under British rule", and it was clear that Britain had taken the initiative in setting the rules of world competition in its own hands.
However, after entering the twentieth century, Britain began a process of decline until its status was finally replaced by the United States.
Perhaps it is precisely because of britain's decline at a speed visible to the naked eye that people feel that the British Empire has fallen.
In particular, in the 1980s, China ignored the british victory in the Falklands War and dared to take a tough and intransigent attitude on the issue of recovering Hong Kong, which made many people feel that Britain was indeed "weak and deceitful".
However, "the skinny camel is bigger than the horse", and Britain is not exactly as weak as people think, it is still a maritime power that most countries in the world look up to, and its strength is not bad.
2. British Overseas Territories
As a once-dominant empire that never set, Britain once had a huge number of colonies around the world, even after World War II, with the rise of the global independence movement, the colonies in Asia, Africa and Latin America have become independent, and the colonial era is over, but Britain still has a large number of overseas territories.
These overseas territories were remnants of the British Empire, some of which remained British territory by referendum, while others did not fully gain independent status and remained de jure British.
These overseas territories, while not necessarily large, are basically on the road and strategic position is very important.
In fact, as early as the nineteenth century, Britain dominated the country because it had all the colonies that guarded important sea routes except the Dardanelles.
And Britain "locked the earth" with the five strategic locks of Singapore, the Cape of Good Hope, Alexandria, Gibraltar and Dover.
Guarding the main roads of communication, and thus controlling the sea and trade, this is also a valuable experience that the United Kingdom has learned as a maritime country in the development process.
In modern times, overseas military bases have been Britain's "bridgehead" for safeguarding overseas interests, controlling strategic routes, consolidating global leadership and preventing other powers from seeking sea power.
Map of the British Empire in 1945
During the Cold War, Britain's overseas military bases were concentrated from "lines" to "points" and were gradually withdrawn from Palestine, Chinese mainland, Egypt, Sudan and other places.
However, Britain still wants to retain military bases in some strategic fulcrum areas with the ability to project military power to the periphery.
On the one hand, it is to do its best to maintain Britain's overseas bases and maintain the background of maritime powers, on the other hand, Britain does have more than a dozen overseas territories.
For example, Gibraltar, which is located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula and on the northern shore of the Strait of Gibraltar, is a strategic point for communication between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
This place was ceded to Britain by Spain in 1713, and is now a very important Naval and Air Base for Britain, and therefore of great political, economic and military significance, although it has been forcibly occupied for nearly three hundred years, but the British have no intention of returning it.
Red is the location of Gibraltar
There is also the Cayman Islands, which is located about 240 kilometers south of Cuba, consisting of three islands, such as the large and small Cayman, with an area of about 259 square kilometers.
The Cayman Islands are a well-known tax haven and tourist destination, and after Jamaica's independence in 1962, it became a british colony.
Cayman Islands location
With no direct taxes, the Cayman Islands has become a thriving offshore financial centre, with more than five hundred banks, nearly 1 million tourists a year, a per capita annual income of more than $25,000, and almost no unemployment.
Cayman Islands scenery
In addition to this, the United Kingdom also owns the island of Anguilla in the Caribbean Sea;
The Malvinas Islands, formerly part of Argentina;
The Chagos Archipelago, located in the middle of the Northern Indian Ocean;
The island of St. Helena and its dependencies in the south Atlantic Ocean on the western side of Africa;
Located in the Pitcairn Islands in Oceania;
Bermuda, etc. located in the western Atlantic Ocean east of the U.S. state of North Carolina.
Britain now controls an overseas stronghold
In addition, the United Kingdom itself declared that it had a so-called "Antarctic Territory" with an area of up to 1.7 million square kilometers, and turned its tentacles and vision to the South Pole.
Each of these overseas territories has its own characteristics and strengths, and many of them are also tourist attractions, tax havens or strategic points, which are the strategic support points for the UK to continue to play an influence and role in the world.
Despite the decline in Britain's overall national strength, due to the special relationship between Britain and the United States, the objective existence of overseas military bases and overseas territories, the United Kingdom still barely maintained its status as a global power.
By the twenty-first century, these overseas bases and dependencies had become an important guarantee for Britain to avoid repeating the mistakes of modern European powers such as Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands after the Cold War, and to become a "second-rate small country" in the region.
Third, the remnants of the Empire
Britain is a maritime country, its rise and hegemony can not be separated from marine resources, but also inseparable from a strong navy, as a sea power country, the United Kingdom attaches great importance to marine resources.
From the mid-to-late eighteenth century to the early twentieth century, the British Navy was invincible in the world's three oceans with its overwhelmingly superior surface ship power, which made a contribution to Britain's eventual growth into the British Empire.
Although Britain was devastated and increasingly empty after World War II, the British Navy has become a regional navy.
In terms of naval size and combat effectiveness, the British Navy is still the world's third largest navy after the United States and Russia, with active aircraft carriers that most countries do not have.
British aircraft carriers
With the rise of the Chinese Navy and the launching of Chinese ships like dumplings, many people's mentality has gradually expanded, and they are not particularly interested in the British Navy's gadgets, but today's British Navy is not as embarrassing and useful as people think.
The British Navy has always pursued the principle of developing weapons and equipment based on independence and self-determination, combining the introduction, joint and self-research, attaching importance to the scientific research and production and construction of ships, and now it has also embarked on a more distinctive development path.
In June 2016, the United Kingdom decided to leave the European Union through a referendum, and Brexit supporters believed that Brexit would make the United Kingdom a global country again, which also revealed the British people's desire for empire.
Britain wants to restore its former glory, and Britain does have some great power background, and now it still plays a certain role in European and even world affairs, with public opinion and discourse.
Today, London is still the global financial center second only to New York, and Britain's technology, civilization and even humanities are at the forefront of human civilization.
And those areas that were once ruled by Britain are still clearly or potentially affected by the former suzerainty due to the more or less "British factor".